A Chan – CH 151

Chapter 151: Extra Chapter: The 0th Cycle (3)

Zhang Jingchan got into Cheng Chuan’s car, completely unaware.

Then, Zhang Jingchan witnessed what was supposed to happen. He followed Cheng Chuan to the small house he shared with his cellmate. The two had a fierce argument, even drawing knives. In a flash, Zhang Jingchan used all his strength to push Cheng Chuan.

His transparent hands clearly passed through Cheng Chuan’s back, but Cheng Chuan shuddered, stumbled, and the dagger he was about to use to stab his cellmate fell to the ground.

His cellmate punched Cheng Chuan in the face.

The two then beat each other up, both exhausted. One leaned against the wall, the other slumped on the table, panting. The thugs, having vented their emotions, gradually calmed down. They talked back and forth, eventually reaching a compromise.

Zhang Jingchan stood in the shadowy corner, watching Cheng Chuan instruct his fellow inmates to hide the evidence, promising a hefty reward afterward, before driving away again.

Why didn’t the cycle happen?

Perhaps the cycle shouldn’t have happened.

Because on January 13, 2022, the day the cycle should have occurred, Cheng Chuan accidentally killed his fellow inmate and was imprisoned again.

And now?

History had been changed by his own hand. Had the cycle begun?

Zhang Jingchan closed his eyes and smiled.

Of course, it had begun.

From 2043 to 2022, he was in the 0th cycle.

The cycle had begun.

…

It felt like an eternity, yet also like a fleeting moment, a blink of an eye.

Zhang Jingchan saw a truly wondrous sight.

In the void, he saw two overlapping spaces.

He was standing at the exit of the river-crossing tunnel in the dead of night, watching the dense crowds cross the road, watching Xu Yi, in his thirties, drive a Jeep and hit several people, and watching himself, in his twenties, with Li Weiyi, drive another car and crash head-on into them.

But then he saw a bright sun, an unfamiliar road, a pond beside it, and a residential area in the distance, with groups of high school students walking home from school.

In the blink of an eye, his feet were on that unfamiliar road, and the scene from 2022 vanished. He looked around, his pupils instantly contracting.

Because he saw 17-year-old Li Weiyi, holding a sketchbook, walking and looking at it, heading in his direction.

Zhang Jingchan had never seen 17-year-old Li Weiyi before, yet he recognized her at a glance.

He watched her smile, watched her not even look where she was going, her foot slipped, and Zhang Jingchan quickly shouted, “Watch out!” But it was too late; she slipped and fell into the pond.

Zhang Jingchan was frantic. Without thinking, he jumped into the water, trying to lift her up, but he only saw his fingers pass through her body. Li Weiyi, struggling in the water, glanced in his direction and reached out her hand, as if to beg for help.

But he couldn’t grasp it!

The next instant, Zhang Jingchan was back on land. He looked around for help, but as if driven by fate, he looked in a certain direction.

He saw his 19-year-old self, walking side-by-side with Li Yunmo, talking, passing under the shade of a tree, without glancing in his direction.

A saying he had once heard flashed through Zhang Jingchan’s mind: if time travel happened, two versions of yourself couldn’t exist in the same timeline; otherwise, time and space would collapse.

He glanced down at his illusory self, as if understanding something.

He ran over and grabbed his 19-year-old self’s shoulder tightly.

The boy’s back trembled. He turned around, bewildered, seeing nothing but a figure splashing in the pool not far away. Without thinking, he threw down his schoolbag, ran over, and jumped into the water.

Zhang Jingchan and the boy jumped into the water together. Behind him, he looked at her 17-year-old self again and smiled at her.

She seemed dazed, but she smiled back at him, reaching out to touch him, but all light and shadow vanished before Zhang Jingchan’s eyes.

His second overlapping cycle had ended.

When Zhang Jingchan awoke in the third cycle, he understood everything. He understood that because two selves couldn’t coexist in the same spacetime, he could only cycle as an energy body; he understood that his cycle could only run from 2043 to 2022. However, because the cycle in their timeline was in progress when he traveled back, he was actually lucky enough to be dragged back to 2014 by their loop.

He was genuinely happy to be back in 2014.

He arrived in September 2014.

When he saw Xu Yi enter Zhang Jingchan’s body and try to deceive Li Weiyi, he didn’t panic. He had a feeling they would win. All the evildoers would be brought to justice, Zhang Jingchan would ultimately be with Li Weiyi, and his parents and friends would be safe and healthy, just like in his dream.

When he saw Li Weiyi cleverly run to the hospital, while Zhang Jingchan lingered in the fire escape on the other side, unable to approach due to police guards, he suddenly felt an impulse.

He wanted to help them.

He also wanted her to look at him one more time, just like when they first met in the water.

Although later, she probably thought that what she saw was Zhang Jingchan, who was only 19 years old from beginning to end.

So he stood in the bustling passageway and shouted to her, “Weiyi! Li Weiyi! I’m here! I’m Zhang Jingchan!”

I was that Zhang Jingchan, who missed you, the one who could never be relived.

Under the bright lights, amidst the noisy crowd, the girl slowly looked up, gazing in his direction with confusion.

Zhang Jingchan smiled at her.

He knew that in that instant, she saw him.

But she would probably never know that what she saw was Zhang Jingchan, who had traveled from many years in the future.

Li Weiyi ran towards him, passing through his body, running towards the direction of the young Zhang Jingchan.

Zhang Jingchan looked down, staring at his fingertips, watching his once transparent body slowly disappear into this space-time.

The die was cast. He thought.

The history of 2014 had changed, and 2022 would inevitably change as well.

Then what about 2043?

In that timeline where the 0th cycle only occurs 21 years later, would he find happiness?

—

January 21, 2022.

The day after Li Weiyi arrived in Shanghai.

Sunlight streamed in, and Zhang Jingchan slowly opened his eyes, momentarily dazed.

Li Weiyi, naked, slowly woke up and nestled in his arms, asking, “What are you thinking about? You seem so lost in thought.”

Zhang Jingchan replied, “I dreamt about some things.”

“Like what?”

“I dreamt that the cycle didn’t happen, that you and I passed each other by, and only met again 21 years later.”

“That’s really tragic.” Li Weiyi clicked her tongue twice. “To be honest, if it weren’t for me, you would have been in a terrible situation. How isolated would you have become? I remember the first life we met; you were so weird. The white moonlight has arrived? Sit down? How many months have you been here? I heard you’re mine? The first time I saw you, you walked with an aura of lifelong loneliness. Sister Zhou told me back then that no woman in the whole of Xiangcheng wanted to marry you.”

Zhang Jingchan chuckled, pinching her nose: “Are you satisfied?”

Li Weiyi understood what he was asking, obediently nodding and uttering two words: “So satisfying.”

Zhang Jingchan stared at her, then turned away. This early morning, she was sometimes incredibly shy and sometimes incredibly straightforward.

Li Weiyi leaned against him and said, “Tell me, will all those parallel universes that we rewrote continue according to their original fate, or will they also be rewritten, or… completely erased and cease to exist?”

Zhang Jingchan’s answer in his heart was “erased,” but he answered gently, “Probably, they’ll be rewritten. Every parallel universe is moving forward.”

Li Weiyi was happy and nodded, saying, “That’s good. That way, we in every universe will find happiness.”

Yes, Li Weiyi, from now on, you and I in every universe would find happiness.