You on the other side of time

"Hello..." Liu Meiyue was clearly surprised when she heard him say that he was majoring in archaeology. This was one of the top majors at Jin University, ranking among the top in the country. The difference between him and her was more than a hundred points!

But she didn't dare say much; she knew her father's personality. He had spent his entire life running a fruit stand in Jinchuan City, without achieving much success or truly settling down in the city. However, he would never let go of anyone who could benefit her in the slightest, even someone he only met briefly.

The two scanned a QR code on their phones, exchanging WeChat messages in a slightly awkward manner. Liu Meiyue's lips trembled slightly. She blinked and looked timidly at her father, "Dad, I'm going back to study. Senior, we...we'll contact each other again if anything comes up."

"Go on, go on, good girl." Uncle Wang waved his hand, his tone tinged with pride, and muttered to himself, "Look at this girl, she hasn't even officially started university yet, and she's already thinking about taking the postgraduate entrance exam. She's much more promising than I was back then."

"Such a well-planned approach, that's amazing." Si Yang exclaimed in agreement. "Then let's contact them again later."

Si Yang's attitude was sincere, but he knew perfectly well that it was just polite conversation between strangers. Most of the connections gained through such politeness would just end up in his contacts and he would never have any further contact with them.

"Bye-bye..." Liu Meiyue hurriedly returned to the house.

As soon as he entered the house, Si Yang leaned forward, already quite impatient. "Uncle Wang, you said the aunt across the street had an accident. Do you know what happened?"

Uncle Wang's brows, which had just relaxed, furrowed again. He glanced around, lowered his voice so low that Si Yang had to strain to hear what he was saying, "I heard her child was pushed into the river by someone... It's strange, really. I remember when she moved here, she didn't bring the child with her at all. Could it be that I was too busy selling fruit to notice?"

"My wife told me not to talk nonsense, because if it blows up and causes public opinion, it will be bad for our child. If anyone asks, just say you don't know anything." Uncle Wang paused, subconsciously glanced into the room, and let out a soft sigh of relief. "Anyway, just pretend I didn't say anything, and don't spread it around."

Uncle Wang's fear of his wife was just like his own father's. But that wasn't what Si Yang was focusing on. What mattered was what he said: the single mother didn't have any children when she moved in.

The image of his single mother waking up and her heart-wrenching words flashed through his mind, word by word.

"Was it easy for me to raise this baby all by myself?"

"She has never left my side for a single day."

"My child is my life..."

"..."

Something's not right, this is really not right.

There was no reason for Uncle Wang to lie to him. They had no conflict of interest, and Uncle Wang might even want to use his relationship to give his daughter more care in the future. It was even less likely that he would spread rumors.

He composed himself, put on the smile he had just worn, and said naturally, "Uncle Wang, my mom loves apples the most. Could you weigh me another ten pounds of apples, the crisp and sweet kind?"

Then, he deliberately feigned regret and added, "Although I like to hear some gossip, after hearing what you said, I'm afraid I won't get my takeout money back. I don't know when this aunt moved in or how long she's lived here. My part-time salary isn't high, but every little bit helps. If she's a long-time resident, I can try asking her again."

The air seemed to freeze for a few seconds. Si Yang couldn't guess what Uncle Wang was thinking; he was probably searching his memory for when the woman had moved in. Don't underestimate these business people; they may not have had much schooling, but their memories are excellent.

They can identify major customers and remember their appearance after just one fruit purchase. They can weigh ten different kinds of fruit at once and calculate the results accurately without even using a calculator.

"It was probably a few months ago," Uncle Wang said uncertainly. He had never bought fruit from the woman across the street before, so his memory of her was vague. However, since they lived next door and he saw her all the time, he still remembered her to some extent.

"What about the children?" Si Yang pressed.

"I only saw the child in the last two weeks, definitely no more than a month. The main problem is that the child cries all night, keeping everyone awake and causing a lot of trouble." Uncle Wang said with certainty, and he even seemed a little impatient when talking about the child's loud crying.

After saying that, he turned and went back into the house. Not long after, he came out carrying a bag of apples, which he handed to Si Yang along with the pineapples. After taking out the QR code to receive the money, a middle-aged woman's voice suddenly came from inside the house.

"Old Wang, what are you dawdling for? Hurry up and come in and pinch off the garlic scapes. We're waiting to cook the vegetables."

"Alright, alright, coming, coming." Uncle Wang quickly replied, shrugging helplessly at Si Yang. "Kid, I'm going to get back to work now. Come whenever you want fruit. Uncle Wang's fruit is guaranteed to be the freshest and won't be shortchanged."

He paused for half a second, a look of unfathomable expression appearing on his face, and then added, "Kid, listen to Uncle Wang's advice, don't marry Jinchuan Tyrannosaurus Rex in the future, he's too old to handle."

Before Si Yang could react, Uncle Wang walked into the room and slammed the door shut. Through the thick door, Si Yang and Wen Jinxin could hear a woman's voice roaring inside.

"You little brat, you took up my whole shower time just to pour some water. Where have you been? Were you out chatting away again?"

Immediately following was Uncle Wang's ingratiating voice: "Wife, don't be angry, don't be angry. I have some customers buying fruit, so I'm going to make some money to buy you new clothes."

"..."

Si Yang and Wen Jinxin stood there, looking at each other for a long time, neither of them speaking first.

The amount of information that Uncle Wang just said was too much, and Si Yang's mind is in a mess right now. He keeps going over and sorting through those clues.

"Hey, what did Uncle Wang mean by that?" Wen Jinxin broke the silence first. His brain couldn't keep up, and he had long forgotten those key clues. His mind was full of Uncle Wang's final sentence. "I think his line 'Don't marry Jinchuan Tyrannosaurus' translates to 'If I don't pamper my wife, who will?' Look at him, he's clearly willing, but he's still being stubborn."

Wen Jinxin is from the North and has a bit of a male chauvinist streak, but he admires these "henpecked but stubborn" men and thinks that's what real men are.

"Can't you focus on something a little more normal?" Wen Jinxin's words left Si Yang speechless.

As the two walked back carrying the fruit, Si Yang slowly came to his senses and, together with Wen Jinxin, sorted through the clues they had gathered that day: the single mother had moved in about a few months ago, and the child had only arrived about two or three weeks ago.

"Then who was taking care of this child before?" Si Yang muttered under his breath. "Also, why did that woman lie? She said she had been taking care of the child all by herself, and that the baby had never left her side for a single day. This is completely different from what Uncle Wang said."

"And then there's the crying in the middle of the night," Si Yang paused for a moment, then added, "How could a normal mother let her child cry incessantly in the middle of the night, disturbing the neighbors' peace? It just doesn't make sense."

Si Yang is rational and likes to do things logically, but now, the mere act of "lying" has already made it impossible for him to justify his actions. He doesn't understand women's minds, let alone the thoughts of a single mother, but it's clearly something that even someone as clueless as him can see is problematic.

She recalled Si Chuying's recent state; he was always sullen and in low spirits, but besides Si Chuying, he had no other familiar girls to ask him.

After pondering for a long time, he and Wen Jinxin reluctantly came to a conclusion: the woman most likely didn't like her child, the child hadn't been by her side for a long time, and might even have been frequently beaten and scolded by her. But no matter what, the child was born after she carried him for ten months, and blood is thicker than water, so after the child fell into the river, she suddenly realized her mistake and was so sad that she repeatedly fell into a coma.

But even Si Yang himself felt this conclusion was far-fetched. He always felt that something was wrong, as if something was missing, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

After walking a short distance, Si Yang stopped and turned to Wen Jinxin. "Don't you think that mother might not actually be unconscious, but rather trying to escape something?"

"What are you running away from?" Wen Jinxin scratched his head. He had never been able to figure out these brain-teasing things, so he could only offer his guess. "I think she's just overwhelmed with grief. Think about it, if I have children in the future, I'll fight anyone who dares to harm my child. It's perfectly normal to be extremely sad when a child is lost."

"What are you running away from? I think she's just overwhelmed with grief. After all, if I have children in the future, I'll fight anyone who dares to harm them."

Wen Jinxin believes that Si Yang is being overly rational, leading to overthinking and complicating a simple matter. From the perspective of a parent's natural instinct to protect their child, the single mother's current reaction is not a major problem.

Si Yang didn't refute it further, but his doubts didn't lessen. He handed the fruit to Wen Jinxin, "You take the fruit, I'm going back to school. I need to write these clues down quickly and sort them out properly."

The two reached the intersection where they learned to read, one heading towards the school and the other in the opposite direction. They simply said "goodbye" and went their separate ways.