Chapter 114

Chapter 114

◎ The Missing Person Notice Takes Effect! ◎

A string of unfamiliar phone numbers followed the name of the person who placed the missing person notice.

At first, Meng Qi was so focused on reading the text that he didn’t even notice the numbers, which made him quite anxious. Once he spotted them, he immediately grabbed the newspaper and the sugar-coated fried dough balls and bolted into his room—his phone was on the desk there. Back in the room, he didn’t even care that the dough balls were still wrapped in greasy, sticky oil; he just dumped them on the desk, picked up his phone, and started dialing the numbers from the newspaper.

He was so nervous that his hands kept shaking as he dialed, a shake he couldn’t stop no matter how hard he tried. He didn’t even try to stop the dough balls from rolling off the desk.

As everyone knows, a phone number has 11 digits. But when Meng Qi finally punched them in with shaky fingers and dialed out full of hope, what came through the receiver wasn’t a familiar voice, but a recorded message: "Sorry, the number you dialed is not in service." It freaked him out so bad his arms and legs went limp, and a loud boom went off in his head, like a bomb went off in his skull, nearly knocking him out.

There’s no way the person who placed the ad or the newspaper would screw up that bad. So the screw-up had to be his. "Meng Qi, stay calm, don’t panic. Double-check carefully to see which digit you entered wrong," he told himself, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. After calming down for a good ten seconds, once his heart wasn’t pounding anymore, he started checking the number from the very first digit.

The first digit was correct, the second was too, the third, fourth, fifth... all the way to the last—none were wrong. Meng Qi’s head started buzzing again like a beehive. Fortunately, after staring at the phone screen a bit longer, he finally figured out what was wrong: the phone number in the paper was actually one digit short, and there were faint tear marks after the last digit.

Yang Miao’s grandma must have torn off a quarter of the paper to wrap the dough balls, accidentally ripping the missing person ad in half down the middle.

Phew...

At that point, Meng Qi calmed down a lot. He flipped the paper over and checked it twice to make sure this half didn’t have the date on it, then ran off to ask Yang Miao, "Do you remember which day’s newspaper this is?"

Yang Miao nodded obediently. "Yeah, it’s from last Friday."

From last Friday till today, because stuff kept happening almost every day, Meng Qi hadn’t had a chance to sit down and go through the papers. Before, he always checked them first to make sure there wasn’t anything bad for the kids before having the class monitors distribute them.

Go figure, during the few days he was too busy to check the papers, a missing person ad looking for him showed up in one. And the person looking for him was probably Wang Boyuan! Even if it wasn’t Wang Boyuan, it was someone who knew both him and Wang Boyuan! In other words, that person had to be from the real world!

How could he not be pumped? Like a drowning man grabbing at a lifeline, Meng Qi was dying to get ahold of the person who placed this ad in the paper.

So close—he almost blew it. The Book God was looking out for him, sending Yang Miao to save him just in time.

After learning that the newspaper was from last Friday, Meng Qi immediately ran to the library he’d built for the kids against all the pushback, found the shelf where the papers were kept, and pulled out last Friday’s paper.

Then, he finally saw the last digit: six. That’s when he noticed the five digits before it were one, nine, seven, six, and six, making it 1976616—which was June 16, 1976, his birthday.

Such an obvious clue—he should’ve figured it out sooner. That would’ve saved him ten-plus minutes of hunting for the paper. Meng Qi was a bit ticked off, but it also made him even more sure it was Wang Boyuan, because who else but Wang Boyuan and He Cong would bother to remember his birthday?

The tension and worry in his heart turned into the excitement of running into an old friend in a strange place. Meng Qi wanted to yell and scream, but he held it in, afraid of startling Yang Miao, who was following closely behind him, and Elder Gu, who was peeking into the library from the doorway. They were all kind people, worried about him seeing him so frantic.

In the past, Meng Qi would have smiled and told them, "Don’t worry, I’m fine," but now he had no time to explain. Let them worry for a bit, because he had something more important to do—he had to contact his good friend Wang Boyuan! In this unfamiliar world, he, Meng Qi, finally had a true family member!

Waiting for the call to connect felt like an eternity. So long that Meng Qi felt he could have run ten laps around the playground, taken a cold shower in the bathhouse Elder Gu had built, had a full meal, and then slept soundly...

Oh, why isn’t anyone answering?

A single second really is an eternity. In that second, four or five newborns could be added to the world, a human heart could beat once and pump sixty milliliters of blood throughout the body, bamboo could grow ten micrometers upward, a bee’s wings could flap two hundred and thirty times...

And Meng Qi’s tears could soak the ground beneath his feet!!!

The scene was so intense that even the worldly Elder Gu was taken aback, because Li Qingjiang hadn’t returned from seeing Qu Liang off yet, and if Meng Qi had a breakdown, he wouldn’t know how to handle it...

"Hello?"

Just as the call was about to automatically disconnect, someone finally picked up. But the speaker wasn’t Wang Boyuan—it was Qi Yun. Meng Qi was absolutely certain of this, because Qi Yun’s voice was distinctive: clear yet carrying the softness typical of Jiangnan, unlike the deep, robust tone of northerners. Both he and Wang Boyuan were true northerners, and Wang Boyuan’s voice was much deeper than Qi Yun’s.

Had Wang Boyuan "soul-transmigrated" like him, or was he with Qi Yun?

After speculating for a few seconds, Meng Qi gripped the phone tightly and hesitantly called out Qi Yun’s name into the receiver.

The voice of "Meng Qi" in the book was different from Meng Qi’s original voice. Though both were genuine northerners, perhaps because the book’s "Meng Qi" was a year older, or because their upbringings were completely different, the former’s voice carried a touch more coolness and maturity. Those unfamiliar with them might not notice the difference, but those who knew them well could tell instantly.

Now, Meng Qi was using the book "Meng Qi’s" voice. The person on the other end, Qi Yun, seemed not to recognize it; after Meng Qi called his name, he immediately asked, "Who are you?"

Who was he? He was Meng Qi! Meng Qi from Meng Tianshan’s home in Jinliu Village, Hu’an County! He was Mengmengqi, who knew He Cong and Wang Boyuan!

In an instant, tears streamed down Meng Qi’s face again. At that moment, he was one hundred percent sure that the person inhabiting Qi Yun’s body was no longer the original Qi Yun, but his good friend from the real world, Wang Boyuan!

He had no time to think about where Qi Yun had gone; right now, his eyes, heart, and mind were filled only with Wang Boyuan.

Meng Qi sobbed and called out, "Brother Boyuan." Though he had so much to say, he couldn’t utter a single word. He felt so wronged, and in front of his family, he just wanted to cry his heart out.

How could he not cry! After half a year of fear and anxiety, heaven had finally taken pity on him and brought him a family member. Who wouldn’t cry?

Wang Boyuan, as always, played the role of a listener. When Meng Qi burst into tears, he didn’t try to comfort him. After a simple "Mm" to confirm he was Wang Boyuan, he quietly accompanied Meng Qi on the other end of the line, waiting until Meng Qi’s loud sobs faded into soft sniffles before speaking. "Alright, stop crying. If you keep it up, you’ll turn into a big crybaby."

Wang Boyuan, the steady anchor, lived up to his reputation. Even in a strange environment, he remained calm and composed.

Perhaps because he had fully let loose, or because of Wang Boyuan’s arrival, Meng Qi was now overjoyed—so happy he didn’t want to cry at all, and not a single tear was left. His heart settled instantly. He wiped his face with the back of his hand from left to right, clearing away all the tears, then grinned and spoke to Wang Boyuan. "Brother Boyuan, when did you get here? And Brother Cong, did he come too?"

In Meng Qi’s heart, Wang Boyuan wasn’t just Wang Boyuan; he was also a stand-in for He Cong, for his grandparents, and even for the entire real world. Wang Boyuan was amazing—he was all of Meng Qi’s hope! With Wang Boyuan around, he wasn’t even that afraid of the "sword of death" dangling over his head anymore.

Wang Boyuan laughed and asked back, "What, is it not enough that I came alone to keep you company?"

"Enough, enough, of course it’s enough!" Meng Qi replied with a smile.

If he had to choose between He Cong and Wang Boyuan to accompany him, he would still pick Wang Boyuan, the steady anchor. He Cong had too hot a temper; he was afraid that if He Cong learned about his experiences in this world, he’d first jump up and knock him on the head, then charge over to confront those people... Not only would that not save him, but He Cong might die even faster than him. Sigh...

"I’ve been here for almost a month. When I first arrived, I was working as an informant in this guy Qi Yun’s hometown. Half a month later, I followed a man named Ren Suiwu back to the capital. That’s when I found out there was a Meng Qi here too, and he had run away from home. So I tried placing a few missing person notices in the newspaper, and it turns out it was really you." Wang Boyuan briefly explained how he got here and what he had experienced since.

Meng Qi felt a pang of sadness when Wang Boyuan mentioned Qi Yun’s name, but after Wang Boyuan finished speaking, he asked, "What about Qi Yun? He... Brother Boyuan, how did you end up here in his place?"

"Author’s Note"

When life gives you lemons, even drinking water gets stuck in your teeth...

Last Monday, I inexplicably received a notice for a supplementary ranking, giving me a three-day list with a requirement to write 6,000 words. I happily wrote 8,000 words and then went off to work on a short story, cheerfully churning out 10,000 words for "Who Is the Plaintiff Below the Hall?"

Then the drama hit!

On Thursday, I got another notice—it gave me a three-period blacklist!!! It said I hadn’t completed the list’s word count... I scurried back to check Monday’s notice and realized the 6,000-word cycle started from Monday, not from the previous Thursday. My heart, my 8,000 words—all shattered into pieces, utterly worthless!

A three-day list in exchange for a three-period blacklist—is there anyone more unlucky than me? Why did they give me a supplementary list? What even is a supplementary list? I had no idea... Now I know, but the price was way too steep. I’m done for!!!

Of course, it’s mainly my fault—these eyes of mine are just for breathing.

Because of this, I’ve been down for days. While wallowing, I wrote another tragic short story, "Praying for the Mayfly to Attain Longevity," both as an outlet and self-comfort (ha, as if that helped at all).