Author: Kun Cheng Xiong Mao
"Lin-zi, you don"t want me to tell you to make your bed on the floor and just let it be, but lately you"ve been falling practically every day1, what if you hit your head someday? You were still able to sleep peacefully when you were at the lower bunk, now that there is no lower bunk anymore, this upper bunk is too high."
(T/N: 1 - 三天两头: idiom; twice in three days, frequently, practically every day, lit. three days two heads)
"That"s right, I"ve seen those who loves to punch and kick while they sleep, but I haven"t seen someone who punches as badly as you, the guardrail couldn"t even stop you, tell us ever since we changed into our new dormitory, how many times have you fallen?
"I... ..." Lin Yu Tong felt like he was suffocating. He looked up, and set his eyes at his two college roommates sitting on the bed.
Was this a dream?
Didn"t he fall from the ninth floor? Why was he in this situation? This dormitory, it was clearly the new dormitory that they had moved into when they started their third year. He lived in an eight-person bedroom for the first two years of college, and he had been sleeping on the lower bunk. Later when he started his third year, the new school dormitory building was completed, and they all moved together, this time there was no lower bunk, because the lower part was changed into a study table and a wardrobe, so they could only sleep on the upper bunk.
Obviously, this was not the first time that he had fallen down, so after all what time is it now?
Lin Yu Tong slowly stood up from the floor, held the quilt in his hand and patted it subconsciously, and silently looked at Xiang Cheng Tian and Long Le. These two were his college roommates, they lived in the dormitory for nearly three years, he would never forget them.
"Lin-zi, you haven"t become stupid right?" Long Le jumped off the bed like a monkey, grabbed Lin Yu Tong"s forehead to probe it, and placed two fingers in front of him, "Tell me, how many is this?"
"Go away." Lin Yu Tong slapped Long Le"s fingers away, and sat down on his chair. He was currently facing Long Le"s desk, there was a laptop on top, the date on the laptop showed that he fell and went back to eight years ago.
"Lin-zi, are you okay?" Xiang Cheng Tian compared to Long Le was much more earnest, he saw the strange expression on Lin Yu Tong"s face, he couldn"t help but put down the book in his hand and also jump down, and said: "If you feel something uncomfortable, tell us, it"s fine, let"s hurry to the hospital to take a look."
"It"s nothing, it"s just a little, I just didn"t get enough sleep, my head feels dizzy, I"ll be fine in a minute." Lin Yu Tong then crawled in his bed searching for something, and sure enough he found the feature phone2 that he once used.
(T/N: 2 - 智能手机: feature phone, dumbphone, phones used before smart phones were developed)
So, he really did return to eight years ago?!
Lin Yu Tong was in a trance for a long time, and in order to confirm that he wasn"t dreaming, he went to a lot of places, wanting to find some sign that he was in a dream. But no matter what, every place he visited was the same as eight years ago, there wasn"t any fault, even on the internet, those large and reputable platforms were still unavailable, and the pen name "San Chai Tong Zi" that he had used for several years was not yet known to many people.
This is really... ...falling down a building, going back to square one3 is really worrying.
(T/N: 3 - 打回原形: return to the original, generally refers to finding the true state of the thing covered by some means and finding the original state, and also refers to a thing returning to its original shape or original appearance, song by Eason Chan/Chen Yixun. I thought that going back to square one was the most appropriate translation in English)
Lin Yu Tong didn"t talk much all afternoon, he didn"t want to say what was wrong which made his roommates worry, so he spent most of the time thinking about his problems and recalled what happened during this time.
This year was a critical time for him and for the entire Lin family, at the end of the year he would have a dispute with his family due to him falling in love with Shen Jun, he would be opposed by the family, and will angrily elope with Shen Jun, he would follow Shen Jun who dropped out before finishing his studies and go with Shen Jun as he develops his career in acting.
This was definitely a bad start, and he needed to change it. But before that the most important thing was to sign a contract with his pen name first, then find a way to solve the problem at home. His father took over a project in the middle of this year to renovate the old building of a large local hospital and connect a part of the new building to it, their Lin family was the leader in this problematic project, because after that, various problems repeatedly occurred.
Lin Yu Tong hesitated on how to solve this problem as soon as possible, because following this year, the Lin family would encounter a funding shortage due to the theft of some vile people. Although he could make a profit by writing novels, but after all that required a long process.
Thinking of the fact that it was a long time before he learned about the situation at home, and when he wanted to help but couldn"t because he didn"t have much money, he felt a burst of panic in his heart.
Xiang Cheng Tian was packing his luggage at this time and said: "I still need to catch the train, I placed Lao San"s4 notes on his desk, he"ll come back later and if the two of you are still here remember to help me tell him, see you in seven days."
(T/N: 4 - they have another roommate)
Long Le said: "My mom will pick me up in a while, you can leave first, anyway it won"t become lost."
Of the four people living in room 602, only Long Le and Lin Yu Tong were locals, both Xiang Cheng Tian and Hua Yu Bai5 lives relatively far from school, it usually takes them seven to eight hours to get home by train.
(T/N: 5 - Lao San)
Lin Yu Tong replied: "I might go back a little later, I can just tell him."
After Xian Cheng Tian left, Lin Yu Tong and Long Le were the only ones left in the dormitory, Long Le was swaying his legs back and forth while eating a chocolate pie, "Lin-zi, what are you going to do on the first of the tenth month?6 If you aren"t doing anything you can come fishing with me at the resort. I"ve invited a few friends, so it should be quite lively.
(T/N: 6 - October 1: National Day of the People"s Republic of China, they get 7 days of holiday from Oct. 1 to 7)
Lin Yu Tong was thinking of going back home.
Long Le saw that he wasn"t speaking, he glanced at the door, and asked in a low voice: "You aren"t going to find Shen Jun?"
According to the trajectory of his previous life, at this time Lin Yu Tong likes Shen Jun, although n.o.body knew about it yet, but these roommates knew that he was very close with Shen Jun.
Currently Shen Jun hasn"t dropped out from his studies, but had already signed a contract with an entertainment company, and was often absent from cla.s.s to attend some interview, right now he should be in... ...
It took a long time for Lin Yu Tong to remember, he should be out shooting on location for a TV series, and in that drama Shen Jun played a small role with only five or six shots, in his last life he was really stupid and used up all his National Day holidays to go and become Shen Jun"s personal a.s.sistant.
Long Le said: "Lin-zi, we all get along like brothers here, I just want to say it again, don"t blame me for speaking out of turn, but I think people like Shen Jun is unsuitable to become friends with. You don"t know, but when you were away though he was polite towards me, but towards Cheng Tian and Yu Bai he just ignored them, he feels quite sn.o.bbish. Anyway, I"m just speaking frankly, if you think that I got it wrong just take it as I didn"t say anything."
Lin Yu Tong sneered, "It doesn"t matter, I know that you"re telling me this because you sincerely treat me as a friend. Thank you. Also, I won"t go on vacation, I have to go back home to see my parents, I haven"t been back since I started school, and if I don"t go back home, they"d come here and catch me.
Long Le grinned and threw a chocolate pie at Lin Yu Tong, "That"s alright, anyway if you have nothing to do, you can contact me anytime."
Long Le already left for almost an hour before Hua Yu Bai came back, Lin Yu Tong saw his simple old cla.s.smate, "Xiao Long and Cheng Tian have already gone back, are you not going back?
Hua Yu Bai went to tutor people in order to save some money, but when he thought about the round-trip fare he decided not to go back, "I"m going to wait until New Year to go back, otherwise I will need to spend a lot of money going back and forth, besides my family"s work should be almost done, I won"t be able to do much help even if I go back, I might as well stay here. By the way, why haven"t you gone back?
Lin Yu Tong said that he was waiting for him. He pointed at the notebook on Hua Yu Bai"s desk, "Cheng Tian said he was finished with it, and told us to tell you. Also since you"re not going home, if you have nothing to do come to my house with me, I"m worried about going home and be dragged by my dad to play chess, you can say that at my level, it"s obvious that not only would I be scolded I"ll also be humiliated. You"re different, you can help me get even.7
(T/N: 7 - 一雪前耻: idiom; to get revenge, to wash away the shame, lit. shame before the snow)
Lin Yu Tong always remembered, that in his last life after learning about the financial crisis at home, he looked everywhere for people to borrow money from, this old cla.s.smate who was also having difficulty at that time, still took out his painstakingly saved money and brought it out. Leaving out the issue of having money or not, this kind of sentiment was very precious.
Hua Yu Bai was a brilliant student, but at this time his family"s condition was poor, besides a younger brother who"s going to school, he also has a younger sister at home, every year not only does he need to earn his own tuition and living expenses, he also needed to help his family from time to time, it was indeed very difficult. Lin Yu Tong doesn"t have any other meaning, he just wanted Hua Yu Bai to save some time.
Hua Yu Bai was an honest person, after thinking about it and knowing Li Yu Tong"s meaning, he straightforwardly said: "Can this be done? You"re telling me that I could come to your house as a guest, and win against your father, wouldn"t that be bad?"
Lin Yu Tong opened his school bag and started to put stuff in, "I"ll be relieved with those words, let"s hurry up, and pack things up."
Hua Yu Bai thought that since during this time the children he was tutoring was also travelling anyway, he"ll just simply pack some clothes and follow Lin Yu Tong to Lin house.
The Lin family had a stand-alone detached villa with one door, although it was not very famous in B City it still had some net worth. Lin Yu Tong explained as they were on the road: "My grandparents are gone, my house consists of me, my parents, and my younger brother, I also have a younger sister that"s studying abroad right now. In any case, my family is very talkative, so you don"t have to be cautious, just act the same as if you went back to your own home."
Hua Yu Bai and Lin Yu Tong have been cla.s.smate for more than two years, he already knows what kind of person he was, he didn"t have to be polite with him, but just thinking about meeting a cla.s.smate"s parents was still a little nerve-wracking.
Lin Yu Tong got out of the car and said to him: "You aren"t my lover what are you being nervous about?"
Hua Yu Bai whispered: "But this is my first time going to a cla.s.smates house."
Lin Yu Tong smiled and said: "Remember the address8, you can come here often in the future."
(T/N: 8 - 认认门: recognize the door; this is a word from a certain dialect in China, which can have different meaning if used in different places, basically it is used here by LYT as saying to remember where he lives, it can also mean to get to know the neighbor"s door, to identify certain people, their ident.i.ty, location, etc., to understand and be familiar with the place.)
After pushing the door open, the housekeeper went and announced that the eldest young master was back, and also brought a friend. At that time Lin Yu Tong felt that he was doing the right thing, but as soon as he entered the room he had only then discovered, that his decision seemed a bit hasty, because when he saw the people inside the house he suddenly remembered something, this year not only did he frankly told his family about him and Shen Jun, his family also received a broken project, besides these two major pieces of event, there was another thing that felt quite incomprehensible for so many years, that is, someone came to his father to talk, wanting to marry his family.