Luo Bing could barely imagine the worldview Xu Fang had described. But he didn’t want to force himself to accept it, either. He wanted nothing to do with anything supernatural.

Xu Fang made a circuit of Luo Xiaoming’s room and asked, “If you see her again, do you know what to do?”

“I’ll notify you right away.” Luo Bing nodded quickly. “I understand.”

Xu Fang hummed. “Then I won’t stay any longer.”

Seeing him leave so readily, Luo Bing let out a breath of relief, though a faint trace of disappointment lingered. He was conflicted. He’d always thought he and Xu Fang belonged to two different worlds, but as one strange thing after another happened, he’d started to wonder if he’d already been drawn into it.

‘Xu Fang’s practically family. He wouldn’t hurt me.’

With that thought, Luo Bing spoke up. “Wait. If I get into trouble, could you help me out, for Xiao Ming’s sake? Of course, if you ever need anything from me, I’ll do my best to help.”

Gussy whistled and waved his phone. “Ooh, that didn’t sound like small talk. I recorded it, so don’t try to back out when I come asking for your help.”

Luo Bing: “…” He already regretted it.

Xu Fang said nothing. He only glanced at Luo Bing, then signaled to Gussy to leave.

Only after those two troublesome characters jumped out of the twenty-sixth-floor window did Luo Bing feel the weight pressing down on him lift. He hurried to the window and looked down, but there was no sign of them. The traffic and pedestrians flowed by, utterly undisturbed.

“Fate sure is fickle.”

Luo Bing closed the window and stared blankly at the view below for a while. He didn’t come back to himself until sweat ran down his forehead. Wiping away the cold sweat, he turned to head back. As he passed Luo Xiaoming’s room, an odd feeling suddenly came over him.

“Was this door closed just now?”

He remembered that Xu Fang and the others hadn’t closed it when they left.

Had he remembered wrong?

Luo Bing pushed the door open.

…

Luo Xiaoming leaned against the headboard, her legs stretched out toward the foot of the bed. Her bare feet dangled in the air, swaying now and then. Sunlight slipped through a gap in the curtains and fell across her ankles. One hand was tucked behind her head; the other held up her phone, its light reflecting on her face. An eyeball model on the table beside her stood out in particular.

Noticing Luo Bing come in, Xiao Ming complained, “Hey, ever heard of knocking?”

Luo Bing looked at her with mild disdain. “Luo Xiaoming, your advisor just called. It’s time to go back to school. This isn’t a place for you to retire.”

“Oh…”

“I’ll book you a flight to K City for tomorrow. Pack your things today, and remember to register when you get to campus.”

“But I still want to wait for Xu Fang. He might come see me.”

That nonexistent person again?

Luo Bing frowned. He and Xiao Ming had argued about this before, and neither had managed to convince the other. He couldn’t be bothered to press the point again, so he brushed her off. “I’m staying in S City. If I see him, I’ll let you know. Happy?”

Luo Xiaoming hesitated, then nodded. “All right, but I’m not flying. Buy me a train ticket.”

After climbing out the window, Xu Fang hadn’t left. He’d dropped into the empty stairwell next door.

Gussy crouched with him in a blind spot between the security cameras and teased him with a grin:

“I thought you’d stick around here a little longer. Come on, what weird experiment are you planning this time?”

“Wait here. I’m going back to take another look.” Xu Fang activated his invisibility cloak and retraced his steps to Luo Bing’s apartment.

The moment Xu Fang touched the window, he sensed something was off—it was locked from the inside. Luo Bing had had enough time to close and lock it after Xu Fang left, but that would have left clear fingerprints. The prints on the handle now, however, were blurry.

A strand of hair slipped through the gap in the window and turned the lock. Xu Fang climbed in and landed on the floor, then sensed something else unusual.

For a moment, he had the strange feeling that he’d never been here before.

But that was impossible. Just a few minutes ago, he and Gussy had searched every corner of Luo Bing’s apartment.

With his sharp hearing, Xu Fang could already hear Luo Bing talking to someone. The strange thing was, he couldn’t hear anyone answering Luo Bing. It was as if Luo Bing were talking to himself.

Xu Fang blinked and instinctively looked toward Luo Bing. His energy sight could see through walls—

No.

Xu Fang immediately shut his eyes.

The last time his connection with Luo Xiaoming had been severed, it had happened while they were talking and observing each other.

Directly observing something with the eyes might disrupt the current state.

If they weren’t in two separate worlds, but instead existed in a quantum superposition within the same world, then any act of observation would break the current balance and force them into another state.

Was there a safer way to observe them? Xu Fang’s heart stirred. He had the faint sense that his vision had brightened just a little.

Luo Bing’s voice was getting closer. They were coming this way.

Xu Fang spotted a bookcase in the corner. He tore a sheet from a book, wrote a few lines on it using the “incomplete combustion method,” left it on the floor, then slipped into the room next door.

…

Luo Xiaoming knew she couldn’t keep staying at Luo Bing’s place forever. She hadn’t brought much with her in the first place, just a few pieces of clothing and some books. One suitcase was enough to hold it all.

Her other things were still at Lantian Apartments.

Thinking of the place she’d once rented with Xu Fang, Luo Xiaoming’s expression darkened.

Lost in thought, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

At some point, a piece of paper had appeared on the floor. It had writing on it, though the strokes were blurry.

Luo Xiaoming bent down and picked it up. After reading what was on it, she was completely puzzled.

Xiao Ming,

If you see this sentence

Then I'll explain.

By your side.

What the hell was this? She couldn’t make sense of it at all. The characters looked like scorch marks made with a lighter, and there was something indescribably strange about them.

Could it be… Had Xu Fang been here?

She spun around and held the paper up in front of Luo Bing, her voice full of excitement. “What is this? Do you know?”

Luo Bing took the paper and turned it over a couple of times, just as baffled as she was. It wasn’t Chinese or English. It looked more like garbled text. He glanced at the wide-open living room window and said casually, “It’s not mine. Must’ve blown in from outside. Looks like the kind of thing people burn for the dead.”

In the next room, Xu Fang heard every word Luo Bing said. His eyes lowered as he fell into thought.

The paper had appeared in front of Luo Xiaoming, which meant that the act of “sending information” was allowed. The two worlds weren’t completely cut off from each other. But they couldn’t understand the message… That meant the information had been distorted in transit. It wasn’t precise enough.

Would another sheet of paper work better? Xu Fang tore another page from the book.

But just then, something unexpected happened.

A small head poked over the edge of the windowsill. At some point, Gussy had snuck over. It didn’t dare enter the living room for fear of being spotted by Luo Bing, so it clung to the windowsill and peeked in with one eye.

That one glance was all it took. In the living room, Luo Bing’s voice cut off mid-sentence.

The surroundings fell silent in an instant, as if someone had hit the mute button.

Xu Fang emerged from his hiding place and looked toward where Luo Bing should have been standing.

There was nothing there. Only a sheet of paper lay alone on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Xu Fang walked up to Gussy, expressionless, his voice low.

“Hehe, I was just curious. I wanted to see if Xiao Ming was actually there…” Meeting Xu Fang’s gaze, Gussy immediately sensed something was wrong. It knew it had messed up.

It had meant to make some excuse and play cute, but what came out was, “I’m sorry! Don’t kill me!”

“Forget it.”

Xu Fang didn’t look at it again. His gaze settled on the empty living room.

He wasn’t angry. He’d planned to have Gussy test this step anyway; Gussy had just shown up at the wrong time. He hadn’t managed to contact Luo Xiaoming yet.

But by now, he already had a rough idea of what was going on.

For now, he’d distinguish between the worlds observed by the two of them. The one he was in was the α world; the one Luo Xiaoming was in was the β world.

Because of some hard-to-explain rule—perhaps something that could be called a “antinomy”—a repulsive force existed between these two worlds. Any act of observation would pull them farther apart.

Gussy had only taken a glance, yet β Luo Bing had vanished completely. What’s more, the effect was irreversible. Even if Gussy looked away now, Luo Bing wouldn’t reappear.

If things continued like this, the α and β worlds would only drift farther apart, until they separated completely and became two independent worlds with nothing to do with each other.

By then, Xu Fang would never receive any more information about Luo Xiaoming. And the same would be true for her.

In a sense, Luo Xiaoming would truly “die.”

For the next day, Xu Fang stayed hidden in Luo Bing’s apartment, but he never sensed “β Luo Bing” again. And “α Luo Bing” never saw Luo Xiaoming again, either.

At dawn, the living room was silent. Only the wind outside occasionally stirred the curtains.

A heavy feeling settled in Xu Fang’s chest. His theory was probably right.

But he wouldn’t let this happen.

If the farther apart they were, the harder they were to observe, then couldn’t he just find a way to bring them closer?

He’d thought of a way long ago. He’d just felt the timing wasn’t right and wanted to take it slowly. Now, it seemed, he couldn’t wait any longer.

…

Gussy kept watch outside, crouched on an air-conditioning unit and gazing at the streets of S City, bored out of its mind.

High-rises stood everywhere, traffic flowed without end, and cameras watched from every direction, above and below. It narrowed its eyes. Looking through those cold lenses, it could see that the density of surveillance cameras around Luo Bing’s home was noticeably higher than elsewhere—nearly double.

China was keeping Luo Bing under surveillance. Or rather, they were keeping tabs on everyone who’d had contact with Xu Fang.

Gussy pursed its lips. That alone showed how much attention China was paying to Xu Fang.

Still, those tactics were useless against Gussy. Even the brightest sunlight couldn’t reach every corner of the world.

“He’s not planning to stay in there forever, is he…” Gussy swung its legs and muttered, “I’m so bored.”

It hesitated, wondering if it should sneak back in and see what Xu Fang was up to. But it was afraid of messing things up like before. All it had done was peek in with one eye, and Luo Bing had disappeared. Xu Fang hadn’t said anything, but he’d probably already considered how to deal with Gussy.

Just as it was letting its imagination run wild, Gussy heard Xu Fang’s voice: “Come with me. It’s time to move.”

Gussy perked up and spun around with a whoosh.

“Huh? Finally…” Its eyes lit up, and it eagerly pressed him. “What are we doing?”

“Rewriting history.” Xu Fang’s tone was as casual as if he were talking about what to have for dinner.

Gussy froze for a moment, then whistled.