'SEE YOU MORNING' 150 Connecting Time

Her breath still carried that familiar scent of memories.
Li Haojun placed his hands on Malaya’s shoulders and pushed her back a little, studying her face, as if he still wanted to find the memory of that little girl in her features,
“What? Don’t you remember me?” Malaya said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear,
“Hmm, you’ve changed a lot in appearance,”
“Then am I prettier now?”
“Um, yes, no no no, you’re beautiful either way,”
“Hehe,” Malaya laughed. She tugged at Li Haojun’s clothes,
“Let’s go,”
“Mm,” he agreed, and followed her out of the game facility.
At some point, Malaya had let down all her little braids, letting them fall loosely over her shoulders as casual shoulder-length hair.
When they reached the lobby, Li Haojun was checking the direction to the Ferris wheel when Malaya pulled him,
“It’s still early, let’s go play the Time Tunnel at Earth Village instead,”
Li Haojun paused for a moment, looking at Malaya’s smiling face, and without hesitation, he took her hand,
“Sure, if you like it, let’s go.” He ran toward the hyperloop capsule transport pod, and when he looked back,
Malaya deliberately let herself be dragged along lazily by Li Haojun, her arms stretched out straight, her body leaning back as she ran, her shoulder-length hair flowing lazily behind her.
Seeing her like this, for a moment Li Haojun even felt the joy of playing with childhood friends. Although he couldn’t remember any of the passersby in his past life, that childlike happiness seemed to come from a ribbon of his childhood, pulling him back to those wonderful childhood days.
Could Malaya feel that same joy too?
When they reached the hyperloop capsule boarding platform, Li Haojun stopped and turned to look at Malaya who had been running behind him. She had just come to a stop,
“I feel very happy, I hope you do too,”
“Me too,” Malaya said, grabbing his other hand,
“Don’t you think your happiness is my happiness?”
Li Haojun started to feel a bit confused, but then he understood,
“Was that feeling I just had something you projected to me?”
“Not entirely, maybe it was a mix of both our feelings,”
Li Haojun wanted to embrace her again, this cheerful little sprite, but he restrained himself,
“Let’s get on,” Malaya said, pointing at the transport capsule hatch,
When they arrived at the Earth Village Time Tunnel amusement area, they chose an empty room. The last time they had played this game was with Qin Wenjing. Malaya had selected a Moonlight Beach scene. Li Haojun was curious why she still wanted to play this game,
“You go first, or me first?” Li Haojun picked up the brainwave interaction helmet and asked,
“I want to watch yours first,” Malaya said with a smile, her voice carrying a playful, pleading tone,
Oh my, such ambiguous sweetness,
“Sure,” Li Haojun agreed right away and put on the helmet. But he was also curious where his current state would take him.
He calmed himself, and the lights in the room gradually dimmed. Before his eyes, the dark clouds parted, and golden sunlight pierced through the sky, passing between two red-brick apartment buildings and illuminating the earth once more. The sound of the downpour that had been splattering all around just moments ago now turned into the gentle sound of flowing water everywhere.
In the height of summer, the open spaces between the buildings were overgrown with weeds. The wooden sheds that the residents had spontaneously built to store their winter food were still dripping with the rainwater from just now.
There was a little boy, running around collecting bricks and clay from the ground. He used these materials to build a dam, blocking the small streams left by the rain.
He inspected his work, and whenever he found a leak, he plugged it with clay from the inside. As the water level rose higher, he went to find more bricks and mud, adjusting the support angles, raising and reinforcing his dam.
The sparkling streams under the sunlight now gathered into the reservoir he had built, becoming a mirror-like lake, reflecting the blue sky and white clouds that had just been washed by the thunderstorm, looking exceptionally magnificent.
When the water level stopped rising, he admired his masterpiece for a moment. The next step was to release the water.
He opened a gap, and the temporarily calm water regained its vitality, rushing out, creating waves, churning against the outlet, pulling at it, crashing against it, as if it wanted to break free from its restraints and return to freedom once more.
Amid the sound of the gurgling rushing water, the indoor lights gradually brightened. Li Haojun took off the brainwave interaction helmet, savoring the scene he had just experienced, and then silently looked toward Malaya. He didn’t know if what he had seen was really himself.
Malaya smiled, said nothing, took the brainwave interaction helmet, and put it on her own head.
The light around the room gradually dimmed, with only the brightness ahead — the blue sky in the window, with white clouds drifting past. White and pink cosmos flowers grew lushly before the window, swaying in the wind, sunlight passing through the petals, sparkling and crystal clear.
The wind blowing through the window carried a fresh scent, with the smell of autumn. Clouds occasionally blocked the sunlight, and the indoor light alternated between bright and dim with their rhythm, as if telling of summer’s recent farewell.
Malaya took off the helmet, stared ahead, and said nothing.
Li Haojun wanted to ask her if that scenery was from her own experience, but he didn’t have the heart to disturb her tranquility. Although this game system simply matched players with recreations of different historical periods and locations based on built-in algorithms, Li Haojun was indeed curious about Malaya’s story.
“Was that experience just now your childhood?” Malaya asked softly, still looking ahead,
“I don’t know,” he couldn’t answer that question. At that moment, Li Haojun remembered to check the location hint — a northern Chinese city.
He looked up at Malaya beside him. She was still sitting there calmly,
“Then, was yours?” Li Haojun asked her softly, tentatively,
“Yes,” Malaya paused for a moment,
“Yes, and also no. That scene just matched my mood at that time, it wasn’t a place I actually experienced.”
“Oh,” Li Haojun responded softly, indicating he had received her message, not daring to speak any louder and interrupt her thoughts,
“At that time I hadn’t met my sister yet, that was exactly how I felt. Every day watching the sun rise from this side of the window and set on that side, not knowing when those days would end, not knowing who I would meet in the future,”
Li Haojun didn’t know what to say to comfort her, he just silently took the tip of her left hand and held it in his palm. The carefree, quirky little girl from his memories seemed to have drifted away with the passing of time.
Malaya glanced at the hand Li Haojun was holding, then looked up at his eyes gazing at her, and leaned her head on his shoulder,
“Is it because of my sister that you’ve been avoiding me? Actually, you can think of us two as one person,”
Li Haojun didn’t understand what she meant, didn’t know how Malaya wanted him to treat her, so he could only ask with some confusion,
“Why do you say that?”
“Because we two depend on each other for survival. She is me, and I am her,” Malaya said suddenly in a playful tone again, standing up,
“Let’s go, time for the Ferris wheel,”
“Oh,”