The train sped forward rapidly; the scenery outside the window quickly flashed past, receding backward like walls. The bleakness of winter meant that everything Zhuang Rui saw was bare and desolate.
After gazing out the window at the scenery for a while, Zhuang Rui grew quite bored, laid his head down to sleep. Not knowing how much time had passed, a huge roar jolted him awake. Lifting his head to look out the window, he saw that the train had already arrived in Nanjing and was crossing the Yangtze River Bridge. And Zhuang Rui noticed that snowflakes had begun to drift down from the sky.
In just a short while, the vast open land before his eyes had turned completely white. Although it wasn't cold inside the compartment, when he breathed out a warm breath, the glass window still became misty. Zhuang Rui instinctively shrank his neck.
Yang Wei had booked a double soft sleeper for Zhuang Rui. Tickets for this type of soft sleeper are generally not sold to the public, mostly serving passengers with special status. Zhuang Rui didn't know what connections Yang Wei had used, but he'd managed to get two tickets. Even the train attendants, as they passed by, would take an extra look at Zhuang Rui and his mother, dressed in ordinary clothes, and their service attitude was exceptionally good—a world of difference from the treatment Zhuang Rui had encountered when squeezing onto trains during past winter and summer breaks.
At this moment, Zhuang Rui was filled with indescribable gratitude for his big brother's care. Because every time they arrived at a station and saw the crowd like a swarm of ants, Zhuang Rui's scalp would tingle. The passengers streaming out from the ticket gates would charge forward like sheep being herded—all the travelers swarming toward the train that had just come to a stop. "Please let me through," "I need to get past first" rang out incessantly...
So many people were heading home for Spring Festival travel that many couldn't even wait to board through the doors and instead climbed in through open windows. It was easy to imagine that the regular cars right now must be packed tight like sardine cans, crammed with people, and the smell certainly wouldn't be pleasant.
Withdrawing his gaze from the window, Zhuang Rui looked at his sleeping mother. During his time injured, he had put a strain on her. The train was so loud as it crossed the Yangtze River Bridge, yet it still hadn't woken his soundly sleeping mother.
Compared to the last time Zhuang Rui was home, his mother looked much older and more haggard. She was already nearly sixty years old, and Zhuang Rui couldn't help but blame himself silently inside—he'd been working for over a year now, rarely calling home, but when something went wrong, it was his mother who had to worry and rush about. He really was unfilial.
Gently pulling the blanket up for his mother, Zhuang Rui slowly stretched his legs, which had gone numb from sitting too long. Half leaning against the bed, he began to think about everything that had happened recently.
The robbery was pretty much wrapped up now. Even though it had been hard on him, it was still worth it. The pawnshop was a subsidiary of the city investment company; if he became a manager there, besides the pay raise, the most important thing was that he could get into the government's personnel system. Although Zhuang Rui had no intention of going into politics, the perks that came with this status—like getting a mortgage loan, transferring his household registration to Zhonghai, and his future kids' schooling—would make things a lot easier.
Thinking of this, Zhuang Rui let out a self-deprecating laugh. He was thinking way too far ahead. In all these years, he'd only had one girlfriend in college. She was the class beauty, with a gentle personality—no idea how she ended up liking him. Back then, the guys in his dorm were green with envy. But they were barely at the hand-holding stage when the girl's father got into mineral investments, and the whole family emigrated to Austria. She went abroad to study too, and that relationship naturally fizzled out.
Although Zhuang Rui wasn't exceptionally handsome, he had regular features, and his height of 1.8 meters made him look steady and dependable. His grades were consistently among the top of his class. But in today's society, talent isn't as good as wealth, and looks can't put food on the table. After his relationship ended in his sophomore year of college, he never dated again. However, he was far from unfamiliar with matters between men and women—not from junior high biology class, but from the computer his roommate had nicknamed the "sex education machine," which was packed with human skin tones and languages of every ethnicity.
After graduating college, Zhuang Rui unexpectedly returned to Zhonghai. After working at the pawn shop for three years, he would be eligible for a government position, which caught the interest of a few local female classmates from Zhonghai. But Zhuang Rui had always kept his distance from those girls, who used to look down on everyone. He wasn't about to play servant to those spoiled princesses.
Thinking of women, the scene from the hospital that morning flashed through his mind.
"Daydreaming？ I'm not so desperate that I'd start thinking about women while my eye injury isn't even healed yet."
Zhuang Rui thought back to the cool sensation around his eyes since he got injured. After that steamy scene that morning, that sensation around his eyes seemed much weaker. Could it be…
He pulled out his backpack and found a palm-sized mirror. Looking into it, aside from looking a bit pale, nothing seemed different. But his eyes did appear brighter than before. He brought the mirror closer and focused on his eyes—then the familiar scene unfolded.
When Zhuang Rui stared intently into the mirror, he felt the long-dormant sensation around his eyes start to flow again. At the same time, a flash of green light appeared before him, and the sensation in his eyes shot toward the mirror along his gaze.
Just as that stream of energy shot out from his eyes, Zhuang Rui saw very clearly that his pitch-black pupils actually split into two in an instant. Although it was fleeting and extremely brief, Zhuang Rui was sure he hadn't seen it wrong—it was definitely not an illusion. He had indeed seen at that moment his two pupils becoming four within a fraction of a second.
What's going on？ Zhuang Rui felt his scalp tingle and hastily threw the mirror in his hand onto the bed. Having something so bizarre happen to him—no matter who it was, they would probably have trouble staying calm.
Luckily, Zhuang Rui usually didn't believe in ghosts or gods or worship heaven and earth. After staring blankly for a few minutes, he took a deep breath and slowly calmed down. Just now, in his panic, he hadn't noticed any change after the energy flowed out of his eyes. So he picked up the mirror from the bed again, ready to observe once more.
Since he was prepared this time, when that stream of energy shot out from his eye sockets, Zhuang Rui could clearly sense that the energy, after leaving his body, still seemed to have some connection to him. He could clearly feel its existence. Also, that patch of blue-green light his eyes saw did not appear in the mirror. This meant that that color was directly appearing within his own eyes.
“Come back...”
Zhuang Rui had grown used to that cool stream of energy lingering in his eyes these past few days. He was truly afraid that this energy might leave and never return, so he couldn't help silently calling out in his mind. To his delight, that escaping energy really did contract back following his thoughts and once again lay dormant around his eyes. This time, however, there was no stinging sensation in his eyes, nor did that stream of energy seem to have diminished.
“I never noticed before that I had double pupils. Could it be that this appeared after the injury？ But when I looked in the mirror, apart from that cool energy escaping from my body, I didn't see anything particularly special. Could it be...”
Zhuang Rui felt like he had grasped something, but he wasn’t entirely sure. He shifted his body, lifting his right arm that had been numbly bearing weight while half-leaning on the bed, raising his forearm level with his eyes, and stared intently.
A patch of bluish-green still flashed before his eyes, but the scene that appeared next made his heart jolt violently.
Zhuang Rui was wearing a thick down jacket with a thermal undershirt beneath it. Yet just as the green light flashed and the qi in his eyes surged out, he noticed that in his vision, the down jacket and undershirt on his forearm seemed to vaporize—first blurring, then vanishing entirely—while the skin on his arm emerged clearly before him, as if viewed through a magnifying glass. He could even see the texture of his pores with perfect clarity.
“So that scene at the hospital this morning was real！！！”
Forcing down the shock in his heart, Zhuang Rui was about to shift his gaze to another part of his body when a sudden sourness struck his eyes, followed by a stabbing pain and burning sensation. His tear ducts seemed to burst open, releasing an uncontrollable flood of tears—just like that morning, only this time the stabbing pain was much milder. At the same time, as if sensing something, that internal qi retracted back into his eyes, and instantly, a cool sensation drove away and eased the increasingly intense stinging and burning.
“It’s shrunk again, huh？”
After that cool energy returned to his eyes, Zhuang Rui could clearly sense that it had weakened again. However, since it was directed at his own body, he knew the departed coolness had actually burrowed into the skin of his arm. Moreover, his forearm, which had been somewhat numb and sore, first felt a bit itchy when the energy entered, then immediately became comfortable and seemed to be filled with strength. Zhuang Rui quickly rolled up the sleeve on his forearm, only to find no visible abnormality on the surface, but he could clearly sense the changes within it.
“What exactly has happened to me…”
Staring out the window at the heavy snowfall, Zhuang Rui fell into deep thought.