Those who travel back in time

Chapter 5 The Little Girl

Drop drop-

Like the indicator lights charging, one by one they turned green. When all the red lights were swallowed by the green, a bright light suddenly appeared, filling the entire cabin and making it impossible for Chen Qing to open his eyes.

Along with the intense light came an invisible, immense force, which descended upon him with overwhelming ferocity.

He felt like a piece of cloth soaked in water, being grabbed at both ends by two opposing forces and being desperately torn apart.

It wasn't a tearing of muscles, but something deeper, something more essential, as if his soul was trying to break free from the constraints of this body.

"Ah!" With a cry of pain, Chen Qing struggled to open his eyes. In the bright light, he could vaguely see that most of his body had been disintegrated, and the remaining body was still rapidly turning into a stream of particles.

A strange sensation replaced the pain. Chen Qing felt as if he no longer had a body. Countless blurry fragments of light and shadow flew past his "consciousness" like shooting stars. Broken conversations, intermittent musical snippets, and images of unknown origin flashed by...

I don't know how much time passed; it could be a moment, or it could be eternity.

"Bang!"

The dull thud of a heavy object hitting the ground.

A real tactile sensation came from beneath him as Chen Qing's feet touched solid ground.

A strong wave of dizziness washed over Chen Qing, causing him to lose his balance and crouch down, clutching his head.

When the dizziness subsided, he looked around and found himself standing on a barren gravel beach, with a vast, gray sea stretching out before him, and the outline of a city faintly visible on the distant horizon—that was Jiangxin City.

"Didn't you say you'd drop me off at Jiangxin Airport? Where is this?" Chen Qing turned around and looked around. Behind him was a dense, primeval secondary forest that blocked out the sun, resembling a fairyland in the morning mist; to his left, the coastline stretched for hundreds of meters before being completely blocked by a steep cliff that plunged straight into the sea, the rock face so smooth that even seabirds could hardly land.

The only direction he could choose was right.

Chen Qing glanced at the stopwatch on his wrist; the hands indicated that it was 1:15 a.m.

This time is naturally inaccurate, but it can be used to keep track of time.

At first, the terrain was relatively flat. But after walking for about an hour, the coastline began to become rugged and difficult to traverse, with huge, slippery, moss-covered reefs replacing the sandy beach. He had to use both his hands and feet to climb among the reefs.

To make matters worse, a deep ravine eroded by the sea cuts off the way forward. It extends inland, its bottom unseen, and is impossible to cross.

Standing on the edge of the ravine and looking ahead, the coastline stretches endlessly into the distance, with no end in sight.

"I haven't seen a single boat along the way, so I have no choice but to swim across." Chen Qing looked back at the still distant city skyline, took a deep breath of the salty air, and resolutely stepped into the cold seawater.

In the first hour, Chen Qing maintained an astonishing pace, his arms moving forward with the power of a propeller, each stroke propelling his body a great distance.

But the sea soon gave him a taste of his own medicine.

First came the ocean currents. Hidden undercurrents pulled him like invisible arms, forcing him to expend extra effort to correct his course and swim a zigzag path.

Then came the wind and waves. The once calm sea began to churn with long waves, forcing him to frequently switch to the less strenuous backstroke, bobbing up and down with the waves to conserve his energy.

In the third hour, hunger and fatigue began to mount a fierce counterattack, and the muscles in my limbs began to protest with soreness, making each lift of my arm incredibly heavy.

In the fourth hour, Chen Qing was mechanically paddling with an indomitable will, his movements were already distorted, and his speed was as slow as a snail.

In the fifth hour, he finally saw a turning point. The city skyline on the opposite bank was no longer a blurry silhouette; the shapes of the buildings could now be vaguely discerned. This hope was like a shot in the arm, injecting into his body, which was on the verge of collapse.

In the fifth and a half hour, the other side was almost within reach. He encountered other people swimming in the shallow water. They looked at him as he swam from the deep sea with amazement in their eyes. Some even gave him a thumbs up and said he was awesome.

Exhausted, Chen Qing had no time to pay attention to anyone. Struggling with his last bit of strength, he climbed ashore and immediately lay down on the beach, panting heavily, like a dying fish.

After resting for a while and regaining some strength, Chen Qing looked back at the swimmers in the sea who seemed oblivious to their presence. She quietly picked up two sets of dry clothes from the ground and went to a nearby public restroom to change out of her wet clothes.

Luckily, I brought two outfits. One of them was too small to wear, so I used it as a towel to dry myself off. The other one was too big, so I could wear it.

Chen Qing rummaged through the clothes again, but there wasn't a single wallet in either of them.

He does have two phones, one of which is an Apple, but he doesn't know the password and can't unlock it.

好在不解锁也可以看时间，屏幕上清晰的显示着2022年7月8日13:14。

Chen Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Li Mengfei wouldn't board the plane until 18:05 PM, so there was still plenty of time.

A wave of hunger washed over him, and Chen Qing quickened his pace, heading towards the direction with more buildings.

Upon entering the complex, Chen Qing discovered it was a commercial street with numerous shops. However, to his dismay, he had walked almost to the end of the street, finding it filled with clothing stores, with not a single food stall in sight.

Chen Qing was so hungry that she couldn't stand it anymore. When she saw a trash can by the roadside, she strode over and started rummaging through it.

This behavior is unimaginable to normal people. No matter how hungry a person is, unless they are a beggar, they would never look for food in a garbage can.

But in the apocalypse, this is perfectly normal.

Just when things seemed hopeless, Chen Qing found half a piece of chocolate in the trash can. Although it was only the size of a thumb, it was still food.

Chen Qing wiped the dust off the chocolate with her hand and was about to put it in her mouth when a clear voice rang out from the side: "Uncle, you can't eat that!"

Chen Qing turned her head and saw a little girl of eight or nine years old standing next to her. She had her hair tied in pigtails and a pair of big, dark eyes looking at her.

"It's okay, you can still eat it." Chen Qing smiled at the little girl. "Our teachers have taught us since we were little that we shouldn't waste food."

"Uncle, don't you have money for food?" The little girl with pigtails hesitated for a moment, then rummaged through her schoolbag and pulled out a piece of jam bread, along with a bunch of snacks such as cheese sticks, seaweed, and beef jerky, stuffing them all into Chen Qing's hands.

"Thank you." Chen Qing didn't refuse. He was starving and devoured the bread and all the snacks in a flash.

"Uncle, this is all the pocket money I have." The little girl with pigtails pulled out another handful of bills from her bag. "Here, take it all."

"Keep these for yourself. Uncle isn't short of money, he just left in a hurry and forgot to bring them." Even if Chen Qing had a thick skin, he was too embarrassed to take money from a little girl.