Ouroboros
Chapter 19 (Part 1)
Light rain pattered.
The sky was gloomy. From the corridor, it looked like the sky hadn’t brightened up yet.
He closed the door and his two little hands subconsciously pulled on the straps of his school bag as he thought to himself that he should buy a cake from that old shop around the corner so that he wouldn’t be hungry if his father forgets to come back tonight because of working overtime.
Under the lights in the corridor, he stepped onto the ninth step and turned around the corner. There, he ran into someone.
He looked up. The other party was wearing a purple hoodie. A hat covered his face.
It was a stranger.
He paused for a moment and the other party also paused. They then passed by each other.
…….
When the light rain stopped, there were police tape put up downstairs.
It was clearly afternoon, but the sky was still dark. The sound of police cars, the sound of an ambulance as well as the sound of chaotic footsteps could be heard under the flashing red and blue lights.
He stood outside the police tape. Someone rushed over to him and held in him their arms. It was unknown whether their trembling words were used to comfort him or comfort themselves, “Jian Jian, Jian Jian.”
A police officer spoke to that person with a lowered voice. It was a little inaudible, “…….Professor Ji, the child had quite a scare. He may have met the murderer…..”
He lowered his head and saw a drop of water slipping down his yellow raincoat.
…….
It was a warm-toned room. There were a lot of plush toys which made the room feel more comfortable.
The aunty of the Child Welfare Department walked in.
Someone had completed all the formalities. He squatted down in front of him and held his little hand, “Jian Jian, I’m here to take you home. To a new home.”
He nodded.
“Are you afraid?”
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He shook his head.
“Alright. In the future, you will have a mother, a father and a brother at home. It will be very lively.”
He remained silent.
“From today, you will be surnamed Ji.”
……….
“Hey Xiao Ji. You already have 89 B-level missions, you’re really not considering supporting an A-level one?” Chief Lin tried to persuade him, “I have already applied to the superiors. With one A-level mission equalling to 10 B-level missions, you will have a total of 99. Once you return, you just have to go one more time and then you would be able to get what you have always wanted!”
He said, “No hurry. It is the same if I do 10 more B-level missions.”Chief Lin was anxious, “Goodness, why won’t this child listen to me?! For what reason did you join Tianqiong? Everyone already knows that you want a chance to return to that year. The people at the top say that they want to test you but they’re not that strict. No one wants to put you in a difficult position, you’re only doing it to yourself!”
He responded calmly, “Chief Lin, I can’t work with teammates who are blind, arrogant and hold a prejudice against others.”
Chief Lin, “That Captain Song isn’t arrogant for no reason……..Hey, Xiao Ji, wait a minute!”
A black cat snored on his lap.
He held a book in one hand and used his other to stroke the cat.
This cat was old. He stroked it very lightly, feeling the soft and smooth fur brushing between his fingers.
When the communicator rang, the cat stretched and jumped off his lap. He moved to pick up the video call.
In the call, a grey-haired old professor with glasses appeared.
Another black cat jumped onto his lap and rolled over to reveal its belly. He scratched it as he listened patiently to the other party talk before asking, “Teacher, are you calling to persuade me to go to Jiang City?”
The old professor paused. He then sighed, “Jian Jian, the sooner you reach your goal and go back to that year, the sooner you will be freed.”
He said, “Okay.”
……….
*
Thick eyelashes trembled and the next second, Ji Yushi opened his eyes.
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Pain from his abdomen slowly travelled up to his brain. The pain was so bad, he could hardly support himself up. He could only lie in place, taking small breaths.
Fragmented memories returned with the pain. Ji Yushi remembered that he and Song Qinglan were analysing the current situation.
He was only halfway through his words; he still had many things he wanted to say. He was extremely afraid that he would not wake up again once he closed his eyes.
The person sitting next to him placed down the binoculars and looked over, “Advisor Ji! You’re already awake!”
It was Li Chun.
Ji Yushi was still in a confused state, “How long did I sleep for?”
Li Chun checked the communicator, “It is now 10:42. Since you fell unconscious, you slept for less than an hour!”
Ji Yushi took in his surroundings. He saw that they were currently on a second floor balcony.
The low walls were made of small carved bricks, making it hard for them to be spotted from outside but also allowing them to observe the outside situation through the gaps.
JI Yushi had been placed onto a deck chair on the balcony by his teammates. A large parasol blocked out most of the sun for him so that he wouldn’t die from heatstroke.
If not for the growls from the zombies, Ji Yushi would have thought that he was taking an afternoon nap at someone’s place.
Sure enough, when he turned his head a little and looked through the gaps in the bricks, he saw zombies wandering around in groups below.
If he looked a little further, he could see part of the bookstore on the other side of the street.
“Advisor Ji, you sleep very lightly. You had clearly fallen unconscious, but your eyes were still moving around under your eyelids. You clearly weren’t resting well.” Li Chun said this while holding a pair of binoculars. He was talkative, this was something Ji Yushi already knew, “I heard that you usually don’t sleep well but you’re injured so it’s best to rest a little. How could you not say a word and endure it the whole time?”Ji Yushi had nothing to say in response to that and he also didn’t know what to say.
“Shit.” Li Chun suddenly cursed, “I’m so fucking stupid.”
Ji Yushi: “……….”
Li Chun spoke with embarrassment as he looked out through the binoculars, “It turns out that I have such a bad walking posture. Why didn’t anyone tell me?! I thought I was handsome! No wonder I’ve been so unsuccessful with my relationships and the sisters all fly away. Even Old Zhou walks better than me.”
What?
JI Yushi suddenly remembered —– At this time, Team 2 should have escaped from Runjin Building and, after losing Tang Qi and Duan Wen, the group of five should have arrived at the bookstore!
He turned to look. He could faintly see several figures in the bookstore. They were from Team 2!
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In just a few seconds, a chill ran down his back.
Li Chun and the others already know?
“Advisor Ji, you don’t have to worry. Cap Song has already told us.” Ji Chun turned around and spoke to him, “Because the mission was restarted, different ‘us’ would appear at the same time. Sooner or later, we will meet, just like you two and us right now.”
Song Qinglan has already told them?
For Song Qinglan to do something like this, Ji Yushi could understand.
But wasn’t Li Chun’s reaction too calm? Why would he still be in the mood to complain about his other self in a situation like this? Shouldn’t he be scared at the thought of it?
Ji Yushi was vigilant, “You’re not afraid?”
“What’s there to be afraid of? I’m not even afraid of death anymore so why would I be afraid of meeting my other self?” The simple-minded big boy thought very simply, “Just like how Advisor Ji continued to push on even after getting hurt and knowing that you may die —- Let’s use you Recorders as an example. When you go back to the past to complete tasks, you will always see people and things from the past. If you travelled to a time that is closer to the present time, you may even accidentally run into your past self. Would you be afraid?”
Ji Yushi: “That is different.”
Hearing him say this, Li Chun laughed disapprovingly. That appearance of his was just like Song Qinglan.
No, their entire squad was like this.
“It’s similar.” Li Chun said.
“Look, what we see now is just our ‘past’ self and our other self who has ‘made a different choice’.” Li Chun continued, “But no matter how many of our other selves exist at the same time, the initial anchor point is fixed, just like when you go back to your starting point after completing your task in the past. That is to say, no matter what happens, the me who reappears at the anchor point is still me, and there is only one me. And so, to the me who is at that anchor point, it just means that there were several me’s who once existed at that same point in time. In essence, there is no difference.”
The past self and the self from a parallel timeline, who is the main body?
This was actually a philosophical question. Unfortunately, not many people in the world can answer that.
But because of the anchor points existence, it indeed provided a good explanation.
He didn’t expect Li Chun to choose such a transparent way to understand. Ji Yushi’s pupils constricted slightly, and he suddenly made sense of a few things.
He looked at Li Chun with respect, “You make a lot of sense.”
Li Chun scratched his head with embarrassment, “Actually, this was all analysed by Cap Song! How can I be as smart as you guys! It was only after I sat here and thought for an hour until my mind was about to explode that I managed to figure out what Cap Song meant!”
Ji Yushi: “…..”
Alright.
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It seems that no matter which Li Chun it was, his mind was still very simple.
KK has something to say:
I’ll be increasing the release frequency of this novel to 3x/week!! Chapters will be released Monday, Wednesday and Friday ^^