Chapter 54: Shards of Memory

After returning home with the new contract, Liao Yuan turned on his computer and began to continue writing "Ghost Blows Out the Light."

The second volume of the "Ghost Blows Out the Light" series, "Dragon Ridge Maze," was nearing its end. The first two volumes had brought Liao Yuan both fame and fortune. In the radio circles of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, the name "Host A Yuan" had become legendary, a topic of lively discussion across major industry platforms.

In just the past month alone, headhunters from radio stations in the southern provinces and cities had come knocking one after another. Promises were made as if money were no object. Even the capital’s Kyoto Radio Station sent a personal invitation. Although they knew that the audio rights to "Ghost Blows Out the Light" had been exclusively sold to Donghai Radio, they still eagerly hoped to recruit Liao Yuan, the part-time writer and host, to their team.

Yet, faced with olive branches from several industry leaders, Liao Yuan remained unmoved, as serene as a meditating monk. When Director Zheng learned of this, he was delighted in both body and spirit, viewing Liao Yuan in a new light. He praised Liao Yuan repeatedly in public meetings and personally awarded him a "Star Host" certificate of honor.

The entire online department received widespread attention because of Liao Yuan. The first, second, and third program divisions frequently sought joint activities with the online department, but Liao Yuan often remained absent, as if he were cultivating himself in seclusion, cut off from the world.

Everyone interpreted this as "the eccentricity of a genius writer," and found comfort in the thought.

The third volume, "YN Lost Valley," was about to launch. As time went on, the words stored deep in Liao Yuan's memory became increasingly faint, and the speed at which he typed them onto the keyboard slowed considerably.

So, taking advantage of his day off, he forced himself to rally his spirits once more and began to recall the plot of "YN Lost Valley."

His thoughts drifted like a spring breeze through the depths of his memory.

Deep in the forest, one sees deer; when the sea is blue, one sees whales. In Liao Yuan's memories, there existed countless fragments from his first and second lives. He needed to carefully piece these fragments together in chronological order, stringing events and experiences into a coherent thread, using lines to form surfaces, in order to make sense of everything buried in the deep sea of his memory.

Only then could he avoid confusion, and keep those images from interfering with his normal perception.

In his second life, he once believed he'd simply had a long, vivid dream during a nap, nothing more than a dream of his first life.

After that period, his memories often became disjointed. He would involuntarily call out the names of strangers who had never appeared in his life, or walk along and suddenly burst into tears, leaving others bewildered.

He had a private psychologist, who explained these symptoms as déjà vu, also known as "hallucinated memories." Simply put, it was the sensation that events or scenes never experienced felt uncannily familiar, as if they had happened before. This phenomenon was collectively known as the hippocampus effect.

From a medical perspective, hallucinated memories arise because the brain's hemispheres temporarily fail to coordinate, causing a misrecognition in which something seen mere milliseconds earlier is mistaken for something seen long ago.

It all sounded a bit mystical.

In truth, translated plainly, it meant being a lunatic.

But Liao Yuan certainly didn't think of himself as insane.

The fragments in his mind were so vivid that he could easily recount every detail of an event that happened on any given year, month, or day, resolving any contradictions and leaving no loopholes.

It was a disturbing thought, but no one ever truly wished to understand the inner world of another. They would only use their own narrow perspectives and self-assured knowledge to explain everything about another person's life.

And yet...

I have seen the deer step through the mist, and the whale rise with the waves; if you never looked back, how could you know I was never there?

People are always full of fear and misjudgment when it comes to the unknown. Since Liao Yuan could not change the worldviews of others, the only thing he could do was quietly change that world itself.

Thus, the rebirth genre flourished, and time-travel dramas became wildly popular under his influence.

Even though the public was fascinated by these stories, they nonetheless considered the idea of time-travel a joke upon serious discussion.

Is there truly such a thing as a parallel world?

Liao Yuan, based on his own experience, could only answer: there is.

Searching for memory fragments in the depths of his mind was an exhausting task. Liao Yuan sat upright at his desk, as tranquil as a meditating monk, but sweat already beaded on his forehead. In less than three minutes, he had traversed two years in the world of his mind.

He was not merely searching for clues for "Ghost Blows Out the Light," but also threading together every event and timeline he had experienced in those two years, one by one.

This was the method he had realized in his second life, for only by doing so could he avoid being crushed by the vast and chaotic fragments of memory until his mind collapsed.

Otherwise, he would truly become a lunatic.

Now, what he needed to do was to string together every path of memory from his second life, from birth onward, bit by bit, until he reached the age of thirty-five...

...

The next day, on his way to work, a familiar melody suddenly drifted through the subway station.

"For the rest of my days, winter snow is you, spring blossom is you, summer rain is you too, autumn gold is you, all the warmth and cold of the four seasons is you, and wherever my eyes fall, it is you..."

Liao Yuan pulled down the brim of his hat, listening to the chatter of passengers in the carriage. Occasionally, some middle school students hummed along with the music playing in the train.

"I absolutely pick our Sister Shan, she's so handsome! Plays and sings herself—I've never seen such a cool contestant!"

"‘Produce 101’ is amazing, the girls are awesome!"

"Yeah, yeah, I went out of my way to watch the replay yesterday—it was so good! That Ju Nianzhi is really overestimating herself, challenging our Sister Shan? Ha, hoisted by her own petard, hmph!"

"Liao Meiqi has another beautiful song. Our whole class can sing it now. Every time the music starts in class, it's that song. The first time we sang it together, everyone was crying their eyes out—it was so touching!"

"What song?"

"‘Remembrance,’ it’s already trending on Weibo’s music chart. Lots of ‘101’ fans are voting for it—it’s already in the top ten, I think?"

"You’re mistaken, the song everyone’s voting for is ‘For the Rest of My Days,’ and it’s ranked sixth now! At the moment, Sister Shan is the most popular on ‘Produce 101’!"

"Nonsense! Xie Yuxin from my fandom is the real star. Liao Meiqi just plays the pity card, doesn’t have the skills, and has already dropped to Class B!"

"Exactly! There’s a world of difference between A and B. Xiaoqin is truly an all-rounder—she can sing, dance, she’s beautiful and sweet-voiced. She’s my No. 1 and will debut for sure. Not like Liao Meiqi, who only knows how to act pitiful. And honestly, I suspect there’s something shady going on. Why did the director only do a special feature on Liao Meiqi?"

"Could it be a hidden rule? Hahaha! Hey, mister, what... what are you doing?"

Liao Yuan bumped forcefully into one of the schoolchildren’s backpacks. Seeing their startled faces, he ignored the curious glances of others and quietly left.