Mist

Chapter 46: Who Am I

It was indeed Chief Wang.
The middle-aged woman in the photo was the one who was in power at the Jiang City branch for the past fifteen years.

Ji Yushi was certain of this because he possessed two memories at the same time.
As for Song Qinglan, just like what he said in the car earlier about the woman suddenly charging over being a key to his memory that allowed him to remember the previous cycle, something similar happened.

The moment he saw Chief Wang’s photo, Song Qinglan’s memories flooded back into his mind and his previously blurred impression of her became much clearer.

Like a slow-moving movie, these memories overlapped with Song Qinglan’s current memories frame by frame.
The surge of information gave Song Qinglan a headache. From the moment he joined Tianqiong, another new memory emerged and his experiences over nearly a thousand days surfaced to his mind. All the individuals and events had changed but the opposing, originally existing memories hadn’t disappeared.

“Cap Song!”
A distant voice was heard.

“Cap Song!”
The voice gradually got closer until it was right in front of Song Qinglan.

Song Qinglan returned to his senses and saw that his elbows were on the table with his fingers supporting his temples and there was also a thin layer of sweat across his forehead. His breathing was light and quick.
He raised his head and was met with Ji Yushi’s concerned look.

“How are you?” Ji Yushi asked anxiously, “Why did you suddenly stop talking?”

As it turned out, this was the kind of pain Ji Yushi would typically go through?
It was worse than the sequelae following his first traversing. This was what it was like when one truly experiences memory overload.

Song Qinglan’s head felt like there were needles stabbing into it, “Fuck, about Chief Wang……I fucking, remembered it all of a sudden.”
Ji Yushi was stunned, “You remembered?! Did you remember after seeing the photo?”

The pain made Song Qinglan a little irritable, “Yes! As soon as I saw the photo, I remembered everything.”
It was just like when Ji Yushi saw Chief Qi.

The kitchen was quiet for a while.
Having seen and experienced too many incredible things, the two at this time didn’t make a fuss about Song Qinglan’s suddenly acquired new memories and just needed some time to calm down.

If Ji Yushi didn’t remember Chief Wang, Song Qinglan wouldn’t have specially gone to find this information and they would have never noticed the problem with this world. Ji Yushi however just happened to remember it. Whether it was due to his hyperthymesia or something else, Ji Yushi was like a bug that revealed the discrepancies in this world.
Just imagine, what would’ve happened to them if there was no Ji Yushi around?

Where would they be?
What was going on?

After Song Qinglan remembered, he didn’t waste any time talking about nonsense.
He tried to express his thoughts through his pounding headache, “So, in another reality, Chief Wang has been Chief Wang for fifteen years and was also the same person who sent us out on the mission. This is without a doubt. I believe that we can forget about figuring out which reality we are currently in as that is not the main issue here.”
Ji Yushi understood what Song Qinglan meant, “Because no matter which reality we are in, we shouldn’t have double memories!”

If it is said that it was due to a butterfly effect, the previous memories should’ve also been rewritten so no matter which reality they were in, only one memory should be retained. They however retained two.
Understanding this point may allow them to answer the question of why they haven’t encountered their other self here if this really was a parallel world.