Ordinary Chapter 81: Past and Future

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

The arms of the clock fell to the ground as if they were dislodged, and the time period floating in the air floated back to Shen Si, who could see the image freeze and then rewind over and over again. As Shen Si sat up from the snow and watched everyone move backwards, except for Shen Si, the young teenage boy standing quietly in place.

He remained the only one unaffected in time.

The police cars and ambulances disappeared; his parents hitting on the windows for help backed up; the burnt out vehicle became brand new; and soon the car kept backing up until the whole road was clean to the point where there wasn’t a single person. Shen Si looked at the timeline in the air and it was the first time that time had reset.

“What’s happening?” The teenager Shen Si looked around blankly, he had no idea what had happened, only that everyone had disappeared, including his parents who had died. He ran strangely to the middle of the road and walked to the place where the vehicle had been burned before.

Just then, there was the sound of wheels, and Shen Si and his teenage self looked ahead together.

A familiar car drove by, and after seeing the teenager Shen Si, the vehicle slowed down and stopped beside it, followed by the car window being opened and the familiar person peeking out from inside.

“Shen Si?” A woman with a sharp ponytail, looking gentle and beautiful even at forty years old, got out of the car with a slight surprise on her face, “Xiao Si, what are you doing here?”

“Mom?” Teenager Shen Si looked at her, the sadness in his eyes was like snow melting in the sun, overflowing with surprise, “You’re okay?”

“What are you talking about? Of course I’m fine.” The female smiled and stroked the teenager Shen Si’s hair, “Shouldn’t you be in school at this hour? Why are you here? Did something happen at school? Can you tell mommy?”

Teenager Shen Si shook his head, he clutched the woman’s hand, as if not willing to let go for a moment.

Shen Si sat on the snow watching this image with no extra expression on his face, or rather, he had no idea what expression to put on. His mind was blank, focused hard on watching this image, until the end.

Because, there was a second time reset, so the long flow of time continued,and  the events hadn’t been avoided.

Shen Si heard the ear-piercing sound of a car, looked to the end of the road, and a broken-down private car from behind came over at a fairly fast speed. It was too late even after seeing the car parked, the woman only had time to push the teenager Shen Si out of the way.

As if by a joke of fate, after Shen Si appeared and stopped the car, they still had an accident.

The teenager Shen Si fell on the roadside, blood stained his school uniform, he looked at what happened, silent, because he could no longer make a sound.

The scene was the same as it was at the beginning: busy police officers, onlookers, and a body covered by a white cloth, with only Shen Si, an outsider, being questioned by the police as to why he was here and whether he was injured, and until it calmed down.

Shen Si got up from the ground, followed himself back home and watched as he stood in the living room and returned to his room, the pain of gaining and losing repeatedly tormenting him, the power of losing control rising up.

And so the world reset again.

But even if the world reset again, it was useless. No matter what efforts Shen Si made, his parents would die from the car accident, and death could not be changed. At the scene of the last car accident, Shen Si saw himself standing by the roadside, and he quietly looked at the scene, with no emotion in his dark eyes.

No pain, no sadness, no breakdown.

There was only despair.

“Did you see that child? It was his parents who died, but he didn’t even cry, it didn’t look like he was hurting at all..”

“The people who died were his parents!”

“Hasn’t he been scared silly? I’ve heard that some people can be scared straight out of their wits.”

Teenager Shen Si closed his eyes, fell to the ground and fainted. The police were shocked, rushed to call the arrival of emergency doctors to rush to check his body, and finally, the doctor said: he fell asleep.

The scene was paused, the clip reverted to a clock and disappeared into thin air, leaving only Shen Si sitting on the ground.

What happened after that Shen Si remembered. After waking up in the hospital, all he saw was the anxious police man and the teacher who came to hear about it.

“Why were you at the scene of the crash?”

“I don’t know.”

“How did you get out of the school?”

“I don’t know.”

“About what happened to your parents… Very sorry.”

Shen Si looked up, and he looked at the man in front of him, his face calm, “…It’s okay.”

Shen Si fell back onto the snow, and white mist exhaled from Shen Si’s mouth. He looked calmly at the sky, it was a nice day, still cold but the sun was warm. The snow melted underneath him, moistening his jacket, Shen Si could feel a coldness on his back, but didn’t intend to get up.

Passion was frozen and the sanity was wading through the ice, like a spring grass caught beneath snow.

At that moment, a hand reached out. Shen Si slightly tilted his head and saw Jian Nian who was standing near his head.

“I knew you’d be here.” Jian Nian looked at him with a smile in his eyes, “Get up. If you lie down again your jacket will get wet and you’ll catch a cold.”

Shen Si sat up and looked at Jian Nian. After a moment, he gave him his hand, then Jian Nian used force, and helped Shen Si stand up from the snow. He shook the snow off his body, and looked no different from the usual.

“Did you… see what happened before?” Jian Nian inquired tentatively, “Did you see anything different?”

“No.” Shen Si spoke carelessly, “Not much different from what I thought, or rather, exactly the same.”

Jian Nian’s heart stuttered as he remembered what Shen Si had said to him last time, saying that even if he reset time twice, he hadn’t saved them.

Was this what Shen Si had seen?

It was too cruel.

“Are you okay?”

“Me?” Shen Si looked at Jian Nian, and only after a moment did he nod as if he understood, “I didn’t come to see this image to immerse myself in pessimism or to accept the existence of this thing in despair, I just did it to judge the truth of a matter.”

Jian Nian was a bit stunned, “What? Shen Si, say it clearly, I don’t quite understand.”

“The past has been established, the future can’t be determined, which is why the infinite possibilities of the future and the past cannot be changed.” Shen Si put his hands in his pockets, “Why can’t I change my fate even if I reset time? Why can’t I save them even if I go backwards twice?”

“Why?”

“Because, that’s part of the past.” Shen Si looked at Jian Nian, not caring whether he could understand or not, “The past cannot be changed, so no matter what I do, they will die because of the car accident.”

Jian Nian stared at Shen Si, “What do you mean?”

“Nothing.” Shen Si staggered him forward, “My rescue is an empty talk, because history cannot be changed.”

“Shen Si?!”

“But.” Shen Si turned his head and smiled a little, “The future can always be looked forward to.”

… 

Shen Si returned to the hospital, where he unusually listened obediently to the doctor’s lecture to him, and apologized to Ning Yangze, but said absolutely nothing about what he had gone to do and see. However, both Ning Yangze and Jian Nian found that Shen Si’s personality had changed.

He was no longer so cold, his polite and rational analysis seemed to be a lot less, he seemed to be more gentle than usual. Occasionally, when Xia LeYu would visit him, he would notice that he was chatting with the young doctor, although only some small talk, but was this not amazing?

That’s Shen Si, who never said anything unnecessary and hated troublesome things!

“What is Shen Si’s problem?” Ning Yangze stood at the door of the ward with a sad face.

He Xin pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, “Isn’t it normal? My data analysis tells me that he is in a very good state and has no perverted tendencies at all.”

“It’s not that.” Xia LeYu added next to him, “For Shen, it’s because it’s very normal that it seems strange!”

“So you guys are saying his personality has changed drastically, but you know what I found out?” He Xin fished out a piece of information from his pocket, “In Shen Si’s examination after he returned from leaving the hospital privately, I found that he had a stronger control over his abilities and his abilities that were on the verge of collapse had stabilized.”

He Xin tsked, “I’m now very curious as to what he actually went and did.”

A hand jerked the files out of his hand, so He Xin turned his head to look. Jian Nian leaned on the door frame and flipped through the papers, with Shen Si’s body data, and the energy fluctuations detected by the Inspection Unit with special instruments. Looking at the numbers that tended to stabilize, Jian Nian frowned slightly.

Sure enough, Shen Si must have discovered something during the incident eight years ago.

“Mr. Jian, you came back with Shen Si at that time, right?” He Xin’s eyes were full of curiosity, “Can you tell me where you found him?”

“Of course it was in a place that only the two of us know.” Jian Nian said so, he threw the information in his hand back to He Xin, “Does the Special Unit and Inspection Unit have nothing better to do all day? Don’t keep coming over to pry into Shen Si’s personal affairs.”

“But Mr. Shen isn’t normal now.” Xia LeYu was referring to Shen Si’s slightly changed personality.

Jian Nian glanced towards the ward, then he closed his eyes and his voice was a bit strange, “He’s actually quite normal.”

“What? Normal?” Xia LeYu felt that him and Jian Nian had a different understanding of what normal was.

“I’m not talking nonsense.” Jian Nian tsked, with a hint of annoyance in his voice, “Actually, Shen Si used to be like this. He was a very gentle person, always kind to people, until eight years ago, when his parents were killed in a car accident, that’s when his character turned out to be like what you know. Do you understand? He was originally like this, but now he’s just changed back.”

Jian Nian gripped the wall behind him with both hands, his nails sinking into the white paint of the wall, “I don’t know what happened, but since Shen Si changed back, it means he really doesn’t care about the past anymore. That person says he hates the past, but in reality there is no other person who cares more about the past than he does.”

After seeing the past again, it was like getting back his lost feelings, Shen Si’s was relaxed, he would laugh and talk to him about anything in his heart.

Shen Si… seemed to have become stronger.