Don't Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trash Bin

Whirling around, he threw his packed book bag over his shoulder.

He said to his deskmate, “I’m not coming to school tomorrow.”

My classmate is going to stay in class tonight and finish his homework before he goes home. As he checks the assignments on the board and draws in his exercise book, he looks at Chi Xiaochi with a sidelong glance: “Wow, you’re not so bad. You finally realised that you have more of a future as a model than a student?”

Chi Xiaochi got out of his seat and laughed, “Don’t say it, it’s quite promising.”

It’s a long journey, and I’m alone.

The tablemate had a vague feeling that something wasn’t quite right: “Are you serious? You’re really not coming?”

Chi Xiaochi: “I’m not feeling well, so I’m taking a day off.”

My tablemate grabbed something from the belly of the table and threw it at Chi Xiaochi: “Fuck, I’m scared to death.”

I don’t blame my tablemates for misunderstanding. This morning, a girl in the next class announced that she was dropping out of school because of her family’s circumstances, and they had been talking about it for a while.

Chi Xiaochi catches something thrown by her tablemate, a large packet of shrimp sticks.

My tablemate said, “I ate yours before the holidays. When I went to the kiosk today, I saw it, so I bought a packet and gave it back to you. It’s not hard to borrow and return.”

Chi Xiaochi winked at him tartly, “Thanks.”

Chi Xiaochi also tried to dodge the pencil case, but nearly kicked over a bucket belonging to the student on duty.

Despite the fact that all the splashes basically landed on Chi Xiaochi’s trouser legs and shoes, the girls on duty were still shouting, “…… Chi Xiaochi what are you doing!”

The same table cries out in a girl’s voice: “Chi Xiaochi, what are you doing!”

With this fuss, he managed to distract the fire for Chi Xiaochi, and the girls darted over to choke him.

Chi Xiaochi took the opportunity to pull away, stopping at the classroom door and turning back to greet her, “See you the day after tomorrow!”

The table was in deep water and had no time to be distracted, only to reach out to him in his busy schedule, not knowing if it was a plea for help or a gesture to say goodbye.

Chi Xiaochi walks backwards out of the classroom.

He knew that the day after, the person who came would not be him.

He walked alone through the tide of people leaving school.

The class teacher is wearing a white T, leaning over the railing, discussing with the physics teacher whether to go to the teachers’ canteen in the evening or to the Lanzhou ramen at the entrance. As soon as he sees a student coming, he gets serious for a second, pats his chalk dust-stained trousers and coughs lightly.

Chi Xiaochi greeted politely, “Hello, teacher.”

Class teacher: “Carry your bag properly. It flows like that.”

Chi Xiaochi ignored it and tightened the strap of her bag on her shoulder: “Goodbye teacher.”

Class teacher: “……” Ugh, okay.

Chi Xiaochi follows the escalator all the way down.

Boys smelling of sweat took three steps past him with basketballs in their hands, and he was greeted and asked if he wanted to have a game, but he turned them all down.

Greetings from new friends and admiring glances from junior high school girls greeted us.

At an early age when they don’t know what love is, they start to imitate the bridges in TV dramas, writing love letters one by one, not necessarily sending them, but mostly taking a water pen and drawing on the table, XXX likes XX, hoping that the person in their heart will one day turn around and look at her.

Those love words were written not so much for the person who “loved” them, but for youth.

Chi Xiaochi feels with all his heart this tender and simple “love” that is not overly motivated, something he has left behind and has never seriously appreciated.

…… was only unusual at the time.

Chi Xiaochi ordered a skewer and sat on a small bench, stretching his legs and watching the crowds of people coming out of the school gates gradually change from thick to thin.

The chillies at this stall were as strong as he remembered, and he sucked in his breath as they spiced him up, his lips turning crimson with them.

After pouring in a breath of water, he propped his arms on his knees and looked at the school’s stamped sign without saying a word.

Lou Ying could see the undisguised longing in his gaze, and his tone could not hide the pain in his voice: “Are you sure you don’t want to stay longer?”

To Lou Ying, Chi Xiaochi is answering the question, “…… is not available.”

Only Chi Xiaochi knows that he is really out of time.

As soon as Ji Zuoshan risked his life to bring the message about the Innate System from Lord GOD space, a countdown clock was automatically set up in Chi Xiaochi’s mind.

A week ago, when Zhu Shoucheng was jailed as he had hoped, he was actually ready to go.

At that point, 089 still had 72 missions left.

So Chi Xiaochi set aside a week for himself to catch up and finish what he needed to do.

Chi Xiaochi tossed the skewer of tofu into the trash, wiped his hands, and took out his phone again.

During this time, Chi Xiaochi was always playing with his phone, and Lou Ying accidentally scanned the screen and saw that it was a text message page, so he was probably talking to one of his friends by text message.

Lou Ying, as a person, would not interfere with Chi Xiaochi’s normal friendships, let alone pry into his privacy.

Lou Ying subconsciously turned his face away from his phone, as he always did.

After editing one, Chi Xiaochi put his phone in his pocket, “Come on, let’s go home.”

Lou Ying knew that in recent days, apart from paying extra attention in class, Chi Xiaochi had been spending long periods of time in silence, as if something was on his mind.

Such symptoms seem to have begun with Zhu Shoucheng’s imprisonment.

Lou Ying was busy redeeming his card so that Zhu Shoucheng’s remorse value would not overflow, while wondering why.

However, if Chi Xiaochi doesn’t tell us, Lou Ying won’t ask.

He respects Chi Xiaochi for what he is and is willing to let Chi Xiaochi have his own piece of the world.

Chi Xiaochi went home, made herself a meal, ate it all by herself against the wall calendar, went downstairs to feed the dogs, did her homework, washed up and went to bed.

As natural as every day he had spent before.

It is as if he will remain forever in this ordinary, earthly world.

Lou Ying’s aunt’s husband is busy with a new baby in the family, while Lou Ying’s sister-in-law has quit her job to rest at home.

She is not well and needs to recuperate. Luckily, Lou Ying can rest and stay overnight at Chi Family as Chi Xiaochi’s parents are visiting relatives in the next city tonight.

Shortly after taking a break, Chi Xiaochi takes out his phone again and barks the word Wen in the dark.

Lou Ying wondered who else he was talking to now.

To be honest, he felt badly about it.

Given Zhu Shoucheng’s age, mental state, physical condition, and the natural discrimination and spontaneous ‘hospitality’ towards paedophiles in American prisons, he probably wouldn’t last long in prison without worrying too much that he would have the strength to seek revenge on Chi Xiaochi in his prime after his years in a cell.

For Chi Xiaochi, this last mission has been a success, but for him it is the beginning of another story.

Chi Xiaochi will naturally ask Lord GOD to return to his world and be his Chi Xiaochi again.

But Lou Ying could not be with him.

Although she knew it was inevitably mean, Lou Ying still had a slight selfish desire to spend more time with Chi Xiaochi in his last world.

089 came from the same world line as they did. One day sooner, one day later, they would always meet again in the original world line, so did they have to rush back to see him off?

Most of Lou Ying’s fragmented memories of the past are occupied by Chi Xiaochi.

The complete memory of sending the host away is only twice.

–Take the host back to Lord GOD and send them into the “betweenness”, after which they will never see each other again.

Lou Ying can only determine which world the host has gone to based on the information registered afterwards.

If you send Chi Xiaochi in, you will not see each other for years and years.

Chi Xiaochi doesn’t seem to take the parting very seriously, and Lou Ying is forced to considerately make light of the impending departure.

As for the stirring in his heart, he didn’t even dare to let Chi Xiaochi guess.

Seeing that he was still playing with his phone at this time, Lou Ying couldn’t maintain his gentlemanly demeanour and asked, seemingly unintentionally, “Who are you talking to?”

Chi Xiaochi replied without looking back, ” Chi Xiaochi .”

Lou Ying is stunned.

He asked Chi Xiaochi for advice: “Can I see it?”

Chi Xiaochi didn’t say anything, just moved into Lou Ying’s arms and a sliver of hot skin pressed lightly against Lou Ying’s small arms, passing a not very noticeable static.

Lou Ying rolls onto his back and gently closes his arms around Chi Xiaochi’s waist, looking at his mobile phone screen.

With just one glance, Lou Ying understood.

The old mobile phones at …… did not have a ‘memo’ function, so Chi Xiaochi used the ‘text box’ in the SMS function.

This is the truth about so-called “text messages”.

In Chi Xiaochi’s box, there are more than a hundred messages in total.

”The title of the Gao Kao essay was “The Future”. I didn’t take the exam that year, so I only had time to read the news reports and the zero-grade essays that were revealed, for fun.”

”There’s a maths teacher in a high school who likes to take gifts from students, sick and fucked up, so for your own good, we suggest passing 570 in the Chinese exam and getting into an A student class.”

”There’s a small group of bullies in the first high school, but they’re all soft, so if they pick up a brick and hit it back, they’ll go nuts and do it if they don’t want to.”

”XXXX year, go to the hospital diligently and have your appendix cut as early as you can, once it drags into chronic appendicitis, it will kill you in person.”

”XXXX summer, do not travel to the south, there are typhoons, it will be mouldy.”

The first ‘memo’, written from Chi Xiaochi’s first day in this world, was intended to help Chi Xiaochi, a teenager in this world, to cheat.

Lou Ying thought that he had underestimated Chi Xiaochi after all.

Throughout, the word ‘indulgence’ has not been appropriate for Chi Xiaochi.

…… From the first day he came in, he was planning what to do when he left.

After the loss of Lou Ying, Chi Xiaochi’s life has been as beautiful as it has been lonely.

He spent his free time tormenting Zhu Shoucheng, documenting them little by little with care.

And in realising he was leaving, Chi Xiaochi picked up the pace.

On this day, he has finally explained pretty much everything he wanted to explain.

What Lou Ying didn’t expect was Chi Xiaochi’s next words.

He said, “Actually, I don’t want to leave, but I’m looking forward to it.”

”This is the most exhausting scene I’ve ever acted in my life.” Chi Xiaochi shushes out a breath and comments on her performance over the last few months, “I know what I used to be like, but …… I can’t play myself at all.”

Lou Ying was slightly moved as she gently reassured him, “You did a good job. I don’t see any difference, and I’m sure no one else does either.”

Chi Xiaochi just smiles and shakes his head.

Others may not be able to, but as an actor himself, he can feel it.

It’s not the same, after all.

”I can’t act for the rest of my life.”

”This world, it’s Chi Xiaochi’s.”

Chi Xiaochi’s eyes open in the night, his tone softly nodding his chest, “…… is not Chi Xiaochi’s.”

With those words, he placed his phone on top of the bed and sent out the text message he had just edited.

This one was sent to Zi Yu.

Since the last Zhu Shoucheng incident, he has gotten to know Zi Yu well.

He knew that Zi Yu was on night duty at the police station tonight, so he asked her for help, saying that he and Lou had both caught a cold at night and had a high fever together, and he hoped that she would act in the noble manner of a people’s police officer for the people and dial an emergency number for them.

Chi Xiaochi then chooses to accept the transmission.

For the tenth time, the familiar feeling of withdrawal awoke in him, pulling him, inch by inch, away from the world.

Chi Xiaochi, the original owner, just watched as a little halo of light diffused out of his body.

He was tempted to say something, but as always, he couldn’t open his mouth.

He had thought that there was nothing he could do but watch his other self disappear without a trace.

However, as the shimmering light was about to fade, it turned back around, cupped Chi Xiaochi’s face on the bed and gently rested its forehead against his.

Some tiny particles of light, like glowing fire, seeped into Chi Xiaochi’s forehead on the bed as he stroked his fingertips.

”Almost forgot.” The man whispered with a smile in his voice.

What Chi Xiaochi had been waiting for all these years, but no one had ever said to him.

The fingertip-like point of light brushes the teenager’s forehead, gentle as a kiss.

”…… A lot of things that are not your fault.”

Lou Ying, holding Chi Xiaochi, returned to the Lord GOD space as 089 went door-to-door saying goodbye.

Chi Xiaochi is relieved to see that 089 is still there, without a trace.

Chi Xiaochi’s demeanour was relaxed, as if she hadn’t rushed back for him, and when she met him, she smiled brightly, “Mission accomplished?”

”Yes.” 089 smirked, “You too? We may have to go together then, once we’ve met 23, I’m off to ‘between the whiskers’ to deliver the mission.”

Chi Xiaochi glanced in the direction of “In Between”: “Looks like I’m going to get a head start.”

The other systems have seen hosts brought in by the system to deliver ten missions before, and all of them were eye to eye, quail-like, following their own system’s throat, where they dared to walk around blindly and talk to other systems like this.

Lou Ying brought Chi Xiaochi to the “in-between” room and straightened his lapel.

Chi Xiaochi looked at his face with undisguised fascination.

Lou Ying looked down and the tip of her nose brushed against the swirl of his hair: “What are you looking at?”

Chi Xiaochi tilted her head and looked at his face seriously: “This is what Lou will look like when he grows up.”

From within the “betweenness” comes a quiet cough, like a hint of something.

Both ignored the inconsequential movement.

Lou Ying froze, stroked his face, and realisation dawned on him.

Chi Xiaochi’s ten worlds were completed and his ‘non-disclosure’ agreement with Lord GOD was automatically suspended.

It was also the first time Chi Xiaochi had seen Lou Ying’s face after travelling through ten worlds.

Lou Ying rubbed her head against his hair, “How was it?”

Chi Xiaochi: “Not bad, it’s just right for me.”

Lou Ying is still not reacting to the trick, but Chi Xiaochi herself is blushing.

However, that didn’t stop him from pressing Lou Ying’s head down a little and kissing Lou Ying on the forehead.

A series of irritated coughs erupted from within the “whisper”.

Chi Xiaochi smiled, “So, Brother Lou, I’m going in.”

When it was finally time to leave, Lou Ying tried to be frank, but the soreness in her chest was not deceptive.

He forced a smile, “Well, be careful back there. …… Make sure you take care of yourself.”

Chi Xiaochi didn’t nod or shake his head, but gave him a wry smile and pushed open the door of the “Between the Hours”, where he blended into the pale curtain of light.

…… door closed.

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