Chapter 7
Everything was ready. Kanzaki Tomomu officially began the clinical trial.
While checking the integrity of his own memories and making a digital backup copy, he discovered a surprising fact.
"My memories… are partially missing?"
From a digitized perspective, the artificially sealed fracture marks were still quite obvious.
Who had tampered with his memories?
Kanzaki Tomomu paused his work and frowned in deep thought.
A Memokeeper from the Garden of Recollection? Or perhaps someone from the Alchemy Commission?
Unable to find any clear leads, he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he took the opportunity to try restoring the sealed portion of his memories.
The entire process went far more smoothly than expected.
The moment he recalled everything, a shadow fell across Kanzaki Tomomu's face.
...
The next morning.
Kanzaki Tomomu slowly opened his eyes.
A sharp pain radiated from deep within his brain, instantly chasing away any remaining drowsiness.
He scanned his surroundings and felt a faint sense of wrongness.
What had happened yesterday…
He had gone to the back mountain to tend the grove, sudden rain had fallen, Clarisse had come with an umbrella, and then…
Mrs. Durand's treatment session had ended. After giving her instructions, he had performed the clinical trial on himself.
Yes, that was it.
But why… did his subconscious feel like something was missing?
What were the results of the experiment? And why did his head hurt?
When had he even come over to the window?
His gaze dropped. Several jars of plum blossom brew were scattered beside him, all completely empty and lying haphazardly on the floor.
The familiar zhongruan lay next to him. It had originally been hanging on the wall.
Kanzaki Tomomu picked up the empty jars one by one and sniffed them.
…All of them were the highest-aged batches. Drinking that much would have made anyone pass out drunk.
This wasn't right.
He had always been extremely disciplined. Even if the clinical trial results had been disappointing, he would never drown his sorrows in alcohol.
"Hm?"
Kanzaki Tomomu moved his wrist and only then noticed that his other hand was clutching a piece of paper. The handwriting was unmistakably his own.
"Clinical trial successfully completed. Mrs. Durand's amnesia can now be fully cured."
Kanzaki Tomomu confirmed it was definitely his handwriting. But why had he written it down? And why did he have no memory of writing it?
Even more puzzling—why had he left himself a reminder in this particular way?
Staring at the line, he noticed there was more on the back.
He turned his wrist and read the rest word by word.
"This is…"
It was still his handwriting, but the content looked like… unfinished lyrics?
He stared at the lyrics in a daze for a moment, then picked up the zhongruan, plucked the familiar melody he had once composed himself, and began to hum softly.
The words and music blended together seamlessly.
"So… I wrote this too…"
Kanzaki Tomomu tried to recall when this melody had been created, but a sharp pain stabbed through his mind again.
The exact date was blurry.
"A long time ago… back when I still hadn't completed my apprenticeship…?"
He continued playing and singing. His whole body gradually sank into the lingering sorrow woven through the tune.
When he reached the incomplete part of the chorus, the missing line slipped out naturally, without any prior thought, and the music came to an abrupt stop.
"…"
He froze.
He hadn't thought about it at all—how could he have filled in the missing line so effortlessly?
Looking at the final few lines of lyrics, Kanzaki Tomomu realized three more were still missing.
He tried again.
The melody resumed.
"Drunk and left behind to keep watch, dare I ask if you know?"
The lyrics should have ended there, yet without the slightest hesitation, Kanzaki Tomomu seamlessly completed the remaining missing portion.
"In this life, looking back in a flash, waiting through life and death—would you be willing to stay together…"
"Sighing that our love runs deep, in the end we join hands…"
The song ended.
Kanzaki Tomomu stared at the instrument in his hands and remained silent for a long time, savoring the lingering notes.
Teacher was skilled with many instruments—xiao, flute, qin, se, zheng, ruan, pipa, and more—but she had a particular fondness for the ruan.
Through constant exposure and the diligence he had shown in his spare time outside of assigned studies, Kanzaki Tomomu had become good enough to accompany his mentor without holding her back.
For so many years, whether playing classic pieces or his own compositions, everything had been in the style Teacher loved.
But this song he had just played and sung…
It was filled with heartrending regret and revolved unmistakably around the word "love."
"The final three lines I filled in are completely different in tone from the earlier verses. They stray slightly from my usual way of thinking, yet…"
"…they fit surprisingly well?"
How had he unconsciously created a song like this?
This was definitely not Ruan Mei's preferred style.
The successive waves of strangeness flooding his mind left Kanzaki Tomomu increasingly puzzled.
Why had he forgotten these memories?
Knowing he would forget them, why had he left himself a reminder?
Or had someone from a certain Path faction taken action against him?
Kanzaki Tomomu hung the zhongruan back on the wall and returned to the treatment room to search for any possible clues.
Sure enough, on the control console of the amnesia-treatment device, another sheet of white paper with black text waited for him.
"Advice left for myself: Do not seek out the forgotten memories. When your lifespan ends, all memories will return on schedule."
Kanzaki Tomomu tore the paper to shreds, checked the rest of the equipment, and found nothing else out of the ordinary.
He pulled up last night's clinical trial records. Everything was normal and matched the conclusions in his brain.
For now, it was more than enough to cure Mrs. Durand's amnesia, with a ninety-percent success rate.
The remaining ten percent was the risk that had yet to be overcome.
Before the day he had promised Clarisse arrived, he would definitely eliminate that final risk.
With that thought, Kanzaki Tomomu chose to listen to his past self and stopped pursuing the temporarily forgotten memories.
All he needed to do was wait.
"Cough… cough…"
Waves of weakness swept through his body from every direction.
Kanzaki Tomomu's appearance rapidly aged. His black hair turned gray and white. With a heavy cough, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
As a short-lived species nearing the end, his organs were failing and aging in sync.
The closer he drew to his final days, the weaker his functions became.
"Looks like… I'll need to take the medicine twice a day from now on."
Dragging his frail body to the encrypted safe, he took out two pills and swallowed them.
"During the final thirty days of life, the dosage will probably increase from four pills a day to six…"
Kanzaki Tomomu sighed softly. After a brief hesitation, this time he did not put the medicine back into the safe.
He had finally reached the stage where he needed to carry it with him at all times, just in case.
Yu Qingtu could come and go as she pleased whenever she wanted to see him.
Once she learned the truth, even if she didn't do anything herself, she would almost certainly notify Ruan Mei.
Kanzaki Tomomu did not want his corpse after death to become fuel that pushed his mentor deeper into the abyss.
He had been unable to stop Teacher, but at the very least… he could choose not to add fuel to the flames.
As the medicine took effect, he returned once more to his youthful appearance.
...
The days passed one by one. Kanzaki Tomomu's daily rhythm remained the same as always.
Clarisse's visits became more frequent; he saw her every few days now.
The biggest change was that sometimes, while playing the zhongruan, he would unconsciously switch to the melody of that song and begin singing it without realizing.
Three days remained until Mrs. Durand's follow-up appointment. The sky had only just begun to brighten when Kanzaki Tomomu woke from a light sleep.
He gently lifted the sleeping Little Orange from his chest and placed it into the warm bedding.
After getting out of bed and washing up simply, he took the medicine that maintained his youthful appearance and glanced out the window.
Snow had fallen quietly during the night, draping the world in a silver coat.
"It arrived a few days earlier than in previous years."
---
Bonus chapters
200 Stones - 1 chapter
400 Stones - 2 chapter
600 Stones - 3 chapters
And so on