Anan

019 The Looping Man (1)

Standing in 2022, within her own home, Li Xinyuan's sensation felt both real and unreal. However, she didn't wish to return so soon.

Li Xinyuan's heartbeat quickened as she realized something new in her memory — that winter of her sophomore year when she fell into the water and remained unconscious in the hospital for three days. At the time, her mother kept mentioning someone named Anan who saved her, but that person never appeared again, leaving her parents quite disappointed.

She distinctly remembered that this event hadn't happened before — only the fall into the water, with no unconsciousness or Anan. Yet now, she remembered it vividly. It was a peculiar sensation, having two memories of the same event, with the latter one overlaying the former.

Memories concerning her sister remained unchanged: her sister's marriage to Zhou Zhihao, giving birth, arguing, domestic violence... Li Xinyuan's heart sank as she glanced at the time: 6:40 in the morning. She lowered her head, staring at her phone for a moment before dialing a number.

Her sister's phone was turned off.

If everything remained unchanged, then her sister had already jumped off the building yesterday. A deceased person's phone wouldn't be turned on.

Li Xinyuan choked back tears as she continued calling her parents, but no one answered. She thought they must be exhausted from dealing with the aftermath. Immediately, she grabbed her ID and rushed to the bus station.

She remembered purchasing a ticket for 8 o'clock yesterday to go home.

—

It was already the peak travel season, and the bus station was crowded. Li Xinyuan swiped her ID several times at the automated ticket machine, but it showed no record of her booking. She hurried to the counter and was told definitively by the ticket seller that there was no booking. Despite clearly remembering paying for her ticket yesterday, she thought it might be a system glitch. However, she didn't have time to argue with the ticket seller and asked to purchase another ticket.

But the 8 o'clock tickets were sold out, leaving only ones for 9:30.

Li Xinyuan found a corner in the station to sit on a step and silently waited until 9:30. In the meantime, she received a call from Zhou Jie, asking why she hadn't gone to work. She excused herself, saying she was unwell and had taken sick leave.

The journey home took two hours, during which she silently gazed out the window. By 11 o'clock, her father called back: "Weiyi, why did you and your mom receive a call from you so early in the morning? What's wrong? We went out for morning exercise and forgot to bring our phones. We also went to buy groceries and stroll around the supermarket. Dad only just saw the missed calls."

Li Xinyuan: "Morning exercise?"

"Yeah, your mom and I exercise every morning."

Li Xinyuan felt something was amiss. A truth that had been ignored by her for a long time was about to become clear. She asked, "What about my sister?"

"Weizi brought her daughter over early in the morning and even brought a suitcase. She said she's going out of town with Zhou Hao for a few days. Come on, Nuannuan, say hi to your aunt."

A jolt went through Li Xinyuan's mind, and she blurted out, "Call the police immediately, and rush to my sister's house! She's going to kill Zhou Zhihao, she's going to commit suicide!"

"What?"

"Hurry! There's no time to lose!"

Ending the call, Li Xinyuan found everyone in the car staring at her, but she was lost in thought, staring blankly ahead. She woke up in the morning, subconsciously assuming that she had returned to the day after her sister's death, which was the second day after her crossing. Therefore, even though she had seen the calendar earlier, she hadn't reacted.

She had returned to the same day, repeating the same day. In other words, nothing had happened yet: her sister hadn't died, she hadn't been laid off, and there was no record of her booking at the station. Originally, she was supposed to stay in Xiangcheng tonight and meet Zhang Yanan by the rainy riverbank.

It was as if there was a strange glimmer of light flashing in Li Xinyuan's heart.

She looked down at her phone; there was still half an hour left before she could reach her hometown.

—

January 14, 2014.

The early morning at Chenshi People's Hospital was still quiet. A certain girl lying on a hospital bed looked rosy-cheeked, breathing evenly, unlike the other patients in the room.

The girl slowly opened her eyes, glanced around in confusion, and sat up, seeing her sister leaning over the bed.

"Sis? Sis?"

Li Xiaoyi looked up, pleasantly surprised. "Weiyi, you're finally awake?"

The 17-year-old Li Xinyuan was puzzled: "Why am I in the hospital?"

Li Xiaoyi immediately called the nurse and then her parents. Soon, after a thorough examination, it was confirmed that Li Xinyuan was perfectly fine and could run ten laps downstairs without any problem.

The family indulged in the luxury of taking a taxi home. The doctor couldn't explain why the child had been unconscious for three whole days, and the final conclusion was that it might have been due to overexertion from studying and then catching a fever after falling into the water, which triggered a compensatory response from her body.

"Zhang... Jingchan?" Li Xinyuan sucked on the milkshake straw. "I don't know him, never heard of him."

The family found it very strange. Li Xiaoyi nudged her sister's arm and whispered, "He says he's your good friend and sends me at least ten messages a day asking if you've woken up."

Li Xinyuan blushed, whispering to her sister, "I really don't know him." She also had some admirers at school. Could this person be one of them? But he seemed too persistent. She suddenly felt a little scared.

Mother Li smiled and said, "He's our family's benefactor. When he comes again, you must thank him properly."

"Oh..."

Then, the Li family didn't expect that Zhang Yanan would never show up again and would disappear completely from their lives.

At the same time, at Zhang's villa.

Nineteen-year-old Zhang Yanan woke up rubbing his head, feeling as if he had been beaten up, with a splitting headache. He washed his face with a cold expression, changed his clothes, and looked at the calendar and his class schedule. Today was Tuesday, and he vaguely felt like he had forgotten something, but his head was spinning, and he couldn't remember.

He trudged downstairs with a gloomy face.

The nanny, Sister Liu, smiled like a flower and called out to him in an unusually affectionate tone, "Anan, Anan, the bird's nest is stewed. Today, I added red dates and rose petals. Try it and see if you like it?"

Zhang Yanan looked at her as if she were crazy. "For me? Stewed bird's nest?"

Sister Liu: "

Ah..."

"Who wants to eat bird spit? Don't stew it again in the future."

"..." Sister Liu was about to cry. Anan, you licked the bowl clean yesterday.

Zhang Yanan glanced at the delicate and light breakfast on the table, feeling nauseated, and turned to leave.

When he got to the yard, he actually smiled. It turned out his dad's promised car had arrived. He remembered seeing a Ferrari key on the shoe cabinet just now. He took the key, started the car, and whistled.

As soon as he drove out of the villa gate, he saw Li Yunmo standing on the side of the road, waving at him. "Anan."

Li Yunmo asked hesitantly, "Anan, your head doesn't hurt anymore, can you drive?"

Zhang Yanan propped his head with one hand and pressed his temple with the other. "I still feel a little dizzy." He glanced at him skeptically. "How did you know my head hurts?" Did they drink together last night, and he blanked out?

Li Yunmo's eyes lit up. "Oh, if your head still hurts, don't drive. Shall I drive instead?"

Zhang Yanan looked at him dumbfoundedly. "It's my car's maiden voyage, and I'm supposed to give it to you? How embarrassing is that?"

Li Yunmo looked as if he had been frozen. "Ah..."

"If you're not getting in, then move aside."