Chapter 48: A Thirteen-Year-Old Brat

Chapter 48: A Thirteen-Year-Old Brat

We followed the sound. At last, in a dark corner ahead, we found an old woman — upside down, suspended in midair, sealed inside what looked like a fractured mass of glass.

I knew her the moment I saw her.

Grandma.

I rushed forward. “Grandma, it’s Beichen! We’ve finally found you!”

She did not seem to hear me. She was still speaking to someone, but the direction of her voice pointed toward another pocket of empty space.

Uncle pulled me back.

“Wait. There’s someone else here.”

The tension in his face brought me up short. He was right — I had not seen Grandma for so long that the sudden sight of her had overwhelmed me, and I had run to her without checking our surroundings first.

I quickly compensated, sweeping the area with same-frequency sensing and penetrating vision. Sure enough, in another dark corner, I found a second person, also frozen inside a shard of spacetime.

“These two are probably all that remain,” Uncle said. “They can’t see you yet. The spacetime here has fragmented — the few of us aren’t in the same spacetime zone. Give me a moment to repair it.”

He drew a device from his backpack and set it on the ground, then pulled out two objects that resembled anti-tank mines and had me place one beside each of the two floating, fractured masses.

Uncle activated the device.

A wave of white light spread outward, and the two mine-like objects began to spin — faster and faster — until they lifted into the air and began weaving through the fractured masses around us.

The shattered pieces, along with the debris scattered across the ground, slowly stirred and began drifting toward the center.

After about fifteen minutes, the broken fragments had all drawn together. Only then could Grandma and the other person see each other.

I waved at Grandma, but she still did not respond. The other figure, who turned out to be a little girl, had now been connected with her. The two of them began to talk.

“Don’t rush,” Uncle said. “That only brought the broken spacetime pieces back together. They still need to be linked to our section of spacetime.”

The device’s white light continued to sweep. The two spinning objects arced and dove through the air. Another fifteen minutes passed. Then, with a soft pop, the spacetime fragments clicked into place and merged with the spacetime where we stood, fusing into a single whole.

“Rongliang! Beichen! You’re here!”

Grandma finally saw me.

From Liutan Town to Pingdu City, from the Sweeper base to the Du Group — a year and a half that had felt endless. Searching for Grandma had been the thing that kept me moving. And now, at last, I was looking at her, and everything I had been holding back came rushing up at once.

The tears came before I could stop them.

They carried too much — too much worry, too much hurt, too much confusion. Today, all of it finally found its way out.

Grandma walked over and, out of old habit, laid her hand gently on my head.

“Look at you. My little Beichen has finally grown up — and matured, too. You’re just not steady enough yet. What are you crying for, you silly boy? Is this any way for a Great Dharma Master to carry on, hm?”

That made me laugh through the tears.

I took her hand. “Grandma, why wouldn’t you let me look for you? I was out there on my own, with no word from you at all. I never stopped worrying.”

“Silly child,” Grandma said. “If you had always been at Grandma’s side, could you have become a Great Dharma Master? Could you have become a vice president with extraordinary skills? No one grows up by being steadied at every step. A towering tree cannot be raised in a greenhouse. Do you understand? Only by losing Grandma’s shelter could you learn to stand on your own — to face people and situations and make your own decisions. That is the price of growing up. In truth, I was watching every step you took, every part of your story. You did not disappoint us. Good child. But the road ahead is still long, and there is…