Doubtful Jade

“Its color leans against the jade tree, its fragrance seems to come from the Jade Capital.” At 9:35 p.m. on May 15, 2024, with just twenty-two days left until the college entrance exam, Fu Yi died. That day, she didn't wait for Pei Qiong. She crossed the road alone. Four dark figures dragged her into an alley. By the time Pei Qiong arrived, Fu Yi's fingertips had already gone cold as a jade pendant. From that day on, he was given a diagnosis and a drug called “Dream Delusion”: by day, he was a walking corpse; by night, he was a king. In his dreams, he turned back time grain by grain to the transfer student's self-introduction in the second semester of their sophomore year, brought Fu Yi back to his side, tore through the calendar page by page until the college entrance exam was over, then folded their acceptance letters into paper planes and sent them flying toward the same city. When he had finished dreaming every dream, he swallowed all the pills he had left at once. A parallel moment in which “Fu Yi didn't go home alone that night.” The final line was a whisper no one answered: “Pei Qiong, I'm here to walk you home from school.”