Chapter 537: Wen He (Two in One)

Hearing Weng Lingxiao's words, Yan Jing's mind stirred.

Mu Tian had entered the River of Time.

This news genuinely surprised him.

It was unlikely Weng Lingxiao was lying; there was no point in deceiving him about this.

Besides, earlier when Yan Jing had left Mu Tian's room, the man had pointedly told him:

"And I know what you want. I have enough bargaining chips here."

Yan Jing hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now it seemed it was definitely related to the River of Time.

"I was telling the truth earlier."

Yan Jing looked at Weng Lingxiao and smiled.

"I have no interest in the Great Prison. If my strength allows me to take something effortlessly, I can grab it whenever I want. It only has value if I can't easily get my hands on it."

"To me, the Great Prison is exactly that sort of thing."

"But—"

"Perhaps I can convince Warden Mu to share some power with you."

Weng Lingxiao's expression remained neutral, but inwardly, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Yan Jing saying this meant he had finally softened his stance.

"What do you want to know?"

"The River of Time," Yan Jing said.

Weng Lingxiao smiled. He knew it.

"You don't seem surprised." Yan Jing smiled.

"I'm really not. That river is just that kind of existence. Anyone who wants to step into it will undoubtedly spend the better part of their life chasing it."

Weng Lingxiao adjusted his monocle.

"But that isn't the river's fault."

"There is nothing wrong with the river itself. It doesn't actively tempt you, nor does it inflict some ability on you to make you obsess over it."

"The causality is actually reversed. You only see that river because you have someone you cannot forget—and I don't mean an ordinary kind of longing."

"This longing isn't about being separated by death after over a decade of a loving marriage, nor is it about a child raised by a single mother finally growing up only to find out she has a terminal illness. It has to be far more severe than that for you to even catch a glimpse of the river."

"Otherwise, this world would have fallen into chaos a long time ago."

Yan Jing raised his eyebrows.

"I think the two situations you mentioned are already hard enough to come by."

"True. No one would doubt that your grief and longing in those situations would reach their peak, leaving you in agonizing pain." Weng Lingxiao gestured to the staff at the door to bring him a drink. Then, looking back at Yan Jing, he said softly, "But in ninety percent of cases, time gradually dilutes that yearning."

"The River of Time, the River of Time... This river only reveals itself to those who cannot be shaken by time."

"Ten days, half a month, two years... Even though every day is a new day, you continue to live with that pain. Whenever you run into something interesting, you wonder if it would be even more interesting if that person were still around."

"When you suffer through that kind of torment, the river will appear to grant you release."

Seeing Yan Jing's expressionless face, Weng Lingxiao smiled.

"Of course it is a release. Whether you lose yourself in that river or actually manage to fish the person out, your suffering ends either way."

"Honestly, getting lost in the River of Time sounds terrifying, but that is only true for those of us who have no desire to enter it. For those with someone they yearn for day and night, it is the perfect cure."

"You carry the scent of time on you. It's very strong. If it were only a faint trace, someone at my level wouldn't be able to notice it."

Facing Weng Lingxiao's smug smile, Yan Jing merely chuckled. He took the Martini from the staff member and handed it across the table.

"Sometimes, that level is all you need. At the very least, you traded for something you wanted."

Weng Lingxiao took a sip of the clear, amber liquid and smiled.

"I really never would have guessed that someone like you could have someone you can't let go of."

"Care to talk about it? This person you can't forget."

"A woman."

Weng Lingxiao blanked for a second. He had originally only been teasing, not expecting Yan Jing to actually answer.

"I grew up in an orphanage."

Yan Jing took a sip of milk and narrowed his eyes.

"She was a caregiver there."

"My orphanage wasn't small; it was the best in the city. The university district was just two streets away, so every year, plenty of energetic young college students would come work as caregivers just to earn their social practice certificates."

"Caregivers had kids they liked and kids they disliked. I wasn't either. I was ordinary. Most people didn't like me, but they didn't hate me either."

"Which was normal. If I were in their shoes, I probably wouldn't have liked a kid who barely spoke, didn't keep himself very tidy, and wasn't even that cute."

"Sometimes, the orphanage would hand out after-meal candies to the younger kids. When most caregivers saw a kid they particularly liked, they would give them an extra piece or two. Some would even buy candy for them on their own."

"I only ever got one. Sometimes it was chocolate, sometimes a watermelon drop, and sometimes a milk candy."

"I wouldn't eat it every time, because there wasn't candy every day."

"If I wanted to eat it that day, but didn't want it that badly, I would hide the candy."

"That way, on a day when I really wanted candy but didn't have any, I'd have candy to eat."

"Hiding candy is technical work. If someone else found it, your candy might get eaten. You could choose to tattle, of course, but whether you told a caregiver or the staff, you'd end up having to argue until you were red in the face or even burst into tears. I didn't like that."

"Besides, even if you got a replacement candy in the end, it wouldn't be the first one."

"That first one was what I deserved. I shouldn't have had to shed tears or explain to the adults why that candy was mine, only to be given a 'compensation' to calm things down."

"So I hid them very seriously every time."

"Unfortunately, one day, my treasured collection of 39 candies disappeared."

"I circled the hiding spot several times without seeing a trace of the candies. I asked some of the other kids, but they all said they hadn't seen them. I stood there for a long time thinking about what to do. Maybe I should have found a caregiver and caused a huge scene, but then I would have had to explain why I hid the candy, prove that there really had been candy there, and then prove that there were 39 pieces."

"More importantly, if I started arguing, I would definitely do everything in my power to tell them how important those candies were to me, why I absolutely had to find them, and why I was causing a scene."

"But what that candy meant to me was different from what it meant to the adults. To them, 39 pieces of candy weren't even worth fifty yuan. That made my explanations pointless, because they wouldn't be able to feel that it was important."

"So you..." Weng Lingxiao couldn't help but speak up.

"So I did nothing."

"Damn it," Weng Lingxiao muttered.

In his eyes, that was when you tracked down the candy thief and utterly ruined their reputation, or just beat them to a pulp.

But then he thought about how the culprit might have been a highly popular or much bigger kid, and he fell silent again.

A sudden wave of stifled frustration welled up in his chest.

Yan Jing didn't look at him, but instead continued,

"I found a place and had a good cry. While I was crying, I thought about how I needed to find another spot, a place I considered the cleverest in the world, to serve as my new candy stash."

"Unfortunately, before I could start looking, I was seen crying."

"A girl with long hair. She wore a washed-out caregiver's uniform and canvas shoes that even I could tell cost less than a hundred yuan. One look and you knew she wasn't a college student here for an internship."

"She had her hair up and scattered freckles on her face. She looked to be in her early twenties. Her eyes curved upward, but her face was all scrunched up from crying. At first glance, she wasn't the pretty type."

"What did she say?" Weng Lingxiao asked, unable to hold back again.

"She didn't say anything." As if thinking of the scene back then, the corners of Yan Jing's mouth suddenly turned up, his eyes curving along with them. "Because she was crying too."

Beneath a tree behind the orphanage's pond.

Yan Jing looked at Wen He, who was looking right back at him, and hurriedly wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve.

And just as he was panicking and trying to turn and run, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the tear tracks on Wen He's face.

After a moment's thought, he dug a crumpled wad of tissues out of his pocket and held it out to Wen He.

He had prepared these tissues for trips to the toilet.

The orphanage's tissues were all in the main hall. He made a habit of keeping some on hand so he wouldn't have to ask a teacher or caregiver for permission when he went to the washroom. If he asked for permission, everyone else would see him.

If he asked too often, he might earn the title of "Toilet King" or an even uglier nickname.

He had actually never offered tissues to anyone before.

Because when a kid like him offered a tissue, others might take it out of politeness, but they would probably think it was dirty.

He had once tried to show goodwill to a caregiver with paint on her face, but she had never ended up using the towel he handed over.

Later, he heard from another kid that the caregiver thought he had pimples on his face and was afraid they were contagious.

Yan Jing didn't know if the kid was just making things up, but he figured it made sense.

If he didn't have pimples on his own face, he might be afraid of contagion when seeing them on someone else's face too.

It was just that he still felt a little sad.

Sometimes, this world was just like that. Nobody was wrong.

But someone always ended up sad.

So after that, he never gave his things to anyone else, afraid they wouldn't accept them.

And the reason he gave it today.

Was because he figured that turning and running would only expose the fact that he had just been crying. Pulling out a tissue seemed much more natural in the moment.

Across from him, Wen He clearly froze for a second when she saw the tissue, then naturally took it.

Yan Jing wanted to turn and leave, but his eyes were locked onto the wad of tissues, unable to pull away.

Wen He wiped away her tears, then lowered her head slightly and smiled at Yan Jing.

"Sorry about that. You had to see me make a fool of myself."

"It's nothing."

Yan Jing stared at the tear-soaked tissue, shifted his gaze away, and sniffled.

"Crying is a very normal thing."

"People cry when they're sad. It's completely normal."

"Is that right? Thank you for comforting me." Wen He reached out, trying to pat Yan Jing's head.

But Yan Jing tilted his head, dodging it.

He had washed his hair the day before, but he wasn't sure if it was still a little greasy. If she touched grease, she probably wouldn't like him.

Though he didn't really care whether she liked him or not.

But seeing that clean, pale hand reaching out for him on its own, he still tilted his head and dodged away.

"Patting heads stunts growth."

He offered an excuse.

"Is that so?" Wen He laughed.

She looked much prettier when she smiled than when she cried, Yan Jing thought.

"I'm leaving."

Yan Jing said, turning to leave.

She wasn't an intern, so there would be plenty of chances to see her again later.

But Wen He called out to him from behind:

"My name is Wen He. What's your name?"

She had offered her name on her own.

This was yet another brand-new experience for Yan Jing.

So much so that whenever he looked back on this scene later, he always found it funny.

Ninety-nine percent of adolescent boys would develop a crush on an older girl beside them just because of an unintentional gesture, and then spend a long time afterward wanting to become her absolute best friend in the world.

Of course, time would eventually prove that it was just a boy's wild daydream.

The older girl might tell her name to every boy she found somewhat cute, but it was incredibly hard for an older girl and a boy to even become friends, let alone absolute best friends in the world.

And precisely because of that, Yan Jing felt that he was lucky.

He was one of the ninety-nine percent of boys.

But Wen He was the one-in-a-hundred older girl.

"My name is Yan Jing."

He turned around and gave his name.

"That name sounds really nice."

In his memory, that day was a rare, mild day in summer. There was no scorching sun, nor was there a violent storm. The air was heavy with moisture because of the tears the two of them had just shed. As the sun sank on the horizon, the rest of the orphanage faded away amid the buzzing of cicadas. The world suddenly fell completely quiet, leaving only Wen He and him.

"Why were you crying?"

The two of them sat shoulder-to-shoulder beneath the tree when Wen He spoke up.

Yan Jing flushed.

She really had seen him.

He wanted to make up a reason, but Wen He volunteered her own reason first:

"I was diagnosed with a disease."

"An incurable disease. My mom had it, my grandmother had it, and now it's my turn."

"I might only live until I'm forty."

"I've already lived half my life."

She tilted her head, drawing her legs up, and rested her head against her faded blue pants to look at Yan Jing.

"But your life has just begun. You have to cry a little less."

"I rarely cry."

Yan Jing pursed his lips.

Wen He had given her reason, which made it even harder for him to speak his own.

Compared to a disease where you could only live to forty, 39 pieces of candy meant nothing.

But Wen He's approach seemed to naturally counter him.

She asked you a question, and then cut herself open for you to see first.

If you weren't honest then, it made you feel like you shouldn't even be sitting there talking with her.

Yan Jing was certain he wanted to talk with her, so he gathered his words and told her about the 39 candies.

"...It's really not a big deal, but I saved them for a long time."

Yan Jing added hesitantly, wanting to make himself seem less childish.

But before he could finish, he was furiously interrupted by Wen He:

"How could someone do that?!"

"I'll take you to find the candy."

She stood up, grabbed Yan Jing's hand, and started heading that way.

"What if we can't find them?"

Yan Jing didn't really want to move; he felt this wouldn't be good for Wen He.

Wen He was sick, and treating an illness would require money.

Her family background looked very average. If she got fired, she likely wouldn't be able to find a job right away.

And it would be very hard for him to see her again.

"If we can't find them."

Wen He thought about it seriously, then lowered her head to look Yan Jing in the eye.

"Then from now on, I'll give Xiao Jing an extra piece of candy every time. If you trust your big sister, you can keep the extras with me. That way, you'll save up 39 candies again in no time, and no one will be able to steal them."

"Even if someone else asks me for them, I won't give them to anyone else."

"You won't have to hide your candy anymore, Xiao Jing. You'll be able to eat some every day."

Anyone who got to know the girl in front of him would end up liking her.

Looking at Wen He's face, Yan Jing had only this one thought in his mind.