Void Jigsaw Puzzle

It will take some time for the boy to realize that people cannot directly feel the passage of time.

The passing of flowing water either gives people the visual feeling of rushing flow or the tactile experience of sliding past quickly, which is clear, obvious and straightforward.

But what about time?

You must have seen the bamboo shoots breaking through the soil in spring, the cicadas chirping on the branches in summer, the rice ears bending in the autumn light and the red plum blossoms with a faint fragrance in the winter nights, and then noticed the wrinkles quietly climbing up the foreheads and corners of the eyes of your parents, the stubble growing on your son's once clean and smooth chin and your daughter's increasingly plump figure.

It took so many indirect ways, not just the scales or numbers on the clock, for people to finally realize that the passage of time is exactly like the flow of water.

At that time, the boy was unable to realize this, at least when he looked up at the night sky every night, he did not think too much about it.

However, his pair of black eyes, which were no less dazzling than the shining stars, were filled with doubts. If the stars in the sky were curious enough to come down to the earth and look through the two bright yet confused windows of the boy's soul, they would find that there was a thick fog inside.

No matter how bright the starlight is, it cannot illuminate his memories.

Every night when he looked up at the starry sky, the boy always felt that the starry sky seemed different from what he remembered, but he couldn't tell exactly what was different.

If he still has any memory.

......

The boy started and woke up with his eyes open.

He felt as if he was still himself, yet he was no longer himself.

"The sun is new every day, and so are people, right? There's nothing wrong with thinking this way..."

However, if I forgot my own name after waking up, that would be a bit problematic...

He got out of bed, not even bothering to wash up, and just searched the house for clues that could lead to his name or identity.

This is a small house that is so ordinary that it has no memorable features.

The floor was gray and the dark white walls were bare except for an electronic clock.

His room was very small, only big enough for a 1.5-meter bed and a small table.

Walking out of the door, there is a room less than ten square meters, with a sofa, a TV, and a palm-sized table between them.

Besides that, almost all the wall space was taken up by three doors: one leading to the kitchen, one to the bathroom, and one to another bedroom.

Obviously, this room is a living room, but it is really pitifully small.

He quickly scanned the entire room.

No one except himself.

But judging from the sheets and quilt on the bed in the other bedroom which showed some signs of being tidied, someone was living there.

The young man opened his eyes wide and scanned every corner of the room. His expression was panic and confusion. He clenched his fists tightly, or spread them out, scratching his head, the back of his head and chest from time to time to stimulate his thoughts.

But he still couldn't remember anything, including his own name.

Before he desperately rushed out, he returned to his room again and saw a paper work ID card with the back facing up on the small table beside the bed.

This old, yellowed work ID card was almost the same color as the table, so he didn't notice it at first.

The boy quickly turned over his work permit and saw three words clearly.

Zhong Chenmu.

"Zhong Chenmu? This is... my name?" the boy muttered to himself.

Nothing has changed, yet everything seems to have changed.

Just now in his mind, all the details were shrouded in fog, but at this moment, everything became clear.

It was as if all the fog had been blown away without a trace, and as if the window paper that had originally obscured the scenery outside the window had been torn cleanly, revealing the spring scenery in the garden.

Zhong Chenmu immediately accepted all of this.

Although he didn't understand why the city he lived in was called Nameless City.

The city is divided into several areas by a winding river, but the name of this river is unremarkable.

It's called a big river.

The place names in the city are also very simple, but they seem to contain many truths and stories from the past.

He worked at the library in the north of the city, which was located by the river, separated from the river by a riverside road that was as winding as the river itself.

Come out of the north gate of the library and walk 500 meters to the right, you will find the bus stop. Take the bus for twelve stops along the riverside road, and you will reach his residence.

He commutes back and forth every day on a rickety bus along this winding river.

The purpose of commuting is more like a summer job rather than work.

A temporary worker in the library's lending room, his full-time job is as a freshman at a future university.

Future University is the only institution of higher learning in this city.

He lived with his parents in this small, almost bare house.

Although it was still early in the morning, my parents were not at home. They might have gone to work. They were ordinary workers and probably had an early shift this morning.

But what surprised him a little was that the dining table at home was very clean and there was nothing on it. According to his memory, if his parents had to go to work early, they would always leave two buns and an egg for him on the palm-sized coffee table in front of the sofa in the small living room. When he got up, they were often still steaming.

He didn't have time to think so much at the moment because he was about to go out to work.

Zhong Chenmu bought two meat buns at the entrance of the community, stuffed them into his mouth hastily, and then took the No. 1024 bus that passed by the library again.

After three stops, he was already dozing off with his hands hanging on the handrails and his eyes closed due to the shaking rhythm and the blood supply to the digestive system while the brain was empty.

Just as the car began to slow down again, he suddenly felt a violent vibration, and then the car struggled a few times before stopping.

Under the influence of inertia, his entire body almost flew forward.

Fortunately, he reacted very quickly and grabbed the handrail quickly, thus avoiding the fate of falling to the ground and howling like other people in the car.

He opened his eyes wide and looked around. He saw a faint cloud of gray smoke rising from the rear of the bus. The bus itself was parked in the middle of the road, about twenty meters away from the next stop.

At this moment, the driver's gruff yet apologetic voice came over the radio: "Dear passengers, I'm sorry, our car's engine is malfunctioning. There's a risk of combustion and explosion. Please get off the bus immediately and be careful when you do. We've contacted the company and will send a new car as soon as possible. If you have an emergency, you'll have to find a solution on your own... I'm so sorry!"

Hearing this, there was a commotion in the car, and many people started cursing before they could even stand up.

Zhong Chenmu also felt a surge of blood boiling, and was about to blurt out a few complaints, but suddenly he felt a cool feeling quickly wash over his head.

That's right, wash it.

It was as if he remembered that when he was a child, he stood barefoot in a small stream upstream of a tributary of a big river. The transparent stream water just covered his ankles, and the clear and cool water flowed silently over his bare feet. That kind of gentle feeling.

The urge to complain just now disappeared instantly.

Zhong Chenmu felt a little unbelievable.

While I was in a daze, the front and rear doors of the bus were opened.

Some of the people who had been cursing just now stopped. In order to grab a seat on the new bus that might arrive at some point in time, they quickly rushed off the bus and ran to the platform twenty meters away.

In order to get a seat, they need to first grab a good position in the queue on the platform.

Zhong Chenmu happened to be standing by the back door and was knocked to the ground by people who turned a blind eye.

"I'm such a grown man standing here, don't you see..."

A bunch of forbidden words rushed up his throat again, and this time he wanted to do more than just complain.

But the cool feeling just now made him dissolve it again.

He shook his head, and when the fat man from behind was about to hit him again, he jumped and got off the bus.

Outside, there was gray smoke from the engine failure, which was blown towards the platform by the wind. The body of the bus was shaking slightly, like a dying wounded person gasping for breath.

There were already a lot of people standing on the platform, even more than the people originally on the train, because there were already quite a few people wanting to get on the train at this stop.

They looked disorderly, but were generally arranged in order, maintaining a basic formation, and this formation was constantly moving, avoiding the gray smoke blown randomly by the wind.

Like a fat, writhing snake.

Zhong Chenmu narrowed his eyes slightly and quickly thought about his next plan in his mind.

It’s unknown when the new bus that the bus company temporarily dispatched will arrive. Even if it arrives, it will probably be difficult to squeeze on unless you cut in line.

Take a taxi? Too expensive.

His family was not well off, and the reason he chose to work during his freshman summer vacation was simply to earn some extra money. If he took a taxi, he would have worked for a whole day in vain.

It’s better not to go.

No, if he doesn't go, he might be fined. Although the older sister who takes care of him is lazy herself, she never relaxes her supervision of him.

There is no shared transportation nearby.

Zhong Chenmu gritted his teeth.

"Just walk there!"

There are about eight or nine stops from here to the library, which is only about 5 kilometers. Who is afraid of who?

Zhong Chenmu walked away without saying a word.

And the cool feeling in my mind appeared again, although it was still fleeting.

Without bothering to experience or savor this feeling again, he walked quickly along the river bank.

The direction of the rushing water not far from his feet was exactly opposite to the direction he was moving. So, in his vision, the river water rushed towards him and then roared away.

With only five minutes left before work, he finally climbed the last few steps and appeared at the library entrance, panting.

He stopped to catch his breath, supported his knees with his hands, bent down and looked up at the library in front of him.

Suddenly, he found three numbers appearing in front of him.

"110."

The numbers are bright green, and the background is black, so these three numbers appear particularly bright and obvious.

Zhong Chenmu thought he was hallucinating because he had just stopped exercising and quickly closed his eyes.

But even so, the three numbers still shone brightly in his eyes.

No, it should be said in the mind.

He was very sure that his eyelids were tightly covering his entire eyeballs, but the three numbers entered his brain directly as one.

"What does this mean? Should I call the police?"