Deep in the mountains, ancient trees towered into the sky. The thick forest blocked out the moonlight, leaving only mottled shadows. In the darkness of the night, it felt even more spooky and eerie.
At this moment, the forest was so deadly quiet that it was as if everything had fallen into a deep sleep.
In the dark ravine, there seemed to be a figure lying on the ground. Under the dim rays of light, everything still looked hazy and nothing could be seen clearly.
"Duo Duo…"
In the silence, only a low murmur arose. It sounded of forbearance, of pain, and of hope…
Down in the ravine, the faintly-visible figure shifted slightly and a metallic smell of blood permeated the cold air. Gradually, her hazy vision cleared up.
"Duo Duo…"
Following the sound, it was startling to find a bloodied person lying in the ravine. His body was covered in so much blood that it was impossible to make out the original color of his clothes.
Bright red blood colored the entire ditch below, turning the clear spring water into a sea of red, flowing down along the winding ditch.
In no time, the entire ravine became a spread of scarlet red. The overlap of black and red made the dark, eerie forest seem especially sinister and terrifying. It made her hair stand on end.
The murmuring sounds started again and it was especially spine-chilling in a strange environment like this.
"Duo Duo…"
**
China, April 1988. Seaside Resort, 4a.m.
"Ah!"
In bed, Qin Yiling bolted upright abruptly and felt a chill down her spine. Sweat had soaked her pajamas through and stuck to her body.
She instinctively reached to pat her own chest and soothe her rapid heartbeat. Recalling the scene in her dream only made her heart palpitate. She felt very uncomfortable and found it hard to breathe.
"What's going on? Why am I having such a dream?"
Qin Yiling frowned and muttered softly, in a voice low and hoarse. As she had been startled awake by a nightmare, her mouth felt dry and parched.
She lifted the blanket, got out of bed, and poured herself a glass of water. It was only when she had finished the entire glass of water that she felt much better.
However, the images from her nightmare continued to replay in her mind, over and over again. The entire scene was blood red. It was petrifying.
"Just who could it be?"
Qin Yiling furrowed her brows in deep thought and looked completely puzzled. Due to the shock of the nightmare, she was now wide awake.
She sat on the sofa in front of her floor-to-ceiling window and looked out, across the dark blue sea not far away, with scattered thoughts…
**
Initially, Qin Yiling had assumed that it was just a nightmare and chucked it to the back of her mind without much thought. But to her alarm, she continued to have the same nightmare for three consecutive nights.
Everything was exactly the same–no changes at all. It was still a dark, eerie mountain forest. It was still a scene of blood red. In the same ravine lay a man covered in blood.
And the man was still murmuring her name.
Duo Duo… that was her nickname.
Only her close friends and elders would call her by this nickname. She did not allow just anyone to address her so intimately.
So, who in the world was that man?
The first time this happened, she could still convince herself that it was just a bad nightmare. However, three consecutive nights of the same dream could not be a simple coincidence.
Most importantly, every time she heard the man in blood weakly calling out her nickname, she would feel flustered and very unsettled.
This feeling made her sense that the dream was not just a nightmare, but more of an omen?
Having had to experience the same emotional turmoil for three nights in a row, Qin Yiling's mental state had suffered. She seemed to be in a trance and was completely unlike herself.
"Duo Duo, Duo Duo? Qin Yiling!"
Suddenly, Qin Yiling heard a shout and was startled back to her senses. She looked at her mother with a vacant stare.
"Oh? Mom. What's wrong?"
Mrs Qin, her mother, looked at her dazed daughter speechlessly.
"That's what I wanted to ask you! Why have you been so distracted these past few days? What happened? Who made you unhappy this time?"
As a mother, she knew her daughter's temperament better than anyone else. Ever since Qin Yiling was young, everyone in the family doted on her and gave in to her. Even the relatives and friends around her did the same.
As a result, she had developed a pampered and domineering personality. Unreasonable and reckless, she was always the one provoking others, never the other way around.
However, in the past few days, Mrs Qin felt that something was very wrong with her daughter. She did not go out, did not create trouble, and stayed in her room quietly. Whenever she was asked to do anything, she would also be in a daze from time to time.
This was too peculiar. Her daughter was never this tame!
Hearing this, Qin Yiling was stunned for a moment. Had she been so obvious?
"Tell me, what's the matter? And don't humor me with excuses." Her mother sat calmly on the sofa with her arms crossed, and awaited her daughter's explanation.
Upon seeing this, Qin Yiling knew that she couldn't fib her way through anymore. In fact, it might be good to talk to her mother. Perhaps she could help her figure it out.
Growing up, she had always thought that the most impressive person was definitely her mother—she was not an ordinary woman.
"Mom, I had a dream…"
Qin Yiling told her mother everything about how her nightmare had been recurring for three days, even describing in detail the scenes in her dreams. After three consecutive nights of the same dream, she could now remember everything in it clearly.
Her mother fell silent after hearing everything. She looked at her daughter with an inscrutable expression.
When she heard that her daughter had been having the same dream for three days in a row, she felt slightly concerned, but after hearing the rest, she couldn't help feeling alarmed.
"Mom, what do you think about this?"
Upon noticing her mother's silence, Qin Yiling tried prompting her. Looking at her reaction, she wondered if her mother really knew something?
Mrs Qin pursed her lips. "I'll tell you later, after I discuss this with your father."
Hearing that, Qin Yiling's heart skipped a beat. Indeed, her mother knew something. Still, she did not feel it was right to press further, given what her mother had said.
Back home, the person she respected and feared most was her mother. In front of her, Qin Yiling did not dare to behave rashly. Therefore, she had no choice but to bear the restlessness and wait.
After dinner, the Qin parents deliberately diverted the others and took Qin Yiling to the garden balcony alone.
"Dad, Mom, you're making me very nervous, okay? Just tell me."
Watching her parents sit down and noticing the looks of hesitation on their faces, Qin Yiling couldn't help but speak first. She had already turned 18 at the beginning of the year. She was no longer a child. There was nothing they couldn't tell her.
Mrs Qin said softly, "Duo Duo, do you remember when you were three years old, you once opened a time tunnel and traveled through space-time?"
"What? That happened? I opened a time tunnel when I was just three years old? No, that time machine, wasn't it yours, Mom? How was I able to open it too?" Qin Yiling looked shocked and bewildered.
Speaking of the 'Time Machine', the story of her mother's fortuitous encounter must be told.
The Time Machine was a magical system that belonged solely to Mrs Qin. When she was young, she had been on an airplane when it crashed into the sea.
It was because of this accident that her mother had unexpectedly come to possess a powerful 'Time Machine', which allowed her to transport herself through the sea, arrive in this world, and be saved by Mr Qin.
The events thereafter naturally followed the happy story of her parents being a loving couple and giving birth to several children.
Their family called the "Time Machine" a system because it was very huge and powerful. It had many applications and functions, such as FarmVille, storage spaces, time-exchange platforms, weather forecasts, product differentiation, and so on…
In short, there were many functional applications, and it could even discern the evil intentions of humans. Of course, bringing good fortune and punishing evil were its most powerful functions.
Due to her mother's fortuitous encounter, their family was extraordinary—especially the children, who possessed special abilities since they were born. The superpowers that the four siblings had were all different and it helped their lives greatly as they performed better than others in whatever they did.
Mr Qin, her father, solemnly said, "All these years, you've probably been the only one amongst your siblings who could touch the time machine. When you were three years old, you once passed out for three days because you had touched your mother's phone from the other time zone. As for what exactly happened, we are not entirely sure. We speculate that you must have traveled through space-time when you lost consciousness. While you were unconscious, you seemed to have been experiencing something, and you were even murmuring from time to time. Just before you woke up, what you uttered most was a name."
"What? What did I say? Why don't I remember any of this?"
This was the first that Qin Yiling had heard about any of this. She felt spooked, yet curious. Could it be that she had had a fortuitous encounter too?
She had been wild and uninhibited since she was young, but what no one knew was that she always had a fervent desire in her heart.
Since a young age, she had heard her parents tell her their story of how they met and fell in love. Since then, a sense of desire and yearning had sprouted in her heart.
She too wanted to have a fortuitous encounter. She wanted to be like her parents, to have such pure and passionate love.
It was a pity that she did not have a magical system like her mother's, even though she had followed her parents through the time tunnels several times and had been to her mother's world too.
But this was a different sensation.
Mrs Qin smiled. "You were calling out for 'Brother Ze', but we didn't know any children around with the name 'Ze'. In addition, with what you were murmuring, it seemed like both of you were alone in a deserted place. As for why you don't remember any of this, we don't know either. After you woke up, it was as if you had completely forgotten about what had happened while you were unconscious, so we didn't pursue the matter any further."
Mr Qin added, "However, we think that because it was your soul that had traveled through space-time, and because you were too young back then, it was too much for your divine consciousness to bear. So, you erased that memory when you woke up. This is also the reason that our family has been able to travel freely to your mother's other world. It only became possible after your fainting incident. Before that, the opening of the time tunnel had restrictions."
"I see." Qin Yiling was stunned. "Brother Ze?"
"So, Dad, Mom, you think that the dream I had was related to this incident that happened when I was three years old?"
The couple nodded in unison.
They had long forgotten about this incident, but now, hearing about their daughter having the same dream for three consecutive days, they couldn't help but ponder and wonder.
If they were an ordinary family, perhaps they would treat such an occurrence merely as a nonsensical dream. However, their family's situation was different. No matter how bizarre something seemed, it could happen to them.
Still, the couple did not understand why the system would only 'favor' Duo Duo among all of their children. None of their other children had the ability to open the 'Time Tunnel'.
Qin Yiling's eyes widened. "Could it be that the person in my dream was actually Brother Ze, whom I had called out for?"
In that dream, she did not sense any familiarity with that man, and his voice also did not sound like anyone she knew.
If what her parents said were true, that she had traveled through space-time when she was young and met someone called Brother Ze, then he definitely knew her name, or at least her nickname.
And that man was indeed murmuring her nickname, which meant that everything strangely made sense.
Mrs Qin held her daughter's hand. With a serious expression, she said, "I think so. Duo Duo, we think that your future might not belong here. The moment that you unknowingly activated the time tunnel might have already determined the course of your life's journey.
Mr Qin looked solemn. "Duo Duo, do you want to save that man? You had the same dream for three consecutive nights. Do you think it was just a dream?"
"…" Qin Yiling didn't know what to say. Actually, she also felt in her heart that it was not just a dream.
Mrs Qin patted her daughter's hand softly and said gently, "Duo Duo, although we are your parents, you are the master of your own life. That man's life will definitely be in danger. This is Heaven's divination for you, but it all depends on what you choose to do."
"Mom…"
Qin Yiling couldn't help but cry out with mixed emotions. She understood what her parents meant.
Growing up, the way their parents had educated them was different from other families. In fact, they were especially unconventional for the era they were in.
They respected their children's thoughts and gave them a lot of personal space. They were very democratic and open-minded. They did not raise their children as insurance for old age, nor did they demand that their children obey everything they said blindly as a form of filial piety.
Mr Qin stood up and patted his daughter's shoulder. "Don't worry about us. Just do as you wish."
After saying that, he immediately went downstairs and left. He was afraid that if he stayed any longer, he would say something that would sway his daughter's decision and make things difficult for her.
This was the daughter that he had doted on since she was young. It was not an exaggeration to say that he loved and treated her like a priceless gem.
If her daughter chose to save the man, it would mean that the trajectory of her life would be changed completely, and that the outcome of her future would be unknown. But if she didn't go, he would become a villain who ruined his daughter's destined marriage.
Since his daughter's marriage was not destined to be in this world, if he were to insist any further, wouldn't he be causing his daughter to suffer being alone for the rest of her life?
Of course, he did not want that, so he could only leave it up to her and calmly accept whatever fate had in store.
Mrs Qin saw that her daughter looked torn and seemed to be at a loss. She did not want her daughter to be troubled by dreams every night, or worse, to live in regret. She felt that no matter what kind of world awaited her daughter, as long as she had someone she loved by her side, her heart would feel sweet.
Only after experiencing it would one know whether it was worth it.
She had a feeling that her daughter's happiness lay there, in the world with that man.
"Duo Duo, don't think too much. With the time tunnel, what are you afraid of? It's not like we'll never see each other again. Just take it as a form of training and see if your destiny for marriage really lies in another space-time zone. Don't miss out on it, think about my story."
Time travel would bring a person to their destined partner.
"Alright, I'll go!"
Qin Yiling looked up with a determined expression.
Since she even had her parents' support, she had nothing more to worry about. Moreover, with the system, there wouldn't be a problem.