Starting from South America, speeding through the world

Chapter 274 My First Half of Life

"In short, I buried my body there."

As Morrison spoke, the sun rose, its rays reflecting on the glistening dewdrops on the branches.

Zhou Yi stood to the side, following his finger, looking towards the end of the backyard.

The "grave" was not conspicuous; the grass was just a darker color, and there were faint signs that it had been recently turned over.

“Luckily I’m not an athlete,” Morrison smiled helplessly, “otherwise, killing another version of myself would really take a lot of effort.”

"You were born here?" Zhou Yi asked.

“To be precise, it’s a similar timeline,” Morrison said, sitting back down at the table.

"This is where I was meant to be in 1954."

"So I'm very glad that all my documents, identity, and even medical records were able to pass the inspection smoothly."

“If it were a few years earlier, before I was assigned to Germania, things would have been much more complicated.”

Zhou Yi's heart stirred slightly, but he remained silent for a long while.

Seeing this, Morrison assumed he hadn't understood and began to explain:
"Simply put, the so-called 'system' will send the tasker to a place similar to his original world."

"There are only slight disturbances in the details, including different times, earlier or later."

This time, Zhou Yi finally came to his senses. "Indeed, I verified this not long ago."

Upon hearing this, Morrison's eyes lit up with a hint of inquiry. "How many missions have you undertaken this time?"

“Three times, this is the fourth time,” Zhou Yi answered honestly.

“This is my fifth time,” Morrison paused. “Before this, I had never met any fellow travelers.”

"My existence is an accident; perhaps there's something wrong with the teleportation mechanism."

"Or perhaps there's an error in some kind of code, which is why we exist in the same space."

"And what about your task?"

"No."

"No?" Morrison was taken aback.

“No,” Zhou Yi repeated.

The treetops in the distance shimmered with a faint light, as if the whole world had not yet woken up from its slumber.

"So you come from a completely different timeline than this one?"

Morrison's expression showed a hint of hesitation.

Zhou Yi nodded. "From a world where the Axis powers were defeated."

As soon as he finished speaking, Morrison froze.

"The Axis powers were defeated?"

"Germany lost? Japan lost?"

Zhou Yi nodded again, "In 1945, we surrendered unconditionally."

"us--"

Morrison's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"So, we won the war?"

“It’s not just this one,” Zhou Yi said.

"And there were many more wars to come."

"Until finally, true peace came to this land."

Morrison remained silent for a long time.

“It really works.” he murmured.

"That's great, that's really great!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Yi noticed tears streaming down the man's face.

Curiosity arose in his heart, and he asked:
"Why would someone like you..."

Zhou Yi pondered for a moment, trying to find a gentler way to express himself.

But in the end, they chose to let it pass by ambiguously.

Why are there such abundant emotions?

Morrison did not answer immediately, but instead looked down at the ground.

After a long pause, just when Zhou Yi thought he hadn't understood his question, he began to slowly explain.

“My father is from Guangdong and came to California in the early 1920s.”

"He was not yet eighteen years old at the time, and he boarded the ship in Hong Kong."

Morrison took a deep breath.

"After landing in San Francisco, he traveled to Sacramento, where he was supported by a Baptist church for a few months." "After that, he entered Caltech."

“At that time, it was almost completely closed to Chinese people, but he was lucky enough to meet a professor who happened to be conducting agricultural machinery experiments and needed manpower.”

"When Japan invaded Northeast China, he started doing printing, translation, and organizing donations in Chinatown."

“My mother is from Missouri, from a German family, and they met at a Red Cross rally.”

Morrison’s gaze drifted to the window, as if he were briefly lost in some subtle emotion.

“They didn’t take any photos when they got married, and no pastor was willing to preside over the ceremony.”

"Although racial segregation was not so explicit in law at that time, mixed-race people were not accepted in public opinion."

“I don’t look like my mother. When I was a child at a church school, no one wanted to sit with me.”

"But fortunately, my father taught me Chinese."

He said that people should always remember their original name.

"Because one day, we will have to go back."

"Did you go back?" Zhou Yi asked.

Morrison shook his head slightly.

“No,” he said. “My father died of a heart attack in 1942 and was buried in a Chinese cemetery south of Sacramento.”

“My mother remarried, became a veteran, and moved to Illinois.”

"I'm sorry," Zhou Yi said.

Outside, the sun was fully up, and the dew evaporated even faster.

A faint, refreshing scent filled the air.

"And what about you?" Morrison suddenly asked.

"Your reaction at the Schwarzenwald Hotel yesterday was not something an ordinary person would do."

"The more you kill, the more you learn." Zhou Yi shrugged.

“Please don’t try to fob me off like that,” Morrison said with a slight smile. “Or are you just showing off your extraordinary talent?”

Zhou Yi smiled and shook his head, then took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

A few seconds later, he turned to the side and found that Morrison was still looking at him with a serious expression, as if he was really curious about his past.

“I really don’t have any interesting stories to tell,” Zhou Yi sighed.

"But if you insist on knowing, then..."

“I was born in 1978, in Potomac, and my hometown is Jinan.”

"I dropped out of university in 1996 to enlist in the army for some complicated reasons."

"Initially deployed to Kosovo to carry out preliminary reconnaissance missions."

"In the year 2000, the Middle East was in chaos, with Iraq and Afghanistan alternating between different places."

"Later, I simply ran away to earn some money by risking my life, until I was pulled into the mission world by the 'system'."

"You really are humble." Morrison thought for a long time before finding the right word.

Zhou Yi, however, was unwilling to continue the conversation.

"Tell me about your mission," he said, somewhat awkwardly changing the subject. "I suspect it's related to **?"

"It is related."

Morrison lowered his eyes, as if trying to organize his thoughts.

"To be precise, it only contained three words."

"Which three words?"

"save**."

Zhou Yi raised an eyebrow slightly.

Morrison looked up, his expression somewhat complicated: "That's it, no standards, no steps, just these three words."

"How do you plan to carry this out?" Zhou Yi asked.

Morrison's expression was somewhat bitter.

"To be honest, I don't even know which one to save: the one my father was born into? The one now? Or the one in the future?"

"But one thing is very clear."

"If we fail, we die."

"However, yesterday's experience gave me a new direction."

"What do you want to do?" Zhou Yi asked.

"I don't know, but at least we can't let that thing fall into the hands of the Japanese."

(End of this chapter)