Seven years after my death, the male protagonist of the substitute novel was criticized

Chapter 3 Encounter
Lin Lu had been waiting outside the convenience store at the East Second Gate for several hours.

At first, I stood there and counted the types of fast food inside. Then I went to the waiting room again and again to ask if there were any incoming calls. Finally, I just squatted outside the convenience store and smelled the smell.

In the middle of winter, she had inexplicably traveled through several years of time. The strange place and the strange people made her feel extremely insecure, and she felt better only by curling up together.

But the longer time went by, the more uncertain she felt - was Pei Yizhou still living here? What happened in the past few years? Would Pei Yizhou have forgotten her? If so, what would she do next? Without an ID or a cell phone, if she went to work odd jobs first, would this convenience store hire her?

Just as I was daydreaming, I heard footsteps in the alley of the East Second Gate.

There was no difference in the footsteps, but she seemed to be aware of something. She stood up and walked a few steps away, and saw the man who had stopped under the street light.

It was Pei Yizhou, but he was different from the young Pei Yizhou she saw this morning.

His hair seemed to have been groomed, and a wide coat was supported on his shoulders. His eyebrows and eyes had lost their immaturity and were now sharp in their maturity.

But the look in his eyes was strange, and he didn't seem to have any intention of getting closer.

Lin Lu looked at him with a somewhat unfamiliar look and hesitated to get closer. The two of them stared at each other from a distance of three to five meters.

Not long after, Pei Yizhou slowly walked closer step by step, and stopped two meters away. His eyes seemed to be out of focus. He raised his hand to touch her, but then he trembled and clenched it.

Lin Lu couldn't stand it anymore. The anxiety and panic she had been waiting for for several hours turned into tears. She trembled and called out, "Brother."

Then she took a few steps and threw herself into his arms, clutching his clothes to wipe away her tears, her sobs making her words incoherent: "I don't know what happened, I don't know where I am... Where did you go? I can't find you... I have nothing on me, I'm so hungry..."

Pei Yizhou seemed to be nailed down and let her hold him. He looked at the clothes she was wearing again and again. It was an orange down jacket with windproof material and a fox sticker on the arm. It was the clothes she wore when they went to Antarctica seven years ago. They spent a few hours in bed before leaving. She was limp all over, and he was the one who carefully put on this jacket for her.

Later she disappeared, and he called a search and rescue team, and the plane circled over Antarctica for several days, but the orange color was never seen again.

Even if the information dealer who wanted to defraud money knew that the dress she was wearing when she disappeared was orange, it would be impossible for him to know such details. Moreover, the dress was already a bit old and the fabric was brittle.

Pei Yizhou even held his breath. He began to wonder if he was too drunk at the dinner and did not actually get off the car. He just had a dream when the car was circling the city. He dreamed of the real Lin Lu.

If this was a dream, an illusion... He was dumbfounded. This could only be a dream or an illusion. He was afraid that the person in his arms and the sound of his crying would be blown away by his breathing. He carefully wrapped his arms around her, trembling as he tightened them little by little until he had the person tightly wrapped around him.

After seven years, she finally showed mercy and came to see him with her true face in his dream. The touch was so real, so real that he wanted to cry.

The hug kept out the cold wind. Lin Lu cried enough and finally remembered the real thing she wanted to ask.

"Brother, what happened? Our home is gone, and that place has become some high-end-looking mansion. I just went to the park to sit and take a nap, but when I woke up, everything around East Lake Park had changed. They said that it has been five or six years since the China Railway Community was demolished..." She really couldn't accept that such a magical thing happened to her. She was so panicked that she couldn't help but reach out to touch his face and ears, fearing that these were also dummies that were demolished and rebuilt.

At this moment, even if Pei Yizhou said that she was dazzled, or that she was shocked by the kiss between the brother and sister yesterday and became insane and was taking medicine, she was willing to believe it. As long as Pei Yizhou said something, she would believe it.

But Pei Yizhou didn't explain anything. He didn't even hear clearly what she said. His attention was all on the touch of the skin on the side of his face - her hands were so cold, so cold that they didn't feel like those of a living person.

He had thought that if her body were found in the ice, she would probably be as cold as this.

Was she also lying in the ice in the dream, unable to see the sun? Or was she a ghost? Would a ghost have temperature? Would they not be afraid of light? Could others see them? My brain was thinking about the topics I should be concerned about, but my hands could not help but cover the back of her hand, just like that, touching my skin.

Lin Lu stopped her anxious questioning. She was not used to having close contact with the man who had been her brother for many years, but before she could struggle much, she felt the cold water stains on her palms.

Pei Yizhou was crying.

She was half heartbroken, and faced the truth beyond the panic. Perhaps it was not dazzle or mental disorder, she really had crossed many years.

——Lin Lu followed Pei Yizhou into Tanghu Mansion. He said that the large flat on the 17th floor was their current home.

She looked at the house with confusion and curiosity. The cold colors and temperature were not as livable as a hotel room.

But this was not bought by her, so she had no right to comment. She stood at the entrance, hesitating and embarrassed to go in.

"Lulu," the mature version of Pei Yizhou called her softly and pulled her hand, "Come in, this is our new home."

Lin Lu reflexively shook off his hand.

They are not biological siblings but they are better than biological siblings. Even if they accidentally kissed each other yesterday, it cannot change their identity as siblings. How can he hold her hand casually?
There was silence at the entrance for a moment, and her self-righteous attitude slowly turned into uneasy. They had been separated for several years, and who knew what happened later, and what Pei Yizhou had become like. What if he didn't recognize her as his sister?

"Brother, I..." She looked at Pei Yizhou. Only the wall lamp in the entrance was on, so she couldn't see his expression clearly.

However, Pei Yizhou immediately turned on the main light in the living room, and held her arm gently, his eyes gentle: "Come in, don't be afraid, this is your home. Didn't I tell you before that when we make money, we will buy the house here and make it our home. It just so happens that I have made enough money, and the Zhongtie community has been included in the demolition..."

He walked into the living room and spoke, his gentle voice no different from before.

Lin Lu's uneasy mood was slowly calmed down. He walked to the sofa in the living room and sat down. He touched the suede material and said tentatively, "Brother, I'm a little hungry."

Pei Yizhou took off his coat and hung it up. Hearing this, he rolled up his shirt sleeves and walked to the kitchen: "How about tomato fried egg noodles? Two fried eggs?"

It was exactly the same as the previous conversation. Lin Lu was completely relieved and fell on the sofa and said, "Just one is enough. You just made omelettes this morning, and I ate two wrapped in ham sausage."

Pei Yizhou paused as he opened the refrigerator before saying, "Okay."

She loved his cooking, but after they had established their relationship, she often had trouble getting up in the morning, so he hadn't made omelets for a long time before she disappeared.

Did the memory go back to an earlier time? That would be good too. The farther away from the disaster, the better.

It took very little time to make a bowl of noodles, but Pei Yizhou kept turning his head to see if she was there, causing the fried eggs to turn a little black. When the noodles were served to her, he felt unusually uncomfortable.

"Make another bowl. I'll eat this one."

"No need." Lin Lu picked up the noodles to cool, but didn't eat them. Instead, she bit her lip and asked a question, "Brother, I remember when I went out this morning, I was wearing a gray dress, not this one. Do you remember that I bought this dress?"

Pei Yizhou looked into her eyes and said softly, "I bought it for you. Do you remember that we were planning to go out and you said that orange was the most conspicuous rescue color."

"Oh," she said in a daze, her tone even more confused, "but I don't remember this happening. Yesterday was my eighteenth birthday, we celebrated it together, you gave me a pair of high heels, and then..."

Seeing her hesitating and evasive gaze, Pei Yizhou suddenly remembered that day.

She had just turned eighteen, and he gave her a pair of high heels as a coming-of-age gift. She happily put them on and threw herself into his arms, but she didn't expect that when one of them lowered their heads and the other raised their heads, their lips would bump into each other's. He was a little drunk at the time, and they didn't avoid each other, so their lips stayed close for a long time.

Later she avoided him for a long time, until the second kiss with ulterior motives, and then they naturally got together and became lovers from siblings.

The world was unreal, he dreamed of her when he was drunk, so the hallucination also started from the time when he was drunk. He longed for them to return to the safe moment away from that disaster.

Even though they were just brother and sister at that time.

(End of this chapter)