Zheng Yingxiong ran towards his home in terror, his head pounding the entire way. Not a single soul was in sight around him.
All he wanted now was to find his family.
What had happened in that enormous prison…? Why had real people disappeared as well?
Gasping for breath, he finally reached his doorstep. He stood there, panting heavily for a long while before mustering the courage to reach out and slowly push open the door.
The moment his fingers touched the doorknob, the street behind him suddenly filled with noise, and the sound of snoring drifted from inside the house like a distant memory.
The scene inside came into view—his father was still asleep, but this time, he hadn’t smashed any plates. He had just drunk too much.
Was this… reality? Yet it felt slightly different from the usual reality.
“Yingxiong!” A voice called out behind him. He turned and saw his mother returning with a basket of groceries.
“M-Mom?” Zheng Yingxiong stared at her in shock.
“Oh, so you still remember me?” His mother pinched his ear, though her grip was more theatrical than painful. “What time is it? Aren’t you supposed to be in school? Why are you home?”
Tears welled up in Zheng Yingxiong’s eyes as he trembled.
He didn’t understand what was happening, but for the first time, he could smell the scent of a living person on his mother.
No matter how many times he had woken up in reality before, all he had ever smelled was the stench of the prison.
His mother blinked in surprise and reached out to wipe his nose. “What’s wrong? Did you get into a fight?”
Suddenly, he wanted to talk to her—to say so many things.
He wanted to tell her about the two sisters he had met—
He loved them just as much as he loved his mother.
—
Just as the cigarette in Lawyer Zhang’s hand was about to burn out, the door to the emergency exit was pushed open.
The clamor of the wedding outside flooded into the stairwell.
“Sister Zhang?” Xiao Sun peeked in, looking at her curiously.
Lawyer Zhang stiffened, ash scattering to the floor.
She lifted her head in confusion, then instinctively checked her pockets.
According to her normal memory, Xiao Sun always appeared right after she finished her call in the emergency stairwell—but why was this time different?
Where was the phone…?
“Looking for this?” Xiao Sun stuck his hand through the doorway, waving her phone. “Not only do you smoke without me, but you also leave your phone behind?”
Zhang Chenze felt slightly disoriented. She flicked the cigarette to the ground and quickly took the phone, unlocking it—
There were no missed calls.
She thought for a moment, then scrolled through her contacts. Soon, her entire body began to tremble.
She realized she had never saved a single family member’s number.
What… was going on?
“What’s wrong, Sister Zhang?” Xiao Sun asked, confused. “Just so you know, I didn’t peek at your phone.”
“Jia… Jiaqi… Where are my parents’ numbers?” Zhang Chenze stumbled over the word “parents,” looking up at Xiao Sun in bewilderment.
“Parents…?” Xiao Sun echoed, equally puzzled. “Sister Zhang… have you been under a lot of stress lately? Maybe you should take a break.”
“What…?”
“Didn’t you say you grew up in an orphanage?”
Zhang Chenze froze in place, her body stiff as a statue.
—
Qiao Jiajin sat in Gun Youliang’s car. Just like before, Jiu’er enthusiastically shared all the interesting stories he’d collected over the years.
But Qiao Jiajin could only stare blankly out the window.
They turned away from the prison, and within just two intersections, they saw towering skyscrapers unlike anything he’d ever seen in Portland Street.
The buildings soared into the sky, dozens of stories high, covered in some kind of futuristic material that shimmered like something out of *The Terminator*.
What… was this…?
At the next intersection, the car passed through Beijing’s Qianmen Hutong before turning onto Chengdu’s Qingyang Avenue.
Wait… what was this now?
“Jiu… Jiu’er…” Qiao Jiajin’s eyes remained wide as he took in the completely unfamiliar scenery outside. “What’s going on out there?”
“Huh?” Jiu’er blinked. “You lost it, Ah Jin? It’s always been like this.”
“Always… like this?”
Qiao Jiajin’s tone grew hesitant, as if something had been etched into these people’s subconscious.
And yet, they felt so real…
Gun Youliang chuckled. “Jiu-ge, *you’re* the one who’s lost it. Brother Jin’s been locked up for years—he just got out.”
“Oh! Right!” Jiu’er laughed. “No worries, Ah Jin. I’ll catch you up on everything.”
As Qiao Jiajin sat in stunned silence, Gun Youliang’s car drove through countless streets.
He saw a world more vibrant than he had ever imagined, a world far larger than he had ever known.
—
That day, people looked up in confusion.
They saw the silhouette of a dragon flash across the “door” high in the sky before someone reached out and closed it for good.
In that instant, all traces of faint light vanished from the heavens, and the “immortal magic” within each person seemed to lose its connection, fading away.
That day, countless people emerged with their own small worlds, carrying the memories of everyone they knew, and seamlessly merged back into the greater world.
That day, Chen Jun’nan returned to a home that had never burned down. Zhang Lijuan never encountered the middle-aged woman who had come to harass her at the factory. Qian Wu saw all his cats again.
That day, after countless glances, every fallen comrade was resurrected in everyone’s minds, memories intact.
That day, those who had retained their memories the longest survived until the end, becoming seeds brimming with hope.
That day, people heard someone say, *“As long as you remember them, you will meet again.”*
That day, they reunited with those they had missed.
And on that very same day, Qi Xia’s figure inexplicably flashed through everyone’s minds—but in the end, he never appeared.
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