Echoes Across Time: A Record of Parallel Lives

You and I in parallel worlds are all searching for life’s answers

In countless parallel worlds, there is a person named Xiao Feiyu. Yet one choice, whether to study science or humanities, sends him down a completely different path in each world.

In World A, he listens to his parents and chooses science, becoming a programmer at an internet company. His job is stable, but he always feels a sense of emptiness and often wonders what his life might have been like if he’d studied humanities. In World B, he defies his parents and chooses humanities, becoming a middle-school Chinese teacher. He enjoys his time in the classroom, but low wages and the pressure of buying a home weigh on him, and sometimes he envies how easy science seems. In World C, he can’t make up his mind when it’s time to choose, so he casually checks the science box. He struggles through university, changes jobs frequently after graduating, and blames all his misfortunes on that careless choice. In World D, he gets injured just before the decision and is assigned to a humanities class. He later becomes a freelance writer, living on his own terms, though his future is full of uncertainty.

A strange disturbance in space and time causes the consciousnesses of the four Xiao Feiyus to merge. They see one another’s choices and experiences, and after their initial shock, begin to reflect on their own lives. But the deeper they experience one another’s worlds, the more they realize that no matter which path they choose, they can’t escape setbacks and growth. They are all striving to make a living and searching for the meaning of life. A life that seems to offer infinite possibilities already has its destination set; each choice is simply a different route to the same ending.

In the end, each Xiao Feiyu accepts the life he has lived and moves forward with conviction in his own world, carrying with him a new understanding of the choices he might have made.