Qiu Zhenghong seemed to have expected this. Without a hint of agitation, he let out a long sigh. "It is my fault."
"?" Qiuyun looked at him, confused.
"Once I reached those three conclusions, I was impatient to let Xiaoyun try it. But as luck would have it, her first journey sent her to 1994, right into the middle of her own funeral. She was terrified. When she returned, she fell gravely ill and took a long time to recover."
"You mean," Qiuyun caught the main point, "you can now relatively freely control the coming and going of this time travel?"
"I can use the temperature and dosage of the well water to control the time period one returns to, but I cannot precisely determine the exact moment of the transition."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that once the well water takes effect, I cannot control when the 'attack' happens. It could be immediate, it could be in a month, or it could be twenty years from now."
"Oh... and then what happened?"
"Xiaoyun didn't return until two years later. Perhaps because her body was already ill, the travel brought about negative side effects. I was frantic. This time, I drank the well water with her. To be honest, I wasn't sure if we would end up in the same place. Fortunately, we both arrived in City A in the year 2018. Unfortunately, only her soul made it; her body remained in 1987."
"Why? Why did that happen?"
"My understanding is that it's about energy. Everything in this world has a magnetic field and energy, including humans. Xiaoyun's body was likely too weak; her energy wasn't enough to support a full physical transition, so only her soul crossed over."
Qiuyun instinctively looked down at her body. She raised her arms and kicked her legs. Was this body really that weak?
"I find it strange as well," Qiu Zhenghong said. "I expected to see you looking sickly and frail, but I didn't expect you to look so healthy, with such a rosy complexion. You look much healthier than Xiaoyun did before she traveled."
"Fine, let's set that issue aside for now. What happened next? How were you so sure that Qiu Xiaoyun and I had swapped souls? How did you find me? What did you see in 2018? What was I like? And what about my family?"
"I didn't know at first. Before we left, Xiaoyun and I agreed to meet at the City Hospital in the future. I knew that no matter how a city changes, hospitals are rarely demolished or moved. I found a job as a janitor at the hospital, but after waiting for over half a year, she never showed up. It wasn't until one day, while cleaning, that I saw the chart of a patient in a vegetative state. The date of admission was the exact day we had traveled, and your birthday happened to be the day she died. Only then did I begin to suspect. That night, I snuck into your ward and pretended to casually call out 'Qiu Xiaoyun' twice. I saw two trails of tears fall from your eyes. At that moment, I was certain—my Xiaoyun's soul had come across, and she was inside your body."
"Wait... what?" Qiuyun's mind went blank. "You said... you said I'm a vegetable?"
"Yes. It was because of a car accident, wasn't it? That's why your body's energy was so weak; only your soul could travel. You and her... it was like a chemical displacement reaction."
"Heavens..." Qiuyun's limbs felt numb, the truth hard to swallow. "I... I was struck into a vegetative state? Then... who is taking care of me? My father? What about my family—Chen Liping?"
"From what I gathered, your father is in prison and cannot get out yet. A woman in her forties came to see you; she would sit by your bed and start crying, but she only came once and was never seen again. Some of your medical expenses were covered by insurance, and the rest was being paid for by a young man named Lin."
"Lin... Lin Shaohua," Qiuyun murmured.
That woman must have been Chen Liping; she really did leave in the end. Lin Shaohua, however, was a surprise. There was no engagement or promise between them—they were just a couple who had met through a blind date. The most intimate they had ever been was a peck on the cheek. She hadn't expected him to be so loyal and devoted.
"There was someone else who came to see you. A man in his thirties or forties, very elegant and handsome. I heard people call him Teacher Liang."
Hearing this, Qiuyun abruptly looked up.
Right, there was also him—Liang He. It was because of his car that she had been hit. He... he went to see her too?
The moment she thought of him, his face appeared before her eyes, and an indescribable emotion welled up in her heart.
"That is the situation as I saw it."
Qiu Zhenghong's words pulled Qiuyun's thoughts back. She pondered for a moment before asking, "So, you want to send me back now and have your granddaughter, Qiu Xiaoyun, return?"
"Yes," Qiu Zhenghong said slowly. "I do intend to send you back. You were an innocent bystander. Because I wanted to cure my granddaughter, I made a mess of things and dragged you into this. I feel very sorry for that, so naturally, I must send you back. As for my granddaughter... in any world, people have their own tracks; fate cannot be changed. If one forces a modification, it will lead to unpredictable consequences later. As they say, life and death are fated, wealth and honor are in the hands of Heaven. That is likely the truth of it."
Indeed, Sima Qiuyun was an innocent person who had been dragged into this by him. Put that way, she really should have been angry. But strangely, she didn't feel much anger. Although she had been "forced" to travel back in time, her life here in 1987 and 1988 hadn't been depressing. On the contrary, she had been quite happy. Many things she had lost, failed to cherish, or ignored in the past were now being picked up one by one. It was as if Heaven had given her a chance to reshuffle her deck and start over.
"Once Xiaoyun returns, we won't struggle anymore. She lost her father young, and her mother married into a wealthy family; the child has had a hard life. If she can spend her final years happily, that will be enough. It's a coincidence, really—the day she died is the day you were born. This is likely a predestined connection between the two of you," Qiu Zhenghong sighed. "I just don't know how many more years I have left."
Qiu Zhenghong had the face of a twenty-year-old but the voice of a seventy-year-old—a monstrous combination. Yet at this moment, Qiuyun could read the weariness of a man over seventy in his eyes. She thought of her own grandfather, the one who used to give her candy every day after school. She felt she could understand what Qiu Zhenghong was thinking—being with family was worth more than anything.
"However, you must be prepared. Once you travel back, everything in both worlds will return to normal. You will very likely become an unconscious vegetable again."
Qiuyun looked up at Qiu Zhenghong upon hearing this. After a long silence, she let out a faint, ghostly sigh. "But that is my world. And that is my fate."
Just then, the old-fashioned grandfather clock in the corner suddenly chimed. *Dong, dong, dong...* It struck sixteen times.
Outside the window, the light rain continued to fall, as if it were on an unlimited monthly data plan.
"I have said all I need to say," Qiu Zhenghong spoke. "Do you have anything else you want to ask?"
"Yes," Qiuyun said. "When will you have me drink the specific dose of well water to send me back?"
Qiu Zhenghong smiled slightly. "You have already drunk it."
"I've already drunk it?"
"The tea I brewed for you is the same tea Xiaoyun and I used to travel. Now, all you need to do is wait for the tea to take effect."
Qiuyun frowned slightly. "Roughly how long?"
"Hard to say. It could be the next second, it could be three months, it could be ten years. Before it takes effect, you will experience a series of physical discomforts. Those will be your signals."
Qiuyun asked no more questions. The information she had gathered today was already enough to make her head spin.
As she was leaving, Qiu Zhenghong cautioned her again, "This is the first time I've encountered a soul swap. Pay attention to whether your body feels unwell. I will stay here until you travel back."
When Sima Qiuyun stepped out of the courtyard gate, she felt like her head was about to explode.
The information load was too much. Courtyards, well water, parallel dimensions, soul swaps... even Yu Zheng wouldn't dare write a plot this chaotic, yet it was actually happening to her! She didn't want to believe it was true, but the logic of the entire event was tight and seamless. She couldn't find a single flaw. Was there any other explanation for all this besides believing it?
And was there anything wrong with her body?
Was there? She didn't seem to feel anything unusual. She had gotten drunk after just a little bit of alcohol a few days ago—did that count?
She knocked on her own head, feeling an urge to bang it against a wall. But she immediately snapped out of it and gently stroked her head—there was a tumor in here; she had to handle it with care!
When Liang He spotted Qiuyun, she happened to have that exact look of deep distress on her face. That day, when he had seen her smile that looked more painful than crying, he had wondered what could make Qiu Xiaoyun look like that. After thinking for a long time, he concluded it could only be her family troubles. He had intended to talk to her on Sunday, but Wang Chen from her dorm said she wasn't there and had gone home. Liang He thought, *Just as I suspected.* So, he had hurried over to Phoenix Street to conduct a home visit. He hadn't expected that as soon as he entered the alley, he would see Qiuyun pounding her own head. He was almost right in front of her, yet she still hadn't noticed him.
Liang He couldn't help but speak up: "Student Qiu Xiaoyun."
"Ah!" Qiuyun was genuinely startled. She was still immersed in her thoughts; forget a person, even a cat jumping past would have made her jump out of her skin.
"What's wrong?" Liang He rubbed his ears. "That's a bit much. What are you worrying about? What happened?"
"Ah..." Qiuyun hadn't quite recovered her senses. Her mind was still wondering if her body had any other abnormalities besides sensitivity to alcohol. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her, and her brow furrowed tightly.
"What is it, exactly?" Liang He asked again.
Qiuyun said unconsciously, "I... I... I haven't had my period in four months."
Upon hearing this, Liang He's face turned red instantly. But immediately after, his sharp brows knit together, and he let out a low, almost angry shout: "Who did it?!"
***
