The sun outside was bright and warm. The shadows of the trees swayed gently. Passersby walked hurriedly, clutching their books and chasing after each other, eager to make it to class before the bell rang for roll call.
Ding Sha sat by the bright, clean floor-to-ceiling window, reluctantly closing the exquisitely printed copy of Zhong Kui Ji in her hands. She touched her short hair and sighed, "I'd love to try this someday, too bad I don't know how to cook..."
Putting the book back on the shelf, Ding Sha glanced at her watch and slowly walked to the library entrance. "It's almost noon, what should I eat?"
Just as she was pondering this, a round-faced girl with curly hair called out to her from the library entrance, waving her hand. "Sha Sha! Let's go! Time for lunch!"
When Ding Sha looked up and saw her, she smiled. "Coming!"
She jogged over for a couple of steps then stopped abruptly. Wait, who was she again?
Why couldn't Ding Sha remember her name...
Seeing her stop, the girl walked over unhappily and pulled Ding Sha along out the door, saying, "Hurry up, or the snack street will be crowded again. I don't want to wait in line in this hot weather!"
Ding Sha was confused for a moment, but the inexplicable feeling soon disappeared.
What was she just thinking about...?
Being pulled along, Ding Sha shook her head to dismiss the random thoughts and gave a smile. "Alright, let's go quickly then."
Many passing students smiled and greeted them as they walked. The girl also responded enthusiastically, waving her hand.
"Going for lunch! So many delicious snacks on snack street!"
"Aren't you going to class? You'll be late! There's roll call today!"
"What's wrong with Sha Sha? She looks fine to me!"
...
Ding Sha hesitated. Were they really so popular?
Approaching the school gate, Ding Sha habitually turned left, but the girl grabbed her. "Sha Sha? Where are you going? Didn't we agree to go to snack street for lunch? Why are you going that way?"
"We're not...going to snack street?" Ding Sha was also confused as she pointed left.
"But snack street is on the right!" The girl pointed right, puzzled. "Sha Sha, did you read yourself silly?"
Ding Sha was taken aback.
The right side...?
Why did she feel they should go left?
The girl pulled Ding Sha along to the right. "Let's go, let's go. I told you reading too much made you silly. You need to get out more often, especially to go eat with me..."
Ding Sha couldn't help but glance back at the left road. A sense of discomfort suddenly welled up in her heart.
The snack street was crowded with people, lively and bustling. The girl happily squeezed into the crowd, saying, "Phew! Luckily the stuff I love to eat doesn't have long lines yet, otherwise I'd be so annoyed!"
"Oh right! I just got my allowance. Sha Sha, what do you want? My treat!"
Breathing in the aroma in the air, Ding Sha also felt a little hungry. She looked around and pointed at the Chinese restaurant nearby. "How about we just order a couple dishes?"
"How can you just eat that coming to snack street!" the girl exclaimed. "You have to eat all kinds of snacks!"
Ding Sha responded in understanding. "Then..."
"Do you want to eat potato sticks? Wolf Fang Potato!" The girl's sharp eyes spotted the potato stand run by an old woman at the roadside, and she dragged Ding Sha over.
"Granny! One serving of sweet, sour and spicy, please!"
The old woman nimbly prepared a serving of potato sticks, the portion quite big. Ding Sha picked up a skewer and took a bite.
The potato skin wasn't crispy enough, the inside wasn't soft enough, the seasoning was too strong, too much soy sauce...
As Ding Sha ate, she was startled.
How did she know...
She tentatively took another bite, and these issues naturally surfaced in her mind again.
But she didn't even know how to cook...
"What's wrong, Sha Sha?" The girl shook her strangely. "You're really weird today..."
"It's nothing..." Though the bizarre feeling in Ding Sha's heart grew stronger.
"Do you want red bean cake?" The girl pointed at a nearby cart.
"Sure." Ding Sha said this, but her eyes were looking at the chestnut cakes beside it.
"I feel like...I've made chestnut cake before..." Ding Sha murmured hesitantly.
"Don't be silly! When have you ever cooked, Sha Sha? We grew up together and I don't know anything about it!" The girl said with a laugh.
"I..." Ding Sha looked around at the crowds.
The strange sense of displacement grew stronger. Ding Sha glanced at the reflective glass to the side, which showed an ordinary face.
Did she look like this?
It seemed so unfamiliar...
Ding Sha turned to the girl beside her. What was her name...?
Was this really her college?
Where was this street?
And where was the snack street in her memories...?
Egg soup...assorted hot pot...shredded potatoes...braised mutton...rocking chair...crib...camphor tree...
In Ding Sha's mind, countless images and memories intertwined. She started sprinting towards that first left road...
Her instincts told her what she wanted was there...
What she wanted to know was there...
The shadows of people and vendors' shouts behind her froze and glitched out in an instant. Jagged black shadows pixelated out at the edges.
The world stopped rotating like a card slideshow, all the people frozen thin and false like paper cutouts.
Panting, Ding Sha stopped where she felt she should.
It was a small, antique-looking shop.
The signboard was blurred by cobwebs and hard to make out. The entrance was set slightly more inward than the other shops, with a tall, aged camphor tree next to it, towering and swaying unsteadily as it dropped leaves.
Without hesitation, Ding Sha reached out and pushed open the door.
It opened.
She went inside.
The furniture within was disordered and dilapidated, covered in thick layers of dust without any signs of life.
Yet Ding Sha felt she'd seen it in another state before.
Alive and vibrant.
In the blur, she heard someone speaking.
"...Doctor Liu! The mother's heart has stopped!"
"Keep going! Don't stop!"
Who was talking?
Ding Sha couldn't make it out clearly.
The voices faded away as Ding Sha pushed open the back door.
A stretch of lush green hills. A shabbily dressed but bright-eyed little boy was burying his head in his lap, weeping sorrowfully. Ding Sha couldn't help but go over.
"What's wrong?"
The little boy lifted his tear-stained face. "Sha Sha, where are you?"
Seeing that familiar face, Ding Sha's eyes widened in an instant as if struck in the heart.
He was...
Xiao Jun...
Xiao Jun...
Ding Sha clutched her head and crouched down, memories flashing nonstop through her mind like a movie on fast forward. She seemed to be watching many chaotic scenes.
The little boy continued wailing loudly.
"Sha Sha...don't leave me!"
Ding Sha clutched her chest and looked up.
In the delivery room, the monitor showed the patient's vitals slowly climbing back up. The nurse cried out joyfully, "She's back, Doctor Liu! She's back!"
She hurriedly continued her work, while sneaking a glance at the patient's face.
On the operating table, the barely conscious Ding Sha cracked open her eyes.
