Chapter 16

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Du Zhengxuan asked him how long he had been waiting there. Zhongyuan thought for a moment and said, “Less than an hour.”

“You’ve been waiting here for over a class period, and no one came?”

Zhongyuan shook his head. “You’re the only one I’ve seen.”

“I see…” Du Zhengxuan pondered thoughtfully.

She considered the possibility of campus bullying but dismissed it. Most of the students around her were half-asleep for half the day; their minds occupied with catching up on sleep and improving their meals, leaving no time for bullying.

…It probably wasn’t bullying from the middle school section either. Du Zhengxuan glanced at Zhongyuan, who was squatting against the wall.

Sensing her gaze, Zhongyuan looked puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Du Zhengxuan shook her head and asked again, “Did that person tell you to come right away? Do you know him?”

She suspected Zhongyuan might have misheard the time, but the person had indeed told him to come directly to the teaching building. Moreover, it wasn’t a stranger—it was a student from another class who usually sat at the back.

Du Zhengxuan recognized him too; like her, he often sat near the back door and was frequently seen passing through the corridor.

As she was pondering, the evening study bell had already rung some time ago.

Zhongyuan stood up and looked out the window; no students were visible downstairs. He bowed his head slightly, then turned to Du Zhengxuan. “You should go. Don’t waste time.”

Hearing this, Du Zhengxuan looked at him for a moment, smiled, and said, “Let’s go back together.”

Zhongyuan hesitated, “But I haven’t…”

“If it’s really important, they’ll look for you again tomorrow,” Du Zhengxuan said. “If you’re worried, you can ask that person after evening study.”

Zhongyuan felt he hadn’t been there long, and since Du Zhengxuan said so, it should be fine.

“Alright.”

He nodded and followed Du Zhengxuan down the stairs.

Her footsteps were light, not even waking the motion-activated lights in the corridor.

Few people came to the teaching building at night; it was pitch dark and quiet, and sometimes ghost stories set against the backdrop of the building would circulate—after all, the music classroom and infirmary were in this building.

Du Zhengxuan walked quietly. Perhaps because there were two of them, she wasn’t very scared but somewhat excited.

Naturally, nothing happened, and she even heard Zhongyuan yawn.

Du Zhengxuan: “…”

She yawned too.

It’s well known that yawns are contagious. Having had poor sleep recently, her yawns came one after another until she had to stop and focus on yawning properly.

Her eyes brimmed with physiological tears, and she felt she might start sniffling, so she reached into her school uniform pocket for a tissue.

Instead, she grabbed a pen.

A quill pen.

Du Zhengxuan: “...?”

She remembered pulling out tissues, a black gel pen, and an almost untouched geography test paper—nothing else.

...

Zhongyuan followed behind Du Zhengxuan.

Feeling a bit embarrassed after yawning, he fell a few steps behind. But when he exited the teaching building, he found Du Zhengxuan, who had been walking ahead, was gone.

The area around the teaching building was spacious; within ten meters, there was nothing that could block the passage of time.

Zhongyuan scanned the surroundings—only tree canopies swaying in the April night and dim streetlights.

He instantly became alert.

Du Zhengxuan had a bit of a lone wolf trait; she was often hard to find after class or school dismissal. But she was different from someone like Osamu Dazai, who was elusive in a supernatural way—she simply came and went like the wind.

“She can sit still only when looking at her phone.”

—Long Wanyu.

Besides that, Du Zhengxuan was practically the first genuinely good person Zhongyuan had ever met.

She was normal and kind. Without knowing about his differences, she had helped him a lot. Just like how Shirase and the others used to…

Unconsciously, Zhongyuan clenched his fist; the leather of his black half-glove creaked unpleasantly.

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No, don’t think about it anymore.

The sound forcibly pulled him out of unpleasant memories.

Though he didn’t know what the future held, it was neither class dismissal nor school’s end now, and Du Zhengxuan was definitely not the type to leave someone behind and walk off alone.

He stood still, cautiously observing the surroundings.

Even the elementary school teachers nearby had all left. The orderly trees and buildings stood silently in the dark, the atmosphere starkly different from daytime, almost unfamiliar.

Zhongyuan was silent; his blue eyes appeared somber in the darkness.

He scrutinized every detail, not missing the slightest movement.

At one moment, he caught a glimpse of white fabric flashing by.

“Who’s there?”

In the blink of an eye, someone blocked his path from behind, right inside the elementary school building.

There was indeed someone—not Du Zhengxuan, but not a stranger either.

“...Teacher?”

Zhongyuan stared at the person facing away from him but did not fully relax.

The man turned around—it was the geography teacher who had sent him home for a medical certificate. His face showed confusion and seriousness as he spoke:

“I remember you’re Zhongyuan, right? What did you just say? Is there something wrong? Don’t wander around during class.”

“...Teacher,” Zhongyuan switched back to his usual tone and spoke in somewhat fluent Mandarin, “Du Zhengxuan went out with me and disappeared.”

His expression still carried a hint of sharpness, with a subtle oppressive aura.

The discipline head seemed not to notice his abnormality, looking away as he recalled:

“Du Zhengxuan? The top student in your class, right? What were you two doing out here at night?”

“Delivering documents, to the teaching building,” Zhongyuan pointed behind him, trying to convey his meaning through gestures. “When coming downstairs, she disappeared.”

“She should have returned to the classroom. I just saw a few students go by.” The discipline head waved him off, “You should hurry back too. Don’t wander during evening study.”

Zhongyuan still harbored doubts but returned to the classroom for the time being.

However, Du Zhengxuan was not there.

Seeing the empty seat, Zhongyuan wanted to turn around and search immediately. But as he turned, the homeroom teacher arrived carrying a bag.

The teacher stood at the door, not asking why Zhongyuan was there but instead asked the class monitor sitting next to Du Zhengxuan, “Where is she?”

The class monitor hesitated before answering, “She went to submit the sports meet registration form.”

The monitor was a thin boy. Zhongyuan stared at him throughout, noticing the boy glanced at him before speaking.

That look was familiar from the harbor mafia—an unspoken glance among subordinates covering for each other when the boss inspects.

Could he know where Du Zhengxuan went?

Sure enough, after hearing this, the homeroom teacher merely nodded lightly and didn’t say more, instead turning his gaze to Zhongyuan.

Zhongyuan found himself trapped, unable to advance or retreat, so he returned to his seat.

After watching him sit down, the teacher paced around the classroom a few times without saying anything and left.

Zhongyuan was restless. He kept glancing at the back door, eager to rush and find out what was going on.

But there were still twenty minutes before class ended.

Evening self-study was generally quiet. Those studying seriously and those slacking off both concentrated intensely. Few, like Zhongyuan, kept fidgeting.

Soon, his current deskmate slipped a small note onto his desk.

The deskmate was a boy, not someone Zhongyuan interacted with much but seemed nice and had looked out for him once or twice recently.

Zhongyuan unfolded the note, written neatly:

“Don’t worry, Du Zhengxuan probably went to the playground.”

Puzzled, Zhongyuan glanced at him, wrote a question mark, and pushed the note back.

After a while, the note came back:

“Couldn’t finish writing on the test paper, went somewhere to write. Before class, I saw her paper was gone.”

This time, as Zhongyuan read the note, the boy waited. Seeing him reach for a pen to write another question mark, the boy took the paper back and wrote more.

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Because the motion seemed like snatching, Zhongyuan nearly reflexively grabbed his wrist. When he calmed down, the note was pushed back again.

This time, the handwriting was messier and longer:

“Wasn’t I the class monitor’s deskmate before? His speed at doing problems is really frustrating. Not finishing is normal. Don’t worry, she’ll definitely be back after school.”

Zhongyuan studied the note, circled the phrase “frustrating,” added a question mark, and pushed it back.

The boy watched him circle the words, took the note back, and buried himself in writing.

Imagining this, Zhongyuan nearly smiled but kept his expression neutral.

The boy’s next note read:

“Imagine the teacher assigns a test, your deskmate’s almost done, but you’ve barely started. How would you feel?”

Zhongyuan thought for a moment and wrote:

“Hurry up and finish.”

The boy looked at his reply and, without reading the note when it was pushed back, silently met Zhongyuan’s gaze.

Zhongyuan didn’t understand the intention. They stared at each other for a moment before the deskmate gave in:

“It’s nothing. She’s not the only one who’s left. Anyway, she’ll be back after school. Just do your homework, buddy.”

Zhongyuan looked around the classroom and noticed a few other empty seats besides Du Zhengxuan’s, including Osamu Dazai’s.

Could it really be okay?

Despite lingering doubts, he decided to wait.

…

Du Zhengxuan was indeed working on a geography test paper, but not on the affiliated school’s playground.

The place she was at was quite far from the school—several thousand kilometers away.

What she found under the teaching building was a white quill pen.

Originally, this pen was meant to be paired with the “Book,” but after understanding how the “Book” operated, Du Zhengxuan strongly requested to switch it to a black ballpoint pen.

The kind that’s 0.5 millimeters thick, required for college and high school entrance exams—brand doesn’t matter.

Since then, the stylish white quill had been replaced by a simple, ubiquitous 0.5mm black gel pen with a bullet tip. The label indicated it was from VGP series, and Du Zhengxuan often lost the cap.

She had gotten used to it, so why was the pen switched back?

Just as this question surfaced, she saw that pure white “Book” reappear before her.

The “Book” flipped pages without wind and revealed a line of words that looked like ink:

[Detected change in your location. Youth mode has been disabled. All functions are now unlocked. Enjoy your use.]

Du Zhengxuan: “...Have I time-traveled or reincarnated?”

The “Book” remained silent, floating in the air for about a minute. After confirming the message was displayed in Chinese, Japanese, and English, it closed and vanished.

Du Zhengxuan looked around in confusion and found herself in an unfamiliar place, resembling a dirty, messy alley behind a bar.

She casually picked up a chip bag and saw Japanese printed on the back.

“...”

After three seconds of silence, Du Zhengxuan quickly put down the trash bag, retreated to a corner, leaned against the wall, and closed her eyes tightly.

When she closed her eyes, the “Book” was summoned.

Du Zhengxuan hugged the “Book” and shook it vigorously. “Have I time-traveled or been reborn? Please help me—figuring this out is really important!”

It concerned whether she should pull out the folded geography and math test papers from her uniform pocket to find a place to finish them or pack up and prepare for a new life in another world.

The “Book” looked expensive and hardcover, meaning shaking it violently might cause it to fall apart.

After a short while, the “Book” flickered with static interference and slowly showed a line:

[Your coordinates have been manually altered. Time remaining until coordinate restoration: 00:23:34]

The numbers at the end appeared to be a countdown, with seconds still ticking.

Du Zhengxuan: “...”

Alright, time to find a place to finish the test.

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