Chapter 4 — Stability Above All
After everything was laid out plainly, the two fell into silence.
They stayed quiet for a long time. As the sky gradually darkened, Wang Heng said,
"Let's go. I'll walk you home."
Han Yixuan nodded. They stood up and walked side-by-side toward her house.
They walked in silence for quite a while — until she suddenly stopped.
After taking a few steps ahead, Wang Heng noticed and turned back. The girl was staring at him, as if holding back a flood of words.
After hesitating for a few seconds, she finally spoke:
"I understand what you mean… but dating doesn't have to cost money. Like right now — not buying anything, not doing anything special. Just walking and talking. Isn't that okay?"
"Unfortunately," Wang Heng replied, "I'll be working part-time this summer. I can't cover college tuition, but at least I can try to handle my living expenses myself."
"Can't you… not work?"
Wang Heng laughed.
"If I don't earn money, will you support me?"
Han Yixuan clenched her teeth.
"I will support you!"
Wang Heng's smile froze.
After a moment, he sighed.
"Why go this far? I really don't understand what's so good about me that I deserve this…"
He clearly remembered their relationship from his previous life — but at the beginning, right after the exams, she hadn't been this deeply devoted.
"You think it's strange why I'm so stubborn, right?" Han Yixuan said shyly. "Even I can't explain it… The reason is really… you'll definitely laugh at me."
That was odd. What could be harder to say than a confession?
The next moment, Wang Heng found out — there really was something.
"I've been dreaming these past few days," she continued. "It started the night after the English exam. In the dream, I confessed to you. We talked happily and started dating.
"Then we spent the whole summer together. You didn't take a part-time job, but we didn't spend much money either. Every day we just… dated on buses."
"Dating… on buses?" Wang Heng's eyes widened in shock.
Han Yixuan spoke with certainty:
"Yes. We'd randomly get on a bus, ride it to the last stop, then switch to another one. We'd sit in the back row together, watching the scenery outside, watching the passengers, chatting comfortably.
"When we got hungry, we'd get off and eat noodles at roadside shops. When thirsty, we'd buy water. We didn't worry about anything… No — we thought about a lot. We imagined the future, imagined college life. We promised to buy round-trip train tickets every two months after starting university to meet in person. Otherwise we'd video call.
"The feeling in that dream… you can't imagine how happy it was."
But Wang Heng could imagine it.
He had lived it.
In his previous life, the start of their first love was exactly the same as she just described.
Cold sweat formed on his back.
He had thought he was the only one who reincarnated.
Could Han Yixuan also remember the previous timeline?
She kept talking:
"It happened for several days, like episodes of a series. It felt too real — so real it didn't feel like a dream. It felt like something that actually happened… So you understand, right? I really looked forward to confessing to you. Really looked forward to it."
Wang Heng swallowed. Only then did he realize his mouth was completely dry.
After a moment, he forced a smile.
"That kind of almost-free romance really does sound wonderful… If we were going to the same university, I definitely wouldn't reject you. But let me walk you home first."
Han Yixuan finally understood — she couldn't move his decision.
Her face fell miserably.
"No need. I can go home myself!"
Wang Heng didn't insist.
"Alright. Be careful on the way."
At this moment, he truly had no mood to act like a gentleman.
After parting with the disappointed girl, Wang Heng didn't go home.
Instead, he headed straight to the biggest bookstore in this small city and searched the psychology section carefully.
He first picked up Freud's famous work The Interpretation of Dreams. After scanning the table of contents, he confirmed it didn't contain what he needed.
Among the psychology books, very few actually discussed dreams — and aside from this one, most were things like How to Interpret Your Dreams or Find the Key to Life in Dreams. Obvious pseudo-self-help nonsense.
"No… Han Yixuan's dream is way too unscientific… Maybe philosophy? Or… when in doubt, quantum mechanics?"
Muttering to himself, Wang Heng circled the store twice more.
Helpless, he left and entered a nearby internet café.
The best way to research was obviously a search engine — but his phone was an old keypad model without even a browser. And the only computer at home was certainly occupied by his father. With no choice, Wang Heng spent some of his limited pocket money on the cheapest machine available.
But although the internet had endless information, it also had endless garbage. After searching for ages, he found nothing useful.
"Well… reincarnation exists, so someone dreaming across timelines isn't that strange…" Wang Heng sighed and prepared to shut down the computer.
Just then, a window popped up on the screen.
[Do you want to understand the meaning of life?
Do you want to truly… live?]
Below were two buttons: [Yes] and [No].
Wang Heng froze.
This looked exactly like the start of an infinite-flow story trope.
Gripping the mouse, he clicked [No] without hesitation.
The popup flickered and changed:
[More cautious than expected. I thought after reincarnating, you'd believe you had protagonist luck and charge ahead recklessly.]
Wang Heng narrowed his eyes.
Since it accurately mentioned reincarnation, it seemed he had encountered something extraordinary.
The window flickered again:
[No more jokes. Let me introduce myself. I am a spacetime administrator of the multiverse. My job is maintaining causal order across worlds and cleaning up unwanted bugs.
By the way, you don't need to type. Just speak — whispering volume is enough. I can hear you.]
Wang Heng read the message twice and quietly said,
"…Hello?"
[Good. Very polite.]
[You should have adapted to life after reincarnation by now. Unfortunately, I have news for you — news you probably won't want to hear.]