The Midnight Owl

The voice seemed to come from somewhere very far away, weak, intermittent, and vaguely noisy, just like an old-fashioned radio that was not tuned to the frequency, struggling to spread the barely received words.

Xu Wang couldn't help shaking.

The little Sanhua in her arms raised her head and gently rubbed his chin with the top of her head.

The old doctor is still busy with his cleaning work, earnestly, without looking up.

【Owl: Who are you...】

Before he could answer, the voice persisted and asked a second time.

"You, who are you?" Xu Wang exhausted all his strength and finally asked this question.

【Owl: Owl...】

"Owl?" Xu Wang was at a loss for a moment, but soon remembered that in the patterns on the arms of the four people, there was a word "owl" under the owl.

【Owl: No... No... You shouldn't be here...】

Xu Wang was speechless. He hasn't said who he is, so he shouldn't be here?What's more, he didn't want to come!

"Yes, I shouldn't be here, so let me go back quickly."

[Owl: 23... Hand in the paper... Regain freedom...]

"Hand in the paper? What paper? Is this an exam?" Xu Wang really couldn't keep up with the other party's train of thought. What subject is 23?

【Owl: No...you are not selected...you cannot hand in the exam...】

"Don't talk to yourself," Xu Wang wanted to go crazy, "I'm not bad at studying, you don't even need to give me a range, just tell me what 23 is, I'll learn by myself, and I'm sure I can pass the exam!"

【Owl: Not selected...no...】

"..." Xu Wang was tired, this person couldn't explain it at all.

【Owl: Not the chosen one...why...he's here...】

【Owl: Who are you...】

Well, somehow, I talked a lot to myself, and then went back to the original point.

"You won," Xu Wang surrendered, and honestly handed over his name, "Xu Wang, Xu, the hopeful hope."

【Owl: The two of you Xu... the hope of hope...】

"I've already told you who I am, can you tell me how to get home?"

【Owl: For the first time...someone...can hear me...】

Great, going into "I don't listen to me, I don't listen to me, I just say what I want to say" mode again.

【Owl: Help me...help...help me...】

The sudden plea caught Xu Wang off guard: "What?"

[Owl: No...it's useless...you'll forget...]

"Don't always jump to conclusions!" Xu Wang had had enough, "I will never forget! What do you want me to do for you?"

No response.

There was a sudden lightness in his arms.

Xu Wang lowered his head subconsciously, and the little Sanhua he was holding disappeared at some point, leaving only a keychain curled up into a ball, lying quietly in the palm of his hand.

Suddenly, the palm of the hand, together with the keychain, flickered twice quickly, shaking out a phantom.

But Xu Wangming didn't move at all.

He looked up in a panic, and found that the surrounding scenery began to distort, just like in the corridor before.

I'm going home?

have to go home!

Xu is too similar to the feeling when he came here, his intuition is almost certain!

【Owl: Don't...forget...me...】

This is what Xu Wang heard, the last sentence.

……

Three years and seven classes.

1 minute ago, Xu Wang disappeared.Turning around to find no one behind him, Wu Sheng was in a daze for half a minute.In his life, he has never experienced a moment when his mind went blank. Until this evening, he experienced it twice in succession.

Push Xu Wangshi away, once, for about five or six seconds.

It was found that Xu was gone, the second time, a full 30 seconds.

Half a minute later, he immediately started looking for someone, and the first stop was the classroom they had just left, Class [-] of the third year.

Without going any wrong, Xu Wang stood by his own desk.

The moment he saw the other party's figure, Wu Sheng leaned lightly against the door frame, almost losing his strength.

Hanging his mind for half a minute and running [-] meters, he thought bitterly, so this is the ratio of the wear and tear of the mind to the body.

Taking a deep breath, her heartbeat gradually calmed down, Wu Sheng walked into the classroom and came behind Xu Wang.

He didn't deliberately walk lightly, so he shouldn't be concealed, but he was almost on Xu Wang's back, and the man still didn't move.

"Xu Wang?" Wu Sheng finally felt something was wrong.

The thunder covered most of his voice, but the distance was close enough that Xu Wang still turned his head slowly.

However, her gaze was blank, and it took a long time before she settled on his face: "Huh?"

Wu Sheng was speechless. The one who should "Huh?" was himself, what was the idea of ​​solving the problem for the person who sneaked back into the classroom for no reason, with a blank and innocent face?

"Oh," Xu Wang seemed to finally understand the indescribable look in his eyes, reached out to pick up the mobile phone on the desk, and showed it to him, "I forgot the phone."

Wu Sheng knew that he must have left something behind.

As for running away without saying a word... In normal times, you can still criticize, but today, you really can't be justified.

"The rain has stopped." Xu Wang looked out the window.

Wu Sheng raised his head, sure enough, the thunder stopped the rain, and the night seemed to be quiet all of a sudden.

"Hurry up and go back." He was worried that he would go down later.

"Yeah." Xu Wang put the phone into his pocket.

Wu Sheng turned around first, and walked towards the door.

Xu Wang followed, but as soon as he took a step, he kicked something with his toe.

He bent down and picked it up, a kitten's keychain.

This was his seat. He slipped back after school and sat there for half the night. He was sure there was no such thing on the ground.

Wu Sheng was the only one who came here after that.

The key fob was still brand new, and even if dropped on the floor, the color still shone brightly.

"What's the matter?" Seeing that Xu Wang hadn't followed, Wu Sheng turned around warily, for fear of losing him again.

"It's nothing." Xu Wang quietly put the keychain into his pants pocket.

If you like someone for so long and decide to give up, let him be willful for a while and keep some memories.

Lovelorn, commemorate.

He didn't regret liking Wu Sheng at all.

It's just that starting tomorrow, I have to concentrate on reviewing and preparing for the exam.

Go to a good university, find a stable job, don't want to be successful, as long as he can be self-sufficient-sounds not big enough, even a bit mediocre, but it is the only expectation his mother has for him.

……

Ten years later, Beijing, Xu Wang's bedroom.

Facing the keychain, memories are like a tide, sweeping in and cannot be stopped.

"Owl" was right. As soon as he came out, he forgot everything in "Owl". The memory seemed to be edited and spliced ​​together. One second was still in the corridor with Wu Sheng, and the next second was Wu Sheng I turned back to find myself, and finally put a pretext of "come back to get the phone" at the splicing place.

Make sense and leave no trace.

When he was still in Dongying, the pennant on 3/23 just reminded him of the part where he followed that team into the infection department building. Until now, looking at the keychain, the more unbelievable part later came to his mind .

Unable to calm down any longer, Xu Wang got up and went back to the living room, and told the three teammates the whole "Adventure Ten Years Ago" in its entirety.

The part related to real life, except for the "broken love" in the middle, which is really not worth discussing, was skipped by him, and the rest was told frankly without reservation.

Not only because he wants to be honest with his partner, but also because it also involves the coordinate correspondence between "Owl" and reality, time correspondence and other issues. Without contact with reality, there is no way to study it.

The three partners heard from beginning to end.

Throughout the whole process, Wu Sheng's expression changed in various ways, but he remained silent; Qian Ai frequently wanted to ask questions in the first half, but after the end, he was completely confused and listened to what he said; Kuang Jinxin was completely listening to the story , and the more you listen, the more fascinated you become, your eyes are so bright that people are embarrassed to speak boringly, and you can feel at ease only if you are vivid.

After speaking in one breath, Xu Wang's throat smoked, took the water glass and drank two big glasses, and waited for his teammates to ask questions.

Wu Sheng must be the one who understands the fastest, sorts out the problems quickly and comprehensively, but Xu Wang looked at him several times, and this teammate kept his eyes down, neither asking questions nor showing people the windows of the soul, so quiet and mysterious.

"I can't do it anymore," Qian Ai jumped up, full of doubts, and wandered around the room, "'Owl' talked to you? Asked you to help him? Why don't you just say it? This is going to kill people— —”

"And that old doctor, why did he throw away the vaccine? Then what are we trying to do?!"

"No, if Owl can tamper with memory, how can you be sure that your current memory is real?"

"I know there is a key chain, you said it is a phantom, but I think it is a key chain..."

With a barely audible sigh, Wu Sheng finally raised his eyes: "Old Qian, calm down."

"Squad leader, you can't use your concentration to demand us ordinary humans..." Qian Ai was still entangled in "ten years ago", and even the title returned to youth.

"I'm inclined to believe Xu Wang," Wu Sheng said, "otherwise, there's no way to explain why the one who broke through the checkpoint suddenly opened up last night."

Wu Sheng looked at Qian Ai.

Xu Wang stared at Wu Sheng.

Believe it or believe it, don’t believe it if you don’t believe it, the tone of “inclining” is really invincible and deserves a beating...

When they met again, Xu Wang felt that Wu Sheng hadn't changed, but now after looking through the memories, he realized that the young Wu Sheng in high school was much cuter!

Knowing that he is stubborn, I have to expose him for lying in the middle of the night, and then run to the teaching building in the rain to find him... Although the ending is cold, but time has passed, and thinking about it, it is sweeter than bitter.

"Wait a minute," Qian Ai grabbed the most obvious tree branch in the "Ten Years of Fog Forest" while looking at his military adviser, "Did you have no reaction when you saw Xu Wang disappear? Or Are you saying that your memory has also been erased?"

"I can't guarantee that my memory has not been tampered with," Wu Sheng said rigorously, "but with my existing stored data, I didn't see him disappear, but I turned around for the first time and saw him..." A trace of pain, After stabbing at the apex of his heart, Wu Sheng narrowed his eyes, "I was watching the rain, and when I turned around for the second time, he disappeared. There was about a minute in between, which was enough for him to return to the classroom without making a sound."

Xu Wang lowered his head and pretended to play with the keychain.

He is not watching the rain.

He is crying.

It turned out that Wu Sheng knew all along.

"Even if it makes sense to go back to get the phone, then I should say hello and say that my phone was left in the classroom, right?" Qian Ai still didn't understand, "Don't you think it's strange to run back just like that?"

"There's no sound at all." Kuang Jinxin reminded him friendly, "If you really 'swoosh' like this, no matter how slow you are, you will turn around immediately!"

Qian Ai's black line: "I'm just making an analogy..."

"Because too many things happened that day," Wu Sheng carefully chose his words, "He doesn't want to talk to me, it's perfectly normal."

Qian Ai and Kuang Jinxin naturally thought that what Wu Sheng was talking about was "Mother Xu's death".

So, the former blamed him for not being vigilant enough: "If it were me, I would have asked at that time, maybe I could have discovered the secret of 'Owl' ten years earlier!"

The latter advised him tactfully: "Brother Sheng, in fact, sometimes, you don't have to make up your own brain to complete the logic..."

Qian Ai sat back on the sofa, marking that the initial "shock stage" was basically over.

"If there are no other pressing issues, we will start from the beginning," Xu Wang said in a deep voice, calming down, "There are too many strange things here."

Qian Ai and Kuang Jinxin agreed unanimously.

Xu Wang nodded and looked at Wu Sheng: "Please start your analysis."

Suddenly being flopped, Wu Junshi was caught off guard, with a cute expression on his face.

The corners of Xu Wang's mouth turned up, a little proud of his successful sneak attack, but the trust in his eyes was also real: "You must have thought about it, you say it, and we will listen."

Wu Sheng finally came to his senses, glanced at him with complicated emotions, then adjusted his mood, and happily opened, Wu Junshi's small classroom.

"First, the coordinates. The coordinates of 3/23 are in Dongying, which is not even the same province as our school. There are two possibilities. The coordinates of 3/23 ten years ago are in our school, or something went wrong and Xu Hope it sucks in 3/23."

"Second, the time. When Xu Wang entered the owl, it was 3:23 Beijing time. According to the setting of 3/23, it should be 10:1 in the evening, but the actual situation is late at night. Of course, this may be the content of the [-]/[-] level. Normal changes and adjustments. However, Xu Wang stayed inside for at least four, [-] minutes to an hour, but in reality, there was only [-] minute between the time I found out he was missing and the time I saw him when I returned to the classroom. We are now breaking through, Oli Time elapses synchronously with reality, so we can use our mobile phones to check the time."

Student Qian raised his hand to speak.

Junshi Wu waved his hand, indicating that I understand: "The owl can tamper with my memory of time. This is the first possibility, but it is also possible that the owl has a problem."

"Thirdly, Xu Wang's own state." This is what Wu Sheng is most concerned about. "For the passers-by, he 'does not exist'; for the buildings, objects and NPCs in the owl, he is 'existing but ignored' ..."

Xu Wang was anxious when he heard that, so he directly made excuses: "There are also two possibilities here, come on."

Unexpectedly, Junshi Wu changed his routine: "There are no two kinds, just one. The world of owls mistook you for one of our own, so you will not receive the owl pattern that symbolizes the identity of the passer-by. In other words, if you can be See, then you are an NPC."

Xu Wang: "But they can't see me. Neither the passerby nor the NPC can see me."

Wu Sheng: "So you are a bug."

Xu Wang: "..."

Wu Sheng: "Next, I will focus on analyzing the conditions for the occurrence of bugs and the prospects for future development."

Xu Wang: "..."

Qian Ai: "..."

Kuang Jinxin: "Brother Sheng, speak slowly, I'll take class notes."