My girlfriend is from the future!

On the streets of the port city in winter, the afternoon sun is thin, carrying an indelible gray haze. The air is permeated with the damp chill unique to the south. No matter how thickly you wear, a gust of wind can still sneak into your clothes, making you shiver.

Wen Liang led the excited golden retriever under the sycamore trees on the sidewalk. The bare branches intertwined overhead, cutting through the already meager sunlight.

The golden retriever sniffed ahead, its leash taut, its tail wagging wildly. Every now and then, it would look back at its owner, who was lagging behind, and whine impatiently.

Wen Liang walked slowly, her eyes above her mask lowered, her gaze fixed on the constantly moving square paving stones in front of her, but her thoughts were elsewhere, until a steady footstep approached clearly from behind, remaining a few steps away.

She didn't look back.

The golden retriever pricked up its ears alertly, turned its fluffy head, and let out a low growl. Then, as if recognizing the scent, it wagged its tail happily again and tried to dart back.

Wen Liang tightened the dog leash slightly.

The footsteps stopped beside her, maintaining a perfect distance—neither too intimate nor too distant.

"It... seems to really remember me?"

He Tianran's voice rang out, carrying a hint of the crispness of a winter street, revealing little emotion. He looked at the golden retriever trying to rub its wet nose against its trouser leg, squatted down, and stroked the golden retriever's big head.

"It saw you before when you came to my house, so of course it recognizes you..."

A cool, muffled voice came from inside the mask.

"Heh~ It seems 'my' memory is even worse than a dog's..."

He Tianran stood up with a self-deprecating laugh and asked the girl in front of him:
Did you help me keep a diary?

Wen Liang didn't reply immediately. Instead, she looked back at the empty street park ahead, her hands, which were in her hoodie pockets, clenched silently for a moment. Then she took out a black mask of the same style and instructed:
"Put it on. You're a celebrity now, so you can't just go out like this and people won't recognize you."

"Um……"

He Tianran stood up and took the mask, putting it on. A gust of cold wind swept by, blowing the wisps of hair on Wen's forehead. The leash in his hand swayed gently, and the golden retriever circled around their feet, its breath dispersing into the cold air.

Wen Liang wanted to ask something, but as soon as she raised the leash, the golden retriever pulled her along...

So the two of them walked silently, one after the other, into a park at the street corner. At this time, there was no one in the park. The rusty exercise equipment stood alone on the withered grass. He Tianran followed three steps behind, his gaze sweeping over the bare bushes and peeling benches on both sides, and finally looking at the girl in front of him who was standing in the desolate winter, bending down to untie the dog leash.

"Go play by yourself for a while! Go—!"

Almost without being told, the golden retriever dashed out the moment it was unleashed and ran onto the lawn to play with the pets of the few other dog walkers in the park.

"What's its name?"

A question came from behind, and Wen Liang turned around, walked past the man, put her hands in her pockets, and sat down on the bench.

"natural."

"……what?"

"I said the dog's name is Tianran (Natural), do you have any objections?"

He Tianran was taken aback, then realized what was happening and shook his head, sitting down next to the other person: "No...no...it's fine."

Wen Liang observed the man's expression and finally chuckled softly, "Your reaction is exactly the same as when you learned its name last time."

"Is it possible that... 'we' were originally one person?"

Wen Liang shifted her gaze to her beloved dog running in the distance and calmly said:

"Really? But I think if you're a 'writer,' you should have just followed up on my work topic instead of talking about things that don't even exist."

He Tianran shrugged. "Then let's talk about something we don't know about each other."

Wen Liang nodded his chin toward the golden retriever:
Its real name is Money.

"...What a nice name! It comes over every time someone calls it?"

"meeting."

"Money—! Come here!"

He Tianran put his hands together near his mouth and barked at the golden retriever. The golden retriever, which was playing with its companions, immediately stood still, glanced in the direction of its owner, and after finding that Wen Liang did not react, it turned its head and started playing with its companions again.

"It's not listening to me at all..."

The man was greatly disappointed.

Wen Liang adjusted her mask, suppressing a laugh that was being hidden, and said:

"You asked if it would come over if a 'human' called it. I said yes, but I don't know if other species would call it..."

He Tianran was speechless. "Hey, you've already fooled me twice by putting my name on a dog's name, and now you're saying this again..."

“Oh dear, Mr. He…” Wen Liang interrupted the other party’s rant: “You’re a boss now, why would you be short of a little money? Do you need to seek this omen? Well, now I’ve told you something you don’t know, so it’s your turn. Let’s talk about something I don’t know. Why did you say I rejected you?”

"Your focus is on me saying you rejected me?" He Tianran retorted.

"Otherwise what? I had no idea what you were talking about. I was quick to react by not just saying 'yes, yes, yes'!"

"Then what do you think?"

"What do you think?"

"How I felt after hearing those words."

"Ha, I don't feel anything."

The girl's emotional reaction caused a brief, tense silence in the conversation, but after only a few seconds, Wen Liang, as if unable to contain her anger, vented:

“He Tianran, I’m the one asking you a question, and you keep asking me the same questions back. Who taught you to talk like that? You ask me how I feel, but I feel like you’re just hinting at me to keep my distance. What, was it because I was too forward during the show recording that you thought I was being too proactive? Yes, sometimes I’m just a bit impulsive, like when my dad wants to hit you. I’m happy when I’m happy, and I’m not happy when I’m not happy, and nobody can stop me…”

Heh~ I originally thought I could still tell which of your three personalities was which, but now it seems your situation has indeed improved. At least the original He Tianran could actually do such a thing. You've always been like this, never discussing anything with anyone before you do it..."

Wen Liang talked a lot, her words like a machine gun, almost saying whatever came to mind. Her words were full of dissatisfaction, especially with He Tianran's self-righteous approach. The man listened silently, without refuting or explaining. He just listened, and then, seeing the girl's complaining expression, he suddenly smiled.

"Ha ha……"

Wen Liang seemed to react suddenly, glaring at him:
"why are you laughing?!"

"No, no... phew..."

He exhaled, his voice suddenly lowering, as if he were talking to himself:

"I think... in this [context missing] you've never suffered, never stumbled, and I've just let you [context missing], I don't even know if your [context missing] is [context missing], but fortunately, you're my artist now..."

Wen Liang was already angry, and He Tianran's voice was low, so she didn't quite catch some of the details in his words. However, his behavior immediately put Wen Liang on guard: "You...you're not the 'lead singer'...who are you?"

He Tianran smiled in surprise: "I am 'him'."

"Then why did you say that to my parents?"

"Because I like you, that's the key point of what I said. I didn't lie to them..."

Wen Liang was taken aback, but when He Tianran said those words again, he did so without the slightest hesitation.

Wen Liang almost instinctively retorted, but her voice trembled without her even realizing it:
"The point? He Tianran, you're making this the point? You put on a melodramatic show of being dumped by me in front of my parents, and now you come to me with this? You said you liked me, and then what? You disappeared? Lost your memory? Had a personality change? You can't even decide who you are, so what right do you have to decide who I am?"

"Wen Liang, listen carefully..."

He Tianran pondered for a moment, then lowered his voice even further, pressing his hands on Wen Liang's trembling shoulders, as if sharing a secret only the two of them knew:

“I love you, it is my will, and I do not want to go against it. This is the only thing I am certain of right now that I am here. But I cannot make any promises for ‘He Tianran’ or for the true owner of this body. ‘I’ have no future.”

Therefore, making you reject 'me' is the only way to put my mind at ease and also to keep me...sober."

"wide awake?"

As Wen Liang savored the word, the anger in her eyes was gradually replaced by a deeper, more complex emotion, a mixture of heartache and helplessness:

"He Tianran, do you think you're... being sober?"

She looked at him, at this man who clearly said he liked her, yet personally drew a line between them.

“You’re always like this…you’ve always been like this,” her voice trailed off, “making decisions on your own, thinking only of what’s best for others, you never…you never ask for my opinion!”

The moment the words were spoken, the golden retriever in the distance seemed to sense its owner's emotional fluctuations, stopped running wildly, turned around, and ran back towards them.

Looking at her familiar stubborn expression, He Tianran felt as if his heart was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand. He wanted to reach out and touch that familiar face, but his hand froze in mid-air halfway up.

“Because I have no right to ask…” he finally said, “I am just a passerby who could disappear at any moment, I have no right to ask…”

The golden retriever had already run to their feet, rubbing its fluffy head against their cool legs, making a soothing whimpering sound.

Wen Liang lowered her head, looking at her anxious dog at her feet, then raised her head to look at the man in front of her who was even more of a worry to her than the dog.

"Ever since I woke up last time, I've remembered some things from the past, and I can vaguely sense what's happening around me. That time, you and Ai Qing decided to help 'me.' I have memories, so I want to tell more people that I fell in love with you, and you rejected me, not the other way around..."

Wenliang, we need to communicate while wearing masks. You should know better than me why. We're not children or students anymore. Your every move and my actions will be magnified infinitely on our phones, in front of cameras, and in social media comments. All of this is enough to affect your fate... and mine. But I'm much better off than you, because even if I fall, even if this relationship is exposed, when people talk about it, they'll still think of me, He Tianran, as a carefree rich kid, or at the very least, a womanizer. But what about you?

"I can..."

"Didn't you know about the 'writer's' plan to get close to Yu Naoqiu?"

He Tianran interrupted Wen Liang's usual unwavering determination. He knew how to stop this woman, so infatuated with the word "love," and every word he spoke now undoubtedly drew a chasm between them:
"Cao Aiqing, don't you understand what her relationship with the original owner is? That girl who even you would shy away from, who never abandoned me, do you think I would abandon her after I recover from my illness...?"
Wen Liang fell completely silent, her eyes filled with a sense of bewilderment and struggle about the future.

“Ah Liang…”

He Tianran paused, as if choked by a cold wind:
"You, just continue to be this... the gentle and cool person who can face everyone with a clear conscience after rejecting me, okay?"

The girl's body trembled...

"..."

"..."

"...A clear conscience?"

Wen Liang repeated those four words, her voice not loud, but it sounded particularly abrupt in the chilly air, and the sarcasm in her tone made He Tianran's hand on her shoulder feel as if it had been burned...

“He Tianran…you’re such a self-righteous bastard…”

Wen Liang brushed aside He Tianran's hands that were on her shoulders and stared intently at the man in front of her, a man who felt both strange and incredibly familiar.

"You can tell everyone 'you like me,' and then let me watch you mess everything up, but have you ever thought about this... liking someone, love, is never a fucking one-man show, you fucking can't do it all by yourself!"

Wen Liang stood up, pulled off her mask, and her voice went from low to high. Her emotions went from confusion to anger, until finally, she started cursing.

"Ah Liang, you..."

He Tianran immediately stood up, wanting to offer some words of comfort, but as soon as he approached, Wen Liang suddenly pushed him away with such force that He Tianran staggered back two steps.

"You have no future?"

The woman gave a cold laugh, a laugh full of bitterness and disdain, yet it was just like a stubborn, unquenchable fire in the cold winter.

"Who the hell cares about your future? Let me tell you, from the moment you said those things to me on that lousy variety show, from the moment I turned around and went to find you, I never thought about any bullshit future!"

The golden retriever seemed to sense its owner's intense emotional fluctuations, pacing anxiously around her feet and whimpering softly.

"But now I see..."

Her cool gaze swept across the man's face, revealing undisguised disappointment.
"What's the difference between you and that 'boy' who only knows how to run away?"

After she finished speaking, she didn't look at him again.

That resolute determination was more hurtful than any heated argument.

Wen Liang slowly turned around, without picking up the dog leash from the ground, nor bending down to soothe the restless golden retriever at her feet.

Her departing figure stood straight, like a reed that would never bend in the cold wind.

The golden retriever whimpered, glanced back one last time at He Tianran, who was frozen in place, and then started walking, closely following its owner's steps.

He Tianran stood there, watching her walk away step by step. The oversized hoodie looked a bit heavy on her, but the girl walked with exceptionally steady steps, without the slightest hesitation or lingering.

The winter sun was finally swallowed up by the clouds, and the sky grew increasingly dark. The cold wind swirled up the withered leaves on the ground, chasing after her departing figure.

The man wanted to chase after him, but his legs felt as heavy as lead.

He tried to call her name, his lips moved, but no sound came out.

That phrase, "I like you," represented the lead singer's entire will and courage, yet it also became the boundary that completely separated the two of them at that moment.

He Tianran slowly sat back down on the cold bench. The chill seeped into his bones through his thick clothes from the iron backrest.

All around, only the desolate, mournful sound of the wind whistling through the bare branches remained. (End of Chapter)