Shen Rou glanced down at her meticulous notes, then back up at Lin Yi, a flicker of satisfaction in her eyes as her hypothesis solidified.
"That explains the significant delay in your return. The official event concluded, and all other participants, by all accounts, returned almost immediately. Your later reappearance is thus accounted for by your entrapment in a separate, time-layered space." She paused, allowing the implication to sink in. "Which, logically, also means your actual event duration, the time you experienced, was considerably longer and more intense than everyone else's." It was a quiet acknowledgment of the extraordinary ordeal he had faced.
"Yes," Lin Yi agreed, offering no further elaboration.
Wang Hao, who had been staring intently at the surface of the table, his mind still reeling from the narrative, slowly raised his head. His eyes, now clear and focused, fixed on Lin Yi with an uncanny perception.
