When Xu Xing arrived home, Li Yuanjun was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, holding a facial steamer and staring intently at a Bilibili video on the projection screen, which was playing at 1.5 times speed, nonstop.
Xu Xing squinted at the screen, just as the video came to an end.
Noticing her return, Li Yuanjun changed her posture, saying, "Why are you back so late? I've already woken up from my nap."
"Is it that dramatic? I just bought a rice ball at the convenience store."
Li Yuanjun immediately spread her hands, beckoning Xu Xing toward her. "Is there any rice ball left? I'm starving."
"Aren't you supposed to fast after noon?"
Li Yuanjun made a face that screamed constipation. "It's all because of that guy! I didn't even get to the main dish at lunch before I had to leave! He was just… unbelievable."
Xu Xing couldn't help but laugh. Slipping into her fluffy rabbit slippers, she nudged Li Yuanjun toward the corner of the sofa to make space for herself.
"I was wondering why you hung up so quickly. What happened? Spill it!"
Li Yuanjun was eager for Xu Xing to come home and vent about her day, and she sat up straight, animatedly describing the various bizarre actions of her blind date.
After chatting for a while, she cleared her throat and began mimicking the man's infatuated tone. "If I'm not mistaken, your name must have come from Yuan Zhen's 'Separation Thoughts,' right? 'Not bothering to look back among the flowers, half due to the Tao, half due to you,' so beautiful~"
"Hahaha~"
Xu Xing laughed so hard she could barely sit up straight, watching Li Yuanjun theatrically pinch her throat and raise her fingers like an orchid.
"Beautiful my *ss!"
Li Yuanjun rolled her eyes dramatically, throwing the facial steamer onto the coffee table, her face twisted in disgust.
Xu Xing found it hilarious; why would this guy choose to compliment the name of the "young lady" Li, of all things? Based on Xu Xing's understanding of Li Yuanjun, leaving behind the AA dinner bill was likely her final act of kindness.
Li Yuanjun was Xu Xing's college roommate. Her father was a professor of contemporary literature at the nearby Yong University, having achieved a professorship by the age of fifty.
Xu Xing had always wondered why Li Yuanjun hadn't applied to Yong University, as her father being a literature professor should have made it much easier.
It was only later that Xu Xing learned that Li Yuanjun had a poor relationship with her father.
Despite being a highly educated intellectual, he held deeply traditional views, particularly favoring sons over daughters.
When Li Yuanjun was born, her father initially named her Zhao Di, but her mother refused to register that name, leading to the more elegant version, Yuan Jun.
Yuan Jun, Yuan Jun, didn't that just imply a desire for a son?
Unfortunately for her father, he never had a son. After failing to produce a male heir, he divorced Li Yuanjun's mother and married a younger, more attractive woman, yet they still hadn't had a son.
After Li Yuanjun had mocked her father about this, he flew into a rage and kicked her out of the house. Unable to swallow that indignation, Li Yuanjun had refused to return home for the past two years.
Thinking of this, Xu Xing nudged Li Yuanjun's arm. "Hey, the New Year is coming soon. Are you going back this year?"
Li Yuanjun examined her face in a small mirror, saying, "Of course I'll go back to see my mom. I just hope she won't let those aunts keep trying to set me up with blind dates. I mean, what's the deal? Are they short on dance partners or just out of new songs for the square dance? Why are they so restless?"
She paused and turned back, adding, "By the way, why don't you come back with me? Let my mom introduce you to some potential partners."
Xu Xing tossed a cushion at her, rolling her eyes dramatically.
Li Yuanjun dodged the cushion but was about to retort when a lightbulb moment hit her. "Wait a minute, Xu Xiaoxing, what's the situation with you at the gym? It sounded a bit off on the phone."
Xu Xing hadn't expected the topic to shift so quickly and found herself momentarily at a loss for words.
"Come on, spill it!"
Xu Xing shrank back a bit, instinctively touching the back of her neck, thinking slowly as she began to explain.
"I just ran into an old high school classmate… and we chatted for a bit. I didn't want anyone to know I'm doing so poorly now, so I… pretended I had a dinner invitation to get away quickly."
Given Xu Xing's pride in front of others, this explanation was enough for Li Yuanjun to buy it.
Then the question arose, "Which high school classmate? Is it that guy you mentioned before… your childhood friend, the one you knew since you were little, and ended up in the same class in high school?"
Xu Xing was taken aback and widened her eyes. "You know about that?!"
Li Yuanjun's face lit up with "of course" written all over it. After spending some time praising her own beauty and wisdom, she asked, "From the way you spoke, he seems to be doing well now? What does he do? Has he aged badly?"
She stroked her chin, continuing to speculate, "It's been over ten years; if you still recognize him at first glance, he must look good."
"He's… okay."
She wouldn't admit that Kang Chen was a handsome guy.
Responding nonchalantly, Xu Xing intended to change the subject.
However, Li Yuanjun's previous words began to replay in Xu Xing's mind, and suddenly a spark of realization hit her. She froze, sitting still as she recollected every detail of her encounter with Kang Chen at the gym, her heart racing faster and faster...
After a long while, she turned to look at Li Yuanjun, swallowing hard as her voice turned a bit anxious.
"Zhao Di, I… I really haven't seen him in over ten years. But when I saw him, it didn't feel strange at all; he recognized me immediately too…"
The air suddenly grew exceptionally quiet.
Li Yuanjun was stunned, finally grasping Xu Xing's implication. "You… you mean, you might have seen him during those three years?"
Xu Xing nervously tugged at the hem of her shirt, giving a pitiful nod.
***
This story is rather long. To sum it up, the three years from ages twenty-one to twenty-four in Xu Xing's life are entirely blank.
In other words, she had lost her memory, missing nearly three years' worth of recollections.
For a time, Xu Xing thought she might have experienced a bizarre incident of time travel. However, the sporadic flashes of memory and familiar scenes kept reminding her that she hadn't traveled through time; she had simply lost her memories.
Although the fantastical nature of her amnesia seemed no different from time travel, as Conan said, one must exclude all impossible scenarios; whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.
When she sadly shared this with Li Yuanjun, Li Yuanjun had retorted, expressionless, "That's something Sherlock Holmes said."
Someone with incomplete memories always feels insecure. Xu Xing often found herself questioning whether she had engaged in reckless romantic entanglements during those three years or committed some despicable, immoral acts of abandoning her partner.
To that end, she even made a special trip to the hospital for a check-up.
The results proved she had read too many novels.
Seeing Xu Xing's distracted demeanor, Li Yuanjun comforted her, saying, "It's fine, it's fine. You probably don't have any emotional disputes; you've had a check-up, and you're still a virgin."
…?
What's wrong with being a virgin? Does that mean virgins have no rights or can't date? Can't something pure like holding hands and kissing happen during those three years?
She could never accept the fact that at twenty-six, she had never been in a relationship: )
Xu Xing silently pushed Li Yuanjun's hand off her shoulder as a form of protest.
Li Yuanjun, however, didn't notice and instead went on a long-winded rant, starting with the virginity topic, expanding to something else entirely.
"...I'm just saying you can't be too conservative. Life is about enjoying it while you can! You haven't finished reading 'The Three-Body Problem,' have you? Our Earth is so tiny; who knows how many advanced civilizations exist in our galaxy? They'd squash Earth like they would squash an ant, casually tossing a piece of paper and turning us all into two-dimensional beings…"
Seeing her veering off-topic, revealing her true nature as a sci-fi romance writer, Xu Xing couldn't take it anymore. She stood up and said, "There's only half a rice ball left; you probably won't eat it. Let me cook you some instant noodles instead."
With that, she quickly slipped into her rabbit slippers and hurried to the kitchen.
Li Yuanjun was left mid-sentence, still wanting to elaborate.
***
In the kitchen, Xu Xing skillfully set up a small pot to boil water and tossed the rice ball into the microwave to heat it up.
It would only take a minute to heat the rice ball. Once it was done, she stood by the induction cooker, nibbling on the rice ball while waiting for the water to boil, her thoughts beginning to wander.
For a normal person, losing a chunk of memory is already a tragedy.
But for Xu Xing, an even greater tragedy was—
She had continued to serve time in prison after her amnesia.
The charge was intentional injury, leading to a one-year sentence, which was reduced to eleven months for good behavior.
According to reports, after injuring someone, she fled and got into a car accident.
The accident resulted in her developing dissociative amnesia, causing her to selectively forget a certain period.
When she woke up in the hospital, her memory still lingered on her senior year of college; all she remembered was working non-stop on her internship for two nights in a row, and after waking up, she was eager to finish editing her film.
At that time, Xu Xing felt as if fate had played a huge trick on her. She hadn't done anything wrong; how could she suddenly end up in prison upon waking up?
But crying, throwing tantrums, or even attempting suicide wouldn't help; after all, the law doesn't exempt you from serving time just because you have amnesia.
That nearly year-long imprisonment left a heavy mark on her carefree spirit.
Although life in a women's prison didn't mistreat her—she attended classes, worked, read books, and even got to watch free movies during the holidays—no one wants to go to prison just to see a free film!
After being released, she remained deeply troubled, refusing to believe that this model citizen would commit such an atrocious act of intentional injury; there had to be something off about the situation.
So the question arose: Had she truly seen Kang Chen during those three years? Did he know something that contradicted the judgment?
Or was it possible that Kang Chen had covertly influenced her downfall during his own imprisonment?
For example, perhaps out of resentment for unrequited love, he had framed her… Kang Chen, with his two-faced demeanor, could certainly pull something like that.
After all, he was the model student who would sneak off to sleep in the classroom during physical education class and had stolen kisses from her.