Chapter 1570: The Third Path
When the recollection ended, the tea in hand had gone completely cold.
Only now did Wu Yiliu seem to truly see this room for the first time. His eyes slowly drifted across the living room: the bookshelf displaying photographs, the faded and worn Persian rug underfoot, the half-open window near the dining table...
It seemed as though a thirty-six-year-long surreal dream had settled upon them. As he looked at them now, he could almost see the day they had fallen into slumber and stagnation.
Wu Yiliu was invited home by Professor Qiao, but suddenly felt as though he had mistakenly wandered into a sealed temple. He quickly put down his teacup — fearing that it had been used by Shoreis, and that his fingerprints would obscure and blur his tracks.
The old lady was still sitting in her exclusive temple, her hands together, the ring between her slack and wrinkled skin, revealing a hint of silver light.
"The instructions say that changing what happened in that minute doesn't mean the subsequent history will change as the user wishes. Fortunately, we succeeded," Professor Qiao said with a faint smile. "I later changed jobs, changed schools, but I've always lived in this house, living an ordinary life until now."
"Because once this place..."
It seemed she saw through Wu Yiliu's emotions and shook her head. "After changing history, he has never set foot in this house. I realized that the doors he pushed open, the windows he opened, the dining table he sat at, and the bathtub he leaned against... he never touched any of them."
"After the world returned to normal, my transformation disappeared." Professor Qiao slowly leaned on the sofa, looking at the living room window — on the windowsill, there was a wooden bird feeder. "At first, I thought that since my transformation was gone, my memory would disappear too... but I don't know why, my memories remained, and I don't know if this is good or bad."
If she could choose, would she choose to forget?
This question rose in Wu Yiliu's mind, but he didn't voice it. The professor on the sofa looked thin and gaunt, as though eroded by time and sand, losing the richness, softness, and resilience she once had; any hypothesis and questioning about the past seemed a torture to her.
"Now it seems that I didn't change history. We only postponed the Changeling world by thirty-six years..." Professor Qiao suddenly said. "Perhaps this world is destined to face the apocalypse, no matter how we struggle."
She sighed quietly, her voice sounding dry as if smoked as she said, "I'm just very happy that I didn't let this world, destined to end, take his life."
"Professor," Wu Yiliu swallowed, pointing to her ring, "That... that's Shoreis' ring, right?"
The old lady didn't even blink and answered, "Yes. The clothes I wore, the things I held, were all preserved along with my memories. Perhaps, to him, it's like one day he suddenly found he had lost his ring?"
She suddenly smiled at the end — as if the thirty-six years had been wiped away in an instant, turning her into a young girl who had just teased Shoreis.
"So, the things he left inside..." Anyone would be excited at this point; Wu Yiliu was flushed and trembling. "Professor, you said the [Time Rewind] can be used once every 24 years, and that time has passed! Although we're not posthumans and don't have great power, if we spend effort finding this time's patient zero, then—"
"It's not possible anymore," Professor Qiao said calmly, cutting him off as if she knew he would say this. "These things are Special Items that only exist in the apocalyptic world. After this world returned to its original state, they all lost their effectiveness... Now I can't even open the ring."
Wu Yiliu's mouth fell open, staring at her in disbelief. Perhaps he simply refused to believe, but it took a long time for Professor Qiao's voice to slowly turn into something he could understand after it reached his ears.
"Th-that," he stuttered, struggling to accept things for a moment, "Now that the world has ended again, give them a little more time, and perhaps this ring can..."
"Perhaps it can." Professor Qiao's expression seemed calm, as if a part of her remained in the past, never to emerge again. "Or perhaps it can't. This is a simple logical issue. The disappearance of A will lead to the disappearance of B, but it cannot be inferred from this point that the appearance of A will definitely cause the appearance of B."
The only possibility of salvation was extinguished.
Wu Yiliu really didn't know how Professor Qiao could remain so calm. He couldn't bear to think of the decaying, regressing, and deteriorating world outside. He wished he had never been born, so he wouldn't have to face it. He was only twenty-one, and not only did he have to spend the rest of his life among the Changelings, but he didn't even know if he could survive this month.
No wonder the male office worker in the park chose to betray other normal people. If there was any way to alleviate the pressure and despair, people would do it regardless of the consequences.
"Professor." Wu Yiliu now somewhat understood the mindset of Jin Yan back then—Professor Qiao was the only real and stable thing in this absurd world. He was like a crawling baby in front of the old lady, seeking the support of an adult's legs. "What should we do next?"
The old lady didn't speak for a moment, just slowly turning the ring on her finger.
"I can't even pretend to be transformed like you did before." The deeper Wu Yiliu thought, the more he felt like he was falling into an abyss, unable to climb out. "Li Bo already knows I haven't transformed, and I... I don't even have anywhere to hide. They're hunting me down. My family has transformed, and other than here, I have nowhere to go. I have many plans, and I want to live properly. Professor, please, even if it's in vain, come with me to find patient zero this time."
Professor Qiao slightly tilted her head, a stray white curl sliding down her ear. A fleeting expression crossed her face, making Wu Yiliu snap his mouth shut.
"If you want to return to normal life, you can," the old lady said calmly. "I can assure you that life after transformation will still meet a person's basic needs."
Wu Yiliu stared at her blankly.
"You can study, work, and start a family. You'll notice every slight decline in the world and adapt to the degradation immediately—after all, it's only slight. The world is so big that even if a small part is eroded daily, it will last a lifetime. Of course, your descendants won't be so lucky."
'Living in ignorance, slowly deteriorating with a decaying world...' Wu Yiliu shuddered. He couldn't imagine becoming illogical, incoherent, and scattered in thought—he wasn't afraid, but a bit nauseated.
"I don't criticize this choice," Professor Qiao said, looking at her ring. "In this world, 'normal people' are the Changelings, and we are the abnormal minority. Being an abnormal person outside the gate all one's life is painful, and avoiding pain is a biological instinct. Being able to live in a daze may not be unlucky."
Wu Yiliu had never considered becoming a Changeling as an option. He even wondered if Professor Qiao was testing him. After all, if he decided to become one, Professor Qiao herself would be exposed.
"As for me, I have lived long enough," Professor Qiao said with a smile, seeming to understand the young student's thoughts. "My life's final chapter ended long ago. The time since then has been borrowed, and now it seems my borrowed time is up. So don't worry about me. If you decide, just do it."
"No," Wu Yiliu said without thinking, "If I'm caught, if I'm infected, then I have no choice. But as long as I can struggle for one day, I don't want to become like that."
Professor Qiao seemed unsurprised by this answer and just nodded.
Could it be... those who would willingly surrender wouldn't resist transformation? It was a question Wu Yiliu couldn't verify.
"You don't want to become one of them, and you can't live in hiding all your life," Professor Qiao said. "But that doesn't mean you don't have a third way to go."
Wu Yiliu's head shot up. The fleeting expression on the old lady's face had slowly emerged again like mist.
"You can try becoming a posthuman and leavethis world."