Xiao Shitou sat there, gripping the edge of his clothes tightly, never touching the hot cocoa. He asked, “Who exactly are you?”
From the situation on the mountain that day, it seemed the man’s relationship with Lin Heyu was distant, and they couldn’t be considered “friends.”
More shockingly—he could vanish into thin air, just like special effects in movies. This wasn’t an illusion that could be exposed, but a genuine transformation, far more spectacular than any magic trick.
Thus, Xiao Shitou even suspected he might have engineered this strange place.
“You need to remember my name.” He wrote two characters on the table with his finger: “Yi” for “exchange/misplaced” and “Shi” for “time.”
“‘Yi Shi?’”
“Meaning ‘misplaced time.’”
“Oh…” Xiao Shitou nodded slowly, pondering the unfamiliar term. Such a peculiar person; normally, when introducing names, one would choose words that are easiest to remember, like “easy” or “simple.” Yet he used a term that could easily be confused with other words and had such a unique meaning.
Nevertheless, this gave him a deep impression of the name—misplaced time, Yi Shi.
“So, what do you want with me?” Xiao Shitou looked up at the round clock. “I can’t stay too long; my family will worry.”
Given Lin Zhizhi’s personality, she would surely be very anxious and crying her eyes out if she couldn’t find him.
“I know, you came here with Zhizhi,” Yi Shi said.
Xiao Shitou was stunned: “You know her?”
“Yes, I know. We have a complex connection.” Yi Shi paused, “Including Lin Heyu. To be precise, the three of us have a peculiar connection.”
Among these three people, two were very dear to him, yet had a deep connection with Yi Shi. Xiao Shitou lowered his head, his emotions quietly piling up, an indescribable feeling, but it was definitely unpleasant.
Yi Shi seemed to guess what he was thinking, saying, “Compared to me, you are in the happiest time now. Both of them are by your side, loving and protecting you. You must cherish this time.”
Xiao Shitou deliberately contradicted him: “Not just now, we’ll be together for a very, very long time…”
He spewed out several “long times,” but Yi Shi didn’t interrupt, merely resting his forehead on one hand and quietly gazing.
Xiao Shitou caught his breath and finally took a sip of the hot cocoa. Before he could ask why Yi Shi sought him out, Yi Shi asked in return, “What do you think my reason for finding you is?”
“Related to Uncle Lin or the case.”
Yi Shi smiled with satisfaction, clearly impressed by Xiao Shitou’s sharpness. Xiao Shitou, however, was not so pleased. Even though Yi Shi was also a police officer, if his intentions were to probe information about Lin Heyu, he had nothing to offer.
The child sitting opposite him was like a hedgehog ready for battle at any moment. Yi Shi waved his hand indifferently: “There’s no need to be so defensive. I know the details of your future, the entire case, and the whereabouts of the Gardenia.”
“You know where Gardenia is?!” Xiao Shitou suddenly stood up, the news about his sister instantly overshadowing the other two pieces of information. He leaned over the table towards Yi Shi, his eyes wide, and asked: “How is she? Is she okay? Has she… been taken to the operating table?”
The last question was almost bitten out. Last night, not long after he had fallen asleep, he felt Lin Heyu get up quietly and leave the house. He also quietly got up, opened the door a crack, and saw Lin Heyu making a phone call in the hallway. His voice was very low and soft, but even so, fragments of words reached his ears.
“His sister,” “adopted,” “kidney/source,” in an instant, Xiao Shitou’s hands and feet grew cold, and his blood nearly froze. As a long-time wandering orphan, he had seen too many able-bodied children being trafficked, only to appear on the streets later with mutilated limbs. Those who were lucky became tools for begging, while those less fortunate would end up dying tragically in dark corners. There was once a child of the same age appearing under a bridge, barely alive. He curiously lifted the child’s clothes and saw a fresh scar on his belly, winding like a centipede.
“No kidney left, not useful anymore…” The old beggar shook his head and sighed, feeling pity, and covered the child with a torn straw mat.
From that time on, Xiao Shitou had been very careful to protect the Gardenia to prevent her from becoming a target for the black market. However, strangely, despite their daily appearances on the streets, they had never become targets for organ trafficking. The old beggar said that the children who grew up in garbage dumps had toxins in their bodies, and rich people looked down on them, so they escaped calamity.
But now Gardenia was wearing that kindergarten uniform.
Xiao Shitou’s vision blurred, and he slid down against the wall to the ground, gently hugging his knees. He had thought that by doing so he could protect his sister, but such a bizarre turn of events occurred. Why did he bring her in secretly that day? If it hadn’t been his idea, they would never have encountered such an issue!
Lin Heyu hung up the phone. Xiao Shitou wiped his eyes and quickly climbed back into bed, curling up. After Lin Heyu came in and lay down next to him, covering him with the blanket again, in the darkness, he opened his eyes, biting his lip tightly until he tasted a hint of iron rust.
Lying next to Lin Heyu was not because he was spoiled and could not be apart from him, but because Gardenia was in too much danger, and he could not relax even for a moment.
“Calm down first; she will be okay. I will also tell you where she is.” Yi Shi casually picked up an empty plate from the table and extended his hand towards Xiao Shitou. “Did you bring the stone Gardenia gave you?”
Xiao Shitou nodded, pulling a stone from his pocket and handing it over. Yi Shi held the small stone in one hand and a jug of lemon water in the other. As he tilted the jug, the lemon water continuously poured over the stone, while his fingers also rubbed it.
Gradually, the colorful watercolor melted and dripped, and the plate filled with multicolored droplets. After washing away the superficial layer, Yi Shi revealed a plain, unadorned stone with crooked lines made from acrylic paint.
Xiao Shitou was amazed, moving closer to Yi Shi and taking the stone from his hand. The lines looked like the number “1,” but upon closer inspection, there was also a small dot, presumably the letter “i.”
So, every stone in his pocket might have a letter, serving as Gardenia’s remaining method of seeking help with her limited literacy.
Yi Shi dried his hands and patted Xiao Shitou’s head: “Don’t let Lin Heyu know. He has always been the one saving you, but this time, he cannot go.”
Xiao Shitou held the stone, looking up at him: “…Why?”
Yi Shi’s smile gradually faded, his brows lowering: “Gardenia is an additional hostage. If Lin Heyu goes to rescue her, he will die.”
…He will die?
Xiao Shitou shivered all over. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and forced himself to calm down. When he opened his eyes again, he had already suppressed the previous panic. The two pairs of eyes, equally dark as night, gazed at each other. He whispered, “…Can I trust you?”
Yi Shi smiled and leaned in, resting his forehead against Xiao Shitou’s: “You can only trust me, and I can only trust you.”
In that moment, their reflections were all they saw. As they drew closer, the delicate features of Yi Shi came into full view. Xiao Shitou felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had seen this before. He stared into Yi Shi’s dark eyes, and for some reason, his anxious emotions gradually eased, replaced by a peculiar sense of recognition that melted away his resistance towards Yi Shi.
In that instant, he believed Yi Shi’s words and firmly trusted that he would not harm him or Lin Heyu.
Xiao Shitou nodded lightly: “Okay, I’ll go myself. Tell me the destination.”
Yi Shi pointed to a small pocket: “The puzzle game is more interesting when you try it yourself.”
He stood up, tilting his chin slightly, glanced at the clock on the wall, then looked back at the time reflected in the brown glass, placing his hand on Xiao Shitou’s shoulder: “It’s time to go back.”
Xiao Shitou looked around in confusion. He was in the café; how could he go back? Should he push the door out? Everything here was unfamiliar to him except Yi Shi.
“I’ll show you once, so watch carefully.” Yi Shi stepped on a chair, took down the clock from the wall, turned the minute hand back to “12,” shifted it slightly to the right, and hung it back up. He put the Bulbasaur toy back into Xiao Shitou’s arms and hugged his shoulder: “Look at that brown glass.”
Xiao Shitou looked up and focused on the brown glass in the center of the table. He was startled to see—reflected in the glass were moving figures?!
The coming and going customers, busy staff, and a couple sitting in their place, but in reality, after he and Yi Shi stood up, that space had remained empty.
Soon he realized that the reflection in the glass was of another world, the world he had always lived in.
Yi Shi led Xiao Shitou to the door, pinched his chin to lift it, and made sure his gaze was aligned with the clock face in the brown glass. His tone became more serious than before: “Pay attention to the time. For a perfect fit, every detail must not be ignored.”
Hearing this, Xiao Shitou’s eyes immediately shifted to the clock in the glass. At that moment, the reflected time was one minute to 11 o’clock, and the second hand was moving backward, slowly moving toward the number “12.”
The minute hand moved, reaching “12.” In the glass, the door was pushed open, and a foot in black short boots stepped in, entering the café.
Almost simultaneously, Yi Shi opened the café door and pushed Xiao Shitou from behind with force.
Xiao Shitou was startled, and his instinctive reaction was to reach forward to brace himself, but he grabbed not the ground but a soft fabric. Looking up, he saw Lin Zhizhi looking down at him: “Xiao Shitou, what happened? How could you fall on flat ground?”
Xiao Shitou looked at his own position, hugging Lin Zhizhi’s leg, like a child throwing a tantrum on the ground. Lin Zhizhi helped him up, looking worried: “Didn’t hurt yourself, did you? Does your knee hurt? It’s strange; you were clearly following me. How did you end up falling from the front…”
Xiao Shitou looked around. The café was bustling with people; no one noticed this minor accident. It felt like he had just followed Lin Zhizhi in, accidentally fell, and the events that just happened seemed like a dream.
Was it really a dream?
Xiao Shitou looked at the brown glass, but he clearly saw Yi Shi’s tall figure. At the moment he turned around, the reflection in the brown glass changed to the couple sitting at the table. He rubbed his eyes and hurried to the floor-to-ceiling window to get a closer look. Lin Zhizhi quickly followed, apologizing softly to the bewildered couple and pulling him away.
“Hey, what are you doing? What’s so interesting about the glass? Oh, where are you going now! You child…”
In the blink of an eye, Xiao Shitou ran to the front of the sunflower painting, looking up at the oil painting.
His eyes followed the sunflower petals down to the lower right corner and finally noticed the reflection point that was different from elsewhere. The center of the sunflower was replaced by a round coin, painted similarly, thus deceiving the eye. To see it more clearly, he moved a chair and stood on it, almost pressing his face against the painting.
“Hey, Xiao Shitou, what are you looking at? We have a puzzle of this painting. Let’s finish eating and go back to solve it, okay?”
Xiao Shitou ignored him, focusing intently on the coin. The closer he looked, the more he felt the coin was strange. If the paint was removed, the flower pattern and numbers… Xiao Shitou’s eyes widened suddenly: this was a completely opposite misprint coin!
He remembered that Miaomiao once talked about fruit candy in the car, and at that time, Miaomiao was with Yi Shi, so the only person who could create this phenomenon was Yi Shi. Moreover, the appearance of this coin in this world proved that Yi Shi had been here.
Xiao Shitou stood on the chair, lost in thought: what kind of person could traverse between two worlds, even more bizarre and frightening than ghosts?
There were no seats available on the first floor, so they had to go to the second floor to dine. As they went up the stairs, Lin Zhizhi was engrossed in the wall mural on the ceiling, marveling at the café’s clever design. After sitting down, she poked Xiao Shitou’s cheek: “You seem off. After coming in, it’s like you’ve become a different person. What happened?”
Xiao Shitou was silent for a long time before he quietly asked: “Auntie, do you believe… there is another world?”
“Parallel world? Of course, I do!” Lin Zhizhi clasped her hands and said excitedly, “I’ve fantasized more than once that in a parallel world, I’m a globally renowned designer, living in a big villa with a swimming pool, waking up every day on a 40,000 square meter bed, worrying about what to eat every day. And my design drafts, each worth millions! The client crying and begging me to be their dad! Hahaha…”
“…”
Lin Zhizhi laughed uncontrollably: “Dreams have everything. I would never get tired of such dreams. When will I really get to enjoy the life of a rich woman?”
Xiao Shitou turned his head, staring out the window in a daze.
[Don’t let Lin Heyu know. He has always been the one saving you, but this time, he cannot go.]
Yi Shi knew everything.
In a painful past, two thugs beat the old beggar to grab their hard-earned glass jar. Xiao Shitou picked up a bottle and happened to see this scene, rushing over to grab one of the thugs’ legs, only to be kicked away. His head hit the wall, and for a moment, his mind felt like it was swarming with countless buzzing flies.
In his dazed state, he vaguely saw one of the thugs stab the old beggar in the chest and then lost consciousness.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before a pair of warm hands picked him up and placed him on their lap. These hands examined his limbs, carefully checking the joints, and finally gently patted his back. Xiao Shitou groggily opened his eyes and saw a chiseled, handsome face: “Are you alright?”
Xiao Shitou got up, feeling dizzy and seeing everything spinning. The man supported him: “Don’t move around; you hit your head and might have a concussion. We’ll call an ambulance to take you to the hospital.”
Enduring the strong dizziness, Xiao Shitou stumbled up and knelt on the ground, searching around. The box only contained a few tattered paper boxes and plastic bags. He immediately panicked, mumbling, “Glass jar, glass jar…”
“Glass jar?” The man was silent for a few seconds, “Sorry, when I arrived, I didn’t see a glass jar. There was only you and the old man lying on the ground.”
Xiao Shitou then remembered the scene he saw before losing consciousness. He suddenly turned around and saw the old beggar curled up, lying in a pool of blood. The dirty, old body had lost its vitality, gradually becoming a stiff statue. In an instant, Xiao Shitou was frozen with bone-chilling cold, realizing the old beggar was dead, the glass jar was gone, and he and Gardenia would have to face the future.
The man took off his coat and draped it over him, beginning to make a phone call: “Yuan Maoqiu, bring the team over; there’s a homicide. Don’t worry about whether I’m on duty today. I happened to run into it. The person probably died about a minute ago. Bring the forensic team directly…”
He was a police officer.
Xiao Shitou, wrapped in the police officer’s coat, curled up in the corner of the wall, his eyes dazed and unfocused. He stared at the old beggar’s corpse, hoping he would get up, brush off the dust, and ask how many bottles he had picked up today and how much more money he could save…
But that was just a luxury in a dream.
His eyes were suddenly covered: “Don’t look.”
“…Is he really dead?” Xiao Shitou asked hoarsely.
“Yeah.”
Xiao Shitou’s strength was drained, and his body slumped weakly in the corner of the wall. His stomach churned uncomfortably, and pushing away the hand, he vomited a stomachful of acid. Soon, other police officers arrived at the scene, setting up a perimeter. Yuan Maoqiu pushed the man’s shoulder: “Hey, Lin Heyu, what’s your luck? Rarely on vacation and still handling cases. Are you a homicide radar or what?”
Lin Heyu expressionlessly put on gloves: “Stop talking. First, get that child to the hospital. He hit his head and has been vomiting. Probably a concussion.”
“Child? What child?”
Lin Heyu turned around and found the alley empty. His coat was left aside, and the small boy who had curled up in the corner had quietly left.
Xiao Shitou walked along the small path, enduring the pain, and found Gardenia, telling her about the old beggar’s death. Gardenia, still sick with a fever, clung to him and cried her heart out: “Grandpa, Grandpa is gone!”
Xiao Shitou stroked her hair, unable to speak about the stolen glass jars, and had to weave a comforting lie—Grandpa had hidden the glass jars in a safe place, and if they persevered, they would definitely find them.
Innocent Gardenia believed her brother’s words completely. Xiao Shitou continued wandering with her in the city. After that day, he never saw Lin Heyu again until the kidnapping incident.
In the pitch-dark cave, a group of police officers burst in, removing the black cloths covering their eyes one by one. Xiao Shitou squinted and instantly recognized that the person who carried him out of the cave was Lin Heyu.
Lin Heyu had long forgotten that chance encounter, and Xiao Shitou had never mentioned it, only hoping he wouldn’t learn about his dark past.
