Five years ago.
S city, old town.
The night when Shen Zhong secretly left his aunt's house for the last time.
On the bridge.
A dark river flows under the bridge.
Shen Zhong stood on the river, wearing the blue and white school uniform of his middle school. The street lights were dim, and he felt creepy and cold.
"If we jump from here..." he whispered.
“…If you jump down from here, you will be smashed to pieces and nothing will be left.”
Shen Zhong turned around.
The young man in black had been standing there for an unknown amount of time. He was wearing sunglasses, revealing only his jade-white chin.
Pursed lips.
Her lips were pursed into a line.
"Really."
"Um."
“… But some people don’t.” Shen Zhong said.
Shen Zhong thought that the young people would not understand anything. But they were all silent.
The river flows quietly. Shen Zhong remembered that he seemed to have been here five years ago. That day, he watched life disappear under Gu Ruchao's sign. He held Gu Ruchao's hand and ran through the streets and alleys of the old city. He pretended to be calm and sent Gu Ruchao away.
Then he came here too.
Shen Zhong didn't know why, but he really wanted to speak.
“… I had a friend,” he said. “He died. He jumped off a building.”
It’s Gu Ruchao.
"I also have a friend. He jumped off a building and died." The young man said, "He was a journalist."
It's Chi Xu.
They both had friends. But the death of two people, one towards death, the other towards life.
“… but he didn’t consider me a friend.” the young man continued.
"Why?"
"If he had considered me a friend, he would not have died." The young man said, "He should have trusted me, but..."
- If he regarded me as a friend, he would not die. Shen Zhong also thought so.
Gu Ruchao...
Shen Zhong suddenly felt that this feeling was very strange. He and the young man were strangers, but they seemed to be standing on the front and back sides of the shadow of this city. Asking that person a question was like asking himself a question.
"Did you do anything?" Shen finally asked.
Just like he could never get over Gu Ruchao’s “death”.
After a long time, the young man spoke.
"I did everything, but I didn't achieve anything." He said softly. Shen Zhong's heart moved.
"Me too," he said, "but why?"
"… "
“… Because he and I will never be the same kind of people.”
The sound of the river flows like a sigh.
The two sat on the edge of the bridge, holding the hot milk that the young man bought from the convenience store.
"Are you an actor?" Shen Zhong suddenly said.
"How did you guess that?"
"Only actors would wear sunglasses on a day this dark."
"Pfft." The young man laughed, "Maybe. What about you, what do you want to do when you grow up?"
Shen Zhong didn't know that this was the first time the young man had laughed in a while.
“… Go to a place where no one will notice you.” Shen Zhong said sullenly.
"People who are not noticed in places are more noticeable..."
The young man did not deny him or ask the reason.
"What should we do then?"
Then go to the most lively place in the world.
Replace the old name with the new one. Cover the old footprints with the new one. Cut off the old ties with the new future.
"What if I just want to stand here... and don't want to go down?"
"Then there will be no new future. But if you don't want to leave, that's fine."
You can do whatever you want.
Not all chance encounters are remembered. Not all faces are engraved in memory.
Whether it was five years ago or ten years ago.
It was only after returning home that Shen Zhong discovered that he had dropped something on the bridge.
But it's not something important.
…
"My brother's house has four bedrooms and two living rooms. One room is his, one room is his parents', one room is a study, and one room is a guest room... Um, there is no bed in the study, which room do you live in?"
Yu Qichen just turned around and saw...
Yi Wan naturally turned around in the room.
Yu Qichen: …
Should I say it's worthy of Asperger's
"I..." Yu Qichen continued.
"Do you want to sleep in the guest room?" Yi Wan said.
The tone was very calm.
Yu Qichen: … Although I want to sleep in the guest room, don’t you have any selfish desire to sleep in my brother’s room
"Okay, my brother's room is this one..."
Then he turned around and saw Yi Wan lying on the floor-to-ceiling window on the living room balcony.
"There is no moon." Yi Wan said.
Yu Qichen: "... I say, this is your first time visiting someone else's home, you should at least show some politeness and shyness!!"
Yi Wan: "There is no moon."
… It’s not this kind of change of tone! And what’s wrong with the moon!
Seeing Yi Wan looking up attentively on the balcony, Yu Qichen was speechless: "I really don't know how you and Yu Rongshi get along, two weirdos..."
It feels like Yi Wan is the kind of person he just can’t relate to.
Yi Wan answered quickly this time: "Yu Rongshi won't want to control me."
Yu Qichen: "I don't want you to answer this kind of question quickly!"
"The room on the left is Yu Rongshi's room. You can go in and sleep. The sheets are in the closet." Yu Qichen took out the key.
He was about to enter the room when Yi Wan stood beside him, not blinking: "But what are you doing in the study?"
Yu Qichen:
The doors were closed, so how did Yi Wan determine that this room was a study
Yi Wan said: "Based on the direction of the room and the size of the room based on the layout..."
Yu Qichen was dumbfounded.
Yi Wan: "Well, it's because I saw this room from the balcony just now..."
Yu Qichen: …
"I kind of understand why you and Yu Rongshi... Heh." Yu Qichen muttered to himself, "Yu Rongshi usually doesn't let me in. But this time I went in to get documents, to prove that Yu Rongshi didn't evade taxes..."
The study door opened.
Yu Qichen went to open the safe. Yi Wan followed him into the study. The things in the study were neatly arranged.
Especially the row of black file boxes on the bookshelf.
The names and times are neatly written on the sides of the file boxes. The file boxes are arranged from high to low, and the ink marks on them are from old to new.
Gu Wangxi, Shen Qinghe, Lin Qianyao, Ye Wuyi...
Most of them are once popular celebrities.
They are probably the "male protagonists" that Yu Rongshi targeted in the first few years after Chi Xu's death and Xie Ziyu's imprisonment.
Yi Wan observed for a while, and took out a book while Yu Qichen was not paying attention.
The box contained the protagonist's information, including his life story, his resume, people he had encountered and who had encountered him, and the sniper plan... Yi Wan finished reading it.
The same is true for the other two books.
He glanced at the safe and saw that Yu Qichen had finished working on it, so he put the things back as quickly as possible.
Blink.
Yi Wan found two old black boxes at the top of the bookcase.
On one black box it was written Yu Qichen... and on the other black box it was written.
When referring to appearance.
When Yu Qichen turned around, he saw Yi Wan looking around in the room, thinking that Yi Wan was only interested in the things in Yu Rongshi's study. He suddenly had some bad thoughts and said to Yi Wan: "Don't be fooled by his decent appearance now, he also had a lot of dark history in middle school... Look at this shelf over here, it contains my brother's things from middle school and college, such as..."
He introduced them one by one, from model airplanes in elementary school, to musical instruments in junior high school, to painting in high school. When he mentioned table tennis rackets, his eyes became unnatural for a moment.
So I just ignored it vaguely.
Yi Wan looked at him.
"Why does he want to do everything?" Yi Wan said.
Yu Qichen felt a little uncomfortable again. He seemed to have remembered something and said awkwardly, "Who knows. Maybe he wanted to prove that he was better than others in everything."
"… Or maybe he was trying to find out where he was weaker than others."
"You really deserve a beating for what you said. I'm really making a fuss." Yu Qichen shook his head.
"Were there times when you really disliked him?"
Yu Qichen almost spit out his saliva. But Yi Wan's eyes were too sincere—so sincere that it seemed as if he was just curious. He could only touch his nose and said, "Heh... Who knows."
After a pause, he continued, "It's not that easy actually. Although Yu Rongshi seems to be able to do everything, he does everything with all his strength."
"He actually grew up quite lonely. So he is very tolerant of all weirdness. Why? Because he feels guilty about his own 'weirdness'? Because he thinks uncompromising weirdness is charming?"
Yu Qichen: "Why are you suddenly saying weird things again? Come and see, this is what he wrote after college..."
He noticed that Yi Wan was staring at something randomly placed on the cabinet, his eyes fixed as if he had seen something incredible. Yu Qichen then asked, "What are you looking at?"
Under Yi Wan's gaze, he picked up the object that seemed to have been picked up casually and placed here.
“…It looks like a school ID card,” Yu Qichen identified the handwriting on it, “The photo is blurry, the name on it is…”
"… No."
"Shen Zhong... Damn it!"
Yu Qichen was almost pushed to the ground by Yi Wan who suddenly snatched his school card. He rubbed his waist which had hit the cabinet and asked him in amazement: "Why are you so nervous? It's like I'm going to eat you..."
He saw Yi Wan staring blankly out the window behind him, as if he was relieved, but also as if he was even more shocked.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"You call me by that name again?"
"What?"
"Shen Zhong."
"Shen Zhong... ? Why do you want me to call this?"
The sky did not respond.
Yu Qichen watched Yi Wan suddenly walk towards the window. Yi Wan opened the window and suddenly shouted three times as if he had made up his mind.
"Shen Zhong, Shen Zhong, Shen Zhong!"
Yu Qichen: … Damn it.
He felt that Yi Wan might have mental problems.
Facing Yi Wan's abnormality, Yu Qichen could only start reasoning quickly. Yi Wan reacted to the name Shen Zhong, and Yi Wan asked him to repeat the name. Yi Wan wanted to hear the sound of him repeating the name...
Yu Qichen was horrified and shocked.
Could it be that Yi Wan… was recognizing Yu Qichen’s voice by listening to the sound of him calling this name?
Plus this school card is in Yu Rongshi’s locker…
Could it be...
"I was the little mermaid?!"
Yu Qichen suddenly had a bad association.
Did he meet Yi Wan before, and because of his similar voice, was he impersonated by his cousin? For a moment, he thought that this idea was more and more possible, and the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.
Then he saw Yi Wan turned around and asked him the second question.
Yi Wan: "Can you help me tell me the second name?"
Yu Qichen: “What?”
"Gu Ruchao." Yi Wan stared at him and said word by word.
Yu Qichen: …It’s too outrageous.
Yi Wan: "Then how about Xie Ziyu?"
…
"It's almost time to go to bed." Yu Qichen closed the study door, found new sheets and a new quilt, and threw them to Yi Wan, "Good night."
Yi Wan's behavior was too abnormal. Yu Qichen was terrified and just wanted to escape from the battlefield as quickly as possible.
But before leaving, he still asked a question: "... This Shen Zhong, do you know Yu Rongshi? How come his school card appeared on Yu Rongshi's bookshelf?"
Yi Wan drooped his eyelashes.
"I don't know..." he said, "Before this, I never thought we would meet."
Yu Qichen:
"But the city is so big, it's normal for everyone to meet anyone."
"Okay." Yu Qichen said, "Good night again."
After hearing the sound of Yu Qichen closing the door, Yi Wan sat in the room for another half an hour. Yu Rongshi's room was not quite what he had imagined. Most of the colors were dark blue and white, and it was as calm as a bay without waves.
He stared at the school card in the bay.
“… So we’ve met before.” After a long while, he said, “But I didn’t have any impression of you, and I didn’t recognize you later. Maybe you’re just a stranger in my world.”
Although everyone first appears in another person's life as a passerby.
No matter how many times we meet, passers-by are just passers-by.
Until he can enter another person's heart.
"… Um?"
Yi Wan found a small whale pendant at Yu Rongshi’s bedside.
The little whale is blue and white and looks quite new, but there is a furry little robot riding on it... God knows what kind of toy designer would put them together.
Yi Wan felt that the robot could not go into the water.
There are other details in life, such as the rolled-up headphones by the bed, the iPad plugged in and charging, a pen in the crack of the sofa, and even a bottle of snacks on the table that I obviously don’t like to eat because it’s not tasty, but I can’t bear to throw it away immediately, so I put it there thinking that I might eat it one day…
It's just like the kind of room a real person would have.
besides…
Yi Wan looked out the window of the room. It was pitch black outside with only a few stars.
There is no moon.
There is no moon.
"If I stay with you, will there be no moon?"
Yi Wan stared at the little whale and the little robot quietly for a long time. He put the school card in his pocket. He took a deep breath and decided to turn his attention back.
It’s so weird, Yu Rongshi’s family.
Whether it was "Shen Zhong" or "Gu Ruchao", these two names were like taboos, and only when they were read out in Yu Rongshi's house could the Heavenly Dao have no reaction.
'Abandoned defective goods... Someone who challenged the male protagonist but was neither blessed nor punished by heaven.'
Defective product
Is it really a defective product
Yi Wan pushed open the study door.
The study was dark. Yi Wan couldn't turn on the light. He took down the two black boxes by memory and brought them back to the bedroom.
The box was old. He opened Yu Qichen's first and found that the creation date of the file was later than he thought.
It was probably about a month after Chi Xu jumped off the building.
There are many things about Yu Qichen in the book, but to sum it up, there is only four words: unremarkable. If there was no Yu Rongshi, he would also be an excellent student, a handsome boy, and a charmer who was only one step away from being popular. There is nothing else to say.
The file on Yu Rongshi himself was very thick, with detailed content and a cold and rational style.
They are more like scalpels than documentary texts.
The initial recording time was also one month after Chi Xu jumped off the building.
"I prepared this file as the initial file to find out who I am."
"I don't want to live in a state of compromise with the chaos of this world. I can't feel at ease with the talents and gifts I was born with. I hate that people's lives are treated as bargaining chips or worthless. Xie Ziyu said that God has arranged a destiny for everyone... What a joke."
"I don't care what fate is. I just want to make sure..."
The following sentence was not finished.
Yi Wan flipped to the middle.
"Perhaps the 'protagonists' can also have a kind of... life. The director asked me, what do I think is the difference between my indiscriminate attack on the 'protagonists' and what the 'protagonists' did to the 'supporting characters'?"
"I can't answer this question. Just like I can't answer, what kind of life do they need? What kind of life does the world need? I can't find the answer. The director said, if you can change one thing, can you change everything?"
"Perhaps everything has its own destiny. All the anomalies in this world are also the rules that this world should have. The director recommended that I read more books by Laozi and Zhuangzi, and recommended that I read 'Governing by Doing Nothing'."
"… Maybe that's how it should be. I'm calm."
"I'm beginning to think that this kind of life is pretty good. Peaceful and tranquil, nothing needs to be broken. Perhaps most of the time, innovation will bring a greater price than what you have to pay. This is how the world should be."
Last page. "I don't know what to say."
"But maybe... I don't understand."
Suddenly, Yi Wan heard footsteps coming from behind.
"What are you looking at here?"
Coming from behind him was Yu Qichen's extremely cold voice.
"Tell me, what do you want from my brother?"
…
An Yelin ran around with the nurses and completed all the procedures regarding Chi Jixia's mother. When he turned around and saw Chi Jixia's back, he began to feel a little angry.
However, when he saw Chi Jixia's face, the anger subsided.
"I'm going to the bathroom." said Chi Jixia.
An Yelin did not stop him. However, the nurse heard it and complained loudly: "… His own son is not as responsible as his friends."
Chi Jixia didn't go to the toilet. He went to the stairwell and made gestures with his fingers, pretending to smoke. After a long time, he sat on the stairs and buried his head in his knees.
"… Hello." The system heard Chi Jixia say sullenly, "You're still here, right?"
"I'm here." said the system.
At this moment, Chi Jixia reminded the system of himself as a child—the lonely, desperate child who could never meet his mother's expectations.
More than ten years have passed, but Chi Jixia seems to be still locked in that small room and has never grown up... even with it.
He has a system, but he still can't handle everything in life.
"… Tsk." Chi Jixia grabbed a handful of hair. "Who do you think I should play? Find a movie about mother and son? How about imitating one of the sons? Or should I just take a nap and be fine."
Yes, just get some sleep.
There would be no mother in the dream, no miserable childhood and no void that could never be filled. He could be anyone, with anyone's joy, except for him.
But what does it matter
But the system stopped him: "I don't think you can sleep now."
“…Are you going to teach me a lesson too?” Chi Jixia said.
The system fell silent.
"I don't know." The system said, "But I seem to feel that the meaning of my existence is to make you a better person."
Chi Jixia: …
"The meaning of existence. Aren't you a superstar development system... I don't know, can you help me find a character to imitate, system." He said.
system:…
"Tsk, come to think of it, I seem to have been causing you trouble all these years." Chi Jixia suddenly smiled, "There is no worse host in the world than me, right? I won a Best Actor award when I was the youngest, and then I fell into a slump. I have been relying on cheesy idol dramas to make a living all day long, and I didn't listen to your advice and ran to join a boy band. Over the years, I have never become a Best Actor as agreed upon when I signed the contract. And you have never urged me, or scolded me..."
His voice became weaker and weaker, and he almost couldn't hear the system.
The system fell silent.
Chi Jixia: "Why don't you say anything? It's embarrassing for me to talk to myself."
"... Do you remember the first time we met?" the system said, "You were still very young at that time... I found you because I have never seen a host so young but with such a huge power of wishes. Every look in your eyes and every movement of yours told me that you wanted to put on a good show. According to the rules, I shouldn't have chosen a child as a host."
"Yeah." Chi Jixia said, "But I did better at that time, didn't I?"
He shrugged, as if trying to play it safe: "At the beginning, it was quite in line with your expectations, right? After all, you've acted in so many dramas and won so many awards..."
“… I don’t know.” The system said, “I don’t know if this is good or not. Because I have been letting you experience others, but I have never let you experience yourself.”
Chi Jixia: “?”
He was about to speak when he saw someone walking up from downstairs.
He originally thought it was Bo Jiang.
"Thin… "
Chi Jixia widened her eyes.
"Good evening." The man said with a smile, "Long time no see - oh, I almost forgot, from this timeline, you haven't seen me."
"I rely on you, I rely on you." Chi Jixia said, "Thank you..."
He originally wanted to say "Thank you, fugitive" for coming, but for some reason, he felt fear instinctively.
Fear, panic, disgust... it was as if this person had done something that made him instinctively hate and fear it.
A sour feeling rose up his throat.
"… Not really? You feel like vomiting already?" The man was a little surprised, "But I'm not here to see you…"
"Where's Yi Wan? Did you see where he is?"
…
An Yelin woke up from his half-sleep state.
He sat on the nursing bench next to Chi Jixia's mother. Since Chi Jixia collapsed, he was the only one left to look after Chi Qiu.
In fact, he had never even taken care of his biological mother like this.
They in the Hong Group have so many things to do.
An Yelin shook his head and poured himself a glass of water. After taking the sedative, Chi Jixia's mother had fallen into a coma and looked much better overall.
… After a whole night of hard work, they didn’t know if they would be able to sing their song in time. An Yelin was worried.
“…￥.”
He heard a voice coming from the bed.
When An Yelin looked in the direction of the sound, he saw Chi Qiu's eyeballs moving under his eyelids, as if he was having a terrifying dream, and the veins on his fingers grabbing the bed sheet were bulging. His face changed, and he immediately put down the water and planned to ring the bell - he really didn't know how to deal with this situation.
“… Preface.”
An Yelin paused.
He seemed to hear... a name
"Chi Xu... Mom used to think that you were the older brother, and you had to give in to your younger brother..."
"Xiao Xu... Mom is sorry... Answer the phone..."
Pool sequence.
Chi Xu!!
An Yelin had extremely sensitive hearing, and at this moment he was so shocked that he could not express it in words.
The non-existent brother of Chi Jixia that Chi's mother kept repeating.
Chi Xu was erased because he disrupted the world line.
The surname is Chi… Xu Xia. Chi Xu, Chi Xu…
If someone else were here, they might not be able to analyze the truth as quickly as An Yelin. But An Yelin is a survivor of the bloody rich family after all. His imagination and family analysis abilities are extraordinary.
"Chi Jixia!!"
An Yelin calmed himself down as quickly as possible. He couldn't handle this alone. He immediately called Yi Wan, the person he trusted most in the entire Hong Group.
After a long time, the call finally got through.
An Yelin didn't care whether Yi Wan would reply or not, and just dumped everything out to him. After a moment, Yi Wan replied, "... Then I'll come over now."
"Okay." An Yelin didn't think much about it.
There was no need to tell Ding Biehan, since he didn't look like he could help with this matter anyway. An Yelin then rushed out of the ward. While running through the corridor, he brushed past someone.
An Yelin:
It was Bo Jiang who lowered her head.
The ancient beauty stood by the window on the fourth floor, lowering her head. Her long eyelashes covered her dark phoenix eyes. I don't know what she was thinking. !