The glass door of the small supermarket was pushed open.
“Boss, give me a pack of cigarettes.”
The boss sat behind the counter without even lifting his head.
“What kind?”
The person’s voice hesitated for a few moments, as if unsure what to choose.
“This one will do.”
Only then did the boss raise his eyelids and lazily glance at the pack of cigarettes. He pulled it out from under the counter and placed it on the table.
“Eighteen.”
“Paid.”
The person hurried out the door. The boss changed his posture and continued scrolling on his phone.
Not long after, the glass door was pushed open again. The person had returned.
“Boss, give me a lighter too.”
“Why didn’t you buy everything at once?” the boss said casually. “One yuan.”
He looked up and then froze.
The young man buying a lighter in front of him looked like a high school student no matter how you saw it.
His eyebrows furrowed slightly. He didn’t hand over the lighter.
“Are you a student?”
Jiang Yueming was lowering his head, trying to figure out how to open the pack of cigarettes. Hearing this, he looked up. “Yeah, why… Ah, no. I dropped out.”
The boss stared at him with a suspicious gaze.
Seeing that Jiang Yueming still hadn’t managed to tear open the cigarette packaging after two tries, the boss sighed and decided not to bother with it.
“One yuan.”
Ding. The payment notification sounded.
Jiang Yueming hurried out the door.
The boss watched his back disappear outside, shook his head, and went back to scrolling on his phone.
“Kids these days…”
…
After leaving the supermarket, Jiang Yueming didn’t rush home.
He stood under a streetlight, turning the pack of cigarettes over and over in his hands. He finally found the plastic pull tab at the opening.
After tearing open the packaging with two tugs, he brought it close to his nose and sniffed.
A strong tobacco smell rushed toward him. He frowned slightly.
“Just one cigarette shouldn’t be addictive, right?”
He put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it.
“Cough cough cough!”
Jiang Yueming coughed violently, choking out a few tears.
“Why is it so harsh?”
A stuffy feeling rose in his chest. Jiang Yueming looked at the cigarette in his hand and hesitated for a moment before carefully bringing it to his lips again for another small puff.
Smoke entered his mouth. Jiang Yueming suddenly, as if possessed, took a deep breath and drew the nicotine into his lungs.
Strange. Why did I inhale it into my lungs?
Smoking for the first time made him feel dizzy.
In that hazy state, he felt as if he was gradually turning into another person.
That faint sense of familiarity grew stronger. It seemed like something was falling back into place. Some kind of consciousness inside his body was slowly awakening.
Jiang Yueming felt that holding this cigarette had no sense of dissonance at all. It was as if he had always known how to smoke.
“Become me…”
Become that version of himself who looked twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old?
Night wind blew past. Jiang Yueming quietly waited for a while, but nothing happened.
He tossed the cigarette butt away. In his heart, he thought that he had indeed overthought things. How could something like this possibly happen…
“This brand of cigarette just isn’t good to smoke,” someone said from behind him.
“It shouldn’t be the cigarette’s problem. I never used to…” Jiang Yueming answered instinctively, then suddenly whipped his head around.
A person was standing behind him, a cigarette in his mouth, smiling at him.
Jiang Yueming’s pupils dilated rapidly. His eyes trembled violently as they swept across the person’s face. A massive storm surged in his heart.
The man stood in front of the streetlight. Below the shadow that covered him was a face that was almost identical to Jiang Yueming’s own.
“Scared?”
“You…” Jiang Yueming pointed at him with his mouth wide open.
The man took a deep drag from his cigarette and exhaled skillfully. “Looks like you understood the message I left. I was still worrying about how to tell you. After all, carving it into your arm must have hurt a lot.”
Jiang Yueming stood frozen in place. His finger remained raised for a long time.
He took the cigarette out of his mouth and held it between his fingers, flicking off the ash.
“What’s there to be so surprised about?” he said. “Didn’t you already guess it? Otherwise, why did you buy cigarettes? You don’t even smoke.”
Jiang Yueming opened his mouth. His mind went completely blank. All of his language processing ability crashed at this moment.
“Impossible.”
The man smiled and imitated Jiang Yueming’s expression. He held his head with both hands and exaggeratedly opened his mouth wide.
“What! So it’s actually real? My future self really appeared? Ah! Impossible! My worldview is collapsing! Time is broken! Am I in a movie?!”
Then all the exaggerated expressions disappeared in an instant. He switched back effortlessly.
Holding the cigarette between his fingers, he tilted his head and looked at his seventeen-year-old self.
“Isn’t that what you were thinking?”
“You…”
“Alright, I know you need time to process this,” the man looked up at the sky. “But time is exactly what we lack the most right now.”
Jiang Yueming followed his gaze upward. There was nothing in the sky except for a bright moon.
“You… what are you looking at?”
The man didn’t answer. He spoke directly. “Nothing. Three questions. We only have time for three questions.”
Jiang Yueming noticed that the man’s fingers were unconsciously tapping on the cigarette. Beneath his calm appearance, there seemed to be some kind of urgency.
Jiang Yueming took a deep breath and asked, “Are you really my future self?”
The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted it. This question had no meaning whatsoever besides satisfying his own curiosity. In terms of importance, there were many other questions that should come before this one.
As expected.
“Don’t ask pointless questions.”
Those words were exactly what Jiang Yueming had been thinking. It was an indirect answer: Yes, I am your future self. Our way of thinking is consistent. Stop asking pointless questions.
Realizing this, Jiang Yueming’s mind quickly began turning.
He had always been a smart person. The reason his grades were poor was simply because he liked sleeping in class and was too lazy to memorize vocabulary. But when it came to math and physics — things that tested logical thinking — his brain worked faster than anyone else’s.
Jiang Yueming calmed down. Reason overpowered emotion and confusion, instantly taking the upper hand.
“Okay. First, will I still have a chance to contact you in the future?”
“Yes. Every time you become more like me, I wake up faster.”
Jiang Yueming keenly caught the word “wake up.”
“Second, what is your goal?”
“To save you,” the man paused. “And to save myself.”
“Third, what do I need to do?”
“Don’t believe anyone,” the man repeated seriously. “Remember, anyone. Also, go find Su Xiaoyue.”
The answers came smoothly.
With just three questions, Jiang Yueming had clarified the current predicament, their goal, and what he needed to do.
Although the man’s answers were still somewhat vague, Jiang Yueming felt that he had grasped the most essential points.
Don’t believe anyone. And go find Su Xiaoyue.
The man smiled slightly.
Even though Jiang Yueming still had many things he didn’t understand, the man no longer had time to explain. He believed that his past self would be able to handle everything.
He looked up at the sky again. Jiang Yueming followed his gaze. There was still only a pure white moon hanging in the sky. Nothing else. It seemed like he could see certain things that Jiang Yueming couldn’t.
“Here, take this back.”
He handed over a piece of red string. When Jiang Yueming took it, he noticed that the man’s hand had become transparent like water. He could even see the concrete ground beneath through his arm.
After doing this, the man took one step back.
“Time’s up.”
Ding dong.
His voice and the phone notification sounded at the same time.
Jiang Yueming instinctively glanced at his phone. Xia He had sent him a message.
“I’ll come pick you up for school tomorrow. Don’t sleep in, okay~”
Jiang Yueming stared at the message for a second. When he looked up again, the man had already disappeared.
He looked around in all directions. The entire street was empty. Only he stood alone under the streetlight. From the night market far away, the faint sounds of vendors calling out could still be heard.