My girlfriend is from the future!

He Tianran had no idea why Wen Liang was so interested in this part of the activity.

If you want to test your teamwork, there are actually many other ways; there's no need to take the risk at this crucial juncture.

"Ahem~ Director He, you just revealed a similar information about Teacher Bai Lingye's passage. Because you are not the ticket holder, you will have to reduce your time by two hours."

Before the two could choose their stamps, the photography PD gave them a timely warning of punishment.

"No, is it considered a foul to mention the guests' names?"

"Uh, calling someone by their name usually doesn't count, but you added a hint afterward, didn't you? We all understood, so... um."

Under the watchful eye of the photographer, who had already assumed the role of referee, He Tianran deducted two hours from his survival time, and now his watch showed only—

One hour and forty-two minutes.

How much time do you have left?

Realizing that Wen Liang's gaze was about to fall on his watch, He Tianran immediately lowered his hands and groaned:
"Stop playing, I only have half an hour left."

"Let me see it."

Seeing this, Wen Liang tried to grab his wrist, but He Tianran pulled away, looking very guilty.

"Hmph, lying again. Add the thirty minutes I initially deducted from you, then the time it took you and Bailingye to walk from the phone booth here. Even if you bought her ticket, now that two hours are deducted, you still have at least two and a half hours left."

Wen Liang roughly calculated based on her own time, unaware that He Tianran had been deducted half an hour by Bai Lingye after leaving her, and now he simply didn't have the time or resources to undergo the punishment again.

But just as Wen Liang knew how to see through He Tianran's lies, He Tianran also knew how to deceive Wen Liang.

Intelligent people are good at calculation, but they always make mistakes when they calculate.

If He Tianran were to directly extend his hand and say, "If we make one wrong step, I really won't have time left," Wen Liang might not be so assertive. But if he tries to hide his intentions and act coy, Wen Liang will be more likely to stick to her own ideas.

"Are you really that confident we can answer it correctly on the first try?"

"Of course!"

"You really want to play?"

Wenliang nodded emphatically, and then suddenly...

Her expression froze for a moment, her head involuntarily tilting slightly downwards. Her gaze left He Tianran, and her words, seemingly unintentional yet as if recalling something, came out with a pause and hesitation, shifting from initial uncertainty to growing certainty:
"It's not... I want to play... but... I want to play... with you!"

As she spoke, she raised her head again.

Those clear, bright eyes reflected He Tianran's equally dazed face.

It was as if something had pried open a corner of the man's heart, and then a series of sounds suddenly burst forth from within, echoing and buzzing around his ears, a constant clamor...

However, amidst this cacophony of cheers, laughter, and clamor, he keenly detected a glimmer of something—

singing.

The voice was ethereal and indistinct, seemingly coming from the ends of the earth. He looked around, until…

"Xiao Jia, Passerby A."

Someone called his name earnestly, and the man looked up sharply in the direction of the sound. Instantly, all the auditory hallucinations surrounding him vanished like a tape being rewound after the woman so close to him called out softly.

Wen Liang stood less than two meters in front of him, raised her hand to her chest, pointed to the stamp boxes beside them, and asked with a smile:
"So, do you still want to... play together?"

The man's brows furrowed, as if he were deep in thought, but only he knew that he was recalling...

But these fleeting memories seemed to have been torn apart and shattered into countless fragments by some special force, making it very difficult for him to piece together a complete sentence.

"Okay, then I'll... play with you until you're satisfied!"

His current appearance was captured on camera, and his expression perfectly matched the overused internet meme of "as if he had made up his mind."

Yet, only this phrase truly captures his current state.

In a game, once time is up, it's over. There's no question of going through fire and water. Whether others interpret He Tianran's behavior as a desperate gamble or a reckless surrender, even he himself probably doesn't understand why he, who seems to prioritize rationality, would rather conceal his true time and accompany Wen Liang in her madness to participate in a game where he's likely to be eliminated...

He just naturally heard the other person say they wanted to play, so he did it...

Before this, Wen Liang hadn't even called him by name, she had only called out—

Xiao Jia, a passerby.

Therefore, in He Tianran, this behavior seems to stem from some latent behavioral instinct, from something deeper within his mind and body—

Resonance.

Therefore, the man walked to one side of the ticket checkpoint, and Wen Liang handed the blank ticket to the ticket inspector before walking to the other side opposite him.

First choose when, then choose where, and finally choose why.

The order was already specified in the rules, but for the sake of unnecessary formality, the ticket inspector still took out a pen from the cabinet, unscrewed the cap, sipped the red ink, and wrote the words "When" in traditional Chinese characters on the far left of the blank space on the ticket before putting the ticket into the stamping machine and positioning it for stamping.

After doing all that, he spread his hands to the left and right, indicating that the two could open their respective stamp boxes.

"Click~"

The two simultaneously unlocked the box, revealing a dazzling array of half-stamps.

In terms of difficulty and probability, "When" is the most intuitive of the three options because you only need to select a number, and there are only twelve stamps in the box marked "When", so you should only need to select the correct month.

He Tianran's seals belong to the "When" category. They are engraved with characters such as "bean", "tribute", "three", "yu", "five", "strike", "wood", etc. However, compared to complete Chinese characters, these characters are thinner and the strokes are sharper. Therefore, these should be radicals in a whole seal. And the only characters that can use these radicals and are related to the month are uppercase Chinese numerals.

Wen Liang made a decision quickly; she picked up a seal almost without hesitation.

Because of the rule against eye contact, Wen Liang kept her head down the whole time. However, seeing her holding the seal tightly to her chest with both hands, her hands rising and falling with her breath, it was clear that she was actually very nervous.

Yes……

In the screening room, during the wedding ceremony in that short film?
The poster at the beginning had a date written on it, which was in May, and He Tianran still remembers it!
His hand slowly reached for the seal engraved with the number "five," but just as his fingertips were about to touch it, he stopped.

The video did not show the names of the bride and groom; only their faces were replaced with theirs…

Does a name... really matter that much?
It's important, isn't it? Otherwise, if two people are together and don't even know each other's names, wouldn't that be the biggest joke in the world?
But if it's important, why did you just...

She'll call me... What about Passerby A?

……

"Since we don't know each other's names, why don't you just call me Xiao Jia?"

"Xiao Jia?"

"Hey, it's just a random passerby. I feel like we won't see each other again after we get off this train. After all, our connection with nature probably ends here..."

"I quite admire your attitude, but don't say one thing and do another."

"No, I hate trouble the most. So now I'll just... call you old classmate."

……

A series of fragmented images swept through He Tianran's mind like the wind. He couldn't help but look at Wen Liang. The other person was still looking down, unable to see her expression. But the way her hands were clenched tightly over her heart now seemed more like...

pray?
After getting off this train, we'll never meet again...

Have we ever had such a journey?

Was this trip unforgettable?

If you're so certain, I'm sure I can understand you perfectly...

But when was that?

He Tianran hesitated until his gaze settled on the word "long".

This is a long-lasting "long", and also part of the capitalized September (九月).

The gaze that lingered on this word lasted far longer than that of any other word describing the month...

……

"I'm trapped in September forever. Even though I can act the way I want this time, I still can't escape God's punishment. But no matter how many times it happens, I will still make you happy."

"She's trapped in September and can't get out. You love her so much, why...don't you just die?"

"Thirteen years ago, when you were seventeen and in your final year of high school, on the afternoon of September 4th, you used a very poor lie to deceive someone."

"You saved me once, now it's my turn to save you."

……

He Tianran's fingertips caressed the engraving that represented September. He picked it up, his eyes revealing a hidden deep affection. He felt that this should be it.

Some images in his mind, like black and white photographs, gradually regained some of their original color, becoming slightly more vivid and dynamic. Although these images weren't yet connected into a clear narrative, they were enough for him to understand more clearly what the girl who always flashed through his memory truly wanted...

For example, when He Tianran tried to take out September's seal, he noticed that Wen Liang's shoulders had been trembling from the very beginning...

This was a very subtle detail that he hadn't noticed before...

This made him somewhat puzzled about the seal in his hand. September seemed to be very important to him, but what about the other party?
He Tianran hesitated for a second before putting the seal down again.

This journey shouldn't be something to be afraid of...

……

Although Wen Liang kept her head down, she was nervously watching He Tianran's movements.

She didn't know if her calling him "Xiao Jia" would serve as a reminder, after all... no matter how much He Tianran pretended, even with absurd claims like "I'm from another time," he never admitted that he was the "passerby" who accompanied her on the train to search for the snow mountain...

But He Tianran today gave her a different feeling.

She could tell because...

Whether someone loves you or not is truly a matter of...

It feels very real.

So this girl, who had repeatedly charged forward for love, only to fall and be battered, her dignity threatening to crumble with each rejection, kept telling herself that this was the last time…

This is the last time...

This is the last time I'll use the game as an excuse.

“Rustle—”

A sound of clothes rubbing together interrupted the repeated admonitions in her mind. She looked up and saw He Tianran extend his clenched fist and stop in mid-air.

Now that things had come to this, Wen Liang suddenly felt a little hesitant, but what met her bewildered gaze was the faint smile on He Tianran's lips...

That smile reminded me so much of that breath of oxygen I took after being utterly exhausted on the boardwalk of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain that year…

Wen Liang still remembers that year, when they faced the snow-capped mountains shrouded in fog, and they had a conversation:

"Because I'm not too weak to walk anymore, I still have the strength, I can still keep climbing. If I can reach the top of that mountain piercing through the clouds, I'm sure I'll be able to enjoy a beautiful view. But the problem now is, I've already reached the entrance, but I want to rush in but I can't find the entrance. The mountain trail only goes this far, and I want to continue upwards, but there's no way forward. I really dislike this helpless feeling of having strength but nowhere to use it, and having no choice but to accept my fate..."

"Since Jade Dragon Snow Mountain doesn't welcome you, why bother welcoming it? There are still Baima Snow Mountain, Gezong Snow Mountain, Meili Snow Mountain, Kawagebo and Mount Kailash ahead, which one isn't more appealing than this? If this road is blocked, we can just take another one. Why hang yourself here and let someone like you lament about bad luck?"

The effects of the oxygen had long since disappeared, which is why she resolutely reached out her hand, wanting to part the clouds and mist, to see the snow-capped mountains, and to find the path...

It was back then that I made those harsh remarks to a man who called himself "a nobody"...

Yourself!

The next moment, the two of them opened their hands at the same time.

"..."

"..."

at last,

Found you... (End of Chapter)