WC ⋆ Chapter 5

The main event of the New Year's party was around midnight, but it was only nine in the evening now, everyone's energy was still running high, and with alcohol as a catalyst, they quickly started chatting all at once.

Gossiping was always the safest choice: who got married right after graduation, who broke up right after graduation, who went to their ex's place to steal the cat and dog after breaking up.

Fan Zi said, "Those two are practically about to go to court over who gets the pet. The whole thing got really ugly. I heard from my roommate that when he snuck out with the dog, his partner happened to come back right at that moment, and the dog bolted. The two of them chased after it together."

The whole group burst out laughing. Jiang Yishen laughed and said, "That dog was one he picked up himself, so it makes sense for him to take it when they split."

The moment those words were out, Qi Lin, sitting at the far end of the room, cut in out of nowhere: "He doesn't even know how to take care of it. Most of the time before, it was his partner doing the looking after. Besides, didn't they agree to give it to his partner?"

Everyone in the room, whether they were pouring drinks, snacking, or singing, came to a complete standstill. Nobody moved, only eyeballs rolling around.

Jiang Yishen sat up straight and frowned. "Who says he can't take care of it? Nobody knows how right from the start. You learn as you go, don't you?"

"You were learning as you went, and the thing died in the process," Qi Lin said.

This was clearly no longer about the gossip involving the stolen dog. The frozen group of people looked left and then right, not a single person jumping in. Those who wanted to laugh had to hold it in.

Jiang Yishen got worked up. "What do you mean died? It's perfectly healthy. Rough care produces more vitality!"

"Then raise yourself that way and see how much vitality you get."

The friend sitting right in the center of the whole room put down the hand that had been pouring drinks and, using every last ounce of energy, said slowly: "What exactly are you two raising?"

Xu Baili let out a long sigh and answered on their behalf: "A cactus."

"What about the cactus? A dog is alive, and a cactus isn't?" Jiang Yishen slapped his knee. "It used to be able to bloom, and now it definitely won't anymore."

"Who's to blame that it can't bloom? That cactus care guide you found online was a total mess. You actually believed something that was obviously illogical, yet anything I say you refuse to believe."

"Before it was a soil problem, and after we changed the soil wasn't it doing just fine? Besides, what was so illogical about it? It's not like I have no judgment of my own!"

"What judgment do you have? Those black sesame pills you bought did nothing except cause heat buildup. The seller was claiming their medicine could bring the dead back to life, that paralyzed people could eat it and start leaping over rooftops."

The person sitting to Xu Baili's left quietly scooted a little closer and whispered in his ear: "Is a cactus really not some kind of pet name?"

Xu Baili drank his alcohol in despair. "It is literally a cactus."

The person was clearly very surprised. "How does a cactus end up getting killed?"

"I don't know." Xu Baili's gaze went a little blank. "I don't know."

With so many people present, the bickering centered on the cactus wrapped up quickly. After several rounds of drinks, people gradually got a little tipsy. The gossip came in fits and starts, and they switched to gathering together to play games.

Qi Lin's temper had not cooled. He actually liked drinking, only in the previous few loops he had deliberately kept himself sober. In the second half of the night he had not touched anything with a higher alcohol content, but this time he finally couldn't hold back. He picked up his glass and drank some.

He heard someone nearby saying: "Whatever I scored, I'm done caring. I've been on the verge of making myself sick this past half year from holding everything in. I really can't study anymore."

Qi Lin turned his face slightly to look, and saw Jiang Yishen with one arm draped over the back of the sofa, lazily asking that person: "Were the questions hard this year?"

"How would I know if it was the questions being hard or me being terrible? Damn, the stuff I memorized all showed up in the question stems, and I answered them so smoothly it felt amazing!"

Qi Lin was already a little drunk, but his head could still turn. He blanked out for a few seconds, then tilted his head to ask Xu Baili: "Didn't Jiang Yishen take the grad school entrance exam?"

Xu Baili was in the middle of gnawing on some spiced duck, and at those words his chewing paused for a moment. "He didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Qi Lin's mind couldn't catch up now, feeling like he had missed something, but his numbed and sluggish nerves made it hard to think clearly. He saw Xu Baili glance at him. The shifting light and shadow reflected in the screen of the private room made that glance look unusually complicated.

"He didn't take it. Alright, take it easy. This drink has a serious kick," Xu Baili said, switching topics very naturally. He was clearly taking advantage of Qi Lin being nearly drunk to brush him off.

Qi Lin knew he was being brushed off, but he opened his mouth wanting to ask more, yet couldn't get the words out. It was like being chased in a dream, where no matter how hard you run you can't move.

This drink really did have a serious kick, and that was no lie. Qi Lin got drunk outside for the first time.

Throughout the evening people sang, played games, ate and drank and used the bathroom. Everyone was familiar with each other, sitting wherever there was a free spot. By the end, Qi Lin was lying on the sofa nearly asleep, with Jiang Yishen right beside him.

Jiang Yishen's reputation for being knocked out after three cups was well earned. He had kept himself from drinking too much, but one sip at a time had added up to three cups' worth. His head was spinning. The only thought he could manage to recall was: drunk is drunk, the Time Reset will happen anyway, I can send him home in one click.

Until his ears vaguely caught someone shouting: "Almost midnight, want to go downstairs and check it out? The countdown is the most fun!"

The two words "midnight" were like a gong exploding beside his ear. With one strike it knocked Jiang Yishen's wits back into place. He scrambled upright and fumbled around on the sofa. Finally he found his phone, opened it, and saw it was already 23:58.

The world was spinning before his eyes, and his stomach felt off too. He grabbed Qi Lin beside him and, in what he thought was a normal volume, said: "Qi Lin, wake up. The reset is coming!"

They had agreed on the overall goal for tonight's party: to verify whether physical condition would be affected by the loop, whether the state of being drunk would be reset along with it.

But to everyone else's ears his voice was practically a roar. Qi Lin was jolted awake by him, frowned and looked around the room, then flopped back down to sleep.

Jiang Yishen quickly grabbed his shoulders and hauled him upright. "Qi Lin, we need to…"

Need to do what again?

His train of thought was plastered into a mosaic by paste. Jiang Yishen stared at Qi Lin right in front of him, and suddenly couldn't quite figure out what was going on.

"Jiang, Jiang Yishen!" A voice rang out from behind him. Jiang Yishen turned around very slowly, his gaze unfocused.

As he moved, the force in his hand loosened without him noticing, and Qi Lin lost his support and toppled headfirst onto his shoulder.

From Xu Baili's angle, Qi Lin was entirely curled up in Jiang Yishen's arms, looking small, pitiful, and utterly helpless.

"Jiang Yishen, don't do anything rash. He's not clear-headed right now. If you, if you want to do something wait until he's sober!" Xu Baili swallowed a mouthful of saliva and stood a few steps away, bracing himself as if facing a great enemy.

The few people who had just said they wanted to go downstairs for the countdown were already standing by the door. Hearing that, they all remembered Jiang Yishen's drunk habit of going wild kissing anyone he ran into, even a dog, and hurriedly said: "Let go of Qi Lin first! We'll give you whatever you want!"

Xu Baili, under Jiang Yishen's blank stare, steeled himself and moved closer. "Or you wake him up and tell him you're about to kiss him. That's called a disclaimer. Otherwise once Qi Lin wakes up we're all done for!"

"You can't kiss him even when he's awake!" Fan Zi was also shocked out of his wits. "If you kiss him it'll turn into drunken misconduct. Once they're both sober tomorrow we are genuinely done for!"

Muffled sounds of footsteps drifted in from the corridor. Quite a few people had walked out of their private rooms. The final moments of New Year's Eve, lively and bustling.

Jiang Yishen looked down at Qi Lin. He hadn't understood a word his friends were saying at all. Extracting the key words, there was only "kiss" and "kiss."

Qi Lin didn't seem to have fallen fully asleep, just sinking into the drunkenness with his eyes closed. His eyelashes trembled from time to time, his brow furrowing slightly, looking uncomfortable.

Jiang Yishen stared at his lips for a few seconds. For a moment he couldn't quite remember what time it was now, or what they were doing. Except for himself and Qi Lin held in his hands, everything else rapidly faded and receded. Sounds and colors all twisted into a silent black-and-white filmstrip and flew away at high speed.

Countless images flickered in the filmstrip: him sitting on a high-speed train, exhausted, staring out the window; him wearing a thick mask, moving through a hospital ward; him waiting outside an operating room, numbly counting the floor tiles, looking through the heavy glass at his father lying in the bed.

And Qi Lin pulling at his sleeve, Qi Lin helping him button his coat, Qi Lin arguing with him, Qi Lin kissing him.

Every flashback was gone in an instant. Jiang Yishen couldn't hold onto a single one. In his daze he remembered that this feeling of being pulled away was familiar. Midnight was approaching. This was the time-space resetting.

The time-space would reset, and when he opened his eyes again everything would be a blank page. No one would remember what had happened at this moment. In this instant he was absolutely free.

Jiang Yishen's palm settled on the back of Qi Lin's neck, cradling him and tilting his head up. He leaned down and kissed Qi Lin on the lips, just as he had every time they had kissed before.

The rushing carousel of images beside his ears came to an abrupt stop, like shattering a glass dome. Everything burst vividly to life. Jiang Yishen suddenly heard clearly the overlapping gasps in the room, heard clearly the loud countdown voices merging together in the corridor.

Qi Lin seemed to have been kissed awake, or perhaps it was just a subconscious response from within the haze. He raised his hand and grabbed Jiang Yishen's forearm, parting his lips slightly and letting him kiss.

Jiang Yishen's heart was beating fast. He lost all sense of time, only listening to the fervent shout from outside the room: "Happy New Year!"

Followed immediately by a wave of cheers that crashed over everything, clearer and brighter than the midnight shout in every one of the previous loops. Jiang Yishen pulled back a little. This time it wasn't a gong striking beside his ear. It was an atomic bomb going off inside his skull.

His hand was still cupped around Qi Lin's neck, and Qi Lin simply let his throat roll once, then slumped back against his shoulder.

Jiang Yishen snapped his gaze toward the clock on the private room screen. January 1st, midnight exactly.

No reset. No loop. No clearing. Time was moving forward. The world was still turning.

He crashed to a halt where he stood, his heart pounding so hard it nearly burst through his chest. His gaze inched toward the side of the screen, toward the group of trembling friends standing at the door, mouths hanging wide open, faces contorted, not one of them speaking.

Every single person wore an expression of shock and terror. This time they were truly done for, including Jiang Yishen.

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