Void Jigsaw Puzzle

Although the first question that popped into their minds when they looked at the stranger who was also soaked to the skin was "Who are you?", the words that came out of their mouths became:

"Why did you jump into the river and commit suicide?"

"When did you show up?"

"How did you get up here?"

"What did you see?"

They both raised their doubts almost simultaneously, ignoring each other's questions. Thus, the two sets of questions crossed each other in the air.

Guo Ling was more experienced and started with simpler questions.

"who are you?"

To demonstrate his sincerity, he quickly added, "My name is Guo Ling."

The young man was stunned for a moment, then he also entered an effective conversation rhythm: "My name is Zhong Chenmu."

"You... still look like a student?"

"You...Uncle Guo, why did you jump into the river and commit suicide?"

"..."

Back to the rhythm just now.

However, Guo Ling understood that his previous actions and current appearance were too bizarre. Any normal person would pay attention to it.

He smiled bitterly and shook his head: "You are still young and don't understand..."

Then he fell into sad contemplation, and his heart fell into the darkness again.

The luck and joy of surviving the disaster just now seemed so short-lived.

Zhong Chenmu looked at Guo Ling's bereaved and embarrassed expression, standing crookedly in front of him, with water dripping all over his body. He didn't have much hair to begin with, and now that it was completely wet, he was struggling to protect his barely visible scalp.

Both vicissitudes of life and pitiful.

His own spirit was also recovering rapidly, and when he recalled what had just happened, his mind was full of doubts.

Just as he discovered Guo Ling jumping into the river and ran quickly to the shore, the three numbers "110" appeared in his mind again and flashed rapidly. He immediately felt a splitting headache, the head was spinning, and he fell backwards.

Before he lost consciousness, he felt two things. One was that the three numbers were decreasing, but not in steps of one, like 109, 108, and 107. The other was that he saw a large river in front of him that seemed to be instantly cut in two...

"What do the three numbers 110 represent? How do they decrease? Why do I feel like the cutting off of that river is related to me..."

Zhong Chenmu's mind became more and more active, but he tried hard to control himself so as not to show any trace.

The two people who just met for the first time fell into silence again facing each other.

At this time, three green numbers appeared in Zhong Chenmu's mind again!

His eyes suddenly opened wide, his whole body trembled, and this time it was "000".

Three zeros.

"What does this mean? Is there nothing left? It was 110 just now, and now it's 0? What does this decrease in value mean?"

As he was thinking, he felt like he was being spied on, just like he did in the library during the day.

No, I was being watched by many people.

And the feeling at this moment is much stronger than during the day.

The three numbers "000" soon disappeared again.

Zhong Chenmu could no longer control his emotions and looked around suspiciously, but as far as he could see, there was no one else except Guo Ling in front of him.

Guo Ling saw the young man in front of him suddenly shudder after being silent, and then he looked extremely panicked and suspicious. He thought that he was sick from the flood just now, so he couldn't help but said, "If you feel uncomfortable or have an attack, please leave first. Of course, if there is anything you need my help with, please tell me and see if I can help... But I'm still very curious, when did you get here, and what did you see?"

Zhong Chenmu glanced at him and said, "I'm not sick, you're the one who's sick. Who would jump into the river to commit suicide if they weren't sick?"

"..."

Guo Ling shook his head silently, and suddenly thought of something. He quickly reached into his trouser pocket and touched something hard.

Mobile phone.

The screen can still light up. It seems that although the flood at the last moment was fierce, it came and went quickly, and it did not damage this electronic device that was once very delicate but is becoming more and more durable.

However, after quickly scanning the call logs and the commonly used instant messaging software, he found no messages.

Whether it is a wife, a son, or a parent.

Guo Ling smiled bitterly, sighed deeply, and then sat down in front of Zhong Chenmu who was about to get up.

Zhong Chenmu was stunned: "What are you doing?"

"Let's talk. Don't you want to know why I jumped into the river to commit suicide?"

"it is good."

Zhong Chenmu sat down facing Guo Ling again and placed his hands on his bent knees.

Guo Ling began by introducing his background, especially the series of events that happened today.

He didn't know why, but facing this young man who was a complete stranger to him, he felt that there seemed to be nothing to hide.

Maybe after they part tonight, they will just be strangers tomorrow. Besides, he really needs an outlet for his emotions.

Zhong Chenmu listened carefully with his eyes wide open. He couldn't fully understand many of the things Guo Ling described for the time being. However, from this man's mouth, he formed an image in his mind of a middle-aged man who collapsed in an instant.

The family is happy, life is stable, career is on the rise, and it coincides with the anniversary and the wife's birthday. He is so close to moving to the next level - although that is just a false fantasy.

However, in an instant, his job was cut, he was suspected of being cheated on, and he lost contact with his wife, children and parents...

After listening to Guo Ling's story, he felt a surge of sympathy from the bottom of his heart.

"Uncle, you are so unlucky." The emotions that kept gushing out finally gathered and fermented in his chest, and only turned into a few simple words uttered from his mouth.

Guo Ling protested weakly, "Stop calling me uncle. Call me brother."

"But you're already forty, only a few years younger than my dad. How dare you call yourself brother?"

"...Okay, okay, whatever you say. Now, it's your turn to answer my question just now, right?" Guo Ling didn't want to miss this opportunity.

Unlike Zhong Chenmu's strong curiosity, he was determined to get Zhong Chenmu to answer his previous question, more subconsciously hoping for an "equivalent exchange".

Now that I've answered your question, shouldn't you return the favor?

Zhong Chenmu thought for a moment and said, "It's actually very simple. I was on my way home from get off work when I saw you about to jump into the river to commit suicide. I wanted to rush over to stop you, but I was a step too late. You were too lost in your own world to notice me at all. As for what I saw... I believe it was the same as what you saw: the river was 'split' in half, cut right in half."

Having said that, the two fell silent again.

In fact, this is the biggest weirdness of the night, but they have been avoiding the main issue and talking about other topics, as if they are deliberately turning a blind eye to the elephant in the room.

"So... the answer to your other question is also very simple... Since the river was split, I naturally didn't drown. Instead, I fell into the riverbed. No, I should say, I fell into the weeds on the riverbed. I was lucky enough to climb out from below before the river closed up."

Guo Ling discovered this and quickly answered the other question that Zhong Chenmu was concerned about.

Then, he stared into Zhong Chenmu's eyes and asked, "What do you think about the river being split?"

Zhong Chenmu's heart began to churn at this moment.

"What should I say? Should I tell him that when I was about to save him, three numbers flashed through my mind, and then I fainted, and then those three numbers returned to zero? And at the same moment, the river was cut off? Even if these two things are directly related, will he believe it? What's more, I haven't figured it out myself yet..."

So, he shook his head and said innocently, "I don't know. After all, I'm only 17 years old and just a freshman in college."

"Then why did you faint?"

"Uncle, are you kidding me? If anyone saw something like this, and then a few seconds later, the river that had been connected turned into a flood and rushed over them, wouldn't they be terrified?"

After saying that, Zhong Chenmu shook his hair and wiped his face.

Guo Ling frowned slightly and thought seriously for a moment. He felt that he could not get anything out of the young man in front of him, so he patted his butt and stood up again.

"I better go home first... If there's still no news from them by the time I get home, I'll call the police... Then I'll go to sleep and forget all about this damn day!"

Thinking of this, he looked at Zhong Chenmu and said, "Xiao Zhong, I'm leaving first. You should go back and take a shower early. Even though it's summer, the river water isn't that clean after all."

"Okay, uncle, don't jump into the river and commit suicide next time. Be a human being."

"..."

Guo Ling dragged his feet and slowly walked back to the sidewalk of He'an Road, then went back towards Shanshui Road.

His figure quickly disappeared into the night.

Zhong Chenmu stared blankly at the river rushing tirelessly in front of him. He looked carefully several times but did not find any signs that it had ever been cut off.

"Draw a sword to cut the water, and the water will flow even faster... Isn't that what the ancient poem says? So what force just now caused it to be cut so cleanly?"

"Did you do it?"

He muttered to the air in front of him, trying to reactivate the numbers in his mind.

But nothing happened.

And in a residential complex a few hundred meters away, a pair of light blue eyes appeared behind a window of the duplex on the top floor of a towering central building.

These eyes had just been observing everything that was happening on the river bank and roadside from a distance.

Looking from this distance, in the darkness of the night, it was actually difficult to see any clues, not to mention that the incident only happened in a few seconds.

However, the direction these eyes were looking at was not the grass by the river, but more towards the sky above the grass.

"It seems like a crack really appeared just now... Interesting..."