The monster was getting closer, far too close.
Listening to that slick, wet sound creeping up behind them, Lu Xiao’s grip on Qian Jinye’s hand tightened uncontrollably. He didn’t even realize how much strength he was using.
Qian Jinye, equally panic-stricken, failed to notice at first. He just let Lu Xiao clutch tighter and tighter until the pain finally jolted him back to his senses. “Lu Xiao, calm down a little. You’re hurting me.”
Calm down? How was that even possible right now? They’d already felt the path was long when they first came through, but now it felt like a road that stretched on endlessly.
They had been running for what felt like ages, yet the small door they originally entered through was nowhere to be seen.
The monster’s cries grew stranger and stranger, no longer like the neighing of a horse, but more like a human’s desperate, soul-tearing scream.
The sound became chaotic and dissonant, as if thousands of resentful spirits were swirling through the air, weaving in and out by their ears, clawing at their sanity.
The narrow path grew even tighter, barely enough for one person to squeeze through. And yet, impossibly, that creature kept coming, dogged, relentless, while they themselves were being pushed to the brink with nowhere left to retreat.
“How the hell is it squeezing into a path this narrow? Damn it!”
Li Xianguan cursed harshly. Carrying Chen Yue’er on his back slowed him down compared to Lu Xiao and the others, and several times he felt that sticky, viscous liquid drip frighteningly close beside him. The more it happened, the more he wanted to turn around to check, driven by fear.
Qian Shengke was running in front, silent the entire way. Hearing Li Xianguan’s swearing, he finally raised his voice and shouted, “DO NOT LOOK BACK! As long as you don’t turn around, no matter what the road becomes, it will NOT catch you!”
Li Xianguan opened his mouth, wanting to ask why, but Chen Yue’er quickly covered it with her hand.
None of them had the spare energy to deal with whatever strange horrors the Qian residence hid. Their only priority was preserving their strength. Besides, Li Xianguan, bless his foolishness, was exerting twice the effort for two people. They couldn’t risk him slipping.
No one knew how long had passed. Lu Xiao felt as if his legs no longer belonged to him, moving only out of pure instinct, until finally, finally, the door they had entered through came into sight. He surged forward with excitement, pushed the door open, and in an instant the wet, slithering noise was cut off completely.
“Whew… we can look back now, right, gege? Yue’er, Xianguan, are you two alright?” Lu Xiao finally felt bold enough to direct the question to Qian Jinye. When saw Qian Shengke turn around to check on his younger brothers’ safety.
Well, call it asking. The truth was he’d already turned around eagerly but the sight behind him made Lu Xiao freeze.
“Yue’er? Xianguan?” There was no one there. And worse, it wasn’t even the same door.
It was a familiar door, yes, but not that familiar door. Instead… It was the kitchen door. They had somehow returned to the moment before they had ever reached the stables, before they uncovered that terrifying secret.
Qian Jinye and Qian Shengke looked completely unsurprised. Instead of panicking, they studied the door calmly. “Big Brother, this is the kitchen. Your tofu is still simmering,”
Lu Xiao didn’t understand why they were stating the obvious.
Worried, he paced in circles, unable to process the brothers’ hushed whispers.
Qian Shengke walked forward and lifted the pot lid. Inside was the same bowl of tofu, the exact same, even with the bite mark Qian Jinye had taken earlier still perfectly preserved.
He tasted a spoonful, then shook his head.
“This isn’t the same bowl as before. It tastes just like it did when we first left. I’m extremely sensitive to the texture of white pearl powder. I’d say we’ve returned to the moment right after we stepped out the door.”
It was absurd. Yet Lu Xiao’s mind had long since adapted to this strange world. At this point, nothing truly surprised him anymore. He accepted his second time travel like experience with reluctant calmness.
Then panic struck him again. If they had returned… Where were Li Xianguan and Chen Yue’er?
“Where did my companions go?” Lu Xiao asked urgently.
The two brothers exchanged a brief, heavy silence before giving him their best guess. “Logically, since we ran for so long, the door we encountered should have sent each of us back to the moment we departed. That way we wouldn’t go to the stables and wouldn’t encounter danger.”
Qian Jinye pulled out paper and ink, sketching a diagram as Qian Shengke explained, “The path near the stables is essentially a time-space tunnel. As long as we keep running backward, we return to earlier points in time. I told you not to look back because doing so would risk the tunnel forcibly holding you in place, it traps anyone who turns around. By keeping your gaze forward, you keep slipping through gaps in the timestream, constantly reversing.”
Qian Jinye drew two doors, one open, one closed, to represent the flow of time. “As you can see, we came out too early. We didn’t return to the exact point we wanted. And when you closed the door just now, they must have passed through while it was open and returned directly to the correct moment in time.”
He added the word “safe” beside their names, indicating that Li Xianguan and Chen Yue’er should be fine.
Lu Xiao let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.
“But since we didn’t land in the intended timeline,” Qian Jinye continued, “multiple copies of you, me, or my brother could exist in this space. If we stay too long, we might get assimilated, erased entirely.”
They explained it all so casually, but Lu Xiao’s head throbbed. He had always known he was someone forgotten in the cracks of time and space. But was this world trying to erase him again?
If so, why give him two brothers capable of breaking temporal restraints and rescuing him? Why give him the chance to return?
It was the rules, wasn’t it? The rules had won, he never returned. But the rules had also lost, they had given him two trump cards. With them here, he would go back.
But the problem remained: they could be erased at any moment. And if the brothers didn’t have a reliable method to return, the final outcome was uncertain.
“You want to know how to go back, right?” Qian Shengke said, placing the lid back on the pot. “We’re currently drifting outside the boundaries of this world. If this space notices us, it will erase us instantly.”
He deliberately paused mid-sentence, leaving Lu Xiao in agonizing suspense.
Qian Jinye stared at his older brother with exasperation, only his eldest brother would tease his boyfriend at a time like this.
“Don’t listen to him,” Qian Jinye said. “We are outside this space, but it’s like oil floating above water, we still exist, just on a higher plane. Returning isn’t difficult.”
He shot his brother a disapproving glance, silently warning him not to bully Lu Xiao again.
Lu Xiao wasn’t stupid. It didn’t take long for him to realize he’d been played with. He exhaled deeply, relief washing over him.
Good. At least going back wouldn’t be impossible.
“So what exactly do we need to do to return? We need to hurry, otherwise the other two will panic when they can’t find us.”
The two brothers exchanged a glance. Qian Shengke shook his head slightly, while Qian Jinye nodded, leaving Lu Xiao even more bewildered.
“Here’s the thing,” Qian Jinye began, his tone patient. “When my brother and I were kids, we used to get into mischief and accidentally get caught in other timelines a few times. Getting out was actually very simple, just make sure that the version of ourselves in that timeline emerges at the correct time.”
He paused for a moment, then looked at his older brother, gesturing for him to explain the next part.
Qian Shengke scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed, and addressed Lu Xiao directly. “We knew early on that the Qian residence had this time-space tunnel. So, all we had to do was locate the versions of ourselves in this world and tell them what to do. But the problem is, you didn’t know about it at the time. In theory, you shouldn’t have been able to communicate.”
Lu Xiao blinked in disbelief, the pieces slowly falling into place. So that meant the two older brothers could go ahead and take the first step on their own, leaving him behind if they wanted?
From Qian Shengke’s demeanor, it certainly seemed like that was his intention. Qian Jinye, however, shot him a sharp glare, as if to say, Not so fast, or I’ll drag my younger brother along and leave you in the dust.
Although they were positioned above this space, it was clear they didn’t have the power to manipulate every blade of grass or every inch of terrain. They could observe, but they couldn’t interfere, they could only watch as this space continued its natural course.
But what if Lu Xiao had never been a native of this world? High-frequency vibrations could mix oil and water, but what about someone like him, always oscillating within this timeline?
“Brother Qian,” Lu Xiao said cautiously, “If, before the time in this space, I already knew about the time-space rift and could travel through it, would that mean I could communicate with myself?” He dared to voice the bold hypothesis he had been considering.
Qian Shengke lowered his gaze, pondering for a moment. According to their explanation, yes, it could work. But there was still one condition Lu Xiao hadn’t addressed.
“It’s about overlapping,” Qian Jinye interjected, answering before his brother could. “Your existence isn’t singular. Time itself isn’t the point. The point is, there are two, or more, versions of you.”
Lu Xiao’s mind clicked. He recalled the letter he had received. Perhaps the ‘self’ that had sent it hadn’t been trying to possess his body, nor intentionally deliver a message. Perhaps it had been waiting for him to open the letter before taking action.
So in a sense, they couldn’t change the timeline, but they could create within it.
“Then maybe I can leave a letter for myself,” Lu Xiao mused, a spark of excitement in his eyes. “As long as I don’t reveal the will of the timeline, if my other self connects the dots, I could talk to myself.”
“That’s exactly right,” Qian Shengke said, a hint of amusement in his voice. He was curious to see what the boy would do, after all, most people couldn’t even imagine the existence of a second self in the world.
Lu Xiao retrieved paper and ink from Qian Jinye and recalled the letter he had previously sent in a mock ceremony. He couldn’t help but marvel at the turn of events. As the saying went, the wheel of fortune always spins, sometimes you frighten yourself, and sometimes there’s no escaping fate.
With a calm hand, he began to write:
[Thinking of you every dawn and dusk,
Alone, the fair one’s years stretch endless.
Return to the kitchen, savoring nectar and wine,
Layered waters and misty mountains dissolve in vapor.]
Qian Shengke observed the effortless elegance with which Lu Xiao composed poetry. His opinion of the boy shifted slightly. Qian Jinye, on the other hand, saw Lu Xiao’s delicate, almost flowery verses and felt a flicker of irritation.
If he hadn’t realized the overlapping situation, the space-version of Lu Xiao and Qian Jinye might very well have come to blows.
Lu Xiao’s plan was straightforward. Exploiting the leniency of the timeline, and assuming this space could not be read, he could both impress his elder brother and leave the space none the wiser. A perfect plan, really.
He looked at his own poem, feeling pleased with himself, and thought to invite Qian Jinye to admire it. But the elder brother’s disdainful gaze immediately cooled his excitement.
“Brother, did I write it wrong? Are… you upset?” Lu Xiao asked nervously, thinking he looked irresistibly cute.
To Qian Jinye, he looked less like a cute poet and more like a giant dog who had just wrecked the house and was now feigning innocence.
The more Qian Jinye thought about it, the angrier he got, but he couldn’t exactly tell Lu Xiao outright. Doing so might create friction with the space-version of themselves. Instead, he simply ignored him, silently signaling for the boy to hide the letter.
Lu Xiao understood the command immediately and dashed off. Qian Jinye watched his retreating figure, a smile tugging at his lips despite his lingering irritation.
“Foolish boy…”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
Their journey continues. Their coffee cup, however, does not.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · The beginning of the tragedyChapter 2 · Don’t forgetChapter 3 · Look at it directlyChapter 4 · Whom are you trying to seduce?Chapter 5 · TeaseChapter 6 · Sleeping in the same bedChapter 7 · Internal locksChapter 8 · Tampering The rules…Chapter 9 · Black LotusChapter 10 · FledglingChapter 11 · There are no horses in the stable.Chapter 12 · Water-oil separationChapter 13 · The cost of backtrackingChapter 14 · It got biggerChapter 15 · Was it a mouse?Chapter 16 · Too fieryChapter 17 · Administer medicineChapter 18 · Tracing the PearlChapter 19 · A KissChapter 20 · Ge, Kiss meChapter 21 · Ten Thousand Deaths Without RegretChapter 22 · Endless CorridorChapter 23 · CowardChapter 24 · GoodbyeChapter 25 · Back toChapter 26 · It’s is me, Not MeChapter 27 · VictimChapter 28 · Crossed CupsChapter 29 · IntuitionChapter 30 · ChangeChapter 31 · DifferentChapter 32 · ErrorChapter 33 · Mind Your Own BusinessChapter 34 · WanderingChapter 35 · EmbraceChapter 36 · LoveChapter 37 · UnrestrainedChapter 38 · Asking Over a DrinkChapter 39 · As BeforeChapter 40 · SatiatedChapter 41 · A Change in the WindsChapter 42 · A’SuChapter 43 · Welcoming the BrideChapter 44 · GossipChapter 45 · WeaknessChapter 46 · Wedding NightChapter 47 · Brother QingChapter 48 · FadingChapter 49 · Lying LowChapter 50 · CaressChapter 51 · OnceChapter 52 · The Hidden PassageChapter 53 · MotherChapter 54 · FlawlessChapter 55 · ProphecyChapter 56 · EtherealChapter 57 · DecipheringChapter 58 · The TrapChapter 59 · Stone StatueChapter 60 · ChessChapter 61 · AssassinsChapter 62 · The National Preceptor?Chapter 63 · Please return my belongings to me.Chapter 64 · I’m not that desperate.Chapter 65 · No wayChapter 66 · No turning backChapter 67 · I told you, get out of the wayChapter 68 · Still became a monsterChapter 69 · Let’s end thisChapter 70 · Why do you look so much like him?Chapter 71 · One wanted to kill, two stopped himChapter 72 · Unless, the people at Mingzhu Academy are keeping it from himChapter 73 · FraudChapter 74 · Don’t look back, Lu XiaoChapter 75 · It’s coldChapter 76 · Kill MeChapter 77 · We are even marriedChapter 78 · Gege… I Love YouChapter 79 · “It” had arrivedChapter 80 · Wake Up!Chapter 81 · How Nostalgic….Chapter 82 · You already Promised meChapter 83 · Their TerritoryChapter 84 · Jokes were JokesChapter 85 · What you dream was realChapter 86 · Did you cry?Chapter 87 · What’s wrong, young Master?Chapter 88 · No, I only ever said it to youChapter 89 · Honey, Please let me go.Chapter 90 · What are you pretending to be, a gentleman?Chapter 91 · It’s just a shoddy trick to fool people, but I like it anywayChapter 92 · Ge, I did it voluntarily, it’s no useChapter 93 · You little BratChapter 94 · Gege~ please have mercyChapter 95 · Hearing Lu Xiao come in, he patted the seat next to himChapter 96 · Stop fooling around, let me kiss youChapter 97 · “I want…” “Want what?”Chapter 98 · Gege, watch closely how I get youChapter 99 · Little Eleven, how about we talk to ‘it’ first?Chapter 100 · Had it gone mad?Chapter 101 · I will make my decisionChapter 102 · Tsk, how indecentChapter 103 · You are the creator of my original worldChapter 104 · The world is not your toy, go back to where you came fromChapter 105 · He was a boy with snow-white hair and a handsome faceChapter 106 · Haven’t seen you for a long timeChapter 107 · TYRBL Extra: 1Chapter 108 · TYRBL Extra: 2Chapter 109 · TYRBL Extra: 3Chapter 110 · TYRBL Extra: 4