After the initial amazement, Shu finally began to savor Little Chen's contented and radiant words.
He could feel the satisfaction radiating from her, like a stone dropped into a deep pool, creating unexpected ripples in the depths of his heavily guarded heart.
Her voice still echoed in his ears, filled with the warm, smoky air of the breakfast shop.
"...I just feel... it's really worth it.
"Really..."
A simple sense of satisfaction.
However, Shu's thoughts were suddenly dragged back by this simple satisfaction to not long ago, to that cyclical world constructed of despair and obsession.
The Sapphire City of "yesterday."
He had watched Yun Mengxi struggle through four cycles of reincarnation.
Watched her restart the world time and again for a "perfect ending," repeatedly washing away her own and others' memories, tormenting them.
That almost paranoid craving for "beauty," that intolerant rejection of "flaws," and that final "grafted" "ending" that still came with sacrifice and separation...
Yun Mengxi's obsession and the "acceptance of the present and satisfaction with it" on Little Chen's face at this moment formed a glaring contrast.
And Little Chen... was saved by him.
To be precise, she was one of the survivors Shu and Kiana had snatched from the hands of the Lava Emperor in Sapphire City.
But Shu knew better than anyone that that "rescue" was far from perfect.
At that time, he had fallen into a coma after using his power beyond its limits for the first time, killing the Lava Emperor with the Blade of Taixu.
The subsequent evacuation, the rear guard, the sacrifices... the real credit belonged to the ordinary people who stayed behind in the shelter to organize their own rescue, and to the four brave souls who never made it out of Sapphire Pearl.
Little Chen's survival was partly due to luck, partly due to the sacrifice of others, and even more so to her own fearless courage.
But it was by no means a story of a "perfect rescue."
And now, this woman, saved "imperfectly," was sitting in a world that was still not "perfect," sincerely speaking of her "satisfaction" with the present situation.
Guilt.
This emotion, which suddenly arose from "I could have done better," began to churn in Shu's chest.
The "flaws" that Yun Mengxi had exhausted her reincarnations to mend were accepted and embraced by something softer yet more powerful in Little Chen.
Thus, driven by an emotion he himself hadn't fully processed, a tentative, somewhat clumsy question slipped out from under "Stelle's" slightly dazed face.
"Do you... ever feel like you could have had a better life than this?"
"Do you... ever regret the things you've done and the choices you've made?"
Little Chen was clearly taken aback.
The smile on her face froze for a moment.
What did she remember in that moment?
Perhaps the crumbling city, perhaps the companions who didn't make it out, perhaps... that young boss with the same surname who always worked overtime but would remember to bring late-night snacks for all his employees.
Silence permeated the warm breakfast shop for a few seconds, with only the faint sound of cooking coming from the kitchen.
Then, Little Chen shook her head, the smile returning to her face, but it seemed to have settled into something heavier.
Her tone was still optimistic.
"Of course, I do," she admitted frankly, her voice soft. "Who doesn't have those 'if only...' thoughts?
"If this Honkai Eruption hadn't happened, if so-and-so had run a little faster, maybe a lot of people wouldn't have had to die. Maybe I'd still be at that company, complaining about overtime and KPIs every day, but safe and sound."
She paused, then a little awkwardly picked up a rag and wiped the already clean tabletop, her movements slow, as if organizing her thoughts.
"But, it's already happened," she looked up, her gaze clear as she looked at the two "Stelles." "I can't travel through time, can I?
"No matter how much I think about the past, I can't change it. So, all I can do is do my best with what I can do now, right?"
Her tone gradually firmed: "And I'm doing a pretty good job right now.
"I work hard, I make the breakfast clean and delicious, so that everyone who comes here can eat their fill and start a new day happily.
"I'm also trying to live my life, make new friends, and learn to find my place in this new world."
She smiled, a little embarrassed.
"Maybe in the next second, I'll start regretting something I didn't do right, or remember something sad... but at least, in this second, I have no regrets about what I'm doing, the life I'm living, and myself."
Her eyes lit up, as if stars were truly twinkling inside.
"Life has to go on.
"Sigh! Now's the time for me to use the words I heard from a senior at the Fire Moth—
"If you keep your head down in sorrow because you're too busy worrying about the sunset you missed, then won't you... miss the shooting stars in the sky too?"
Those words...
Shu had heard them before.
It turned out that even an extrovert could be disgusted by their own sudden burst of artistic sentiment. Little Chen scratched her head in embarrassment, vividly expressing what she meant by "regretting it in the next second."
However, she immediately straightened up and spoke seriously.
"And besides, I think the moment the Honkai Eruption happened, it was like a particularly cruel, but also particularly clear, dividing line.
"Just think of it as... the 'me' of the past, along with everything before the Honkai, was left there, left in yesterday."
"The 'me' who is alive now is a 'new me' who was lucky enough to crawl over from behind that line.
"She doesn't have to take full responsibility for the regrets of the 'old me.' She just needs to... think carefully about how to live on, how to make the 'present' and the 'future' a little bit better, and that's enough."
After she finished speaking, she let out a long sigh, as if shedding an invisible burden. Her smile became bright and full of life again. "Oh, look at me, why am I telling you all this.
"Ahahaha! Breakfast is here!"
She turned nimbly, took the steaming wontons and fried dough sticks from her colleague in the kitchen, and deftly placed them on the table. "Pork wontons and fried dough sticks! Please enjoy! Let me know if you need anything else!"
Little Chen was like a brisk wind, off to serve other newly arrived customers.
Leaving the two "Stelles" to face the fragrant breakfast that symbolized the "present" and "moving on," they fell into an even deeper silence.
Their molten gold eyes reflected the rising steam, and also the turmoil about the "past," "present," and "self" in each other's eyes.
If you grieve for the missed sunset, you will also miss the shooting stars.
Is the "old me"... gone?