My girlfriend died in the past

Chapter 3 Several Possibilities

After Dong Zeyu got off work, the two of them bought some wine and food and planned to go to Zhuang Xiao's rental house to eat and watch the game. It was a good opportunity for Dong Zeyu to confirm that there were indeed those "strange" places in his house.

There was no way. He still felt that Zhuang Xiao might have some problems due to too much mental pressure.

However, in Zhuang Xiao's opinion, Dong Zeyu is the one with the biggest problem.

The two of them were just buying some cooked food at the vegetable market, but when he came back after shopping, he saw Dong Zeyu staring at the cooked food shop with his sharp little eyes.

"what happened?"

Dong Zeyu said without even turning his head, "This crowd is too dense, they should disperse a bit, where are the market staff?"

As he said this, he rolled up his sleeves and was about to go over to maintain order.

Zhuang Xiao grabbed him and said, "No, they have a long line because their business is good. You want to cause trouble?"

"Business is good?" Dong Zeyu frowned even deeper. "Why is there such a long line at the delicatessen? Did he use poppy shells?"

".Stop making trouble, brother." Zhuang Xiao had no choice but to stuff the cooked food into his arms. "Come on, let's buy some fruit. Do you want to eat mango, dragon fruit, or something like that?"

Dong Zeyu's face turned pale. "No! Don't buy mangoes! Apples are fine! I only eat apples now! Mangoes are unlucky! How about some wine?"

"You really have an occupational disease." Zhuang Xiao held his forehead with his hand, "But forget about the wine. You still have to go back to work overtime tonight. Just get some happy water."

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the rental community.

Dong Zeyu hurriedly chased after him carrying the cooked food, "Stop! Brother Zhuang, you are cursing me, right? I will be fine tonight!"

The sound gradually faded away and disappeared in the flow of cars going home from get off work and school.
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"What the hell! Endo Wataru? They lost the ball after only twelve minutes!"

"Why is there no one guarding this back post? How could the Japanese guy score a header?!"

Dong Zeyu cursed and took a gulp of Coke. He turned around and saw Zhuang Xiao laughing, so he said unhappily, "Brother Zhuang, I admit that the Chinese national football team is indeed rubbish, but they only conceded two goals in the first half, and the second goal was scored in injury time. It's impossible that they conceded five goals in the second half, right?"

Zhuang Xiao shrugged, "How should I know why? Yesterday, I was having dinner with you at the Moon Rising West Tower."

"The Moon Rises over the West Tower? A place where the average cost per person is over 200 yuan?" Dong Zeyu was shocked. "I thought you said we were just going to have a quick bite on the street. Are you treating me?"

"No, you invited me."

"Why should I invite you?"

“You get paid today.”

".You know this too!?"

Dong Zeyu really believed it now, but he would have to wait until the end of the game to see what the result would be.

So in the second half, when the score reached 7:0, Dong Zeyu slowly exhaled, turned around and looked at Zhuang Xiao with a very serious expression, as if he wanted to say something but stopped.

Zhuang Xiao raised his eyebrows, "Why, you still don't believe it?"

Dong Zeyu shook his head, "No, I just regret not buying football lottery in advance. If I go all in directly, I will be so happy that I will go to hell!"

Zhuang Xiao patted him on the shoulder and said, "Let's talk about it next time when I go back to the past. I still don't understand the situation. You are good at logic in college, so help me analyze it."

"Well, let's assume that you have really returned to the previous day. Just assume it."

Dong Zeyu actually didn't really believe what Zhuang Xiao said. The score of 7-0 was indeed ridiculously accurate, but when Germany beat Brazil 7-1 in the World Cup that year, there were people who guessed the score correctly.

As for the extra toothbrushes and towels in the bathroom, they further prove that Zhuang Xiao's mental state is unstable.

But he still had to follow Zhuang Xiao's words first, so as not to really upset him. Anyway, he had already made up his mind. He would inform Zhuang Xiao's parents when he got home in the evening and take him to see it tomorrow.

He continued to analyze, "Assuming that you really went back to the previous day, there are three possibilities. Let's use a few anime movies to illustrate, which is more intuitive. "The first possibility is the 'brain in a vat' theory. Brother Zhuang, you have seen "The Matrix", right?"

"I've seen it." Zhuang Xiao nodded.

The so-called "brain in a vat" refers to a situation in which a person undergoes surgery by an evil scientist, in which his brain is cut off and placed in a vat containing nutrient solution to keep the brain alive.

The nerve endings in his brain are connected to a computer, which is programmed to send information to the brain so that he maintains the illusion that everything is completely normal.

似于他来说，似乎人、物体、天空还都存在，自身的运动、身体脟觉都可以输入。

So the question is, how do you ensure that you are not the “brain in a vat”?
Or, how do you prove that the current world is real?
"The Matrix" is a science fiction film released in 1999. This film borrowed the theory of "brain in a vat".

The story is about the protagonist and a friend who created a virtual world in a computer in 1999. That virtual world is set in 1937. He can use the computer to enter the body of a character in the virtual world in 1937 to live and have fun. After he returns to 1999, everything in that virtual world continues to develop normally.

Later on, he discovered that the world in 1999 was also a virtual world, created by someone from a future world. At the same time, people from that future world would enter this virtual world and occupy his body to live and play, and he had no memory of any of that period of time.

"Then let's analyze whether you are in this situation." Dong Zeyu grabbed a braised chicken foot and started chewing it.

"Forget about the brain in a jar, because there's no way to prove it." Zhuang Xiao opened another can of Coke. "But the situation with 'Hackers from Another Dimension' is obviously not the same, because although I don't have any memories of my girlfriend, there are no gaps in my other memories. Even if there are things I forgot, they are within the normal range. There's also no weird things happening, such as me doing something but not knowing it, but other people knowing it."

"Indeed, let's rule out this possibility for now." Dong Zeyu is a policeman after all, he understands "negotiation skills" or "interrogation skills", so he has begun to follow Zhuang Xiao's words without leaving any trace.

"Then let's talk about the second possibility. You know Steins;Gate, it's the same as yours. You'll receive text messages, and then the text messages will disappear."

"It's unlikely." Zhuang Xiao immediately denied it. "I've thought about this. Steins; Gate is too complicated. But one thing is clear: the changes in the timeline are very obvious, but there is almost no change between my 'yesterday' and 'today'."

"Okay, let's not talk about this for now, let's talk about the third possibility." Dong Zeyu skipped this option directly, "That means you really went back in time. Brother Zhuang, have you seen "Time Traveler"? "

Zhuang Xiao shook his head.

"It's a niche love movie. It tells the story of a man in the protagonist's family who has the ability to go back to a certain point in the past. As long as he finds a small, dark space and thinks hard about a certain time point, he can go back to that time point."

After listening to Dong Zeyu's explanation, Zhuang Xiao became interested. "It's quite similar to a comic I've read, 'The Street Where Only I Am Missing'."

"Ah? I've seen that animation, the NTR ending is fucking rubbish!" Dong Zeyu started to criticize directly.

Zhuang Xiao shrugged, "The animation is too short, the comics are more interesting."

"The Street Where Only I Am Missing" tells the story of a protagonist who has a superpower called "reenactment".

When something bad happens to him, "replay" will allow his consciousness to travel back to a certain time in the past where he can prevent it from happening.

The triggering of this ability is mandatory.

Simply put, it is the file loading that cannot be actively controlled.

This "bad" thing generally refers to the death of someone close to him, but after the "replay" is triggered, he cannot be sure how far back in the past he has gone. He only knows that it is likely that someone close to him has had an accident, or he may not even know which person it is.

"Then here comes the question." Dong Zeyu held up the half-eaten braised chicken feet in his hand, "Brother Zhuang, can you 'actively' control time to go back?"

"I don't know. When I woke up, I found myself back in the morning of the day before I went to bed." Zhuang Xiao gave the answer.

"What time did you go to bed last night?" Dong Zeyu asked.

Zhuang Xiao recalled, "Before about 12 o'clock, I won a battle royale. I looked at the time and it should be around 11:30. Then I washed up and went to B station to find an emoticon animation. Not long after that, I fell asleep. The emoticon animation lasted less than half an hour, and the animation was not finished before I fell asleep.

"I washed up very quickly, finishing in three minutes, so I fell asleep before twelve o'clock, and then I was woken up by the text message ringtone at around 7:30 this morning."

"Then it's very simple what we have to do now." Dong Zeyu threw away the braised chicken feet and snapped his fingers, "Don't sleep tonight, stay up until 7:30 tomorrow morning, and then see what happens."

(End of this chapter)