Do you...know Chen Heng?
Everything in front of her was dark, and her whole body felt heavy, as if something was pressing down on her.
She struggled subconsciously, waving her hands and turning around, but her body didn't move at all, just like the feeling of sleep paralysis.
Jiang Qing's consciousness gradually became clear in the chaos. She tried hard to lift her feet, ran forward with all her strength, and suddenly broke through.
The sky suddenly brightened.
The glaring light shone on her eyelids, leaving eye-catching spots.
The world seemed to turn orange-red. Jiang Qing raised her hand and covered her eyes. Time flowed past her, blurring her senses.
She slowly recalled what happened in the previous second, her pupils suddenly shrank, and she stood up suddenly.
What caught my eye was a cramped room, piles of miscellaneous items, scattered old books, an open red shoe box, and a cell phone that had fallen to the ground.
Jiang Qing subconsciously reached out to pick it up, but as soon as she moved, something fell from her arms and hit the ground with a crisp sound.
She looked down and it was this!
The recorder that I had been looking for everywhere before.
In the absurdity, Jiang Qing had the illusion that she didn't know what year it was.
She...is back?
Why did he come back unexpectedly from nine years ago at this very moment?
So what she saw before she left...is there no way to change it?
Or was she just dreaming?
No!
Jiang Qing pinched her fingertips, and the pain made her brain extremely clear. It was definitely not a dream!
She had truly returned to nine years ago, the time when she stayed up late to memorize words, the time when she was tortured to baldness by mathematics, and... the strange yet familiar Lin Nanyan, who definitely did not appear in her mind out of thin air.
Thinking of this, she quickly turned on her phone, skipping over the work messages and spam messages that kept popping up with red dots, looking for something.
Jiang Qing stared at the only red icon, her fingertips frozen in place.
The familiar game was still there but it was over, and the people in it disappeared without a trace.
After a long time, she returned to the dial-up page and dialed the familiar number under the red avatar.
“Beep…beep…”
Jiang Qing unconsciously exerted force on her fingers. She was extremely nervous at this moment, as if she couldn't wait to verify something.
There was only a long beeping sound from the other end of the phone.
Her heart sank deeper and deeper at the sound of this voice.
“Pah—”
There seemed to be a tiny sound of electric current passing by. Jiang Qing seemed to be aware of something and looked over suddenly. The dial page had started counting down and the call was connected.
"Lin Nanyan——"
The person was still swaying in front of her in the last second, and the next second they were so far away. She hesitated and didn't know how to start.
There was no sound from the other end, as if no one was answering the call.
"I know you're listening," Jiang Qing said with difficulty, her throat dry. "What did you want to say in the game before? Right...what's next?"
In the silence, she vaguely heard a slight breathing sound coming from the phone, but it seemed like her illusion.
Time seems to be frozen.
In silence, Jiang Qing looked up at the sunlight coming in through the window. It looked bright and warm, but there was no trace of warmth when it shone on her.
Is it because of the glass?
"If you don't want to answer, then let me ask you another question. Do you...know Chen Heng?"
Jiang Qing wanted to find out what had happened before.
Chen Heng, a person they shouldn't know, would Lin Nanyan know him?
Her heartbeat and the ticking of time grew faster and faster as she waited for the answer from the other side.
Silence, still as silent as ever.
Jiang Qing didn't know whether Lin Nanyan was listening or not. She glanced over and saw that the dial-up page had been hung up without her noticing.
!!!
Jiang Qing, who was extremely nervous the moment before, was now surprisingly angry.
She threw all the euphemisms, strangeness, and decency out of her mind at this moment, gritting her teeth and wishing she could stand in front of him and beat him up.
Lin, Da, Gou, I gave you face, right? But you still hung up on me!
She called again, and the other party hung up in a second. She called again, and the other party hung up again.
Hit, hang, hit, hang...
The two people seemed to be in a dispute, extremely stubborn and neither of them was willing to admit defeat.
While fighting, Jiang Qing was texting the opponent and spewing out a bunch of trash talk.
"You're sick, hang up on me!"
"If you have the guts to disappear, then just disappear for life. Why is it that you're suddenly showing up now? You're just faking it!"
"Just pretend you can't hear me. If you're deaf, donate your ears to someone else instead of pretending to be dead!"
"If you have the guts to challenge me, then stand in front of me and let's fight!"
"Whoever admits defeat is a puppy!"
This long tug of war ended with the ringing of the living room doorbell.
Jiang Qing stood up and continued to make the call without getting discouraged, still swearing.
She opened the door while knocking, it was the postman.
"Hello, this is your express delivery. Please check it and sign here."
The delivery guy pointed to the lower right corner of the mail with a smile on his face.
"express delivery?"
Jiang Qing slowed down her phone call, signed the document and took it back to the living room.
It shouldn’t be hers. She hasn’t done any online shopping recently. Was it bought by her parents?
She opened the bag without paying attention, and didn't forget to make another phone call in the middle.
When the hole was torn, an invitation letter with a gold-plated pattern fell out.
Jiang Qing lowered her head. "Jiangyuan No. 1 Middle School's 70th anniversary celebration invitation. Is it for me?"
She flipped the page open, and it began with, "Dear Jiang Qing, our school is about to hold its 70th anniversary celebration. We sincerely invite you to participate..."
Seeing this, Jiang Qing couldn't help but complain in her heart that the school staff were as careless as her reflection summary diary. They even wrote the name on the invitation letter wrong.
Just as she was about to close the book and put it aside, the bottom line of words caught her eye and she paused.
"Graduates of 2015," followed by an unfamiliar student number.
This doesn't seem to be sent to her. She graduated in the 16th class. This should be an invitation letter sent to her senior classmate.
I think I sent it to the wrong person because the names are similar.
She was about to call her teacher to confirm, but when she picked up the phone, she found a ten-second record of a connected call.
Jiang Qing: ...
Playing tricks on me, is that fun?
She speechlessly flipped to the address book interface and called her teacher.
"Hello, Teacher Zhang." Jiang Qing was extremely polite.
"Hey, it's Jiang Qing. Is there something you want to talk to me about?" The teacher's voice came from the other end of the phone, its tone slightly changed but still very energetic.
"Teacher Zhang, this is what happened. I received an invitation to the school anniversary today, but it seems to have been sent to the wrong address. I wanted to tell you something."
"Wrong mail?" There was a rustling sound of paper from the other side, probably someone was looking for paper to record. "It's okay, I'll register it and send you a new one."
"Who is the letter in your hand addressed to?"
Jiang Qing looked at the invitation in her hand and read: "Jiang Qing, graduate of the 2015 class. Jiang means rivers, lakes and seas, and Qing means relaxed."
The rustling sound of a pen tip scraping across paper could be heard. "Hey, no wonder they were easily confused. The names are so similar. Let me check."
"Student number 2013xxxx", the teacher on the other end was muttering and suddenly stopped.
Jiang Qing was puzzled: "What happened to Teacher Zhang?"
"That's not right. I checked the computer system and there is no such person." The sound of typing on the computer continued as Zhang Kuo checked the past student academic records.
"How could there not be?"
"I checked twice, and there is no such person, but the student ID is indeed from our school." Zhang Kuo was also very confused when he looked at the interface displayed on the computer page.
"This student number was either filled out randomly according to our school's format, but this is not an omission and is unlikely, or it has been cancelled, in which case..." There was a pause.
Jiang Qing asked, "What happened to the cancellation?"
"Student registration at the school is generally not cancelled unless you transfer to another school, drop out, or die unexpectedly while at school."
Jiang Qing's heart skipped a beat.
"This kind of situation is even rarer. Don't worry, if you can't find it, don't worry about it," the teacher's voice rang in my ears. "Keep the invitation. I'll send you a new one."
"Okay, thank you, Teacher Zhang." Jiang Qing hesitated for a moment, her grip on the phone unconsciously tightening. "I also want to ask, did you send the invitation letter to Chen Heng, our former transfer student?"
Jiang Qing held her breath unconsciously after asking this question.
"Of course, I've sent out all the letters to students in our class," the teacher said with a smile, very proud. "Don't worry, I won't leave any of you behind."
The stone in her heart finally fell to the ground. She slowly exhaled and stroked the invitation letter in her hand. Her heart was complicated and it was difficult to understand what her current emotions were.
"Okay, thank you, Teacher Zhang. I'll come to see you during the school anniversary."
"Okay, let's wait for your classmates to come back and have some fun together," Zhang Kuo agreed with a smile. However, as he was laughing, he suddenly realized, "Wait, you mentioned Chen Heng? Is there a Chen Heng in our class?"
It was as if something suddenly hit her body, and Jiang Qing's mind went blank.
"Jiang Qing? Are you listening?"
"I'm here," she said hurriedly, her pupils shrinking and her hands shaking unconsciously. "Don't you remember? There was a boy who transferred to our class in our second year of high school. He was very handsome and sat in the last row."
"No, I remember that there were no students transferring to our class in your second year of high school." Zhang Kuo over there was also very confused. He didn't know why Jiang Qing asked this. He really didn't remember any students transferring to their class.
Jiang Qing couldn't believe it: "How could there be none? Did you remember it wrongly?"
"Wait a minute, I'll check for you." Hearing Jiang Qing's confident words, Zhang Kuo began to doubt whether he had too many students and mixed up the names. There were still many students with homophones.
He clicked on the computer, typed in the information, and asked, "Chen Heng, which two words?"
"Er Dong Chen, the balance of measurement."
Amidst the clattering sounds, the teacher's voice came intermittently, "Erdong Chen, weigh..."
“Found it!”
Jiang Qing hadn't even let out a breath when she heard the teacher say, "That year, our school had a transfer student named Chen Heng, but he was from Class 3, not ours."
"You remembered it wrongly, didn't you?"
Jiang Qing was stunned. "Then I must have remembered it wrongly."
She didn't know how she hung up the phone.
How could that be?
Chen Heng was clearly transferred to Class 9, so how could he be in Class 3?
In the first timeline, she had never met Chen Heng, and in the second timeline she traveled through, Chen Heng was in Class Nine.
Now, the teacher told her that he was in Class 3.
Does this mean that Chen Heng was originally in Class 3, but for some reason, he happened to be on the route she was going back, so he chose another path at the crossroads of his life.
What about her?
Thinking of something, she hurriedly called: "Mei Yan, do you remember when I invited you to my house for a barbecue party in high school?"
"Jiang Jiang, what are you talking about? I didn't go to your house in high school. We hardly talked at that time. Have you forgotten?" After the beep, Ye Meiyan's surprised voice came from the other side.
Realizing that Jiang Qing's tone seemed a little off, she quickly asked, "What's wrong with you, Jiang Jiang? Let me go see you."
Jiang Qing forced a smile. "I'm fine. I was just sorting through my photo albums and it reminded me of our high school days. I felt a little regretful. Why didn't I invite you to my house back then?"
"Is that so?" Ye Meiyan felt relieved after hearing that. "It's a pity, but it's okay. If you miss me, just call me. I'm not busy lately. I can accompany you wherever you want to go."
"Okay, but I still have to pack my things. I'll call you when I move. I won't bother you now."
"Okay, I'll wait for you then. Bye."
"Bye-Bye."
Jiang Qing hung up the phone and returned to the utility room, staring blankly at the recorder lying alone on the floor.
Is the timeline she went back to a void?
No one remembers, no one cares.
Nothing makes any sense.
That girl who was harassed...
Jiang Qing slowly stretched out her hand and touched the recorder with her fingertips. The cold temperature seeped into it, making her shiver.
He clenched it slowly, and the sharp edges of the machine left several red marks on his palm.
In a trance, across a long distance, she heard the beating of a pulse from another time and space.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
