You on the other side of time

"Brother, you need to get treatment! Why do you have this 'abnormal' episode every week?"

Si Chuying glared at him fiercely, then turned and walked towards the bedroom, yawning so hard her eyes were almost watering: "I'm on vacation, but you're not! You have Lao Xu's class this morning, don't blame me for not reminding you."

"Yingying, you must remember what I said, don't do good deeds on a whim," Si Yang added, his tone full of anxiety.

"A talkative boy."

The sound of books hitting the table came from the bedroom.

Si Yang then pulled out his phone to check the time, muttering to himself, "Isn't it June 8th? Why is there a holiday?!"

When Si Yang saw the screen, he was instantly stunned. Today is July 8th, Friday.

Compared to the time since the last time I traveled back, it has moved forward by a whole month, and it is already midsummer.

Si Chuying is currently a second-year high school student. The second year of high school is not as stressful as the third year, and every year there is still a full month of vacation in July, the hottest month. So she is currently on summer vacation. However, Si Yang is already a third-year university student. In order to leave more time for students to do internships in their fourth year, the third-year classes usually do not start until mid-July.

From this perspective, it seems there's no reason why Lao Xu wouldn't miss a class.

There were only twenty minutes left before class started. It would take at least ten minutes to cycle from home to Jinda University. Si Yang suddenly felt anxious. Last time he came back, he hadn't done anything before being pulled back to reality. This time, he had to leave some obvious reminder.

He pulled out his planner, grabbed a red marker, and wrote boldly in the most prominent position on the first page: "Mind your own business."

He carried this notebook with him every day; whenever he saw it, he would be reminded of the "disaster" that occurred eight months later.

He glanced around the room again. In that instant, there was no chance to leave a trace anywhere else. Si Yang grabbed his schoolbag and rushed out the door. Before leaving, he yelled at his sister's bedroom, "Yingying, I'm going to school. Call me anytime if you need anything. Don't meddle in other people's business."

"This is so annoying, let's go! Let's go!" came Si Chuying's irritated reply from inside the bedroom.

With a bang, Si Yang slammed the door shut, rushed into the elevator, grabbed a shared bicycle after leaving the community, and pedaled hard towards Jinda University.

Today's lesson is a special session on the "Sun Tree" at the Jinchuan Museum. Si Yang watched Xu Qingwan prepare her lesson beforehand and was particularly impressed by it.

As soon as I arrived at the school gate, the school bell rang like a death knell.

After parking his bicycle downstairs at the History Department building, he walked toward the lecture hall on the right side of the building, thinking to himself that Old Xu was so diligent that he must have arrived at the classroom long ago. If he entered through the front door, he would inevitably be pointed at by his classmates and would be caught red-handed by Old Xu, who would probably give him another two hours of nagging.

So, Si Yang went around to the back door of the classroom, gently pushed it open, and Old Xu's familiar voice struck his eardrums: "The bronze divine bird of the Sun Tree is not just a simple sacrificial ritual object; behind it lies the cosmology of the Jinchuan people..."

She was so engrossed in her speech that she seemed completely oblivious to the person entering through the back door. Si Yang quickly shrank to the corner and sat down. Just as he took out his schedule, the back door was gently pushed open a crack.

A long-haired head peeked in, quickly glanced at the podium, then tiptoed in and sat down in the empty seat next to him.

Si Yang glanced at her, feeling that her figure looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen her before.

But he was certain that the girl wasn't in their field.

There were 148 students in the Archaeology class of Jinchuan University in 2022, with only 18 being female. Even if he had poor social skills and was face-blind, he would have memorized all 18 faces completely over the course of three years.

Furthermore, this is a required course for the major, not a general elective. Logically, students from other majors should not be attending this class.

After the girl sat down, she lowered her head to organize her schoolbag, took out her notebook and pen, arranged them neatly, and then quickly started taking notes. The whole set of movements was smooth and natural, as if she had attended countless classes here.

Si Yang reached into his bag and realized that because he had rushed out the door, he had only packed his planner and hadn't brought his pencil case at all. If she checked his books and found not a single word missing during a full class, especially Xu Qingwan's class, the consequences would be unimaginable.

He looked around, hesitating for a long time. He'd devoted himself entirely to his studies all these years and had hardly ever interacted with girls. There was no one else around, except for the long-haired girl who had just slipped in.

"Hello, student." He lowered his voice, trying to make his tone as natural as possible, "Do you have an extra pen?"

"Yes!" The girl gently raised her head, her voice soft.

Si Yang could vaguely see a faint smile playing on her lips. Her long hair fell to her side, obscuring most of her face, making it impossible to even discern her facial features. She handed him a pen, its body badly worn, but the image of the Sun Bird from the Jinchuan Museum was clearly visible on it—a cultural and creative product from the Jinchuan Museum.

"Thank you, student. I'll return it to you right after class." Si Yang took the pen and took a deep breath. Xu Qingwan's voice could be heard lecturing, but in his mind, he wondered if he could leave some other trace in the classroom to repeatedly remind himself to "mind his own business."

"Senior, you can use it first, it's okay." The girl lowered her head, hesitating as she gripped the corner of the notebook, then suddenly asked in a low voice, "Um...excuse me, could you rent me your campus card?"

Si Yang was stunned for a moment.

He was all too familiar with this tactic. There were always students auditing his classes, using the pretext of asking questions to strike up a conversation, their real intention being to use his student ID to sneak into the library. Others, however, wanted to get into the cafeteria, since it received government subsidies and was significantly cheaper than outside.

Actually, these are all relatively mild cases. Even worse, some people brazenly sneak into the dormitory under the guise of having a boyfriend, making the place a mess.

"Aren't you from Jinda University?" Si Yang asked directly.

"I'm from Jinchuan No. 7 Middle School, and I just graduated this year." The girl's voice trailed off. "I really love archaeology and wanted to study it early, but the school requires a student ID card to enter..."

"I'm sorry, this is a personal item, and I really can't lend it to you." Si Yang refused decisively upon hearing this.

It was just a chance encounter during a class, and the cautious Si Yang didn't want to get involved in anything. Besides, the words "Mind your own business" were prominently displayed at the top of his notebook.

"Thank you," the girl replied, sounding slightly disappointed.

Just then, Xu Qingwan's voice suddenly rose: "The girl who spoke in the back row, you answer this question: Jinchuan civilization has not been found to have a mature writing system, so why is it still considered a highly developed civilization?"

All eyes in the class turned to the girl.

The girl paused, her hand gripping the pen unconsciously tightening.

Si Yang's heart skipped a beat. He had been so focused on leaving a trace that he hadn't been paying attention to Old Xu's lecture at all, and he probably hadn't noticed the girl in front of him either, especially since she was a high school student from another school who was auditing his class.

To his surprise, the girl quickly stood up, her long hair falling over her shoulders to reveal most of her face. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but her eyes were firm, showing no signs of stage fright.