"Who... am I?"
Boom—
Pale lightning flashed across the inky clouds.
The rain fell heavily, a divine fury pouring down upon the muddy earth. In the rippling reflections of the water-filled pits, a crimson figure appeared fragmented.
It was a young man clad in a bright red theatrical robe. He staggered through the mud as if drunk, his wide sleeves fluttering in the wild wind. The mud and sand on the surface of his robe were washed away by the rain, revealing a blood-like crimson that was startling against the backdrop of the night.
"Stop it... Stop it!"
"Everyone, shut up!"
"I'm about to remember... I'm about to remember..."
"I have a name... a name that belongs to me!"
The young man's wet black hair hung down to his eyebrows, and his wandering eyes were filled with confusion. He struggled to move forward, holding his head in his hands as if struggling to recall something.
His roar echoed through the deserted streets but didn't travel far, drowning in the endless curtain of rain.
Thunk—
In the darkness, his body was tripped by a protruding rock and fell heavily to the ground!
A trickle of crimson blood rolled down from the young man's forehead. He lay there dumbfounded, and suddenly, as if remembering something, a glimmer of light appeared in his clouded eyes.
"Chen Yifei..."
A name suddenly flashed through his mind.
In the instant he uttered these two words, a fragment of memory emerged from the endless murmur that nearly split his head, fusing with this weak body.
"What is this... time travel?"
Chen Yifei's brows were tightly knit. He continuously absorbed the memories of this body, and his brain felt as if it was being torn apart by pain.
His name was Chen Yifei, 28 years old, an intern director at a theater in the capital. After the theater performance that day, he was alone on the stage designing and arranging the actors' movements. Then, a violent earthquake struck. He only felt a pain at the top of his head and lost consciousness completely.
Thinking carefully now, he was most likely killed by a falling spotlight...
At this moment, Chen Yifei was also gradually absorbing the memories of this body. What surprised him was that the owner of this body also had the name Chen Yifei, but their basic understanding of the world was completely different. The fragmented memories were conflicting, and Chen Yifei felt like his mind was about to explode.
He kept taking deep breaths, struggling to rise from the ground. The surface of his theatrical robe was patched with black and red, making him extremely distressed and disheveled.
For some reason, his body felt extremely heavy, as if he had been exhausted after staying up for four or five consecutive days and nights writing scripts...
"Let's go home first..."
His exhausted body and fragmented thoughts made it almost impossible for him to think. He could only rely on the instincts of this body and walk towards the direction of "home".
Although he didn't know how he got here, the original owner of this body had memories of this place. He would take this route every day after returning from the clinic where he cared for his younger brother. It was usually just a two or three-minute walk from here to home.
But for him at this moment, this journey seemed unprecedentedly long.
The rain, carrying piercing cold, flowed over Chen Yifei's body. He couldn't stop shivering all over. After enduring the cold and exhaustion and walking in the rain for ten minutes, he finally arrived at the door of the home in his memory.
Chen Yifei searched his pockets for a while and found that he didn't have a key.
So, he skillfully retrieved a spare key from the bottom of the newspaper box beside the door and opened the door to his home.
Squeak—
Warm light poured out from the house, illuminating a corner of the dark, rainy night and Chen Yifei's pale face.
In the instant he saw this light, Chen Yifei's tense nerves naturally relaxed, and the cold and exhaustion on his body seemed to be dispelled slightly by this lamp.
He stepped into the house and saw two figures sitting on opposite sides of the dining table, their eyes red as if they had just cried.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, they were startled for a moment and then turned around simultaneously.
"Dad... Mom... I'm home."
Chen Yifei, feeling dizzy, subconsciously prepared to change his shoes at the door but realized he was barefoot. At this moment, his feet and toes were almost filled with mud, leaving two large black footprints on the floor.
The two figures sitting by the dining table saw Chen Yifei, dressed in red, pushing the door open. Their pupils contracted violently!
"You... you..."
The man's Adam's apple bobbed as he opened his mouth wide, looking as if he had seen a ghost.
"Mom... is there any water in the house? I'm so thirsty." After returning home, Chen Yifei's spirit was completely relaxed, and his consciousness was on the verge of unconsciousness. He mumbled to himself and stumbled into the kitchen, picked up the water bucket on the water dispenser, and started drinking eagerly.
Gulp, gulp, gulp...
In the kitchen, that red figure was like a wild animal, greedily swallowing the water.
The water dripping from the corners of his mouth fell onto the ground, forming a pool that reflected the two terrified and pale faces in the living room.
"Yifei? Yifei?" The woman tried to muster her courage, shivering as she spoke, "How... how did you get back?"
Chen Yifei held the water bucket and drank frantically, completely oblivious to the woman's words. Then, he seemed to think that drinking this way was too slow, so he directly stuffed the fist-sized opening of the water bucket into his mouth and bit it off with one gulp!
The synthetic plastic was vigorously chewed, and a torrent of water flowed into his mouth, to his satisfaction!
"I walked back."
A voice came from behind Chen Yifei.
Yes... from behind.
At this moment, Chen Yifei was still immersed in drinking water, but his voice clearly fell into the ears of the two people,
As if there was still a red-clothed Chen Yifei standing in the invisible emptiness behind him, spreading his hands and answering matter-of-factly.
"The rain was a bit heavy, and I seemed to have lost my way."
"I seemed to have fallen a few times on the way, and my shoes are gone..."
"Mom, I've made the floor dirty. If you're not in a hurry, wait for me to clean it up tomorrow... I'm too sleepy now."
Seeing this eerie scene, the man and woman in the living room felt a chill at the back of their necks. The kerosene lamp in the glass container kept swaying, as if an invisible hand was playfully toying with the wick.
Their faces were ashen, but they stood rigidly in place, dare not moving a muscle. Finally, the water bucket was emptied.
Chen Yifei wiped his mouth, put down the water bucket, turned around, and walked to his bedroom step by step, leaving black footprints on the floor...
"Dad, Mom... you should also go to bed early. Good night."
He mumbled incoherently, closed the door with his other hand, followed by a muffled thud as something heavy landed on the bed.
The living room fell into silence.
It was unknown how long it had been before those two figures, like sculptures, stiffly turned their heads... and looked at each other.
The swaying wick stabilized, and the eerie kerosene lamp barely illuminated the dim living room. They trembled as they sat on the chairs, their faces devoid of any trace of blood.
"He... he's back." The man spoke in a hoarse voice, "How is this possible..."
"If he's really Yifei..."
"Then who did we kill last night?"