Chapter 61: Tips for Road Trips (V)
Tang Xinjue's eyes narrowed and his palms tightened.
"Is it me who gave you this watch?"
The little boy nodded, then shook his head. He couldn't speak, couldn't make any expression, couldn't show any direct information. The only response he could make was action.
So he moved his finger again and pointed to Tang Xinjue's pocket, the watch that belonged to Guo Guo.
Just a slight change in the action made the answer go from clear to vague, and it seemed to still contain other meanings.
Tang Xinjue frowned again, his mind suddenly changing: "...When you received this watch, the person standing in front of you was me, but there was more than one person, right?"
“Pah, pah, pah!”
I don't know if the little boy understood what Tang Xinjue said or not, but he suddenly clapped his hands vigorously, pointing his fingers at Tang Xinjue. Then he moved to Tang Xinjue's side, poking at the empty air non-stop, swaying back and forth tirelessly.
Although it was a very strange and abstract movement, for some reason, Tang Xinjue seemed to be able to vaguely understand its meaning.
Following this intuition, she spread out her perception and counted in her mind.
One, two, three...
The child pointed out three locations in the air.
It was as if there were three people standing there.
Then the child withdrew his hand, took a step back as if confused, and rubbed his hands hard in the air, as if trying to erase the place he had just pointed out.
After "erasing" the outermost "person", the child opened his wrinkled coat and pretended to take the watch from Tang Xinjue's hand and put it inside. Then he struggled to erase the second and third "persons"...
Finally, only Tang Xinjue was "left". The child stomped his feet and stretched out his two hands, as if to indicate that he had finished everything and now wanted a watch.
Tang Xinjue seemed to be thinking about something, and after a while he spoke quietly: "It's really interesting."
She had no idea of the scene described by the faceless child.
Two completely contradictory things cannot be true at the same time. If what the faceless child expressed is true, then what is false is her memory.
So, is it the child who is lying, or is it her memory that is lying?
Seeing that she didn't move, the child stomped his feet anxiously, urging her to give him the watch.
Tang Xinjue raised his eyelids: "Do you think that since I gave it to you, the watch is yours now?"
The child nodded.
"But I don't remember." The girl's face suddenly curved slightly. "The me who agreed to give you the watch was me in the past, and the me who took the watch back was me now. The memories of the two of me are different and cannot be confused."
Faceless Child: “…”
"Besides, your mother beat me up." Tang Xinjue spread out his palm and pointed at the almost healed knuckles: "Medical expenses, understand?"
Faceless Child: “…”
The child rubbed his hands in confusion. When he came to his senses, he sat down on the spot, shrugging his shoulders as if he was crying loudly.
After about three minutes, Tang Xinjue pulled his mind away from his surging thoughts and saw the little boy still sitting on the ground, refusing to move, looking very sad.
With it as the center, the cold feeling quickly spread outward, lowering the temperature of the entire gas station by more than ten degrees, and it was showing a tendency to intensify.
In order to prevent this place from becoming an ice cave, Tang Xin Jue squatted down and said gently: "However, although the watch is gone, I can give you other gifts."
The child ignored him. Tang Xinjue's repeated ruthlessness had already dealt a heavy blow to the ghost's young mind. He had no credibility at all.
Tang Xinjue was not in a hurry. He went straight to a cracked ground, grasped the metal with both hands and pulled it upwards with force. He pulled the gas gun that had just been thrown at him by the dejected young man out from the cracked ground.
Then she beckoned the child over and asked, "How is this gift? Is it big enough?"
The faceless child got up , and just as he stretched out his hand, the gas gun was stuffed into his arms. His body suddenly shook, and he was about to fall to the ground.
Tang Xin Jue gently lifted it up and said, "Such a valuable gift must be taken home and kept well."
Faceless Child: “!!!”
"Hey, why is there a kid here?"
The door of the station building was suddenly pushed open, and a depressed young man in a yellow uniform finally walked out slowly. Seeing the scene in front of him, a trace of interest finally appeared on his face: "Whose child is this? Why is he holding... Isn't this a gas pump?"
The young man raised his eyebrows in surprise.
Tang Xin Jue said casually, "This is useless anyway, I'll recycle it and give it to the kids to play with, and I'll ask Grandma Mayas for reimbursement."
“…”
The young man opened his mouth: "Okay, but this gift..."
At this time, the faceless child who saw the young man had already hugged the gas pump with great care, and pulled it out step by step, clumsily dragging his "gift" into the bushes and disappearing into the depths of the fog.
“…It’s really unique.”
The young man shrugged and stopped talking. He installed the new gas pump and quickly filled the convertible with gas.
"You can continue walking now. I'll make sure you reach your final destination safely."
The young man slammed the car door lazily twice. His two light grey eyebrows were pressed down wearily while he spoke, making his complexion look even paler, as if he was about to die from overwork at any moment.
The moment the thought came to his mind, Tang Xin Jue also asked: "Is the work here very heavy? You look very tired."
She rubbed her aching temple and glanced at the empty gas station indifferently, as if she was just saying it casually.
She hadn't expected the NPC to answer seriously, but she didn't expect the young man to glance at her and actually say, "I'm a student working part-time."
"I'm a regular employee here. There was a small problem, so I came here temporarily to take over."
"Student part-time job?"
Tang Xin Jue caught this word and blurted out: "Which university?"
…The research on the three universities in the university town has been engraved in her subconscious.
She couldn't help but smile, but before she could change her words, the young man had already given a light-hearted answer:
"A university."
The hand on the steering wheel paused, and Tang Xinjue stopped tapping.
A thought came to her mind, and she asked softly, "Which first-class university?"
Then she heard the young man's voice:
"Classmate, there is only one first-class university in the university town."
…
College town.
At this moment, Tang Xinjue understood what the "highway outside the city" on the highway sign meant.
A strange palpitation prompted her to raise her head and look far into the distance of the road, all the way to the foggy sky.
This is the world where the game takes place, where ghosts are born, and behind the maze at the end of the road may be the truth of this world.
The young man then said to himself, "The part-time job isn't tiring, it's mainly because the workload is a bit heavy, so I came out to take a breath. Otherwise, I would have really died suddenly. Um, you guys should be fine, I heard that the three-year program is easier?"
Tang Xin Jue did not answer immediately. After a moment, she smiled and said, "I don't think I've ever said that I'm a student from a third-tier university."
"How do you know that?"
