Just in Time Chapter 126
Translated by Sylver (ko-fi)
Chapter 126
Extra 16-Brain Hole: Little Yi and Original Big Yi
Yi Chenliang sat on the sofa, frowning deeply. His hand was still being held by someone, and he felt a bit irritated.
The other person had just finished putting a band-aid on him. Suddenly, they paused and reached out to grab his other hand, but he deftly avoided it.
"What are you doing?" Yi Chenliang stared at him warily.
"Your right hand—" The other person's gaze was fixed intently on his right hand.
He had been using his left hand all along, rarely using his right. Now it seemed the other person had finally noticed this issue, and their expression didn't look good. "Why is there such a large scar?"
"You don't know?" Yi Chenliang looked at him suspiciously.
"You never told me your right hand was injured." Young Yi's expression seemed somewhat pained, but Yi Chenliang rarely saw such an expression on others' faces, so he didn't quite know how to react for a moment.
"Let me see," he said.
"See my ass." Yi Chenliang felt inexplicably irritated. He stood up, "We've finished eating. Hurry up and leave."
Then his wrist was grabbed by the other person.
The wound on his right hand was a through-and-through injury, extremely horrific. Yet the other person didn't seem to mind at all, gently stroking it with an excessively tender touch.
"Is it because of Ge San?" That person held his hand, eyes slightly reddened.
Yi Chenliang said in a deep voice, "Stop meddling in these affairs."
For some reason, he didn't want this seemingly foolish version of himself to get involved.
"Is Ge San dead?" he asked.
"Not yet," Yi Chenliang said coldly. "But he will be soon."
Before he finished speaking, his hand was gripped tightly.
He lowered his gaze to look at the other person and found that his other self didn't seem to be in a particularly good mood.
Yi Chenliang thought he didn't want to leave and frowned, saying, "You're only allowed to stay here for one night."
That person always smiled with a face identical to his own. Now he gave him a somewhat sad smile.
Yi Chenliang averted his eyes, trying to pull his hand away, but was pulled to sit on the sofa.
"Brother, today is your birthday," he still wouldn't let go of his hand, "It's my birthday too."
"If you don't want me to keep you company, then you keep me company," he said.
Yi Chenliang felt there wasn't much difference between the two, but he sat down on the sofa anyway. Out of habit, he wanted to smoke, but then remembered that the pack of cigarettes he had just bought had been thrown into the trash bin.
"Actually, I had an argument with you today," the person sitting next to him said. "You said I'm already thirty-five, yet you still won't let me eat ice cream."
Yi Chenliang was taken aback.
"It's that crispy-coated kind we loved to eat when we were little, remember?" that person asked.
Yi Chenliang frowned and thought for a moment, "I don't remember."
In fact, he did remember, but he really couldn't imagine himself arguing with someone over ice cream. How trivial.
"But I managed to coax you," Young Yi chuckled. "You're just soft-hearted."
Yi Chenliang, who considered himself cold-hearted, thought, "......"
He found it hard to reconcile the person the other was describing with his current self. From the other's narrative, it seemed he was very doting towards Xiao Yi, and particularly gentle and patient.
Gentle?
Yi Chenliang felt that in this life, he would never be associated with such a terrifying word.
As he thought this, his gaze fell on the other's left wrist. There was a strange red string tied around it, with a small, smooth black stone attached. The knot looked somewhat familiar.
Seeing him looking, Xiao Yi openly raised his wrist for him to see, proudly saying, "Brother, you braided this for me yourself."
"We found this stone when we were playing at the beach. We were just in our first year of high school then, and you had just returned from the physics competition training camp in Beijing," he recalled nostalgically. "Later, when I went on a business trip to Myanmar, I met an old lady."
"That old lady said this knot could only be tied for someone you love."
"And it meant taking on half of their misfortunes."
"Brother, you're such a big liar. You told me you had tied it wrong, but you actually made me wear a different one..."
Yi Chenliang sat on the sofa listening to the other person narrate their story. He remembered the old lady in Myanmar. He had been on a mission then and unexpectedly memorized the style of the knot, but he never thought he would tie it for anyone else.
He wouldn't fall in love with anyone, even if that person was himself.
Yi Chenliang found it all very incredible, but looking at the other's expression, he didn't seem to be lying.
The other person talked about many stories that had happened between them. In these stories, they were so in love, had only each other, and ended up living a simple yet warm life together.
As he spoke, he unconsciously leaned against Yi Chenliang, skillfully resting his head on his shoulder, their legs intertwined. He even yawned.
Yi Chenliang sat there stiffly, not daring to move.
Logically, he should have pushed this person away immediately, but perhaps because the stories seemed so real, for a moment he thought that the other person truly was his lover.
But this was too absurd; he found it hard to truly believe.
He even felt that the person beside him might be a character he had imagined. He had been tirelessly moving forward alone, and had finally driven himself mad, thus hallucinating another 35-year-old version of himself.
And the stories were getting more and more outlandish.
But inevitably, for a moment, he actually hoped that the stories the other person told were true.
If—
He only thought of the first two words before extinguishing his unrealistic fantasy.
There were never any 'ifs' in this world, only cold reality.
And another version of himself would never really appear in this world.
Thinking this, Yi Chenliang still didn't push away the person in his arms.
The clock on the wall was approaching midnight. Xiao Yi picked up a lighter from the coffee table and smiled at him, "Brother, it's almost midnight. Make a birthday wish."
They faced each other, the warm yellow flame flickering gently before their eyes.
Make a wish?
Yi Chenliang never made wishes. He knew that his wishes would never come true. It was foolish.
Across the flame, the other person's face bore a gentle smile, his gaze clean and clear, as if he had never been tainted by blood and darkness.
Earlier, he had introduced himself as working at an archaeological institute, with a government position, living quite comfortably.
Yi Chenliang felt his fantasy was unrealistic, yet he thought it wasn't bad this way.
"Brother, make a wish," Young Yi snapped his fingers in front of him.
As if enchanted, Yi Chenliang stared at the small flickering flame before him and thought half-heartedly:
If this person truly existed, then let the stories he had made up come true.
Thinking this, he smiled self-mockingly and blew out the flame.
The next second, he was tightly embraced.
Yi Chenliang froze, his hands hanging in mid-air, not knowing where to place them.
This hug was warm and real. He heard the other person laughing in his ear.
"Big Yi, happy birthday."
Yi Chenliang finally relaxed his vigilance and wariness. His stiff shoulders slowly slumped. He flexed his finger joints, raised his hand, reaching out to hug the other person back.
But just as he touched the other's back, the person in his arms suddenly dissipated into tiny points of light, leaving him embracing nothing.
The lighter clattered to the ground.
The clock on the wall finally struck twelve.
Yi Chenliang's usually cold gaze was, for once, tinged with bewilderment.
"...Xiao Yi?" he called out, but no one answered in the empty room. He was all alone.
After a while, he suddenly came to his senses, picked up the lighter from the ground, and walked into the bedroom expressionlessly.
The walls were covered with various types of firearms.
Tomorrow was the day of the final operation, success or failure would be determined in one go.
Perhaps he was just under too much pressure, which led to this hallucination.
Yi Chenliang thought this as he turned to look behind him.
It was empty, just him alone.
Those cold eyes finally showed no trace of emotion again.