The cycle begins to repeat itself today.

Although it was late, the summer night was still just as hot. I walked to a small shop by the roadside and bought an ice pop. Most things sold here were cheap, but I don't have a good impression of overly cheap items. It was only Monday, and I still had plenty of change. I bought one that didn't look too plain, turned around, went back to Ye Yuqing's side, and handed it to her.

"It's still quite hot at night, so here you go."

Ye Yuqing froze, staring blankly at the thing I handed her. I felt a little impatient.

"Take it."

She took it, tears streaming down her face.

I ignored her and kept walking. I'm not suited for this kind of altruistic role. Anyway, I just fell asleep, and nothing happened, and my money didn't decrease at all.

I just felt that I needed to give her a small reward for living so hard and earnestly until now.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Girl's Residence

The walk from the school gate to the pedestrian bridge wasn't far; it only took a few minutes. I could see the bridge, its lights faintly lit, but with few pedestrians. Ye Yuqing followed behind me, but this time I didn't bother with her. Although it was already evening, the weather was still very hot. I hadn't bought anything to cool myself down, but I had other options. The bridge wasn't long, but it would still take more than half a minute to walk across at a slow pace. There were long planks connecting the pillars on the walls for pedestrians to rest on, serving as seats. The bridge spanned one of the rivers that flowed through the town. It was often windy here, quite cold in winter, but very cool in summer. On summer evenings, many people would come here to cool off, mostly elderly people, so the bridge had a somewhat aged feel to it.

Once I stepped onto the pedestrian bridge, a seemingly ceaseless breeze blew past me, carrying a coolness unlike that of summer, and I felt a little more refreshed. I decided to rest here for a bit, to recharge, and also because I still had quite a few questions to ask Ye Yuqing; if I continued walking, time would be running out. I looked at her, and saw that she was still crying silently, tears streaming down her face. She hadn't even opened the popsicle I'd bought for her; instead, she held it carefully in her hands. Her posture made me feel even worse.

"If you don't eat it soon, it'll melt. Don't waste my money."

She woke up with a start, looked at me nervously, and reached out a hand to wipe away the tears that still lingered on her face.

"As for money, I have plenty, I can give you all of it..."

"unnecessary."

I'm not so poor that I need to resort to extortion. Besides, buying her food wasn't my ultimate goal. I just couldn't bear to see her treat such inexpensive items so precious. As for what she does with it, that's up to her. The moment I give something away, I lose all control over it.

"Take a break. I still have some questions to ask you."

I was just about to find a place to sit down when another gust of wind blew in, quite strong, forcing me to squint. Although it was cool here, sometimes the wind was so strong that it could blow light things into the river; luckily, I didn't have anything like that.

"Do you want to come to my house? My house has air conditioning, and I'm the only one there."

Before I even considered it, I was about to refuse—a judgment based on common sense. But my thoughts stopped me. Several issues also existed regarding Ye Yuqing's family. Although I had basically pinpointed their location, there was still a possibility of change. Furthermore, the questions I would have to ask about her parents, if supported by evidence, would yield more accurate answers and might even provide unexpected clues. The benefits were obvious, and considering the need to gather intelligence about Ye Yuqing, it was a proposal I couldn't refuse. However, my conscience warned me that my actions had already crossed the line of normalcy. In a sense, what I was doing was tantamount to a crime: intimidation, deception, fraud, threats of violence—I didn't even need those, because Ye Yuqing seemed completely obedient to me. If this appearance was true, she would fulfill any request I made. I didn't know if I could resist such temptation. If it's all an illusion, an act, then if I go to her house, I might never be able to leave again.

I weighed the pros and cons of both options. From a safety standpoint, I shouldn't go, but not going would present many problems, one of which was the potential reset of time. My current situation is unique. Although Ye Yuqing discovered my tracking, I ultimately survived and even took the place of "another person" at the appointment. Whether this was inevitable or a coincidence is another matter, but there's still a wealth of information waiting for me to uncover. If I give up and time is reset, I'll lose a significant portion of the clues. While there's a possibility of returning to this situation, the danger I face won't change. Giving up would only prolong my life. Furthermore, I'm not entirely defenseless. Ye Yuqing's short sword is currently in my bag. Although retrieving it is inconvenient, I possess some ability to fight back, and I obviously won't underestimate the threat posed by a woman who once killed me. I'm on high alert. I've reached my conclusion.

"Okay." I nodded.

"Mmm!" Ye Yuqing seemed much happier than I was. She even started walking ahead of me, holding the popsicle, as if she wanted to lead the way. But after only a couple of steps, she turned back. I didn't know what she was doing.

Perhaps sensing that I was looking at her, she began to explain.

"It seems you no longer need me to lead the way."

She remembered that I had followed her. I felt a little embarrassed, but she didn't seem to feel anything special. Her perpetually expressionless face prevented me from showing any sign of embarrassment.

"Then let's go together."

This time, she walked beside me. We crossed the pedestrian bridge together, the summer breeze blowing incessantly, like a giant electric fan blasting at the bridge. Thanks to this breeze, I felt much more awake, but at the same time, I realized my mental state was nearing its limit. Although I became more awake, this clarity wouldn't last long. To put it another way, it was like a wooden bucket with planks constantly being chipped away from the top; it became easier and easier to fill it, but the usable water dwindled.

It's now been more than twenty-four hours, an hour and a half, meaning I haven't slept for twenty-five hours. This is incredibly difficult for someone like me who usually goes to bed on time; I want to sleep, but I can't. Walking side-by-side with Ye Yuqing, we crossed the pedestrian bridge, passed the D-shaped road, and took the familiar side street, arriving at the entrance to Ye Yuqing's building. At least, the floor is right, I thought.

Chapter Forty: The Dusty Bedroom

After Ye Yuqing opened the iron gate to the floor, I followed her upstairs. I counted the floors to confirm the direction, and finally, when we reached the fifth floor, she stopped, reached into her pocket, took out her key, and opened the door on the left. It seemed my earlier judgment was correct; the apartment where the light had been switched on and off was Ye Yuqing's. Ye Yuqing opened her own security door, went in first, and turned on the hallway light. I followed her in. Her home looked very ordinary, much like any other family's. Ye Yuqing found a pair of slippers for me on the shoe rack, but they didn't seem to fit quite right; they were a little small.

"Yes, I'm sorry, I'm basically the only one living in my house, so..." she apologized backwards, and I understood why the slippers were so small: "If you don't mind, you can just wear your shoes in."

I'm not that pampered. I handed the slippers back to her and stepped directly onto the cool, sturdy tiles. They felt surprisingly comfortable. I glanced around; I don't understand layouts or anything like that, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Then I stepped into the living room and realized I was wrong. Her TV, embedded in the wall—it was practically part of the wall itself, longer and wider than me—I'd never even touched it before. I'd believe it if you told me it was a movie screen. And there were two speakers also embedded in the wall.

"Won't this disturb the neighbors?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Our floor tiles, ceiling, windows, and so on are all made of special soundproofing materials. If we lock all the windows and doors, even if we turn the volume up to the maximum, other people won't be able to hear it..."

Her face suddenly flushed. I didn't know what she was thinking, but Ye Yuqing's words completely changed my understanding of wealthy people. I also noticed the air conditioner in the corner of the living room. To be honest, this was the first time I'd ever seen an air conditioner in the living room, especially in a space that was definitely not small. If she wasn't crazy, then this air conditioner must actually have the ability to control the temperature throughout the entire house. But in any case, their electricity bill must be astronomical. Ye Yuqing found the remote control on the coffee table in the middle of the living room, pressed a couple of buttons on the air conditioner, and it started running. The icy air, like the cold air leaking from an open freezer, made me involuntarily twitch my eye and move a little further away from the air conditioner's service area.

"This is for air conditioning. Please adjust it to your preferred temperature." She handed me the remote and turned to leave. I watched her go into the kitchen, open the refrigerator door, and the several colorful screens on it gave me a headache. She put the popsicles I had bought for her into the freezer, but she still didn't eat them. Judging from the current outdoor temperature, those things were probably already completely melted.

I was initially surprised by the unfamiliar scene, but I quickly calmed down. Ye Yuqing came back and said, "Please sit on the sofa."

"No need to be so polite. Just talk to me the same way you did before." I pressed down on the sofa slightly; it was so soft I didn't dare sit on it. In my current state, I'd fall asleep in a super comfortable environment within seconds. Leaving aside the time reset, falling asleep in someone else's house, especially a girl's house, was something I'd rather not do. I glanced at Ye Yuqing; she seemed a little uneasy. This feeling of being switched places made me realize even more strongly that I was an intruder in this space.

"Please sit down. I have a few more questions for you."

"No, no need, this is fine..."

She shook her head; she probably hadn't expected that my current situation wasn't much different from hers. But I didn't have time to stall her any longer; I decided to ask her the question directly.

"Where are your parents?"

“They haven’t been back for a long time… The last time they came back was just before the start of the semester. They came back to give me credits and help me find connections,” Ye Yuqing said, her eyes looking somewhat listless. It’s understandable to feel a sense of distance and resentment towards parents who rarely come home.

"Can I go to their room?" Although it was a little inappropriate to ask, I did. To my surprise, Ye Yuqing nodded easily: "Sure, but there's nothing to see in their room. I don't really want to go in."

Ye Yuqing walked up to me, then walked past me, past the dining room, and came to a closed door. There were no decorations or signs, just a wooden door identical to any in the house. I looked at Ye Yuqing and, seeing she didn't seem to care, placed my hand on the doorknob and gently turned it. I opened the door and saw what was inside. It was pitch black, and I couldn't see anything clearly until Ye Yuqing pressed the light switch next to her, allowing me to see what was inside.

Unlike the living room, Ye Yuqing's parents' bedroom was very simple. Besides curtains, a bed, and a wardrobe, there was nothing else. For two guardians, this was rather unusual. I looked at Ye Yuqing.

“Our family has actually moved before. What’s left now are things we didn’t move out of before. When I was in my second year of high school, they were both very busy, so they went on a business trip to another city and didn’t come back for a long time. I’m going to finish high school here, so I didn’t move some things.”

"Don't they come back even once in a long while?"

"Um……"

Although every family has its own difficulties, it's still foolish to leave your child alone. Ye Yuqing's previous experiences made me unable to understand their busy lives... Even their only daughter wanted to commit suicide, and they weren't by her side. Although being busy with work was partly the reason, in the end, Ye Yuqing still died, and I don't have a very good impression of them.

I looked around the empty room and couldn't see anything of value. Besides the wardrobe, there was nowhere to hide anything. I didn't even need to check it, because the sliding wardrobe door was always open, and there was practically nothing inside except for a thin layer of dust that I could see with the naked eye. It was clear that Ye Yuqing's parents rarely returned to this house.

Chapter 41 A Simple Room

Although I had no intention of searching, I still went inside. The opportunity was rare, and I didn't want to give up any possible clues. Besides, judging from Ye Yuqing's current behavior, there was a possibility she was deceiving me, albeit a small one. But I wasn't naive enough to believe she would completely obey me. Given her past, it was hard to imagine her mind being swayed by such a small matter.

I entered and found Ye Yuqing still standing in the doorway, not moving. However, I didn't need her guidance to inspect the room; doing so might allow her to deliberately hide certain parts. Although I didn't have any specific area I wanted to check, I didn't want my aimless inspection to be influenced by others. I glanced around but didn't see anything of value. My gaze swept over the bed; it was neatly made, without a single wrinkle, but covered in a layer of dust no less than that inside the wardrobe. The room had a musty, stale smell. Because the light was relatively bright, I noticed some spots on the window. I went over to look, gently swiping some with my finger, getting dust on my fingers, but the spots didn't disappear. I realized they might be on the other side of the window.

This room hasn't been cleaned at all; it hasn't even been used much, and it's been quite a while, otherwise, there wouldn't be such a heavy layer of dust.

"How long has it been since your parents came back?"

"He only came back once, a month ago..."

I almost forgot, she just mentioned that her parents came back to pay her tuition and pull strings. But could a month really accumulate such a thick layer of dust? I'm not sure. I've never gone so long without cleaning. Although this town as a whole doesn't have any factors that generate a lot of dust, even if I don't clean for a week or two, it won't accumulate much dust. But I really hate having so much dust around me, in the places I use and live in. It's very unpleasant for both my health and my living environment.

Finding nothing of value, the room was empty and silent, covered in dust. The lack of discovery and the unpleasant environment made me desperately want to leave. I turned and walked towards Ye Yuqing.

"Has the check-up been completed?" she asked me.

My feelings were quite strange. I'm not a public official, and this open and aboveboard search of someone's home gave me a peculiar feeling, but it wasn't a pleasant one. I'm not used to it. I still have doubts and anxieties about such searches.

I nodded to Ye Yuqing.

"Then come out first. I haven't cleaned this place in a long time, but I'll clean it tonight..."

Hearing Ye Yuqing's words, I noticed something. I had already left her parents' bedroom, and looking at the walls and floor around me, I saw a scene almost completely opposite to her parents' bedroom. This place was impeccably clean; the walls were simply painted white with building materials, without any decoration, yet they appeared as if they had just been painted. I was surprised, so I ran my finger lightly over them, then looked at my bare fingers. I then looked at the floor tiles. Due to long-term use, this area had irreversibly changed, its color shifting from bluish-green to a duller shade. This was evident in the adjacent tiles; the different usage frequency naturally resulted in different levels of tile condition. But it was precisely this that made me feel even stranger.

The building where Ye Yuqing lives is clearly a product of decades ago. From the outside, it looks very old, and even its construction methods and style are quite different from the mainstream architectural styles that can be seen today. Its exterior may have experienced many storms, leading to accelerated aging of the exterior. However, the walls inside Ye Yuqing's house look as if they have been freshly painted. The tiles on the floor have the marks of time, but time has not left any marks on the walls. Is this possible?

The simply painted walls looked cleaner than the floor tiles. This wouldn't be surprising if the building had been completed in the last year or two, but it's clearly been more than that.

I took a couple more steps forward and looked around. The dining room, living room, kitchen, balcony… everywhere I could see, the walls were spotless. The floor tiles, though slightly darker, were still impeccably clean. Besides cleanliness, the tidiness of her home was extraordinary. I hadn't noticed it before because I hadn't paid much attention. In her living room, everything on the coffee table was neatly arranged, categorized, with related items grouped together, showing no sign of clutter. In her dining room, there was a rather high-end dining table, probably made of stone (I can't quite put my finger on it), and six wooden chairs beside it—one on each side along the length and two on each side—all arranged neatly. Ye Yuqing's bedroom—presumably her bedroom—wasn't closed. She didn't act shy or obstruct my observation, so I could see clearly: in the corner of her room, there was a table with a lamp and a cactus, and that was it. The bed was against the wall, and from my position I could only see a corner of it, but even the light filtering through from the living room and dining room allowed me to see the perfectly folded blankets. In another corner opposite the desk, there was a dark brown wooden wardrobe, its style looking somewhat old-fashioned. Next to the wardrobe was a low bedside table, roughly level with the bed, with electrical outlets and other items on it; otherwise, there was nothing else.

I didn't see anything in Ye Yuqing's room that I expected a girl's room to have—no stuffed animals, posters, computers, or anything like that. I wondered if she'd hidden them in some corner I couldn't see, and my curiosity compelled me to walk towards her room. I wasn't stopped. I didn't know what Ye Yuqing was doing or thinking; I was astonished by what I saw.

As with everything I've seen before, Ye Yuqing's room contained only this much stuff.

Chapter Forty-Two: An Abrupt Request

I thought that in this world, in this era, in this town, among people with better economic conditions than my family, or even those on par with my family, no one was more out of touch with the times than I was. I hardly ever used a cell phone, had no entertainment other than reading, no computer, and my parents controlled the television, which I hardly needed. Every morning, all I had to do was get up, go to school, stay there until 10 pm, then go home and wait to sleep. I didn't need any special means to pass the time. For me, a cell phone was just a tool to make it easier for my parents and sister to contact me, but even that function was barely used. They rarely called me, and the total time I spent on my cell phone was less than the time my sister spent playing with it. I was someone completely out of touch with the times.

However, I saw a reflection of myself in Ye Yuqing. When she told me she was relatively well-off, I had a general impression of her—a spoiled girl with few friends and poor communication skills. Now, that impression has completely changed. If my current level of social interaction as a human being is limited to talking to my sister at home, then Ye Yuqing's social interaction is limited to her phone. If what Ye Yuqing said is true, then she couldn't possibly have anyone to communicate with at school. Her communication is through her phone, but she essentially has no one to talk to except her parents, whom she hasn't contacted for over a month. There's no one else's contact information on her phone, which is one reason I'm suspicious of her. And now I'm even more suspicious of this because I find myself hoping that what I'm seeing is an act, a lie. Otherwise, Ye Yuqing, as a human being, seems a little too pitiful.

If it weren't for that oversized TV still in the living room, I would have even doubted whether she was lying to me about how wealthy her family was.

Ye Yuqing possesses qualities that most people lack: she can endure considerable loneliness, is fragile yet courageous, and has a strong will and perseverance. She embodies these qualities, but they are all shrouded in a "lie"—that she will meet someone who loves her on the night of September 12th. This lie is the source of all Ye Yuqing's current actions, the driving force behind her behavior, and the source of her hope to continue living—the role she is currently playing. If she were to be removed from this farce, the Ye Yuqing standing behind her would become a mangled corpse lying beneath the teaching building, a spectacle for onlookers.

I turned to look at her. She looked uneasy and submissive at that moment. No one had ever made me so angry as those scumbags who had turned Ye Yuqing into the person she is now. I had never felt such a strong urge to condemn her parents who had gone away and never returned.

"I...I'm sorry..." I heard those light, airy words that pulled me back to reality. I looked at Ye Yuqing, who seemed even more uneasy. She was clutching her right wrist with her left hand, and just looking at her, I could feel her unease.

"what happened?"

"I think I've made you angry again..."

Her words made me realize the gloomy expression on my face caused by my change in mood, and I tried to relax.

"No need to apologize, this is none of your business. I still have a question for you." I looked at her face, and she didn't say anything, which I took as tacit approval for my question: "Do you usually do nothing but play on your phone and watch TV?"

A look of confusion appeared on her face.

"You have nothing in your house except your phone and TV. Don't you get bored?"

I asked her directly. Her house wasn't big, after all, it was a building from ten or twenty years ago, and it wasn't very large to begin with. It only had a few rooms, and you could see it all in a short while. Her parents' room was empty, the dining room and kitchen were tidy, the living room behind them was a little out of place, and then there was her bedroom, which could be described as very simple. That was all there was to her house.

"I don't find it boring at all, because I have to go to school every morning after I get up, and then I stay there until 10 p.m. After I get back, I can go to sleep. There's not much time that I can find boring."

Come to think of it, I seem to be in a similar situation. I thought about it and changed the question.

Do you clean your house often?

She nodded: "Although I live alone, there's not much to do on weekends, so I just clean the house. If I'm planning to go to school at night, I'll clean the house a bit, otherwise I'll fall asleep easily."

She doesn't just clean on weekends. Although it's just my feeling, to keep her walls spotless, especially in such an old house, she must wipe them countless times. It's a little unsettling, so I looked at her and made a little joke.

"Will we not have to clean until late at night anymore?"

She smiled at me, then quickly withdrew her smile.

"Don't be so scared, I won't get angry."

She didn't smile again. I shook my head and continued looking around her room, trying to find something I'd overlooked, but unfortunately, there was nothing there. Even if there were, it wouldn't be out in the open, and finding it would take a lot of time. Besides, searching through the room in front of its owner felt a bit awkward, and I couldn't completely shake off my shame. It was getting late anyway, so I figured I should head back.