CH 1

Chapter 1: Return To The Past

June 11, 2005, Time: 5:10 in the afternoon

Location: Chunnan City, outside of Qingshui District, beside the road.

The Grim Reaper from the future lowered his hand and once again determined the time on his watch—it was correct.

According to the pointers he found on the natal chart[1] before setting off, he only needed to wait here for a few minutes before he could see the person he was about to meet coming from the other side of the road.

It was raining.

The Grim Reaper hated the rain, if he had paid more attention to the weather forecast before setting out he might not have chosen this time.

Within a short period, the rain drummed wildly. The hair and the black robe of the Grim Reaper were soaked. The drops of rain kept dripping down the tips of his hair and it fell onto his neck, which was colder than his body temperature.

The vehicles sped by and the pedestrians on the street lessened. The rain faintly diffused the smell of yellow cypress, emitting fragrance.

The Grim Reaper frowned in disgust, he didn’t like anything sweet or greasy.

At that moment, the protagonist of this space-time continuum arrived late—a young boy.

The God of Death leapt back from the future to this space-time, just to take the boy away in advance.

On the opposite side of the road, the traffic lights on the sidewalk were flashing, the dreamy lights reflected in the puddles.

The little fella was holding a small red umbrella with ears on the top, he wore a pair of yellow rain boots, skipping steps like a poisonous little mushroom[2].

Children dressed like this were quite common but not all children liked to step on puddles.

Little Mushroom crossed the road and didn’t seem to care at all. He focused on stepping into the puddles. Every time he stepped into a puddle, he giggled happily. After playing for a long time, he walked through the short, pale zebra crossing.

Almost immediately after he finished walking, the countdown to the red light was over and a turning vehicle whizzed past him.

“Hey, little kid, are you looking for death?” From a distance, you could still hear the driver’s scolding.

If the vehicle passed just a little bit early then this little mushroom would have died on the spot.

This was a moment of death.

It was precisely this time that the Grim Reaper chose to accurately jump through space-time and find this little mushroom—five-year-old Chi Jiayan.

Everyone recorded in the natal chart will have many near-death experiences in their lives. Maybe it was a time when one missed a bus that would encounter an accident, might’ve happened to have avoided a flowerpot that fell from a high altitude or when suddenly being robbed by someone with a knife when walking on the road… Exactly when did they die? In most cases, people can’t choose for themselves.

Chi Jiayan was a special case.

Because Chi Jiayan took the initiative to choose his own death one day in the future.

He chose to sacrifice his own life, saving twenty-three lives that should have died with him in one fell swoop, at the age of twenty-seven.

Half an hour before his death, he quarrelled with an older woman because she was cutting in line, he snatched a child’s candyfloss and made him cry. After all this, he even smoked a whole cigarette slowly and methodically in the No-Smoking area, regardless of dissuasion and cursed several security guards.

In short, he was low tempered and vulgar, not a decent human being in the ordinary sense.

On one hand, the Grim Reaper was very curious about him.

On the other hand, the natal chart did not allow such a huge blunder.

The Grim Reaper must return to a suitable time of death and change what might happen in the future. Originally, those twenty-three lives should have ended on time.

The five-year-old Chi Jiayan was so frightened that he dared not to move. Behind him, the car’s honk repeated continuously[3] which was ear-splitting[4].

Upon seeing this, the Grim Reaper released a trace of spiritual power, prompting Chi Jiayan to move forward. Unexpectedly, as soon as he was mobile, the other party turned his small face to look in the direction where he stood.

He strode towards the Grim Reaper.

“Who are you? Why are you wearing a mask?” questioned the soft voice.

Chi Jiayan looked at him with a pair of big watery eyes, his small face was white and tender like a glutinous rice dumpling just out of the pot[5]. His pupils reflected the Grim Reaper’s tall figure and white mask. His face reflected signs of ignorance[6], where were the traces of bad appearance after growing up?

Grim Reaper’s brows wrinkled under the mask again.

He miscalculated, how could he forget that this person was from this space-time and he, the older Chi Jiayan, was from the future.

“Did you not bring an umbrella?” Chi Jiayan raised his head and asked, “Would you like to take mine?”

The Grim Reaper said indifferently, “No need.”

“But you are all wet,” Chi Jiayan blinked his eyes.

The Grim Reaper looked a little embarrassed.

Although he was chilly and wearing a creepy mask, he couldn’t change the distressing fact that he was soaked and dripping from the tips of his hair.

One young man and one little boy stood facing each other in the rain for a while, the air was filled with the refreshing fragrance of Huang Jue Lan[7].

Chi Jiayan gave out a brief sigh and lowered his head to find something.

Chi Jiayan was still very short, when he lowered his head the Grim Reaper could only see the top of the red umbrella and a pair of boot tips. The little ears on top of the umbrella were hit by the rain and fluttered repeatedly so on and so forth, stubborn and persevering, just like their owner.

“Gege, you squat down a bit,” Chi Jiayan tilted his head and beckoned with his little hand, the umbrella handle rested on his shoulder.

The Grim Reaper: “…”

“Squat down,” Chi Jiayan repeated.

The Grim Reaper squatted down.

Chi Jiayan wiped the water droplets from the Grim Reaper’s hair.

“My Mom said that if you don’t use an umbrella on rainy days then you will catch a cold,” Chi Jiayan smiled, revealing a pair of small pear vortexes[8] on his cheeks, very cute, “Jia Jia will help you to wipe your hair dry, it will be done in a while. Then you won’t catch a cold and you don’t have to go to the hospital for injections. Injections are very painful.”

“I won’t catch a cold,” The Grim Reaper’s voice had a metallic texture.

Chi Jiayan didn’t ask why but nodded heavily, “OK!”

Chi Jiayan’s body also had a little fragrance.

The Grim Reaper caught a glimpse of a Huang Jue Lan hanging around his neck. The beige flower was crossed and tied with a red thread, which represented the love of the elders.

Suddenly there was a scream of a kitten but it seemed to die down in the downpour.

Chi Jiayan stopped the movement of his hand, his round eyes widened suddenly, ” A cat’s voice? ! “

The Grim Reaper also heard the meowing sound.

Oh, yes, the Grim Reaper hated cats too.

On top of his black robe, the golden beast totem[9] also trembled violently.

Chi Jiayan didn’t notice the sudden chilliness. He put the handkerchief into his pocket and stepped in the rain to follow the cat’s meow into the roadside green belt[10]. There was a cardboard box in the green belt, which collapsed completely after being drenched in rain and inside it was a dying black kitten, whimpering.

“Come on!” Chi Jiayan waved from the green belt, “Gege, there is a little cat here.”

The Grim Reaper was indifferent.

Chi Jiayan babbled and threw away the small umbrella, as he had gotten deeper inside. After a while, he came out holding a kitten with a bloody abdomen.

He looked ridiculous with leaves on his head, pale face was covered with mud. He looked agitated as if he met a fierce enemy[11].

“Gege, the kitty is injured!” Chi Jiayan cried, “We have to send it to the hospital!”

The Grim Reaper said, “It will die soon.”

He was right, the cat was almost lifeless.

“I’ll save it!” After Chi Jiayan finished speaking, he turned around and ran to another place, “There is a pet hospital ahead!”

He ran too quickly. He was still a child and simply forgot to take the umbrella. Before he had said seriously that he (Grim Reaper) would catch a cold when he got caught in the rain but he seemed to have forgotten all about it now.

The little red umbrella was turned over in the rain and a gust of wind swirled by, blowing it far away.

Chi Jiayan ran for a short distance and then stopped, beckoning to him: “Gege! Come on! Let’s save it together!”

The Grim Reaper narrowed his eyes.

He remembered the scene of Chi Jiayan’s death twenty-two years later.

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The author has something to say:

It’s a new article, private settings are used in this article so no textual criticism is allowed. Just read it casually.

This article is from Gong’s perspective because the complete narrative of the incidents from his perspective is more vivid.

Footnotes:

[1]natal chart– Birth Chart which includes information about life and death

[2]poisonous little mushroom– someone who is very mischievous

[3]cǐqǐ-bǐfú– idiom translated – ‘as one falls, other rises’. or rise one after another, simply translated into repeated continuously

[4]zhèn’ěr-yùlóng– idiom translated into ‘ear-splitting’ or ‘deafening’

[5]

[6]signs of ignorance– ‘not aware of the complexity of the world’, i.e being simple-minded

[7]huángjuélán(黄桷兰)– Source: zhihu

[8]pear vortexes– kind of dimple

[9]golden beast totem– a symbolic object that is believed to have spiritual significance

[10]green belt– a green belt is an area of land with fields or parks around a town or city, where people are not allowed to build houses or factories by law.

[11]rúlíndàdí– idiom translated into ‘as if meeting a great enemy’ i.e being cautious