Mist (Web Novel CN)

Ji Yushi boarded the train and found his business seat.

It was spacious enough and there weren’t many people in the carriage, so he threw his bag of clothing and supplies casually onto the ground and took out his phone. As soon as he did this series of actions, he reacted. Since when had he become so casual? It turns out that the seventh squad’s habits are contagious.

There was a missed call on his phone. It was the call from Song Qinglan just now.

To Ji Yushi, it didn’t matter whether the phone number was saved since he could remember who the number belonged to as long as he saw it once. To him, there was no difference between the person’s name and their phone number when they’re displayed on the screen.

But, carrying the spirit of treating everyone equally, Ji Yushi decided to still select that string of numbers and then selected New Contact.

He first typed the words “Song Qinglan”.

As he typed it in, he couldn’t help but notice that the ‘Lan’ referred to mist in the mountains. If that was the case, did ‘Qinglan’ mean mist on a sunny day?

After typing those characters in, the bar flashed a few times after the last character.

This name may not have a chance to appear on his screen in the future. After looking at it for a few seconds, Ji Yushi proceeded to delete it and replaced it with “Cap Song”.

But as if to immediately refute him, just as he turned off his phone after saving it, his phone vibrated.

Cap Song: [Advisor Ji, what is the full name of this Chief Wang you talked about?]

Ji Yushi: [Wang Xiaoqian.]

Song Qinglan no longer sent another message over.

It was four o’clock when Ji Yushi returned to Ning City.

Before leaving for Jiang City, he had parked his car in the parking lot of Ning City’s North Station but when he retraced his steps to the place he parked in his memory, there was an unfamiliar car parked there: A black off-road car with 22-inch wheels. There were no extra decorations on the car and there was a thin layer of dust accumulated on the body. It looked like it had been parked there for a long time and hadn’t been moved.

Doubts only lingered temporarily in his heart.

New memories surfaced in Ji Yushi’s mind —- When he changed cars a year ago, he had hesitated between this car and another, and finally chose this one.

This was contrary to his original memory because he had given up on this car at the time thinking that it was too big.

Without thinking too much about it, Ji Yushi successfully unlocked the car with his fingerprint and then smoothly drove back home.

After reaching home, Ji Yushi didn’t bother checking for any changes at home and went straight to the bathroom.

Cold water poured over the top of his head non-stop. On a summer’s day, it wasn’t enough to make people’s teeth chatter.

Grandfather paradox, Novikov self-consistence principle as well as other sophisticated theories; Ji Yushi’s mind was filled with too many things, making him confused and unable to tell the difference between reality and his memories. Those that are no longer the same and those that are different, memories continued to surface with the changes, mixing with memories of the past. It was somewhat overwhelming for him.

After the shower, Ji Yushi supported himself at the sink whilst still covered in water droplets. Drops of water dripped down his hair, onto his chin, his collarbone and then to the back of his hand.

He opened the mirror cabinet and found a bottle of medicine inside.

He had taken some of it along before he left so there weren’t much left at home.

He poured out one into the palm of his hand, placed it in his mouth and then leaned down and drank some water from the faucet.

Except for the initial stage in the Ouroboros mission, it had been a long time since he took medicine so soon after each other.

His reflection in the mirror didn’t look too great.

He silently looked at himself for a while and then turned around to find a bath towel and wiped himself down —- Ji Minyue would soon be here.

*

As expected, Ji Minyue was very punctual. He said that he would come before seven, but he actually came before six.

“You’ve become thinner.” Ji Minyue complained as soon as he entered the door, “One mission and it lasts for a month. What did those people make you do?”

Everyone who works at Tianqiong had signed a non-disclosure agreement. Information that could be disclosed was very limited, so family only knew that they had gone on a mission but nothing about the specifics. When Ji Yushi was transferred to Ning City, the original plan was that he would be back within a week, but it had instead lasted a month, so they were naturally worried, but they couldn’t do anything about it. As a result, his family knew nothing about the horrible experience of time and space hijacking, zombies, crevice in time and the likes, and they also naturally wouldn’t say anything.

Ji Minyue carried a cat carrier in one hand and some cat daily necessities in the other.

He spoke as he walked in and placed the carrier and other items on the floor.

One person couldn’t carry the things for three cats. Ji Yushi asked, “Why didn’t you call for me to go down and help?”

“Meow—-“”

In the carrier, an unfamiliar cry sounded.

“Is it necessary?” Ji Minyue said, “If you wanted to help, why didn’t you close the door? What would you do if it escapes?”

Ji Minyue went to close the door. When he returned, he saw Ji Yushi standing there in shock as if he had been struck by lightning and laughed, “Your little master may have gained a little weight but there’s no need to be so shocked.”

Cats are prone to extreme reactions and the Ji Yushi’s cat carrier wasn’t transparent.

He opened the carrier and was met with a round faced orange cat meowing at him sweetly. He didn’t recognise the cat.

But very quickly, just like when he saw Chief Qi and his car, memories flooded his mind.

Ji Yushi realised that his current self didn’t have those three familiar black cats.

One late night two years ago when he passed a garbage dump, he found a pitiful kitten covered in fleas. It was about ten days old and had been discarded by someone. Ji Yushi picked it up and gave it a very uncreative name —- Just like Big Black, Middle Black and Little Black, it was very simple.

He named it Little Orange.

Little Orange’s body was a lot plumper but the act of jumping out of the carrier was still very light.

“Meow.”

Seeing its official poo shoveler, it immediately started to act spoiled and rubbed its soft body against Ji Yushi’s calf. Its tail swept back and forth, trying to hook it around Ji Yushi. It was clearly a little excited.

Ji Yushi bent over and picked it up.

As soon as Little Orange was in his arms, it immediately meowed contently.

“Really a lot heavier.” Ji Yushi asked Ji Minyue, “What did it eat?”

Ji Minyue didn’t look like Ji Yushi. He was about two or three centimetres shorter than Ji Yushi and used to be thinner than him when they were younger, so he was always beaten whenever they fought but two or three years of married life had made him settle down and grow more flesh. If they didn’t say anything, others would think that he was Little Orange’s owner since pets tend to resemble their owners.

Ji Minyue slumped onto his younger brother’s sofa, “It steals the dog’s food every day so why wouldn’t it get heavier?”

Two memories played hand in hand.

The new memory played in Ji Yushi’s mind like a movie. He remembered that Ji Minyue raised a corgi.

As in Ji Yushi’s original memory, Ji Minyue also taught at a nearby university and needed to attend a school celebration party in the evening. The day before, Little Orange was taken by his sister-in-law to be washed so its body was very fragrant. As Ji Yushi petted the cat, he chatted with Ji Minyue.

Ji Yushi behaved very normally. Except for losing some weight after the mission, his mental state didn’t appear any different from before.

Ji Minyue asked, “How did you get along with that especially discriminative Captain Song? He didn’t bully you, right?”

He had placed emphasis on the word ‘bully’. No one else could be more familiar on how vindictive Ji Yushi could be. There probably wasn’t anyone in this world who could bully Ji Yushi.

When Ji Yushi refused to go to Jiang City as support, Chief Lin had called Professor Ji for help and the reason for the refusal was somewhat revealed. As a result, the notoriety of a certain captain surnamed Song was spread throughout the Ning City branch as well as the Ji family. The smear on his name would probably not be able to be washed clean for the rest of his lifetime.

Ji Yushi said, “It was alright. Rumours have become distorted after being passed around. In fact, with his ability, he has the right to be proud.”

It meant that he wasn’t a bad person.

Otherwise, with someone as vengeful as Ji Yushi, he wouldn’t have said anything good about the other party.

Ji Minyue smiled, “What about him being homophobic? Was it just a rumour?”

The deep and dark eyes of the other party appeared in his mind. Ji Yushi commented, “He….is just a straight man.”

Ji Minyue couldn’t stay for long. After chatting for a while and confirming that his younger brother was fine, he got up to leave. Before he left, he said, “Go home tomorrow for dinner. Old Ji will probably want to say a few things to you. He will probably talk a lot, so you best be prepared.”

The cat jumped out of Ji Yushi’s arms, the soft pads landing quietly. It walked around the house and then returned to Ji Yushi’s side and meowed a few times. It was saying that it wanted to drink water.

Ji Yushi stood up to get water from the kitchen. Only then did he notice the changes in his house.

A glass he had smashed was still sitting on the table fully intact, several books he had already read were thrown on the dining table and the black and white photo that was originally hung on the wall was replaced by a family portrait of the Ji family from ten years ago. There was also only one cat tower and similarly only one cat bowl……

As memories surged in his mind, Ji Yushi’s head throbbed with pain. He accidentally knocked the bowl of water onto the ground.

Ji Yushi knelt on the floor, panting slightly.

The cat circled around him nervously, nuzzling his hand with its face as if asking him what was wrong.

He suddenly remembered something and proceeded to turn on his phone projection and typed the words “Sheng Yun” into the search bar.

The search results appeared: “Sheng Yun, male, a famous physics scientist. Born August 2^nd, 1405 and passed away at home on April 6^th, 1439….”

Reaching this point, Ji Yushi immediately closed the webpage.

No change.

How silly. That incident had happened far earlier than fifteen years ago where everything changed.

*

Ji Yushi ordered himself takeaway.

Fortunately, the store he often ordered from hadn’t disappeared because of all the changes. After he was done ordering, he found a bottle of red wine Ji Minyue had brought over last time and, just like what he did in the ‘transfer station’, he drank half a glass.

Late at night, rain slowly started to fall outside.

Ji Yushi got up to close the window and saw that there were no cars outside on the brightly lit streets. While he was surprised, he suddenly noticed that the familiar city before him had changed. The left and right sides were now completely symmetrical, much like a mirror reflection.

At an intersection in the distance, a person appeared on the zebra crossing. They held something that glowed.

Ji Yushi had excellent eyesight. He clearly saw that it was a glowing flower. That person raised their head as if they had noticed his gaze.

Ji Yushi retreated back a few steps in shock, and he reflexively closed the windows with some force.

When he moved to go back to bed, he inadvertently saw a pool of blood behind the door.

And in the middle of that pool of blood was a calf wearing a black boot.

He started to tremble.

A large, warm hand covered his eyes and a familiar voice sounded next to his ear, “Don’t look.”

……..

Ji Yushi woke up in shock from his nightmare covered in cold sweat.

His chest was very heavy. Something fluffy and soft was pressing down onto him, occasionally tossing around. It was his cat sleeping on his chest.

When Ji Yushi moved the cat away, Little Orange let out a little whiny mew. Perhaps it was dissatisfied, it jumped off the bed.

He turned on his phone to check the time but found an unread message displayed on the screen.

Cap Song: [Have you arrived home yet?]

This message was sent seven or eight hours ago, just when Ji Yushi’s train reached Ning City. He hadn’t had the chance to check his phone until now.

This message allowed the heart that was suspended in the air fall back down and all his thoughts were pulled back to reality. Ji Yushi replied: [Arrived.]

The sound of rain got louder and louder. Ji Yushi only now realised that he didn’t actually close the windows.

Ji Yushi only realised after he returned to bed after closing the windows how inappropriate his actions were just now. It was currently early morning, but he had replied to the other party.

But to his surprise, Song Qinglan also wasn’t asleep, and a message was sent back.

Cap Song: [Still awake?]

Ji Yushi could almost imagine Song Qinglan raising his eyebrow slightly to express his surprise.

Ji Yushi answered: [Was tossed awake.]

This time, Song Qinglan took a while before responding.

Cap Song: [Won’t bother you then.]

Ji Yushi knew that this meant that the conversation was over. He turned off his phone and got up to find his black and white game console.

In the rain.

When the Tetris score had reached 200,000 points, the phone vibrated again.

Seeing the new message, Ji Yushi’s expression revealed some confusion.

Cap Song: [Take care of your body.]

The author has something to say:

A long time later, Song Qinglan: It’s still early. Once more time. (Essentially a slag man with double standards)