Chapter 103 Chapter 103 (2/2)
“Good news.” He didn’t hesitate.
Song Qinglan laughed, “The command centre received a distress call from an unknown coordinate. It likely came from another time and space. I read the contents of it after Chief Wang sent it through and those strange characters were something I’m certain about. They’re definitely from Big Beard’s time and space. That is to say, their time and space may be in trouble.”
Ji Yushi, “?”
Song Qinglan, “The good news is that our squad is currently on leave so the ninth squad received the mission.”
Ji Yushi lit a candle for Lin Xinlan, “What about the bad news?”
Song Qinglan said, “The bad news is that you will need to take out some of your time to make some language references for those brats in the ninth squad to refer to.”
Ji Yushi felt that this really wasn’t that bad. He wouldn’t need much time to do that.
Song Qinglan then asked him about the food and snacks the cats often ate and even remembered to remind him, “Remember to bring photos back.”
After hanging up, Ji Yushi briefly thought about how he should go about writing that reference.
Then, he found a photo album that seemed like a relic in this time and age and began to flip through the photos of his younger self.
Turning page after page, he went through those distant memories that were still clear in his memories and went through those old times.
Ji Yushi didn’t have many photos of himself when he was young. He was from a single-parent household and because his father had to take the photos, he was alone in these photos. After he was brought into the Ji household, there was a gap. In order to care for his illness, the Ji family at the time were too preoccupied and didn’t have the time or energy to take photos. Only after two or three years later, after he gradually got better, did the records of him and his family increase.
When he reached one of the photos, he stopped.
The child in the photo was about four or five years old, with fair skin and dark and bright eyes. He held a small duck in his hand as he smiled brightly at the camera.
Nothing had happened that year.
That was the most carefree time.
This was the photo Song Qinglan wanted.
Ji Yushi was reluctant to take it out of the photo album, so he took a photo using his phone and sent it to Song Qinglan to complete his task.
After doing this, he casually flipped through the rest of the album but abruptly came to a stop.
There was an extra photo in the album.
A young man with glasses holding a small baby in his arms and a beautiful woman standing beside him.
The two stood very close, the two wedding rings shining brightly on their fingers. They faced the camera, smiling happily.
Ji Yushi remembered very clearly that this photo wasn’t in the album before!
His hands trembled slightly. Although he was young at the time, he still remembered that this photo was accidentally torn apart by his heartbroken father after his mother’s car accident. Those photo fragments were long gone, so how could it cross over twenty or so years and appear inside this album?!
The only reasonable explanation—–
Ji Yushi closed the album and quickly hurried to Professor Ji’s study.
He walked very quickly, his hasty footsteps attracting the attention of Ji Minyue and Aunt Su downstairs. He however had no time to take care of that. Ji Yushi who had never been so reckless in his life ran for the first time to the study and pushed open the door. There was however only Professor Ji alone inside.
“What’s wrong?” Professor Ji was standing in front of the window using a magnifying glass to examine the patterns on a rock.
“I….” Ji Yushi panted, “Where’s the guest?!”
Professor Ji said, “Already left.”
The wooden fan in the study creaked softly. The wind from it rustled the pages on the desk.
It was a very ordinary summer day.
Ji Yushi’s tense body suddenly relaxed and his expression turned blank, but when his eyes inadvertently saw the cup on the table, his pupils suddenly dilated,
There were two ceramic cups on the table.
Professor Ji loved to drink tea, a light jasmine tea.
Only half of it was drunk and the water was still hot. It meant that the guest was only recently here.
But the handle of one of the cups was perpendicular to the edge of the table.
On the day he returned to 1439 and noticed the blood spilling out from the study, Sheng Yun had brought over a cup of water for him. When he saw this, he had placed the cup on the table.
The cup handle and the edge of the table were perpendicular.
His father had always disliked cups with handles, so every time he used them, he would turn the handles so that they were perpendicular to the edge of the table. This habit was something he had maintained for many years. It was unknown how many times he had done this in Ji Yushi’s memory.
The large hand that placed the cup down countless times during breakfast, dinner, and at work….All those scenes overlapped perfectly with the cup in front of him.
Ji Yushi’s lips trembled. He asked with a part of him in disbelief and a part of him certain, “He was here, wasn’t he?”
Professor Ji also looked at the cup. He could only give up hiding it. He placed down the magnifying glass and said, “Yes.”
Was it a good thing when a child is too smart?
Ji Yushi didn’t speak.
He seemed to be in daze.
“Jian Jian.” Professor Ji spoke earnestly, “It’s time to let it go.”
Ji Yushi thought he had already let it go.
But at this moment, he didn’t know how to answer.
Was this the first time or had it happened many times already?
Has his teacher seen his father many times without his knowledge? When he asked his teacher about the portrait he drew of the other person he met in Rubik’s Cube last time, did his teacher tell him the truth?
For a while, he had some difficulty sorting out his thoughts.
He just heard Professor Ji ask, “Do you know why I am so against you joining Tianqiong to become a Recorder?”
Ji Yushi stood stunned in place.
“It was because, as soon as humans gain the ability to look back in time, they will become obsessed with it. They become unable to distinguish between the past and present, and there is no longer a clear boundary between right and wrong.” Professor Ji said, “Because you can’t let go, the more you try to correct the mistakes, the deeper you sink in. You become a prisoner of time.”
“After seeing that you have let go, he was able to truly let go.”
“After so many years, he has learnt to let go of you.”
Scene after scene returned to him.
The stranger who had kindly carried him away from an oncoming car when he was crossing the road as a child.
The stranger who helped him up and put ointment on his knee after tripping over a rock and scraping his knee.
The stranger who gave him a bottle of iced water when he walked out of the examination room after his college entrance examination.
……
Those different faces weren’t memorable at all, but they all had the same body type. It all overlapped in an instant and changed into a lone figure.
It was the back figure from deep in his memories.
It was his father’s back figure.
Turns out, he had always been loved.
Ji Yushi’s tears fell.
The phone in his hand vibrated. He subconsciously looked at it. It was a reply from Song Qinglan.
Song Qinglan: [Waiting for you at home.]
The trees outside the window were lush.
The sun was bright.
The mist will eventually be dispelled by the bright sun. (KKnotes: SQL’s name: 宋晴岚 (Song Qinglan) – Sunny haze/mist/fog)
Time continues on, but love was everlasting.
He had never felt this blessed before.
From possessing nothing to possessing everything.
He was Ji Yushi, and he was also Sheng Han.
[END]
KK has something to say:
The end! Phew, I hope I did alright with my translations. This one was definitely a complicated novel that requires some thinking and rereading to understand ???? Hopefully my translations were clear enough and you guys weren’t too confused….(Honestly there are still things I’m a little confused about, especially about Tianqiong of all eras and also about JYS’s father…..I look forward to reading everyone’s theories and discussions!)
In all honesty, writing a story about time travel and parallel universes and all that without plot holes/ paradoxes/obvious mistakes is actually really, really hard. I personally think Mist did a pretty good job with it especially with something this complex (but something this complex is also something that can turn people off so it’s perfectly understandable if this wasn’t your cup of tea haha). I can’t say that there weren’t any issues, but it was pretty nice to see that the entire novel was planned out by the author from the very beginning and that most things made somewhat sense.
Anyway, it’s not over yet! We’ve still got three extras to go~
Happy reading!