Chapter 271: 267: The Cycle

267: The Cycle

Humans are not made of grass or wood; who can be without emotion?

Under An Qin's long-term companionship, even Fang Mu, who was quite dull regarding emotions, was moved by her kindness and gentleness.

The reason An Qin saved Fang Mu was actually a matter of coincidence; An Qin's home happened to be near the alley where he collapsed, and she just happened to be passing by.

But the reason An Qin decided to care for Fang Mu with such perseverance and meticulous attention was that the literary attainments Fang Mu inadvertently revealed deeply attracted this literary-minded college student in her early twenties. Coupled with Fang Mu's own gentle temperament and handsome appearance, An Qin's favorable impression of him continued to grow. In the span of two or three days, An Qin had fallen into the spiderweb of love.

At first, aside from gratitude for saving his life, Fang Mu did not have many feelings for An Qin. His mind had not yet recovered from the terrifying and bizarre encounter in the cave. At the same time, when he discovered that he had actually traveled back to June 1991, he was shocked beyond measure.

Why did he travel through time, and why did he come here?

Could it be that the plots in those fantasy novels were actually real?

How could the space-time paradox be explained if it applied to him?

Fang Mu felt his head was in great chaos; lost and confused, he would often zone out. Those bizarre and grotesque memory fragments were devouring his sanity every moment. Whenever this happened, he could only recall the house in the woods. That magical little shop was the only place that made him feel truly at ease, so when he wasn't paying attention, he would often mutter unclearly: "Forest... house... the cabin in the woods."

And this inadvertently helped him bypass the step of explaining his identity. Everyone just assumed he had been robbed and brutally beaten, injuring his head and causing him to lose part of his memory and become confused.

On the day Fang Mu woke up, when the Enforcer came to inquire and investigate, it happened to be the day his consciousness was most chaotic. When the Enforcer asked for his name, because it was unclear and Fang Mu needed to provide an identity to continue his hospitalization, An Qin only vaguely heard the sounds "Fang" and "Lin," so she took it upon herself to give Fang Mu the name "Fang Lin."

By the time Fang Mu reacted to the name and became clear-headed, he found that the Enforcer had already recorded it. Fang Mu couldn't help but be a bit speechless, but he complied and didn't change it, accepting the name.

Fang Lin and Fang Mu—the similarity between the two names lies only in the addition of a radical to the original name. While it is said to be a coincidence, it actually feels even more like a strange, fated occurrence.

Fang Mu's dazed state actually only lasted for about a day; by the next day, he had recovered a lot, at least enough to communicate normally with An Qin.

"Where is my Nail Hammer?" Fang Mu asked the other party nervously after regaining his senses.

An Qin smiled and said, "So those were yours? I saw you holding them tightly when you fainted, and I thought they were some important murder weapon or evidence. They are currently being held by the Enforcer for investigation. Since they are yours, just mention it to them when they come to ask you questions again."

Fang Mu felt a bit helpless after hearing this, but he understood.

Who would actually treat a pair of nail hammers like treasures? They were the kind of things construction workers just tossed aside.

An Qin was very curious about Fang Mu's experience. Fang Mu could not explain his true experience to her, so he could only go along with the situation and say he had been robbed, that his head was very muddled now, and his words were a mix of truth and lies.

In this era, it was easy for a person to get a fake identity, though this is only relative to the era decades later.

It took Fang Mu half a year of running around to finally piece together and forge his identity as "Fang Lin."

During these six months, many changes also occurred in him, including falling in love with An Qin.

His original intention was actually not to have too much involvement with An Qin. This poor woman would suffer a major change in her entire family over the next twenty-some years because of meeting him; it would be no exaggeration to call it a ruined home and a catastrophic disaster.

But even though Fang Mu had once used the harshest and most insulting words and actions to force her to stay away from him, for some reason An Qin remained devoted to him, leaving Fang Mu at a loss.

On the night Fang Mu met An Qin's parents, the kind and gentle couple took a liking to him the moment they saw him and hoped he would become their son-in-law.

Perhaps it was because he had drunk a lot of alcohol that day, or perhaps it was because he had opened his heart and talked a lot with An Qin's parents—Fang Mu couldn't remember exactly what was said—but carried by the atmosphere, Fang Mu proposed to An Qin solemnly that night, successfully making her his true wife.

Is the future really unchangeable? Fang Mu had thought this to himself alone in the night more than once.

If a person's time is linear... then since he is able to live in this past era, this shows the theory holds true.

Because if there were even the slightest deviation in the future, Fang Mu would not be the current Fang Mu.

He would soon have a son and daughter with his wife; the son would be dismembered by villains after growing up, and the son's heart would thus save his own young life. After he grew up and started working, he would meet his daughter, who lived a miserable life, to repay the debt of gratitude. After she died, he would discover the secrets beneath the dark side of this world, leading him to encounter bizarre and terrifying events that brought him to this past era, where he would marry An Qin again... over and over... a cycle without end.

This despair, where one could see the end at a glance yet see no end at all, made every day incredibly difficult for Fang Mu. He could not pour out his secrets to others, feeling as if he were carrying a mountain on his back.

He needed an outlet, so he began writing a diary to vent his emotions.

At the same time, he held onto a sliver of hope: what if his guess was wrong, time was not linear, and fate was not unchangeable? If his future self read the diary he wrote and made even the slightest change, then perhaps there would still be a chance to save everything.

The fate of his wife and children, the tragic later years of his wife's parents... all had a chance to be turned around.

Thus, Fang Mu began writing a diary, using disorganized text to record the things that left the deepest impression on him each day in a running-account style.

On the very night he recorded his second diary entry, the long-lost croaking of a toad clearly reached his ears. The fear deeply hidden in the depths of Fang Mu's mind was finally awakened.

Because his experience in the cave was so deeply imprinted on him, he was exceptionally sensitive to the sounds he had heard there. He was absolutely certain that the toad croaking he heard that night was the same kind he had heard in the cave.

Those things had tracked him down by "the scent on him."

Across time and space, from thousands of miles away.