[DING—]
[Yongtong Bridge Memory Fragment fusion complete. Host, please proceed to inspect.]
9:00 p.m.
At the familiar system prompt echoing in his mind, Chen Yan, who was lying in his office scrolling through his phone, felt a jolt of anticipation and immediately sat up. He had been distracted all day, waiting precisely for this moment. Quickly throwing on a jacket, he hurried toward West City Street under the cover of night.
Only a few scattered streetlamps illuminated the path. The scenic area had long since closed, leaving the entire Ancient City in dead silence, save for the occasional RUSTLE of night wind blowing through the leaves.
A few minutes later, the moment he set foot on West City Street, a strange sensation suddenly welled up within him. "Is there something off about this street?" he wondered.
Although West City Street didn’t attract many tourists, Chen Yan had frequented it countless times over the past three years. He had walked this street for three years and knew it like the back of his hand—down to which floor tile was loose and which shop’s door had peeling paint. But now, even though none of the street’s layout or buildings had changed, the overall vibe felt different. It felt... heavier. More profound. The sensation was elusive, like an aura that could only be felt but never truly described.
"Is it influenced by the Memory Fragment?" he wondered.
Remembering that West Bridge, which had just completed its Memory Fragment fusion, was only a short distance ahead, Chen Yan quickened his pace and soon arrived at the bridgehead. As he pulled aside the barricade, his movements abruptly stopped. The bridge was still in its original location, but its appearance had completely changed.
Bathed in moonlight, the Yongtong Bridge from his memories now lay quietly across the Jade Belt River. The familiar lotus stone carvings, the familiar bluestone pavement, even the ruts left by decades of passing carriages—none of it had changed in the slightest.
"It was actually brought over completely intact?" he murmured.
Stepping onto Yongtong Bridge, he felt as if he had returned to the bustling Qinghe Street. His left hand involuntarily rested on the cold lotus stone carvings once more.
[Yongtong Bridge (Resonating State) activated.]
The moment his left hand touched the stone carving, he noticed a system prompt suddenly pop up in the corner of his vision.
"Yongtong Bridge? Resonating State? What does that mean?"
Chen Yan stared blankly at the unprompted window. It hadn’t been long since he bound to the system. Moreover, the system wasn’t very intelligent; it only reacted under specific circumstances. This meant he had to figure out a lot of things on his own, just like the current situation. If he wanted to understand what was truly going on, he could only rely on time to slowly piece things together. There were no shortcuts.
Too lazy to waste brain cells on it for now, he let it go. The fusion of Yongtong Bridge was complete. From this moment onward, the West Bridge of Ning’an Ancient City that constantly gave Chen Yan trouble was gone, replaced by a genuine ancient stone bridge from a thousand years ago. However, a perfectly fine West Bridge changing its appearance overnight would definitely not escape the notice of the scenic area’s employees. Chen Yan’s approach to this was simply to cross that bridge when he came to it.
He stood alone on Yongtong Bridge for a long time until drowsiness finally hit him in the early hours of the morning, prompting him to turn around and leave.
Two days later, Saturday.
Xu Wanqiu arrived at Ning’an Ancient City in the afternoon. She was a local from the provincial capital. To get here, she had first taken a two-hour high-speed train, then transferred to a county bus. By the time she arrived, it was already 3:00 p.m. It had been half a month since she broke up with her boyfriend, and she had felt an unrelenting emptiness ever since. Unwilling to listen to the consolations of her family and friends, she just wanted to find a deserted place to clear her mind.
Coincidentally, she had stumbled upon Ning’an Ancient City on a local lifestyle app. The promotional copy was incredibly perfunctory: "An antique-style scenic area styled after the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Nothing to write home about. Few people, suitable for spacing out."
This lackluster description, which would hold zero appeal for anyone else, instantly struck a chord with Xu Wanqiu. She booked a high-speed train ticket that very night and arrived here the next day carrying only a small backpack.
Standing at the entrance of Ning’an Ancient City, she stared at the dilapidated, long-neglected gates. Wearing a pink sun hat, Xu Wanqiu suddenly hesitated. She just wanted to find a place with few people to relax, but this place seemed to go far beyond simply "having few people."
Still... she was already here.
Shaking her head to dispel the faint unease in her heart, she walked over to the ticket booth beside the city gate and gently knocked on the glass window. "A single ticket, please. Thank you."
Hearing the noise at the window, Chen Yan, who had been dozing off on a folding chair, immediately sat up. A habitual smile appeared on his face. "A single ticket is fifty yuan. Just scan the QR code to the side."
Sun had taken a leave of absence today, so as the boss, Chen Yan had to fill in as the ticket seller himself. Fortunately, this wasn’t the first time he had to do so.
BEEP—
"WeChat payment received: fifty yuan."
Hearing the payment notification, Chen Yan immediately printed a single ticket and handed it to Xu Wanqiu.
Shooting a rather perplexed glance at the ticket seller who maintained a customer-service smile the entire time, Xu Wanqiu didn’t overthink it. She tucked the ticket away and followed the tourist path into the Ancient City.
She had originally thought the Ancient City was only run-down on the outside, assuming it would be better on the inside with proper maintenance. She was wrong. The interior of the Ancient City wasn’t much better than the exterior.
Although she was an elementary school teacher, she still had some understanding of ancient architecture. Objectively speaking, apart from being somewhat unrefined overall, there wasn’t much to fault in terms of the architecture. There were bluestone roads, horse-head walls, carved window lattices, and a perfunctory water system. Walking down the street, one could occasionally hear the distant chirping of birds and the RUSTLE of wind blowing through the leaves.
But... that was it.
The entire Ancient City was visibly lacking in maintenance. Just from what she had seen, the plaster on several antique residential buildings was peeling off, exposing the moss-covered blue bricks underneath. As she continued to wander and take in more of the sights, the initial impulse that brought Xu Wanqiu here gradually faded.
The app’s review hadn’t lied. This Ancient City truly had no special characteristics whatsoever. If she absolutely had to name one, it would be its dilapidation—a lifeless, desolate dilapidation.
Fortunately, she had only come here to clear her head. At the very least, in terms of being sparsely populated, the Ancient City was quite "successful."
After strolling aimlessly for an hour, a slightly fatigued Xu Wanqiu found a stone bench by the river, sat down, and unscrewed the water bottle clipped to her waist to take a drink. She planned to rest for a bit and then leave. This Ancient City was indeed perfect for spacing out alone, but because of that, she felt a bit uneasy. After wandering for over an hour, the sun was almost setting. Having not run into a single person the entire time, she didn’t dare linger much longer.
But just as she tilted her head back to drink, she caught sight of a small stone bridge spanning the river in the distance from the corner of her eye. Because it was quite far, she couldn’t make out its exact appearance. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, the moment she laid eyes on that bridge, an urge inexplicably welled up inside her—she wanted to go over and get a closer look.
Acting on her impulse, she swiftly screwed the cap back onto her water bottle. Pulling out her ticket and flipping it over, she followed the map of the Ancient City printed on the back. Within moments, she arrived at West City Street, a place she hadn’t paid any attention to earlier.