Chapter 1

Chapter 1

After work, I liked to browse antique street stalls for little trinkets.

That day, I found an old notebook with a brown cowhide cover. The stall owner said it was from the Republic of China era. I was half skeptical, but I liked it too much to pass it up, so I bought it.

The notebook was beautifully made. The pages inside had yellowed with age, but it was obvious its owner had taken good care of it.

I opened it, and on the first page, written in bold, sweeping strokes, were three large words:

Diary.

Below that was another line: [Today, sir told all of us to start keeping diaries. What decent person writes a diary? Boring.]

I burst out laughing. This was actually pretty interesting.

The diary’s owner was probably a young boy, still in school. He had filled the pages with a messy assortment of trivial daily events.

[Republic of China Year 14, May 5

Got into a shouting match with my old man. Got beaten. Hurts.]

[Morning of May 6. Ate at Heji Zhai. Delicious.]

[Republic of China Year 14, May 7. Clear.

Today, I skipped class and went to play cards with Brother Qiong and the others. Who would have thought sir would actually chase me all the way home to scold me? Annoying!]

I was just getting into it when I turned to the next page-and it was blank.

The pages after that were blank too.

So this kid had kept a diary for exactly three days in a row.

His three-minute enthusiasm was even worse than mine.

Amused, I added a line after his entries.

[May 8, 2024. Worked too long. Tired.]

After writing that, I went to rest and didn’t think much of it.

But the next day, when I opened the diary again, I was shocked to find three large words had appeared beneath the line I’d written.

[Who are you!]

I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.

I clearly remembered that page being blank yesterday. Where had this handwriting come from, appearing out of thin air?

All sorts of ghost stories and supernatural explanations flashed through my mind, and my scalp prickled. Trembling, I wrote a reply underneath: [Then who are you? Are you human or a ghost?]

The moment I finished writing, more words emerged below: [You finally replied. I waited ten whole days for you. How are you able to write in my diary out of thin air!]

I blinked.

His diary?

I flipped back to compare the handwriting, and discovered the newly appeared words were exactly the same as the handwriting in the earlier entries.

Could it be that this person was the owner of the diary?

And he said he had waited ten whole days for me, but only one day had passed on my side. In other words, time flowed differently for us?

My mind was a complete mess, but at the same time, I felt a little excited.

I had thought my whole life would be nothing but the dull existence of a corporate drone, yet I had actually encountered something this strange-I could communicate across space and time with someone from a hundred years ago!

After thinking it over, I wrote back:

[My name is Shen Qingqing. I’m from one hundred years in the future.]