As long as he could get in touch with Cheng Mengxue, things would be much simpler.
First, he would synchronize his memories through her.
After that, they would figure out what was going on with Qin Feng together.
Jiang Ran had already planned out what came next.
He sat up at the edge of the bed and saw that there happened to be a pencil and a notepad on the bedside table.
So he wedged the phone between his shoulder and ear, picked up the notepad, and prepared to copy Cheng Mengxue’s phone number onto it in a moment.
Under the faint moonlight, he saw a line of small characters written at the top of the notepad…
XXXX Villa Resort.
Villa?
He raised his head and looked out the window.
The shadows of lush branches and leaves fell upon the window screen, dancing like a shadow puppet play.
From the looks of it,
the room he was in was not a hotel or inn, but one of the guest rooms in a vacation villa.
Why… would he be staying in a villa resort like this?
Forget it. He should contact Cheng Mengxue first.
However.
He waited for more than ten seconds, but there was no response from Wang Hao on the other end of the line.
?
It was a little strange.
“Wang Hao? Did you fall asleep?”
Jiang Ran urged him,
“Hurry up and give me Xiaoxue’s number already. Didn’t you hear me?”
…
Still no response.
“Wang Hao!”
“Jiang Ran, you…”
Wang Hao’s voice finally came through, but he sounded hesitant.
“You… are you serious?”
“What’s wrong?”
Jiang Ran couldn’t understand why, after the worldline had changed, Wang Hao had become so fussy and abnormal.
He put down the notepad and switched the phone to his other hand.
“What’s gotten into you? Why are you dawdling? You don’t know Qin Feng, fine, but you at least know Xiaoxue, right? Hurry up and give me her number.”
“You’re not sick, are you?”
Wang Hao asked cautiously,
“Or… did something happen to upset you?”
“Are you done or not!”
Jiang Ran was genuinely getting annoyed.
“I’m just asking you for Xiaoxue’s phone number! What does that have to do with being sick or being upset? Can you act normal for once?”
Sigh…
A sigh came from the other end of the line.
That sigh made Jiang Ran’s scalp tighten and his breathing grow heavier.
“Jiang Ran, I don’t know what kind of fit you’re having today, and I don’t know what you mean by telling me all this in the middle of the night.”
“But, but…”
Wang Hao’s voice was low.
“[But Xiaoxue… passed away two years ago.]”
Whoosh!
Jiang Ran shot up from the edge of the bed.
What?
Passed away?
Cheng Mengxue was dead!?
For a moment, that smile with the ponytail and doll-like face surfaced before his eyes.
From childhood, to girlhood, to the day the college entrance examination results were announced, to the university sports field, to jumping into the water from the luxury cruise ship, to her cheeks flushing faintly as she said those bold words…
“Are you serious?”
Jiang Ran felt cold all over.
He didn’t believe it, didn’t dare believe it, yet amidst all the strangeness and abnormalities, he had no choice but to believe.
“Xiaoxue… how did she die?”
“Two years ago? Two years ago… wasn’t that when we graduated high school, our senior year, the gaokao?”
“Yeah…”
On the other end, Wang Hao was completely baffled. He answered blankly:
“It was on the second day of the gaokao. Xiaoxue got into a car accident on her way to the exam site… She died in that accident.”
“Jiang Ran, what on earth is wrong with you today? I don’t even know how I’m supposed to talk to you. You keep freaking out like this, and it’s scaring me too, okay?”
“Where’s Xiuxiu? Where is Xiuxiu? Is she with you?”
Xiuxiu.
Another completely unfamiliar name.
It sounded like a girl’s name, but Jiang Ran did not know her at all.
“Weren’t you going with Xiuxiu today to attend her best friend’s birthday party? You even rented a villa and specially decorated it… Are you two together right now?”
Wang Hao continued,
“Hey, I’m warning you, if you drank too much and are talking nonsense, don’t bring up sore subjects in front of Xiuxiu. Better yet, don’t mention Xiaoxue at all. It’s all in the past.”
Jiang Ran didn’t care about any Xiuxiu or whoever.
He only cared about Cheng Mengxue.
According to Wang Hao, Cheng Mengxue had died two years ago, in a car accident on the second day of the gaokao.
That would be June 8th?
Two years ago, June 8th, 2023.
What exactly had happened that day?
“Jiang Ran?”
Sensing that there had been no movement for a long while, the voice on the other end called out,
“Jiang Ran? Are you listening? Where’s Xiuxiu?”
“Stop talking about Xiuxiu!”
Jiang Ran’s brain was overloaded.
“Talk about Xiaoxue! What exactly happened to Cheng Mengxue!”
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
The sound of a toilet flushing suddenly came from the bathroom.
There was someone inside!
“Who’s there!”
Jiang Ran took a step back. His nerves were now stretched to the limit.
“What are you doing, making such a fuss?”
A sweet, soft complaining voice came from the bathroom.
Creak…
The glass partition door was pushed open, and two slender jade-like feet stepped out one after another.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you even recognize your own girlfriend?”
The girl in a nightdress smiled playfully as she sauntered over.
She wiped her forehead, swept her long pink wavy hair behind her head, and approached step by step across the carpet.
Whoosh—
A sudden night breeze blew in, lifting the white window screen and sweeping it across Jiang Ran’s eyes, blocking his vision so that he could see nothing.
“Just now, I heard quite an interesting name.”
The girl’s voice drew closer and closer.
Her toes brushed softly against the carpet, just like the white gauze grazing his neck.
“Cheng, Meng, Xue. Which girl’s name is that?”
The night breeze faded, and the window screen stopped dancing, falling back down before his eyes.
Everything in the room once again returned to Jiang Ran’s view. The girl who had been standing some distance away just moments ago was already right before him, close enough to touch.
Her pink nightdress paired with her long pink hair made her look like a flower fairy dancing in the forest. The scent of some unknown floral shampoo seeped into his nose, making Jiang Ran unable to stop himself from averting his gaze.
Just then,
the numbers on the electronic clock on the table changed, and the LCD screen displayed—
[00:42]
“Come on, tell me.”
Amid the thin gauze, the girl lifted Jiang Ran’s chin, pulling his gaze back to her.
Her eyes reflected the moonlight, her smile blooming like a flower.
“Cheng Mengxue couldn’t be your… ex-girlfriend, could she?”