Chapter 1#

Raindrops pattered against the car window, swept into a blur of water marks by the wipers. The light from the headlights was swallowed by the heavy rain, leaving only a phantom shadow. Flashing road signs retreated rapidly, like terrifying ghosts.

“Shen Jiankun, explain yourself clearly!”

The voice was loud, familiar, and filled with anger. The body was trembling slightly, vision pitch black, bone-chillingly cold.

“I said, we can pay back the money together! There’s news that the stamp duty will soon…”

The wheels slammed over a speed bump, a violent jolt accompanied by the screech of rubber friction.

“Can’t afford to play? What do you mean?!”

Clutching the phone tightly, heavy breathing echoed inside the car.

“30 years old? Am I not 30?! You fucking have a younger brother too! …Don’t fucking bring up Director Song, don’t fucking bring up that money, tell me! Give me a straight answer, damn it!!”

The roar was met with a whisper, gentle and painful, full of apology… The busy tone beeped in his ear.

Something slipped from his eye sockets. A beam of light suddenly pierced through the curtain of rain, through the haze in front of his eyes, crashing straight towards him. Screams came from beside his ear, along with the sharp screech of tires skidding. Glass shattered instantly, iron bars pierced into the skull, knees and ribs were crushed and torn, and immense pain struck overwhelmingly.

“Wu…”

With a slight tremble, Chen Yuanming opened his eyes. The pain was so realistic, following him like a shadow. Cold sweat slid down his spine, soaking his clothes. He gasped for air with difficulty, wanting to escape from the nightmare, but the heavy cotton quilt pressed on him like a giant boulder, unable to move even his fingertips.

He panted for a long time, letting the pain sweep through his body, until two other sounds came from the silence. One deep, one shallow, two breathing sounds. The heavier one was snoring slightly, occasionally smacking lips, teeth making a slight grinding sound. The other was much softer, just steady breathing, inhaling and exhaling, peaceful and serene like anyone in a sweet dream. Accompanied by these two sounds, Chen Yuanming finally relaxed his body and escaped from the nightmare.

The imagined pain faded away, leaving only a sticky, sweaty feeling. His long johns were completely soaked, his body cold as if soaked in ice water. After hesitating for a while, Chen Yuanming reached into the quilt and rustled to take off his clothes. It was early January, long past the time for heating, yet there was no warmth in the room. The cold wind swept in through the window cracks, whistling against his face. The temperature inside was almost the same as outside. The quilt on him was stuffed with old cotton, thick and heavy, never getting warm, and soaked with cold sweat, it was even more tormenting.

Under the influence of the chill, his mind gradually regained clarity, but his movements became slower. This room was only about ten square meters. The small bed beneath him was squeezed into the corner by the window, only three or four steps away from the other large bed. One careless move would wake the two people on the bed. The long johns were loose, but the collar still rubbed against the gauze wrapped around his head when taking them off, bringing a burst of real pain. Chen Yuanming didn’t make any sound, gently placing the two wet clothes beside the pillow.

Moonlight shone in through the thin curtains, silver light as bright as a street lamp spilling onto the pillow, illuminating a thin arm. The skin was a bit dark, almost no flesh on the wrist bone, fingers very long, the middle knuckle dry and protruding, only from here could one see a bit of an adult’s appearance. Looking at this hand, Chen Yuanming was a bit dazed. In his impression, this hand should be larger, more powerful, with veins covering the back of the hand, joints somewhat deformed due to early labor… That should have been a man’s hand, not a boy’s.

The cold wind drilled into the quilt along his elbow, making the already not-so-warm bedding even colder. The buckwheat husk pillow made a rustling sound, hard against the wound on the top of his head. Chen Yuanming slowly retracted his hand and tucked the quilt tight. It had been seven days. Since that fight, a lot of things suddenly appeared in his head, a lot of people. Conversely, everything around him became unfamiliar, as distant and blurred as if he had left for decades. He once thought his brain was damaged from the beating, that he had some mental illness, but the continuous, incredibly real nightmares made it impossible for him to deceive himself anymore.

In the dream was a car accident, played back in slow motion over and over again, a tragic car accident precise to the second. He could still clearly remember that the car he was driving was an Oyster Grey Audi A6L, heading towards the Chengdu-Chongqing Expressway along National Highway 318. He had driven that road many times, familiar enough to drive with his eyes closed, but that phone call, that heavy rain, that stalling heavy truck destroyed everything. In the car accident, he died, not even leaving a whole corpse.

Yet everything was so absurd. Because now, at this very moment, it is 1991.

In this era, there shouldn’t be an Audi in his memory, there shouldn’t be “FAW-Volkswagen”, terms like “National Highway 318”, “Chengdu-Chongqing Expressway” shouldn’t appear. But the memories in his mind were so realistic, real enough to be creepy. He seemed to have finished his life, only to be fast-forwarded back to Side A like an old cassette tape.

What deviated from the normal trajectory, plunging him into endless nightmares? Who exactly died? Was it himself? If that was real, who is he now?

Thoughts in his brain were cluttered and overflowing, the wound on his head throbbing faintly. In this pain and confusion, Chen Yuanming slowly curled up his body and closed his eyes.