That day, in the small cottage behind the garage, we talked about time for the first time. Tan Jiao's face turned pale and she looked like she had lost her soul. Although I felt a bit unbearable at that moment, I still told her clearly: "Now is July 18th, 2017. One year and three weeks have passed."

  That was the third day after we met. We met on July 16th. And she lost a year of memory.

  Half a month later, we cracked the case of Yan Yuan. It was roughly on the last day of the month that we returned to that ship.

  We didn't return from the boat and arrive at August 1st, 2017.

  But July 1st, half a month earlier than when we met.

  Our time, is actually walking backwards.

  And yet no one around us noticed anything unusual.

  "Tan Jiao, didn't you notice anything out of place?" I asked her.

  She stared at me with a bewildered look in her eyes. Those were clear and clean eyes, but also eyes that had been submerged in time. She hadn't realized before that she had lost the memories of the past year, and now, even faced with the clearly written date of July 15th that had just arrived, she still didn't realize that something was wrong with time.

  "Tan Jiao," I said slowly, "only our time is flowing backwards."

  Tan Jiao suddenly opened her eyes wide, and in an instant, I saw many emotions flashing through her eyes: horror, epiphany, incredulity, and panic. She was also trapped in the same quagmire of thought as me just now. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, and finally turned pale to ask me: "What's going on? How can this be? How can this be?"

  I know she woke up from time.

  We returned to the hotel room. It was just the two of us, but the atmosphere still felt tense. I sat at the foot of the bed smoking one cigarette after another, gradually calming down. She curled up at the head of the bed, initially not saying a word, looking dazed and confused. Later she started muttering to herself: "I knew that fat fish would cause trouble again! That day when we had dinner together, it was like she'd never seen you before, and there wasn't even any sparks with Shen Shiyan because now she still hasn't met Shen Shiyan in person! What's wrong with her? She's crazy, crazy, crazy!"

  I know she has gradually accepted this fact. Although this fact is unbelievable and shocking, what else can we do besides accepting it?

  If time really keeps flowing backwards, what else can we do? Thinking of this, my heart is secretly trembling. As for other things, I don't have the energy to care about them for now.

  "That means Wen Ruan hasn't been caught yet? We haven't met his crazy accomplices?" she said suddenly.

  "Let me check online."

  Tan Jiao opened his computer. As expected, there were only two simple reports of child abduction cases online, and nothing else. The police hadn't even started investigating the case yet.

  Tan Jiao: "Lean on."

  "Can you get in touch with Shen Shiyan?" I asked.

  Tan Jiao searched for a while in her phone, found Shen Shiyan's number in the chat record with the matchmaker, and then dialed it out on speakerphone.

  "Shen Shiyan!" she almost shouted urgently.

  The man on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment before saying, "Tan Jiao? What's up?"

  Tan Jiao hastily said: "Don't worry about so much, I ask, you answer! First, did you catch Yan Yuan and Xu Zifeng?"

  "Who? Who are they?"