Chapter 68: Old Man
"Past... the past world?" Zhang Wenda was instantly stunned. What kind of new twist was this? He couldn’t quite make sense of it.
"No, Old Man, I don’t quite get it. What do you an by the past world? Isn’t the past just... past? How can the past world still exist?"
The old man shook his head. "Who told you it doesn’t exist? Ah, what are schools even teaching nowadays? This generation of young people, they’re no good."
Saying this, he planted the hoe in his hand into the ground and began to explain to Zhang Wenda. "Ti is a tool we humans invented. It follows the living. Without people, there is no ti."
"The river of ti they speak of is actually the river of people. Though the river of ti may have flowed on, the riverbed of the past remains. The world we’re in now is the riverbed of ti—it is the past."
"Ti... is that how it works? Could it be that what I learned before was wrong?" Just as this thought surfaced in Zhang Wenda’s mind, he felt sothing wasn’t quite right.
"Ah, don’t just stand there. Co with , I’ll bandage you up."
Taking the chance while getting bandaged, Zhang Wenda asked carefully again and finally discovered the problem. The one who was wrong wasn’t him—it was this strange world’s definition of ti.
This place wasn’t just strange in its Youth Center or the Library. Even ti itself had undergone bizarre changes!
If, in the world he ca from, ti advanced along with people and the world, then in this place, it didn’t. Here, ti only moved forward with people, while environnts without people were frozen in place like photographs!
Anyone who wanted to look at these photos could pull them out and view them at any ti.
They, however, had beco detached from the river of ti due to a paradox in Network Ti, and ended up in this photographic past world.
"No wonder," Zhang Wenda muttered. "No wonder the Yellow Core shows no signs of decreasing."
He looked down at his watch and saw that the yellow digits on the Digital Pocket Watch remained frozen in place, unchanged.
There was no ti here. The Yellow Core could persist indefinitely without diminishing. However, under the current circumstances, that was not a good thing.
Just then, the old man had already cut open Zhang Wenda’s clothing with scissors. He took out a pack of white powder from an old cabinet and smacked it directly onto the wound.
The sting of the painkiller powder made Zhang Wenda wince. Instantly, he stopped caring about ti or no ti and focused his mind back on himself.
"Hang in there. This powder does sting a bit." The old man said as he picked up a piece of gauze from the side and began wrapping the wound.
"Old Man, are there many people like you who enjoy staying in the past?" Zhang Wenda thought of the person who had shot at him.
"A lot, most of them are old n and won."
As he bandaged the wound, the old man continued, "Though this modern society has advanced technology and better food, it just doesn’t feel right living in it. So so folks feel the past is better—folks like ."
After thinking for a bit, he added, "Lately, it seems even so youngsters think the past is better than modern society. I don’t know what they’re thinking. They never went to the countryside or queued up for food. They have no sentints, so what are they after?"
Zhang Wenda didn’t know what they were after either. He just wanted to return. This empty past world—whoever liked it could stay. He certainly didn’t.
"Old Man, may I ask your na?" Zhang Wenda asked.
"My na isn’t anything nice—it’s Wang Daniu. Back in the old days, nas were given carelessly."
After bandaging Zhang Wenda’s wound, Wang Daniu pulled out a thimble and so thread and began nding Zhang Wenda’s jacket.
"Um, Old Man Niu, I ended up here by accident. May I ask how to return to modern society?" Zhang Wenda asked impatiently.
"What? You want to go back? That’s not so easy."
The old man’s words made Zhang Wenda’s recently settled heart tense up again. He forced a smile. "Don’t joke around, Old Man. A little taste of countryside life is enough. I’m sure you also want to return to modern society, right?"
After biting off the thread in his mouth, Wang Daniu replied, "Who’s joking? This old man doesn’t use phones or the internet. All your newfangled gadgets—I don’t know how to use them. Why would I go back? I’d rather stay in the past."
"I used to at least watch so TV, but now even TVs need the internet or whatever. So many nus and settings—it’s a huge hassle. I can’t even watch TV now."
"Before I ca, I told them—don’t co get . I’m not going back. When I can’t work anymore, I’ll just let the yellow earth cover . I’ll stay in the past."
These words stirred a sense of despair in Zhang Wenda. "So we can only wait for them to co get us? Is there really no other way to return ourselves?"
"How would we return? Do I look like so cultured man researching ti travel? I didn’t even finish primary school."
"Ah, if only back then—" Zhang Wenda had just begun to speak when he stopped. He couldn’t lie to himself. Even if he went back to yesterday, he would still make the sa choice.
Zhang Wenda understood that regret was useless now. He could only look for another way.
"Right, young man, how did you get hurt? Scratched by sothing?" Wang Daniu handed Zhang Wenda his jacket with a large patch sewn on.
"I got shot."
Soone had fired at him out of nowhere. If it had hit, he would’ve been done for. He still rembered that grudge.
"What? A gun? There are others besides you?" Wang Daniu’s eyes widened in disbelief. He looked more shocked than Zhang Wenda.
"Yes, just over by the mountain city, not far from here. At least five people. Aren’t they folks like you who also ca back from modern society? Though their tempers aren’t as good as yours. They shot at the mont we t."
Wang Daniu slapped both thighs in shock. "How could that be? This area’s a sent-down youth farm. The sent-down youth who ca with all died long ago! How could anyone have returned?"
He pulled a green rubber notebook out from a nearby drawer and showed Zhang Wenda page after page of phone numbers he had personally crossed out. "Look here, this one had a stroke, this one had diabetes, this one had a cerebral hemorrhage..."
It was clear Wang Daniu had deep feelings for these old friends. He rembered exactly when each had died.
Zhang Wenda first asked the old man to put away the death ledger, then said, "Old Man, they probably aren’t your friends. They didn’t seem as old as you. Though they were a bit far away, none of them looked like old n. They chased for quite a while."
"Huh~ that’s strange. Then what are they here for? And with guns?" Wang Daniu frowned deeply and stroked his whitening beard in thought.
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