eyes outside the box

The winter snow was falling outside the window. Duan Jiuze was sitting in the office processing documents as usual, while Yang Bowen was standing in front of the French window, looking at the falling white snowflakes with a slightly dull expression.

After Duan Jiuze finished processing the documents, he raised his hand and glanced at the time, but it was only three o'clock in the afternoon.

When he looked in Yang Bowen's direction again, he inevitably saw white snowflakes flying outside the window.Duan Jiuze frowned slightly—maybe it was because of Bai Wu. Duan Jiuze always subconsciously disliked white, but he rarely showed it in front of others.

Although the air conditioner was turned on in the room, Duan Jiuze still habitually walked to Yang Bowen's side, reached out and squeezed Yang Bowen's hand, and said, "White snow."

Yang Bowen did not answer as usual.

Duan Jiuze walked up to Yang Bowen, looked at the young man's eyes that were getting quieter, and pressed Yang Bowen's forehead helplessly and tiredly, sighed softly, but didn't speak.

Yang Bowen just lowered his eyebrows and let Duan Jiuze embrace him lightly without any response.

Duan Jiuze didn't feel any dissatisfaction with Yang Bowen's silence. He just touched his forehead for a moment, then stood up straight, wanting to hold Yang Bowen's hand and walk out of the office.

However, Yang Bowen rarely avoided Duan Jiuze's holding hands. Instead, he moved towards the floor-to-ceiling window, passed Duan Jiuze, moved two steps, and slowly touched the transparent glass window with one hand.

Looking at Yang Bowen's movements, Duan Jiuze didn't force him to go with him. Instead, he stood behind Yang Bowen calmly, looked at everything outside the window, and found nothing wrong.

"Look."

"what?"

Yang Bowen seemed to be muttering something, Duan Jiuze didn't hear clearly, and asked reflexively.

The book of Gibran's essays in Yang Bowen's hand fell to the ground. Both of his hands slapped the glass window, and the words in his mouth became clearer and clearer. He said, "Look-look-look!—"

Duan Jiuze picked up Yang Bowen's book that had fallen on the floor, and looked out the window——

White snowflakes were falling, but the streets were deserted, and nothing seemed to exist except the buildings.Pedestrians, vehicles, plants... all don't exist anymore.

Duan Jiuze's pupils contracted unnaturally - this is the first time Duan Jiuze has encountered such a weird phenomenon in so many years.

He looked at Yang Bowen who kept saying "look" to himself, and subconsciously began to think, was the scene Yang Bowen saw so weird when he lost control at home?Or, besides the existence of only buildings, are there other existences that make Yang Bowen more horrified?

Moving his eyes to the monotonous and weird buildings outside the window, Duan Jiuze watched the white mist gradually grow outside the window, and his visibility became increasingly low.

Without hesitation, he pulled up Yang Bowen who was still slapping the glass window. Regardless of Yang Bowen's struggle, Duan Jiuze walked to the door of the office, grabbed the handle suddenly, and opened the door forcefully.

"Mr. Duan, is there something urgent?" Miss Secretary quickly walked from the crowd, pushing the rimless glasses on the bridge of her nose, her expression became a little more serious.

Duan Jiuze looked at the clear figure and face of the secretary outside the door, and looked behind the secretary calmly. It seemed that everything was the same, and it seemed that the environment of the office had not changed.

Duan Jiuze felt abnormal in his heart, but his expression remained calm: "The documents are on the table, and they are handled as before."

The secretary nodded unexpectedly, and replied, "Okay."

Duan Jiuze didn't look back, nor did he return to the office. Instead, he pulled Yang Bowen directly and prepared to take the elevator downstairs to go home.

Yang Bowen was led by Duan Jiuze, and he still had some small struggles. To outsiders, he seemed to be two brothers, arguing with each other innocuously.

Outside the company building, pedestrians came and went in a hurry, vehicles sped away, and the tall green trees were still green. It seemed that everything was the same.

There is no white fog, no pure color space, and no strange existence.But Duan Jiuze looked at all this, panicked for no reason, always felt that he seemed to miss something, and it seemed that something was about to happen.

Duan Jiuze grabbed Yang Bowen's hand tightly, forced himself to calm down, handed Yang Bowen's book to him, and said in a deep voice, "Go home."

Yang Bowen hugged the book and was led awkwardly by Duan Jiuze, but when he walked to the door of the car, he refused to get in the car anyway.

Snow is still falling.

Duan Jiuze stood in front of the car door just a few steps away from Yang Bowen. In just a few tens of seconds, he watched the snow fall bigger and bigger until it was as big as a goose feather.

A sense of panic seized Duan Jiuze, and the sense of panic continued to expand.

Duan Jiuze subconsciously squeezed Yang Bowen tightly, but the hand that should have been tightened was empty. Duan Jiuze just clenched a fist meaninglessly.

The snowflakes all over the sky seemed to be covered with mist. Duan Jiuze walked a little towards where Yang Bowen should have been, and waved his hand, but he didn't sense the presence of Yang Bowen.

Duan Jiuze tried his best to suppress the panic in his heart, and said in a deep voice, "Bowen, you're home."

There was no echo, and even all the lively sounds that should have been on the street were gone.Looking around, only the snowflakes all over the world are still floating, and even the floating snowflakes are silent.

"Bowen? Yang Bowen?—"

No one answered, and there was not even the slightest sound.

Duan Jiuze started to run. He didn't know which direction he was running, and he didn't know if there would be obstacles ahead, but he was eager to make a sound for himself in this snowy world, so that the world sounded more real .

"Bowen? Is that you?"

Faintly, Duan Jiuze saw a vague figure in front of him.

When he got closer, Duan Jiuze could finally see the figure more clearly, Yang Bowen.

The other party buried his head, holding his book, and seemed to be motionless. Even if Duan Jiuze called his name, he didn't see any reaction.Yang Bowen just hugged his book tightly, still shrinking, like a young hamster being watched.

Duan Jiuze walked towards Yang Bowen's direction, and even started to jog later.However, the distance between the two remained unchanged.

Until Yang Bowen raised his head, opened his reddish eyes, and looked around in horror and fear, as if he was being stared at by something terrifying.

It wasn't until Duan Jiuze's figure was reflected in his eyes that the boy's hand finally grabbed Duan Jiuze's coat tightly again.

Yang Bowen buried himself in Duan Jiuze's heart, panting like a dried up fish.

Everything around seems to be filled with unnatural falling snow, and there is no reassuring reality.

Duan Jiuze let the boy grab his coat, he even stretched out his hand, trying to embrace the boy.

From the strength of grabbing his coat, Duan Jiuze seemed to feel a kind of despair from the abyss.

The despair, darkness, coldness, painful fantasies, and dying indifference bound Yang Bowen like chains, making him unable to breathe.

From the moment Yang Bowen was surrounded by Duan Jiuze, the hustle and bustle of the city gradually rang in his ears.

Luoxue slowly faded until it disappeared.

"Passengers going to Moucheng..."

The female voice on the radio rang clearly in my ears, and the conversations of the passing passengers gradually faded away with the distance of the passengers.

The flight information scrolling on the big screen seemed to be greeting Duan Jiuze cordially.

"Da da da--"

The familiar ringtone of the mobile phone rang, and Duan Jiuze let Yang Bowen grab his coat while touching the mobile phone on his body, ready to answer the call.

It's just that Duan Jiuze couldn't find the phone after searching all the pockets on his body.And the ringtone of the mobile phone gradually changed from small to loud, and even played on the radio at last.

"!!!"

Kicking his legs, when he woke up from reality, Duan Jiuze still clearly remembered the content of the dream just now.

Since sleeping with Yang Bowen in his arms, Duan Jiuze hardly had such strange dreams anymore, and even the scene at the beginning of the dream was horribly real.

The cell phone was still ringing, but Duan Jiuze was a little reluctant to interrupt such a realistic sound.So he sat up slightly, lowered his head slightly, and looked at Yang Bowen who was still sleeping in his arms.

——Probably because Yang Bowen in the dream was unstable, the young man kept tugging on Duan Jiuze's arm, and tears even overflowed from the corners of his eyes.

"Woke up."

Being pushed and shoved by Duan Jiuze, Yang Bowen opened his eyes in a daze, and sat up suddenly, not even caring about the Gibran essays he had been holding in his hand, just looking around in panic.

The moment he saw Duan Jiuze, the boy closed his tear-filled eyes, threw himself on Duan Jiuze, and sobbed softly.

That voice was very similar to the voiceless hoarse cry of the boy when he first came to the house.

Duan Jiuze patted the boy on the back, trying to use this method to reassure the boy.

"Da da da--"

I don't know who called, and it has never been disconnected.

Duan Jiuze glanced at the mobile phone on the bedside table, and suddenly remembered that he usually turns off the phone or mutes it when he sleeps, and only turns it on or turns on the sound after waking up. Why is the phone ringing today?

Although he was puzzled, Duan Jiuze had already seen the assistant's name flashing on the screen, and was interrupting to let go of his doubts. When answering the phone, Yang Bowen, who was almost lying on Duan Jiuze's body, suddenly picked up the phone with quick eyesight and hands, and pressed hard on the ground fell off.

Duan Jiuze frowned imperceptibly, not understanding why Yang Bowen did this.

"Da da da--"

The ringtone of the mobile phone is still ringing, like an old machine that is about to reach the end of its life, trying its best to pass the sound to those who must hear it.

"you……"

Duan Jiuze just said a beginning, but Yang Bowen hugged him vigorously, shook his head, and shed tears, but he never spoke.

Duan Jiuze knew the assistant's habits. If it wasn't urgent, the assistant wouldn't make so many calls.Therefore, even though Yang Bowen hugged him and tried to prevent him from answering the phone, Duan Jiuze just patted Yang Bowen on the back rigidly, pulled him off his body, got out of bed, picked up the phone, and answered the phone.

"My big boss, where are you now? The plane scheduled for [-]:[-] p.m. today cannot be confirmed to take off on time due to the weather. But there is also a flight to Moucheng at [-]:[-] noon..."

"Change."

"There was originally a meeting in the afternoon..."

"No, reschedule."

"Then I'll go through the rebooking first, boss, hurry up! It's only two hours away."

After hanging up the phone, Duan Jiuze looked up and saw Yang Bowen's eyes.

Those eyes, which were supposed to be as clear as a child's, now had other complicated emotions.The hesitant to speak emotion was hidden in those tear-soaked eyes.

This is a scene that Duan Jiuze has never seen in the eyes of Yang Bowen in this life.

However, at this moment, he couldn't study everything in those eyes.

After quickly changing clothes and washing up in a hurry, Duan Jiuze looked at Yang Bowen who was following him step by step. When he left the bedroom, he pressed Yang Bowen back to sit beside the bed.

"I'm on a business trip."

As if the clear young man suddenly became melancholy, he looked straight into Duan Jiuze's eyes, and seemed to have infinite words to say, but they were all hidden in those clear and melancholy eyes.

Duan Jiuze reached out, took Gibran's anthology of prose and poetry, and put it in Yang Bowen's hand: "I'm on a business trip. You're at home."

Although he didn't know the reason for Yang Bowen's change, Duan Jiuze believed that after he came back from the negotiation, he could find out the reason in more detail.

Because it was going to the airport, Duan Jiuze didn't plan to drive by himself, but sat in the back row and let the driver drive him there.

When leaving, Duan Jiuzefu looked back in his heart——

The teenager in pajamas and pajamas casually held the book that was so cherished and hugged tightly in his arms, and stood on the balcony on the second floor, looking straight at the direction of the car.

That was clearly a very real young man, but Duan Jiuze seemed to see a kind of vicissitudes in the young man who did not match his age, as well as a sense of loneliness and desolation.

Withdrawing his gaze, Duan Jiuze glanced at the time on the watch, and finally followed the driving of the car silently, moving away from the boy by the window until he could no longer feel the gaze.

There was no words all the way, but when they gradually arrived at the airport, Duan Jiuze heard the driver let out a heavy breath.

Finally seeing Duan Jiuze looking up and looking at each other from the mirror, the driver seemed to relax a lot, and said with a smile: "Driving along the way, I just started to encounter some vehicles and pedestrians, and I was worried that something might happen."

Duan Jiuze was silent and did not respond, and then he heard the driver continue in a worried voice: "There is still some fog on the road. The weather is really affecting it a bit."

"Fog?"

"That's right. There was a section of the road before, and the visibility was a bit low. I wondered if that section of the road was closed, so there were no cars."

Duan Jiuze clenched his fists calmly, worried in his heart whether he was going to leave this world.It's just that at this moment, it's still normal, and Yang Bowen is alive and well.

"Da da da--"

When the bell rang, Duan Jiuze thought it was a call from his assistant, but he took out his phone and realized that it was Wang Qin.

"Ozawa, Bowen suddenly rushed downstairs from the second floor after you left, as if he was going to run to find you. I couldn't stop him, and I was afraid that something would happen to him, so I took him to the airport together... I Knowing that you will not take him with you to work, I thought it would be good to see him off. If I can make it, I will see you off. If I can’t make it...you can leave normally. If I don’t see you, he will definitely go back with me. "

"it is good."

Duan Jiuze didn't feel any resistance to Yang Bowen's arrival, but he just thought it was Yang Bowen's dependence on him.

When he arrived at the airport, Duan Jiuze went in through the No. 15 entrance, checked the time, found a relatively quiet place to sit in the noisy lobby, and sent Wang Qin the location information, planning to wait for 15 minutes.If Yang Bowen and Wang Qin haven't arrived after [-] minutes, Duan Jiuze will board the plane directly.

"Da da da--"

"My big boss! Are you here or not? It's about 10 minutes before we take off. Have you passed the security check yet?"

Duan Jiuze replied coldly: "I will catch up."

As soon as he finished speaking and hung up the phone, Duan Jiuze saw Wang Qin and Yang Bowen at the entrance.

When Wang Qin was still looking at the positioning information Duan Jiuze sent her on the phone, Yang Bowen was already walking straight in the direction of Duan Jiuze.

Duan Jiuze even noticed that Yang Bowen didn't hold the book in his hand.

Wang Qin was afraid that Yang Bowen would get lost, so after confirming his location, he rushed to catch up with Yang Bowen to hold the child's hand, and the two walked towards Duan Jiuze together.

Duan Jiuze stood up slowly, looked directly into Yang Bowen's slightly anxious eyes, and couldn't help but take a step forward.

However, at the moment when Duan Jiuze stepped on the ground, all the hustle and bustle around disappeared instantly and Yang Bowen was still walking towards him, and Wang Qin continued to hold Yang Bowen, but she walked behind Yang Bowen, not as fast as Yang Bowen Big, it looks like Yang Bowen is leading her away.

Seeing that Wang Qin and Yang Bowen didn't seem to be affected, Duan Jiuze continued to take the second step without changing his expression.

——This time, when Duan Jiuze stepped on the ground for the second time, the outline of the entire airport disappeared, and the white mist began to fill the entire space.

Duan Jiuze stopped.

Yang Bowen continued to walk towards him.

Wang Qin behind Yang Bowen has disappeared.

Duan Jiuze saw that Yang Bowen's eyes were slightly red, and he stretched out a hand towards him, as if he wanted to grab him.

For some reason, Duan Jiuze suddenly remembered that dream.

In the dream, the young man also had reddish eyes like this, standing there in a state of panic, until he saw himself, then stretched out his hand and tightly grasped his coat.And buried it in his heart, gasping for breath, like a swimmer who is drowning and lacks oxygen.

Duan Jiuze waited for Yang Bowen to walk towards him, but he found that even if he stopped taking steps, the white mist kept filling the space, and even gradually blurred Yang Bowen's figure.

ten meters...

eight meters...

five meters...

Three meters...

Duan Jiuze stretched out his hand, trying to make contact with Yang Bowen's.

However, the hands of the two did not touch in the end, because Yang Bowen finally completely disappeared in the thick fog—like those passing passengers, like the entire airport.

The strange sense of quiet that even the air was stagnant once again surrounded Duan Jiuze, except for the beating of the heart in his chest, he could no longer hear any other sounds.

Duan Jiuze looked at his outstretched arm, as if he was still waiting for the person he was about to touch.

Duan Jiuze had no choice but to give up waiting until his arms were sore and weak.

He didn't understand why.

Why did he pay so much attention to Yang Bowen's existence, but still fell into the white mist?

Why did he stay with Yang Bowen all the time in this life, even just now, the distance between him and Yang Bowen was no more than three meters, but he still couldn't stop Bai Wu from taking him away from the real world.

why?

Can't Yang Bowen be around to prevent all this from happening?Did my previous self guess wrong?

No!There must be no wrong guess, but there must be something missing, some details are neglected.

Duan Jiuze stood in place, closed his eyes, and thought about his strange experience again from beginning to end.

It is definitely useless to analyze which world alone, but juxtaposed together, all possible key points, in addition to Yang Bowen, there are always Wang Qin, Wen Qian, others... what else, what else is Ignored, and...

airport!

Duan Jiuze opened his eyes suddenly, and finally found the point that he had been neglecting - the airport.

——Before entering the first world, I was on the car going to the airport.After the first world, although I entered a vegetative state, in the end, the man who had been carrying me took me on the plane, and I entered the second world because of this.

——In the second world, because Yang Bowen rumored that he and his biological father were going to other cities, he and Wang Qin bought the nearest flight and hoped to catch up, but that time, Bai Wu brought himself to the third world—— That is the world.

——And now, because I arrived at the airport, I was once again brought to this pure white space by the white mist, pure white, and strange space.

Therefore, from the beginning to the end, whether Yang Bowen is present or not, he will come to this space because of the airport, and Yang Bowen has no ability to keep himself in the real world.

So what happened when I first met Bai Wu and finally returned to reality?

And, if I really got on the plane, what would happen?Why didn't you get on a plane once?At least, in my waking state.

Duan Jiuze suddenly became interested in what would happen after getting on the plane.He even began to wait patiently for the next world to appear.

If in the next world, Duan Jiuze went to the airport from the very beginning, and got on the plane from the very beginning, what would happen?

Is it the end of the world?is the end of the loop?Or... a long dream, wake up?

The answer seems to be near, very near.

Duan Jiuze suppressed his yearning for the answer that was about to be revealed, Shen Xin waited for the next world to appear.

"Tick-tack-tick-tack--"

The voice appeared.

Duan Jiuze looked at the desk in front of him and the neatly arranged books of various colors on it, and finally a not-so-obvious arc appeared at the corner of his mouth.