New York 2006

Chapter 1

We don't talk anymore.
We don't talk anymore.
In a small room, melodious music came from the room, and a printed picture of "Long Live Life" hung on the wall.

Luo Ji was sitting in front of a dual-screen computer, watching the music video on the big screen.It was rare to have such a leisurely moment, so he had to take a good rest. He raised his hands and stretched.

"Puff puff!"

After Luo Ji blew his nose, he threw the tissue in his hand into the trash can nearby.

The weather has been good and bad recently, and I caught a cold accidentally.But a cold couldn't stop me from smoking. I picked up the cigarette case on the table, took out one and lit it.

boom!Boom!
There was a sudden violent explosion in the room, and a huge heat wave swept over. The computer in front of him was torn apart in an instant. Luo Ji's body was thrown away and hit the ground heavily.

The huge pain instantly overwhelmed his reason, causing him to lose control of his body and be replaced by the human stress response.He howled desperately, hoping to attract someone's attention and help.

"High and high."

Luo Ji howled in pain, but part of the blood he spit out got stuck in his throat, and the sound turned into a "wuwuwu" sound, like the cry of a child after being wronged.

The severe pain made Luo Ji feel dazed, and he lost his clear perception of time. For about 1 minute, or maybe 5 minutes, his body gradually adapted to the pain, reason prevailed, and he began to check his body.

His face was facing up. When he turned his head to the left, he found that his left hand was broken. When he looked to the right, his right hand was fine.I raised my head and tried to check my legs, but I didn't have the strength at all.

He could only feel it, but he couldn't feel his legs. There might be something wrong with his spine, which affected his nerves.But the most serious thing was his right eye, which was pierced by a computer part and dripping with blood.

Luo Ji's body temperature was too low and he could no longer feel pain.

Driven by the desire to survive, he used all his strength to turn over, put his right hand on the ground, and pushed his whole body forward.Be prepared to crawl to the door and open it to ask for help.But less than half a meter away, the whole body fell down again.Consciousness begins to blur.

1 minute passed, 2 minutes passed...

Luo Ji regained consciousness after a quick stir.Excessive blood loss leads to cold and unconsciousness. Under the guidance of genetic instinct, the body unconsciously spasms and trembles to rapidly generate heat.The brain gradually becomes clearer, and the perception of the body slowly returns.

What is that warm liquid under your body?
"Fuck, fuck, fuck."

As the electric light shattered, only one emergency light emitted a faint green light in the entire room.

Luo Ji swore that he had never thought in his life that a person could shed so much blood.An artery in his thigh was punctured.At this moment, I have reached the end of my life.

What's ridiculous is that the survival instinct of living things is making its last effort. Trembling causes the body temperature to quickly recover, hormones to be secreted rapidly, the brain to completely control the body, and severe pain to hit immediately.

This is the reflection of light. Facing death clearly alone is really disappointing and painful!
When facing death, people will never be as calm as described in the movie, at least not Luo Ji.The physical pain constantly impacted his fragile nerves, and the human survival instinct filled the brain with all kinds of negative emotions, including depression, loss, fear...

…………

"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Luo Ji woke up from his sleep with another nightmare, his back covered in cold sweat!
It had been a week since he came to this world, and this nightmare was so clear that Luo Ji felt like he was in the coldest deep sea, experiencing the most piercing coldness and pain of death over and over again.

He subconsciously touched his right eye and found that it was intact.

But it felt so real. His right eye, which was injured by the explosion fragments in his previous life, made him feel a dull pain across time and space.He looked a little dazed, looked around, and then realized that he was at home in this life.

This is a typical American low-class person, a family of three living in an RV.

At the entrance of the RV, there is a bed.Mom Sammy usually sleeps here.Further forward, on both sides of the corridor are the kitchen, wardrobe, refrigerator, and bathroom.

There was a bed at the end of the RV where he and his brother Chucky slept.The bedside was filled with various musical instruments, clothes, books, and various sundries, and posters of Britney were plastered around the bed.

Mother Sami heard Luo Ji's voice waking up from a nightmare. She walked over with a haggard look on her face, but she still smiled: "Feili, are you having another nightmare?"

Feili was Luo Ji's nickname in this life, and it was a term of endearment among family members.

"Yes, Mom. This nightmare is like a curse that haunts me and won't go away." Luo Ji touched his chest with lingering fear.

"What nonsense are you talking about? The doctor said it was because the head was hit, causing a slight concussion. It will get better after a while!" Mother Sami said it didn't matter.But then he said again: "Do you need to see a doctor?"

"You don't need to see a doctor. They can't find anything out. Maybe it will get better after a while."

After resurrecting his life, Luo Ji was very worried about his health. Out of concern, he consulted a doctor. After concealing the details, he described to the doctor his nightmare of being killed by an explosion.Various tests were done, but nothing was found, and the doctor could only blame it on psychological problems.

"Then you get up and wash up quickly, and call your brother by the way. We have to go to school later. I'm going to make breakfast." After that, she hurried to the kitchen.

Luo Ji looked at his brother Chucky Slott, who was still sleeping soundly next to him, and patted his shoulder to wake him up.Then he got up and walked to the bathroom.Looking at myself in the mirror, my mind goes back to a week ago.

A week ago, my predecessor was in a car accident. His body was fine, but he fell into a coma for a few 10 minutes because his head hit the ground first.After being sent to the hospital, Luo Ji had already traveled through time.

Although he had traveled through time, he had not completely traveled through time. He had no memories of his previous life. He only had the last images and sounds before his death.The reason why he knew that he had traveled through time was not because he had an extremely clear nightmare.It's because he has the concept of time travel in his mind.

Moreover, the person who dominates this body now has become Luo Ji, the "other", and the consciousness of this body no longer exists.

He wanted to recall the experience of this body, but he also had to mobilize it from the mind of this body, and then view it from the perspective of the "other". This week Luo Ji had been familiar with the past of this body.

Now his name is Felix Slott Rowe.Sloat's middle name is his mother's surname, Luo is his father's surname, and his Chinese name is Luo Ji.

His father, David Luo, is a Chinese American and an assistant professor at Cornell University.Mother Sammy Sloat spent her youth wandering around with a bunch of hippies.

The two met once in a bar in Greenwich Village, and after seeing each other, they got together. As a result, their mother became pregnant, and soon they got married, preventing Luo Ji from becoming an illegitimate child.

Luo Ji looked at himself in the mirror. His hair and eyes were both brown and black, inherited from his father.Skin color is average of both parents.The facial contour inherited the Caucasian characteristics of his mother, with a high nose bridge, high cheekbones, and deep eye sockets.

At 16 years old, he is 181cm tall and looks younger than white people of the same age. He is not a top-notch face like Leonardo.But he is also a handsome guy.It's just that the temperaments of the two are very different. Leonardo is the kind of sunny boy, well, Leonardo when he was young.Luo Ji was the aloof type.

There is a reason for the formation of this temperament. When his father, David Rowe, was alive, he had a stable income as a university assistant, allowing the family to live in Greenwich Village, New York, with a prosperous life and guaranteed safety.After Sami became a mother, she also lost the bad habits of her youth and quietly became a housewife.

However, the happy days did not last long.

When Luo Ji was a child, his father died in an accident. His mother, Sami, had little education and didn't like to work.

Sold the house before the mortgage was due.More than ten years have passed, and their lives have become worse and worse. Now they can only live in an RV camp established by a group of hippies in a deserted industrial area on the outskirts of New York.

In Luo Ji's opinion, Sami was definitely not a qualified mother.In the United States, it is not difficult for a single mother to find a stable job and support a family of three.

In the 70s and [-]s in the United States, the hippie movement and the Make Love Not War movement caused the traditional family values ​​in the United States to be shattered. Coupled with the rise of women's rights, the divorce rate skyrocketed.

Government departments, various welfare institutions, and Christian groups have begun to provide large subsidies to single mothers. As long as they find a job and rent a house, it is really not difficult to live in a place with better security.

Luo Ji's grandmother, Queenie Slott, was a hippie, and his mother, Sammy, followed suit.He started living a wandering life at a young age and was not willing to work at all.

In order to save 70% of the housing and water and electricity bills for single mothers, the three of them lived in the RV they bought with the money from selling their house ten years ago.

The family usually relies on subsidies from the single mother, various social welfare, and constant support from grandmother Queenie Slott who lives in a hippie camp in Chicago. In addition, Sammy usually cheats and abducts, and some companies do not pay taxes and only accept cash. Odd jobs support the family's life.

This is really a scam!
Think about this kind of environment. You see all kinds of homeless people when you go out every day. Drugs and violence are everywhere. Scams and abductions are everywhere.In addition, Sami is not a good role model. He only knows how to pamper him without strict discipline. What can Luo Ji grow up to be like?

It is a common thing to go to the supermarket to steal things. You and your friends at school use fake watches to pretend to be famous brands to deceive people. You pretend to be a skateboard boy to play porcelain. You sell pirated video tapes. You rob out-of-towners with illegal weapons of unknown origin. …

It has to be said to be a miracle that Luo Ji is still alive today and has not been imprisoned.

"Damn it, Felix, what are you doing? It takes you so long to go to the bathroom. Hurry up and eat. And Chucky, hurry up, or you'll miss the school bus if you're late!" Mother Sammy yelled.

"Come on, come on!" Luo Ji pulled away from his memories, washed up quickly, and came to the kitchen.

His younger brother Chucky had already picked up the sandwich made by his mother Sammy and started to eat it. Luo Ji patted his head: "Chucky, how many times have I told you to brush your teeth and wash your face before eating? What are you doing?"

"Why don't you come out of the bathroom?" Brother Chucky muttered quietly, but he still walked to the bathroom obediently.

The younger brother Chucky looks silly and not too smart. He has certain intellectual disabilities, which is related to Sammy and her unknown previous boyfriends.

At that time, the two were hanging out together, smoking and drinking constantly. Sami's life was too chaotic, and as expected, she became pregnant after an accident.This time, we were not so lucky. After struggling for several months, the man who had contributed disappeared without a trace.

Faced with a major decision in life, Sammy, who had a Christian background, thought about it for a long time and finally decided to give birth to the child. That child is now Chucky. It was only when Chucky grew older that he discovered there was a problem with his brain.

Sammy was busy preparing breakfast, a sandwich with fried eggs and vegetables.While talking to his mother and helping with the cooking, Luo Ji mentioned that his grandmother Queenie asked the family to move back to their hometown in Chicago. Luo Ji said he would think about it.

After a while, his brother Chucky came out. The RV was too small and couldn't even fit a dining table.The family could only move to the table next to the bed and eat.

Luo Ji finished breakfast hastily, called Chucky, brought lunch, then greeted several students from the same school who lived in the RV camp, and walked to the school bus stop not far away.

The dilapidated industrial park is filled with RVs and tents.The gray sky made the entire camp look even more desolate, and needles and garbage could be seen everywhere on the ground.

A group of homeless people gathered in front of a burning iron bucket to keep warm. They also held a Sonora toad and shared licks with each other. Two high-spirited people were wrestling with each other, surrounded by people who were heckling.

Luo Ji was already used to it.The most common thing here is drug and violence.The decorations that a group of hippies put up in this camp with full of longing and hope have been ruined by years of wind and rain.

Mother Sammy talks about the hippie ideals of resisting capitalism.Under such a living environment, there is no more pastoral and poetic atmosphere.

A gust of wind blew, and everyone around was shivering. In New York in October 2006, the weather was already very cold.The long johns that mother Sami specially asked Luo Ji and Chucky to put on played a very good role in keeping out the cold, adding a little warmth to this cold morning.

　Charlie Puth - We Don't Talk Anymore
　　
　
(End of this chapter)