Shen Yuchuan opened his eyes.
His first sensation was cold.
Not the chill from an air conditioner.
It was a kind of cold that seeped out from inside his bones.
He lay in a darkness without sound.
No wind.
No footsteps.
No clock.
He could not even hear himself breathing.
He reached for his chest.
His heart was still beating.
Once.
Twice.
Proof that he was still alive.
“Wanqing?”
There was no answer.
“Mom?”
Still no answer.
Shen Yuchuan sat up.
A faint light gradually appeared around him.
He realized he was standing in a very long hallway.
Photographs covered both walls.
One after another.
The same person appeared in every photo.
His mother.
His mother when she was young.
His mother in middle age.
His mother when she was old.
But something was strange—
In the photos, she was always the same age.
Twenty-five.
And Shen Yuchuan knew that his mother had only been twenty-seven after he was born.
If the photos were real, then…
Where had she gone after turning twenty-five?
Shen Yuchuan approached the first photograph.
A date was written on the back.
August 17, 2003.
He froze.
2003.
He had not even been born that year.
The second.
August 17, 2004.
The third.
August 17, 2005.
Every year was the same day.
In every photograph, his mother stood in the same place.
In front of the school gate.
And beside her always stood a little girl.
Shen Yuchuan stared at the girl.
She wore a white dress.
She had long hair.
In her hand was a transparent umbrella.
“Su Wanqing…”
He murmured the name.
But in the next photograph, Su Wanqing had disappeared.
Only his mother remained.
In the one after that, his mother had disappeared too.
Only a little boy was left in the photograph.
That little boy…
Was him.
Shen Yuchuan reached toward the photograph.
The instant his fingertip touched it, a memory suddenly flooded into his mind.
“Chuan.”
Someone was calling him.
The voice was gentle.
Very close.
“Do you still remember Mom?”
The little boy sat on the bed.
He was only five years old then.
“Of course I do.”
“What does Mom look like?”
The boy smiled.
“She’s beautiful.”
“What else?”
“She can cook.”
“What else?”
“She hugs me.”
The woman was silent for a while.
“Then you have to remember.”
“Remember what?”
“Remember Mom.”
“You have to remember forever.”
The little boy nodded hard.
“Okay.”
The woman stroked his head.
But there was no mirror in the room.
And the little boy never saw the woman’s face.
Because she remained seated in the darkness the entire time.
Shen Yuchuan yanked his hand back.
His breathing quickened.
“No.”
He murmured, “This isn’t my memory.”
If his mother had really existed, why had he never once seen her face clearly?
He remembered her voice.
He remembered her cooking.
He remembered her holding him.
But he had never truly remembered her face.
It was as if someone had deliberately dug that part out.
“You finally figured it out.”
A voice came from behind him.
Shen Yuchuan spun around.
Su Wanqing stood at the end of the hallway.
She wore the school uniform from ten years ago.
The transparent umbrella was still in her hand.
“Wanqing!”
Shen Yuchuan immediately ran toward her.
But after a few steps, he stopped.
“Are you real?”
Su Wanqing smiled faintly.
“You’re finally learning to ask that question.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Good.”
She nodded.
“At least you don’t blindly trust anyone anymore.”
Shen Yuchuan looked at her.
“I just saw my mom.”
“I know.”
“She died before I was born?”
Su Wanqing did not answer.
“Is it true?”
“It’s true.”
Shen Yuchuan’s face slowly turned pale.
“Then who was the mother I remember?”
“Not her.”
“Then who?”
Su Wanqing looked toward the end of the hallway.
“You.”
Shen Yuchuan froze.
“Me?”
“The mother in your memories was created by you.”
“Impossible.”
“When you were five…”
“That was the first time you learned what death was.”
“You couldn’t accept it.”
“So you wrote someone who didn’t exist into your own memories.”
Shen Yuchuan shook his head.
“How could I possibly do that?”
“Because by then, you had already encountered the Zero.”
“What?”
Su Wanqing slowly walked closer.
“This isn’t the first time you’ve seen it.”
“You saw it when you were five.”
A scene suddenly flashed through Shen Yuchuan’s mind.
A dark room.
Beside the bed.
A faceless person stood next to the little boy, looking down at him.
“Do you want a mother?”
The little boy nodded through his tears.
“Then I’ll give you one.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“She’ll stay with you forever.”
The little boy smiled.
“Thank you.”
The scene vanished without warning.
Shen Yuchuan collapsed onto the floor.
“That person…”
“That was the Zero.”
Su Wanqing nodded.
“The first time it found you was when you were five.”
“It gave you a mother.”
“So my mother never existed at all?”
“At least not the one in your memories.”
Shen Yuchuan looked at her.
“Then where is my real mother?”
“Where did she die?”
Su Wanqing fell silent.
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Then there’s something you have to be ready for.”
“What?”
“You have to accept that she isn’t the person you remember.”
A door appeared at the end of the hallway.
Written on it was:
August 17, 2001.
Shen Yuchuan stood before it.
“What year is this?”
“Two years before you were born.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
“Because this was the last day your mother appeared.”
Shen Yuchuan grasped the doorknob.
The door was unlocked.
He pushed it open.
A powerful smell of disinfectant rushed over him.
It was a hospital.
The hallway lights flickered.
A nurse pushed a hospital bed past him.
Shen Yuchuan saw the woman on the bed.
He stopped instantly.
That face…
It was completely different from the mother in his memories.
She was very young.
Her face was pale.
Her wrists were wrapped in bandages.
And she held a baby in her arms.
Shen Yuchuan froze.
“That’s…”
Su Wanqing said nothing.
Shen Yuchuan moved closer.
The baby was crying.
The woman lowered her head and soothed him.
“Don’t cry.”
“Mom’s here.”
Shen Yuchuan’s eyes slowly widened.
That baby…
Was him.
But the date was 2001.
He had been born in 2003.
“Impossible.”
He stepped back.
“That isn’t me.”
Su Wanqing looked at him.
“Are you sure?”
“I was born in 2003.”
“Who told you that?”
Shen Yuchuan froze.
“Your household registration.”
“Your birth certificate.”
“Your mother.”
“Which mother?”
That one question left him completely silent.
Su Wanqing walked to the bedside.
“You’ve never seen your own birth certificate.”
“You only believed what other people told you.”
Shen Yuchuan pulled out his phone.
But there was no signal.
He opened his photos.
A photo he had never seen before had appeared in the album.
It was a birth certificate.
Name:
Shen Yuchuan.
Date of birth:
August 17, 2001.
Mother:
Su Wanqing.
Shen Yuchuan went rigid.
“Impossible…”
He looked up.
The woman on the hospital bed was watching him.
She had not aged.
She had not changed.
She was Su Wanqing.
But there was no smile on her face like that of a seventeen-year-old girl.
Only exhaustion.
“You finally came.”
Shen Yuchuan looked at her.
“You…”
“I’m your mother.”
Boom.
Something exploded inside his head.
“Impossible.”
“You’re Su Wanqing.”
“And I’m your mother.”
“Then what about the mother I remember?”
Su Wanqing smiled.
“She wasn’t your mother.”
“She was someone you created after I died.”
Shen Yuchuan began to back away.
“Are you dead or not?”
“I am.”
“When?”
“The day you were born.”
Shen Yuchuan stared.
“Then why does it say 2001?”
Su Wanqing looked at the baby on the bed.
“Because this wasn’t your first birth.”
“What?”
“You’ve been born twelve times.”
“Every time…”
“I die.”
Shen Yuchuan’s breathing began to tremble.
“So…”
“That makes this your thirteenth time.”
Su Wanqing nodded.
“And this time…”
She looked at Shen Yuchuan.
“You have to decide.”
“Decide what?”
“Whether you want to be born again.”
The hospital room suddenly fell silent.
Rain began to fall outside the window.
The drops struck the glass.
Once.
Twice.
Like someone knocking on the door outside.
Shen Yuchuan looked at himself on the hospital bed.
The baby stopped crying.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
The baby’s eyes…
Were black.
There was no white in them at all.
Shen Yuchuan instantly backed away.
“That isn’t me.”
Su Wanqing nodded.
“That’s right.”
“That’s the Zero.”
Shen Yuchuan looked at the baby.
The baby looked back at him.
Then the corners of its mouth lifted slightly.
A baby.
Smiling.
The smile was exactly the same as the Zero’s had always been.
“It was inside me from the beginning?”
“No,” Su Wanqing said.
“It was at the place where you were born from the beginning.”
“Then why did it choose me?”
“Because you can remember.”
“Remember what?”
“Death.”
Shen Yuchuan froze.
Su Wanqing slowly approached him.
“After everyone dies, they’re forgotten.”
“You’re the only one who doesn’t forget.”
“That’s why it needs you.”
“It makes you be reborn again and again.”
“It makes you remember death again and again.”
“And then…”
She reached toward Shen Yuchuan’s chest.
“It leaves every death behind.”
A wave of cold passed through Shen Yuchuan’s chest.
“The people who were forgotten…”
“They’re all inside me?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why I can enter the memory layer?”
“Yes.”
“Then what am I?”
Su Wanqing looked at him.
“A tomb.”
Shen Yuchuan froze.
“What?”
“You aren’t one person.”
“You’re the tomb of everyone who was forgotten.”
“Every person who dies leaves behind a small piece of memory.”
“In the end, all of it piles up inside you.”
“That’s why you can keep coming back.”
Shen Yuchuan lowered his head.
He suddenly understood those strange dreams.
Strangers’ faces.
Strangers’ lives.
Strangers’ deaths.
Memories that had never belonged to him.
So that was what they were…
The dead.
“How do I end it?” Shen Yuchuan asked.
Su Wanqing was silent.
“There’s something you have to do.”
“What?”
“Forget everyone.”
Shen Yuchuan shook his head.
“No.”
“That’s the only way to let them truly leave.”
“Impossible.”
“You have to forget me.”
“No.”
“Forget Chen Boyu.”
“No.”
“Forget Zhou Zihao.”
“No.”
“Forget your mother.”
Shen Yuchuan clenched his teeth.
“I won’t.”
“Then you’ll be trapped here forever.”
“How long?”
Su Wanqing looked at him.
“Until you’re the only one left in the world.”
“And then?”
“You’ll be forgotten too.”
Shen Yuchuan fell silent.
Thunder sounded outside.
The lights in the hospital room suddenly went out.
In the darkness, the baby began to cry.
Waa—
Waa—
Waa—
The crying grew louder and louder.
Shen Yuchuan turned around.
On the hospital bed, the baby was gone.
In its place was a man.
A black coat.
No face.
The Zero.
It stood beside the hospital bed.
“You finally know.”
Shen Yuchuan looked at it.
“Why have you kept forcing me to kill Su Wanqing?”
“Because she’s the only one who can stop me.”
“She’s my mother?”
“That too.”
“Why did she become Su Wanqing?”
The Zero did not answer.
“Because her name was Su Wanqing to begin with.”
Shen Yuchuan stiffened.
“Then why does she always appear as a seventeen-year-old?”
“Because you remember her at seventeen.”
“So that’s the only form she can exist in.”
Shen Yuchuan looked toward Su Wanqing.
She stood in the darkness.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Chuan.”
“Don’t listen to it.”
The Zero smiled.
“She’s lying to you again.”
Shen Yuchuan looked at it.
“Which part?”
“She isn’t your mother.”
“She’s your first memory.”
Shen Yuchuan froze.
“When you were five…”
“That was the first time you saw her.”
“Not in a dream.”
“In a hospital.”
“Your mother had died.”
“You cried.”
“And then she appeared.”
“From that day on…”
“You remembered her.”
A scene suddenly flashed through Shen Yuchuan’s mind.
Five years old.
A hospital.
His mother lay motionless on a hospital bed.
He stood in the doorway, crying out:
“Mom.”
There was no response.
Then…
A girl walked over from the end of the hallway.
She crouched down and looked at him.
“Don’t cry.”
“She’ll always be with you.”
Shen Yuchuan looked at the girl.
It was Su Wanqing.
But at that time…
She was already dead.
“No…”
Shen Yuchuan clutched his head.
“That’s impossible.”
The Zero spoke in a low voice.
“Now you finally know.”
“The most important person in your life…”
“Was already dead from the moment you first saw her.”
Shen Yuchuan suddenly laughed.
Softly.
Exhaustedly.
“So that’s why you made me forget.”
The Zero said nothing.
“You were afraid I’d remember.”
“Because as soon as I did…”
Shen Yuchuan raised his head.
“I’d know you weren’t protecting me.”
“You were using me.”
The smile vanished from the Zero’s face.
Shen Yuchuan continued:
“You made me be reborn again and again.”
“You made me lose her again and again.”
“You made me kill her again and again.”
“Not because her death could save the world.”
“But because…”
He looked toward Su Wanqing.
“Her death created more memories inside me.”
“Am I right?”
The hospital room fell silent.
For the first time, the Zero did not answer.
Shen Yuchuan smiled.
“You don’t need me.”
“You need my pain.”
“The more memories I have…”
“The stronger you become.”
The Zero slowly raised its head.
“You finally understand.”
“Yes.”
“But you only figured it out now.”
“It’s already too late.”
Countless figures suddenly appeared around the hospital room.
Chen Boyu.
Zhou Zihao.
Xu Qing.
Everyone he had ever remembered.
They all stood in the darkness.
Each person had a crack across their chest.
Black light flowed out from within.
All of it streamed toward Shen Yuchuan.
Shen Yuchuan dropped to his knees.
An enormous flood of memories poured into him.
Someone was laughing.
Someone was crying.
Someone was dying.
Someone was waiting.
Countless voices rang out at once.
“Remember me.”
“Don’t forget me.”
“Save me.”
“Shen Yuchuan.”
“Chuan.”
“Mom.”
“Wanqing.”
“Chen Boyu.”
“Zhou Zihao.”
The voices grew louder and louder.
Shen Yuchuan covered his ears.
“Stop!”
No one stopped.
The Zero stood before him.
“You want to save them?”
“Then remember.”
“Remember all of them.”
“Until you can’t bear it anymore.”
Shen Yuchuan collapsed onto the floor.
Just as his consciousness was about to break apart, a hand grabbed him.
Su Wanqing.
“Chuan!”
Shen Yuchuan opened his eyes.
“Don’t remember.”
She was crying.
“Don’t remember anymore.”
“But they’ll disappear.”
“Let them disappear.”
“What?”
“Let them leave.”
“Have you not always wanted to save everyone?”
Su Wanqing held him.
“Sometimes true salvation…”
“Isn’t keeping someone here.”
“It’s finally letting them go.”
Shen Yuchuan looked at her.
“What about you?”
She did not answer.
Shen Yuchuan suddenly understood.
“You want to leave too?”
Su Wanqing smiled.
“I’ve been waiting a long time.”
“I wasn’t waiting for you to save me.”
“I was waiting for you to finally be willing to let me go.”
Tears fell from Shen Yuchuan’s eyes.
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“Because you’ve remembered me for too long.”
“So long that I’ve forgotten what I really look like.”
She gently held Shen Yuchuan.
“Chuan.”
“One last time.”
“Say my name.”
Crying, Shen Yuchuan said, “Su Wanqing.”
She smiled.
“Again.”
“Su Wanqing.”
“One last time.”
Shen Yuchuan closed his eyes.
“Wanqing.”
She slowly loosened her arms.
Her body began to turn into light.
“Goodbye.”
Shen Yuchuan reached out to grab her.
But his hand closed on nothing.
The light vanished.
The Zero began to break apart as well.
For the first time, fear appeared on its face.
“Impossible.”
“How can you forget?”
Shen Yuchuan stood up.
He wiped away his tears.
“Because I finally understand.”
“Remembering someone…”
“Doesn’t mean keeping them alive forever.”
“It means acknowledging that they once existed.”
The Zero’s body began to shatter.
“You’ll lose everyone!”
“I know.”
“You’ll be alone!”
“I know.”
“In the end, you’ll even forget yourself!”
Shen Yuchuan looked at it.
“Then let me forget.”
“As long as they can leave.”
The Zero let out a piercing shriek.
The entire hospital began to collapse.
The walls.
The windows.
The hospital bed.
The photographs.
Everything shattered like glass.
Shen Yuchuan stood at the center.
The last photograph drifted before him.
In it, Su Wanqing stood in front of the school gate from ten years ago.
She was not smiling.
She was simply looking at him in silence.
There was only one sentence written on the back:
“You don’t have to wait for me anymore.”
Shen Yuchuan closed his eyes.
He reached out.
And let go.
The photograph drifted to the ground.
It vanished completely.
A long time later, Shen Yuchuan opened his eyes again.
The sky was blue.
Sunlight warmed his face.
Birdsong came from somewhere in the distance.
He was sitting on a park bench.
There was no one beside him.
His phone displayed:
August 20, 2026.
Everything had returned to normal.
No memory layer.
No 3 A.M.
No one had disappeared.
He opened his contacts.
He scanned the names one by one.
Mom.
Zhou Zihao.
Xu Qing.
Chen Boyu.
They were all still there.
He smiled.
But…
He suddenly stopped.
“Why am I smiling?”
He didn’t know.
He didn’t know who he had been thinking about just now, either.
There seemed to be a girl in his mind.
Someone very important.
Important enough that he had once lost his entire world for her.
But…
What was her name?
Shen Yuchuan tried desperately to remember.
There was no answer.
Only a vague name remained.
Chuan.
He lowered his head.
At some point, a photograph had appeared in his hand.
The photograph was blank.
He looked at it.
For some reason, tears suddenly began to fall.
“Who did I forget?”
No one answered.
Just then, his phone vibrated.
An unfamiliar text message appeared on the screen.
There was no sender.
Only one sentence:
“Congratulations. You successfully forgot her for the first time.”
Shen Yuchuan’s smile vanished instantly.
The next second, a second message appeared.
“But the person you forgot wasn’t Su Wanqing.”
A third message.
“What you forgot was—”
The message stopped there.
Shen Yuchuan stared at the screen.
A few seconds later, a fourth message slowly appeared.
“The real you.”
He jerked his head up.
Everyone in the park turned toward him at the same time.
They were all looking at him.
And in the distance, the clock reached—
02:59.
Chapter Seven—End