Mist

Chapter 41: Who Am I

After taking the medicine and answering the phone, the anxiousness, confusion and panic from earlier had left Ji Yushi and his complexion looked much better.
They came early and the other teammates hadn’t arrived yet, so the two had some time to talk.

Ji Yushi said, “I asked you that because in my memory, the Chief of the Jiang City branch was surnamed Wang. She was a very impressive female leader, and it was her who sent us on our mission, and she was also the one who received me when I came. Based on my memory, there was no chief with the surname Qi.”

Song Qinglan was startled, “How could it be?”
He had asked this subconsciously, but it wasn’t that he didn’t believe in Ji Yushi’s memory. Instead, it was because he believed Ji Yushi too much, so he found it shocking, “A female leader surnamed Wang?”

Ji Yushi, “Try and remember. When we first met at the Tianqiong base, who was standing next to me?”
Song Qinglan answered very quickly, “It was Chief Qi. He was the one who introduced you to me. You also said that you attended his class three years ago and told him what he wore that day as well as the fact that I left early.”

Ji Yushi shook his head, “No. That was also Chief Wang. I remember her dress, her pearl earrings and the cup she broke.

It was noon on a summer’s day. The sun was shining bright.
Perhaps it was because the air-conditioning in the car was too strong, both of them felt a small chill.
But, after having experienced everything in the other worlds, they were able to remain calm —- At least no zombies would suddenly appear to feast on their brains.

There was no point pondering over the same question all the time. Ji Yushi asked, “Cap Song, why don’t you tell me about this Chief Qi?”

Song Qinglan said, “In fact, you met him when you were in the crevice. He’s Captain Qi of the Tianqiong twelfth squad that was trapped in the rainforest.”

Ji Yushi was shocked.
The scene of Captain Qi pointing his gun at the traitor in the rain was still very vivid.
“Xie Sian, I, as the witness and guardian of time, will give you your sentence.”
……..
It turned out to be him?
For a long time, Ji Yushi didn’t speak. His mind was working fast. As soon as every piece of the puzzle fell into the right spot, he quickly understood what was going on, “…..It’s him.”
The timeline had changed. From the time the twelfth squad was rescued, everything that had already happened in reality had been changed. The Tianqiong twelfth squad returned to fifteen years ago and, because of his outstanding abilities, Cap Qi was promoted step by step, eventually becoming the Chief of the Jiang City branch. As a result, Chief Wang was never appointed.

But why did Song Qinglan’s memory change, but not his?

“When I saw him in the crevice, I was also shocked.” Song Qinglan said, “During those years I have been in the Jiang City branch, he had always been very strict with our seventh squad and never revealed anything. It turned out that Chief Qi had such an experience when he was young. From Chief Qi’s perspective, they were caught in the crevice fifteen years ago and was rescued by a Tianqiong seventh squad from the future. During those past fifteen years, Chief Qi didn’t intervene and just watched the seventh squad destined to save his squad form and when Old Yu was injured and you were transferred over from Ning City, he probably knew that we were about to complete the cycle.”

Ji Yushi’s eyelashes trembled slightly.
His eyes carried a hint of confusion.

“Chief Qi looked for me recently and we had a chat. Through him I realised that it was actually very difficult tracking us down after being hijacked. It was precisely because of his past that Chief Qi was able to find a loophole and intercept us with difficulty. Without it, we might not have been able to return.”
Song Qinglan said, “It’s like a continuous chain. Without us, there would be no Chief Qi and without Chief Qi, we would not have been able to return to reality. Just like what we said in the Ouroboros mission; only after a certain event at a certain moment is completed would everything else happen after that.”