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Chapter 1558: Memories Within Memories Within Memories

He replayed Professor Qiao's words in his mind several times, still unable to digest any of it. After a while, he finally stammered, "Wh... what? Thirty-six... years?" The unit of measurement was actually years?

The old lady exhaled.

"Professor Qiao, you're saying this has happened once before... not that it's been happening since thirty-six years ago." This distinction was crucial; Wu Yiliu's shocked brain finally began to turn. As he gradually came to his senses, excitement made him speak as fast as a machine gun, "You mean the same problem occurred and was solved before, and then there were no more Changelings, right? So, I only saw Changelings for the first time when I was twenty?"

The old lady nodded.

This was like a stimulant, causing Wu Yiliu's face to flush with heat and excitement, even quickening his heartbeat.

"So—so how was it resolved initially? Can their faces really return to normal? What about the Changelings? What happened to the Changelings from thirty-six years ago?" His bellyful of questions, if written down, might form a book. "What caused the shape-shifting? Why have I never heard of it? Can we solve the problem this time and make people normal again?"

His barrage of questions brought a bitter smile to Professor Qiao's lips.

"I never thought I would tell this story in my lifetime... So, allow me to gather my thoughts first." Even in private conversation, the old lady was as organized as if she were lecturing. As she sat quietly contemplating, Wu Yiliu unconsciously held his breath. "I was thirty-three that year, just an assistant professor."

The old lady poured tea for herself and Wu Yiliu as she spoke. Perhaps it's a sign of aging, but her eyes seemed to redden easily. The way she lowered her eyes as she poured the tea gave Wu Yiliu the impression that she wasn't thirsty; she just wanted something to do to calm her emotions.

"Back then, it was common for women in their thirties to remain unmarried and pursue their careers. I had just moved into this house, doing the teaching job I loved, spending my free time drinking tea and reading, living entirely in my own world. Later, I calculated that the change must have started right around school vacation... I liked to be alone, even hiking and camping during the holidays, far from the crowd, so I didn't notice the change, and the Changelings didn't notice me. It was because of this that the following story happened."

Wu Yiliu uttered a sound of acknowledgment, indicating that he was listening. As he listened to the old lady's recollections, his gaze wandered around the living room and stopped on a bookshelf. Near the top shelf, there was a somewhat old-fashioned photograph — only now did he realize that the young woman smiling on the rocks by the sea was Professor Qiao.

The old lady also caught his glance, her eyes shifting from the photograph, and she smiled. Though age had wrinkled her once plump skin, her smile was still as gentle and graceful as in the picture, as if they were echoing through time.

"Yeah, that's me... I think, the real starting point of my story should be the highway where I drove back from the mountains."

For thirty-three-year-old Qiao Yuansi, the world was a smooth, steady, and comfortable place. She was in the prime of her life, energetic, with a stable career prospect, independent and free in her life, and she could not pick out a single flaw even with a magnifying glass. The life spread out before her eyes was like the endless highway at this moment, flat and straight, shimmering in the afternoon sun.

She loved the scenery on this stretch of highway the most: on the left were the deep and shallow, rolling green valleys; on the right beyond the fence was the wide expanse of the sea shimmering golden beneath the cliffs. Whenever she traveled on this road, most of Qiao Yuansi's attention was not on the road but on the natural scenery.

It wasn't a big deal, as driving had become a subconscious background operation for her. She drove steadily for a while, turned a bend beneath the cliff, and then suddenly froze.

On the side of the highway ahead, there was a person walking slowly.

A vagrant?

The few cars ahead of her whooshed past the person, blowing his long, shaggy hair into the wind. Just by looking at that messy hair, he indeed seemed like a vagrant; his actions were a bit odd, always twisting his head, intently staring at each car that passed him, as if he wanted to stick his head into the cars to take a closer look.

'I hope he's not the kind who will suddenly jump in front of a car to commit suicide,' thought Qiao Yuansi, concerned, as she turned on her indicator to move away from the vagrant and into the middle lane of the road.

However, just then a red car came from behind in the middle lane, so she had to patiently wait for it to pass. The vagrant was not far from her now, and she had to move behind the red car as soon as it passed, so all her attention was on that car—when it passed her, the driver of the red car glanced at her and then turned his head.

She could change lanes now; Qiao Yuansi checked her rearview mirror, confirmed there were no oncoming cars, and quickly moved to the middle lane, right behind the red car; the weird vagrant quickly flashed past her right side window—though he was a lane away, she still felt the tangible sensation of being watched.

The vagrant disappeared from the rearview mirror; her eyes lingered on the sea outside the fence, and she uncomfortably adjusted her position.

It still felt very uncomfortable.

It was strange; what on earth was making her feel this way?

Qiao Yuansi pulled her attention from the natural scenery and looked at the road ahead. Then she squinted, carefully looking at the road and the red car in front.

The driver who had glanced at her was now looking at her, and their eyes met on the highway.

That flesh-colored face had twisted 180 degrees, looking as if it had risen from the back of the driver's seat in front, and was now facing Qiao Yuansi directly; the lower half was blocked by the car seat, so only a pair of vague eyebrows and two vague eyes were visible.

With a sudden scream, Qiao Yuansi instinctively slammed on the brakes. The car screeched on the road, and inertia almost caused her to smash into her steering wheel—she quickly came to her senses, and in a panic, hurriedly released the brake, tremblingly picking up speed again in the midst of angry honks from the car behind.

The driver of the red car in front was still staring at her, unmoving.

Was it a mask? Was it a prank? Had she seen it wrong?

There were many possibilities, but none could stop her trembling. She gritted her teeth, pressed hard on the gas pedal, and accelerated towards the red car, almost tailgating it. The originally blurry flesh-colored face became clearer as she approached: it was nothing else but a human face staring at her from the back seat.

She couldn't see the lower half of the face, but after a few seconds of eye contact, the eyes seemed to squint, and the cheeks slowly bulged. It was as if the driver's face was laughing from behind the seat.

When the red car suddenly honked twice, Qiao Yuansi jumped in fright, only to find her hands soaked in cold sweat. Looking up again, there was only a dark back of a head in the front car, and the face seemed to have been an illusion.

She swallowed hard, slowly pulled away from the red car, and used the turn signal again - this time, she wanted to move to the far-right lane because only there could she stop in the emergency lane. Her current condition was not suitable for driving.

Qiao Yuansi parked the car and immediately leaned on the steering wheel, taking deep breaths for a while. The red car had disappeared in the highway traffic, somewhat easing her tension. Besides, turning a face 180 degrees seemed like an illusion or a so-called supernatural event.

She didn't know how long she had stayed in the emergency lane, still in shock and confusion. When she felt her heartbeat steadying, she looked up to find a highway patrol car stopped behind her.

If she got a ticket for this, it would be bad luck on top of bad luck.

Qiao Yuansi quickly fixed her hair in the mirror. She was pale with wide eyes, not looking like someone who needed to stop due to extreme fatigue. She couldn't think of a suitable excuse for her actions when the officer walked up and knocked on the window. She took a deep breath, opened the window halfway, and forced a smile. "Offic—"

The word "officer" turned into another scream, filling the car, tearing through the air.

The patrolman, with a long face that had fallen to his chest, reached his hand into the half-open window; Qiao Yuansi screamed and recoiled but forgot she was still wearing her seatbelt. The patrolman's face, which couldn't be called a face at all, pressed crookedly against the glass, one hand reaching in to scratch her face, pulling her skin so it burned with pain.

She only remembered flailing and struggling with one hand while trying to unbuckle with the other, everything becoming a blur in chaos and fear.

Until a dull "thud" made her realize that the relentless hand, seemingly attracted to her face, was gone. Not understanding what had happened, she unbuckled the seatbelt and scrambled to the passenger seat, only then looking back.

"Ah, got scared, huh?"

Outside the window, a strange young man with shoulder-length hair was looking at her—the vagrant.

No, that's wrong, Qiao Yuansi quickly corrected herself. His hair was messy, and his clothes were unconventional, but there was a clear and crisp quality about him, like a wild eagle that had seen the plains.

"Is this your first time seeing these face-deformed duoluozhongs?" he asked, though she didn't understand his words. "Strange, did you just come from the mountains? How is it your first time seeing these monsters?"

She wiped her face, trying to calm down, although she felt it might be easier to just go insane.

"F-Face-deformed...? So, you saw it too," she said, still trembling slightly. "What's a duoluozhong? Who are you?"

"It's a long story," the young man said with a slight smile. "In short, I'm a posthuman who teleported to this apocalyptic world four days ago... Why are you looking at me like that? Don't get me wrong, I didn't cause this. Your world has already met its doomsday."