The Butterfly Effect

When the rope was suddenly tightened, Song Yu thought he would be in pain, but in fact he was only slightly uncomfortable. At first, his mind buzzed, then he felt a flash of light in front of his eyes, and then his hands and feet began to go numb. Apart from these slight discomforts, there was more of a soothing pleasure.

Song Yu was even able to distract himself from the dazzling light of the crystal chandelier. The crystal ball on the lamp refracted the light through the magnificent colors, as if singing a silent elegy for him with a brilliant light. After about a minute or two, the things in front of Song Yu began to appear in double images. He tried his best to raise the corners of his mouth to welcome death, but obviously he overestimated the interaction of forces and finally gave up.

A cool wind blew from somewhere, maybe it was his hallucination, or maybe the chandelier was really moving, Song Yu felt like a doll on a sunny day starting to shake, his legs hanging down to his death.

The amplitude of the shaking became bigger and bigger, until with a ‘pop’, the base of the crystal chandelier broke away from the ceiling and crashed to the ground.

Song Yu woke up suddenly, staring absently at the pale ceiling for a while before gradually regaining his breath and consciousness.

"Knock, knock, knock,” the crisp knock on the door made Song Yu's dilated pupils focus instantly. He sat up straight and said softly, "Please come in."

Meng Shiping pushed in the door and handed in two resumes: "Recently, there are quite a lot of people interviewing for job assistants. I'm relatively satisfied with these two people. so take a look at the resumes and decide which one you want. Although I am more satisfied with this Zhou Yanqing, he has not graduated yet, just looking for an internship. He may leave after the internship period. So I don't recommend hiring him."

Song Yu took the resume and glanced at the names on the resume. One was Zhou Yanqing and the other was Gao Lei.

"How is it?" Meng Shiping asked.

Song Yu raised his eyes: "Have both."

"Both of them?" Meng Shiping's usual calm face showed a hint of surprise.

Song Yu nodded: "Didn't you say you wanted the studio to sign two artists to develop in the direction of an agency? Recruit a few more people as staff reserve."

The trace of surprise on Meng Shiping's face gradually turned into disbelief: "You did not agree before?"

"After thinking about it for a while, I think what you said makes sense. There will always be a day when I can't act."

A little joy crept up on Meng Shiping’s face. He didn't ask further: "One for you as an assistant, one for the staff reserve, which do you want?"

Song Yu hesitated for a while, then swept a glance at the fresh and cheerful-looking two-inch photo on his resume and pointed: "This one is called Zhou Yanqing, right?"

Meng Shiping nodded: "This Zhou Yanqing seems to be more professional, and can also do some copywriting, event drafting, and various promotional planning work. However, it is a bit wrong to let him be a work assistant. His grades are very good, and I have seen his student work, which is very unique."

"In fact, the reason I asked Monica to inform him to come for an interview is that I saw his work and thought he had value worth cultivating. In the future, our studio will not only sign artists, but also try film production, distribution and copyright development, and develop towards a content management company. Of course, these are just some of my ideas, we will talk about them later."

Because of Song Yu's sudden change of mind, Meng Shiping became very excited, and even raised his voice unconsciously. He and Song Yu talked about some of the company's future development plans, and Song Yu listened quietly with a smile on his lips, occasionally echoing his words. In the end, Song Yu showed a hint of fatigue, and Meng Shiping put away the two resumes and left happily.

Staring at Meng Shiping's back, the corner of Song Yu's raised mouth slowly dropped, his pupils suddenly contracted, and his dark eyes were as gloomy as a thousand-year old well.

Four years ago, or two years ago, there was a time when he was in extremely poor condition, his thinking was so slow that it was affecting his work. Meng Shiping forced him to go to a psychiatric clinic, and since then he has been diagnosed with depression and labeled as a ‘patient’.

However, the truth was that from a long, long time ago he could not experience the joy of living. He was a puppet on a string, his limbs at the mercy of a reluctant force of will, and his soul was nowhere to be found. The diagnosis was just a footnote to his worthless life.

However, man was a contradictory individual, very timid and exceptionally resilient. He was tired of struggling with desperate dilemmas and wanted to compromise, but was not willing to be easily choked and wanted to fight.

He began to bite and roar like a trapped beast detained in an iron cage, trying to escape the cage. As he was getting bloodied by his own claws and teeth, Han Jin appeared outside his cage. Han Jin's appearance made him feel wanted, and gradually he felt a touch of earthliness. It seemed good to be alive. He thought Han Jin would give him the key to open his cage, but what he received was a rope to end his life.

Born in the heart, the demon who ate away will, happiness, and tenacity gradually became stronger, and finally he crawled under the demon's feet.

One late night two months ago, he decided to stick his head into the climbing rope, expecting to reconcile with himself in this way, to end all the spider-like dense entanglement of the root cause of his pain. Fate played a big joke on him; when he opened his eyes suddenly, he found himself waking up in a time and space two years ago.

It had been two months, and Song Yu would have all kinds of bizarre dreams as long as he closed his eyes a little. Sometimes he fell from a cliff, sometimes he fell from the Twin Towers into the wind, and more often than not, he had a repeat of today's dream——falling with a crystal lamp. Although he had accepted the fact that he was reborn after his death in these two months, he would still suspect that those two years were his dreams after he woke up.

He tortured himself over and over again, do you regret it?

‘Regret’ was an emotion that arose when a person made a decision to do something and then compared the current situation with a certain standard in a very rational way. He put his head into the climbing rope then kicked off the stool at his feet. It was only a short time from suffocation to unconsciousness, and he simply had no time to regret his choice at that time.

Now he could vividly recall the pain and suffocation when his throat was tightened by the rope and death flowed through his life, but he did not feel regret either. If there was no death, the present rebirth would not have been ushered in.

In the past two months since he was reborn, all the events of his past life have been spinning like a spinning lantern in Song Yu's mind. He was constantly reviewing his life in his previous life, and he saw some clues about many things that were too late to scrutinize in the previous life.

Why did Meng Shiping frequently disagree with him about his work in the six months before his suicide? Why did his insomnia get worse and worse, and he even had severe hallucinations and manic symptoms on the night of his suicide, even though he had strictly followed the medical advice and taken his medication on time?

At the same time, Song Yu kept re-examining himself. Was he really a person who can be easily knocked down by lies and betrayals?

In the previous life, he ended his life hastily, and had not yet had time to peer into the stinking truth underneath those sugar-coated wrappings. Now that fate had given him a chance to come back, he would no longer escape it by self-destruction.

He had found the meaning that kept him alive.

When did Han Jin and Meng Shiping start to put on the mask of hypocrisy and secretly communicate with each other? Or did they lead him step by step into a swamp of lies from the very beginning?

At least open up the lie and expose it to the scorching sun, so that those who had betrayed him could get the punishment they deserved.

It was neither hatred nor resentment, he just wanted to play a game of cat and mouse.

Song Yu lowered his head and picked up Gao Lei's resume. His mind drifted to his previous life.

During this period in his previous life, his former assistant was dismissed for receiving expensive gifts from fans for his own use. Later, Meng Shiping recruited an assistant, Gao Lei, who had been his assistant ever since.

After his rebirth, Song Yu had been re-examining the people who appeared around him in his previous life, especially those arranged by Meng Shiping. Song Yu was not quite sure if Gao Lei was the person Meng Shiping deliberately arranged to be by his side at the beginning, but from the two resumes Meng Shiping took just now, it seems that Gao Lei did enter the company through an interview. Otherwise Meng Shiping did not need to take two resumes for him to pick.

Gao Lei's work ability was acceptable. He usually didn’t talk much, but he was very shrewd and listened to Meng Shiping's words very much. Perhaps he also covered for Meng Shiping and the cheating Han Jin behind his back. Song Yu was not quite sure whether the main storyline of his life would change dramatically if he ‘deletes’ an important character, so Gao Lei must stay, but he would not stay by his side again.

...

After the interview, Zhou Yanqing stayed in the dormitory for three days.

While waiting for notification from Song Yu's studio, he painstakingly organized the information related to Song Yu.

There were too many things that happened before his rebirth. Zhou Yanqing could no longer search the Internet to find out what happened two years later. He could only use his own memory to write it down in his notebook as soon as possible, so as not to forget it after a long time. As a precaution, he replaced all names with their initials.

After recording everything, Zhou Yanqing's pen tip stopped on the name ‘GL’, that was ‘Gao Lei’ and kept drawing circles.

"Yanqing, you got up so early. You don't have to play all day and night after buying a new computer."

Jiang Cheng poked his head out of the quilt. He looked at the time. It was only half past six in the morning, and Zhou Yanqing had already finished washing up and looked like he had been sitting at the computer for a long time.

Zhou Yanqing put down his pen and replaced his heavy expression with a smiling face, telling Jiang Cheng to get up as well.

Jiang Cheng successfully interviewed for the ‘Haipai Film and Television Production Company’ and had started working yesterday.

Their school was on the east side of S City, so they had to take the subway and then transfer to the bus to go to the city. The commute time was very long. Zhou Yanqing had not yet received notice of the interview results, so Jiang Cheng did not rush to find a house to move out. He was worried that Zhou Yanqing would faint in the bathroom again because he stayed up all night and no one would find out. Although Zhou Yanqing repeatedly stressed that he would not stay up late and asked Jiang Cheng to find a house around the company while he was still not busy, Jiang Cheng was unmoved.

Zhou Yanqing felt both guilty and moved. He had been working for a few days to organize the various information related to Song Yu's past and present life. In order not to let Jiang Cheng worry, he lied that he had been submitting his resume online. This morning he got up early and finally finished sorting out some important information and carefully closed his notebook. He decided to wait and start submitting his resume on the recruitment website.

Although Meng Shiping seemed very satisfied with himself during the interview, three days have passed and he has not been notified yet. Zhou Yanqing had given up hope. He was very fortunate that he majored in drama, film and television literature. This major was very close to the entertainment industry. As long as his goal was firm, then there were many ways for him to get close to Song Yu.

It was still early, so Zhou Yanqing and Jiang Cheng went to the school cafeteria for breakfast, and sent Jiang Cheng to the subway station before wandering back to school.

It had been several days since he was reborn, and Zhou Yanqing had been staying in the dormitory except for going out for an interview. He didn't go back to the dormitory immediately, but sat down in a remote wood to the west of the school, squinting and feeling the damp air in the early morning. Zhou Yanqing breathed a deep sigh of relief. It wasn't until now that he really had time to appreciate the aftermath of the calamity[1] that made people's eyes red.
[1]: 劫后余生: The life that survived a disaster; after the calamity, renewed life (idiom); new lease of life

The wind in the early morning was a bit cool. Occasionally, the branches and leaves of the sycamore would make some rustling sounds.

This tranquility was interrupted by the vibration of the mobile phone in his pocket. Zhou Yanqing was a little nervous when he took out his mobile phone, as if it was the day when he was waiting for the results of the college entrance examination. He swallowed, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible.

"Hello, hello."

"Xiao Zhou, it's me, Monica."

Zhou Yanqing couldn't help but smile. From the time he saw the familiar landline number he knew it was Monica, but he didn't expect Monica to be so familiar with him that her address to him had changed to Xiao Zhou. He did not resent this kind of affection and gave a brisk ‘en’.

Monica let out a small laugh: "I just got to work. I should have notified you in the afternoon, but I was afraid you would be poached by another company, so I notified you early in the morning. Congratulations, you've been accepted, come to the office tomorrow before 10:00 to report."

Zhou Yanqing snorted excitedly in his heart. What he thought had no effect suddenly turned around. He was so happy that he even wanted to jump up. After politely thanking her, he immediately told Jiang Cheng the good news. He no longer wanted to appreciate the scenery of his alma mater and immediately returned to the dormitory to do some preparations before going to work