We hugged each other tightly for a while, and I said, "We have to find a place to go in first." As soon as the words fell, he suddenly let go of me, supported himself with his hands on the ground, and jumped up. I stretched out my hand to help him, but it was empty. He was very tall, and the treetops blocked my eyes. His voice was dry: "Let's go."

  I was taken aback and followed behind him. On the snowy ground, he didn't turn his head to look at me once. We were only one or two steps apart, but suddenly it felt like we were far away from each other.

  His emotions were off, very off.

  That farmhouse inn is still in business, only our names are no longer on the register. Wu Yu opened another room for us. We turned up the heating to the maximum. After I finished my bath, I put on a simple bathrobe and wrapped myself in the quilt. When Wu Yu also finished his bath and sat down in the chair across from the bed wearing his bathrobe, our faces seemed to have regained their color.

  We just confirmed it again, time has flowed backwards once more.

  And this time, the backflow didn't last just half a month.

  It is now January 20th, 2017, we have gone back half a year, and returned to the winter of two years ago.

  But we're just people here, nothing else is here.

  That is to say, our time reversal is not continuous, but jumping.

  And the amplitude of the jump has increased.

  It was as if I had been reborn, and after a brief moment of panic, I wasn't so tense anymore. Gazing out the window at the snow falling again, my heart was filled with a sense of serene emptiness.

  Wu Yu still didn't speak, he started smoking again, more fiercely than ever. He hung his head low, with wet hair stuck to his forehead. I suddenly felt that he was a bit strange, perhaps it was because of the short time on the boat, I had gotten used to his refined and clean appearance. Now seeing his slightly grown-out stubble, his broad shoulders and solid muscles, I felt like I was looking at another person. The more silent one, the repairman I met later.

  I know he's unhappy, maybe he's heartbroken. That's what he looks like when he's sad.

  "A Yu, Wu Miao... "

  I hadn't even had a chance to say any words of comfort when he interrupted me, "Wu Miao won't be in trouble. She died on that ship a month later, and the people on it were definitely rescued afterwards."

  Right, he made sense. I felt a bit relieved, but then I saw him almost violently exhaling the smoke from his nostrils.

  I'm not feeling good in my heart, but there's nothing I can do. I have no experience with romance and don't know what to do when a man is feeling down.

  Just then, he raised his head and our eyes met. I couldn't understand the look in his eyes, which were completely black.

  "So what now..." I asked.

  "Never mind." He stood up with a cigarette, "You rest well and don't catch a cold. Don't think too much, no matter what happens, I'm here. I'll go finish my smoke outside."

  I wanted to speak but hesitated, watching him push open the door and walk out onto the balcony. Outside was a frozen landscape, he wore thin clothes, standing there motionless. The silhouette, with the one in my mind, standing on the lake shore where the sky and earth were torn apart, gradually merged. I also gradually understood why he was so cold at this moment. Because he didn't want to face anyone, nor did he want to face me.

  Seeing Wu Miao fall into danger again, as her brother he was powerless to help, this is probably the reason for his emotional outburst now. I finally touched the wound deep within him, just how deep it went.

  He has actually done very well.