Just in Time Chapter 123
Translated by Sylver (ko-fi)
Chapter 123
Extra 13-Sugar (2)
Yun Fang seemed to have a very long dream.
The people in the dream were blurry, but their voices were clear.
"What should we name the child?" It was a steady male voice.
"How about Sugar?" It was a gentle female voice.
"Sugar? Okay, let's call him Sugar. We hope our son will always be sweet like sugar, and always happy."
"Right, Sugar?"
"Sugar, hello Sugar, I'm your dad. Dad's name is Yun Heyu, and you are Yun Sugar."
"This is mom, her name is Tang Yi. She went through a lot of trouble to give birth to you. Say 'mom' quickly."
"He can't even open his eyes, how can he say 'mom'? Come, let me hold Sugar."
"Oh, you should lie down and rest well, right, Sugar?"
"Sugar..."
"Sugar?"
"Sugar! Sugar!"
Someone kept calling his name near his ear, from questioning to urgent, and finally becoming heartbreaking.
He finally felt sadness.
The sound of electric current buzzed in his ears. Suddenly, his neck felt very painful. He struggled to open his eyes, gasped for air, and stared at the chandelier on the ceiling for a long time without coming to his senses.
The news broadcast from the TV reached his ears.
[Hello, viewers. Today is October 30, 2×××…]
Yun Fang slowly frowned, thinking he was still dreaming.
He just didn't understand why he would dream of twenty years later.
"Kid, you're awake?" A rough voice suddenly sounded near his ear, carrying a very impolite tone.
Yun Fang frowned. His neck and head were hurting badly. He crawled up from the sofa and looked blankly at the unfamiliar man before him.
The person sitting on the sofa looked no more than 23 or 24 years old, with an excessively beautiful face. His slightly upturned peach blossom eyes sparkled. He lounged lazily on the sofa, his shoulder-length hair scattered, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. When he opened his mouth, it was completely at odds with his beautiful face. "If you keep staring at me, I'll gouge out your eyeballs for a drinking snack."
Yun Fang frowned, "Who are you?"
"You sneak into my house in the middle of the night and dare to ask who I am!?" The man looked at him incredulously.
Yun Fang was utterly confused. He pinched his palm hard. It hurt.
This wasn't a dream.
Then he noticed something was wrong. Although this hand looked about the same size as his, it clearly wasn't his hand.
"You look like you're just in high school. Why are you doing such sneaky things?" The man exhaled some smoke, "Considering your young age, get out of here quickly!"
Yun Fang opened his mouth, and an unfamiliar voice came out: "Where is this?"
"My home." The other person stood up and looked down at him, "Either you leave now, or I call the police."
Yun Fang was kicked out.
In the dead of night, he was only wearing a thin short-sleeved shirt. Before, he would have been wearing a thick sweater in this weather.
He sneezed from the cold and searched all his pockets, only finding ten yuan and an ID card.
Yun Fang was stunned as he looked at the unfamiliar face on the ID card. Although it was an ID photo, the face was still quite handsome, but the expression towards the camera wasn't very friendly, with a fierce look in the eyes and brows.
The date on it showed that this person named Yang Luo was eighteen years old this year, and it had his registered address.
It took Yun Fang a long time to process the fact that he had become another person and arrived twenty years in the future. But what surprised him even more was that in this S Province, there was no Wu City.
"How could the map be wrong? I've lived in S Province for nearly fifty years and never heard of any Wu City!" The old man being asked complained loudly.
Yun Fang had no choice but to find Yang Luo's registered address.
"That house was sold long ago. His father was addicted to gambling, sold the house to pay gambling debts, then his wife remarried, and he jumped to his death!" The neighbor looked at him suspiciously, "What relation are you to him?"
Yun Fang frowned.
After several days, he finally figured out his current identity: just turned 18, father dead by suicide, mother remarried far away, no relatives, only middle school education, no place to live, no job, no savings. That night he was probably caught trying to steal from someone's home.
He stood by the river in the park, not knowing whether to sigh in relief or frustration.
Coming back to life was really challenging his understanding.
He sat down on a bench and opened the wrapper of the bread in his hand.
These past few days he had found a temporary job with daily pay, at least enough not to go hungry. At night he curled up to sleep in the small room of a bank's ATM.
He slowly chewed the bread, feeling a bit choked, thinking about what he should do next.
This was a completely different new world. Some places were very similar to his past world, but ultimately different.
He gazed at the calm lake surface, lost in thought.
Perhaps jumping in would be a good choice.
"Hey! Kid! What are you doing?" A familiar voice came from behind him, then someone yanked him back by the collar.
He suddenly came to his senses and realized he was just one step away from the lake surface.
He turned around and saw the excessively beautiful man from that night.
His shoulder-length hair was tied in a bun, and he held a paintbrush in his other hand. His face was full of impatience, and his army green pants were covered in paint. Not far away stood an easel.
He looked like a painter.
With a bad temper.
Yun Fang stared at him blankly.
Duan Feng snapped his fingers in front of him, saying rudely, "If you want to jump in the river, do it later. I haven't finished painting!"
Yun Fang: "......"
He sat on the bench behind Duan Feng's easel and continued eating his bread, watching him paint.
Yun Fang looked puzzled at the chaotic lines and bizarre colors, which couldn't be said to be identical to the river in front of them, only that there was no relation at all.
Duan Feng painted for a long time. As long as he painted, Yun Fang sat behind him watching.
The sky had darkened, and Duan Feng began to pack up his painting supplies.
Yun Fang finished the last bite of bread sitting on the bench.
Duan Feng looked at him with his easel on his back, "Kid, aren't you going home?"
Yun Fang carefully folded the bread wrapper into a square and replied, "I don't have a home anymore."
Yun Heyu and Tang Yi were not in this world. Because of his selfishness and willfulness, he was now homeless.
Duan Feng clicked his tongue and turned to leave without mercy. Halfway through, he turned back, pointing at Yun Fang and threatening, "Don't jump at night either. I haven't finished painting today, and I don't want to see police tape around here!"
Yun Fang couldn't help but smile, "Okay."
Duan Feng quickly disappeared from his sight.
Yun Fang thought back to Duan Feng's painting, feeling that it wouldn't matter where he painted, since he couldn't even tell it was a river.
But since he had promised, he wouldn't go back on his word.
He would wait until he finished this painting, Yun Fang thought.
The next day at noon, Duan Feng indeed appeared again by the river with his easel.
Yun Fang had changed to a different flavored bread, slowly eating while watching Duan Feng paint.
Today Duan Feng wore ripped jeans, exposing his knees in the late autumn/early winter weather. Yun Fang felt cold just looking at him. He had saved money for a few days, not only able to eat a different flavored bread but also buy himself some warm clothes. Although they were unfashionable and ugly, they were very warm.
On the second evening, Yun Fang asked him, "Have you finished painting?"
"No!" Duan Feng glared at him, "This painting is for sale. Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents. You better be careful!"
On the third day, Yun Fang was not only eating bread, but there was also a bottle of milk on the chair.
Duan Feng said grumpily, "The milk at home was about to expire. It would have been thrown away anyway."
"Thank you," Yun Fang smiled at him.
Duan Feng snorted coldly and turned back to continue painting.
He sat on the painting stool, occasionally raising his head to look at the calm lake surface and the distant woods. His hair tied at the back of his head was a bit messy. His nearly perfect profile was bathed in a faint golden glow under the sunlight. Just sitting there, he was as beautiful as a painting—
If only he didn't open his mouth to speak.
This time, without waiting for Yun Fang to speak, he said directly, "I haven't finished painting yet."
"Okay," Yun Fang thought to himself that he could actually choose another river.
"For egg tarts, do you prefer cranberries or raisins?" Duan Feng asked him.
"Cranberries," Yun Fang answered instinctively.
"I'll bring you some tomorrow," Duan Feng said, without explaining further, and left gracefully with his easel.
Yun Fang folded the bread wrapper into a square, thinking, I'll wait one more day then.
On the fourth day, Duan Feng brought him four small egg tarts with cranberries and a bottle of milk. Without saying anything, he set up his easel and started painting.
Yun Fang ate the slightly sweet egg tarts and finished the whole bottle of milk.
And he still couldn't understand Duan Feng's painting.
"Does anyone really buy your paintings?" Yun Fang couldn't help but ask.
Duan Feng laughed coldly. "One of my paintings sells for 800,000 yuan. How else do you think you could have sneaked into my villa?"
Yun Fang was taken aback. When he looked at the bizarrely chaotic painting again, he suddenly felt it was full of noble artistic spirit.
On the fifth day, Yun Fang was eating steaming hot roasted meat and drinking what Duan Feng called "not fresh" orange juice while watching him smear paint on the canvas.
"Kid, what's your name?" Duan Feng suddenly asked while painting.
"Yun Fang," Yun Fang said.
Duan Feng chuckled, "That's quite flavorful."
"The roasted meat is flavorful," Yun Fang couldn't understand his artistic spirit, only thinking the meat tasted good.
"How many more days will you paint this one?" Yun Fang asked him.
"Why do you care how long I paint!" Duan Feng glared at him impolitely, "Do you know how much this meat you're eating costs? It's made by a five-star chef. If you dare waste a single bite, I'll throw you in the river!"
Don't bite the hand that feeds you, so Yun Fang stopped asking this question.
Later, Duan Feng painted the longest-taking painting of his life, which was also his only painting that couldn't be sold.
That painting was hung in the most prominent place in the living room.
Even later, someone interviewed him about his partner, who was said to be the youngest academician in the Academy of Sciences, asking Duan Feng to talk about their love story.
Duan Feng pointed at the wall behind him.
"Because of him, I ruined an 800,000 yuan painting."