2 Back to past

"Ahhh" Yanlong screamed in pain, waking up from deep sleep.

"Shout a little louder. I am sure the professors quarters still don't know you are awake yet." Bi Yu commented sarcastically.

Yanlong looked around. This is like ten years ago, when she is still in university. Long before apocalypse even. Did I die and go to a paradise .. she wondered.

After a moment of silence, she answered her own question. If it were a paradise, she wouldn't be here. She would be home, with her family, a piping hot meal and a good serial on the TV.

Chances are she got faux 'reincarnated', like a psychological test by the physics department . After all, real reincarnation just like all the other lucky apocalyptic heroes is the domain of the god.

She observed the scene, trying to remember when this is. Since it is physics department who is doing the dirty work, the point of reference must really exist in her memories or her brain.

Meibing is sitting on her custom-made chair, flipping through a magazine.

Mingzhu is doing nail treatment.

Biyu is sneering at her.

Huomei is staring at her concernedly.

All her university classmates. All with their own super powers and sob story. She is the only ordinary girl among these phoenixes. That is when her eyes landed on the package held in Huomei's hand.

"What is that?" Yanlong asked, pointing her finger at the package rudely.

Huomei is startled. She answered on autopilot.

"Birthday gift." Huomei said hiding the gift behind her back. She was about to throw the package in trash.

"To day is December twenty third?" Yanlong asked with horror in her voice.

"No. It's sent ahead of time. Today's twentieth." Huomei answered politely.

She and I are not friends in the past, Yanlong realized suddenly. Hell, she's not friends with any of her roommates.

"Can you give me that if you are throwing it away any way?" she asked Huomei.

That will make for a nice distraction from her odd behavior. Or the unsightly way she's sprawled on the bed.

Huomei handed the package to her without a question. It is Biyu who took exception to that.

"Yanlong! Have you no shame? Huomei's parents specially sent it to her for her birthday. How can you ask for a birthday present?" Biyu shouted at her.

"Ninety nine percent of the parents don't know what their children like. Rest are happy mistakes." Yanlong answered leisurely.

All the girls in the room turned to look at her. Biyu stopped and considered her words for a few seconds.

"Can't say you are wrong." Biyu conceded.

"I didn't know you are so wise." Meibing added.

Mingzhu just nodded her head in assent, a smile on her face. Huomei just stared at her, as if she's seeing her for the first time. Probably true, that one.

Her roommates are rich kids, she's a scholarship student. They were by no means mean to her, but a distance existed between them from the beginning. Neither side did anything to bridge that distance.

Eventually, the little stream that separated them evolved in to a gulf by second year in university.

"Even so, it's a birthday present her parents sent her. Are You a beggar?" Biyu said irritated.

Yanlong stared at her. This girl is quite mean... These kinds of dialogues are okay between friends... but they are not quite that close. She would have been offended had she been young. Now, she just brushed it aside.

"If it's sweets, I'll share with you. Seventy five to twenty five, I'll take small. If it's savories, it's fifty-fifty." Yanlong said.

"Deal." Biyu shouted before any of the remaining roommates could get so much as a syllable in.

"You little pig! Where is your zeal for justice?" Mingzhu questioned laughingly.

"Died of bulimia." Biyu answered cheekily.

"You can always get the birthday girl to throw a dinner if this gift is not food." Yanlong said as she reached for a box cutter.

By now, the situation is crystal clear in Yanlong's mind. She has been experimented on. That was the aim of physics department from the beginning.

The experiment could be to send her in to past, or to make her think she's in past and evaluate her psychologically in an era without rules. Regardless of which option it is, she could only forge ahead.