Chu Yunsheng ran to the other end of the corridor in one breath, and lay on the railing, trying to calm himself down.
“Do you want some water?”
A sudden but pleasant voice came from behind him.
Chu Yunsheng suddenly turned around and jumped up like a frightened cat and shouted, “who are you?! Get away from me!”
“My surname is Zhao. We met in the lab before.” The girl, who was holding the water cup, smiled softly, pointed to the cup in her hand, and said, “it may be better to drink some water. Many people are traumatized by the monster.”
Chu Yunsheng squatted in a dark corner, pulling his hair while constantly mumbling something. His mind was still in a confused state, he just couldn’t calm himself down.
Above their heads, a camera moved slightly, sending signals almost instantly into a conference room in the test building through the cable.
“I think Chu Yunsheng’s mental problem is more severe than Miss Song’s.” From the end of a desk slowly stood up an old grey-haired researcher. He took off his glasses and said.
“I disagree.” Professor Sun also stood up, signaled his assistant to switch to another camera, and played it back on the computer until Song Ying approached Chu Yunsheng without any reason and took the initiative to say hello to Chu Yunsheng. Then he stopped the video and analyzed the scene, “Chu Yunsheng has been sitting there since dinner, and there is nothing unusual, but look…”
As he said it, he raised his hand to signal the assistant to start playing the video in slow motion, and carried on, “you see, Song came to Chu and talked to him first. Before the conversation, Chu was acting very normal. But during the conversation, Chu gradually appeared that he was unable to control himself. His behavior was very odd, but clearly, at that moment, Song could still stop the conversation and leave. However, not only did she not stop the conversation, but she waited until Chu held her head tightly, then Jiang appeared… Therefore, logically speaking, Song’s mental problem appeared first, and she also caused Chu to have mental problems.”
“I disagree.” The grey-haired man shook his head and pointed to the synchronized display screen in front of him and said, “I have carefully analyzed the facial expressions of Miss Song. She appeared to be scared and worried.”
Professor Sun wasn’t convinced. He immediately said, “since she was afraid, why did she want to get close to Chu? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I think…” the gray-haired old man was still holding on to his idea, but he was interrupted by a high ranking military officer.
“Professors!” The military officer lowered his voice and then continued, “there is no need to make it so complicated. Since we were able to determine that the monster seemed to stop the attack because of them, from the earliest CCTV footage, and it is also obvious to us that both of them are behaving strangely, then both of them are equally suspicious. After all, when the accident happened, both of them were on the scene. So it is possible that both of them have some psychological changes. Therefore, there is no need to discuss any further. Both Song and Chu should be closely monitored to understand their conditions.”
Seeing the person, who was in charge of the troop that was guarding the lab, talked, professor Sun gave up discussing it any further. He simply found a chair to sit down, put his hands on the desk and said, “little Chu’s background is very simple, we just need to find someone to follow him in the dark. I have also asked Zhao Ling to approach him. Earlier on during the lab, Chu was staring at little Zhao, he probably likes her, so he probably won’t suspect anything. But in terms of Miss Song… ”
What he meant was clear to everyone, Chu Yunsheng was just an ordinary civilian, it would be very easy for the military to monitor him, but Song Ying was different. Her father’s social status and position… It was not someone that they could monitor at will. Even if the military wanted to do it, they still needed to think about the consequences.
The high ranking military officer probably also felt the difficulty. He licked his lips and finally said, “I’ll take care of it. I’ll visit the Song family.”
Everyone was relieved when they heard that the military officer was going to handle it in person. Although all the people in the room were working for the military secret service, none of them dared to go to the Song family and tell them that they were going to monitor Song Ying closely. At most, they would only politely invite her to come to the lab and ask her some questions, which was exactly what they did today.
Seeing no one spoke, the officer waved his hand and said, “that’s all for today. Professors, you will need rest early. This project is still relying on your two, you need to take good care of yourself. Song and Chu should also be sent back. We can’t get much information from them at the moment. So don’t cause unnecessary panic outside.”
There was a clear sign of reluctance in his tone. Regarding Chu Yunsheng, they could still detain him, but Song Ying, they must send her home. Otherwise, if that family really got mad, it would be very troublesome to deal with.
Everyone knew it clearly in their minds, but naturally, no one would say it out, since none of them were fools.
Crouching at the end of the corridor, Chu Yunsheng did not know that he had been watched by others. When the military officer Wang appeared, he gradually regained his composure.
Zhao Ling gave him her business card and told him that he could contact her at any time.
Although Chu Yunsheng was confused about why she suddenly seemed to be very nice to him, he learned this time. He did not ask her anything and was determined to stay far away from those people and never get close to them ever again. Otherwise, if the same thing happened again, he did not know if his mind would be able to handle it again.
Just like how he came in, his eyes were also covered when he was sent out. After more than an hour of bumpy ride, the officer Wang sent Chu Yunsheng to Qiulin road with an SUV.
“Mr. Chu, if you need anything, please call me at any time.”
When Chu Yunsheng was about to get off the car, the officer Wang tore up a note and put it in Chu Yunsheng’s hand. He smiled apologetically and said, “I did not expect that this kind of thing would happen today, I am sorry that we have caused this much trouble for you.”
The officer Wang left a very good impression in Chu Yunsheng’s mind. After receiving the piece of note, and thinking about a series of events that had happened today, Chu Yunsheng’s mood was very low. He just simply waved his hand and then jumped off the SUV.
Fortunately, the key was still in his pocket. The first thing he did after he got home was to call Yu Xiaohai, making sure that his backpack was at his home. After that, he could not hold it any longer but fall asleep on the bed straight away.
He had a very good sleep this time. He did not have any nightmares or see any silhouette. Only until there was bright sunlight outside did he finally get up slowly. Then he immediately went to Yu Xiaohai’s place and got back the backpack.
Over the next three days, he did not leave his house once, just staying at home. Strangely enough, everything seemed to be very calm, as if it went back to the normal days, no nightmares, no silhouette, no bloody face. What happened that day was just like a strange dream. It even made Chu Yunsheng wonder, that the things that happened that day, really happened. He even felt that those people he had seen in the lab and that monster he saw, were not real.
Because during those three days, they did not appear in front of him again, as if they had all disappeared from his life.
After finally adjusting his mind, he continued his apocalypse preparation. Contacting the estate agent, selling his flat and then renting the new flat, at the same time, he also had to purchase a lot of goods and materials.
His crazy action almost shocked everyone. At first, many people thought that he was just joking, since there were many rumors on the Internet. But no one expected that he would really do it.
There were some people, who tried to persuade him, and some, who said that he was brain-damaged, but most of them were just waiting for the right time to ridicule him.
About a week later, he got the money from selling his flat. Because he did not want to wait, and he demanded the buyer to pay the full amount in cash so he would not need to spend time waiting for the bank to approve the loan, so naturally, he would need to reduce the price of his flat a lot.
In the end, Chu Yunsheng only had five hundred thousand Chinese Yuan in his hand. This money included the money that his parents left him when they died, some of them was earned by him during years of hard-work, and there was also some of his auntie’s money. This was the hard-earned money, so after receiving the news that he sold the flat, his auntie, who was living far away in Nanjing(1) called him three times, asking him what happened.
However, no matter how he explained, Chu Han still did not believe it. If it was not for his uncle, who was still lying in bed in the hospital, his auntie would have probably already come to Shanghai(1).
The next day, the estate agent, Little Zhou, who had been tortured by Chu Yunsheng nearly a week, finally called him, “Brother Chu, you want two flats next to each other, and they have to be rented out at the same time, and it also must be near the Ancient Cloud Community, how on earth can anyone find it?”
“As long as you can help me to find it, in addition to the agent fee, I promise, that I will definitely give you two thousand Chinese Yuan privately!” Chu Yunsheng urged while thinking if he should increase the money. Time was short, but if he increased the money, he did not believe that he would not be able to find it.
“You said it!” Little Zhou said happily, “there are several empty flats in the No.8 building of Mingdu Garden Housing estate. There are also two flats that just fit your requirements. One landlord is going abroad and the other is in Shenzhen. Both flats are managed by us. Do you want to come over and have a look?”
“Perfect!” Chu Yunsheng was thrilled. He immediately hung up the phone and got ready to go out.
Mingdu Garden Housing estate was just right opposite the Ancient Cloud Community, separated by a road. Although the Mingdu Garden Housing estate was not as luxurious and mysterious as the Ancient Cloud Community, the people who lived inside were mostly rich people, so naturally, the flats would not be cheap. But Chu Yunsheng did not prepare to rent them too long, two months were more than enough.
Even if the other party was not willing to rent for a short time, signing a one-year contract was still not a problem for him, but he would still only be going to pay for two months’ rent in advance only.
But what he did not expect was that the nightmare, that he did not have for almost two weeks came back to him again.
….
Mingdu Garden Housing estate.
“Brother Chu, let me tell you, you absolutely could not find better places than those two flats!” little Zhou was taking the key out while constantly talking, “it is just right opposite the Ancient Cloud Community; downstairs, there are parking spaces, and you have a great open view, all the rooms are very spacious. If you do not believe me, you can take a look. All the rooms will get enough sunlight. All the furniture is included. 7,100 Chinese Yuan a month, it is an absolutely super great value!”
“I still need to think about it. Seven thousand is a bit expensive.” Chu Yunsheng touched his nose, quickly calculated in his mind. Seven thousand times two months, that is fourteen thousand, and then multiplies by two flats, that is twenty-eight thousand. And this was just rent, if he calculated the deposit, that he needed to pay, that was quite a lot of money.
“If you don’t want it, I really don’t have other better places! Of course, there are also cheap ones, but you won’t like it. You don’t like the top floor and the bottom floor. Apart from the flats that need to be in the middle, you also want two flats to be on the same floor. There’s absolutely no second place in this area that offers this kind of flats!” Little Zhou swore. He liked to use the word “absolutely” as if all the flats that he had were extremely good and very popular.
While they were talking, the door was opened, little Zhou walked in the front, followed by Chu Yunsheng.
“Brother Chu, look, the floor is newly installed. Those are imported tiles. The door over there is made of solid wood! The kitchen is over here, the bathroom is over there, the bedroom has a king-sized bed. You can just grab your bag and move in at any time you like!” Little Zhou was still constantly talking, but suddenly he noticed that there was no movement behind him. Turning around, he saw Chu Yunsheng standing there, not moving like a statue.
“What’s the matter, Brother Chu?” little Zhou walked over and asked in confusion.
Chu Yunsheng raised his hand to signal him not to talk. He himself walked along the wall to observe the room while his face was filled with a strange confusion.
As he entered the bedroom, the confusion grew more intense. It was a strangely familiar feeling as if he had been here before!
The bed, the wardrobe, the table in the living room that was facing the door, and the windows facing the street, moving before his eyes as if they wanted to tell him something.
“I’ve been here before, I must have been here!” Chu Yunsheng murmured.
Little Zhou did not think too much. He just acted like he knew what Chu Yunsheng was talking about and said, “That’s right Brother Chu. You are not an estate agent so you probably don’t know. A lot of things are predestined by fate. No matter how good a flat is, if it is not the predestined one, people would always find some problems. But if it is the predestined one, people would have a strange feeling as if they have lived there in the previous life. Normally, they would immediately sign the contract straight away.”
“The previous life?” Chu Yunsheng turned around and asked in surprise.
Little Zhou laughed and said, “just an analogy, destiny this kind of thing is very hard to explain. Just like us, if it was not destiny, probably you would not have asked me to find a flat for you, and we probably would not have known each other.”
Those words seemed to have stirred something in Chu Yunsheng’s mind. He frowned his brows and said, “take me to the next flat!”
Of course, little Zhou would not say no, he could tell that most likely Chu Yunsheng would rent those two flats. Although the agent fee was not high, it was better than nothing. After all, the housing market was not very great at the moment.
The restriction on real estate agents purchasing flats and houses was like a large boulder on their heads. Nowadays, many people still couldn’t afford to buy a flat. In terms of the housing price going down, to those people who had money, yes, it indeed went down. But because of the restrictions, they couldn’t buy any of them. And to those poor people who didn’t have money, they must borrow loans from banks, however, those bankers were a group of bloodsuckers, the housing price went down but the interest rate went up, after they canceled each other out, in the end, nothing was changed. Ordinary citizens didn’t benefit from the restriction policy at all.
Little Zhou has been working as an estate agent for a few years now, if it weren’t for the fact that he has been working in this field for this long, with this kind of market, he would have already changed his job.
So having a customer like Chu Yunsheng, who wanted to rent two flats, of course, he would try his best to persuade him.
After all, he still needed to eat.
He immediately pulled out the key, opened the door opposite and went on to explain the flat’s absolute advantages and selling points.
However, Chu Yunsheng did not hear a single word he said, he just simply checked around the room, and returned with a stern face.
If having a deja vu feeling once or twice, it could be regarded as an illusion, but if it was not just once or twice? If it was more than four times?
He knew very well that something must be wrong with him.
He also knew that panic and fear could not solve any problems at the moment, so he must treat them and analyze them seriously with a calm heart. As an engineer, this was his strength.
“Little Zhou, I want both flats. Please talk to the landlord about the details. My money has been quite tight recently, I can only pay the deposit and two months’ rent in advance. I will pay the remaining fees as soon as possible.” Chu Yunsheng immediately made up his mind.
Chu Yunsheng was a type of person that often hesitated to make decisions quickly, and liked to consider things from many aspects carefully. But if he found that he had no other choices, he would make up his mind immediately without any hesitation. Just like how he decided to sell his flat and ignored all his friends’ and families’ advice and prepared for the apocalypse alone.
“Ok, brother Chu, two months it is. I will sort it out, but the rent really can not be reduced, you know… ” Xiao Zhou was thrilled. But on his face, he still showed a troubled look.
“Okay, call me once the landlord agrees. I will sign the contract immediately!” Chu Yunsheng did not want to bargain with him anymore, he had to go back immediately to find out what happened to him.
…
Coming out of Mingdu Garden Housing estate, sitting on the bus, Chu Yunsheng could not wait any longer. He directly used his mobile to search for information on the internet. Along the way, he was very calm, no longer panicking.
After the search, Chu Yunsheng found that there were many people like him, who had a similar illusion of deja vu.
Some felt familiar with someone they had never met before. Some of them arrived at a strange place and suddenly felt that they had been there before, but they could not remember any detail.
Others claimed that while they were doing something, they suddenly felt that they had done the same thing before. It was very strange.
And with all the cases Chu Yunsheng read online, he could categorize them into three explanations.
The first one was that it was believed to be the effect of psychological suggestion. Visual illusions were created by memories, mixing up the imaginary scenes and the characters from the normal life or in the dream with actual events. When a similar event happened again, these false memories would pop up and confuse the brain.
This explanation was the most scientific and accepted by most people, but it did not explain why the scenes created by one’s imagination or dreams would later really appear. Was it really a coincidence?
The second one was quite superstitious. It was thought that these feelings and vague memories come from people’s previous lives, and those who they had met in the previous lives, especially those who were unforgettable, may meet again in this life. In addition, the places that they had been to in the previous life, would also trigger the memories of their previous lives when they visited those places again in this life.
This explanation had no scientific basis, but it was supported by strong religious theory, and there were quite many people who believed in it. However, it was also not perfect. Except for the people and the places, it was impossible to explain the similarity of a specific event. The previous life and this life were supposed to be in two different times, which had completely different backgrounds.
And the last one, which was a very interesting one and also without strong scientific evidence. It was only speculation. It was believed that this phenomenon was caused by the backflow of time, that was when speed was faster than the speed of light, space and time would interlace, it would occasionally cause a special kind of confusion to the human body.
When running into a scene, the human control nerve would transmit the information to the memory nerve at a very fast speed, before the brain’s response reached the memory nerve. So when the brain’s response reached the memory nerve, it felt like it had happened before. The key was that the cause and the root of this confusion were the transmission speed of the control nerve and the memory nerve, which was faster than the speed of light, resulting in the backflow of time that was only limited to one’s memories.
Chu Yunsheng did not know which one he belonged to, but it was not important, what he needed was just an explanation. In terms of whether the explanation was true or not, as long as it made sense, it would be fine to him. So after he checked on the Internet, and found out that a lot of people and he had a similar experience, he was also relieved.
Humans are this kind of animal, if you find out that only you are different from everyone else, you will naturally be scared. But once you realize that everyone is the same, you will not care that much anymore. Regarding this point, it is much more apparent amongst Chinese, for example, instead of focusing on why they were being treated unfairly, people often cared more about whether others were having the same treatment, as long as the others were treated the same way, they would feel much better.
Chu Yunsheng’s mindset was exactly like this. After he realized that he was no different than other people, he was finally relieved and went back to prepare the supplies.
Looking at the sky outside, it was still very early, he still had some time and most shops haven’t closed at the moment, so he decided to use the rest of the time to pre-order the supplies that he could pre-order, in case it would be too late.
There were many things he needed to buy. He needed to order them one by one. The first thing was the food reserve, which was the most important thing. According to the ancient book, after the restoration of Tian Gui, the world would be in a state of chaos, but in Chu Yunsheng’s mind, the first thing that would kill him was hunger, not chaos.
The reason why he had taken the two flats next to each other was to store up a large number of supplies, so that when it was chaotic outside, at least he would have food in his hand, and would not have to go out to fight other people for some food.
This kind of typical weak people’s self-protecting mindset undoubtedly occupied an extremely important position in Chu Yunsheng’s mind. As for after the 28th, there would be some influential figures from the government to deal with the chaos. There was no need for him to worry about it.
Getting off the bus, Chu Yunsheng went home first to get some money. Although his flat was sold, he could still live here for a few more days. After he came out of the flat, he took another bus route, directly went to the Grain And Oil Wholesale Market, daily food could be bought in the supermarket, but for a large number of food supplies, he had to come here.
After choosing a larger wholesale store, Chu Yunsheng asked for the owner.
The owner did not know Chu Yunsheng’s identity and purpose, he just thought that he was a new retailer. After spending some time to haggle about the price, they finally agreed on the price of ten tons of rice and the fastest delivery time, and then he signed the contract, paid the deposit and went to the next market without any delay. There were a lot of things to prepare, and because of the recent troubles he had, he only had a little more than a month!
Regarding the preparation, Chu Yunsheng has been doing it secretly. He didn’t want to attract the attention of some special departments, and secondly, he was really tired of being made fun of by his friends. Although he had warned everyone, no one believed him.
But what he did not know was he had been followed from the beginning. Everything he had done was already known by other people. Shortly after he left the grain and oil wholesale market, someone came out of the dark and approached the owner of the wholesale store that Chu Yunsheng had gone to, and politely asked for some information from him.
Soon, one report after another, like snowflakes flew into a remote experimental building. Compared to Song Ying’s strange behavior, Chu Yunsheng’s behavior was even more strange and mysterious.
………note………
I believe this is the first time we learned Miss Zhao’s full name.
Lol, can’t believe that it took the author 500 chapters to think of a name for her.
An important thing needs to be thought about.
Nanjing is used to be called Jin Ling city in the past, like long long long time ago.
Shanghai is used to be called Shen Cheng city in the past long long long time ago, both names are hardly ever mentioned by people nowadays, it could be said that Jin Ling city and Shen Cheng city only existed in the past.
In book one, MC lived in Shen Cheng city, but in book two MC lived in Shanghai.
In book one, MC’s auntie lived in Jin Ling city, but in book two she lived in Nanjing.
Did the author try to imply that book 1 is the past, not the future? Or am I thinking too much? And who is this Song Ying girl really, why MC said that he did not see her in the future? and she was supposed to be dead.
