What to do if I've locked myself in a book! - Chapter 45

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A chill that did not belong to midsummer seeped into Ji Shi’s body and mind. He returned home drenched from the rain, bringing back nothing but wet clothes and a deep sense of loss.

Without bothering to change or shower, the first thing he did was go to his desk and check the situation on his laptop.

The text on the screen was still stuck at the point where Ling Qianqian returned to Bai Yiyan’s home and went to sleep. There was no progress, no continuation—there wasn’t even a record of the scene he had witnessed at the intersection that night.

She had clearly appeared near BLUEBERRY, which did not match what was recorded in the text. If the earlier records could line up with her current state, then this section of text had to be wrong.

And this abnormality had started after he met Silver, the owner of BLUEBERRY.

That Silver was no ordinary person. Ji Shi had tried to find him again that night but failed. It seemed Silver would not meet him anymore.

The situation could no longer be judged by common sense. Ji Shi took a deep breath, closed the laptop, and decided to go see Bai Yiyan early the next morning.

After all, Bai Yiyan was the only person in the novel who appeared under his real identity and real personal information—an existence that defied explanation.

Moreover, Bai Yiyan was open-minded and broad in perspective. He might be able to accept something this bizarre and perhaps even gain new insight from it.

Early the next morning, Ji Shi contacted Bai Yiyan and went out with his laptop.

The bad weather showed no sign of clearing. The rain kept falling, and the temperature had dropped sharply over the past few days. Especially today, the perceived temperature fell to the low teens, making long sleeves necessary.

Ji Shi took a new umbrella when he went out. The missing umbrella from last night still lingered in his thoughts. Holding the umbrella, he walked quickly through the streets. His home was about a forty-minute walk from Bai Yiyan’s place. With traffic jams on rainy days, driving would take even longer.

He noticed that pedestrians along the way had all changed into long sleeves. Looking up, the sky was pitch-black, with no gaps at all. Cold raindrops fell densely, striking the umbrella with a dull, monotonous sound that felt deeply oppressive.

Those forty minutes felt like years. Along the way, he carefully thought over Silver’s words and replayed everything that had happened. The more he thought, the more frightening it became.

How could he prove that what he was experiencing now was reality?

He couldn’t. There was no way to prove it.

When he arrived at Bai Yiyan’s place, Bai Yiyan opened the door to welcome him.

Bai Yiyan looked unwell, with faint dark circles under his eyes, as if he had gone through something the night before.

Bai Yiyan knew that whenever Ji Shi came to see him, it was almost always about Ling Qianqian.

After they sat down on the sofa, Ji Shi took out his laptop and went straight to the point.

“Professor Bai, about Ling Qianqian’s disappearance—I have some pretty outrageous thoughts. I don’t know who else to talk to, but I feel you have a broad view and might not be easily shocked.”

“I also hope we can find Qianqian as soon as possible. I’m at a dead end myself. As long as a clue is useful, no matter how absurd, it’s worth looking into.”

“This is what happened…”

As he spoke, Ji Shi showed the contents on his laptop and recounted everything he had seen and experienced in detail. He talked for nearly two hours.

Bai Yiyan listened and watched carefully. As he did, the gloom in his heart gradually eased. His inexplicable erections now seemed to match the point in the book where “he” and Ling Qianqian began to spark. If that were true, then he wasn’t sick.

He had also been trying to investigate Ling Qianqian’s disappearance, but it all felt too strange. Rather than being missing, it was more like she had vanished.

For someone as rational as Ji Shi to say these things was not easy. It showed how much he was worrying over Ling Qianqian.

After hearing Ji Shi out, and based on this hypothesis, everything suddenly seemed to make sense.

This made Bai Yiyan feel that his encounter with Ling Qianqian the night before might not have been a hallucination—or his imagination.

“Ji Shi, I might have met Qianqian last night too.”

“What?”

Ji Shi was holding a cup. He nearly sprayed out his coffee.

Bai Yiyan brushed back his messy hair, leaned into the sofa, and closed his eyes in silence for a moment. Then he suddenly stood up, took a marker from the side cabinet, walked to the glass wall used for writing, uncapped the pen, and turned back to say, “Ji Shi, about what time did you see Qianqian last night, and where exactly? The more precise, the better.”

“I didn’t check the exact time. By estimation, it was just before nine p.m., on the road across the street from BLUEBERRY.”

“How long before she disappeared?”

“Only a few seconds, I think. Maybe a bit longer. All I can say is that she vanished a few seconds after I saw her.”

Ji Shi put down his cup and walked over to see what Bai Yiyan was writing.

He listed several points, as if trying to find a pattern, and even drew a mind map. It was impressive how quickly he could organize something others would find absurd.

“You first met Cheng Zhan from the book at BLUEBERRY. The second time, you saw Ling Qianqian near BLUEBERRY. And I saw her last night in my own home. Comparing this with the laptop records, she likely went to the ‘me’ in the book’s home last night. Coincidentally, every place where the book and reality intersect—and where we witnessed it—are locations that are highly similar in both worlds, whether it’s that bar or my home.” Bai Yiyan continued circling and marking on the nearly full glass wall. “Look, Ji Shi. The BLUE bar in the book and the BLUEBERRY in reality. At that time, either you walked into BLUE, or Cheng Zhan walked into BLUEBERRY.”

“It should have been me entering BLUE. I noticed most people around were wearing long sleeves. By the way, when you met Ling Qianqian last night, what did you say to her? How was she? How long did you see her?”

“I thought I was dreaming at the time and didn’t take it seriously, so I didn’t say much.” Bai Yiyan brushed it off lightly. He couldn’t tell Ji Shi that he had been intimate with Ling Qianqian in bed and almost went all the way. He didn’t want to hurt Ji Shi, knowing Ji Shi had been secretly in love with her for a long time.

“Professor Bai, do you think we’ll have a chance to see her again? Even save her from the book?”

“That’s exactly what I was about to say.”