UCS Chapter 127

The senior fell. Gao Gusheng reached out and grabbed nothing but air.

He watched helplessly as the senior went down. His expression was perfectly calm, neither sad nor glad, only his eyes locked onto Gao Gusheng, unmoving until the last.

A chill rose up Gao Gusheng’s spine.

Gao Gusheng had called in time, but everything had happened too fast. When the senior jumped, the emergency airbag had not yet been fully deployed. Everyone in the vicinity heard a tremendous impact. In the silence that followed, screams tore through the entire library.

What everyone had assumed was a performance piece had become a suicide scene in an instant. No one could process it. Yun Zhiyi reacted quickly, making an immediate decision to have the student council assist the fire department in evacuating students.

But she had been standing close to the library to maintain order, and the senior was now lying less than ten metres away from her. The colour had drained visibly from her face.

Gao Gusheng bit down hard on the tip of his tongue and wrenched himself free of the inexplicable dread that had taken hold. He sprinted downstairs, his mind filling involuntarily with vivid images of what he would find. But by the time he reached the ground floor, the ambulance had already taken the person away.

On the airbag that had not been fully deployed, there was no blood. Not a drop.

Gao Gusheng grabbed a nearby student. “Is the senior… all right?”

The student was equally stunned, still not fully recovered from the shock of it. “He’s — he’s fine.”

Only heaven knew how that student had managed it, having already mentally prepared themselves for a month of nightmares. What they had seen when they looked was the senior lying there without a scratch on him, not even a scrape of skin, breathing calmly, as though he had simply fallen asleep on the airbag.

The paramedics were baffled. They checked him over with great care, confirmed there were genuinely no external injuries whatsoever, and then put him in the ambulance with matching expressions of complete bewilderment.

Falling from a rooftop that high onto an airbag that hadn’t even fully opened, and coming away without a single visible injury?

A miracle?

Sheer luck?

No external injuries, and yet the boy had still lost consciousness?

The students were dispersed before they got any answers. That afternoon, the senior’s classmates and roommates were all called in for questioning about his recent state of mind, but nothing of substance came of it. On the campus forums and in group chats, everyone was talking about what had happened.

The whole thing had the quality of a farce — an abrupt beginning, a jarring twist, and an inexplicable ending.

Gao Gusheng kept thinking about the look in the senior’s eyes just before he jumped, and could not shake the unease it left in him. He thought about simply applying to the school to commute from home for a while.

He had not expected that by the afternoon, his academic advisor would come looking for him, with an expression that was difficult to read.

“Gusheng, there is something I’d like you to think about. Zhang Xu wants to see you.”

“I’m sorry? Who is Zhang Xu?”

“Zhang Xu is the student from this morning. You don’t know him?” The advisor looked equally surprised. “He has lost his memory. When he woke up, he asked for you.”

Amnesia?

Gao Gusheng ran a hand through his hair, his expression blank. “Hold on, Teacher. I’ve only encountered that senior three times. Two of those times he was on the rooftop and I was at ground level, six floors below him. How is it that the only person he remembers is me?”

The advisor gave a wry smile. “The working theory is that you were the last person he saw before he lost consciousness. So the impression of you runs deeper.”

“The human brain is an extraordinarily complex thing. Our ability to fully understand it is still a long way off.”

“At present, Zhang Xu has no memory and doesn’t recognise anyone. He only says he wants to see you. The hospital has suggested that seeing you might stimulate his cerebral cortex and may assist in the recovery of his memories.”

“However,” the advisor paused, and placed a gentle hand on Gao Gusheng’s shoulder. “Your situation is something I’m aware of, and if you decide to go visit Zhang Xu at the hospital, I will go with you. If you don’t want to go, that is equally fine.”

From the moment she had taken over as Gao Gusheng’s advisor, she had personally witnessed his alarming constitution. While she did not know the full truth, one look at that face had already given her a vague suspicion as to why he requested leave so frequently.

She was afraid that Zhang Xu might be yet another person with ulterior motives, someone who had gone to elaborate lengths to get close to Gao Gusheng.

Gao Gusheng felt he ought to go and see the senior regardless. If one visit could improve the chances of the senior recovering his memory, Gao Gusheng had no objection to lending a hand.

Besides, setting all that aside, Gao Gusheng kept thinking about the look in the senior’s eyes, and it left him unsettled.

When faced with something unusual, it was better to move toward it than to keep running away.

So Gao Gusheng said, “It’s all right, Teacher. I’d like to go see him.”

…

“Dahuang. Dahei. I’m leaving my safety in your hands.”

Gao Gusheng solemnly pressed invisibility talismans and barrier talismans onto both dogs.

He was naturally not going to be foolish enough to go alone. Given that his father and his other father were both at the Anomaly Management Bureau headquarters dealing with official business, he had brought Dahuang and Dahei along from home.

Not only that, he had also brought the summoning talisman Ying Bujie had drawn for him. If he ran into danger, the talisman would summon Gao Shi directly to his location, along with a person-height axe.

After calling Gao Shi to let him know, he strode through the hospital entrance in high spirits.

His academic advisor cast a worried glance at Gao Gusheng.

This child. He hadn’t even seen Zhang Xu yet and he was already acting a little off.

Apart from the amnesia, Zhang Xu did not have so much as a scratch on him anywhere. The doctors called it a miracle. As hospital beds were in short supply, he had been moved to a general ward.

When they arrived, Zhang Xu was looking out the window.

Objectively speaking, Zhang Xu was a fairly good-looking young man, but his was the kind of handsomeness that belonged to a cheerful, approachable sort of person — bright and sunny, easy to be around.

Yet the Zhang Xu sitting there now, having lost his memory, was a different matter. The bed beside him was surrounded by visitors, while his side was sharply, starkly quiet. The setting sun had washed half his face in a faint gold-tinged red, and the remaining half was lost in shadow, giving him a quality that felt almost impossible to approach —

Divine.

Gao Gusheng’s heart gave an inexplicable skip.

His advisor’s hand froze in mid-air, unsure whether to knock and let Zhang Xu know they had arrived.

In the silence, Gao Gusheng spoke first. “Hello, senior. I’m Gao Gusheng.”

Zhang Xu turned and looked at him. “Hello.”

The moment he spoke, the strange atmosphere from a moment ago vanished entirely. The advisor felt an inexplicable wave of relief and stepped forward. “Zhang Xu, I’m a teacher from your school. How are you feeling?”

Zhang Xu said, “I still can’t remember anything.”

He looked at Gao Gusheng. “Except him.”

When Zhang Xu looked at Gao Gusheng, his eyes were full of trust and longing, like a fledgling bird fixed on its mother.

Gao Gusheng’s body went rigid.

Something felt deeply off. He was like an entirely different person.

No — more accurately, the senior before the amnesia, the Zhang Xu before the jump, and the Zhang Xu after losing his memory all seemed like three completely unrelated people.

Gao Gusheng could only offer an awkward smile. “Senior, now that you’ve seen me, have you remembered anything?”

Zhang Xu pressed a hand to his temple. “I seem to be able to recall a few fragments, but they’re not very clear.”

The advisor looked around the room and asked, “Zhang Xu, who is staying with you right now? Where are your parents?”

At the question, Zhang Xu’s expression fell a little. “No one. They’re probably just very busy.”

“My mum and dad… I assume they’re my mum and dad, that’s how they’re labelled in my call log. They said they’re away on business and can’t come back for now.”

A handsome young man making an expression like that made it difficult not to soften inwardly. The patient in the bed beside him was a burly older man, who said warmly, “Don’t you worry, young man. My family brings food when they visit, we’ll throw in a portion for you too!”

The woman with him followed up immediately, “That’s right, our pot is big enough, it’s no trouble at all.”

Zhang Xu, not used to receiving such kindness out of the blue, was a little dazed. He fumbled with his hands. “No, I couldn’t possibly impose like that.”

“Ah, what’s there to be embarrassed about? When you’re away from home you rely on the people around you. That’s just how life works — I help you, you help me!”

Zhang Xu found the sheer exuberance a bit overwhelming. He had just lost his memory, and even though the couple’s intentions were entirely good, the high energy was making him uneasy. He instinctively started, “No, actually I go to sch—”

He stopped himself halfway, and turned to Gao Gusheng with a look of appeal. His wide damp eyes were like a stray dog wagging its tail as hard as it could, pleading for a small corner to take shelter in.

There it was again. That strange feeling from before.

Gao Gusheng’s face grew faintly warm. His heart picked up pace.

He looked at Zhang Xu and started to say, “Actually, I—”

“I think the gentleman is right.”

He bit down hard on the tip of his own tongue.

Gao Gusheng smoothed his expression back to normal, looked at Zhang Xu, and said with a smile, “When you’re away from home you rely on the people around you.”

“Your two beds are right next to each other. You’d naturally end up helping each other out anyway. That’s exactly what it means to be away from home — I help you, you help me.”

The burly man gave Gao Gusheng an approving nod. “That’s the spirit! What a sensible young man!”

Gao Gusheng smiled and pressed on. “Besides, senior, you used to have lots of friends. Maybe the more people you get to know, the sooner your memories will come back.”

With Gao Gusheng and the man in the next bed taking turns to speak, the amnesiac Zhang Xu couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Time slipped by and it was suddenly getting late. Gao Gusheng waved goodbye to the man he had somehow become fast friends with in the span of just two hours, and then said his farewells to Zhang Xu.

He chose to pretend he had not seen the look of reluctance and quiet pleading in Zhang Xu’s eyes.

Outside the hospital, he let out a long breath. His back was damp with cold sweat.

The golden retriever sensed something was wrong and nudged its head into his palm. Gao Gusheng got into the family car, drawing warmth from the large dog as he dialled Gao Shi’s number.

Gao Shi was in a meeting, but still replied to him by message.

[What is it, Lele?]

Gao Gusheng stared at those words, and felt a great deal of calm settle back into his chest.

He typed out the events of the day and sent them to Gao Shi one by one.

[Dad, a few strange things happened today…]

Before long they had reached the entrance of the villa district.

The headlights swept across and Gao Gusheng looked up. His gaze stopped cold. He immediately called out, “Wait, stop the car!”

He jumped out and ran into the pine grove outside the estate.

He drew a quiet sharp breath, and added one more line to the message he was sending Gao Shi.

[Also, Dad, I found an injured person.]

***

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