Back to the Future 1999: Raining at the Same Time

"Oh, are you awake? Mr. Chenxi."

As soon as he opened the door, Chen Xi found the little wake-up worker sitting in front of his room.

"Good morning, Liberty. Haha~"

He had originally gotten up out of a sense of responsibility to check on the children, and when he saw that the paper letter circle was fine, Chen Xi yawned in relief.

Fortunately, Chen Xi had enough trouble last night so he didn't have any flight plans when he woke up in the morning. Otherwise... it would be difficult to explain the screams in the room to a child like this.

"Why are you sitting here alone? Where is your sister, the lantern girl?"

"Well, Sister Lantern is still sleeping. Sister Hilma took us for a tour yesterday and then took us to choose a room we liked to sleep in. I originally wanted to wake Mr. Chenxi up, but Sister Hilma told me not to disturb you, so I'll just sit here and wait for you to wake up."

As she spoke, Liberty shook the clothesline that she had been holding in her hand, or rather, the thing she used to eat.

I quietly asked Youmeng, and she found out that the lamplighter was indeed asleep in her room. It seemed that her first reconciliation with her past self had allowed her to relax and finally get a good night's sleep.

Patting Liberty's head, Chen Xi asked:

"Did Miss Paper Letter Circle have a good time yesterday?"

When Liberty mentioned this, his eyes seemed to light up:

"Wow, Mr. Chenxi, you really have so many magical things here, like the pool that can spit out gold coins all the time."

After saying that, he took out a sharp tooth and showed it to Chen Xi. Then he changed his mind and said with a hint of fear and temptation:

"Sister Hilma said I could take them, so I... I took one and gave it back to you, Mr. Chenxi."

Chen Xi didn't know whether to cry or laugh for a moment about Zhixinquan'er's reaction. If possible, he really wanted to keep the child with him and give her a childhood that was more like what a child of her age should have, instead of becoming so "sensible" so early.

"It's okay. If Sister Hilma said I can take it, then of course I can take it. If Paper Letter Circle likes it, you can take some back before you go home later."

He stroked Liberty's head with one hand and pushed the sharp tooth she had raised back into her arms with the other.

"As for this one."

He pinched a corner of it, rubbed it, and with a flash of brilliance, he pulled out two suitable ropes and threaded them around the neck of the paper letter ring.

"Just consider this as a small gift from me. You can use this to summon me anytime, anywhere."

"Wow! How did you do that, Chenxi? Is this your mystical technique?!"

In this short day, Zhixinquaner had seen many things he had never imagined before. And unlike his previous adventures with the lantern bearer, everything here was real!

Seeing that the gaze of Zhixinquanzi was becoming more and more scorching, Chen Xi had to raise his hand to block the light emitted by this little guy.

"Alright, alright, let's go have breakfast first. Then I should take you back to the Paper Letter Circle. Your family asked you to go out and do some shopping, right? It's been a whole day and a whole night, they must be extremely anxious."

"Oh, yes. I came out to buy things. Those things..."

After shaking the empty hand, Paper Letter Circle said blankly:

"No, well, this is a big problem. Looks like I'm going to get scolded by Sarah."

I always feel that this child speaks with a calm precociousness. This strange dissonance made Chen Xi unable to help but knock on her little head with a knife-like hand:

"Is that why I was scolded?"

After standing up, Chen Xi took the initiative to extend his hand for the paper letter ring to hold:

"Come, let's go to the dining room and eat. Youmeng should have baked the first batch of bread by now. Come on, does Zhixinquan want butter or jam?"

"Hmm, jam, hopefully strawberry."

Looking at this rude little girl, Chen Xi couldn't help but rub her hair again.

As expected, children are single-core processors. They use breakfast to distract their attention and quickly forget the previous topic.

As for her parents, I will explain it to them when the time comes.

……

Breakfast was spent happily with people chattering about this and that in the paper letter circle.

Leaving the others' share, Chen Xi opened the portal to the wasteland and reached out to the paper letter circle:

"Let's go, I'll take you home."

"Chen Xi! Can I come here again in the future?"

"Of course, otherwise what do you think I gave you that necklace for?"

"Okay, let's go."

Taking Chen Xi's hand, Zhixinquan'er held her own pole and a new set of things Chen Xi had prepared for her with her other hand, and the two of them returned to the foggy streets of London.

……

"...Di..."

A familiar voice, and my consciousness seemed to become very fuzzy again, but I was indeed slowly regaining consciousness.

"call……"

The gentle snoring of Zhixinquaner could not drown out the anxious call.

“…Li…di…!”

"Stop it...Ollie..."

"..."

The vague mumbling in his sleep caused the voice to pause for a moment, and then it was followed by an even more angry scolding:

"I'm not your big rooster! You little troublemaker, get up!"

"Wow?!"

The young waker finally woke up from his sleep with a look of surprise on his face. He looked up and down carefully before tilting his head and asking:

"...Sarah? This is..."

"I asked you to go shopping, and you're going to spend the whole night there?! I just told you off, and you're here, imitating those bad kids and running away from home?"

Without answering his sister's question, his worry was replaced by a stronger anger, which turned into a louder rebuke:

"Do you know how long my parents and I have been looking for you? I think you deserve to be punished!"

"What? I haven't had…wait, one night?"

The wake-up caller, completely clueless, tilted his head and rubbed his chin, thinking, "Yes, it was already daybreak." But Liberty had no recollection of that night.

"…Is it because of the candy? Because I didn't let you buy it?"

No matter how harshly she speaks, the elder sister's genuine concern for her younger sister will never change.

Sarah frowned and pulled a handful of candy from her pocket, slapping it hard into Liberty's palm.

"Here you go! I just want you to save some money, but it's not like our family can't afford it. If you really want it that badly, just say so. Don't play tricks like that in the future."

"..."

Liberty looked at the handful of candy in her hand in surprise. She felt that something must be wrong. She remained silent and did not respond, wondering where the sense of disobedience came from.

However, this reaction meant something different to my sister.

"What, are you not satisfied? I'm telling you right up front, don't even dream of me apologizing or anything like that."

"I certainly didn't expect that. Anyway...thank you, sister."

Liberty swayed with his hands behind his back, trying to put the candy in his arms—but felt something else.

"Did I fold this?"

Strange. Liberty looked at the bird, and suddenly a vague memory emerged in his mind - he had once made this bird fly into the sky.

And at that time, there seemed to be someone else beside him...

Liberty felt a sense of emptiness, as if she had lost something. She unwrapped the origami bird in a daze.

"A bag of potatoes, bread, three cans of baked beans, cabbage, carrots, and..."

"besides……"

Her gaze fixed.

At the bottom of the shopping list, there was a line of beautiful handwriting that didn't fit in with the other text.

"'Letter rings'...what are those?"

My sister has gotten over her emotions and is now more curious about what happened to her.

"This is...this is..."

"Chirp."

"It's you!"

The birds from the daytime flew back from somewhere.

It landed on the shoulder of the paper letter ring, tilted its head, and looked at Liberty with its shining eyes.

A flash of inspiration came, cutting through the foggy memories and leaping into Liberty's mind. At the same time, the necklace around her neck also appeared:

"It's... a name. Another name of mine."

Chen Xi, who had been hiding in the shadows of the street corner, turned his head to look at the lantern bearer who was gripping his staff tighter and tighter, and high-fived the lurking You Meng in the air.

At this point, the lantern watcher’s last knot in his heart was also untied - even if the memory is erased, friends can still remember each other.

Now that everything is arranged, it's my turn to appear.