"What’s the call today?"
"You go first!"
"Crispy fried chicken."
"Orleans roasted chicken leg!"
"Loser pays."
"It’s a deal!"
In the fourth row by the window in Class Five, Grade Ten at Ningjiang Middle School, Song Yunshen and Xu Zhuoyue were whispering to each other.
The two were betting on what meat dish the cafeteria would serve for dinner tonight. According to the specific rules of the school cafeteria, main meat dishes like crispy fried chicken and Orleans roasted chicken legs would only ever appear one at a time. They were never served together.
The loser would have to treat the winner to today’s meal.
"I really don’t believe this," Xu Zhuoyue, who had just gotten a buzz cut, said through gritted teeth. "It’s been a whole week in a row. Can you really be this accurate every single time?"
"Why can’t you just accept reality?" Song Yunshen said calmly. "This is what you call pure skill."
"We just had the crispy fried chicken three days ago. There’s no way they’re serving it again today!" Xu Zhuoyue said with a look of absolute certainty. "I haven’t seen my beloved Orleans chicken leg in over a damn week!"
"Oh," Song Yunshen replied softly. He then slightly straightened his posture, looked intently at the blackboard, and effortlessly spun his pen with his right hand, assuming the pose of a very attentive student.
A second later, the English teacher’s voice rang out from the podium.
"Xu Zhuoyue, your turn." The English teacher pushed up her glasses, pursed her lips painted with light-colored lipstick, and asked with a stern expression, "What’s the answer to this question?"
Hearing his name called, Xu Zhuoyue instantly jolted and slowly stood up from his seat, looking somewhat stiff. Turning his head and seeing Song Yunshen’s utterly serious demeanor, he immediately cursed internally.
The screen on the podium was displaying the lesson slides, which showed yesterday’s English homework. They were currently going over a multiple-choice question.
Unfortunately, Xu Zhuoyue was a terrible student when it came to English. Right now, he was completely clueless. He glanced at the question prompt before immediately lowering his head to shoot desperate glances at Song Yunshen.
Catching his desk-mate’s signal, Song Yunshen looked speechless. He glanced down at his workbook, only to remember that he hadn’t done the homework yesterday either. Their lovely and beautiful English teacher only occasionally asked the class representative to collect homework, so sometimes Song Yunshen couldn’t be bothered to do it. As a fellow terrible English student, he could only silently pray for Xu Zhuoyue.
Teacher Jiang was pretty and nice anyway. Getting scolded by her could be considered a form of enjoyment, Song Yunshen thought as he offered his mental blessings.
But right at that moment, a somewhat familiar voice suddenly rang out in Song Yunshen’s mind. He couldn’t tell if he was hallucinating it.
"Choose C."
This abrupt voice made Song Yunshen freeze for a moment. Before he could dwell on it, Xu Zhuoyue covertly kicked him. Urged on by his desk-mate, Song Yunshen decided not to overthink it. He discreetly signed a "C" on his desk with his fingers.
Getting the hint, Xu Zhuoyue immediately answered loudly, "The answer is C!"
"Mhm, that is correct." Teacher Jiang didn’t let him off the hook just because he got it right. She followed up by asking, "Then why is it C? Please explain your reasoning."
"Uh..." Xu Zhuoyue looked completely bewildered. "How am I supposed to know?" he thought to himself. He lowered his head again, looking to his good brother for help.
Of course, Song Yunshen didn’t know the reason either. They were both notoriously terrible at English in their class. Barely passing an exam was already a miracle for them. Besides, Teacher Jiang was staring right at them. Even if he knew why the answer was C, it wasn’t like he knew sign language to explain it.
Just then, that strange voice rang out in Song Yunshen’s mind once more.
"The usage of A, B, and D doesn’t fit this sentence structure at all. You can get it just by using the process of elimination. Besides, doesn’t everyone know the answer to this question just by looking at it?"
"Hmm... This voice does sound really familiar," Song Yunshen thought, glancing back at his good brother. "But does this even count as an explanation? What does it mean by ’you can get the answer just by looking at it’?"
Helplessly shaking his head, Song Yunshen signaled to Xu Zhuoyue that there was nothing he could do to help.
Seeing that he couldn’t answer, Teacher Jiang on the podium waved her hand, signaling for him to sit down. She then admonished, "Listen carefully during class. No whispering to each other. Alright, let’s take another look at this question."
Xu Zhuoyue breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly sat down. Taking advantage of Teacher Jiang looking away, he whispered to Song Yunshen, "Would it kill you to elaborate a bit more?"
"I didn’t know how they got that answer either," Song Yunshen replied in a low voice.
"Bullshit," Xu Zhuoyue said indignantly. "Didn’t you skip the homework yesterday just like I did? Yet you somehow knew the answer, and you expect me to believe you didn’t know how to solve it?"
"Oh," Song Yunshen nodded. "When in doubt, choose C. Don’t you know that rule?"
Xu Zhuoyue was rendered utterly speechless.
"By the way," Song Yunshen skipped past the topic and asked instead, "Did you hear someone talking just now?"
"Huh? You mean Teacher Jiang?"
"I mean besides the teacher."
"No," Xu Zhuoyue looked confused. "Is something wrong with your brain?"
Song Yunshen shook his head and said no more. He just rubbed his temples, feeling a trace of doubt about his current mental state.
"Why are weird things happening more and more often?" he wondered.
The moment the dismissal bell rang, before Teacher Jiang could even finish saying "Class dismissed," several boys from Class Five—including Song Yunshen and Xu Zhuoyue—had already sprinted out of the classroom like a gust of wind.
As the bell chimed, the entire academic building began to hum and vibrate. Figures bolted straight for the cafeteria like piglets let out of a gate.
Class Five of the tenth grade was located on the second floor, which put them at a slight disadvantage right out of the starting blocks. After running downstairs, the two immediately caught up with the vanguard, rushing to the cafeteria at the speed of a hundred-meter sprint.
At this time, only a few people were sparsely lined up in the cafeteria hall. They were all students from classes with highly advantageous classroom locations. Song Yunshen and Xu Zhuoyue quickly found the shortest line to join. Only then did they have the time to look up at today’s menu.
"Damn it!"
The moment Xu Zhuoyue raised his head, he saw the words "Crispy Fried Chicken" displayed on the electronic screen above the window. However, he couldn’t find his long-awaited "Orleans Roasted Chicken Leg."
"What did I tell you?" Song Yunshen had clearly confirmed the answer as well. Smiling, he rubbed his fingers together at Xu Zhuoyue. "Hand it over."
"Tsk." Looking speechless, Xu Zhuoyue dug his meal card out of his pants pocket and shoved it into Song Yunshen’s hand, though his face still showed his unwillingness to accept defeat. "Did you bribe the cafeteria ladies or something?"
"Do I look that bored to you?"
"Yes."
"Get lost." Song Yunshen rolled his eyes. Having successfully won a free meal, he ordered two meat dishes and one vegetable dish for himself, happily swiping Xu Zhuoyue’s meal card to pay for it.
After getting their food, the two found an empty table and sat down.
Halfway through their meal, Xu Zhuoyue poked Song Yunshen’s elbow and winked at him. "Look over there."
"What is it?" Song Yunshen glanced in the direction Xu Zhuoyue was gesturing at and easily spotted a beautiful figure amidst the crowd.
"It’s Xia Yunuo," Xu Zhuoyue chuckled. "Doesn’t the class representative always come to you for help with math problems? I think you have a real shot with her."
"I think you’re the one who’s just too bored." Song Yunshen shook his head. He was just about to shift his gaze away from Xia Yunuo’s face when, a second later, that somewhat familiar voice rang out in his mind once again.
"Ah... it’s the crispy fried chicken. My older sister would probably love this the most. But the meat dishes are too expensive. I should just stick to the vegetarian options."
Song Yunshen, who was about to turn his head back, paused. His gaze lingered on Xia Yunuo’s face as a flash of realization mingled with doubt crossed his eyes.
"Is that Xia Yunuo’s voice?" he wondered.
At this moment, Xia Yunuo was lining up all by herself. Her makeup-free cheeks were fair and translucent. Her face was devoid of expression, making her look a bit aloof and unapproachable. Song Yunshen really liked Xia Yunuo’s eyes, which were as clear and cool as water. The faint mole near the outer corner of her right eye always seemed to draw his attention.
But right now, he was only wondering one thing: why would Xia Yunuo’s voice echo inside his head? He had felt the voice was somewhat familiar earlier, and now that he had a suspect in mind, the resemblance became increasingly undeniable.
"Hey, hey, hey! Are you mesmerized?" Seeing him stare fixedly at her, Xu Zhuoyue couldn’t help but wave a hand in front of his face. "Did I really hit the nail on the head?"
Song Yunshen snapped back to his senses. Turning his head back, he shook it. "I was thinking about something else."
"Don’t tell me you’re already fantasizing about getting married and having kids with her," Xu Zhuoyue teased with a mischievous grin.
"You’re overthinking it."
"I’m telling you, a lot of guys in our class have a crush on Xia Yunuo, and there are even guys from other classes who like her," Xu Zhuoyue said covertly. "If you really have feelings for her, you better make your move fast."
"I staunchly support the school’s rule against teenage romance," Song Yunshen said in complete seriousness, ignoring Xu Zhuoyue’s instigation. "Eat your food."
"Tch, keep pretending."
Later that evening, after the self-study session ended, Song Yunshen and Xu Zhuoyue strapped on their backpacks early and bolted out the school gates.
Riding his bicycle all the way back to his residential complex, Song Yunshen sprinted into his home. He hurriedly rushed into his bedroom, took out a key, and unlocked the top drawer of his desk.
Inside lay a diary.
He spread the diary open on his desk and quickly flipped to the page he wanted to see.
"Friday, June 20, 2025.
"For lunch today, there’s my favorite steamed egg with minced pork, and for dinner, there’s crispy fried chicken. Unfortunately, my meat quota for this week is already used up, so I’ll just have to eat some vegetables.
"I should probably be more frugal on a daily basis anyway. That way, my little sisters can eat a bit more.
"Summer vacation is right around the corner. I wonder if I’ll be able to find a suitable part-time job smoothly. It would be great if I could help share some of Mom’s burden."
Looking at the unfamiliar handwriting in the diary, Song Yunshen let out a long, quiet sigh.
"It matched again..."
He had just bought this notebook a little while ago. But before he could even start using it, he discovered that it already contained diary entries written by someone else.
At first, Song Yunshen thought the shop had sold him a used notebook. But later, he realized something was wrong. Just a couple of days later, new entries appeared in the diary. The most crucial part was that the dates written on them were all in the future—times that had not yet occurred.
For instance, the entry Song Yunshen was looking at right now was dated June 20, 2025, which was today. Yet, he had seen this entry the day before yesterday. And diary entries like this had been continuously generating for nearly half a month.
For such a supernatural phenomenon, Song Yunshen couldn’t find a single logical explanation. However, after over a week of verification, he was fundamentally certain of one thing: the contents written in this diary were real events that would actually happen in the future. After all, he had already won a week’s worth of free meals off of it.
That meant this was a Future Diary!
But the most bizarre thing was that this wasn’t written by the future Song Yunshen himself. It was a Future Diary written by a stranger. Song Yunshen didn’t recognize the handwriting on these pages at all. It definitely wasn’t his own handwriting, that was for sure.
"It’s not exactly a bad thing, but..." Song Yunshen mumbled as he looked at the diary’s contents. "At least write down something useful."
Things like national events or stock market trends. He might have been able to make some money off it. Yet over the past half a month, it had all been trivial, everyday matters.
The only thing Song Yunshen was certain of right now was that the diary’s owner was also a student at Ningjiang Middle School. Other than that, there weren’t many useful clues at all.
"I have to figure out a way to find the person writing this diary," Song Yunshen thought. His fingers absentmindedly rubbed the pages as he casually flipped further back.
A second later, his expression abruptly froze. On a page that should have been blank, a new entry had just appeared.
"Don’t tell me it’s another post about what the cafeteria is serving on a random day," Song Yunshen mumbled, looking down to inspect it.
But very quickly, his face went slack with shock.
The entry glaringly read:
"October 27, 2036, Overcast.
"They got divorced.
"Song Yunshen, that idiot. He didn’t even know how to hide those photo albums and pictures properly, and they actually got discovered.
"But, since things have already come to this, is it really possible for me to get back together with him?
"Or perhaps, he might be more willing to choose her?"