What Should I Do If I Time-Traveled Forty Years Later and My Lover Has Become an Old Man? - MLFYL: 05

Yu Yao was filled with a multitude of questions, each eager to be asked.

She had traveled forty years into the future, only to find that nearly everything around her had transformed beyond recognition. Yet, overwhelmed by the sheer number of inquiries, she found herself at a loss for where to begin. Her thoughts kept drifting to her dearest friend, Yang Yun—wondering where she might be now.

For a fleeting moment, she almost considered approaching Jiang Zhonglin with her questions, but then she recalled that Jiang Zhonglin and Yang Yun weren’t close—the only connection between them had been herself. With her absence over the decades, it was likely that Jiang Zhonglin had long since lost contact with Yang Yun.

This realization made her hesitant. To her surprise, however, she learned that Jiang Zhonglin had silently reached out to Yang Yun. The long-lost friend had indeed remembered her, and in a heartbeat, had come rushing back to see her.

Seated on the bed, Yu Yao spent hours chatting with Yang Yun, who mostly recounted her recent life. Yu Yao listened intently, interjecting occasional words, as their conversation flowed effortlessly. They shared laughter, jokes, and veered off-topic so engrossingly that they almost forgot the passage of time.

It was Yu Yao who felt hungry. Only then did she temporarily stop talking, brush her teeth, wash her face, and prepare to go downstairs to fill her stomach.

While Yu Yao was washing her face in the bathroom, Yang Yun was still standing at the door, talking about her beloved granddaughter, “Look at her photo, isn’t she cute? She’s thirteen years old, she can dance, she plays the piano well, and this is my little grandson, only three years old, chubby…”

Yu Yao thought to herself that her good friends had all become grandmothers, and she was overcome by an indescribable melancholy.

When they got downstairs, Yu Yao saw a fat old man sitting next to Jiang Zhonglin. She nudged Yang Yun and asked softly, “Is that your man?”

“Yes.” Yang Yun immediately understood the meaning of her words, covered her mouth, and said in a low voice, “Don’t look at his current weight, he has indeed become fat in middle age. He was a handsome guy when he was young, and he had a very good figure.”

Yu Yao thought to herself, “No wonder. With Yang Jun’s vain disposition, if she were to marry, she would undoubtedly choose a handsome suitor.”

The portly elderly man was remarkably amiable, greeting Yu Yao with a warm smile. “I’ve heard A’ Yun speak of you for quite some time. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. My surname is Xu, and my given name is Xu Xian.”

Yu Yao chuckled softly, understanding the implication behind his words. It was clear that he had once been a master of smooth talk, which perhaps explained how he had ensnared Yang Yun’s affections.

During breakfast, Yang Yun seated herself beside Yu Yao and began to show her a collection of photographs from years past—primarily wedding images.

“You weren’t there when I got married, and that remains one of my greatest regrets. Today, I want to share these memories with you,” Yang Yun said softly, clicking through each photo for her to see.

Beside her, Xu Xian stood attentively, occasionally interjecting with warm comments about the scenes. Their evident closeness was palpable.

As Yu Yao gazed at her best friend in her wedding gown, listening to her animated chatter, her mind drifted momentarily.

She cast a subtle glance at Jiang Zhonglin nearby, who was listening quietly without interruption—his expression unreadable, leaving her uncertain of what thoughts lay behind his composed exterior.

“We’d been together for years, but A’ Jun refused to host a wedding. She put it off until she was 35. I thought there was something wrong with me, and she was unhappy, so she refused to marry me. Later, I learned that she wanted to wait to get married until you were found. She said the wedding would be a shame if her best friend wasn’t there,” Xu Xian said with a sigh.

Yang Yun’s eyes turned red, “We agreed that you would be my bridesmaid when I got married. You weren’t there, so I didn’t have a bridesmaid at my wedding and saved the spot for you.”

Yu Yao didn’t want her to cry any more, for fear that something might happen to her.

She could only hold back the tears in her eyes and asked Xu Xian with a smile, “Then how did you get our A’ Jun into your hands?”

Xu Xian smiled, “She was pregnant with a son. My mother-in-law said that if her belly grew any bigger, she wouldn’t be able to wear a beautiful wedding dress, so A’ Jun married me.”

Yu Yao laughed, “It’s our beauty-loving A’ Jun, after all.”

There was another reason that no one mentioned, but Yu Yao made it clear. She and Yang Jun were the same age, and when Yang Jun was 35, she had already been missing for seven years.

If someone had gone missing for seven years without any news, they would surely have assumed they were dead.

“Yaoyao, let’s go out together today!” Yang Yun asked.

Yu Yao instinctively agreed. At Yang Jun’s request, the two elderly men, Xu Xian and Jiang Zhonglin, stayed at home, and the two of them went out alone.

Xu Xian said to Yang Jun with a worried look on his face, “Be careful. You know your own body, so don’t get too excited. Don’t eat sweets, either. And make sure you bring your medicine with you.”

Jiang Zhonglin said gently, glancing at Yu Yao, “If you have any questions, just call me anytime. Don’t be afraid.”

Following their instructions, Yang Yun led Yu Yao out the door. Yu Yao thought Yang Yun would take her somewhere, but in the end she was taken to the cinema.

“Watch a movie?” Yu Yao felt very strange, but when she thought about it, she realized that she hadn’t seen a movie for 40 years, so she hadn’t fulfilled her duty.

As a result, Yang Yun simply pulled her to the tables at the entrance of the cinema that was next to the window, and had no intention of buying tickets for the movie.

Yang Yun glanced at the road outside the window, winked at Yu Yao, “Do you know where this is?”

Yu Yao felt that everything around her was unfamiliar, and shook her head, “I don’t know where this is? Your old home?”

Yang Yun sighed, “This is where our high school used to be. More than ten years ago, No. 16 Middle School moved into the school district, and this place was torn down… You don’t even know what it looked like before, right? When the school was torn down, all our classmates gathered here one day. Everyone except you… To be honest, I haven’t been here for a long time, and everything has changed since the last time I saw it.”

Yu Yao didn’t expect that this would be the same No. 16 Middle School she remembered. She also turned her head to look at the road and the pedestrians, her gaze a little empty.

Throughout her school years, especially in middle and high school, she was almost always in a phase of rebellion.

Back then, school was nothing more than a prison for her, and she hated everything school-related. Therefore, she often skipped classes to get into fights, went to internet cafes, smoked, drank, and dyed her hair red—all to anger her father. Whatever she did to anger her father, she did it.

From her teens until she entered college at 22, she was always concerned with one thing: to annoy the hell out of her father. Only later did she learn that her father was healthy and had resented her for years without any problems.

As she grew older, her hatred for him diminished greatly, and her rebellious phase was over. She stopped doing such stupid things and ignored him instead.

The past is still fresh in her mind, and it doesn’t seem that long ago.

“Has the Mingde Private School near No. 16 Middle School also moved away?” Yu Yao suddenly asked.

Yang Yun explained, “Yes, they have all relocated to the school district, but they are quite distant from the new No. 16 Middle School.”

Yu Yao enrolled at No. 16 High School, a school of modest reputation—an 18th-tier institution with a reputation for its unruly student body. According to their head teacher, the students were akin to a chaotic mixture—a “pot of rat droppings”—and destined to become social parasites upon entering society.

At that time, Yu Yao refused to attend the No. 2 Middle School, arranged by her father, opting instead for No. 16 Middle School. Her father, displeased with her decision, physically punished her, leaving her with a limp for half a month.

Unlike the environment at No. 16 Middle School, Mingde Private School, situated just beyond a wall from No. 16 High School, was a prestigious haven where top students gathered—an exclusive private institution with high tuition fees and a limited student body.

It was during her first year, early in the second semester, that Yu Yao began regularly sneaking over the wall to attend Mingde Private School. The surroundings at No. 16 High School were unappealing, and she struggled to find a quiet spot to rest during noon breaks.

Mingde Private School offered a stark contrast: superior teaching quality and a much more conducive environment. So, whether Yu Yao wanted to skip class to find a quiet place or just reflect on life, she would climb over the high wall and run to Mingde Alley.

One day, she skipped class as usual and went to Mingde Alley. As she passed by the toilet, she heard a gurgling sound. Curious, she walked up to it with a cigarette in her mouth and saw two boys holding a skinny boy in the corner of the urinal.

One of the boys scooped up water with a plastic cleaning bucket and poured it on the skinny boy’s head, soaking him from head to toe. The skinny boy’s pants were pulled down and he sat in the corner with his bare legs, silently being bullied.

The two boys humiliated him, “So what if you did well on the test? So what if you’re the best? You dare tell the teacher, huh?”

Yu Yao leaned against the toilet door and thought, “This school is full of good students, and yet there is bullying? Only in her own lousy school can this happen.”

She thought so, put the cigarette in her mouth and said with a smile, “You good students will also bully people?”

She leaned casually against the door of the men’s restroom, her leg swinging nonchalantly. Her school uniform was styled rebelliously, and her hair bore a complex, striking hue. A cigarette was casually held in her hand.

To the two young boys—likely in junior high—the sight of her marked her as a true ‘social person’. Though they often displayed boldness when teasing their peers, they were visibly startled at the sight of Yu Yao dressed in the No. 16 Middle School uniform.

Perhaps it was their familiarity with students from the nearby school that made them so apprehensive; they dared not meet her gaze and, after hurling a bucket, hurriedly fled, leaving Yu Yao and the small, thin boy in the corner of the restroom.

The boy appeared much younger—wearing glasses and sporting a bowl cut—huddled there, seemingly overwhelmed by fear. His skin was remarkably pale.

Yu Yao gazed at his bare legs, pondering their age—indeed, he looked like a junior high student. The way her school peers humiliated others was by stripping them naked—so how could they be satisfied with just partial exposure?

“Can you put on your pants first?” Yu Yao raised her chin and said to the little boy.

The little boy came back to his senses, his face flushed, he covered his small underwear, picked up the pants beside him and put them on. He lowered his head and dared not speak, his whole body trembling like a little chicken.

Yu Yao thought that he might be afraid that she, the annoying kid next door, would beat him, and felt bored, so she turned and left. The most incredible thing was that this poor little boy whom she had quickly forgotten was actually Jiang Zhonglin, who was in the second grade of junior high school at Mingde at the time.

Yu Yao learned about this from Jiang Zhonglin after they got married.

If Jiang Zhonglin hadn’t told her, she really wouldn’t have thought that this little boy who she had only met once and was bullied was Jiang Zhonglin. If Jiang Zhonglin hadn’t said it, she wouldn’t have remembered such a thing at all.

After all, she couldn’t connect this gentle and shy boy who had grown up with the poor and rustic little boy back then.

Jiang Zhonglin gazed at her with a shy, somewhat embarrassed expression and remarked, “I thought you were like a fairy—so beautiful.”

Yu Yao, now a devoted wife, was taken aback by his words. She couldn’t help but wonder if her young husband’s eyesight had been flawed in earlier days.

The memory of the violent conflict involving Matt flashed through her mind, and she struggled to see herself as a fairy in his eyes.

Lost in this reflection, Yu Yao was suddenly roused from her reverie by Yang Yun’s gentle sigh, “Yaoyao, you’ve returned. I’m truly happy for Jiang Zhonglin.”

It was then that she snapped back to the present, startled by the reminder of her current reality.