"Shen Zhong—can I call you this?"

Raindrops pattered on the car window, and at that moment Yi Wan heard the sound of sycamore leaves falling to the ground. The car was driving in the rain, and the memories came back and forth.

"I saw you in the palace photo. I don't know if this is an invasion of your privacy." Yu Rongshi held the steering wheel and said.

Yi Wan saw the bicycle traveling through the long September in S City. The sound of falling leaves was like the fluttering of thousands of book pages, test papers, paintings, postcards, spiral staircases, and running footsteps. What finally ended these sounds...

"...I also saw the one standing next to you."

"Boom!"

It was the sound of a torso falling to the ground.

Deep red blood spread from the broken limbs, forming strange totems on the ground. The man with black hair and black eyes stopped on the spiral staircase. Instead of the lifeless and broken limbs on the ground, he looked up. Head to the sky.

The terrace where the body fell was white, the sky was bright and blue, and the shining light in the sky was caused by the Tyndall effect. I walked around until my eyeballs were bloodshot, and finally, I saw it.

There is refracted light above the blue sky, and every node that cuts off the light comes from a slowly retracted silk thread.

The sun was emitting rays and shone on the fresh corpses. Only the silk threads that were once connected to the corpses were being retracted. I felt dizzy and heard the voices of people talking.

'It's just that I didn't get to the first place, and I actually jumped off the building like that.'

'The mind is too fragile.'

'...I thought this genius' endurance could be so ordinary.'

‘There have been too many rumors lately, it’s normal that you can’t bear it.’

It is "suicide", but it is not "suicide".

think.

It is not a person who "commits suicide" because of a weak soul, but a disqualified person who has had his gift taken back by God. It is not a person who "commits suicide" because of a weak soul.

As said before.

"...Maybe in another time and space, we will be friends."

Shen finally stared at the corpse, as if it were a monster that would get up carrying memories in another parallel time and space. His emotions were always very slow, but at this moment he heard the sound of his teeth chattering. This sound did not come from fear. And it comes from unwillingness to be angry.

The crowd roared like noisy hummingbirds, and they rushed towards the corpse to take it away, so the first protagonist exited and the second story could continue.

You should say it, you should also arrive. Think.

Why don't you say anything or see me?

There was sweat in the hands holding the stair railing. It was the sweat flowing from the hands of a helpless man chasing the death knell. The sweat was stained with rust, and the brown-red color looked like blood.

I don’t know how long I stood there, but I was pulled back to the classroom before the bell rang. The world changed before my eyes, and the teacher opened his mouth and said something, and finally began to hand out test papers according to rankings.

This time the first person to receive the test paper became...

"...The first place this time is Shen Zhong." The teacher said.

He held the test paper in full view of everyone. The substitute teacher surnamed Lin was not the one who came to teach today. The first place disappeared, and the second place was finally won. You can see the traces of rust on the palm of your hand.

Not happy.

I think I need to wash my hands well later.

Whether it is now, the fifth generation, or the tenth generation...

'My condolences.' I heard someone say to me, 'People cannot be resurrected, and life cannot come again...'

It was only at that moment that I finally felt a strong sense of vomiting. People began to crowd around me, just like they had been crowding around another person. I felt panicked, confused, and sick.

…

Yi Wan closed her eyes and opened them again. After a while, she wanted to wash her hands again.

But at this moment, he was not in the palace, but in Yu Rongshi's car.

Yurong time.

This is the person who I have washed my hands of after meeting him several times, again and again, step by step, exceeding my expectations, and today I choose to step into the story I set.

But it's not that simple to become my accomplice. I think.

"...The person who went there is your friend, right?" Yu Rongshi said.

"……Um."

"I'm sorry." Yu Rongshi said, "If this story belonged to someone else, I would ask for my condolences. But..."

"……Shut up."

"Um?"

"I told you to shut up!"

Lightning flashed across the sky, and Yi Wan suddenly made a voice in the passenger seat.

Yu Rongshi stopped the car due to his sudden reaction. The car was parked on the side of the road, and the wipers kept running. Before he spoke, he heard Yi Wan's calm voice.

"This is how Shen Yuan should react in your heart, isn't it?" Yi Wan said.

"...Yes. All questioning should reach a breaking point, an exploration of character. This is a common routine in all novels. Especially for Shen Zhong, this should be the case. But I think it's strange

, because that is indeed the reaction Shen Zhong should have."

"This is not the reaction Yi Wan should have."

Yi Wan stared at the mirror without blinking.

"Why?" said.

"Shen Zhong belongs to the story that happened a few years ago, and Yi Wan belongs to yourself after a few years of experience. Shen Zhong belongs to the continuation of the story, and you belong to the changes that have occurred after a long period of thinking and tempering by stories far away from the past.

Yourself." Yu Rongshi finally said, "People will change, just like..."

"Just like you, you will also grow up from a calm and gentle person to a cynical Qing who wants revenge, and then experience precipitation to become who you are now?"

"You can say that." Yu Rongshi said.

Yi Wan finally smiled.

I recognize you. Think.

"Okay." said, "You found the key."

His expression was very calm. Yu Rong was thinking about the story he heard from the curator.

"When you talk about that experience, it really makes me sad. Even after so much time, I will still think of what happened at that time."

"You said Shen Zhong, I am not very impressed. But when you talk about friends, I am quite impressed. There are many good children in the palace! For example, Gu Ruochao... This child has been outstanding since he was a child, and he is ranked first in all subjects.

, is also very perfectionistic. And the most important thing is that he never studies. He is very popular, and his best friend may have died."

"... Unlike Gu Ruochao, Shen Zhong is a very dull child. We are in junior high school. He is always walking around. He talks a lot and always holds a book and studies. His grades are also good, but I don’t know why, but I always

I have no impression... Later, when Gu Ruochao passed away, I realized that he was always second. But after that, he left the palace and never came again. Maybe it was because he was also very sad."

"What happened to Gu Ruochao? Of course he committed suicide. It was also written in local newspaper reports. His parents are divorced, and the only one he usually takes care of is his cousin named Xie. I have been looking forward to the reconciliation of my family with my excellence. , that’s why I have so many demands on myself. Later, my grades plummeted and my self-esteem couldn’t bear it, so I probably committed suicide. But actually after so much time, I don’t quite understand the reason for committing suicide. It was just a period of failure. That's all, I'm only 14 years old, I can have a long life..."

When I asked the curator about Shen Zhong, the curator had almost no impression of it. He only mentioned it when telling the past about the "suicide" person Gu Ruochao. He lamented the excellence of that child and regretted the child's lightness and incomprehensible choice.

"People cannot be resurrected. Children in this world always take life too lightly, too much." The curator concluded, "After that, my family came to the palace ruins several times. They were divorced parents and wept very sadly... …”

The curator didn't understand, his family didn't understand, his classmates didn't understand, and everyone didn't understand. Yu Rongshi lowered his head to the photo. In the photo, Gu Ruochao's smiling face was bright and sunny, and the child standing beside him holding a book was quiet and silent.

No one understands the reason why Gu Ruochao committed suicide. If this is the case, will Yi Wan understand?

"...I remembered it, and I was a little suspicious at that time." The curator continued, "Some people suspected that Gu Ruochao was related to Shen Zhong."

"...?!"

"Gu Ruo's last phone call was to Shen Zhong. The police asked Shen Zhong, but Shen Zhong's answer was vague."

"It's said that Gu Ruochao didn't want to 'commit suicide', and he didn't say what they said on the phone...some people doubted it...after all, he has been weighed down by that person since he was a child. But Shen Zhong is a child after all, and there is no There is evidence that the police also suppressed these remarks. Of course, I absolutely don’t believe it!”

The curator's words seemed careless, making the case a few years ago even more cloudy and mysterious. The photo showed two people who were once close, and the protagonists of the story who grew up sat next to each other.

"Brother Liu asked me to get to the hospital before nine o'clock in the evening." Yi Wan's voice interrupted the memory, "So we have half an hour."

"Yeah." Yu Rongshi said.

"Then, the final version of the first answer." Yi Wan said calmly, "Shen Zhong and Gu Ruochao are friends."

——Yi Wan is not.

Yu Rongshi heard the subtext in the words.

"Then..." Yi Wan paused and said, "Actually, I also want to know how the curator described this story."

The expression is very strange.

Yu Rongshi tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. He retold the story given by the curator as objectively as possible: "The story of a genius who gave up on himself because he failed in an exam, and finally chose to commit suicide due to excessive psychological pressure."

"Really? In our eyes, this is the story." Yi Wan lowered his eyes and said.

Obviously not.

According to this logic, Yi Wan should be a student who gave up on himself because of his friends and became mediocre.
To be continued...