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nAt 5.40am, Lou Ying woke up.

nThe physical card is no longer valid. He returned to his home.

nHe sat up gingerly, stretched out his Chi Xiaochi pillowed arm, raised his hand and brushed his lips to confirm that the three mint tasting kisses last night were not a dream, then clenched his fists in front of his body, lifted the covers, got down on the floor in a happy mood, swept the floor and made the bed, then got his toiletries, cleaned himself up, grabbed his school bag and prepared to go out.

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nLou Ying has just closed the door and turns around to see Chi Xiaochi sitting graciously on the back of his bike, one hand propped on the edge of the seat, his long legs folded, sipping fresh milk from the warehouse.

nThe summer days are long and the six o’clock morning light splashes over the boy’s shoulders, brightening and gently reflecting the side of his face towards the east.

nLou Ying looks at him and gently closes the door, the double figure of the young man and the young Chi Xiaochi overlapping in front of her.

nBy the time he is completely relaxed, the two people, twelve years apart and with similar features, are two completely different individuals.

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nThe young Chi Xiaochi’s mouth is always slightly curved, full of the purity and vitality of youth, while the young Chi Xiaochi is always lazy, ready to decorate himself into a painting full of hormones, but with a predominantly brushwork technique and a lighter emotional side.

nAt the sound of the door closing, Chi Xiaochi looks up with a straw in his mouth.

nInstantly, the images of the two Xiaochi merge together, their eye brows arched together.

nChi Xiaochi tapped his index finger on the car seat, “Boss, hitch a ride.”

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nHe pointed again to the milk and bread hanging from the handlebars in a small plastic bag, “…… fare.”

n…… The Xiaochi of the past, the Xiaochi of the present, all belong to just one Lou Ying.

nLou Ying put the bag in the basket and dutifully looked down to check the condition of the tyres.

nChi Xiaochi, sitting sideways and clutching her book bag, looked to the side and said, “Gas I’m full, let’s go.”

nLou Ying really wanted to stroke his head.

nHe stomped off to prop up his feet, “Why don’t you get more sleep?”

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n”I’m a Grade 2 protected animal, so I’m delicate.” Chi Xiaochi shamelessly says, “The floor is too hard to sleep on at home.”

nLou Ying gave a tame “mmm” and raised his hand to wipe the brass school plate on his right breast.

nLou Ying , Senior 1.

nHe gently wiped the tip of his index finger across the surface of the iron plate and re-wrote the words on it.

n…… Lou Ying , National Level 2.

nHe squared his badge carefully and gripped the handlebars, “Come sleep at my place tonight?”

nChi Xiaochi : “Let’s see if your sister-in-law comes back.”

nThen a wonderful silence fell over those who were ready to drive and those who were ready to sit in the car at the same time.

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nChi Xiaochi looks over at Lou Ying: “Why aren’t you going? Did you lose your chain?”

nLou Ying didn’t say anything and looked down at his waist.

nChi Xiaochi holds on to the back seat.

nLou Ying : “If you don’t hold it, it will fall off.”

nChi Xiaochi babbled, “No, I’m growing up.”

nThe morning study session for students of High School 1 starts at seven o’clock, and in Chi Xiaochi’s school, the class teacher was already at the door of the classroom at 6.40am to catch the late arrivals, so Lou Ying decided to see Xiaochi off first.

nChi Xiaochi’s fears that he would crush the front wheel of his bike high in the air did not come true, and Lou Ying rode his bike steadily, without forcing the brakes or making him fall on top of him halfway through, much to Chi Xiaochi’s disappointment.

nUpon arrival, Lou Ying braced herself on one leg and let Chi Xiaochi down, asking thoughtfully, “How was the ride for this passenger?”

nChi Xiaochi says: “It’s all good except for the cost of the shoes.”

nHis legs were too long and he couldn’t sit on the back of the bike, so crossing his feet was even more tiring and he had to drag himself along the road and plough the furrows.

nLooking at the trail he has left behind, Chi Xiaochi feels the inexplicable joy of a peasant boy opening up the land for the first time.

nLou Ying looked at Chi Xiaochi’s legs, which were nowhere to be found, and replied with a smile, “Yes, I’ll try to get a new car sooner.”

nChi Xiaochi jumped out of the car and stomped his feet, “Change.”

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nLou Ying : “What kind of car do you like?”

nChi Xiaochi thinks hard for a moment and replies, “Money carriers.”

nLou Ying smiled, “Roger that.”

nAs she watched Chi Xiaochi enter the school, Lou Ying slumped on her bike and remembered the few fragments of her memories.

nThe back of the teenager pushing his bicycle along the road in silence overlaps and separates from the person in front of him.

nLou Ying leans down and gently strokes the crossbar of the bike beneath him.

nThe bike, in his original world, was patched up a little by his own hand.

nHe was about to ride the bike away when the long-lost familiar murmur of the airwaves suddenly came to his ears.

nLou Ying holds her ear and frowns slightly.

nA few moments later, he looked relieved.

nChi Xiaochi had just sat down in his seat and pulled out his Language Wen textbook when Lou Ying spoke up in his head: “Xiaochi, I have to go back to the ‘Between the Hours’.”

nChi Xiaochi : “Is something wrong?”

n”A good thing. It’s a commendation.” Lou Ying smiled, “The General System has just had a mid-year meeting, and Bai Anyi’s case was a long-standing problem that no system dared to take on. Now that it’s solved, the system has issued an award for you, probably some exchange value or rare items, not much, but an honour. You’re in the middle of a mission, so I have to go back and collect it on your behalf.”

nAt the end, Lou Ying added: “…… will have someone to cover the shift, don’t worry.”

nChi Xiaochi’s hand was gathering up the Wen tools: “Who?”

nLou Ying replied, “089.”

n…… as he expected.

nLord GOD’s little movement has accelerated.

nWithout the face-to-face observation, Lou Ying didn’t pick up on Chi Xiaochi’s mood swings very well: “I’ve already told him not to talk to him. There will be plenty of time for that later when we return to our world.”

nChi Xiaochi responded casually, “Uh-huh.”

nSoon after, 061 went offline and 089 came online.

nChi Xiaochi was surprised when 089 didn’t say a word except to say hello, as if Lou Ying had put a gag card on his mouth before he left.

nBut it’s thanks to his quietness that Chi Xiaochi’s current double act hasn’t progressed to a group comedy.

nMy classmate entered the classroom at the right time and fussed over Chi Xiaochi, “Holy **, what happened to your face?”

nChi Xiaochi : “Mosquito bites.”

nTablemate: “What kind of mosquitoes are these, dragging their families to a buffet?”

nHe scrutinised Chi Xiaochi’s face: “An electric mosquito swatter?”

nChi Xiaochi pushed him, “Go go go.”

n”Someone beat you up?” The tablemate asked, “Did you get pestered by those punks who wanted money?”

nChi Xiaochi decided it was appropriate to reveal a little secret to him, “No, my parents.”

nTablemate: “With an electric mosquito swatter?”

nChi Xiaochi was amused: “Fuck off.”

nThe tablemate had a meaty look on his face, “Holy **, such a nice face, don’t give it to me.”

nA little later, when Chi Xiaochi was reciting “The Book of the Exodus”, the same table came up to me again: “Are you serious? Your parents really beat you up.”

nChi Xiaochi : “Hmm.”

n”So the last time you hurt your arm, the time you said it was a door panel pinch ……”

nSeeing that Chi Xiaochi doesn’t say anything, the table understands.

nHe scratched the back of his head and looked slightly more serious, “Why don’t you come and stay at my house if your parents beat you up again? My place is pretty big.”

nChi Xiaochi, naturally, would not refuse this kind offer for “Chi Xiaochi”: “Thank you.”

nIt was only then that the worried tablemate, who had been worried since a while ago, got a bit of a smile on his face: “Good boy, call Daddy.”

nChi Xiaochi pushes his head into the book.

nWith two days to go before the holidays, hearts are already scattered to the winds.

nThe second secondary school is next to a primary school and the announcements are being tuned early in the morning with occasional audible tones.

nThere was a bit of energy in the morning reading, and the students fought against the thunderous “hello” sound, which resulted in the bell ringing and everyone’s collective throats being overwhelmed and standing up to receive water.

nAs a result, as soon as the bell rang and the chemistry teacher stepped on stage, the “Second set of national primary school students’ radio gymnastics, the eagle takes off” started to play.

nThe students looked back at the wall clock and wondered if God had shown up and fast-forwarded the time to recess.

nBut apparently, they thought a bit too much about it.

nChi Xiaochi’s tablemate turned his head in dismay: “What’s the point of flying in the middle of the morning?”

nChi Xiaochi : “The early bird gets the worm.”

nThe same table sighed long and loudly, “A bunch of kids.”

nChi Xiaochi’s comment was, “Brother, if I remember correctly, you should have just arrived here two years ago from there.

nTablemate: “Two years is not a year.”

nChi Xiaochi thought about it, thought it made sense, and didn’t contradict him again.

nThe tablemate buried his head in his chemistry textbook for a while and snapped his head up, “Oh, I remember. When I was at school this morning, I saw a lot of parents coming from next door, it seems like there’s a summer sports day today.”

nThe backseat heard it and said in surprise, “Nuts. It’s July.”

n”It’s the Olympics soon, so we’re responding to the national call for all the activities.” The table said, “And I heard they’re having a fun sports day, with a radio exercise competition at the beginning, and then kangaroo jumps and two-man three-legged things. To put it bluntly, it’s just fun.”

nAfter everyone had expressed their envy of the brats, they were going to return to reality and read in peace, but who knew that after the first take off, the daisies would soon start the second take off.

nChi Xiaochi thought something was wrong: “Do they do the radio exercises as a group or do they do them one class at a time?”

nTable: “…… This dad doesn’t know either.”

nThe latter proved to be correct.

nBecause they played the fledgling eagle taking off about ten times in a row next and the announcement could be faintly heard, “Thank you to Year X, Class X for a wonderful performance”.

nAfter comparing voices with the radio for a while, the chemistry teacher wisely chose to give up.

nAfter a while, it seemed that the volume of the announcements stopped being so reckless because the school teacher had gone to intervene, but the hearts of the people, which had been scattered into a coil of sand, were now alive with raised dust.

nAs soon as the bell rang, many students ran out into the corridor, carrying their textbooks rolled up into volumes to use as megaphones and wrestle with the primary school across the street.

nThere is help available.

n”Student Lu XX, go to the register, your mother is waiting for you at the register with two cans of Wan Chai milk!”

n”Mr. Lu X, are you lost? The radio has been shouting at you for ten **ing minutes!”

nThere is also a mix of mischief in the mix.

n”Five spice lamb feet, marinated pig’s feet!”

n”Collect the hair! Collect the long hair!”

nChi Xiaochi opens the window and looks out over a campus life he has never seriously experienced before.

nThe heads, shaved to a mere stubble, bounced around the railings in a flurry, like black and white keys on a piano.

nIt was a wonderful dream.

nWhen he returned to his seat and unscrewed his glass of water, he saw Chi Xiaochi staring intently out of the window and kicked him in the butt: “What are you thinking about?”

nIn the past, he would never have dared to do such a transgressive action to this shy or high strung tablemate, for one thing, he didn’t know her well, and for another, he was afraid of being cut by a girl.

nChi Xiaochi took the rare opportunity of being Wen Qing, an age when even the second year of illness is easily forgotten and forgiven, to say, “Have you seen outside?”

nThe table nodded, “See, it’s all my son.”

nChi Xiaochi also tries to be strong Wen Qing goes on: “I thought of a song ……”

nThe half sip of water that the table had just taken wasted on Chi Xiaochi’s back.

nChi Xiaochi : “…… What are you doing.”

nThe tablemate wiped his mouth, “Sorry, I thought you were going to sing.”

nChi Xiaochi : “What’s wrong with me singing. You’ve heard me sing?”

nTablemate: “That’s not true. But we all learned your erhu at the New Year’s Day party last year.”

nChi Xiaochi had long since forgotten this, and it was only when she looked up the memories of the original Chi Xiaochi that she remembered that this had happened to her.

nAt the New Year’s Eve party six months ago, their class played a card draw trivia game.

nAs a first step, everyone wrote the names of everyone in the class on small slips of paper and grouped the pile together, labelled A.

nStep 2: Write small slips of paper on all the locations in the class, such as the windowsill, the lectern and the desks, grouping them together and labelling them B.

nStep 3: Write small notes on some of the poses, such as splits, handstands, duck squats, and gather them together, marked with a C.

nStep 4: Write small notes on the performance items, such as singing, dancing, playing the erhu, grouping them together and marking them D.

nAfter breaking up all the ABCD slips of paper, the MC will randomly draw one of the four piles of slips of paper to spell out a complete sentence, and the person who is drawn must perform as instructed by the pieced together slips of paper.

nA total of ten people were drawn to perform and Chi Xiaochi was the glorious winner when the ninth one was drawn.

nHe drew a rare normal content for the show.

nChi Xiaochi , on the windowsill, with his legs crossed, playing the erhu.

n…… is better than the last unlucky person who splits the podium reciting Farewell to the Bridge.

nWhen Chi Xiaochi was in primary school, he had a fondness for Bing’s erhu when he was studying ‘Reflecting the Moon in the Erquan’, and he secretly made some strings from cotton wool. This time, for the New Year’s Day party, a female student brought in her family’s erhu, which he had been coveting for some time, and to his surprise, he won the erhu in a lottery.

nBefore he went on, he gave a fist bump to the group with great pride and ambition: “A dedication.”

nAt the end of the song, all was silent in the half of the building where he was.

nThe girl who had brought her erhu cried and felt up in distress to examine her erhu, thinking it had been sawn off.

nThe next day, Chi Xiaochi was surrounded by the class next door. Look, there’s the one who played the piano like a decoration yesterday.

nThe girls pointed at him and said, “That’s cute.

nChi Xiaochi took a long time to speak when he saw his past self in his memory: “I …… was playing the erhu for the first time.”

n”Ooooh, that’s you playing the erhu.” The same table said, “That erhu screams like you beat it.”

nChi Xiaochi couldn’t hold back any longer and burst out laughing. The more he laughed, the lower he bent, and the more he slumped over the table, unable to straighten his back at all.

nHis tablemate nudged his shoulder, “Hey, you got a cramp?”

nChi Xiaochi shakes his head and buries his face in the crook of his arm, rubbing away the tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes.

nHe had such a happy time when he was little.

nEven he forgot about it.

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