Chapter 60: Fenghuang.

Qin Qianyu camped out at the dead end alley till night fell.

When it did. She still didn't move. There was a mystery here and she was determined.

She didn't move from her spot. She sat on her roller case staring at the building blocking the way, lost in thought as she eyed the book,

"If the woman that wrote this was the sellers friend then that would make her, me and that seller my friend! . . But if she's my friend and I wrote this, why is there such a difference in our handwriting? . . Then just who the heck is she!? Who was that seller really!? And where did she come from . . Mhm where? . . where? . . Haaa!"

"Could it be that my research was stolen and the woman who claimed to have written this . . no, no, no, that's not right! . . . In order for it to be stolen, it wouldn't be for another few years, that's when I started the research into RTP, but these other research projects and proposals, they won't happen for at least another 10 to 13 years or . . more . . in the future! . . No way! . . Time travel?"

"But if it's time travel, wouldn't there be two of me in this timeline!? . . Soul travelling?"

"Well that's an hypothesis for me being here but what about the seller!? If she soul travelled that would answer why she disappeared, but then it could possibly happen if she also time travelled too I suppose!"

"Either of those theories hold possibilities of being true, and could also explain my situation as well."

"Or . . I could be going crazy for nothing!"

"It's an explanation, but, not the only plausible explanation!"

This went on well into the night. Qin Qianyu was brought out of her thoughts by a tingling butt.

Her phone had been in her back pocket all this time and she only realised it now. Since her mind and overthinking had lead her to a likely proposal of what she was facing this break in thought had made her concentrate less on the conundrum presented before her.

Suddenly her face dropped as she saw all the unread messages, missed calls and left phone messages, as it buzzed away in her hand.

Qin Qianyu had forgotten the deal she made with her parents. But it wasn't just her parents that had left plenty of messages, her friends did too, Wen Wú Ling, Lu Mingxi Lu Mingyi, Grandpa Wú.

Su Yin and Ma Chen and so did Lin Xie, it seemed everyone close to her had been worried sick about her.

Qin Qianyu quickly answered the call.

"Sister Yin, what's up!?"

"What's up!? Are you alright? Where are you!?"

Qin Qianyu made up a lie saying she was in the library and just forgot about the time.

She asked her to call her brother and Lin Xie to tell them that she's fine.

After that call ended she called her anxious and worried family and told them the same thing.

She was given an earbashing from Grandpa Wú and she could even hear Bai Saan whining in the background.

After ending her calls to everyone, she called a taxi and headed back to her hotel.

Once back, Qin Qianyu spent some time in the shower. She had only wanted to wash the days accumulated dirt off her, but, all her thoughts lingered on the events of her day causing her to forget where she was.

She dried her waterlogged body and changed into comfortable sleep wear and sat down at the desk that was in her room.

She couldn't sleep one bit as her mind was already over stimulated.

Although she felt no malice or ill will from the tramp, it didn't mean the Qin Qianyu's family or even herself was safe.

"If a friend could do that, could an enemy also do that?"

All the objects she had brought sat on the desk. She appraised and evaluated them all again hoping to fine something that she may have missed.

A clue, no matter how small is still a clue.

There were no identifiable markings on the potted herbs the pouches of seed or the root and book.

The book looked old fashioned she started from the first page and went through the entire page word by word.

The more she read the more convincing her thoughts became. Especially when she'd read the notes on the page.

It was her herself. The language and tone used were definitely of her. She just knew it.

Qin Qianyu pulled out a piece of paper and drew parallel lines.

On the top line she marked it out incrementally and stopped at 28 marks.

That top line was representative of her former life and death.

On the second line she did the same thing. She stopped at the 28th mark then using her future knowledge along with the book she roughly set out the series of events she could recall from her former life.

She marked out 3 years from her current day, then 5 and 7.

Those three seperate years three major events happen.

First she discovers the RTP strain, this set her off on her journey into creating various types of medicine and vaccines.

The second one, that was the Nuromist virus.

It was a virus that led to respiratory infection with those that were infected. Most of the victims came from those living on the outer fringes and boarders of the country.

This was a big one for Qin Qianyu as she had developed the cure for Nuromist using the RTP strain.

Although she created it, Song pharmaceuticals took all credit and thus propelled them high.

She didn't care. She just wanted to be next to Song Zhaoge but he wanted more, and he could only rely on Qin Qianyu so he dangled the carrot, and she followed.

The third one was nicknamed Tyrannical drip.

A virus that will cause the skin tissue to brake itself down into a liquid state followed by the muscles then organs.

It was believed to be a bio weapon released by a certain terror organisation.

With these events marked out and mapped, Qin Qianyu then checked it against the book.

What surprised her was it had additional notes on Nuromist, and it also had core notes and the molecular makeup of Tyrannical drip.

This gave her two possibilities and an idea.

"One, I wrote these from a timeline different from my former life. This could come from the future me, of this timeline."

"Two, this book came from another, alternate timeline from the former or this life. A possible 3rd timeline where something happened to me leading that woman to travel to me here and pass on this very book."

Then the idea. Her idea was that it was that woman that had brought her back to her 15 year old self.

Qin Qianyu packed everything away and headed to bed. It wouldn't be solved after having a few shower thoughts and drawing lines on a paper.

"A fresh mind and fresh eyes. Something new might come up."

She'll have another go at it in the morning.

Qin Qianyu got up fully charged and after washing up and doing her breathing exercises.

Qin Qianyu headed to a cafe for breakfast before heading back to her room to turn her brain into mush once more.

After staying in her room for the entire day, all of her hypothesis led to one major conclusion.

"I lack the necessary information to form a concise summary of factuality. All I have are wild conjectures that I want to make, make sense."

In the end, Qin Qianyu decided to stow all of it away and place everything in a mind box next to her lack of understanding on how she was able to return to her 15 year old self.

"They make great neighbours."

She thought to herself.

Later that very night, Qin Qianyu went to her home and entered her lab. Although it was currently bare, she already had three safes installed.

She decided to digitally copy the book and keep the original in the bio safe. It would be disastrous if the contents were ever leaked.

The digital copy went into the ghost drive of her phone and laptop.

It could only be accessed by her. Of the file was forced open it would purge itself along with the device it was on.

That was how serious she treated it.

The next day Qin Qianyu made a few calls. The furnishings hadn't arrived yet but all the work to her home and two gardens were finish. She had noticed this when she was there the night before.

The last thing the workers needed to do was to erect the sign board that Qin Qianyu wanted made for the main garden which was what they had just done when she called Mr Chi.

She ended the call and made another to Su Yin.

She left a few tasks for her to complete on her behalf. One was to keep an eye on Li Yuan. If any more issues arise, she wanted to cut all ties to the man and his factory and terminate the cooperation contract with him.

The rest were all minor things.

Next she called home to let them all know she was returning the next day giving her a couple of days to spend with them before heading to Fenghuang to attend the SIC competition.

During those two days, Qin Qianyu didn't go anywhere. On the day she returned she played with Bai Saan, trained with Grandpa Wú, then made dinner for the family.

The next day, she tried a recipe from the book she got from the tramp. It would help the white blood cells inside Grandpa Wú and strengthen

his current resistance to his ailing body.

Then the day she'd be flying to Fenghuang came.

Everyone wished her luck as she headed to the boarding lounge to wait.

She got a message from Wen Wú Ling saying that she was sorry for missing her leave. She had to head home with her mother but she said she would meet up on the final day of SIC as both her mother and father would be there as well so she would tag along with them.

After nearly 8 hours of flying the plane landed at Fenghuang airport.

This city was on par with the capital in terms of size, population, wealth and more. In many places it surpassed the capital by a milestone.

One such place was the Battle Arena here in the city. Grandpa Wú and whined many a time that she should have come to this place rather than the capital.

She also had thoughts of doing so at a much later stage. The city was close to a large forest which would be heaven for Bai Saan and nice for her to escape the daily grind of city life.

It was a Wednesday night here in the city. She had taken a scenic taxi to view the cityscape at night.

"This is the end of my tour route Miss. there are other exciting tours of this place that you can take with your family."

"It's fine, since that's the end, can you take me to Fenghuang Royal."

The driver frowned, then looked to Qin Qianyu with a serious expression.

"Miss are you sure you want to go there?"

Qin Qianyu saw his expressions and heard this, and was a little confused. She chose that hotel because it was close to the venue being used for SIC.

"Miss if you need to you can use my phone to call home just say the word. If you're in trouble I can take you to the police?"

Qin Qianyu understood now.

The driver mistook her for a runaway teen. He was genuinely worried for her which was why she didn't sense any off putting expressions, malicious intent or any other emote except concern.

Qin Qianyu reassured the man that she wasn't a runaway or whether she was in any type of danger or trouble.

She was just enjoying a leisurely tour around the city before the competition.

The driver trusted in Qin Qianyu's words and the pair started talking while he drove towards the hotel.

The chat soon turned to the reason for his earlier enquiry.

He and his wife had lost their child. He had been taken from right under their noses while the three of them were shopping.

Knowing the heartache of losing a child the couple sort ways to lessen their own grief but mainly the guilt that swamped them.

He did this by keeping an eye out for runaway teens, abandoned children, street kids that he comes across during his travels and his wife joined the police force.

"It's the whole reason my wife joined the force. So she could at least help ease the pain and burden even if it's a little, sometimes just being there is all a grieving parent needs to not lose hope. And hopefully I can convince the kids I come across that maybe their home is a better option. If the situation for them is too dyer to return home, then I can at least point them in a direction that could be more beneficial and safer to them."

The taxi pulled into the hotels drop off area and the driver released the door locks for Qin Qianyu.

"Miss all the best for the competition, even if you don't do well, it's not the end of the world. I'm sure your parents will understand and still love you regardless."

"Thank you Uncle. And you're right, they sure will, regardless. When they come I'll give you another call and we can see the city once again."

"Hehe! Sure thing little missy. Here take my card. Give me a call whenever you need my services. Oh and take this one too."

The driver handed Qin Qianyu two sets of cards one was his own, the other was a police issued card.

"This one is my wife's business card. If you run into or have any problems while you're here in the city just give either of us a call."

The driver left and Qin Qianyu checked in. Once she was in her room she made her calls to everyone and "checked in" with them also.

Although she was a little sad that they couldn't be here with her, she understood that they still had commitments to their jobs that has helped feed all of them to date.

Qin Qianyu washed up and changed in her pyjamas before hitting the books one last time to do some light revisions.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day even though it was just the formal opening and special event ceremony on the eve of the competition.

She wanted to explore and experience it all in full.