The Secret Realm of Time, His and Her Life Through the Changes

For three consecutive days, Wang Jie hurriedly ate lunch at the training center's canteen before rushing to the Xichuan Museum in the south of the city. Today, he finally completed the input of all the materials and images. Working alongside him were two professional students from the Xichuan Academy of Fine Arts. They were not locals but were members of the art team for this public welfare project, participating in the work as part of their work-study opportunities. Their work differed from Wang Jie's; Wang Jie participated as a volunteer, without pay, only needing to provide proof of his work hours to meet the community service requirements of his future school.

The entire data entry process went exceptionally smoothly. To finish the work as quickly as possible, Wang Jie stayed up very late every day. Afraid of worrying his grandfather, he lied and said he had been staying at school.

For the past three days, when I was tired and sleepy at night, I would put the chairs together in a row to sleep. The next morning, I would wash up briefly in the bathroom and then rush to the training class in Dongcheng to teach.

Now that he had finally finished all his work, he checked the time and it wasn't even 8 p.m. So he decided to go home to see his grandfather.

Wang Jie and his grandfather lived on Yangxi Road in Ximen. When he arrived at the alley entrance, the "Xuanji" dessert shop on the street was still open, so he bought a "small pear soup" to take back to his grandfather, wondering if his grandfather's cough had gotten any better these past few days.

He turned the corner, walked through a narrow alley about 100 meters long, and saw his own two-story simple tenement building.

Wang Jie had just reached his doorstep when he heard his grandfather coughing. He quickly went inside, put the pear soup on the table by the door, and went to check on his grandfather.

Only the bedside lamp was on in the room. Grandpa was sitting on the edge of the bed, flipping through a thick dictionary. His violent cough made him hunch over and unable to straighten up.

He went over and patted his grandfather on the back, saying, "Grandpa, your cough is getting worse. Let's go to the hospital tomorrow."

"Wang Jie's back! Have you had dinner? I'll make you a bowl of noodles," Grandpa said after coughing for a while.

"I have already eaten."

Wang Jie walked to the table and opened the pear soup he had brought back.

"Grandpa, have some pear soup, it can help stop your cough."

Grandpa carefully placed the dictionary into a large box, then pushed the box under the bed.

He walked over and sat down at the table.

Wang Jie went to the cupboard by the door, took out a spoon, handed it to his grandfather, and then turned on the lights in the room.

Grandpa sipped the pear soup carefully, taking small sips, and said with a mixture of satisfaction and reproach, "Don't waste money. Don't buy it next time. I don't like sweet drinks."

Wang Jie obediently replied, "Okay, Grandpa. I'll go with you to the hospital to see the doctor tomorrow."

"No need, this is an old ailment of mine. I'll just go to the pharmacy and get some Chinese medicine, and I'll be fine after drinking the decoction." Grandpa smacked his lips and then asked, "Have you saved enough for your school tuition?"

"Everything is ready, Grandpa, don't worry."

"School will start in September, right?"

"No, my school is accepting applications in the spring semester, and I won't be leaving until almost the end of the year, which is still several months away."

"Cough cough...that means he only has a few months left." Grandpa said sadly, and coughed again.

Wang Jie remained silent, unsure of what to say...

The next morning, no matter how much Wang Jie tried to persuade his grandfather to go to the hospital, his grandfather refused, always saying, "It's an old ailment, nothing serious, a dose of herbal medicine will do the trick."

"Go on, go on with your business. Don't delay your work. Don't worry, I'll go to the pharmacy to get the medicine right away." Grandpa said, and before Wang Jie could say anything more, he hunched over and went out the door.

Wang Jie had no choice but to go to class first.

……

As usual, Wang Jie didn't have any classes in the afternoon at the training center, and he also needed to go back to school anyway.

Yesterday, the professor left him a message saying that there were still some problems with the materials he helped organize, and some sets of data were not very accurate. He hoped that he could revise them as soon as possible.

He can go back to school in the afternoon to look up information in the library and then focus on revising his graduation thesis.

The school library wasn't crowded in the afternoon. Wang Jie picked out two reference books and found a corner by the window to sit down.

He was diligently flipping through the book and taking notes when someone patted him hard on the shoulder: "Hey, you didn't even tell me you were going back to school, making me go all the way to the training center."

Even without looking, Wang Jie knew that Jian Zheng must have arrived.

Jian Zheng plopped down next to him and, before Wang Jie could ask any questions, began to spill the beans: "I found out that the girl I met in the cafeteria that day was the female disciple of that Abbess Miejue."

Wang Jie glared at him, and Jian Zheng quickly corrected himself: "Not a female disciple, but classmate Zhou Yanruo. Her family also lives on Yangxi Road, but she lives in an old-style house on Yangxi Road."

Jian Zheng reported to Wang Jie everything he had learned in the past two days.

“I was wondering why I’d never seen her before, since I only passed by Yangxi Road on my way to your house. Guess what?” Jian Zheng glanced at Wang Jie, who was still engrossed in his book, and continued, “She’s not from Xichuan.”

"It's very impolite of you to ask about other people."

"I didn't specifically ask about it."

“This morning, you went to class. I was thinking that your grandfather’s medicine was almost finished, so I went to your house to deliver the medicine to him. I asked my mother to prescribe it for him.”

Jian Zheng always starts by laying a lot of groundwork, talking for a long time without getting to the point. Sometimes, he even forgets what he originally wanted to say.

"As soon as I entered the door, I saw Grandpa hunched over the table, coughing so hard he couldn't straighten up."

"Why didn't you say so earlier? Go home now." Hearing this, Wang Jie became truly anxious, stood up, and left.

"Wait, don't rush, let me finish."

"Hey, he's already been taken to the hospital and is getting an IV drip," Jian Zheng mumbled as he chased after Wang Jie.

"I came to you to tell you that Grandpa has been taken to the hospital, so you can rest assured."

"Let's go to the hospital." Wang Jie was worried that something might happen to his grandfather.

“Come on, I’ll go with you,” Jian Zheng said as he ran out with Wang Jie, adding, “Hey, I haven’t finished talking about that girl yet.”

"..."

On the way to the hospital, Jian Zheng finally explained the whole story and learned about Zhou Yanruo's background.

It turned out that Jian Zheng went to Wang Jie's house to deliver medicine to his grandfather. When he saw that his grandfather was sick, he hurriedly helped him to the hospital.

To get out of Wang Jie's house, they had to walk through a long alleyway. The alleyway was blocked by makeshift houses built without permission, so cars couldn't get in at all. They had to walk out and reach the intersection to hail a taxi.

The alleyway was paved with gravel and flagstones, uneven and bumpy, and it had just rained, so it was wet and difficult to walk on.

Jian Zheng helped his grandfather, who, despite his discomfort, leaned almost entirely on Jian Zheng. The road was difficult to walk on, and they trudged along slowly.

They happened to run into Zhou Yanruo who was passing by.

Zhou Yanruo took the initiative to help, and the two of them supported Grandpa on either side, making it much faster for them to walk.

When they reached the alley entrance, Zhou Yanruo ran to the highway to flag down a taxi, and then together with Jian Zheng, they took her grandfather to the hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, Jian Zheng ran around registering and finding a doctor.

Zhou Yanruo stayed by her grandfather's side until he had seen the doctor and started receiving an IV drip before leaving.

"Beautiful inside and out, Zhou Yanruo," Jian Zheng praised sincerely.

When Wang Jie and Jian Zheng arrived at the hospital, Grandpa had just finished his IV drip and was sitting in the waiting area of ​​the lobby waiting for them.

"Grandpa, are you feeling better?" Jian Zheng asked quickly as he stepped forward.

Wang Jie followed behind Jian Zheng, anxiously waiting for his grandfather's answer.

"I'm much better. Let's stop the IV drip tomorrow and the day after," Grandpa said in a low, hoarse voice.

"Let's go home first," Wang Jie said, helping his grandfather up.

“Grandpa should have been hospitalized, but he refused. The doctor only prescribed three days of IV fluids. Don’t cancel it, finish the IV.” Jian Zheng said anxiously.

"Hey, why didn't you go back?" Jian Zheng suddenly said to the door.

Zhou Yanruo was walking towards them with a cup of hot milk in her hand. "You said you were going to find Teacher Wang, but I was worried about Grandpa getting an IV drip by himself, so I thought I'd wait until you guys came back before I left."

"Teacher Wang," Zhou Yanruo greeted Wang Jie while handing the warm milk to her grandfather, "Grandpa, have some warm milk."

"Thank you," Wang Jie said.

Zhou Yanruo smiled, which was her reply: "You're welcome."

During summer vacation, Jian Zheng would visit Wang Jie almost every day. After having lunch together in the training center's cafeteria, they would arrange other things together in the afternoon.

With Jian Zheng around, things inevitably became lively, and even the usually taciturn Wang Jie became much more enthusiastic and lively.