It's a curse
"Do you know Hengheng?" The boy's face lit up visibly as he explained, "I'm his brother, Chen Xu."
"Could you please give this to him for me?" Chen Xu took out an exquisite box from his schoolbag.
Lin Nanyan didn't take it. He looked at the gift that was handed to him. It was not big, wrapped in blue, and had a very simple appearance. It was impossible to tell what was inside.
He raised his eyes and asked, "Why don't you give it to Chen Heng yourself?"
"Uh..." Chen Xu's pair of bright brown pupils were tinged with disappointment, and his eyelashes drooped. "Hengheng... doesn't want to see me."
Lin Nanyan: "Then he probably doesn't want to receive anything from you."
The boy's words were so sharp and blunt that Chen Xu couldn't help but tremble in his outstretched hand.
He said, "I know, I..."
Chen Xu looked up and wanted to say something, but when he saw the person at the door, he pursed his lips tightly and hurriedly placed the gift on the sink. When he passed Lin Nanyan, he whispered, "Sorry to bother you."
Lin Nanyan turned his head and saw several burly men standing outside the bathroom. When they saw the boy walking over, they quickly and orderly surrounded him and silently escorted him out.
The boy's figure was instantly submerged in the crowd, but Lin Nanyan could still see him looking back while walking.
In the remote bathroom, the light blue packaging box lay there quietly.
The air was filled with moisture, and dark blue circular marks gradually appeared on the surface of the box that had been forgotten here, as if it was about to melt.
Until a hand with distinct joints and purple veins exposed because the skin was too thin and white stretched out, and the shoes tapped the floor with a slight sound.
When Lin Nanyan returned to the classroom, Zhang Kuo was talking at the podium, explaining difficult and easy-to-make mistakes.
A "report" interrupted him.
Zhang Kuo frowned and looked towards the door.
The boy's hair was still dripping with water, and there was moisture in his eyes and eyebrows. At this moment, he raised his eyes, his face calm and indifferent, as if he was not late at all.
The boy had clearly left the office a long time ago, so why did he come back only now? He was even later than the teacher. Is this reasonable?
What does what he said before count for?
"Where have you been?"
Lin Nanyan: "Bathroom."
Zhang Kuo looked at what he was holding, but didn't say anything in front of all the students. "Hand out the papers first."
Lin Nanyan walked into the classroom, skillfully counted out the sufficient papers and distributed them to the students in the first row one by one, and placed the rest on the podium.
When he walked back to his seat, he did not forget to pick up the things he had placed on the ground.
Zhang Kuo's eyes twitched and he pretended not to see it.
Jiang Qing watched as the people sat down. She didn't move her eyes, remaining focused, and her lips moved slightly: "Why are you late?"
Lin Nanyan put down what he was holding and took the chemistry paper that Jiang Fan had handed over. He replied to Jiang Qing, "I spent a little too long in the bathroom."
"Oh," Jiang Qing didn't ask any more questions. She noticed the box that Lin Nanyan had casually placed at his feet. She kicked her toes lightly and asked, "What is this?"
"have no idea."
“???”
Jiang Qing: "Don't you know your stuff?"
"It's not mine," Lin Nanyan spread out the chemistry paper, quickly scanned the layout of the questions, and replied, "It's Chen Heng's."
As if he knew Jiang Qing's confusion, he explained, "To be precise, it was given to Chen Heng by his brother Chen Xu."
"His brother—"
Jiang Qing was extremely surprised and noticed that her voice was a little out of control. The students around her were all discussing the topic in groups, and no one was paying attention to their conversation. She lowered her head, leaned closer to her deskmate, and asked quietly, "Did you run into Chen Heng's brother too?"
"Also?" Lin Nanyan stopped writing, looked over, and confirmed in a declarative tone, "You met Chen Xu."
Jiang Qing quietly raised her head and saw the teacher writing something on the blackboard. She lowered her head again, as if afraid of being heard, and spoke even more quietly, "If you hadn't run into him, I wouldn't have said bad things about him behind his back with you."
"You know, I'm not that kind of person." Jiang Qing stared at Lin Nanyue with her bright eyes without blinking.
Lin Nanyan: "Yeah, I know."
Jiang Qing relaxed. "I think you'd better not get involved in their affairs," she glanced at Chen Heng, who was buried in his desk, wondering what he was doing. She turned to Lin Nanyan and said, "I think the relationship between them isn't very good."
Lin Nanyan: "Yeah, I know."
"I'm glad you know." Wait, what did he say? Jiang Qing suddenly turned her head.
Lin Nanyan straightened his back and resumed writing the chemical formula. Chatting didn't interfere with his work. "Chen Xu told me that Chen Heng doesn't want to see him."
"Then why are you helping him? Are you stupid?" Jiang Qing was so disappointed in Lin Nanyan that she really wanted to pry open his brain to see if it was broken.
Lin Nanyan said innocently: "He put down his things and ran away."
Jiang Qing: ...
"That's true, there's nothing I can do." Chen Xu really knows how to give people difficult problems. He must have taken advantage of Lin Nanyue's friendly face to bully him.
"You're just too easy to bully. I'm telling you," Jiang Qing grumbled, dissatisfied with him. "Next time you don't want to do something, just say no. Don't be so soft-hearted."
"How about... I'll help you get it to Chen Heng." Anyway, she had seen the worst scenes between the two brothers, including strangling each other. What could be worse? Besides, Chen Heng didn't seem to mind her watching it live.
It’s better not to trouble two people for the same thing, so I asked □□ to do it for her at the same time.
"No need." Lin Nanyan pressed the girl's head down with one finger.
Jiang Qing covered her forehead and kicked him, "Don't forget it."
Lin Nanyan didn't react at all after being kicked. It didn't hurt at all. He took out the paper in his hand and exchanged it with Jiang Qing's blank paper. "Here are some advanced questions. I've marked the notes on the side. You should relearn the solution ideas."
"What...what do you mean?" Jiang Qing took over the test paper with a few questions marked in black handwriting in between, and was unable to react for a moment after listening to his jumping thoughts.
Lin Nanyan: "You've forgotten what you learned before, and starting over again will take a lot of time. These questions are variations of the basic questions in the textbook, and they can help you get into the learning state as quickly as possible."
What the hell was he talking about? Why didn't she understand?
Jiang Qing looked up in confusion. "I think I said that returning to the future wouldn't change anything, so," she shook the paper in her hand, "what's the point of me learning all this?"
Lin Nanyan did not respond directly, but asked: "What is your purpose in coming back?"
"Of course, to find the truth." Jiang Qing replied without hesitation.
"Find the truth, and then what?"
"And then..." Jiang Qing was speechless, stuck. She wanted to find the truth, and then, and then there was nothing else.
Lin Nanyan took the test paper that was rustling in her hand and placed it under her nose.
"Our goal is to find the answer and uncover the truth. But—"
"You couldn't change the future last time, but you may not be able to this time."
Lin Nanyan looked at her, "What if? Are you going to squander this precious time that can change the future?"
Jiang Qing reached out and touched the white paper. The complex, colorful chemical symbols reflected in her eyes. Her mood fell and she said dejectedly, "Okay, I admit, I feel a little relieved after knowing that I can't change the future."
Learning boring knowledge day and night requires a lot of patience and perseverance, not to mention that there will be no positive feedback for a long time.
Jiang Qing is not a smart person. No matter how many times she tries, she will never become a top student who can understand everything at once. She has never been a very patient person.
Before, there was a carrot hanging in front of her eyes, and she could still comfort herself and hold on.
Now that even the carrots are gone, how can she concentrate on studying?
"But it was only a brief moment of relief," Jiang Qing said, pinching a tiny mark with her fingertips. "Then I started to worry about you, Song Shuang and Wang Huaqing, Meiyan, Chen Heng, and Song Yao."
"Look, I could have dragged Song Yao to the police station and helped her get rid of the thugs. I could have had a heart-to-heart chat with you. I could have tried to understand the relationship between Song Shuang and Wang Huacheng. I could have been friends with Chen Heng. I could have done so many things."
"But what if this is all false?"
“Is what I’m doing meaningful?”
"If the future remains unchanged, then what kind of future will Song Yao encounter in the past that I was not involved in?"
In fact, she had seen it.
Before she was sent back to the future, when she and her good friends left the art gallery laughing and joking, when she set foot in that alley, she saw it with her own eyes.
Jiang Qing said: "So later I figured it out. If I don't break the curse of fate, this adventure of mine -
"It's a curse, not luck."
There were surging waves of emotions in the girl's eyes. Lin Nanyan clenched the pen in his hand and felt for the first time the deep powerlessness that surged from the bottom of his heart, following him like a shadow.
He didn't know what Jiang Qing had experienced in the repeated reversals of time, both in the past and in the future.
In the past he has experienced and the future he cannot see, in the cracks of time, Jiang Qing can only walk alone. He can do nothing but watch.
Even if Jiang Qing hadn't told him all this, he would have lived in ignorance and like an idiot.
Lin Nanyan's voice was hoarse: "I know."
He reached out and took Jiang Qing's hand, the familiar warmth flowing from her body. When their two equally young faces met, he said, "I'll help you."
Jiang Qing met the boy's deep, dark, yet warm eyes. The color of his eyes was very beautiful, but what was even more beautiful than the color was the determination and focus contained in them, which seemed to have a fatal attraction.
She was burned by the strong emotion that seemed to be overflowing. She suddenly came to her senses, pulled her hand back, and began to bury her head in writing the test paper, muttering: "If you still say these things during the summer vacation."
Lin Nanyan understood that he was leaving during the summer vacation of this semester.
He looked at her and said, "If that day ever comes... I'll say goodbye properly."
Jiang Qing paused biting the tip of the pen and said "hmm".
She knew that he knew what she minded, and as Lin Nanyan promised, what she minded was not Lin Nanyan's departure.
If one day the other party has to leave, she will definitely not stop him.
Because everyone has his or her own life, everyone has his or her own reasons for making choices, and everyone has his or her own path to follow.
She has it, and Lin Nanyan has it too.
Jiang Qing didn't have to tie the other person to her side, and she never minded Lin Nanyan's departure.
The only thing she has always been worried about is——
Lin Nanyan left without saying goodbye.
Lin Nanyan has been missing for a long time.
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