Mist (Web Novel CN)-Chapter 53: Chapter 53

Who Am I

Chapter 53

While they were resting just now, the person Song Qinglan had contacted was clearly Tang Le and the other party had said that he would wait for them near the highway, but unexpectedly, the one who arrived was Li Chun.

Song Qinglan had briefly explained the current situation on the phone but Li Chun who had almost lost half his life understanding the concept of a time anchor didn’t understand anything anyway. What ‘double slit interference experiment’, what ‘bubble world’? In any case, he just needs to do as Cap Song and Advisor Ji says and they will be able to return to their original reality!

It seemed that it was always the three of them reuniting first.

Li Chun didn’t notice his captain’s disdain and began his chatter, “I’ve always thought that something wasn’t right. How could that girl be so unreasonable? Turns out, this wasn’t our original world! I had to practically act like a dog the past few days just to coax her!”

Ji Yushi: “……..”

“Fortunately, I fucking remembered everything the moment I saw Chief Wang’s picture!” Li Chun continued, “In our world, I never even got that girl’s number so how did this world become like this? They just gave her to me?! Before two people date, shouldn’t they get to know each other first?!”

Song Qinglan finished an entire bottle of water. He noticed that Ji Yushi was taking off his socks as he got ready to put on the shoes.

The soles of both their feet had sustained quite a few scratches and this was especially the case for Ji Yushi. There were not only cuts, but there were also blisters caused by the scalding tracks. The socks were stuck to the skin so when he watched him peel the socks off, Song Qinglan couldn’t help but wince at the sight and have the urge to give him a hand.

Ji Yushi however didn’t flinch. He was completely expressionless.

This person, when other people touch him, he would say that it hurts but whenever he himself is injured, he wouldn’t say a single word.

Song Qinglan wondered whether he should make Advisor Ji change this bad habit of his.

No one in the Seventh squad liked to endure through pain.

For example, Li Chun at this moment was still complaining, “She kept on making a fuss last night, so I called out some friends for a drink and when Tang Le came in through the window in the morning, he almost pinched me to death. Haa, if I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have drunk. Anyway, it’s not good delaying things. We can still be friends after breaking up.”

Song Qinglan had to interrupt the slag man’s chatter, “Watch the road.”

Li Chun driving into Runjin Building in PU-31 had left them with some lingering fear.

Song Qinglan right now was too tired to speak, and he also wasn’t in the mood to care about the fact that the driver was driving without a licence.

Li Chun glanced at the rearview mirror. Cap Song wasn’t in the mood to bullshit with him, and Advisor Ji was also leaning back against the seat in exhaustion.

He no longer gossiped and immediately settled down, “Alright, I actually have a question…..”

Song Qinglan, “Speak.”

Li Chun asked, “How can we return to our original world?”

This question hit the nail on the head. It just happened to be the question everyone had been troubled about.

The realities had overlapped, and phantoms of the other world could be seen everywhere. It however could only be seen and touched, and they couldn’t truly join it — They had no idea what they should do now.

Li Chun then asked, “Then, if we leave, what will happen here? Will it disappear?”

The car sped the entire way and the scene along the way was shocking.

Not only were there phantoms of cars appearing on the road, the closer they got to the city, there were more phantoms of humans as well. The bubble world was derived from the original world and is as such similar in all aspects except for small differences in the details.

In other words, the people and objects here were all real, and the people in this bubble world have their own lives.

“I don’t know.” Ji Yushi said, “It may disappear, or it may repeat itself like Ouroboros starting from the point where we left.”

“Fuck….” Li Chun couldn’t hold back, “That would be too pitiful.”

Ji Yushi, “In fact, it’s not bad.”

Song Qinglan turned to look at Ji Yushi. He was a little confused. He felt that Ji Yushi wasn’t one to have no empathy.

But Ji Yushi calmly explained, “Just like the survivors in PU-31, the people in the bubble world will never feel that they are in a repetitive cycle. What they consider as their ‘present’ will always be their ‘present’. In a sense, it’s actually no different from us. In fact, even we cannot be certain whether the world we live in is real.”

Li Chun felt a chill run down his back when he heard this, “Advisor Ji, that’s a terrible thought.”

Again.

That pessimistic ‘brain in a vat’ thought again.

Song Qinglan raised his hand making Ji Yushi’s hand to also lift. The handcuff between them rattled, “Real? This is real. Even if we’re afraid of one of us succumbing to temptation and escaping, except for you, I cannot think of myself being bound together with another person.”

Song Qinglan’s wrist had just been dislocated so it was still red and swollen. It was quite a scary sight. As he said this, his heroic eyebrows raised slightly, “If it was Chun’er instead…….”

Li Chun was indignant, “What about me?!”

Song Qinglan was heartless, “Knock you out instead.”

Li Chun once again became animated, “Am I not worthy?!”

Song Qinglan leaned back lazily against the seat and began to banter with Li Chun.

Listening to their chatter, Ji Yushi turned his head and looked out the window, corners of his lips slightly upturned.

*

Overturned trains, plane crashes and car accidents, it was chaotic everywhere.

The news reported the overlapping phenomena happening all over the world. The city was filled with the smell of smoke and gunpowder. Phantoms of humans, animals and all things living had appeared out of thin air and even landmark buildings had been replaced by phantoms of another building.

In a blink of an eye, this world was nearing its end.

Holographic screens, radios and online. Information about this phenomenon was everywhere.

Less than two hours after this phenomenon of world overlap appeared, Tianqiong issued an emergency order — The Time Management Alliance in each country had defined this incident as a ‘parallel world overlap’. For the people in this reality, they never thought of the possibility of the world they are in being just an extra bubble in a time anchor.

On the way, Song Qinglan also received a transfer order on his phone ordering all Guardian squads to immediately return to the Jiang City branch.

But after he hung up, he and the two other teammates drove to the nursing home where Chief Wang was.

To them, returning to their own reality was the real emergency.

The red sports car raced through the chaotic city. It passed bridges which had fallen to the ground, collapsed buildings and countless abandoned cars. Very soon, it was smashed beyond recognition.

The streets were filled with phantoms of people from another reality. The people in this reality were all panicked. Everything that they knew had been overthrown and their current world was falling apart.

“Tianqiong destroys the world!!”

“Illegal transition!!”

“Stop interfering with time and space!! Shut down the Tianqiong system!!”

“Down with the Time Management Alliance!”

A crowd appeared on the road passionately shouting slogans while holding signs in opposition.

As early as two decades ago when the scientific team first started to study the Tianqiong system, such protests had been held —- As a young man, it was Ji Yushi’s first time seeing such a scene.

Song Qinglan saw him frequently turning his head and said, “When they protest like this, they actually have no idea how much Tianqiong has done for them.”

As a Guardian, Song Qinglan knew very well about how hard it was to maintain a safe world.

Just like the short composition about the positive social impacts: There is no stability in this world, but there are countless nameless people working in the background helping the world move forward.

Ji Yushi said, “Perhaps the scientists didn’t expect it to develop into something like this when they invented Tianqiong….”

He had said this very softly so Song Qinglan didn’t catch it.

In a blink of an eye, the car managed to turn onto a different road. It had taken them two to three times longer than expected to reach the nursing home.

Before getting off, Song Qinglan used the tools in the car to pry open the handcuff. The two were finally freed.

Ji Yushi flexed his sore wrists, “Not binding me to you anymore?”

The handcuffs were thrown onto the seat. It had brought them both love and hate as they made their way here.

Song Qinglan glanced at it and said coolly, “No more. But you still cannot leave my line of sight. Advisor Ji, don’t forget that you have a previous record against your name.”

Li Chun turned his head back from his driver’s seat and said with amusement, “Hey boss, you’re speaking like a tyrant. If Advisor Ji was a girl——”

Ji Yushi helped him finish his words, “I would stay away from you.”

Li Chun: “?”

Inside the car, Song Qinglan knocked on a certain someone’s head, “How does he look like a woman?”

Li Chun for some reason felt that there was something wrong with that last line.

Cap Song’s eyes were deep and his rebuttal seemed a bit strange….Why did he feel that Cap Song was even a little reluctant when he removed the handcuff?!

Wait a minute, didn’t Cap Song have PTSD towards that?

Was this world crazy or was he crazy?

*

The three got out of the car.

As if some mysterious power took control, all the people on the road stopped one after another.

The people outside quietened down in an instant and they all turned their heads and stared at them.

Soon afterwards, they began to mechanically walk over.

Li Chun was terrified, “The fuck, again?!”

The three slowly backed away but those people didn’t slow down like before. On the contrary, the moment they saw that they had stopped, these people sped up their pace instead.

The closer they got, the faster they were and eventually they were practically running towards them.

“Run!”

“Let’s go!”

The three reacted at the same time. They shouted this out and started to run.

There was a crowd gathered behind them rushing towards them like a tide and there were also people charging towards them from the front.

They ran through countless phantoms, pushing down living humans who looked like rigid stone statues in the process. Amidst all the chaos, they were soon scattered.

Due to the crowd, Ji Yushi was forced to the end of the street and was completely surrounded.

“Ji Yushi!”

“Cap Song!!”

Song Qinglan and Li Chun’s voice sounded, but they could only be heard in the crowd and couldn’t be seen.

Ji Yushi looked up. He was met with unfamiliar faces all around him. They either stopped in place without moving or stiffly walked towards him. He couldn’t tell which ones were the static phantoms from the other world and which ones were living human beings.

These faces filled his brain. His mind once again uncontrollably started to search through his memories and the large influx of information pouring in brought about a dull pain to his head.

In just a few minutes, cold sweat dripped from Ji Yushi’s forehead.

Suddenly, someone pushed in from amidst the crowd.

It was a featureless face that couldn’t look any more ordinary.

Like the other humans who came over, Ji Yushi also didn’t recognise this face. He looked up blankly and was met with a pair of deep, black eyes.

The man was very tall. He raised his hand in the crowd and used the advantage of his long arms to stick a disc behind Ji Yushi’s ear, “Don’t move.”

A small sound came from behind the ear and then a familiar sensation spread from that point to the rest of his face.

His face had been covered with a new face.

89 Recorder missions, 89 times pretending to be non-existent.

The mask that had been skilfully used by himself 89 times.

No one knew the purpose of it better than him.

With it, Ji Yushi became another person.

The people surrounding him gradually returned to their senses. Vivid and lifelike expressions returned to their faces and their previous looks of shock and panic were restored. Very soon, they dispersed as quickly as they came.

Ji Yushi panted lightly. His figure was enveloped by another tall figure.

Song Qinglan spoke under his artificial face, “I told you. If you don’t leave my line of sight, you won’t be abducted by them. What are you afraid of?”

Ji Yushi, “I-I wasn’t afraid.”

Song Qinglan laughed softly.

The other three came over. They all similarly had plain faces.

The round face was hitting the square face, “I just went to the black market to buy some equipment and when I come back, the car is like this?! Like this?! You better fucking pay for the repairs!”

The one with the square face cried, “Hey, this is just a fake world. Why take it so seriously!!”

The other round face spoke. It seemed to be Tang Qi from the voice, “Advisor Ji, I didn’t expect us to team up again so soon.”