"So, was the Xu Qiuyan outside fake?" I couldn't help asking.
The coffee arrived, and I picked it up and took a sip.
The doctor said, "She wasn't fake. It's just that some of her memories were erased—particularly the important ones."
"Why did you do that?" I asked, anger in my voice.
He looked helpless. "It wasn't me. Given her relationship with you, why would I ever do such a thing?"
I calmed down. He was right. Because of me, he couldn't possibly have done that.
At that moment, Yuan Jiang, looking utterly confused, said, "May I say something?"
I nodded. "Go ahead."
He said, "I keep feeling like the timeline is wrong. He said that the future you asked him to create this Void Realm, so shouldn't the Void Realm exist in the future? Then, relative to the Void Realm, you would be the you from the past. Zeng Dajiang would be even further in the past, and the doctor should also exist in the future. Why does this whole time relationship feel so messed up?"
I looked at the doctor. I truly didn't know how to answer that question, because I couldn't make sense of the timeline either.
The doctor's expression shifted slightly. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Do you really think time exists?"
Yuan Jiang was puzzled. "Of course time exists. The past, the present, the future—how could time not exist?"
The doctor looked at me again. I said nothing. I had thought about whether time existed before, but I had never found an answer.
The doctor cleared his throat. "All right, let me ask you this. Do you know Along the River During the Qingming Festival?"
I nodded, and Yuan Jiang nodded as well.
Anyone who had lived in our world in modern times