Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“Did you delete the photos?”

“Deleted.”

“Don’t go telling Professor Xu Lei that you took pictures of him.”

“I’m not the gossiping type.” Wen Miao gave Nan Mu a strange look. “You seem particularly concerned about their business?”

“Not at all. I just think it has nothing to do with us, and it’s better to avoid unnecessary trouble.” Nan Mu smoothly changed the subject. “I’m treating you to dinner! You have to come!”

==

The two of them went out for dinner together off-campus.

As it turned out, Nan Mu-who had insisted on treating her-only realized when it came time to pay that he didn’t have enough money. In the end, Wen Miao was the one who settled the bill.

Nan Mu watched Wen Miao pay, his face flushing red. He felt the need to defend himself. “I just forgot to bring enough. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely pay you back in the future.”

“It’s just the cost of one meal, don’t worry about it.”

“That won’t do. Your budget is tight enough as it is…” Nan Mu looked around, then grabbed a ballpoint pen and wrote an IOU in the margin of Wen Miao’s book.

Wen Miao looked down and burst out laughing. “What is this? ‘Ten years from now, principal plus interest: _____ yuan.’ Leaving the amount blank is one thing, but this IOU is for way too long… Ten years?”

Nan Mu solemnly tucked the IOU into her book, speaking with total seriousness. “That’s right. You better keep that IOU safe. What if I strike it rich ten years from now? Think about it-since there’s no amount written on it, when the time comes, you can write down whatever number you want.”

Wen Miao hadn’t actually thought that far ahead. Her eyes widened as she asked in surprise, “I can write any amount?”

“As long as you’re brave enough to write it, any amount is fine.”

Wen Miao giggled at Nan Mu’s confident expression. At this moment, she had no way of knowing what kind of massive wealth Nan Mu would hold in the future. She simply assumed he was saying such things out of trust in her character.

“You’re overestimating my integrity. What if I write down a hundred million?”

Nan Mu shrugged. “If I can’t pay it back, I’ll just have to give myself to you as collateral.”

Wen Miao froze for a second, her face turning beet red. She dropped a quick “I don’t want you!” before turning and walking away.

Nan Mu’s lips curled into a smile. He didn’t chase after her, instead following at a leisurely pace with his arms crossed over his chest.

He walked her all the way back to her dormitory. As they neared the building, Nan Mu finally spoke up. “What time are you getting up tomorrow?”

“I don’t have classes tomorrow morning, so probably eight… why?”

The Time Machine had physical effects on travelers, meaning a traveler could not stay in another era for long.

When Nan Mu arrived, his only goal was to change Wen Miao’s fate. Following Wen Xin’s experimental manual, he had set the travel duration to twenty-four hours.

In other words, he would be returning to the future before 9:00 AM tomorrow.

Nan Mu calculated the time in his head. If she woke up at eight, even with the fastest washing and brushing, it would be eight-thirty by the time she got downstairs. They might barely make it out of the school gates and sit down before he’d have to perform a disappearing act right in front of her…

He sighed. “I was hoping we could have breakfast together… but it looks like there won’t be enough time.”

Wen Miao let out a soft laugh. “Tang Tang told me all about you… You’re the guy who slides into the classroom right as the bell rings every day, yet you’re complaining that I’m not waking up early enough?”

“I have something to do tomorrow,” Nan Mu said softly, his voice tinged with a hint of loneliness.

Wen Miao instinctively glanced at him. He stood there with his eyes downcast, looking like a melancholic youth.

However, before she could speak, Nan Mu looked up first, his expression appearing somewhat pitiful. “Since we can’t have breakfast together tomorrow, can you promise me one thing?”

“What?” The word left Wen Miao’s mouth before her brain could even process the question.

“Let me give you a hug.”

As soon as the words left his lips, Nan Mu stepped forward without waiting for a reaction and pulled Wen Miao tightly into his arms.

Wen Miao was stunned. Her head was pressed firmly against his chest, and the faint scent of tobacco drifted from him to the tip of her nose. Her heart rate suddenly skyrocketed.

By the time she regained her senses, Nan Mu even ruffled her hair, smoothing it down like one would pet a dog.

“Wen Miao, wait for me!”

He threw out a nonsensical sentence that she didn’t quite understand, but Wen Miao didn’t have time to ask what he meant… because everything Nan Mu had done today felt like an information overload.

Good heavens, she was starting to wonder if she was dreaming. Otherwise, how could Nan Mu be acting so completely out of character?
Just yesterday, he had been that shy, bashful boy.

How was it that today, he was holding her hand, speaking so suggestively, and now even flat-out hugging her? What would happen next? Would he…

No, no, no. She shook her head frantically in her mind. This level of dreaming was already enough to make her heart race uncontrollably. If it went any further, wouldn’t it turn into an erotic dream?

Just as Wen Miao’s mind was filled with doubts about whether she was dreaming, Nan Mu let go.

“Goodnight.”

Wen Miao stared at him blankly for three seconds before stammering out a reply. “Goodnight.”

“Hurry back now.”

Nan Mu gave her a gentle nudge toward the dormitory building, and Wen Miao moved forward with the momentum. After a few steps, still feeling a sense of disbelief, she tilted her head back to glance at him.

Nan Mu flashed her a smile, showing a perfect row of teeth. “Go on.”

Under his urging, Wen Miao slowly walked away.

Nan Mu stood beneath the shadows of the trees, hands behind his back, watching her figure disappear into the dormitory entrance.

But a moment later, a petite figure came scurrying back out of the dormitory door. She clung to the doorframe and peeked out; the moment her eyes met his, she quickly shrank back inside.

Nan Mu could even hear the thumping sounds of her fleeing back upstairs.

He couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.

-Wen Miao, I hope that when you meet the past version of me, you won’t feel too disappointed.

-I hope you don’t fall in love too early, or get married too early.

-You absolutely must wait for me to come back and marry you.

==

In the year 2032, Nan Mu opened his eyes and found himself still sitting on the Time Machine.

*Grumble-* His stomach was the first to make a sound.

Nan Mu rubbed his belly and hummed a little tune as he pushed the door open. Outside, it was a sweltering summer day, and the sky was still bright.

Checking his watch, Nan Mu realized he had spent an entire day in the past, yet only about an hour had passed in this timeline.

His phone suddenly rang, and the name “Qiu Ziyu” popped up on the screen.

Nan Mu grabbed the phone, but just as he was about to answer, a flood of memory fragments flashed through his mind. It was like a computer lag; software that had been clicked previously was now uncontrollably popping up windows all over the desktop. The pain was so intense that Nan Mu clutched his head and collapsed to the floor.

Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead as countless images flashed back into his mind.

Wen Miao coming to find him for breakfast, but he had been so dim-witted that he really just sat there and ate a meal with her like a block of wood.

Meeting Wen Miao in the library; she was sitting right there, but he hadn’t dared to go up and say hello, making up all sorts of excuses for himself-like being afraid of disturbing her reading.

Wen Miao telling him that Professor Meng Ran was coming to the school to give another lecture and asking if he wanted to go. Instead of agreeing, he had just scratched his head like an idiot and said, “A lecture on materials science? I don’t really understand that stuff.”

Wen Miao asking him if he could come find her after the lecture because she had something she wanted to tell him. He had agreed excitedly, only to spend so much time changing through over a dozen outfits in his dorm that by the time he went to pick her up, he couldn’t find her anymore…

Wen Miao was dead.

When she died, he was still in his dorm, constantly changing his clothes!

If only he hadn’t insisted on acting like a peacock, looking for some damn “good-looking” clothes.

If only he had agreed to go to the lecture with Wen Miao.

Or if he had just waited for her outside the lecture hall…

Perhaps… she wouldn’t have died.

Who was it that insisted on killing her, time and time again?

Nan Mu suddenly recalled the memory of Wen Miao saying, “Professor Meng Ran is giving another lecture. Are you going?”

Meng Ran? It was Meng Ran’s lecture again?

Was it her?

No, no… there was also Xu Lei.

When Nan Mu saw that photograph, suspicion had already taken root in his heart. With Wen Tangtang’s personality, she would never kill someone without reason.

But if her killing was related to Wen Miao’s death, then everything made sense. It would explain why someone as rational as Wen Xin would assist Wen Tangtang in a murder.

The three of them had grown up together. For Wen Miao’s sake, it was possible.

So the question became: why did Xu Lei want to kill Wen Miao?

Wen Miao was just a student; her social circle and daily life were extremely simple.

Unless she had accidentally discovered some secret.

Like… that photograph.