Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I don’t know how many parallel universes exist in the cosmos.

Before I accidentally crossed over into this world and became Auntie Cotton Candy, Chen Nian had already died on the night of June 8, 2008.

Yes, my name is Gu Pan.

It was the first night after the college entrance exams ended. Chen Nian had snuck me away to a small house by the lake to drink and celebrate.

My father followed us, driven by a madness that led him to try and burn us alive with gasoline.

Chen Nian rushed to grab the gasoline bottle, and the fuel splashed all over him.

My father ignited the gasoline on his body, and Chen Nian, in turn, threw his arms around my father.

Engulfed in flames, he used his final strength to scream at me, “Gu Pan, the world is huge! You have to live well! Live happily!”

Even when the police took me away for questioning, I refused to believe that Little Stone had really abandoned me and left this world.

When that summer ended, I went to study in the city where he used to live.

It was strange; after arriving in that city, I actually felt like he was still alive.

The sense of his presence in that city was so overwhelming.

The words he once said to me constantly echoed in my ears: “Do you think what you’re seeing might be a parallel world?”

Yes, I can see people from parallel worlds.

In that parallel world, he might still be alive, perhaps even attending university just like me.

My mother thought I was crazy. When my classmates heard I was looking for someone who had died long ago, they thought I was mentally unstable too.

I didn’t need a mother, and I didn’t need friends. I only wanted him.

The year I graduated from university, I actually saw him by the river.

I called out “Little Stone.” He turned his head and looked at me blankly, and then his figure vanished in an instant.

I knew he probably couldn’t see me, but it didn’t matter. It was enough that I could find him.

During those years, I lived alone in this city, renting an apartment, working, and tracing his footsteps in that other world.

He would always flash by in front of me. I had no way of knowing what his life was like, but the expression on his face whenever he appeared became increasingly solemn.

Until one day, I saw him standing on the roof of an abandoned building.

“Little Stone!”

I screamed to stop him, even though I knew in my heart it was useless.

But he turned his head and looked at me with a look of utter shock.

My face was reflected in his eyes. This time, he didn’t vanish instantly. Instead, he fell right before my eyes.

I realized that I had somehow crossed over into his world.

But it was already too late.

That was a world where I shouldn’t have existed.

The version of me that originally belonged to this world had burned her own parents to death the year of the college entrance exams.

I knew exactly what the “me” of this world had gone through back then.

I also knew that this time, I had lost him forever.

All that was left for me to do was perhaps settle some regrets for the version of him in this world.

I went to find Chen Nian’s father. I told the sobbing old man that I was a friend of Chen Nian’s and that he had asked me to take care of him before he left.

Many, many years passed. I stayed by Chen Nian’s father’s side until the very end of his life.

After settling the old man’s funeral arrangements, I thought to myself: Now, I can finally go find Chen Nian.

One night, by the same river where I had seen Chen Nian again all those years ago, I jumped in.

But I didn’t die.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying on a familiar old street.

Not far from me, a little girl was crying.

It was actually my childhood self.

I had crossed over once again.

I walked over and asked her, “Little girl, why are you crying?”

She said she wanted cotton candy, but her father wouldn’t buy it for her and had even hit her.

Cotton candy. Cotton candy.

It was just a piece of cotton candy, yet my parents never bought one for me.

When I was six years old, that became the one thing I yearned for throughout the entire summer.

And so, I became the Auntie Cotton Candy of this street.

I told that tiny version of myself, “If you want cotton candy in the future, just come find Auntie. Auntie won’t charge you any money.”

She asked me, “Does everyone dislike me?”

I told her, “Don’t say such silly things. The future is long and the world is huge. Many people will love you in the future. There will even be someone who loves you so much they are willing to use their own life to protect you.”
I watched the version of myself in this world grow up all over again.

So many times, I wanted to take her and run away from that home.

But I worried that my reckless interference would alter this world’s timeline, preventing Chen Nian from ever meeting her.

During our senior year of high school, Chen Nian appeared right on schedule. Everything that followed mirrored my own memories almost exactly.

As the pivotal moment from my memory drew closer, I knew I had to stop the tragedy.

I would do whatever it took, even if it meant risking my life.

On the night of June 8, 2008, I went to the small wooden shack where the incident had occurred in my memory, but I waited a long time and they never showed up.

I began to realize that in this world, my younger self and Chen Nian must have gone somewhere else that night.

In my world, there was no Auntie Cotton Candy.

After my father was arrested, my mother and I continued to live in our original home.

That was why Chen Nian had sneaked me away to that abandoned warehouse.

But in this world, my mother lived at my uncle’s house, so it was highly likely that I had sneaked back to my own house with Chen Nian.

I rushed there and arrived just in time to witness that man’s assault.

I snatched the gasoline bottle from his hand and hurled it out the window. He struck me with a wrench. The sensation of the wrench hitting my body was agonizing, reminding me of the countless beatings he had given me during my childhood.

But this time, I wouldn’t cry, and I wouldn’t be afraid anymore.

After plunging the fruit knife deep into his neck, I leaned against the coffee table and smiled at Chen Nian.

I saw him rush out desperately. I knew then that he was still that same boy who was willing to give his life to protect Gu Pan.

Little Stone, you and Gu Pan must live well. Live happily.

You have no idea-if you weren’t here, the world would be so vast that she would feel utterly lost.

The two young faces before my eyes began to blur, then grew distant.

Through the haze, I seemed to see them attending university together.

That girl in my memory, who always ate alone in the university cafeteria, finally had a boy to keep her company.

They graduated together and huddled in a tiny rented apartment, dreaming of the future.

The girl finally didn’t have to curl up under her covers and cry alone. She never forgot her birthday again because every year, the boy would personally light the candles on her cake.

Later on, the boy saved every penny to buy the girl a diamond ring, and they got married.

They would grow old together amidst the mundane details of daily life, just as I had envisioned countless times over the decades.

It’s wonderful.

You are finally together.

Or rather, we are finally together.

Epilogue: Chen Nian’s Perspective

Gu Pan and I attended universities in different cities.

We endured a long-distance relationship for years.

After graduation, I asked her if she wanted to go to Shanghai with me. After all, that was the place she had once yearned for so deeply.

She shook her head and said that since I had come back with my mother, it was clear that the big city wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

So, we returned to this small town in southern Zhejiang together.

There was another reason for our return: Auntie Cotton Candy was buried here.

Regrettably, we never learned her real name, even until the very end.

They said the police couldn’t find any identification for her at all.

She had no family and no friends. If she were left in this small town alone, she would surely be incredibly lonely.

Gu Pan can still see people who might be from parallel worlds.

She asked me: if the version of me in a parallel world hadn’t come back with my mother, what would she have done?

I didn’t know how to answer, so I asked her instead: what if the version of me in a parallel world had been killed by your father?

She said, “Then I would go to another parallel world to find you.”

“No matter which world you’re in, I will find you.”

(The End)