Chapter Twenty-Five: The Back of Time

  "Why did you give me this?" Si Tu asked Yao Qiyun, flipping his wrist over.

  "Because I have no other choice." Yao Qiyun looked around for the bus stop sign to head back, but as she walked, she suddenly realized that she was no longer by her side. She panicked and turned her head back, only to find that she had been distracted by playing with the bangles on her hand and had unknowingly fallen behind.

  Yao Qiyun impatiently waited for her to approach, pulling down the hand she had been holding up, "Stop staring at it and watch where you're going. If you lose your life, what's the point of keeping the bracelet?"

  "What you gave me is mine now, I'll look at it however I want." Si Tu Jue retorted with discontent.

  Yao Qiyun smiled and said: "Was it me who gave it to you? It seems like someone else forcibly put it on their own hands without asking."

  "I've sold myself to you, and in return I got this, so we're even now."

  Situ Xuan smiled, as if he had just made a perfectly fair deal. Yao Qiyun didn't say anything else, but gently wrapped her hand in his palm.

  Under the brand new bus stop sign, there were only them. The newly lit streetlights stretched their silhouettes very thin and long, with a kind of desolate warmth, as if they were dependent on each other in a lost world, irreplaceable to each other.

  This feeling is something that the former Si Tu Xing had never experienced before.

  In the past, she let her passion dominate her, and since she liked being with Yao Qiyun, she would be with him. Today's happiness was today's, and as for the future, it was far away like a coming life. Just like how she stubbornly sought Yao Qiyun's promise, what she wanted was just his willing attitude, and the meaning behind the promise wasn't important. However, it was just an extremely cheap bracelet, but now it gave her a feeling of "dedication", as if he had given her something, and she had also tied some things to him. Everything hadn't changed, yet everything was different. Young Situ Yue suddenly felt that if she looked up now and found that Yao Qiyun, who had been holding her hand all along, had turned into an old man with white temples and deep wrinkles, but still wearing his shirt in a neat and peculiar way, it would actually be a pretty happy thing.

  The few cars that whizzed by were not heading in the direction they wanted to go, and after waiting for a while, Situ Xuan lost his patience and suggested that instead of waiting, they might as well walk to the bustling square ahead, where there were many buses that could take them directly to their neighborhood.

  Yao Qiyun looked at her shoes and reminded her: "It's several stops away, don't make me carry you later."

  "Am I that kind of person?" Situ Xin said. Before Yao Qiyun gave a definite affirmative answer, she tiptoed and covered his eyes with her hands, signaling him to close them.

  "If you were blind, I would guide you."

  She solemnly took his arm and stepped forward. At the same time, she comforted Yao Qiyun, who still wanted to resist, "I'll lead the way, don't worry."

  At first, Situ Xuan led Yao Qiyun along the pedestrian path at a steady pace. After walking for a while, she began to "not take the usual route". Sometimes she would speed up and then slow down again, and occasionally even deliberately walked in circles. In the darkness ahead, Yao Qiyun could only feel Situ Xuan's hand, and this uncontrollable sense of disorientation instinctively gave rise to a few strands of confusion and helplessness.

  He told himself that it was all right, and couldn't he even trust Ah Yue? Although she loved to make trouble, she always had a sense of proportion.

  However, when entering a relatively quiet street area, the road begins to become somewhat bumpy, sometimes having to avoid a puddle of dirty water, and sometimes stepping on several small stones, with the sound of roaring motorcycles seemingly brushing past the ear.

  This road Yao Qi Yun had passed through several times, he vaguely remembered that there was a section of the construction area that wasn't so flat... If he didn't remember wrong, when walking here, he would also encounter a short but steep staircase.

  "Let's just stop playing." he said to Situ Xin.

  "Why is that? This section will be over soon, the front was easy to walk." Si Tu Jue refused, "I warn you, don't sneak a peek."

  A right turn in the route soon confirmed Yao Qiyun's guess, and he was almost certain that the stairs were just ahead. However, Situ Xuan's footsteps became increasingly urgent. He recalled her innate restlessness and unruly temperament, and his uncertain feeling began to grow. Finally, within a meter of the stairs, Situ Xuan showed no signs of slowing down, and Yao Qiyun let go of her hand.

  "A'wei, have you gone mad? This is far too dangerous!" He stopped in his tracks, opening his somewhat uncomfortable eyes to rebuke her.

  Situ Xuan stopped at the edge of the stairs, stunned for a moment, and said: "Didn't you say you would believe me?"

  "You're about to fall into an abyss, yet you keep moving forward, how can I trust you?"

  "But if you believe me and I didn't peek, how would I know that there's a pitfall right ahead?"

  Yao Qiyun fell silent, and indeed, after his unease turned into suspicion, he slightly opened his eyes. Otherwise, even if his ability to remember the road was strong, he wouldn't have been able to stop exactly one step away from the stairs, which was his instinct for avoiding danger.

  But he also understood that with Si Tu's temperament, it would be unwise for him to pursue this matter further.

  "Alright, it's always better to be careful. Let's go, we'll get a drink up ahead." He slowed down his tone and smiled as he gently stroked her hair.

  Situ Xuan dodged his hand and quickly walked down the stairs alone.

  Yao Qiyun reluctantly followed behind her, "Must you make a fuss over such trivial matters?"

  "Yao Qiyun, you never believed that I would stop at a dangerous place. Have you forgotten that in the past when you led me on our journey, did I ever doubt you?"

  What she said was also true. When Situ Xuan closed her eyes and let Yao Qiyun lead her, Yao Qiyun had also teased her more than once. He would suddenly exclaim "Ah" or deliberately deceive her by saying, "Situ Xuan, step up." Then she would foolishly lift her foot and stomp on the flat ground, getting angry and pouting, pinching his hand hard.

  But no matter how angry she was, as long as he still held her hand, as long as he didn't stop, no matter what road lay ahead, next time she would still take a step forward. Previously, Yao Qiyun had never thought that she was so reckless and daring, hadn't she ever felt uneasy? When she felt uneasy, wouldn't she hesitate? If she too had hesitated, then why did she still stubbornly believe in the person holding her hand? Was it because she had never fallen before? Because she didn't think that person would let her fall? Because she had always thought that for a wise and cautious person, at the most confusing crossroads, the most reliable person was oneself? Yao Qiyun also had to admit that sometimes the seemingly clever Situ Xuan was just a stubborn fool.

  But he felt no sense of superiority in front of this fool. He inexplicably resented himself, why couldn't he be like this fool?

  Yao Qiyun stood at the end of the stairs and said to her back, "Awei, let's start over."

  Situ Xuan remained silent and continued walking forward without a word.

  He leaned over to pull her hand, but she shook it off with a sullen face. He had no choice but to take a deep breath, close his eyes and stand still. The familiar darkness enveloped him, he heard the footsteps passing by, whispers of gossip, perhaps mixed with strangers' curious glances, none of which he cared about, if he knew he couldn't catch up, at least he could wait for her to turn back.

  Darkness has isolated people as if they are cut off from the world, and time has also lost its original rhythm. He waited for a long time,

  It was just a moment, but it felt like an eternity. Until he felt those warm hands back on his body, although they were pinching him so hard that he furrowed his brow, he still curled up the corners of his mouth.

  "Situ Xuan's voice was filled with hatred. 'Don't be in a hurry to be happy, the road ahead is still long.'"

  She pulled him back onto the main road, first walking quickly and then breaking into a jog. Neon lights from near and far exchanged deep and shallow shadows. What could be more exciting than a long road ahead?

  They finally stopped in the middle of a bustling square, with neon lights just on, countless middle-aged and elderly music and dance enthusiasts singing and dancing to the accompaniment, the boiling and popular melody at this time has a warm and fulfilling feeling.

  Yao Qiyun seemed to be led by Situ Xuan to a mobile cold drink stall, where the female vendor with an out-of-town accent said regretfully while finding change for Situ Xuan: "What a handsome young man, how come his eyes..."

  "It's fate, what can you do." Situ Xuan picked up the conversation smoothly, then dutifully led that "disabled youth" to one side.

  "What would you like to drink?" Yao Qiyun heard her ask faintly, panting slightly.

  "What's there to choose from?" He felt a bit thirsty indeed.

  Situ Xuan handed a bottle of drink to Yao Qiyun's lips, he took a sip, it was an ice-cold Coke.

  "Is this okay?"

  "There is always next time."

  The second mouthful of the drink was brought to his lips, and Yao Qiyun's eyebrows were still furrowed. This was a milk tea that girls liked. He didn't usually drink these things, and what he liked best was just a simple bottle of water.

  Situ Xuan seemed to have seen through his pickiness and asked with a smile: "Do you want to try again?"

  Yao Qiyun nodded with her eyes closed, "That's great, of course."

  He was waiting for the sweet rain to be delivered to his lips, but what came unexpectedly was her mouth with a milk tea flavor, lightly touching the edge of his lips, a cloying sweetness.

  He thought that even if there were watchful eyes around them, they should also be able to forgive a blind young man's occasional loss of composure.

  Situ Xuan suddenly broke free from his restraints at this moment, and asked again, "What's next? Don't you want to try further?"

  Yao Qiyun didn't know how many more times he had to try before getting the mineral water he wanted, but he was content and happy to say: "Thank you, the third one is already very good."

  The bustling crowd, no one came to disturb, was the long bell on the square that awakened the forgetful people. The bell was too close to them, and in an instant, not only their ears but also their hearts were trembling with echoes. Yao Qiyun opened his eyes to find that they were standing under a huge clock at the end of the square, the iconic clock tower was several stories high, and the hour hand was pointing to 8 o'clock at night.

  Although they had already called home to say that they wouldn't be back for dinner because of browsing the book market, it wasn't until this point that Yao Qiyun and Situ Xin finally remembered that they should probably solve their food problem. They were just about to find a place nearby to sit down and comfort their stomachs when they stumbled upon a small restaurant with a pale blue sign behind the Bell Tower's alleyway. The name was quite interesting, perhaps because it happened to be right opposite the back of the Bell Tower, so it was called "The Back Side of Time".

  Yao Qiyun pulled Situ Xuan into the "Back of Time", unexpectedly discovering that the unassuming shop door had a surprisingly spacious interior, although there weren't many people dining at this hour, mostly just ordering drinks and chatting in twos and threes.

  They followed the service staff to a quiet spot and sat down, then began to curiously look around. The lighting in the store was very dim, with all light sources being a cold blue color like the external signboard. To be honest, this kind of lighting made them feel quite uncomfortable visually at first, and adding to that, the store unusually did not play any background music, so all they could hear were the sounds of dishes clinking and people chatting softly, which after staying in for a while would easily give one a sense of unreal disorientation.

  Yao Qiyun, who had just gone through a long period of keeping his eyes closed, was the first to feel somewhat overwhelmed by this light. He asked Sutu Jin in a low voice, "How about we change places?"

  Just as Sze-to was about to nod, the words printed on the table card caught her attention. It wasn't a recommendation for signature dishes or a drink menu, but a simple question.

  "Do you believe time can flow backwards? If it's possible to go back in time, what would you do?"

  She tried to pick up the table card to take a closer look, but found that it was firmly fixed on the table and its base was very special. It was a small, opaque square box made of an unknown metal material, with all sides sealed tightly, except for a small gap at the top that could only fit two coins through, like a piggy bank. Sutu Xuan stretched her neck to look at the next table, and found that it was exactly the same as hers, except for the table number.

  At this time, the long-faced waiter brought over the menu. During the interval of ordering, Situ Xuan specially asked about the origin of the sentence and the "piggy bank". The long-faced waiter was clearly not facing this question for the first time. He pointed to the box and said, "Isn't it written on it? It's up to you whether you believe it or not." Then, he made a folding and throwing gesture with his hand, smiled slyly: "You can tell your answer to this box, maybe you can really find the space-time door and realize your wish."

  Situ Xuan finally sensed some clues from the other's words, saying it was so complicated and mysterious, but in fact, it was just to let those fools who believed that people could shuttle through time at will write down their own messages and put them in the box.

  I've long heard that the catering industry is fiercely competitive, and it seems that without some gimmicks and tricks, it's hard to stand out. Situ Xuan smiled and said: "What I'm more interested in is how you handle the notes written by customers, this small box can't hold any more, what do you do? Throw them away? Those are other people's 'dreams of time and space'."

  The waiter naturally turned his head and pointed, "There, they're all collected there."

  Xīng followed the direction of his finger and looked over, but didn't see anything special. She was stunned for a moment before realizing that what he wanted her to look at was a row of black square things, which she had originally thought were artistic decorations used to separate spaces in the restaurant. It turned out they were actually enlarged versions of "piggy banks".

  "This is getting interesting," she said sincerely.

  After ordering, the waiter left a pen before leaving and said casually: "Miss, if you're interested, go take a look over there. Many people will come back to find their dreams."

  Situ Xuan couldn't sit still, and urged Yao Qiyun to walk with her to the row of boxes to take a closer look. Each box was exactly the same size, but had different years engraved on it. The top of each box no longer had a gap, but rather a round hole that was large enough for one hand to fit through.

  The box closest to them belongs to "1999".

  Situ Xuan didn't think twice and reached into the box, Yao Qiyun tried to stop her but it was too late, she had already pinched a few paper slips and pulled out her hand.

  The first one was a paper towel with scribbled writing: "I want to go back to 1980, buy two thousand yuan worth of lottery tickets, dear, and I can buy you a big house."

  The second one is a small half-page torn from a notebook, with neat handwriting that looks like it was written by a girl: "In 1996, Dad, if I had known you would leave that night, after self-study, I would have gone home earlier."

  The last one was written on an expired one-way ticket: "Tell Fu Jingru at any moment before today, anything that can't be obtained is forced."

  "Whatever can't be obtained is forced." Situ Xuan muttered, repeating the content of the last piece of paper. Yao Qiyun, however, gently took all the slips of paper from her hand and put them back in the large box, "Go back and sit down, the dishes are coming up."

  Situ Xuan returned to her seat reluctantly, took a sip of the hot soup that the waiter had just brought up, and then stopped to ask Yao Qiyun: "You said, if time could flow backwards, where would you want to go?"

  Yao Qiyun couldn't help but recall the hardships of his childhood, his father's pale face when he was seriously ill, his mother's resolute back when she abandoned him, and the despair he felt when burying his loved ones, which sent a chill down his spine. He said, "First and foremost, this must be based on what I believe in, but unfortunately, I find this topic to be quite boring."

  "It's not others being boring, it's you being uninteresting!" Si Tu Xuan rolled her eyes and said: "Having some fantasy won't kill you."

  "Shouldn't every successful person be used to looking forward?" He didn't say it out loud, but if people could really travel through time and space, he absolutely wouldn't want to go back to any past, but rather look forward to crossing over the long years of waiting, to the future. At that time, when she leaned on him, he would no longer feel like a thief, but instead be happily content.

  Xīng Tuò couldn't be bothered to pay attention to him, her mind was preoccupied with thinking, if she could really go back in time, what would be the thing she most wanted to do? There were too many tangled threads and desires crowded together, so much so that for a moment, she didn't know how to make a decision.

  It was when she returned to the first year, took back the stamp album given to Wu Jiang, or met Yao Qiyun for the first time in the countryside, she should take a closer look at him. No, if there's only one chance, she should tell him on the first day he officially arrives at her home that sooner or later he will be obedient to her, so it's better to treat her well from the start...

  Like this, Situ Xuan gripped his pen and thought deeply, even eating was tasteless. Until Yao Qiyun called the waiter to pay the bill, he still couldn't think of a solution.

  It was still the long-faced waiter, who took the money from Yao Qiyun's hand and didn't forget to smile at Situ Xuan and say: "Miss, don't you really want to go back to any past time and do what you want to do?"

  Situ Xuan put down his pen dejectedly, but in that instant of abandonment, he felt a sense of relief.

  Qiyun was sitting across from her at the table, smiling and gazing intently at her.

  She thought, perhaps what she wanted most was now.