My girlfriend is from the future!

The dinner table was quiet.

In the spacious five-bedroom, one-living-room home, only the resounding confession of another "He Tianran" on the television and the loud slurping sounds of the He Tianran in front of him as he shoveled rice into his mouth...

Cao Aiqing remained silent.

"No movement" means neither speaking nor making any action.

She just stared at He Tianran, who didn't dare to look up. He seemed to be focused on eating, but the feeling of being stared at was like a bone-deep infection, even without him having to confirm it.

This eerie scene lasted for a minute, until the woman opposite slowly ladled herself a bowl of soup. The bone china spoon lightly touched the rim of the bowl, making a crisp "ding" sound that was particularly clear in the excessive silence.

"The soup... is getting cold."

Cao Aiqing finally spoke, her voice as cold as the soup she was saying she wanted it to cool, revealing neither joy nor anger.

"Huh? Oh... Oh oh."

He Tianran felt as if he had been granted a pardon. He immediately put down his rice bowl, picked up his soup bowl, and without even blowing on it, poured a large mouthful into his mouth.

"Hiss—ha..."

The scalding soup instantly filled his mouth, burning him so badly he grimaced, but dared not spit it out. He could only shove it around in his mouth, making a series of incomprehensible gasps, his handsome face turning bright red from the heat.

"You knew it was hot but you didn't spit it out, you kept it in your mouth and couldn't bear to part with it. Oh dear, now no one's going to take it from you, Young Master He, and no one's going to compete with you~"

Cao Aiqing finally couldn't help but burst out laughing. She put down her spoon, took out a tissue, and handed it to him.

He Tianran took the tissue and wiped his mouth awkwardly, feeling a heat on his face that he couldn't tell if it was from the heat or from embarrassment. He looked at Cao Aiqing's teasing eyes and sighed helplessly, giving up all resistance.

"Alright, you did it on purpose."

The man crumpled the tissue into a ball, threw it on the table, leaned back in his chair, and adopted a surrendering posture, as if to say, "Do as you please."

"I didn't..."

Cao Aiqing picked up the remote, adjusted the volume to only 5 bars, and clicked on the main episode of that program. The progress bar automatically remembered and continued playing until the end credits appeared. After a few seconds, it started playing again from the beginning...

This detail from the smart TV revealed that the girl had already watched the episode, but she didn't seem to mind, putting down the remote and speaking casually:
“I just feel that since Mr. ‘writer’ has been honest with me about the existence of the ‘lead singer,’ then as… well, an important person involved, shouldn’t I at least know about his ‘achievements’? And…”

Cao Aiqing used He Tianran's analytical style, presenting a clear and logical argument, yet every sentence was laced with intrigue, leaving the ending with a cliffhanger...

She picked up her glass, downed the remaining liquid in one gulp, then picked up the glass again and began to refill it…

“Moreover,” she changed the subject, her gaze shifting from the red wine in her glass to He Tianran with a hint of curiosity, “I really want to know, under those circumstances, what it felt like to say those things?”

She put down her wine glass, which was exactly one-third full.

When Cao Aiqing said these words, her face showed curiosity and questioning. What concerned He Tianran the most was that the other woman's slightly drunken state was made even more obvious...

Feeling jealous.

He suddenly realized that Cao Aiqing, who seemed to be "interrogating" him, was actually more real and more... than ever before.

cute.

He Tianran thought about it and decided to tell the truth:

"It feels... strange."

"Ok?"

"I... I should dislike Wenliang..."

The writer murmured, picked up the remote control on the table, and fast-forwarded to the scene where the lead singer and Wen Liang entered the classroom in the mansion.

“You must have seen this part, right?” he asked.

Cao Aiqing nodded, "I watched the show last night when it aired. I was also surprised by the plot... We just talked about it at the class reunion. Oh, I'm sorry, you probably don't remember that. The class reunion was after I returned to China..."

He Tianran waved his hand, interrupting:
"Wen Liang told me..."

He looked at the "lead singer" on TV, who looked shocked when told that he had written the letter accusing Wen Liang, and continued:
"Everything written in that letter is true; it's a shared memory between me and the 'boy'..."

Upon hearing this, Cao Aiqing turned back to look at the other He Tianran on the television screen. "But the 'lead singer's' reaction... is different from yours? He seems genuinely unaware of these things..."

He Tianran shook his head. "No, to be precise, the 'lead singer's' memories are correct, because in this real world... no pranks happened, only 'the boy' and I were out of place in this world... Originally, I thought I could find the similarities between our three personalities and find a way to awaken the original owner of this body, but now it seems that this method won't work."

Cao Aiqing listened quietly, her smile gradually fading, replaced by a serious expression.

He Tianran looked at her in silence, then suddenly smiled, a smile tinged with self-mockery:
"The 'lead singer' personality only activates when he's around Wen Liang. I don't know where his love for Wen Liang comes from, just like my and 'Boy's' hatred for Wen Liang. I still don't know where to begin. This extreme of love and hate is really hard for me to understand..."

Cao Aiqing shrugged: "Don't even mention you, this is a question that even Kant couldn't answer."

"Oh? Why are we suddenly talking about Kant? Don't elevate my personal psychological issues to a philosophical level!"

The man made a joke, but he was still very curious.

“Recently, because of your situation, I’ve been reading a lot of books on psychology and philosophy. Your conflicting feelings of love and hate are very similar to a famous paradox proposed by Kant, called ‘antinomy’…”

"Antinomy?"

He Tianran, who possessed a wealth of miscellaneous knowledge, pondered this somewhat familiar term, but couldn't recall its specific meaning for the moment.

Cao Aiqing slowly drew circles along the rim of the wine glass with her fingertips, emitting a soft hum.

Simply put, when faced with certain ultimate questions, human reason will simultaneously generate two contradictory theories, each of which is self-consistent.

For example, the statements "the world has a beginning in time" and "the world has no beginning in time" can both be logically proven, yet they are absolutely contradictory.

This highly educated woman, who had been eager to learn since childhood and returned to China after completing her studies, resembled a patient teacher at this moment, trying to explain a complex concept she had just grasped, combined with her most personal feelings, to her loved one:
"Your situation is very similar."

Your "teenager" and "writer" personas, based on past "memories" and "hurts," conclude that "I must hate Wen Liang"—this is your "main theme." Meanwhile, your "lead singer" persona, based on some unknown, instinctive emotion, concludes that "I must deeply love Wen Liang"—this is your "antithesis."

Both of these 'conclusions' are true and valid within your respective personalities, but their simultaneous existence within one body creates an irreconcilable contradiction.

The more you try to use reason to distinguish which is 'right' and which is 'wrong,' the more you'll fall into this vicious cycle of thinking. But now, the good thing is...

Cao Aiqing did not use cold words like "symptom" or "abnormality," but instead used a philosophical concept to give his suffering a metaphysical and understandable structure.

This made He Tianran, the "writer," feel for the first time that his struggles were truly "seen" and "understood."

"What's so good about it?"

The man's questioning tone carried a hint of anxiety, like someone who had finally found a way out of a confusion...

Where this road leads is still unknown...

But at least it gives him a way out.

“You just said that the ‘lead singer’ only becomes active when he sees Wen Liang, so what about me?” Cao Aiqing didn’t give a direct answer. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Instead, she asked this question and then picked up a piece of beef brisket and put it in her mouth.

He Tianran forced a bitter smile and honestly said:
“When I’m with Wen Liang, the ‘lead singer’s’ presence is always very strong, as if he could appear at any moment. But when I’m with you, Ai Qing… it’s as if ‘he’ doesn’t exist. Not only him, but even if the ‘boy’ was traumatized today and probably won’t show up for a while, even if he wasn’t traumatized, he would still become that introverted and shy little boy in front of you, pushing me to the front, but…”

Suddenly, he thought of something and hurriedly said:

“But I was aware of my situation, and I also restrained the lead singer, telling him not to vent his emotions recklessly, because ‘we’ are not the owners of this body. Unless we are facing a crisis, we cannot make any decisions that would harm others for the original He Tianran. We don’t have that right… so… so…”

"So, most of the time, when you're facing me... you're just you, naturally."

Her voice was soft and gentle, landing lightly on He Tianran's heart and soothing the man's anxiety.

The man was taken aback. Cao Aiqing picked up her wine glass, and he instinctively followed suit, but she didn't clink glasses with him. Instead, she held it in front of her, her cheeks flushed with drunkenness. Her gentle gaze pierced through the swaying glass, looking directly into the man's eyes. She spoke through her glass, as if peering into his heart:
"The good thing about your situation is that you can't remember those fabricated memories anymore. The world has changed, and your love and hate have lost their source. So those problems and paradoxes that you thought would trouble you have long since collapsed. You're just drawing a circle around yourself regarding the differences between personalities, whether it's that 'teenager' who gets carried away, or this 'lead singer' who gets emotionally impulsive, or... or this 'writer' sitting across from me now, at a loss because of a variety show..."

Cao Aiqing pushed her wine glass between the two of them. Seeing this, He Tianran also raised his glass and extended his hand. The girl, half-drunk and half-awake, chuckled, revealing a charmingly drunken smile, and finally revealed the real reason for opening the wine today:

"Welcome home, He Tianran."

……

"Ding--"

The wine glasses clinked together, making a crisp sound.

The crisp sound seemed not to echo in the air, but to strike He Tianran's heartstrings directly. He held the wine glass, and the cold glass made his fingertips feel hot.

Welcome home.

These four words were as light as a sigh, yet so heavy that he could barely bear them.

He stared blankly at Cao Aiqing as she tilted her head back to drink, watching the slight movement of her Adam's apple as she put down her glass, and the moist, crimson stain on her lips after she put the glass down...

Was it red wine? Or lipstick? Or perhaps, a young woman's shyness?

He Tianran, who was also somewhat drunk, saw the alluring blush spreading from the girl's cheeks to her fair neck through his drunken eyes.

"I……"

He wanted to say something, but felt that saying anything now would be inappropriate...

"He Tianran..."

Fortunately, the girl called his name, interrupting his thoughts.

"what?"

Do you know... how to reunite with your past self?

Cao Aiqing spoke slowly and deliberately, her voice not loud. After getting drunk, her eyes became exceptionally bright, like sunlight reflecting off the azure sea.

"what way?"

He Tianran was stunned, completely unprepared for her to ask such an absurd question.

The girl, looking quite drunk, beckoned the man forward with her finger. Her chin was raised, and her body swayed slightly involuntarily, as if she were smug.

The man leaned forward, his hands braced on the table, closing the distance between them. He could clearly see his own slightly bewildered reflection in her pupils and smell the aroma of red wine and food mingling with her breath.

What...do you want to say?

"the answer is……"

The city outside the window was completely asleep, utterly silent.

In the living room, only the sound of their breathing gradually becoming clearer, and something silent and growing wildly, remained.

The man looked into the girl's eyes, and there was no logical analysis that a "writer" needs, no scrutiny or judgment that a "teenager" fears, and no intense collision that a "lead singer" pursues.

There is only one complete and frank Cao Aiqing in that.

The girl raised a hand, her fingertips tracing the contours of the man's face. Then, her gaze remained fixed on his eyes, her voice as soft as a whisper.

"look at me."

A three-word answer.

As long as he looked at her, He Tianran knew who he was and where he should go.

This indescribable thrill seized He Tianran, and almost instinctively, he slowly and tentatively leaned forward.

Cao Aiqing did not move or dodge. Her hand remained on the other person's face as she quietly watched him approach. Only her slightly trembling eyelashes betrayed a hint that her heart was not entirely calm.

The distance drew ever closer with each breath...

But then it suddenly stopped.

“I… said… I wouldn’t… make any decisions in this mental state… I…”

"Then... let me sneak away just this once..."

Just as He Tianran was trying his best to suppress the excitement in his heart, he heard such a willful, childish, jealous, but irresistible sentence.

He could clearly see his own reflection in Cao Aiqing's pupils, and feel her warm breath brushing against his skin, carrying the slight intoxication of red wine and a hint of sweetness.

Then, a split second before her reason completely collapsed, her lips, gently and with a certain confirmation, pressed against mine.

……

Time seemed to be infinitely stretched at this moment.

This was a kiss born of passion...

It simply remained there, nestled together, like a lost ship finally reaching shore.

In that kiss, He Tianran strangely felt that the different voices that were clamoring and tearing inside him... quieted down for the first time.

Cao Aiqing slowly closed her eyes. She quietly raised her hand from the table, fumbled for the remote control, and turned off the annoying variety show she had been watching last night. Then she covered the man's slightly trembling hand that was resting on the table.

A warm touch came from my fingertips, firm yet inclusive.

The television screen went dark, like a silent black canvas. The warm yellow chandelier was their only source of light, casting their embracing silhouettes onto the wall behind them, blurring the boundaries and merging them into one.

At this moment, there is no "writer," no "teenager," and no "lead singer."

Only in this haven called "home" can we finally touch each other's souls...

He Tianran and Cao Aiqing. (End of Chapter)