Survivorship Bias

    Shen An feels very strange recently, but very subtle.

    For example, in his 20 years of smooth and materialistic life, words like "haunted" and "monster" suddenly appeared.

    "Really, I won't lie to you. They told me that the library was haunted, and someone saw it with their own eyes." Sitting next to him, Steven, his classmate and friend raised four One finger, "I swear to God."

    Almost subconsciously, Shen An broke off a finger for him, "Swear it's three fingers."

    After blurting out these words, he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

    It was as if he had said this to someone before, and even this scene seemed familiar.

    "Oh Sangen, you're right." Steven continued to describe to him the monster tentacles that appeared in the building late at night, "...Like a snake, Cthulhu, you know. "

    "I don't know." Shen An told him fairly honestly, "I mean, I don't know much about those." A new station arrived, he checked the station immediately, and happened to see A beautiful girl with peculiar makeup came up with a bag on her back. She was wearing a baby blue cheongsam, her eyeshadow was mint, and she had double ponytails. One side of her hair was white and the other was black, which was very eye-catching.

    "You don't even know this, God, you're so out of date." Steven continued to talk, as if he was hosting some late night horror radio, "...Tom saw, those The tentacle opened the window and came out of the gap in the bookshelf, as if looking for something..."

    He found that Shen An's eyes were locked on the girl not far away, so he teased him, "No wonder you can't listen to the story I told, it turned out to be looking at beautiful women!"

    Shen An raised a finger to his lips, motioning him to whisper, "No, I'm listening to you."

    Steve knew him well, and naturally knew that he was not really looking at beauties, "Just kidding, but then again, Ann, you really don't have someone you like, you shouldn't, You are so welcome."

    Shen An shook her head, "No."

    But when he said this, there was a strange feeling in his heart, as if he knew that he was lying.

    It seems that he already has someone he likes in his heart, and he has liked it for a long, long time.

    But he doesn't know who the other party is at all, and he can't even draw a general outline.

    "What are you doing?" Steven waved his hand in front of him.

    "It's almost there for Steven." Shen An heard the announcement, regained his senses, patted his knee, grabbed the bag and got up immediately, "It seems like I have to hand in the experiment report today."

    "Oh yes, yes, I almost forgot if you didn't tell me. I'll borrow yours later." Steven quickly forgot his urban weirdness, and Shen Ann rushed back to school together.

    When getting out of the car, Shen An was shoved and collided with the girl standing in front of the car door. Fortunately, she also got out of the car, and a group of young people squeezed like an open can out of the carriage.

    Arriving downstairs in the classroom, Steven suddenly found a rose-red pendant on Shen An's bag, so he patted his shoulder, "What is this?"

    Shen An was also strange, frowned, and suddenly thought of the girl just now, "It seems to be someone else's, I took it down."

    Steve took off the pendant and found that it was a smart mini-speaker covered with a plush cover. He tried to wake up with a voice, and the speaker also sent a greeting, and announced his name and class, "If you find my speaker, yes, it's lost again, please contact me, I will give you a surprise! Thank you very much!"

    "It's still a senior, as expected of a senior, so foresight." Steven put it back into Shen An's hands.

    "Let's go to class first."

    Two lengthy professional courses finally ended, Shen An was about to leave, but was stopped by a classmate and asked him to help fill out a questionnaire.

    "You are the best, as long as you are willing to help me, I will trouble you!"

    Shen An has always been a very talkative person and is willing to help others, so he was very happy to help him fill out the questionnaire and put forward some very constructive opinions, and then he took the good things According to the major and class, find the owner of the speaker.

    "Prosthetic body manufacturing and maintenance..." Shen An found this major in the medical department, thinking that the girl doesn't look like a prosthetic body at all.

    After a while, he found the corresponding department, and after a little inquiries, he knew that they were going to take elective courses soon.

    Shen An took the elevator to the air classroom of the elective course. In the elevator, two junior girls asked for their contact information, saying that they wanted to invite him to be a model. Say thank you.

    There is only one air classroom, a large spherical public classroom. Shen An stood at the door and looked inside, wanting to see if he could find it directly. After a while, he first caught his attention.

    "Handsome guy, who are you looking for?" A girl sitting in the first row against the wall asked him with a smile.

    "Ah," Shen Anxin thought it was just right, so she took out the speaker from her schoolbag and asked him, "Excuse me, senior, do you know a senior named Zhong Yirou? Her..."

    Before she finished speaking, the girl waved her hand all of a sudden, and looked behind Shen An, "Hey Yirou, there is a beautiful brother looking for him!"

    Shen An turned around only then, and she met Zhong Yirou who had just entered the classroom.

     "Yes."

    Zhong Yirou glanced at the speaker in Shen An's hand, touched the pink bag on her shoulder, and immediately responded, "Ah, mine, thank you."

    Seeing that he was about to bow, Shen An immediately waved his hand and said no, and handed the speaker to her, "Then senior... I'll go first."

    "Thank you so much!" Zhong Yirou saw him off at the door, "You are an angel!"

    Shen An was a little embarrassed, turned back and smiled at her, hearing her classmates continue to tease, Zhong Yirou replied with a slightly resentful tone, "I like girls, don't Gossip."

    For some reason, on the way back from medical school, Shen An always had a lingering sense of familiarity, as if she had seen Zhong Yirou before.

    But he recalled the people he had met in the past, and no matter how he searched, he could not find such an unconventional one.

    On the way he met his classmate Morris, who greeted him warmly and shared a cupcake made by his mother.

    "Thank you." Shen An likes sweets very much, and soon ate half of it.

    "By the way, Ann, did you know?" Morris licked the cream on his fingers, "I heard that Professor Lin specially hired a group of ghost exorcism experts, and now he has gone to the library, You don't often go to the library, do you want to go see the fun today?"

    Shen An almost choked, "Exorcism? Are there experts here?"

    "Ah, I also heard that it seems to be an expert in mysticism from the East, like..." She suddenly thought of it and snapped her fingers, "Yes, it is an expert in Taoism, Taoism you You know."

    "I know." Shen An ate the other half of the cake and said vaguely, "But is there really a ghost? I don't quite believe it..."

    "Ah! Someone took it, I've swiped it on social networks." Morris eagerly found the photo for Shen An to see, and zoomed in with two fingers, "Look, did you see it? This tentacle."

    The so-called photo evidence is a dark corridor with a slender tail that looks like a tentacle in the corner.

    "Is this really not a gecko?" Shen An checked carefully.

    "How can there be such a big gecko! Don't believe it, they also heard the aunt who cleaned the library say that there is a ghost wearing a mask, wandering in the library..."

    Morris swiped twice while telling horror stories, and suddenly saw a photo posted by another classmate, patted Shen An's arm and exclaimed, "Hey, the expert here is a Chinese Oh handsome."

    She showed the photo to Shen An, and Shen An looked at it casually. The man in the photo was tall and thin, wearing a gray-blue Taoist robe, with a ball-shaped head. reliable.

    No, Shen An tilted her head.

    Why is he familiar with it?

    It's not strange that such a feeling appears occasionally, but Shen An appeared many times in a day.

    Although he is a staunch materialist, after the people around him talk about the "library haunted rumors" again and again, he can't help but have doubts in his heart. There is no class in the afternoon. Just go to the library for self-study, and write the article arranged by the professor on the last day.

    Shen An came to the elevator in the library. Fortunately, the elevator door just opened, and a few people came out, a little old man wearing a Taoist robe with a gray beard, followed by a thin and handsome young man.

    This is not the man in the picture of Morris.

    The other party also seemed to notice him, turned his face and glanced at Shen An with a smile in his eyes.

    Shen An didn't understand the other's eyes, walked into the elevator and looked at the other's back.

    Suddenly, a very strange picture flashed in front of his eyes, this young man fell in a pool of blood. This scene flashed by, but it was so real that even Shen An's heart panicked.

    He subconsciously raised the back of his hand to look, but he didn't know what he was looking at.

    These things are so weird.

    Shen An looked at himself reflected on the metal inner wall of the elevator, and tilted his head in confusion. Suddenly, his hair became much longer, and the collarbone to the side neck was full of white floral patterns , with blood all over his body.

    Just when Shen An was surprised, the elevator door opened.

    The eerie and fleeting images are gone, the library is bright, and the students come and go, very quiet.

    He thought about it for a while, maybe he had stayed up late to rush to report and had not enough rest, so he had hallucinations. He comforted himself and found a seat by the window to sit down.

    The clock tower of the school rang the evening bell, and Shen Ancai, who was immersed in her homework, suddenly remembered that she was going home for dinner today.

    He glanced at the time, it was already six o'clock, and he was going to be talked about later.

    On the way out of the library, he met a few classmates, a group of people laughing and joking, joking with each other without any worries, during which the live treasure among them walked backwards and fell directly into the In the flower bed, everyone helped him up, laughing non-stop, only Shen An took out a Band-Aid from his bag and wrapped him up for the bump.

    "An An has everything!"

    "Then you can't walk backwards." Shen An said with a smile.

      The story of the chosen people saving the apocalyptic world.

      , shimmering.

    Gaze quietly, suddenly realizing the beauty of this plain life.

    Several classmates went down one after another, Shen An waved to them, and when he turned his eyes from the window back into the carriage, he found a 16- or 17-year-old boy standing in front of him with short hair , wearing a high school uniform, holding the pull ring, leaning on the column, shaking his head, so sleepy that he fell asleep directly standing.

    So sleepy?

    Shen An pulled his wrist, trying to wake him up and change positions with him.

    The boy woke up with a dazed face, holding the column in confusion, staring straight at Shen An.

    "Come here and sleep, I'll change with you." Shen An waved to him.

    The boy understood, and immediately shook his head, holding back a yawn.

    "It's alright." Shen An pulled him and stood up first, "I'm almost there."

    "...Thank you." The boy was a little embarrassed. When he changed seats, he didn't find that the schoolbag was unraveled. The book inside fell out as soon as he turned around and was picked up by Shen An.

    Inadvertently, he caught a glimpse of the boy's name in the textbook - Wu You.

    "Thank you." Wu You took the book with some embarrassment, put it back in the schoolbag, held it in both hands, looked up at Shen An, and read it for a long time.

    Shen An also found it and asked him with a smile, "What's wrong?"

    Wu You shook his head, but did not speak, looking a little embarrassed.

    "How tall are you?" Shen An asked him.

    Wu You stretched out his finger and compared him.

    "The first year of high school..." Shen An thought to herself, it turned out to be only sixteen years old.

    That's right, only sixteen-year-olds are sleepy in the car and don't pull their schoolbags.

    "Be careful in the future, if you drop the book, you won't be able to find it." Shen An instructed him.

    A 16-year-old child doesn't need to worry about too many major things, even if the world is destroyed, it will not be a child to save it.

    Of course, Shen An thought, it wouldn't be an ordinary college student like him.

    Savior or something, there must be more different people to do it.

    The station arrived, Shen An walked out from the station entrance and saw a familiar figure, it was his mother.

    "Mom, didn't you say you don't need to pick me up?" Shen An said so, but subconsciously walked next to her mother.

    "I just came out of the coffee shop with my colleagues. It's also a matter of convenience." Mom handed him the muffin cake in her hand, and took him and touched his shoulder, "Are you tired at school today? ? I made the soup, and your dad cooks spaghetti today, and you can eat it when you go back."

    "I'm not tired, I made so much delicious food today."

    "Your sister is on vacation from high school, and she is coming back today. Dad has gone to pick her up."

    Shen An told her mother all the strange things that felt wrong today, but she made her laugh.

    "You are quite calm outside." An Congnan touched his head, "Why are you still like a child in front of us."

    Shen An also smiled, "Then what should I do, I was your child too."

    The two of them went home talking and laughing while wearing the gradually sinking sunset. As soon as the door was opened and a shoe was changed, my sister rushed over and hugged Shen An, "Brother!"

    An Congnan deliberately complained from behind, "I only have my brother in my eyes, and I don't have a mother."

    "Oh, mother is talking nonsense again." Shen Nan smiled and hugged her obediently, "I only see mother in my eyes."

    Shen An changed her shoes and walked to the kitchen, "Dad, let me help you."

    "No, no, it's all done, you wash your hands and eat."

    "Brother!" Shen Nan called him in the living room, "Go and hold a parent meeting for me next week!"

    "Me?" Shen An wiped the water off her hands with kitchen paper and took away the vegetable salad on the countertop.

    Father Shen poured out the pasta, serious and even a little sad, "Why didn't you ask me to hold a parent-teacher meeting? Is it bad for Dad to go?"

    An Congnan opened the projection and said with a smile, "It must have been a failure."

    Shen Nan said coquettishly, "Why, I'm the fifth in the class. Isn't my father very busy? Besides, I've been bragging about my brother to them, saying he's super handsome, They don't believe it, I have to show it off this time."

    Shen An smiled helplessly, her sister had no other way, "What if others think it's not worthy of the name?"

    "Who said that?" Shen Nan was serious, "It can only be beyond imagination to see you?"

    Father Shen's focus was, "Isn't Dad handsome?"

    Mom has no choice, "Handsome, are you all handsome, let's eat!"

    As soon as the projector was turned on, a TV interview was automatically played. The interviewee was a young man. Shen Nan pointed to the projector and said, "This brother is also quite handsome, and his eyes are very special, right Mom? "

    "Well, like fox eyes."

    Shen An looked over, his basic information was written next to him, he was a tester in the Chauvin product maintenance department, his name was Zhou Yijue.

    "It's from Dad's company."

    Father Shen took a closer look, "It seems so, but Chauvin is too big, and I don't know everyone, the young man looks very refreshing."

    After a while, the interviewee changed to another, a young woman in a white coat with silver eyes, beautiful, but very smart.

    My name is Yang Erci.

    He frowned, and the familiarity came over him again.

    "Wow this sister, the mixed elite royal sister." Shen Nanzhi said, "I like it, sister I can."

    Shen An was a little helpless, "You really only see faces when you look at people."

    An Congnan also complained, "Yeah, a superficial little girl."

      .

    "I know this, isn't this the daughter of the old Yang family?" Father Shen said, "Recently, I'm working on a biological firewall to prevent prosthetic infections. A very powerful little girl, she even won an award. Woolen cloth."

    "Ah? Yang Ce's daughter." An Congnan nodded, "That's really amazing, having such an amazing daughter."

    "Am I not good?" Shen Nan raised a face.

    Shen An smiled, "Awesome, you must be the most powerful judge of beauty contests."

    As soon as these words came out, my parents also laughed, and the united front mocked the little daughter at home.

    An Congnan also complained about her daughter's dress, "You wear too little, look at brother, he has never had a cold since he was a child to Dalian, and never made us worry, how about you? In three days, two heads were sick."

    "Then he's twenty years old, so he should compare with me."

    "I haven't gone wrong for 20 years, you think it's easy."

    It is an instant.

    One second, Shen An was still immersed in his happy and beautiful family atmosphere, the next moment, he suddenly heard a voice from the bottom of his heart.

    [No fault. ]

    He turned his head to the side, looking for the direction of the sound.

    "What's wrong?" Shen Nan noticed that something was wrong with his brother.

    Shen An shook her head.

    No fault.

    Why does he turn back subconsciously when he hears this name?

    Whose voice? Why so familiar?

    While he was wondering, the voice appeared again, very gentle, reciting a name that did not belong to him.

    [No fault. ]

    Just like that, the voice repeated many times, like some kind of mysterious spell, echoing in his mind.

    The chopsticks fell to the ground.

    Shen Nan raised her head and found a crystal tear falling on Shen An's face. She was a little unbelievable. She had never seen her brother cry once when she was so old.

    "Brother?"

    No answer to her.

    Shen An grabbed the coat on the back of the chair, and said quickly in a low voice, "I'll be back soon." So he left.

    From his birth to now, to this moment, in the middle of more than 7,400 days and 160,000 hours, every happy or sad moment, he has a feeling of incompleteness. It was like a huge jigsaw puzzle, and he kept putting it together one piece at a time, and there was always one piece missing.

    Until now, when he was about to get used to this feeling of lack, the piece of the puzzle that he lost seemed to be looking for him.

    [No fault]

      the sound of.

    Immersed in the cool night wind, he ran through a whole dark street. There were traces of rain on the floor tiles, and neon instead of starlight flashed.

    The voice was getting closer and closer, as if it came from the bottom of his heart.

    Where is it?

    Shen An panted and turned around, the crowd pushed and shoved, everyone wore filtering masks on their faces, the projections overlapped with real people, the virtual and real interlaced, the bizarre city was dizzying, he stood The city center is as small as a gravel in a sea of ​​color.

    [No fault. ]

    The sound is closer than ever!

    Shen An turned around abruptly, and in the bustling crowd, he saw a tall man, dressed in black, with a mechanical Guanyin mask on his face.

    For some reason, he could feel at a glance that this was the man.

    The other party came, stood in front of him, and tilted his head at him.

    Shen An's heart seemed to be clenched by an invisible hand, and she was speechless for a while.

    Before he could speak, the other party opened his arms directly.

    "Hug."

    This sense of familiarity directly broke through the shackles of memory, and many pictures appeared in front of him, the game of life and death, the opponent on the duel stage, and the long knife in his hand.

    But the other party hugged him, warm and true.

    He used his real voice to whisper his name beside his ear.

    "No fault, go home, are you happy?"

    Through this embrace, their chests were pressed together, and the two mutilated hearts were pieced together, making overlapping echoes.

    In his arms, he remembered everything that had happened.

    And…

    "Shen Ti, Shen Ti, Shen Ti..."

    He kept repeating Shen Ti's name, again and again, as if to make up for everything that was missing in the past twenty years.

    "Well, I'm back, no blame."

    Shen Ti took off the mask, held it in his hand, backed it away, and touched An Wujiu's forehead.

    Through the memories he passed over, An Wu Jiu saw himself at the end of the cycle, leaving in his arms, and also saw him transfer half of his heart, using the ability of the Lord of Time , flip the gears and set all the time back to the beginning, before everything happened.

    Lathasm, who has died, no longer interferes in their timeline, there is no threat, Shen Ti returns to that lonely universe, guarding his birth, growth, from the first time he went to school, To the first time he went out to volunteer, from preparing for the exam late at night, to entering the university and leaving his parents, every moment, Shen Ti watched alone through the time barrier.

    Sometimes he would laugh, laughing with their family, and sometimes he would get angry because An Wujiu was wronged, but he knew that he could not intervene, losing his temper might trigger another universe The disaster, can only hide and sulking.

    In order to avoid being unable to bear it, Shen Ti deliberately folded the timeline of An Wu Jiao. While waiting, he found a plant that looked like a peony, planted it patiently, observed it every day, and waited for it to bloom.

    But when its flowers bloomed, it was far from the peony on An Wujiu's body, Shen Ti was very disappointed.

    The more disappointed, the more I miss him.

    Missing him, Shen Ti can only open a little bit of the timeline and observe quietly.

    He couldn't bear to destroy An Wujiao's beautiful family, he worked so hard for so long, didn't he just want to give him a chance to go home?

    In this way, Shen Ti, who could not bear to leave An Wu Jiao, also learned to be patient, learn to let go of childishness and selfishness, and become a mature and reliable patron saint.

    "Thank you." An Wujiu hugged him, "I have lived very well in the past 20 years, I haven't even caught a cold."

    "Of course." Shen Ti put his arms around him and pointed to the sky, "I'm watching you carefully."

    He picked up An Wujiu's face, checked it carefully, kissed his lips, and cherished his forehead, eyebrows, nose, cheeks, and his The tip of the chin would be confirmation, but also like marking territory.

    "Twenty years is too hard, An Wu Jiu." Shen Ti sighed and lowered his eyes, "I'm mad."

    In Shen Ti's green pupils, the sky is full of neon lights and stars, as well as his face.

    “I love you.” An Wujiu said softly.

    Shen Ti stared at An Wujiu's lips, thinking of the peony flower he planted carefully, the pink petals that quiver slightly.

    He wants to have a long and sweet kiss with An Wujiu, to brush his whole body and embrace each other to sleep, listening to him talk about all the interesting things that happened in the past 20 years, even if he Has seen familiarity.

    "I love you too, love you very much."

    There is no doomsday, no disaster and turmoil, they are like ordinary lovers embracing on the street, surrounded by the coldness and romance of the city.

    "Oh yes, there is another gift." Shen Ti remembered and raised his eyebrows at An Wujiu, "Before I came here, I have been to all other places."

    An Wujiu didn't understand, "Everywhere? Where?"

    Shen Ti shrugged, turned around, spread one arm, and showed him.

    An Wujiu squinted his eyes slightly, among the crowd, he first saw Zhong Yirou who waved at him, then Wu You in school uniform, Nanshan who was carrying a peach sword on his back, Yang Erci and Zhou Yijue, and even Gabriel, Todo Sakura and Matsuura Mori.

    A large group of people came towards him.

    An Wu Jiu first laughed, then lowered his head, holding back the sourness in his eyes.

    Zhong Yirou took him by the arm, and the words fell out of her head, like a good friend she hadn't seen for a long time, "No blame, you gave me a speaker today, you said it was a coincidence , if Shen Ti hadn't found me, I wouldn't even remember you. Ah, by the way, I heard that your mother's cooking is delicious! Can I go to your house for a meal?"

    "I want to eat curry." Wu You suddenly suggested.

    "I want to eat sushi! Any sushi is fine!" Todo Sakura raised her hand.

    Gabriel said in disgust, "What's so good about sushi, isn't it just rice and fish? Might as well eat burritos..."

    Nan Shan clasped her hands against each other and said with a smile, "Actually, my requirements are very low, Yangchun noodles are fine, just put a little more sesame oil."

    Zhou Yijue snorted coldly and complained, "Did someone say to invite you to dinner?"

    "Yes," Matsuura Mori also nodded, "This is too much trouble for Auntie."

    "No trouble, Auntie must like us!"

    Everyone was noisy and noisy, each talking his own way, and no one would let the other. Shen Ti was disgusted by the noise, so he took An Wu Jiu's shoulders, tilted his head and whispered to him, "Ignore them, let's go."

    "Hey, wait for us!" Zhong Yirou was the first to find out.

    "No." Shen Ti waved his back to them, "We're going to open a room."

    “Who will open a room with you?” An Wu Jiu took his arm and abducted him.

    Shen Ti frowned, and behind him came the joking voices imitated by the bad friends.

    "Who opened a room with you? Hahahahaha!"