The cicadas chirped incessantly in the shadowy treetops.
The overloaded air conditioner occasionally emitted disruptive vibrations, accompanied by the sharp crack of chalk breaking on the blackboard, irritating everyone's nerves.
"Su Lian, sleeping again. Come solve this problem."
The sound of his name being called came from afar, buzzing and indistinct.
Su Lian moved his sore wrist that had been pressed down, slowly raised his head, and squinted at the front of the classroom.
The blackboard was covered in dense writing, more illegible than a doctor's diagnosis.
The teacher stared at his messy bangs with a look of resignation and pushed up his glasses: "If you can't do it, go stand in the back."
Su Lian didn't respond, just lowered his eyes slightly. His fingertips touched the fabric of his sleeve - dark blue acrylic material, somewhat rough to the touch.
It was very familiar - the unchanging uniform of Eighth High School.
In a daze, as if waking from a dream, Dr. Su in his white coat had transformed back into a high school student in the blink of an eye.
Damn, the master really could send him back in time.
Su Lian had always believed in medical science professionally, but privately he put faith in mystical guidance.
Now that he was back in high school, he felt even more reverence for the divine.
However, his prolonged silence in response to the teacher's call caused whispers to break out in the classroom.
"There's always a school bully, but this year's is especially cocky. I predict Four Eyes is about to lose it..."
"What bad intentions could Four Eyes have? He just can't stand people sleeping in class."
"Making Su Lian get up to answer questions even during evening self-study - more persistent than the Monk Xuanzang on his pilgrimage. What's the point?"
"Wishing you both an intellectually stimulating new semester full of glorious achievements!"
"What are you waiting for? Go stand in the back," the teacher said, long accustomed to this routine. He tapped the blackboard and lectured, "The diagnostic test is coming up soon. I've said it so many times - if you don't work hard now, you'll only be able to get into the college next door. You're in 11th grade now, it's time to wise up..."
Out of the corner of his eye, Su Lian noticed a watch that had appeared on his wrist. It had a deep blue face, with hands that moved steadily second by second, reminding him of the passage of time.
He rose lazily, deliberately pushed back his chair, and shuffled to the front of the classroom.
The problem was about solid geometry, with a rectangular prism cut by different colored chalk lines. It looked like a headache.
He turned and picked up a piece of chalk, quickly read through the problem, and raised his hand to draw auxiliary lines.
An 11th grade problem - he could solve it with his eyes closed.
In just two minutes, his neat chalk writing covered half the blackboard. Having completed the mental calculations, he decisively wrote down the answer: DE = 4.
As he put down the chalk, the collectively held breath of the class was finally released. The classroom instantly erupted in an uproar.
The teacher snapped out of his daze and pushed his thick glasses up again, carefully examining the solution from start to finish.
It didn't look like a wild guess - the steps were clear and the answer was correct.
He stared in utter shock at the chalk in Su Lian's hand, then shifted his gaze back to that expressionless face, making sure it wasn't an illusion.
Su Lian lightly rubbed the dust off his fingers and tossed the chalk, landing it precisely in the box on the teacher's desk.
With a crisp impact, the white chalk pointed crookedly towards one o'clock.
First quadrant - an auspicious sign for the day.
Pleased with this divination result, Su Lian's mood improved considerably. He walked straight through the empty aisle between the desks, slung his backpack over his shoulder, muttered "stomachache" as an excuse, and headed out of the classroom.
From a distance came the teacher's attempt to save face: "The answer is- is correct, but the process is also important, students. But what's most crucial is understanding how to approach this type of problem..."
Su Lian left through the side door, expertly made his way out of Eighth High School's gates, and began wandering aimlessly down the street.
He pulled out the phone from his pocket - an iPhone 6 so outdated it was nearly obsolete. The screen displayed the time: September 4, 2018.
Confirming once again, it was eight years ago. He had returned to age seventeen from the future.
His heart skipped a beat, causing ripples in still waters.
Since the time travel was successful, then Chi Wang, who had died, should now be alive and well.
Just thinking of that name made his insides churn with piercing pain.
Chi Wang had late-stage lung cancer. His last words before dying still echoed in Su Lian's ears: "I'm sorry, I broke my promise. Su Su, forget about me."
Trembling all over, he had given a final kiss, then watched helplessly as the ECG flatlined. He hated himself for being a surgeon yet utterly powerless.
Their passionate love story had been cut short at its peak.
How the hell was he supposed to forget? It was impossible.
On countless operating tables, big and small, he had faced many patients who died from the torment of illness. He had long since come to view life and death dispassionately.
After Chi Wang's death, he had handled all the affairs - cremation, burial, funeral arrangements - meticulously and in an orderly fashion, down to the smallest detail.
To outsiders, such restraint after years of love seemed somewhat cold.
But it was only after the crowds dispersed that Su Lian's tightly wound nerves finally relaxed, leaving behind endless confusion and loneliness.
It felt as if he had suddenly been abandoned, with nowhere to go.
He sat motionless in the cemetery for a day and a night, his limbs numb, as relentless rain poured down.
Until a disheveled old man appeared, holding a black umbrella over his head.
The man tossed a watch he had produced from somewhere into Su Lian's lap, muttering cryptically: "Jump through time, find the cause, and perhaps you can change the outcome. Want to give it a try?"
Su Lian grasped at this lifeline and immediately responded: "What do I need to do?"
"Set a time to travel back to, close your eyes, and you'll return to the past..."
A blaring horn sounded nearby, accompanied by the driver's dialectal curse: "Watch where you're going, idiot!"
Su Lian snapped back to reality. The traffic light ahead had turned green, and he quickened his pace to cross the road.
Chi Wang had once mentioned that his high school, Third High School, was on the same street as Eighth High School, not too far away.
He pulled the tangled earphones from his pocket and put them on, randomly pressing play. A melancholic old song began to loop, its lyrics oddly fitting the mood.
The evening streets grew noisier, with pedestrians hurrying past. The aroma of spicy noodles wafted over from nearby shops, adding to the rich atmosphere of daily life.
Su Lian ambled towards Third High School, pondering how to sneak in.
Scanning the area, he spotted a lithe figure leap onto the surrounding wall, preparing to jump down.
The person had a half-smoked cigarette clenched between his lips, its tip glowing red. Wisps of smoke blurred his entire face, leaving only a vague outline.
Su Lian stopped in his tracks. The clamor and music instantly faded away, and the world fell silent for a moment, leaving only the thundering of his own heartbeat.
As the smoke dissipated, he could finally make out the face clearly.
The wind swept up the young man's bangs. His features were angular, with a defined jawline. His slightly drooping eyelids softened his sharp edges.
The light blue school uniform hung loosely on his shoulders, the zipper half-open to reveal a black T-shirt with a wide neckline underneath. Everything about him, from head to toe, exuded an air of unrestrained nonchalance.
What luck - today was indeed auspicious.
Su Lian's constricted heart slowly expanded. He quickly approached, positioning himself directly below the other's landing point, gazing up hungrily.
The wall was about a meter high, requiring Su Lian to tilt his head slightly. Their eyes met, and the deep black pupils opposite him became a murky abyss. Like a whirlpool, they drew him in involuntarily.
He felt he could barely breathe, his chest heaving violently. Before he could utter "Brother Chi," his heart began to ache.
"What are you looking at?" the young man's voice was casual, his warm breath falling on Su Lian's face, moist like a thin mist after rain.
Su Lian suppressed his emotions and stared directly at the other, his expression gradually becoming confused.
Though they looked identical, this person's demeanor was completely different from the boyfriend he had loved for years.
The Chi Wang in his twenties always wore impeccable formal attire, spoke gently, carried himself with gravitas, and never touched cigarettes or alcohol.
Sometimes Su Lian thought he didn't seem human - utterly flawless and perfect.
No matter how he looked at it, that image didn't match up with the smoking delinquent crouching before him.
Afraid he had mistaken someone else, Su Lian's Adam's apple bobbed as he asked directly: "What's your name, classmate?"
The delinquent's cheeks hollowed slightly as he took a drag on his cigarette, wisps of smoke escaping from his thin lips: "Chi Wang. 'Wang' as in 'reckless.'"
Seeing that Su Lian wasn't moving, he didn't bother to shift either, and simply reminded him: "Hey classmate, you're blocking me from sneaking out of school."
Utterly shameless - truly reckless indeed.
Su Lian was amused by this series of extreme contrasts, the excitement of reunion in his eyes instantly scattered by the wind.
He wound his earphones around his knuckles and put them in his pocket, retorting: "Coward, use the main gate if you dare."
Chi Wang glanced at the dozing security guard near the main gate, pointed to the teaching building in the distance, then back at his feet, with an expression of looking at an idiot.
"Never learned math? The shortest distance between two points is a straight line."
Su Lian: "....."
***Bragging about elementary school math? The 17-year-old Chi Wang didn't seem too bright either.
"Move aside, I'm going to jump," Chi Wang said, half-crouching, eyeing Su Lian's position.
"Where are you going, skipping class?" Su Lian stood his ground, refusing to budge.
Chi Wang expertly flicked his cigarette, raising an eyebrow: "Aren't you skipping too? Fellow travelers shouldn't question the road ahead."
The fist in his pocket tightened as Su Lian resisted the urge to punch him: "Speak plainly."
Chi Wang found this cold-faced busybody amusing and added: "Evening self-study is boring. I'm going to Night Color to catch some sleep."
Night Color, must be a nightclub name. Clearly not a respectable place.
Su Lian's expression grew colder: "It's too early to sleep, isn't it?"
"Got to save energy to make money at night, it's exhausting," Chi Wang said, patience running out as he put the cigarette back in his mouth.
Su Lian frowned: "Entertaining clients?"
"Mm, something like that," Chi Wang pondered seriously, nodding slightly.
Su Lian was speechless. Had he resorted to prostitution at 17 due to poverty?
What the hell kind of person had he traveled back in time for?
His perfect lover filter for Chi Wang from those years shattered completely in just three minutes.
A breeze swept by, wafting faint cigarette smoke into his face, adding fuel to the fire.
Thinking of that late-stage lung cancer notice, Su Lian angrily snatched the glowing cigarette and stubbed it out on the dirty wall.
He slowly backed up three steps, then suddenly side-kicked Chi Wang into the wall: "Sorry, my foot slipped."
Coldly perfunctory, utterly insincere.
Kicked down, Chi Wang's back hit a nearby tree trunk. He grunted, furrowing his brow.
He gritted his teeth and nimbly flipped back up, jumping down from the wall again, suddenly grabbing Su Lian's collar.
With a pull and a twist, he pressed Su Lian against the nearby wall. Their distance suddenly shortened, noses almost touching.
The field of vision narrowed, the night deep. Su Lian couldn't make out his expression clearly, only feeling the intensified breathing intertwining, carrying a strong sense of oppression.
Su Lian let himself be grabbed, slightly raising an eyebrow in the mingled breaths: "What, want to hit me back?"
A good fight would be fine, he was irritated anyway.
Chi Wang lowered his eyes slightly, not moving.
He had retired from his school bully days years ago, having learned to curb his arrogance and impetuousness.
But that kick just now was quite vicious, nearly sending him skyward.
The cool face before him held a stubborn look. When glaring, the corners of his eyes tilted slightly upward, his eyelids narrow, giving an impression of coldness.
He suddenly chuckled, slowly loosening his fingers, reaching up to smooth out the wrinkles on Su Lian's collar.
"Lord Wang isn't so petty. Brother, you've got skills, seems you're in the game too. I'll treat you to a private room at Night Color tonight, let's be friends."
Su Lian:
"......"
Treat your grandpa.
Great, add another bad habit - mixing with gangsters.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, somewhat regretting his rash decision to travel back so early in time.
The current Chi Wang, from his hair to his tone, irritated him in every way.
As they stared at each other, he suddenly remembered the master's last words: "The price is, once you go back, you can never return to the future."
He must have misread the divination today, this was definitely an extremely inauspicious sign.
Su Lian cursed under his breath, his back leaning weakly against the wall, feeling utterly hopeless.
His fingertips lifted the face of his watch, unconsciously turning the hands backward until they couldn't move further.
The streetscapes on both sides flashed by rapidly, his body feeling as if suddenly pushed into a space-time tunnel. He returned once more to the moment he had just awakened in class.
Su Lian looked at his watch in disbelief, his expression cracking slightly.
Damn, back again?
"Su Lian, sleeping again? Come solve this problem."
The same voice and scene repeated from the teacher's mouth, like a ghost wall.
Before the bespectacled teacher could ramble on, Su Lian picked up his bag and walked straight to the podium, casually grabbing a piece of chalk and making two marks on the blackboard.
This time he skipped the steps altogether, writing the answer directly at the end of the question: 4.
The chalk was tossed back into the box, still landing at the one o'clock position.
He hadn't misread earlier, the divination was indeed extremely auspicious.
"Holy shit, Lian bro wasn't sleeping today?"
"Even scarier, he might have actually been listening. He could pinpoint exactly which question the teacher was talking about!"
"He could guess which one it was out of all these geometric figures on the board. Has he turned over a new leaf?"
"Wait, the answer really seems to be 4... This level of guessing... Incredible..."
Amidst a group of shocked gazes, Su Lian mechanically uttered "stomachache" before striding out of the classroom.
His index finger touched the watch hand, turning it back again. Chi Wang reappeared like a ghost, squatting on the wall with a cigarette in his mouth, making eye contact.
Su Lian slightly raised his eyes, refocusing on that arrogant face, instantly understanding the meaning of time-jumping.
With the time of crossing over as the origin, and time passed as the horizontal axis, he could move back and forth freely along this timeline.
He set the hand at the second he had started talking to Chi Wang, not bothering with words this time.
This time he directly extinguished the cigarette, stepped back a few paces, and kicked Chi Wang off the wall again.
He turned the hand back and forth three times, each kick more skillful and crisp than the last. The irritation in his heart finally found release.
Today is indeed extremely auspicious, not deceiving me at all.
Su Lian tapped his toes on the ground, slightly flexing his ankle, feeling that irritation ease considerably.
He stared at Chi Wang before him. His posture, pinning him against the wall, was still defiant, his features sharp and wild, looking quite untamed from any angle.
But how bad could a 17-year-old really be?
He had all the time in the world to slowly tame him.
The fourth time he turned the hand, Chi Wang repeated his introduction: "I'm Chi Wang, Wang as in 'reckless.'"
Su Lian stood in place, slightly raising his chin, hands in his pockets: "I'm Su Lian, Lian as in 'restrained.'"