Iron Ox Reappears

Chapter 8

When I arrived, perhaps out of apology to the drivers who drive at night in the other world, I didn't collect my change.

Tie Niu still wore that forlorn and lonely expression. Thinking about it now, I find it funny. I don't know when I completely humanized Tie Niu. If we are all frogs in a well, confined to a single understanding, while Tie Niu is a lone traveler who transcends all worlds of understanding, I really don't know who deserves more sympathy.

As dusk fell, Dujiangyan was sparsely populated, and it looked like it was about to rain again. Most of the construction workers had already gone home, and the rest were packing up their tools, ready to leave soon.

I suddenly felt a sense of closeness to the scenery here, and I couldn't help but laugh when I remembered that I had thought about sabotaging the diversion project not long ago.

I strolled to the high ground where the iron ox was placed and sat quietly beneath its belly.

The things I've experienced these past few days, and my casual chat with X online just now, have made me feel like I've suddenly returned to my childhood. Back then, the world seemed full of mystery and wonder. I was curious about everything and had a great capacity to embrace novelty. To me at that time, the world had countless possibilities, and nothing was impossible.

Before I knew it, the sun had set, and a light rain began to fall. I was the only one left in the vast Dujiangyan city.

Perhaps it was the memory of my childhood that stirred my playful spirit, but I stood up and looked up at the bull's head above me. "3.63 meters long, 1.12 meters at its widest point, 2.34 meters high, and 2.47 meters including the angles," Lin Cui's words still echoed in my ears. 2.47 meters, is that right? That should do.

I leaped up with all my might, just like in the high jump training at school, and grabbed a cow's horn with one hand.

After swinging around like a horizontal bar a few times, I was still not satisfied and let go of both hands, only holding on with my left hand, while my right hand desperately reached for the bull's horn on the other side.

Finally, I grabbed each of the two horns and hung from the head of this giant iron bull.

The ox's horns were wet and slippery from the rain. I wanted to stay in that pose for as long as possible, wondering if anyone had ever taken a photo with the Iron Ox in this pose before.

Just then, I felt that strange, warm sensation in my palm again. I was wondering if it was just my imagination when a further slight shaking confirmed it.

It turns out that grabbing both horns at the same time is indeed important, but floods are not indispensable... Water, it turns out, is all you need.

I seized the last moment before losing consciousness and burst into laughter.

end

I saw X again on the Tieniu Forum a week after returning to Shanghai. I had added X's QQ number in another world, so the only way to find him here was through the forum. Fortunately, "Tieniu Literature Station" wasn't unique to that world.

From the first day after I returned, I logged onto this website almost every opportunity, hoping to wait for him.

During this period, I called Lin Cui, a researcher who was doing well at work, but she coldly and tactfully declined my request to keep in touch—I was relieved and happy about this, as it at least proved that she was indeed the Lin Cui of this world that I had gotten drunk on; I turned down all the reports that I could to the editor-in-chief, including news such as "The iron ox that was just salvaged mysteriously disappeared, and what stands on the side of Dujiangyan is just a fake," which was later censored.

Everything was peaceful and smooth, and I even felt a little regretful that I hadn't seen what "that lady" looked like. I waited for X, perhaps because I felt he was a friend worth having, or perhaps because he was someone I had met from another world.

Sure enough, he didn't recognize me.

However, his straightforward personality remained unchanged. After a few casual words, we hit it off. I showed him the "slides" I had kept, and he marveled at them, saying he could never write something so good. Finally, he invited me, saying, "Let's meet tomorrow at 1:30, in the afternoon, by field number 4 on the F University campus playground."

Well, it's 1:30 PM. It's been 39 degrees Celsius every day for the past two days.

Sitting on the edge of the scorching playground, I felt like my brain was about to explode from the heat. There were hardly any people around. I saw someone who looked a bit like Jerry Yan…

A scene flashed through my mind like lightning: In Lin Cui's home in World A, at the door of her bedroom, did I actually see that F4 poster? If not, did her father make that hole in her door?

If not... could it be that Lin Cui A didn't return to World A, but went to World C instead?

If that's the case, then where am I now? Could it be that I'm not in the world B I'm used to, but in world D? There must be some difference between the two; am I just too careless to notice? No, that can't be…

"Would you like to pick one?"

"Huh?" I looked up and found that the person who interrupted my thoughts was a fat man who was over 1.9 meters tall, as dark as an Indian, with an extremely rugged face, looking just like a gorilla.

"You're Na Duo, right? I'm X. Do you know how to play basketball? Want to come over and have a go?"

I suddenly laughed in the sunlight.

I only have one life, and I don't want it to be anything unclear or ambiguous.

Damn it, whatever!

I stood up, took off my shirt, and followed X toward the nearest basketball hoop.