The cycle begins to repeat itself today.

The proposal in March made me very hesitant.

First, given March's attitude towards me and Lin Yin's attitude under her influence, I'm certain that if I go to March's house, nothing will go unpunished. Moreover, this won't just happen at Ye Zi's house; something truly serious will likely unfold. Crucially, I don't seem to be resistant to this possibility; in fact, when I heard March's words, I even felt a faint sense of anticipation.

But that's what I'm most worried about.

However, going to March's house is also a very important matter. My current impressions of March and Lin Yin are basically based on my own subjective conjectures. Apart from a few parts that have some basis, the rest are all based on March's attitude as evidence. In other words, it's all based on what March has shown.

If I could go to their house in March, I think I could find quite a few things. But is that really a good idea?

I didn't continue the conversation and remained silent. Perhaps March took this as tacit agreement, as she didn't speak either. She then leaned down and whispered something in Lin Yin's ear. I couldn't hear it very clearly, but March seemed to be laughing happily.

I sighed. I was afraid I couldn't refuse March's suggestion. I had reasons for going to her house, and I didn't particularly object to this situation continuing. In that case, I thought it best to adopt the attitude I should.

My hands reached down to the chins of both March and Lin Yin, gently lifting their heads to look at me. Lin Yin seemed a little unaccustomed to it, while March, rather than being influenced by my movement, seemed to lift her head on her own initiative, following my movements without any resistance. This was especially noticeable now that Lin Yin was there for comparison.

I bent down and kissed both March and Lin Yin on the cheek. If I hadn't looked up early, March's outstretched hand might have hooked around my neck and started getting intimate with me.

"Saturday? Only one night, that doesn't seem like enough."

"Ha... I thought you were scared and didn't dare to come over since you weren't saying anything just now," March mocked me, but I didn't care much. She then took the initiative to put her arms around my neck and whispered in my ear, "My mom won't be back until Saturday night, and my dad seems to be away all week. Whether it's Saturday night or Saturday daytime, you can stay as long as you want... I just want to invite you to my house to stay overnight. I just don't know if you have the guts."

March licked my earlobe, her hot breath brushing against my face: "If you come, I'll give you a gift then."

"I'm really looking forward to it." Could the gift she's talking about be herself? Although I feel that March no longer needs to use such words to hint at herself, it's not entirely impossible.

I patted March on the back, signaling her to stand up. She seemed a little reluctant, but didn't press the matter further: "It's still so early, wouldn't it be better to stay a little longer?"

"In three more days, you'll be mine. What's the rush?"

"I'm yours now, aren't you going to do something for me?"

"Haven't I done everything I could for you now?"

I asked March a question in return. March tilted her head and thought for a moment, then said "That's true," and obediently got off me. Lin Yin had already stood up as well. I reached out and rubbed her head. Lin Yin wasn't as proactive as March, but I didn't want to ignore her either. Being ignored doesn't feel good, and I had learned this lesson deeply from what happened to Ye Zi.

Lin Yin lowered her head shyly.

"Let's go." I called to the two of them. March came over and took my left arm. She glanced at Lin Yin, perhaps hinting at something, and then Lin Yin also came over and took my right arm. I'm starting to get used to this situation.

Although they had spent some time in the abandoned park, they still didn't see anyone when they came out. March and Lin Yin didn't do anything special until they reached the school gate. At that moment, the two sisters let go of each other's hands and returned to their original state. However, March seemed to have changed less completely. She merely let go of my hand and maintained her seemingly unapproachable expression, but she didn't mind standing next to me.

I couldn't help but think of March's behavior before this. She had clearly stated that she wouldn't talk to me at school, or do anything else that suggested we were familiar with each other. But March's current actions contradicted what she had said. Perhaps considering that my relationship with March wasn't like this before, where we might appear to exchange a few words, I don't think such a drastic change is something the shrewd and capable March would do.

Her change seemed rather sudden. As for Lin Yin, it was probably the same; she had also undergone a very noticeable change. Her image was quite different from what I remembered. The most obvious change was that her somewhat timid personality traits had gradually faded away, and I rarely saw her with such expressions anymore.

But now is not the time to dwell on this. I've already stepped in, and if I can't get what I need, then anything I'm forced to do now, or rather, doing willingly, will only result in my loss. I will gain nothing and lose everything because... no matter how far back in time we go, what I've done will not change.

March and I walked together, parting ways with Lin Yin in front of the main building, and arrived at the old teaching building. The classroom lights in the old teaching building were already on, so there should be quite a few students studying inside. But the fact that there was no one else around except March and me made me feel a little strange.

But I couldn't quite put my finger on what was making me feel strange. I shook my head and stopped paying attention to it. While I wouldn't dismiss this strange feeling as a figment of my imagination, I didn't have the energy to focus on such things anymore. My actions needed to move in a very clear direction that would yield tangible results.

If we don't do it this way...

If we don't do it this way...

Chapter 202 Mental Exhaustion

Upon entering the classroom, I was somewhat surprised to find Ye Zi already seated in her seat. She seemed oblivious to me, looking down at something. March and I entered the classroom together, naturally drawing attention from everyone else. Those gazes felt a little harsh. March didn't seem inclined to say anything to me, so I went straight to my seat.

Just as I was about to reach Ye Zi, she suddenly seemed to sense my presence and looked up. Upon seeing me, she immediately stood up, allowing me to take my seat. It was then that I realized what Ye Zi had been looking at – she was reading, or in other words, studying. I wasn't too surprised, as Ye Zi had already shown a desire to improve herself, and her actions were quite natural.

In contrast, I should be the one who's abnormal. I used the excuse of wanting to go to university to shift Yezi's attention to studying, but I myself had no intention of working hard for it. Even though there were factors that I had to consider, the fact is that I really didn't have any intention of working hard for what I said.

I shook my head, trying to stop thinking about it. I had other things to do and couldn't let this distract me, I told myself.

"What's wrong?" Yezi looked at me with some concern. I smiled at her and said, "Nothing, let's read together."

I also took out a book, but compared to Yezi's serious reading attitude, I was more of a pose as if I were reading, while my mind was elsewhere. As for what I was thinking about, I wasn't quite sure. I couldn't concentrate; I was just daydreaming, no different from spacing out.

In this dazed state, the morning passed by. I was brought back to my senses when Yezi called my name. I looked around with a start and realized that most of the people at the back of the classroom had left, except for Yezi, who was still sitting next to me. March had come over at some point and started talking to Yezi. I looked past March towards the front of the classroom and saw that a few people were still watching March; they probably still didn't understand the purpose of her actions.

"Let's go eat together. I wonder where Xiaoyin is. She should be here soon if we wait downstairs for a bit." March pulled Yezi's hand and walked towards the classroom door. I snapped out of my reverie and stood up as well, following behind them. I kept a short distance, unconsciously observing the two of them. They seemed to have become even closer. Perhaps it was because of the impact of everything that had happened so far.

As we approached the teaching building, just as March had predicted, we saw Lin Yin waiting for us downstairs. She was slightly out of breath, as if she had rushed over in a hurry. Running from the main building to here in just a few minutes certainly took some effort. March quickly pulled Lin Yin aside to start a conversation.

The three of them weren't too far from me, and their conversation was mostly about studying. I had a premonition and subtly glanced around. Although I couldn't pinpoint exactly what they were, I did see familiar figures around me. I wondered if they were classmates. They were curious about March's crush and started investigating. This was a little troublesome.

Lunchtime passed in this manner, without anything particularly noteworthy or unusual, except perhaps for my classmates observing from a distance. I was slightly surprised that I could spot them, since my impressions of my classmates are mostly limited to recognizing them upon seeing them; pinpointing their exact identity is quite difficult.

After lunch, Lin Yin went back, while Ye Zi, San Yue, and I returned to the teaching building. Instead of going back to the classroom, we went to the lecture hall next to it, found a seat, and San Yue asked Ye Zi to get her books again, while San Yue and I waited for her in the classroom. I initially thought San Yue was just trying to get Ye Zi away to do something secretly, but I was wrong. San Yue didn't do anything; she simply told me what she would be teaching me at noon.

I was a little confused, but that confusion was quickly dispelled. I heard people walking down the corridor. I figured they were probably reading too much and their minds weren't quite working properly. They walked from the stairs to the classroom and back again, repeating this sound three or four times. Even a fool would probably realize that someone was watching them.

I glanced out the window and saw a shadow flash by. Although I had no concrete evidence, I was certain it wasn't the person I was searching for. Absolutely not, I had a feeling.

Ye Zi quickly entered the lecture hall, put down her books and draft paper, and didn't mention the figure pacing back and forth outside the classroom, perhaps not noticing anything strange about the other person. The lunch break ended with this tutoring session. Because I was tutoring two people, March quickly noticed my somewhat distracted state. Under the table, out of sight of the window, March's hand secretly reached out: "Naughty students who don't pay attention in class, the teacher will punish them."

I became a little more sober, but March didn't let me off the hook. She even dragged Yezi, who was blushing, into it. The person outside the classroom seemed to have given up long ago; I guess that's why Yezi did what she did.

Because of this incident, I focused my attention a little more, and the midday study session ended quickly. But for some reason, I felt extremely tired. From this morning until now, I feel like something's not quite right with me. This abnormality isn't a physical abnormality that I can clearly perceive, but rather a faint, yet definitely present, feeling of weakness.

Around two o'clock, we returned to the classroom. Yezi seemed quite energetic; she continued reading, while I slumped onto my desk, wanting to rest for a bit. I couldn't resist the drowsiness; even thinking felt a little slow.

"Remember to wake me up before class."

I told Yezi this, and after receiving her reply, I lay down on the table and fell asleep.

Chapter 203 The Vanished Time

I slept fairly soundly, perhaps because I was a little tired. The slight noise didn't wake me until I clearly felt someone shake my arm, at which point I lifted my head. Because I had been pressing my arm down, there were very obvious creases on it, and my vision was a little blurry. I rubbed my eyes, and they gradually cleared.

"The teacher is here!" Yezi's voice rang out beside me. I looked towards the front of the classroom and, sure enough, saw the teacher already setting up her teaching materials on the podium. The classroom seemed to be full.

Aside from a slight numbness in my arm, I didn't feel anything particularly unusual. I yawned, confirmed that the teacher standing at the front of the classroom was my homeroom teacher, then took out my textbook and started spacing out. Ye Zi, on the other hand, sat beside me attentively listening to the lesson.

I gazed absentmindedly out the window, the vast emptiness making me feel relaxed. Perhaps it was because I had rested for a while, but the fatigue had completely vanished. It was a little strange, because my rest time is usually quite fixed, and I don't usually take a nap at noon; I'm not the type to feel sleepy at this time. But now I'm not so sure, but fortunately, this incident doesn't seem to have had a significant impact.

My gaze wandered around, and suddenly I sensed something was amiss. I became alert and carefully observed the classroom, but I didn't see anything that caught my attention. Although the strange feeling persisted, I couldn't pinpoint what it was that was bothering me.

My strange behavior quickly made Yezi, who was sitting next to me, also puzzled: "What's wrong?"

"No, it's nothing." I shook my head, giving a vague answer and looking away. I still couldn't figure out what that strange thing was.

The afternoon classes ended quickly. I hadn't been paying attention, or perhaps I never intended to be serious in class. I just watched the teacher pack up her things to leave. I turned to look at Yezi, about to ask her to go to the cafeteria for lunch, but I quickly froze.

I saw Yezi also start packing her things. It wasn't the kind of pre-packing to save for later; she just grabbed her backpack and stuffed all the books she wanted to take inside. This shouldn't be happening right now.

The time between afternoon classes ending and evening self-study begins is short, and few people would choose to go home for dinner at that time. Besides, Yezi doesn't seem like the type to do such a thing. I was about to ask her, but then I saw almost everyone doing the same thing as Yezi. My brain didn't process it for a moment, which left me stunned for quite a while.

"What are you doing?" I heard March's voice and looked at March, who had somehow appeared beside me. "Should we go now, or is it your turn to do chores today?"

Looking towards the back of the classroom in March, a small sign hung on the back door, listing the group members on duty that day in chalk. Because my classroom was on the highest floor that was normally accessible, and located on the inner side, the back door was almost never used. After opening the door, there was a simply fenced-off area with cleaning tools inside.

This area is visible from the corridor, but you can't enter from there. This is to prevent students from using the back door to sneak into the classroom when they're late. The space here is quite small and cluttered with a lot of stuff; it's already a bit crowded with just two people standing inside.

"It's not you today either?" March turned to look at me with a puzzled voice: "What are you still dawdling for? Let's go."

She reached out and took Yezi's hand, helping her to her feet. I saw more and more students carrying their backpacks, some without, but most of them sat at the back of the classroom. I rarely saw those carrying backpacks around the school.

Is it... school's over?

I came to this somewhat unbelievable conclusion. School being over and get out of class being over—two different outcomes. Was it something that had been said beforehand that caused the evening self-study session to be canceled? How could such a thing happen? This school wouldn't allow something like this to happen so easily.

"Oh, by the way, come over after you've finished dinner." March said out of the blue, which made me even more confused: "I have a little thing to prepare, and if you come over, there won't be any food left."

I looked at March with a puzzled expression, but March stood with her hands on her hips, frowning, looking somewhat annoyed: "You, you haven't forgotten what happened today, have you?"

What happened today? What happened today?

I had a premonition that something was going to go wrong, and I instinctively took out my phone to check the time...

I felt the sounds around me become very, very faint in that instant, as if I had been detached from this world, and my whole body was ice cold.

Today's date is...

September 17th is a Saturday.

I was completely stunned. I tried hard to recall what had happened, but my memory was incredibly clear; I could recall the gist of what had occurred before my nap on Wednesday afternoon quite clearly. But this shouldn't be happening...

Wednesday afternoon and evening, Thursday and Friday, Saturday morning… a total of seventy-two hours, just vanished like that? It's really hard for me to laugh. I pinched my arm and clearly felt the pain; this shouldn't be happening…

Shouldn't it be like this? I quickly began to doubt my own thoughts. Time travel had happened before, so if one day he suddenly stopped traveling back and jumped to a future day, was that really strange?

I sat there in my seat, lost in thought, while March, apparently because of her birthday, pulled Yezi away. When I came to my senses, I didn't see them.

I stood up, quickly packed my bag, and prepared to go home. I knew I couldn't possibly figure out what had happened in those seventy-two hours on my own; I had to find Yezi and Sanyue and ask them.

My memory has vanished, and seventy-two hours have passed. But Yezi and Sanyue don't seem to be affected. I want to know what happened during this time, and I can only find out through Yezi and Sanyue.

Chapter 204 The Night Before Yesterday

Ye Zi was taken away by March, and I walked home from school alone. It was late afternoon, a Saturday afternoon I hadn't experienced in ages, and I was heading home.

The surroundings seemed normal, but when I realized that the anomaly wasn't limited to this scene, but encompassed it, a sense of unease began to spread within me. I felt as if I were completely enveloped by something. I didn't sense any malice, but the feeling was unpleasant.

I returned home in silence, and found that my younger sister seemed to have already arrived. Although she was in a lower grade and had fewer evening study sessions than me, which meant she would come home earlier, her afternoon classes were the same. She walked much faster than I had expected.

"You're back?" My sister came out of the kitchen as if she heard me open the door. She was carrying the rice cooker pot, so she must have been cooking. "Perfect timing, we're out of rice in the kitchen. Could you bring some over?"

We don't keep all our rice in the kitchen. We buy large bags at once, and the kitchen doesn't have enough space to store it, so the extra rice is stored in other rooms. We rarely have guests, perhaps because of my parents, but our guest room, apart from a bed, is practically a storage room.

I nodded to my sister, took the pot, put down my schoolbag in the bedroom, and then went to the guest room to get rice.

"Oh right, Mom and Dad aren't coming back today either. It looks like they won't be back until next Monday, so it'll just be the two of us today." My sister reminded me, probably wanting me to be careful with the amount of rice I put in the container, but I had absolutely no memory of my parents not being home... That's to be expected, isn't it? Having lost seventy-two things for no reason, how could I possibly remember what happened in between?

I felt I needed to ask my younger sister, but I didn't want to seem too strange. I thought for a moment, then took the pot back to the kitchen. My sister was using the sink to wash vegetables, so I had to leave the pot on the counter.

"You brought it? Then go and rest for a bit. It will probably take another hour. Our rice cooker is too old. We should ask Mom and Dad to get a new one later."

My sister complained, but didn't seem inclined to continue. I had to pick up where I left off.

"What are we eating today?" I felt my language was a bit clumsy, but it should be enough for a simple conversation. However, I needed to expand the conversation further to get the information I wanted.

"There aren't many ingredients. I'll just stir-fry some meat and vegetables, and make a soup. If you want something else, wait until tomorrow. Or you can go buy some groceries now. I've only just started cooking."

I shook my head: "I don't think it's necessary. After all, your cooking is very delicious. It's actually quite good that Mom and Dad aren't here, otherwise you wouldn't cook."