Mist (Web Novel CN)

Who Am I

Chapter 46

It was indeed Chief Wang.

The middle-aged woman in the photo was the one who was in power at the Jiang City branch for the past fifteen years.

Ji Yushi was certain of this because he possessed two memories at the same time.

As for Song Qinglan, just like what he said in the car earlier about the woman suddenly charging over being a key to his memory that allowed him to remember the previous cycle, something similar happened.

The moment he saw Chief Wang’s photo, Song Qinglan’s memories flooded back into his mind and his previously blurred impression of her became much clearer.

Like a slow-moving movie, these memories overlapped with Song Qinglan’s current memories frame by frame.

The surge of information gave Song Qinglan a headache. From the moment he joined Tianqiong, another new memory emerged and his experiences over nearly a thousand days surfaced to his mind. All the individuals and events had changed but the opposing, originally existing memories hadn’t disappeared.

“Cap Song!”

A distant voice was heard.

“Cap Song!”

The voice gradually got closer until it was right in front of Song Qinglan.

Song Qinglan returned to his senses and saw that his elbows were on the table with his fingers supporting his temples and there was also a thin layer of sweat across his forehead. His breathing was light and quick.

He raised his head and was met with Ji Yushi’s concerned look.

“How are you?” Ji Yushi asked anxiously, “Why did you suddenly stop talking?”

As it turned out, this was the kind of pain Ji Yushi would typically go through?

It was worse than the sequelae following his first traversing. This was what it was like when one truly experiences memory overload.

Song Qinglan’s head felt like there were needles stabbing into it, “Fuck, about Chief Wang……I fucking, remembered it all of a sudden.”

Ji Yushi was stunned, “You remembered?! Did you remember after seeing the photo?”

The pain made Song Qinglan a little irritable, “Yes! As soon as I saw the photo, I remembered everything.”

It was just like when Ji Yushi saw Chief Qi.

The kitchen was quiet for a while.

Having seen and experienced too many incredible things, the two at this time didn’t make a fuss about Song Qinglan’s suddenly acquired new memories and just needed some time to calm down.

If Ji Yushi didn’t remember Chief Wang, Song Qinglan wouldn’t have specially gone to find this information and they would have never noticed the problem with this world. Ji Yushi however just happened to remember it. Whether it was due to his hyperthymesia or something else, Ji Yushi was like a bug that revealed the discrepancies in this world.

Just imagine, what would’ve happened to them if there was no Ji Yushi around?

Where would they be?

What was going on?

After Song Qinglan remembered, he didn’t waste any time talking about nonsense.

He tried to express his thoughts through his pounding headache, “So, in another reality, Chief Wang has been Chief Wang for fifteen years and was also the same person who sent us out on the mission. This is without a doubt. I believe that we can forget about figuring out which reality we are currently in as that is not the main issue here.”

Ji Yushi understood what Song Qinglan meant, “Because no matter which reality we are in, we shouldn’t have double memories!”

If it is said that it was due to a butterfly effect, the previous memories should’ve also been rewritten so no matter which reality they were in, only one memory should be retained. They however retained two.

Understanding this point may allow them to answer the question of why they haven’t encountered their other self here if this really was a parallel world.

One self, two memories.

There must be a relationship between this.

Wang Xiaoqian’s information hadn’t been closed yet.

Song Qinglan scrolled through, “Advisor Ji, look at this.”

This document had more information about Wang Xiaoqian and it included her reason for resignation — Mild schizophrenia.

Ji Yushi was surprised. How could such a smart and wise Chief Wang get something like that?

Without waiting for him to think, the information on Chief Wang’s research project from when she was still working also drew his attention: Investigating timelines, the emergence of the bubble world.

Bubble world.

In the concept of a time anchor, the cycles one after another are the so-called time bubble.

It goes beyond the normal timeline, forming a world of its own, and if it was put into use, it would cause a serious time paradox.

Research into time anchors was strictly prohibited, but Chief Wang had conducted this research.

Ji Yushi’s line of sight fell back onto the word ‘schizophrenia’. A thought suddenly appeared in his mind: parallel world, bubble, schizophrenia….There seemed to be a light at the end of all this mist.

Amidst uncertain doubts, he heard Song Qinglan say, “Do you think Chief Wang also has double memories?”

Ji Yushi: “….I don’t know.”

Song Qinglan rubbed his temples and spoke in a low voice, “We might have to look for her. What do you think?”

*

Song Qinglan made a few calls and contacted many people before finally finding Chief Wang’s whereabouts.

It was a nursing home in Jiang City. It meant that they had to return to Jiang City.

Having determined their next steps, it was now late at night.

Ji Yushi found Song Qinglan a new set of toiletries and prepared the guest room for him to stay in. This place was close to the school so Ji Minyue would occasionally stay overnight and use the guest room.

Song Qinglan entered the bathroom.

In the clean bathroom cabinet, there was only one toothbrush, one cup and one set of towels.

He couldn’t help but wonder, did Ji Yushi not let his partner stay overnight?

He didn’t know how the new partner was.

Ji Yushi was rather cold and aloof and liked to hold grudges. He seemed like the type who wouldn’t hesitate to cut off relations if anything happened.

Song Qinglan washed his face with cold water. He was clearly lacking sleep, but he was still wide awake because of that cup of coffee. The sequelae of suddenly gaining another set of memories was still affecting him and his head hurt. He inadvertently noticed a basket of dirty laundry on the side.

When one enters another’s living quarters, it was inevitable that they would see traces of that other person’s life.

There weren’t many things in that straw basket, only a set of clothes which had not had the chance to be washed along with a faintly exposed black fabric.

It was a pair of black underwear.

Suddenly, Song Qinglan’s heart pounded heavily.

Probably because he had entered the other party’s private space and he had caught sight of the other party’s personal belongings, he couldn’t help but recall the pale and slender waist he saw in the Tianqiong training room before they set off on their mission.

Song Qinglan gritted his teeth and waved away those memories. He washed his face again with cold water.

The feeling he had after hearing Ji Yushi’s talk about his love life earlier returned. He felt a little irritable.

Song Qinglan could faintly sense that something was going out of control, but he couldn’t put a finger on it.

Travelling thousands of miles from one city to another, was it just to help Ji Yushi clear up his thoughts and along the way figure out whether they were in a parallel world?

If it wasn’t, what else did he want?

“Knock, knock.”

The bathroom door was knocked.

Song Qinglan wiped his face with a towel and opened the door, “What is it?”

Ji Yushi revealed an awkward expression, “Sorry……..”

He reluctantly revealed the truth, “My guest room is gone.”

Song Qinglan was confused, “Gone?”

The guest room in Ji Yushi’s original memory was gone. It had been vacated and there was nothing in it.

The two stood at the door of the empty room, speechless.

“I only remembered after opening the door. I once wanted to tidy up all the books and put them in this room and use it as a study.” Ji Yushi said, “But I didn’t expect that in this reality, I had already done it. After returning, I haven’t had the chance to check on this room yet.”

Song Qinglan, “……”

He suddenly had a bad feeling.

Ji Yushi, “Cap Song, can you sleep on the sofa?”

That messy sofa.

Song Qinglan’s face darkened several folds.

Ji Yushi thought he was dissatisfied with the arrangement of sleeping on the sofa so he reluctantly took a step back and offered, “Otherwise, if you don’t mind, you can sleep in my room. I can sleep on the sofa.”

He was the one who had invited the other party. Making them sleep on the sofa would be too rude.

But with Song Qinglan’s so-called PTSD, would he really be willing to sleep on his bed? Ji Yushi expressed his doubts.

Room?

That’s not much better.

Song Qinglan really did mind it.

Since he was already here, it was too late for him to leave. Song Qinglan could only compromise, “Forget it, I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

Ji Yushi accepted it and said, “Then, goodnight.”

Song Qinglan, “Goodnight.”

The atmosphere was a little strange.

They had known each other for so long but it seemed like this was their first time being so polite.

Ji Yushi never thought that they would still see each other again after completing the mission and that it would be in a situation like this.

Song Qinglan said, “Can you sleep well tonight?”

Ji Yushi, “Huh?”

What did he mean?

Song Qinglan looked down at him and suddenly smiled, “I didn’t seem to be of any help. I forced you to analyse the situation this time and the analysis was all about things you already understood. At best, it could be regarded as helping you organise your thoughts, but it was probably pointless. The only thing that was useful was that I also remembered Chief Wang, which at least proves that you aren’t crazy,”

Ji Yushi was slightly startled. He didn’t know how to answer, “……..”

Song Qinglan finally said, “Get a good rest tonight. Don’t think about anything. I will go back to my grandfathers place tomorrow morning and then we will set off to Jiang City.”

*

After more than an hour, there were no sounds in the room. Ji Yushi had fallen asleep.

Song Qinglan laid on the sofa, looking up at the ceiling above him.

He couldn’t sleep. This world was far more complicated than he thought. He even wondered if they are currently in another mission set by another Tianqiong system.

Just the thought of that was scary.

In the darkness, something lightly jumped onto the sofa.

Song Qinglan sat up. He saw that it was Ji Yushi’s cat.

It had at some unknown point in time escaped from the room Ji Yushi had confined it in.

The orange cat was hostile to Song Qinglan. It was hissing and baring its teeth and claws earlier but at this moment it just quietly stared at him.

It didn’t make a single sound and seemed to be watching Song Qinglan like it would charge over and tear him to pieces the next second.

Song Qinglan sat up and looked at it. He narrowed his eyes slightly and noticed that something didn’t seem right.

His tall height seemed to have a deterrent effect. Even the dog at home would tuck its tail in when it saw him, yet this cat continued to stare at him unblinkingly, its eyes glowing in the dark.

At this moment, the light from a tall building outside happened to sweep across the window, filtering into the room.

Song Qinglan noticed a dark shadow through the crack under the living room door.

His sense for danger had been developed over many years. Song Qinglan immediately got up barefoot and silently walked over.

He approached the door and looked through the peephole.

The emergency exit light in the corridor glowed green.

He saw the neighbourhood aunt they met in the elevator earlier standing outside. At this moment, just like the cat, she stared expressionlessly at Ji Yushi’s door.