A segment... two segments... three or four segments... all vanished upon entering his heart...
Roy opened his heart and accepted these gifts. In return, he was forced to experience a hundred lives...
Sometimes he became Aaron, carrying his schoolbag and holding his grandparents' hands as he skipped off to school... Sometimes he became Mike, hailed as the handsomest boy in school for his striking looks, forever surrounded by admirers, sharing his affection with everyone... Sometimes he became Joshua, returning from overseas studies only to be forced to inherit a trillion-yuan family business, where he lorded it over everyone and basked in his success...
But more often... he was a sanitation worker clearing the streets at four in the morning in the bitter cold... a factory worker toiling on an assembly line from eight to eight, day and night, endlessly tightening screws... a balding man past forty, with elderly parents and young children to support, burdened by mortgages and car payments until life left him gasping for air... a lonely old man with no one to rely on, pushing a tricycle and hawking his wares along the street... an elderly person with white hair who, around the New Year, cooked a tableful of food and waited eagerly for their children to come home...
Happiness and pain intertwined, lightness and heaviness went hand in hand... When the boy opened his eyes again, the "memories" vanished as swiftly as clouds drifting past. As he let out a long breath, they dissolved into the world.
"Whirrr—" The helicopter blades shredded the air, making people's faces feel tight.
Zeno stood beside Roy with his hands behind his back, watching the airship part the sea of clouds, sending waves of vapor rolling aside. At one point, he turned his head... The boy was surrounded by a