The truth
Jiang Qing bit the straw, her gaze sliding from the boy's dark eyes to the corner of his slightly pursed lips, and she tilted her head.
"Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"
Lin Nanyan's grip on the fork tightened. He couldn't hear any emotion in the girl's words, but this was obviously the worst situation he could have anticipated.
He exhaled slowly, "I want to hear it all."
The boy's facial lines were slightly tense at this moment, revealing his inner turmoil.
Jiang Qing turned her head and casually stirred the lemon slices at the bottom of the cup. The water swirled, causing the ice cubes to collide with each other, making a crisp sound, as if knocking on Lin Nanyan's heart.
"I've never seen a lie, and I don't want to see one either."
"I've seen the truth, and it's changed a lot."
The girl's words without any pause flowed through Lin Nanyan's ears, stirring up ripples.
"He said, because..." Jiang Qing subconsciously concealed the middle of the sentence, "He tried to contact me after he went abroad, but for various reasons he couldn't. Later, he was busy with work and life, and we lost touch."
"In short, the reason can be summed up in four words: people grow up."
"What do you think," she said, looking at Lin Nanyan with a forced smile, "of his explanation?"
"It's so vulgar." Lin Nanyan criticized subconsciously.
"Yes, that's a terrible explanation," Jiang Qing said, her smile superficial but not in her eyes. "I think so too, but that's what he said."
Lin Nanyan remained silent and did not answer. He lowered his eyes, avoiding the girl's burning gaze.
Jiang Qing didn't care about the boy's reaction. Nine years separated them. Although they were the same person, the future him could explain the past, but the past him could not argue for the future.
No one knows what will happen tomorrow.
So there is no need to take life too seriously, and there is no need to care too much about many things.
In the future, she would not pursue his lies. Now, facing him who knew nothing, she would not desperately look for an answer that was impossible to know at the moment.
What's more, people may lie, but the passing of time will not deceive her.
She glanced at the boy next to her and experienced it again. This time, she didn't believe that she couldn't get the truth.
Just wait and see how she exposes his little secrets, then returns to the future and exposes his mask.
Thinking of this, Jiang Qing's mood instantly turned from gloomy to cheerful. She tasted the lemonade happily, but unfortunately the glass was empty and she couldn't sip anything more, making a gurgling sound.
Lin Nanyan heard it, tore open the new straw wrapper, inserted it into his own cup, and pushed it over.
Jiang Qing stretched out a finger in time to stop it, "No more drinking, I'm full, drink it yourself."
Lin Nanyan withdrew his hand, held the cup with both hands and drank it himself. The sour and sweet water flowing through his throat brought a cool and refreshing feeling, and also gradually calmed his heavy emotions.
Jiang Qing glanced at him and continued calmly, "He said he suddenly regained his memories of the past few days, meaning he had all the altered memories from the first two times."
Lin Nanyan's fingers trembled slightly, and he couldn't help but look up.
"But he has no memory of the future. If he wants to receive the third memory, he should wait until I return this time." Jiang Qing frowned slightly, "Which means he can't predict what will happen the third time."
"When I'm in the past, time is always flowing backwards. When he's in the future, time is always flowing forwards."
"It seems to be the pattern at the moment. As for the trigger for my time travel back, I'm guessing it was triggered automatically when someone was in danger."
"The specific direction of the journey remains a mystery," she said, taking off her hat irritably and ruffling her hair. "Tell me, why you? Why me?"
There has to be a reason. It can't be just random luck. The probability of a comet hitting the earth must be extremely small to accurately locate her and Lin Nanyan.
"Jiang Jiang, all the clues are tied up." Lin Nanyan reached out in time to catch the hair tie that fell from the end of Jiang Qing's hair due to her movements, and put it back on the table. "Let's sort out the story from the beginning."
The boy's steady and calm voice soothed Jiang Qing's emotions very well. She leaned over the table, her fingertips poking at the small daisy on her hair tie, "You talk, I'm listening."
"The first time you traveled through time, you came back because you pressed the recorder, and you went back because Song Yao was in danger."
"Second time traveling, back..."
Jiang Qing continued, "Because of the recorder."
Lin Nanyan: "Yes, I went back because Jiang Qing was in danger; I came back for the third time..."
"It's because of the recorder," Jiang Qing added halfheartedly, "It's a time-travel tool. I can come back by pressing a button."
Lin Nanyan's gaze also fell on the small daisy: "Ignore our guesses, ignore all the variables, the only thing we can be sure of is——"
Jiang Qing's eyes lit up as the boy spoke. He reminded her, "Why is it that recorder and not some other MP3 player, phonograph or something like that?"
What is so special about that voice recorder?
"That's right. The only certainty, the only quantifiable thing, is the missing recorder." Lin Nanyan confirmed her thoughts. "The day you returned was the day the recorder was lost."
Hearing this, Jiang Qing recalled something, "Besides, I clearly remember losing my recorder in high school and never found it again."
Lin Nanyan, upholding a rigorous attitude to eliminate unknown risks, asked, "Is it possible that you unknowingly dropped it somewhere in the house, and later Aunt Wang saw it while cleaning the room and helped you rearrange it."
"Impossible," Jiang Qing shook her head without a second thought. "I remember this recorder very clearly. I begged my mom for several days before she bought it for me. If I had carelessly thrown it somewhere, she would have scolded me and told me to keep it safe."
"But I don't remember this at all, so—" Jiang Qing was extremely certain at that moment, "The recorder disappeared on that day."
"It's a recorder that has been lost for nine years!" She looked at Lin Nanyan in shock, and came to this incredible conclusion from their conversation.
She had no idea when the recorder reappeared in her home.
Lin Nanyan drummed his knuckles on the table, lost in thought. "I clearly remember that morning you brought the recorder to school, and that evening you told me it was missing. You spent the entire day looking for it at school and on the way home..."
"No, it wasn't a whole day," Jiang Qing suddenly interrupted his guess, "it was at school."
"I searched everywhere I could during the day, but couldn't find it anywhere," she confirmed. "That means the recorder was left at school."
Lin Nanyan followed her train of thought and said, "If the scope is narrowed down to the school, we must first conduct a lost and found to confirm whether anyone has found the recorder but has not been able to return it because they can't find the owner."
"Secondly, we could ask our class teacher for help and retrieve the surveillance footage to see how it was lost," he frowned slightly. "That's unlikely. The surveillance cameras in our classroom aren't always on, but that day was the monthly exam, so it's not certain."
"If we're lucky, we should be able to find it. If we're unlucky—" Lin Nanyan's eyes darkened, "it means someone deliberately hid the recorder."
"???" Jiang Qing had originally nodded in agreement, but after hearing the rest of the sentence, two questions inevitably popped up in her head. "No, how did you come to this conclusion? Couldn't it have been picked up by the cleaner, or thrown into a corner where no one found it?"
Lin Nanyan looked at her and asked, "In the situation you described, how did it appear in your home nine years later?"
"Ah," Jiang Qing suddenly realized, "You're right. The recorder must have passed through someone else's hands before it came back to me. It can't just disappear and reappear out of thin air."
Lin Nanyan: "Yes, that's the key."
"But, what if?" Jiang Qing looked at the boy's calm expression and couldn't help but argue, "What if the recorder suddenly disappears and reappears?"
"After all, even something as unscientific as time travel has occurred. In comparison, the disappearance and reappearance of the recorder doesn't seem like a big deal."
Upon hearing this, Lin Nanyue stared at the girl quietly without saying a word.
"Alright, alright," Jiang Qing was the first to give in, raising the flag of surrender. "There are so many things going on, I'm lucky to be able to catch even one thread."
"Honestly, if you weren't here, what would I do?" Jiang Qing sighed sincerely, "Thank goodness you're here."
I have to say that the plug-in brain is really useful.
She glanced at the boy out of the corner of her eye, and sure enough, he turned his face slightly to avoid her sight.
This person can't stand any praise.
Humph, Lin Dagou, I have you in my grasp again.
"We have two tasks now," Jiang Qing concluded. "One is to prevent Li Qingyun from getting close to Senior Sister and prevent her from getting hurt again. The other is to find the missing recorder and discover the pattern of time travel."
Lin Nanyan nodded in affirmation.
He gathered all the post-meal waste together and threw it into the store's trash can. He turned around and took a look at the things Jiang Qing brought and picked them up in his hand.
He pushed open the glass door and motioned the girl to go first.
Jiang Qing was walking in front and noticed his gaze. "That was a parting gift from Brother Song Qing."
Lin Nanyan paused: "A parting gift?"
"Yes, Song Qing is leaving tomorrow. It will be difficult for him to come back after he returns to school. The management there is quite strict, so we will probably see each other less often in the future."
Although Jiang Qing felt a little regretful about this, she was mostly happy.
Brother Song Qing seems to be finally coming out of it, and so does Song Shuang.
They seem to have a different future.
Lin Nanyan's pace slowed down unconsciously. Jiang Qing looked back at him and thought she had noticed his thoughts.
"Brother Song Qing suddenly decided to leave and didn't have time to prepare gifts for everyone. Next time you meet, you can blackmail him and ask him to give you a big gift."
Lin Nanyan: "...I didn't mean that."
Jiang Qing indulged him: "Okay, okay, you didn't mean that. These are just my suggestions to you."
Lin Nanyan: “…”
After sending the girl home, Lin Nanyan turned around and went downstairs and left.
Jiang Qing looked at the other person's tall back, and after holding it in for the whole time, she couldn't help but speak out to test the waters.
"When will your father come back? Why haven't I seen Uncle Lin recently?" she asked casually.
"Last time he came and went in a hurry, and I didn't even run into him. My dad even said he wanted to treat him to a meal."
Lin Nanyan stopped walking down the stairs and turned to look at the girl for a while. Just when Jiang Qing couldn't help but wonder if she had revealed some flaws, he smiled.
"Why are you asking about him all of a sudden?"
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