One Useless Rebirth

“Di Qiuhe!”

He Bai opened his eyes and sat up, and his mind was in a whirl. He suffered a blackout, his fingers fumbling around under the pillow for the mobile phone. No sooner did his sight recover a little than he dialed Di’s number.

He got through immediately, and Di Qiuhe’s joyful sound came, mixed with whistles of vehicles, “Why do you call me so early? Do you miss me? I thought you would sleep in.”

“Di Qiuhe.” He Bai pressed his forehead, every scene in the dream crossing his mind over again. His voice unconsciously lowered, “Where... where did you buy the fruit you sent me before?”

“Are you craving for fruit?” Di Qiuhe raised his eyebrows and switched the mobile phone from one hand to the other in good mood. He gestured for Wang Boyi to step back a little and continued, “I have no training today, and I’m in the open air. If you would like fruit I can go buy for you in a moment.”

“No, I wouldn’t.” He Bai swallowed hard and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, only to find his temperature was somewhat abnormal. He got sick probably because the air-conditioning of the resort worked all the time and he stayed up late to retouch the photographs when the temperature was sometimes hot and sometimes cold, He Bai suspected. He felt uncomfortable and covered his forehead with a hand, saying, “Do you remember what I told you once? I can tell people’s fortune and have predictive dreams occasionally. Last night I dreamed of you...”

Di Qiuhe couldn’t help but raise his mouth, smugly snorting, “Okay, I know you miss me very much. I’m free today, so if you want something, I’ll buy you, my little bro...”

“Does the green grocery where you bought fruit call Cloud’s Home?”

Di Qiuhe became silent.

“Its owner is pretty fat and wears a gold ring on his finger. There’s a tree in front of the shop.” He Bai tried to recall the dream and revealed everything what he could. He had no idea why he was so reckless to tell Diu Qiuhe this. After all, it sounded highly suspicious, and he was likely to be regarded as a spirit by Di Qiuhe if they were right. If not, he might be considered a madman. Both could do harm to He Bai, but intuition told him he had to be honest. Otherwise, Di Qiuhe would be in danger, just like his ‘jumping from a building’ before rebirth.

Di Qiuhe was only twenty-three years old, and he deserved to live longer than his last life. He Bai felt that the dream he had last night was a signal. There occurred a ‘butterfly effect’, and he played the role of the small butterfly in Di Qiuhe’s border trip. If he died young owing to this small change, He Bai would never forgive himself.

There was complete silence, and nothing could be heard except their sounds of breath.

“Bai,” Two minutes later, Di Qiuhe’s voice came when his tone was no longer gentle and smiling but became serious “What else have you seen in your dream?”

He Bai was relieved somehow. He reclined in the bed and quickly replied, “I also see you stood in front of the green grocery when a boney man in a colorful shirt dashed out of the corner and injected you with something.”

“It’s supposed to be virus.”

“What?”

“There have been several cases where XK23 infectors injected their blood into other people’s body to spread the virus on purpose. The crowd stole across the national border from our neighboring countries, whose whereabouts were hard to find. So the isolation treatment didn’t work at the very beginning, and it caused a great deal of panic in the area.” He Bai was shocked. He hurriedly sat up and suffered a second blackout. His voice raised unconsciously, “XK23? Is it the virus which has an 80 percent fatality rate? Since you’re so clear, why are you running around? Aren’t you afraid of death?”

“Don’t worry.” Di Qiuhe smiled again and soothed He Bai, “I’m not running around. Everybody is allowed to have a free time. There have been three months since the infection, and we’re very safe now. I remember the incident was widely reported and heatedly discussed, so I thought you knew it.”

His rebirth happened after that, so no wonder he could hardly remember it. After all, more than one decade passed since he heard the news for the first time.

The fact choked He Bai up. He said after a silence, “Anyway, You’d better go back soon. Safety comes first.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m going to the hospital to have a vaccine. Don’t worry about me.” said Di Qiuhe, in order to pacify him. Waving at Wang Boyi who stood guard outside the alley, Di Qiuhe gestured for him to hail a car. Then he leaned against the wall, looking at the green grocery opposite, and continued, “It has been a long time since the virus incident came to an end, but now a fugitive reappears and intends to do harm to people. It’s rather suspicious, and I suspect I’m his target, so staying away is of no use. My safety can’t be guaranteed until the bad guy gets captured.”

He Bai frowned, “Do you mean... you plan to lure him out?”

“Yeah, if I’m lucky enough to succeed... Little Puppy, what kind of reward do you want as my lifesaver? How about sharing my surname and being my little brother?”

He Bai suffered from dizzy spells, which he thought was all Di Qiuhe’s fault!

“No, thank you. If you really want to return my goodness, the only thing you need to do is to transfer all your savings to my account so that I could rise to wealth overnight. Besides, aren’t you suspicious of my words? Aren’t you afraid that I’m a liar or a bad guy your stepmother sent?”

Di Qiuhe burst into laughter and teased He Bai mercilessly, “You? A bad guy? Little Puppy, you must have some misunderstanding of yourself.” He Bai was so simple-minded that he could hardly hide his emotions and was vulnerable to bullies. How come he was a bad guy? People as crafty as Qin Li would never allow such an ‘innocent’ ‘spy’ to work for her. In addition, as an old saying goes, rather believe it to be true than not. Since there might be danger, he’d better pay more attention.

“Well, get up and have a breakfast, Psychic He.” Seeing Wang Boyi come back in a taxi, Di Qiuhe stood up and went over, with a cranky smile on his face, “I’m ready to sort the bad guy out. When it’s over, I’ll buy you fruit. Be a good boy.”

He Bai hung up simply and got up to wash his face. Then he went to see a doctor after asking for a sick leave from Yi Ka.

Niu Junjie hurried to the hospital and found He Bai was put on a drip. After touching He Bai’s forehead, he got anxious, and his voice raised, “No wonder you sounded as if devoid of vigor. You told me it’s because you slept in. It’s a total lie. If I don’t go to the dorm to look for you, you could be dead in the care of nobody.”

“Be quiet. I was wrong. Come and sit down.” He Bai dragged him down, smiling with apology to the patients around, and soothed him, “It’s just a minor illness. I’ll get well after this infusion. Please don’t, don’t shout, I know I was wrong. Come on, what’s going on?”

Seeing He Bai was not very weak, Niu Junjie finally rested assured. He frowned and said in a lower voice, “You become popular again, much more popular than before! From last night on, the entertainment circle kept posting photos on Weibo like crazy and left no room for other things. Netizens have gone insane. Tell me, what’s your relationship with Miss Jia like?”

“Well...” He Bai stopped, vaguely aware of something, and explained, “Nothing at all. She’s my client, and I’m her photographer. I just took a set of birthday photographs of her.”

“Then why does the little girl call you brother?” Niu Junjie felt strange and intended to scold him but finally gave up when seeing him feel wretched. He said, his brow furrowed, “You poor guy, the girl is doted on by the whole Jia family. You’ll suffer a lot if you get entangled with her!”

Niu Junjie worried about this, which made He Bai relieved. He replied, “Don’t worry. They are all nice people. Miss Jia simply likes pretty faces. She is a vivacious girl, and it’s just her joke to be my sister, of which her families are well aware. Yesterday her father also told me not to take it seriously when he saw me off, so I’ll be fine.”

“Really?” Niu Junjie was in a half-and-half state of belief and doubt.

He Bai nodded hard and told him what happened last night to calm him down.

Hearing his explanation, Niu Junjie’s worry was finally lifted. He cheered up immediately and said with joy, “You’ll become a star soon, Bai! My god, what an excellent set of photos you’ve taken! Those celebrities, especially female ones, all spoke highly of you! It’s a pity that your Weibo account is for private use. If not, you would have had considerable fans. Now netizens are actively finding you out in that they would like to see whether the talented photographer possesses superhuman powers!”

He Bai didn’t care about it. He asked, “What’s going on with Yi Ka?”