"Teacher, may I ask, approximately how long would it take to get to Lanyang Hospital from here?" Ji Yun asked.
"It's quite congested there, and they're also performing road construction, so I estimate about half an hour." the teacher leading the practical lesson replied. "What's the matter, are you feeling unwell?"
"Ah, no, it's nothing, just asking." Ji Yun said.
A 30-minute drive??
Even if he started running to Lanyang Hospital as soon as he woke up, he still wouldn't make it on time.
Actually, Ji Yun wanted to rush over and see what changes he could make to a fate that even he couldn't save himself from.
He certainly had some ideas in his mind from his nostalgic revisits to past days.
The hospital equipment was obsolete.
It resulted in the respirator failing to provide him with oxygen.
This was something he was told every time he lay in the hospital, by both the male doctor and Doctor Lou Yu.
How could he possibly get the hospital to upgrade their equipment in time?
His time was extremely limited.
Moreover, he was now a high school student.
How could he ensure that the Lanyang Hospital of ten years later updated their equipment without causing trouble or making huge waves in society?
Speaking of which, if everything had a certain probability of happening,
why, despite numerous tries, was he so unlucky as to never encounter a time when the equipment was replaced?
If there were new equipment, he could have breathed a few more times, giving Doctor Lou a greater chance to perform the surgery on him.
"Students, do not stray from the group. We will organize a lunch at noon, and please do not leave the Hubin District area, okay?" the teacher with black-framed glasses announced loudly.
The vehicle came to a stop—it was a journey of about seven minutes.
The school wasn't very far from Lan Lake Scenic Area, so the school would often organize young volunteers to go there, eagerly serving as guides for visitors coming to this historic and scenic city for the first time.
This fine tradition had always been upheld, so much so that it made the news several years later. Lan City developed into a notable tourist and commercial city, and Lixue Middle School's reputation spread far and wide.
After getting off the bus, he glanced at his watch.
He had only three minutes left.
The verdant grassy parking lot, a few aged and weathered banyan trees, the glistening lake surface that came into view, a few antique boats drifting on it, old men fishing, the bustling promenade by the lake, and people with different expressions on their faces.
In fact, on multiple occasions, Ji Yun has doubted whether he was in the throes of a near-death experience, about to leave this world.
After all, such experiences often occur within a relatively confined and fixed environment, such as a classroom or school campus, which fit quite well.
The moment the bus left the school, Ji Yun felt anxious.
He was worried that his impulsive actions might touch the boundaries of this world, then ruthlessly throw him back into the cold morgue at the hospital.
However, the scenery outside the window kept changing, slowly overlapping with the memories of Lan City from ten years ago.
Sitting by the rippling Lan Lake, the magnificence of the distant mountains, the bustle nearby, the birdsong from the trees, the mosquitoes and flies underfoot, the high school students frolicking and chasing each other, and the tourists seeing the scenery here for the first time...
This couldn't be an illusion, nor could it be a fantasy during his dying moments.
Apart from that slowly fading disc in the vast sky, there was not a single hint of the surreal.
...
With his eyes closed, Ji Yun returned to the hospital, his heart incomparably peaceful this time.
In the hospital, Vice Principal Wang didn't recognize him at all.
This meant that the hospital was unaware of his information.
Fortunately, Doctor Lou's timely arrival extended his life by another dozen minutes.
Upon opening his eyes again, it was still the familiar campus.
Ji Yun couldn't help but stretch his body, and as expected, the curly-haired freckled boy behind him uttered a complaint.
Ji Yun couldn't be bothered to argue with this guy.
Watching Lou Yu leave, Ji Yun looked at the time: he still had thirteen minutes to waste as he pleased.
Looking at the girl under the banyan tree, Ji Yun's mind still conjured images from the night of the ten-year class reunion.
She was dressed in a stunning gown, exuding a mix of retro grace and refined elegance.
The combination of fabric cuts and stitches, characteristic of various ethnic fashions, showcased her long, graceful lines and captivating figure.
Her black hair was also carefully adorned, decorated with a camellia, radiating a romantic vibe.
As she approached, one could feel her confidence and charm.
Her smile was warm and genuine, offering a sense of intimacy, and she was this way with every classmate.
Yet, everyone could clearly sense a certain distance from her, like a lotus on top of an iceberg, fragrant and pervasive, yet untouchable by anyone!
Qiu Mo's beauty stunned all the boys.
Back in our school days, she was already very reserved and low-key.
No makeup, wearing a school uniform, simple hairstyles…
And once freed from the constraints of the campus, dressed in clothes that suited her and after a careful grooming, Qiu Mo was truly too dazzling.
By that time, Ji Yun had already lost any desire of covetousness.
Even if his heart was haughty and self-assured, a thought arose in his mind, "What kind of person could be worthy of such a girl?"
Certainly not himself, who at the time was wearing a cheap tuxedo serving them tea and water!
At this moment, Ji Yun scrutinized Qiu Mo intently.
Ji Yun could never have imagined that this moment would be the closest he'd ever be to Qiu Mo. After this, they would become strangers, and stepping into society would place them in entirely different worlds.
Ji Yun also acknowledged that his previous few confessions to Qiu Mo about having a terminal illness were entirely driven by a kind of transgressive revenge mentality, the greater the imprint Qiu Mo left on him as being unattainable ten years later, the more he wanted to take advantage of this rare opportunity to tease and defile.
But what was the point?
Even if all of it was real, he was simply indulging in a fantasy during high school, consuming the goodwill he had so hardly earned in Qiu Mo's heart.
In the past, he was decadent, lived for the moment, always complaining about various injustices.
Now, Ji Yun had time to reflect, to scrutinize, to calmly understand.
Especially after learning about Lou Yu's experiences, Ji Yun realized how much he had missed and ignored.
It was a kind of blessing in disguise.
Falling into this cycle of a solar eclipse gave him the opportunity to start over.
Admittedly, after 20 minutes everything would start again from scratch, and he couldn't truly gain anything from this world, but Ji Yun used this endless loop as a space to enrich himself.
No longer a profligate son, nor a despondent youth. The studies he once neglected could be made up for, the interests he abandoned halfway could be picked up again. He had plenty of time to slowly explore what he never had the chance to understand, and he could gradually unravel the hearts of those he had never understood…
"Buddy, you could at least buy something," the young man from the snack shop said at that moment.
The young man had been eyeing Ji Yun for a while now. The other high school boys would symbolically buy something to drink, then sit down to sip slowly, casting occasional glances toward the banyan tree.
This guy, though, just stared!
And his mouth occasionally revealed a mischievously arrogant smirk.
Have you watched too many moronic campus idol dramas, thinking, "Woman, you can't escape my palm"?
"Oh, oh, I was just daydreaming," said Ji Yun.
"If you're not buying, don't stand here; you're in the way of other students trying to buy popsicles…" said the young man annoyedly. His incessant complaints suggested he was called in to cover a shift on short notice, reluctantly serving students buying snacks.
While engaging in friendly chatter with the young man, Ji Yun noticed Qiu Mo had already left the shade of the banyan tree.
Looking at the time, it was almost 10:10 AM.
The various elective art classes in the campus had already started.
This time Ji Yun didn't employ the tactic of the terminal illness. After all, that trick would sooner or later be exposed, and when that happened, Qiu Mo would leave just the same.
As soon as Qiu Mo left, Ji Yun quickly followed her.
He wanted to see where she was going.
This summer, which class had she enrolled in?
What were her interests now?
He followed her to the U-shaped Classroom facing east, all the way to the fourth floor.
Ji Yun found many students carrying sketchboards and musical instruments; it seemed this was the arts students' classroom.
He had thought Qiu Mo would enter one of the music classrooms, but instead, she kept walking to the end of the hallway, all the way to the second last room—into that well-lit classroom that was also very tastefully decorated.
Qiu Mo, carrying her books, stepped into that classroom, and soon there were cheers from some of the boys inside.
Without much thought, Ji Yun took two steps at a time and soon after Qiu Mo entered that tastefully decorated classroom as well.
In the classroom, there were twenty or thirty students, nearly each of them holding a very specially decorated collection of poems.
"Are you also a student in our modern poetry class?" asked the young male teacher at the podium with a smile, inquiring of Ji Yun, who had just come in last.
The young male teacher was quite handsome, especially dressed today like a noble son from the time of the Republic, with round silver-rimmed glasses, a hairstyle without bangs that was neatly curled, holding in one hand an old collection of poems, the other hand fair and slender, ready to write down the poem for today's lesson.
"I suppose so," Ji Yun replied noncommittally.
"It doesn't seem like it. Most who choose my class are girls, and boys... often have different intentions," remarked the young male teacher, who obviously hadn't seen Ji Yun before and also thought Ji Yun had come purposely to pursue a particular girl in the class.
Even though students were free to choose any teacher's summer course, the male teacher wasn't too fond of students with ulterior motives tainting his modern poetry class.
"Tell me, which poet wrote the poem I am currently copying?" The young male teacher obviously wasn't planning to let Ji Yun in and asked with a bit of a probing tone.
As he spoke, the young male teacher deliberately glanced at the girls in the classroom, and his gaze swept unintentionally over Qiu Mo.
From the excitement of the boys when this female student entered the classroom, it was clear that this dull and unsophisticated male student had come for her as well.