Chapter 8: A Sky Without Stars
Late that night, Zhao Yuchen stood alone atop the outer walls of District 7.
From here, he could see beyond the artificial dome — into the void.
The "sky" was still lit blue inside, simulated to keep citizens from losing their minds. But outside the glass, there were no stars. Only shadows drifting across broken satellites and ancient war debris orbiting like ghosts.
His eyes didn't seek beauty.
They searched for Earth.
Not the one shown in history vids. Not the dead, red-marked zone in exploration charts.
But the real one — the one calling him through the seal pulsing in his palm.
"Are you leaving soon?" a voice asked behind him.
He turned. It was Zhao Mei, his cousin.
She held two steaming cups of synth-tea, handing one over. He accepted it silently.
"No one's saying it out loud," she continued, "but everyone knows. Something's changing in you."
Yuchen looked at the drink, then sipped. Bitter. Grounded. Real.
"I'm not trying to change," he said. "I just… can't stay here."
Zhao Mei sat beside him on the cold edge. "They'll say you're abandoning your duty."
"I'm following it."
She didn't argue.
Instead, she leaned back and looked up at the glass sky. "Did you know… in ancient times, stars were used to navigate? Before we had space grids and Aether maps."
He nodded.
"That's why they erased them," she whispered. "Why the dome hides them. So no one remembers how to look up and leave."
Silence.
Then she glanced at him again. "You won't come back the same."
"I hope not," he replied. "Because if I do… it means I failed."
She didn't smile. Just reached into her coat and pulled something out.
A pendant — old, metallic, etched with a constellation pattern.
"This was Mother's," she said. "She said it belonged to our ancestor. From when our family still walked on real soil."
He stared at it, hesitant.
"Take it," Zhao Mei insisted. "So you don't forget what we lost."
Yuchen took the pendant gently and slipped it into his pocket.
Not as a memory.
But as a promise.
The silence stretched again, but this time, it wasn't empty. It was full of everything that couldn't be said — and everything still waiting ahead.
Above them, the dome flickered once, briefly — and for a single second, the stars peeked through.