Jiang Nianzhi sat on the sofa in the consultation room, her hands spread open, quietly staring at her palms, tracing the lines from her fingerprints down to the life line in the center of her hand.
That strange experience from a few days ago was impossible to ignore. In the end, after choosing to land, she retraced her steps and returned to the country.
Jiang Nianzhi had made an early appointment with her therapist. Since the therapist had not arrived yet, she sat alone in the consultation room waiting.
Recalling the events of that day, Jiang Nianzhi still found it unbelievable. Why did she have no memory of it at all?
What about her memories of being on the way to board the plane and getting on board?
Jiang Nianzhi even began to suspect whether she had been overly anxious lately, causing gaps in her memory.
Because of this, she chose to move her appointment with her therapist, originally scheduled for half a month later, up to today.
With a soft ding, the frosted white glass door was pushed open.
Jiang Nianzhi pulled herself out of the waves of memory. Looking up, she realized her therapist had actually arrived earlier. Holding two cups in her hands, the woman leaned against the desk, looking at her.
“What’s been going on with you lately? You look a bit off today. Have you not been sleeping well?”
Jiang Nianzhi remained silent. She wanted to say something, but she didn’t know how to start.
She was afraid that once she spoke, the doctor would tell her that her condition had worsened again.
“I think my condition has worsened.”
That single sentence plunged the entire consultation room into a chilling silence.
The therapist let out a gentle smile, pushed a chair in front of Jiang Nianzhi, and sat down opposite her.
A faint scent of disinfectant drifted through the room. As the therapist shifted her position, the warm aroma of cocoa and caffeine chased away the clinical smell. Sitting down, the therapist handed a cup of hot cocoa to Jiang Nianzhi.
Jiang Nianzhi accepted it, cradling the cup with both hands.
The therapist took a sip of her coffee before slowly asking, “Did you dream about your past again? Did something happen on set recently?”
The palms of Jiang Nianzhi’s hands burned slightly from the heat of the glass cup. “It wasn’t about the set. I haven’t dreamed about those things recently.”
“But a few days ago,”
“I woke up sitting on an airplane bound for the UK. That ticket was part of my original itinerary, but I had already asked my assistant to cancel it beforehand. Yet for some reason, when I woke up, I was sitting on that plane.”
“And I even ran into a woman I’ve seen many times before.”
“I feel like I’m missing parts of my memory. Has my condition gotten worse?”
Hearing this, the therapist’s tension relaxed slightly. She didn’t let it show on her face, instead maintaining her usual gentle smile. “How has your schedule been lately?”
Jiang Nianzhi frowned in thought for a moment. “The Lunar New Year is coming up soon, so work has been very busy lately.”
The therapist motioned for her to taste the cocoa. Jiang Nianzhi lifted the cup and took a sip.
Once she swallowed, the therapist continued, “Your recent schedule has been far too demanding, pushing your stress and mental state to extreme fatigue. That’s why you chose to go traveling. As for saying you asked your assistant to cancel the ticket, that’s simply because under extreme exhaustion, you mistook a dream for reality, when in fact it was just your imagination and you never actually asked to cancel it. The reason you opened your eyes and found yourself on the plane is just that you were too exhausted and experienced a memory blackout.”
Jiang Nianzhi still felt a bit anxious in her heart, but hearing the therapist’s reassuring words, she also came to believe it was caused by being overly tired. It was a very common thing, just a simple case of having a blackout.
Stepping out of the hospital, Jiang Nianzhi felt a good mood bubbling up. The weather today was exceptionally nice.
It was rare to encounter such a sunny day in the middle of winter.
Not only was the sunshine bright and clear, but there were also no slushy water stains on the roads from melting snow.
Jiang Nianzhi felt she should buy another cup of hot cocoa.
It must have been her excessive stress lately that caused the blackout.
She pulled out her phone and set the navigation for the nearest coffee shop.
In the cold winter wind, the sunlight showered over everyone. A goddess-like woman was walking up a short, sloping street. She wore a white coat over a long black pleated skirt, with a black scarf wrapped around her neck, covering the lower half of her face and leaving only her beautiful eyes exposed.
The sunlight fell upon her, as if gently caressing and embracing her, blending its golden warmth into her strands of hair. The woman’s eyes curved slightly.
She, too, was happy about today’s wonderful weather.
Just crossing one more intersection would bring her to that coffee shop.
As Jiang Nianzhi walked, she kept her head down looking at the navigation on her phone, searching everywhere for the coffee shop.
Turning this corner would be it.
Following the direction, Jiang Nianzhi raised her eyes and happened to lock eyes with someone.
That woman was holding a transparent umbrella, with raindrops still trickling down from it. She happened to be wearing a black coat, the hem marked with dark patches, while the edges of her pant legs bore trace wet spots, and even her short boots had water marks on them.
It was as if she had just walked through a heavy downpour to arrive here.
The strangeness of her behavior made Jiang Nianzhi look away from her face at first, scanning the surrounding concrete ground instead.
It was pure gray, without a single trace of water.
Only then did Jiang Nianzhi look up at the woman’s face.
That familiar face, along with those slightly narrowed peach-blossom eyes.
It was actually her again?
From the film crew, to the airplane, and now to this coffee shop.
The coincidences were getting absurd.
How could she happen to appear beside her every single time?
It couldn’t possibly be orchestrated by heaven, could it?
Jiang Nianzhi found this person’s tricks ridiculously excessive, looking up her phone number, tracking her schedule, following her onto the plane, and even following her to her psychological hospital.
And now staging such a bizarre random encounter.
What was she hoping for? Expecting her to fall for her, love her, and stay with her forever?
Jiang Nianzhi only felt terrified and horrified.
A woman like this was far too scheming.
Jiang Nianzhi’s face instantly went cold. She put away her phone and turned to leave, not wanting to stay for even another second.
From behind her, the woman called out to her.
Jiang Nianzhi didn’t care at all, continuing forward with large strides. She thought to herself that she must step up her personal security.
Someone going crazy for the sake of love was honestly a bit laughable.
Immersed in her own mental world, Jiang Nianzhi was secretly planning to arrange all kinds of useful and useless security measures, completely missing the wail from the woman behind her.
Sui Ning was truly breaking down. Clearly she had walked out of the hotel with an umbrella and traveled such a long distance, even getting her pants soaked, all just to go to that super delicious dessert shop.
She had walked for so long, and was just about to reach that dessert shop, so why was she teleported back to East City?
What on earth was going on? Who was playing tricks on her? What did they want her to do?
Her raspberry pie, her apple pie, her desserts, why treat her like this?
Sui Ning’s heart felt cut by a knife. Though she remained standing on the spot, her mind was on the verge of collapsing.
Did she really fly for over a dozen hours to the UK, get drenched in heavy rain, and brave the downpour and cold wind to buy British desserts, only to be painlessly teleported back to her home country?
And why did that woman from earlier appear around her every single time? Why was she always near her?
What kind of witchcraft or magic was this woman using? Did she really go to Hogwarts for school?
Besides, that woman seemed extremely annoyed by her, turning around to leave the moment she saw her.
Sui Ning originally wanted to chase after her to ask, but seeing the other person’s attitude, she felt these encounters must really be pure coincidences.
But who was tormenting her by making her travel back and forth like this!
And how was she supposed to tell her assistants at the UK meeting scheduled two hours from now that she was already on a flight back home?!
And that she had already arrived in the country?
Sui Ning’s breakdown lasted for only one minute.
She even thought with a bit of self-abandonment that if she teleported again next time, at least it would be within the country rather than being randomly teleported abroad.
That was still quite lucky.
Even Sui Ning herself was somewhat amazed at how fast she accepted new things.