"Who... am I?"
Rumble ——
Pale lightning flashed across the inky clouds.
Rain poured down furiously, as if the gods were enraged. The tempestuous rain deluged the muddy earth. In the rippling reflection of a puddle, a vermilion - hued figure was fragmented.
It was a youth draped in a large, scarlet - red theatrical robe. He staggered through the mud as if drunk. His broad sleeves fluttered in the violent wind. The mud on the surface of the robe was washed away by the rain, and that vivid red, like blood, was shocking in the darkness of the night.
"Stop making noise... Stop it!"
"Shut up, all of you!"
"I'm about to remember... Soon... I'm about to remember..."
"I have a name... A name that belongs to me!"
The youth's wet black hair hung down to his eyebrows. His dazed pupils were filled with confusion. As he hardly moved forward, he held his head with both hands, as if struggling to recall something.
His roars echoed in the deserted street. But before they could travel far, they were drowned in the endless curtain of rain.
Plop ——
In the dim light, his body was tripped by a protruding stone and he fell heavily to the ground!
A streak of scarlet blood trickled down from the youth's forehead. He lay there dazedly. Suddenly, as if remembering something, a glimmer of light shone in his cloudy eyes.
"Chen Ling..."
A name suddenly flashed through his mind.
The moment he uttered these two words, a fragment of memory drifted out from the endless murmur that almost burst his head and merged with this feeble body.
"What is this... Time - travel?"
Chen Ling frowned tightly. He was constantly digesting the memories of this body, and his brain ached as if it were being torn apart.
His name is Chen Ling. He is 28 years old and an intern choreographer in a theater in the capital city. After the theater performance that day, he was alone on the stage, designing and arranging the actors' movements. Then a violent earthquake struck. He only felt a pain on the top of his head and then completely lost consciousness.
Thinking about it carefully now, he was most likely killed by a falling spotlight...
At this moment, Chen Ling was also gradually digesting the memories of this body. To his surprise, the owner of this body was also named Chen Ling, but the two had completely different basic understandings of the world. The fragmented memories clashed with each other, and Chen Ling felt as if his mind was about to explode.
He took deep breaths continuously and struggled to get up from the ground. The theatrical robe was black and red in patches, looking extremely disheveled.
For some reason, his body was incredibly heavy, like the exhaustion after staying up for four or five consecutive days writing a play, as if his whole body had been emptied...
"Let's go home first..."
His tired body and fragmented thoughts made it almost impossible for him to think. He could only rely on the instincts of this body and head in the direction of "home".
Although he didn't know how he got here, the original owner of this body had memories of this place in his mind. Every day, after taking care of his younger brother in the clinic, he would take this route. Normally, it was only a two - or three - minute walk from here to home.
But for him at this moment, this journey was longer than ever before.
The rain, with its biting cold, soaked through Chen Ling's body. He couldn't stop shivering all over. After ten minutes of struggling to walk in the rain despite the cold and fatigue, he finally arrived in front of the door of the house in his memory.
Chen Ling fumbled in his pocket for a while and found that he didn't have the key.
So, he skillfully took out a spare key from the bottom of the newspaper box by the door and opened the door.
Creak ——
Warm light spilled out from the room, illuminating a corner of the pitch - black rainy night and also Chen Ling's pale face.
The moment he saw the light, Chen Ling's tense nerves naturally relaxed. The cold and fatigue on his body seemed to be dispelled a little by this single lamp.
He stepped into the room and saw two figures sitting on either side of the dining table. Their eyes were red - rimmed, as if they had just had a good cry.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, the two were first taken aback, and then they turned their heads simultaneously.
"Dad... Mom... I'm back."
With a groggy head, Chen Ling instinctively prepared to change his shoes at the entrance, but then realized he had been bare - foot from the start. By now, the soles of his feet and the spaces between his toes were almost clogged with mud, leaving two large black footprints on the floor.
The two figures sitting by the dining table at this moment, upon seeing Chen Ling in the red robe pushing the door open, had their pupils contract violently!
"You... You..."
The man's Adam's apple bobbed. He opened his mouth wide, looking as if he had seen a ghost.
"Mom... Is there any water at home? I'm so thirsty." After returning home, Chen Ling completely relaxed mentally. His consciousness was on the verge of passing out. As he mumbled to himself, he stumbled into the kitchen and picked up the water bucket on the water dispenser to drink greedily.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...
In the kitchen, the figure in the red robe was like a wild beast, greedily gulping down the water.
The water seeping from the corner of his mouth dripped onto the floor, forming a puddle that reflected the two pale and terrified faces in the living room.
"A... A - Ling?" The woman summoned up her courage with difficulty and stammered, "H... How did you get back?"
Chen Ling was gulping water frantically with the bucket in his arms, completely oblivious to the woman's words. Then, seemingly feeling that drinking like this was too slow, he directly stuffed the thick - as - a - fist opening of the bucket into his mouth and bit it to pieces!
The synthetic plastic was chewed forcefully, and the gushing water poured into his mouth. It was refreshing!
"I walked back."
A voice came from behind Chen Ling.
Yes... behind.
At this moment, Chen Ling was still immersed in drinking water, yet his voice clearly reached the ears of the two people.
It was as if there was another Chen Ling in red standing in the invisible void behind him, spreading his hands and answering matter - of - factly.
"The rain was a bit heavy, and I seemed to get lost."
"I think I fell a few times on the way, and my shoes are gone..."
"Mom, I've dirtied the floor. If it's not urgent, just wait for me to clean it up when I wake up tomorrow... I'm so sleepy now."
Looking at this spine - chilling scene in front of them, the man and the woman in the living room only felt a chill run down the back of their necks. The kerosene lamp flame in the glass lamp was constantly flickering, as if an invisible hand was playfully toying with the wick.
Their faces were deathly pale, yet they could only stand stiffly in place, not daring to move a muscle.
Finally, the water bucket was emptied.
Chen Ling wiped his mouth while putting down the bucket. Then he turned around, leaving black footprints with each step on the floor, and stumbled towards his bedroom...
"Dad, Mom... You should go to bed early too. Good night."
He mumbled vaguely, closed the door behind him, and then there was a dull thud of a heavy object falling onto the bed.
The living room fell into a deathly silence.
After who - knows - how - long, the two statue - like figures stiffly turned their heads... and stared at each other.
The flickering wick steadied, and the eerie kerosene lamp flame barely illuminated the dim living room. They sat on the chairs trembling, with no trace of color on their faces.
"He... is back." The man said in a hoarse voice, "How is this possible..."
"If he's really A - Ling..."
"Then who was it we killed last night?"