Chapter 451: Chapter 419 (Final Chapter)_2 Chapter 451: Chapter 419 (Final Chapter)_2 Zheng Tan threw off the thin quilt, got out of bed without putting on shoes, and stepped directly onto the dusty wooden floor, walking towards the French windows, kicking the obstructing clothes and trousers aside.

Walking on two legs felt slightly unfamiliar yet somehow natural.

He pulled back the curtains and opened the French windows.

A gust blew in his face, carrying the warmth of the sun.

Zheng Tan walked to the balcony, looked at the distant buildings, and took a deep breath.

“Ah–”
Shouting out loud like this brought a sense of exhilaration he hadn’t felt in a very long time. Although his thoughts were not very clear, Zheng Tan felt that by yelling like this, his mood seemed to improve a lot.

After shouting, Zheng Tan habitually looked downwards at an angle.

On the balcony diagonally below, there was no wire mesh. There wasn’t a blue-purple parrot with yellow around its eyes hopping around. Instead, there stood a child about six or seven years old, holding an ice cream whose melting hadn’t even been noticed by the youngster startled by Zheng Tan’s sudden shout, staring up at him.

Turning his gaze back to the distance, Zheng Tan shouted again.

“Ah————”
This shout was even longer than the last, almost hysterical.

In the apartment below, the child seen earlier was taken in by a parent who emerged. That parent looked at Zheng Tan as if seeing a madman.

Ignoring the looks from others and the curses from other residents, Zheng Tan enjoyed a few more shouts, then went inside to take a cold shower, emerging much clearer in mind.

He picked up his phone from the bedside table to check the date, June 12, 2013.

Zheng Tan scratched his head. The 12th?

He saw a series of missed calls on his phone, some caller names seemed familiar. Zheng Tan ignored them and checked the call times; the earliest had come on the 8th.

Not bothering with the missed calls, Zheng Tan was still confused. Was the cat real, or was the human?

Turning on the microblog app on his phone, which automatically logged in, he was not logged into the “Zheng Tan” account he remembered. He logged out and re-entered a new username and password.

After a moment… he was in!

The profile picture of a cool black cat was just as he remembered, and so were the microblog posts, including those about the school bus game, the cat incident, and the debates on the topic of doomsday.

If everything in the dream was real…

Zheng Tan then searched for several key phrases, such as a certain movie about a black cat, a documentary, a pet center, and a certain Professor Jiao, all of which matched his memories perfectly.

In the not-so-large phone screen, familiar images, scenes overlapping with his memory, all gave Zheng Tan a headache.

What the hell is going on?!

He tossed his phone aside carelessly and pondered hard, trying to figure it all out, but eventually, he was overridden by hunger and went down to the nearest restaurant for food.

He ate mechanically as if the food had no taste, paying no attention to his meal, continuously spooning rice into his mouth but his gaze fixed outside the window, lost in thought.

Finally, before finishing the meal, Zheng Tan made a decision. It was too late to book a flight or a high-speed train, so he booked an express train ticket for six in the evening, which would get him to Chuhua City by six the next morning.

Since he couldn’t figure it out, he decided to go and find the answers.

On his way back from the restaurant, he passed by a modest barbershop. Zheng Tan tugged at his blond hair and walked in.

When he came out again, his hair was black and shorter.

He went back and changed into simple sportswear, took his phone, bank card, and ID card…

Looking at the photograph and name on the ID card, Zheng Tan flicked the card lightly, placed it in his wallet, took some cash, and packed lightly for the station.

The next morning at six, Zheng Tan stepped out of the station. Instead of hailing a taxi, he walked to the bus stop, looked at the sign and the various bus routes outside, many of which were familiar. He waited for the bus, found a seat by the window, and as the bus drove, he watched the streets and buildings pass by.

The Dragon Boat Festival had just ended, and many of the festival advertisements were still up. With many people heading to work, intersections prone to traffic jams had a long line of private cars and buses. The temperature was somewhat high outside, and the street was filled with the sound of car horns and people’s shouts.

Such weather and circumstances would typically irritate a person, but Zheng Tan was not focused on this; his feelings were rather complex.

A middle-aged passenger’s phone rang with a song that carried an aura of the golden years of the ’80s and ’90s. Zheng Tan had heard this song before, not online nor through any electronic device, but sung by a bird. For a moment, he could see that cheeky bird with yellow around its eyes, bobbing its head as it sang.

Some songs, once disregarded, become treasures in later reminiscence–this song, and the time, people, things, and emotions it connected to, always provoked a long reflection.

On another bus, stopped next to his at a light, near the window sat a young man with a backpack, nibbling on a bag of buns. Aware of Zheng Tan watching, he also looked over in return. Through the double-layered bus windows and the glare, the expression of the other was indistinct.