Chapter 27: Doomed 03

Hearing this, Yu Bai shot him an irritated glare. “When did I get excited? Don’t spout nonsense!”

Yet he had just used two imperative sentences in a row and still claimed he wasn’t excited!

“…” Yan Jing hesitated once more but, showing a rare flash of wisdom, went along with it. “Fine, you’re not excited.”

He was starting to think that Little Bai was acting really strange today.

The last time Yan Jing had seen him this worked up was…

Huh, it seemed like it had been just today.

That evening, Yan Jing had received a text from the delivery station about the fruit seeds he’d ordered online. He’d called Yu Bai, trying to casually ask if he could use the rooftop terrace at his place to plant them.

Over the past week, he’d been craving the taste of that giant yoga ball watermelon more and more. He was coming to realize he couldn’t waste that bizarre rooftop, which was perfect for turning into a natural farm.

After all, nothing bad had happened to him after eating the watermelon. The flower pots were just sitting there empty—why not plant something else?

But during their phone call, Yan Jing had heard Yu Bai get startled by something and let slip a curse word.

Little Bai wasn’t the type to have a foul mouth like him. He rarely swore.

Yan Jing had thought some disaster had struck and nearly bolted out the door again.

After all, his closest friend was someone with nerves of steel, who could face a haunted wall without batting an eye.

And yet, such a huge reaction had come from… seeing the Next-Door Neighbor copying him by growing flowers in the kitchen.

Just a normal-sized pot of sunflower that couldn’t talk or anything. Perfectly ordinary.

What was there to get worked up about?

If the neighbor thought the flowers looked nice and bought the same kind, wasn’t that totally normal?

Yan Jing couldn’t wrap his head around it.

And it didn’t stop there. Little Bai had even blown up a plastic glove into a giant middle finger, stuck it to the edge of his flower pot, and shown it to the neighbor as petty revenge.

It was so childish it left Yan Jing speechless.

Little Bai’s neighbor wasn’t even human—who knew if he understood what flipping the bird meant?

If anything, living so close, they should try to get along better. Flipping someone off just hurt feelings.

Wait.

Yan Jing suddenly realized: after Yu Bai had come over for dinner at his place, he’d suddenly claimed his pipes were leaking and asked to crash for a couple of days. He’d said he was busy and hadn’t noticed the spectacular anomaly in the night sky.

Little Bai was a total homebody who rarely went out. He’d just turned in a manuscript last week when they ate the watermelon, so he shouldn’t have had anything pressing to do.

A leaky pipe wasn’t that big a deal—you could just call a plumber. Deciding on the spot to come stay over felt more like he was dodging someone.

And then there was his massive reaction to the phrase “running off with the ball”…

Putting it all together, Yan Jing blurted out, “Does this little blue ball have something to do with your neighbor too?”

As the words left his mouth, he saw Yu Bai’s already agitated expression freeze solid in an instant.

…Whoa!

Yan Jing was stunned.

For the first time, he realized how smart he could be.

It felt weird, even to him.

Yu Bai, equally shocked, stared at Yan Jing in disbelief. “How did you know?”

In the few short hours since they’d parted, had Yan Jing gotten stuck in one of those time loops too, spending hundreds of days there and picking up detective skills?

Yan Jing grinned smugly. “Because I’m smart! So you really did run off with the ball. No wonder you’re so worked up!”

Yu Bai opened his mouth to argue, only for Yan Jing to press on. “Come on, why’d you steal this little ball from your neighbor? Is it still revenge for that sunflower?”

“…Steal?”

“Yeah! Why else would you run away in the middle of the night?” Yan Jing clucked his tongue in admiration. “Little Bai, since when are you so bold? Aren’t you scared Uncle Li will chew you out if he finds out?”

“…”

Yu Bai let out a quiet sigh of relief.

He’d gotten smarter, sure—but only a little.

Putting aside his irritation at the “running off with the ball” phrase, Yu Bai said calmly, “If he finds out, I’ll just say you helped me steal it.”

“…” Yan Jing quickly examined the ball in his hand, concerned. “So what’s this little ball even for? If it’s not useful, you should destroy it quick. Keeping evidence around is just asking for trouble.”

As he spoke, a note of surprise crept into his voice.

The small ball’s surface was a beautiful shade of blue. Up close, it seemed to shimmer and flow like a thick, concentrated starry sky, utterly mesmerizing.

If it were just a decorative item, Yu Bai wouldn’t have gone to such lengths—wrapping it in all those square boxes and hauling it over so ceremoniously. But Yan Jing couldn’t see what practical use it had. It was just a ball.

“Looks pretty cool,” he said, scratching his head in confusion. “But seriously, what the heck is it?”

Yu Bai replied from the heart, “A doomsday gadget.”

“Pfft.” Yan Jing burst out laughing. “It even has a name? Kinda cute.”

“What name…” Yu Bai paused, then gave up explaining. “Yeah, it’s called the Doom Orb.”

The name perfectly captured his feelings toward the little ball.

Then, mulling over Yan Jing’s earlier words, Yu Bai said thoughtfully, “You mentioned… destroying it?”

That might actually work.

He already remembered everything that had happened in the loops. If he was worried about forgetting, he could tweak the details and write them down as a story. Either way, he wouldn’t lose those dazzling experiences.

So there was no need to keep this little ball, which could expose his secret at any moment. It was like a ticking bomb—best case, social suicide; worst case, he’d become a lab rat for scientists, his normal life gone forever.

Sure, it was a gift from a non-human, and destroying it felt rude. But the guy had said it could only be used once.

Meaning this storage orb, which preserved things perfectly, couldn’t hold anything else anyway.

So why keep it?

“Huh?” Yan Jing peered closer, then looked regretful. “You’re really tossing the Doom Orb? I suddenly feel attached to it. How about you give it to me?”

“…Hey, don’t talk about it like it’s alive!”

“No, really, right now it feels super familiar—”

Yu Bai, racking his brain for solutions, cut him off abruptly. “How hot does that furnace of yours get?”

“Eight or nine hundred degrees, I think.” Yan Jing corrected him seriously for once. “It’s not mine—it’s at my parents’ funeral parlor. I don’t have one at home.”

Then it hit him what Yu Bai meant, and he gaped in shock. “You just ran off with the ball, and now you’re heading straight to the crematorium? That’s moving way too fast!”

“…” Yu Bai had had enough of his nonstop bad jokes. “It’s a funeral parlor, not a crematorium!”

“What’s the big deal? You’re so sensitive. You taught me those words—used to laugh about them with me.”

Yan Jing eyed him with a cheerful grin. “You really are acting weird today, Little Bai.”

Yu Bai turned away silently, not wanting to talk anymore.

As a contributor to third-rate pulp magazines, he’d unwittingly filled Yan Jing’s head with those terms, loaded with dramatic connotations from cheesy stories.

The next morning, in the solemn atmosphere of the funeral parlor.

Cries and mournful music echoed from the nearby farewell hall, drifting on the wind to the cremation furnace.

Yu Bai clutched a small black square box. Yan Jing had taken the day off to come with him and had even dressed all in black for the occasion.

The two stood in silence before the cremation furnace, unmoving for a long moment.

The furnace operator waited patiently nearby, tool in hand.

After a bit, he yawned and asked helplessly, “Little Bai, are you burning it or not?”

He jerked a thumb toward the noisy farewell hall. “Next one’s almost up. If you’re doing it, hurry.”

Yan Jing jumped in for him. “Got it, right away! Just give him another minute, Uncle!”

“Aren’t you here to destroy the Doom Orb?” he urged Yu Bai. “Put it in already. You’re right by the furnace—don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet.”

Yu Bai shot back immediately, “I’m not.”

There was zero reason to keep this small ball.

High-temperature cremation was the perfect way to make it vanish for good.

Yan Jing said, “Okay then. Toss it in.”

…But a storage orb magical enough to preserve memories probably couldn’t be destroyed by a human-made furnace, even at eight or nine hundred degrees.

Yu Bai admitted, “I’m worried it won’t burn.”

The furnace operator chuckled at that, chiming in. “First time I’ve heard someone worry about that. This thing can cremate bones—what’s a little ball?”

Yan Jing laughed too. “Just try burning it. How else will you know if it works?”

“What if it breaks the furnace?”

“Huh? What do you mean, ‘what to do’?” Yan Jing said blankly. “Isn’t that exactly what you wanted?”

Yu Bai was speechless for a moment. He could only turn his face away.

Seeing this, Yan Jing let out a meaningful tsk. “See? You really can’t bear to let the Doom Orb go after all. You could’ve just said so.”

Yu Bai glared at him. “It’s all because you named it Doom Orb that burning it feels so weird to me.”

“What? You’re the one who told me it was called the Doom Orb!”

“I didn’t. That was—”

While the two of them bickered in hushed tones, a Funeral Parlor staff member hurried over and signaled to the cremator that it was time to prepare the next load.

Yu Bai and Yan Jing immediately stepped back a little to give them space.

The family members who had just finished the farewell ceremony in the hall followed along behind the cart carrying the body.

A few of the relatives cast sympathetic, understanding glances at Yu Bai and Yan Jing when they spotted them. One person even walked over and gave both of them a gentle pat on the shoulder.

Yu Bai blinked in surprise. He followed the man’s gaze to the Black Square Box cradled in his arms.

…From the outside, it looked like he had just finished a cremation.

Compared to the large procession next door, this box—seen off by only two people—seemed especially lonely.

The cremator was already sliding the body into the Cremation Furnace. Fresh cries echoed around them as a chatty stranger sighed nearby and struck up a conversation with Yu Bai. “It’s really rough, isn’t it?”

Yu Bai and Yan Jing both shifted uncomfortably on their feet.

They had planned to slip away earlier, but leaving now would look strange.

Yu Bai could only mumble in response, “Yeah.”

The thought that this Small Ball might vanish completely, without leaving even a trace behind, made him realize he truly was reluctant to let it go.

After all, it was a precious gift bearing the name of eternity.

The overly friendly stranger kept sighing dramatically and pressed on. “Your box looks pretty plain. Which package did you go for? I don’t think I saw that style earlier.”

…He hadn’t cremated anything! This wasn’t an urn!

Yu Bai felt like he couldn’t take any more of this. The bizarre conversation was too much to bear.

He was just about to make an excuse and leave when something unexpected happened right next to them.

The cremator—who had already initiated the incineration program—frowned in confusion as he inspected the machine, which showed no signs of life. “Why won’t the fire light?”

Family members immediately protested. “Is your machine broken? How can it break at a time like this!”

“No, the last one burned just fine. It couldn’t have broken all of a sudden! I’ll call someone to check it right away—please, just hang on!”

“Hang on? Who can hang on right now? Where’s your manager!”

In the midst of the growing chaos, Yan Jing leaned in and whispered tensely to Yu Bai. “No way—this had to happen now? We should’ve just bolted earlier…”

Little Bai’s talent for attracting dramatic mishaps was truly one of a kind.

But Yu Bai ignored him. He silently thrust the Black Square Box containing the Doom Orb into Yan Jing’s hands. Then, in a daze, he pulled out his phone and tapped at it on instinct.

“What are you—” Yan Jing startled. “Holy crap, it’s scorching hot!”

A strange heat, from some unknown source, suddenly radiated from the Black Box holding the Small Ball.

Yet the Cremation Furnace in front of them—loaded with a body—refused to light no matter what.

There had to be a connection between the two!

And right now, Yu Bai couldn’t just walk away. This was the Funeral Parlor owned by Yan Jing’s parents, and the body that couldn’t be cremated was nothing but an innocent victim caught in the mess.

Once that realization hit him, Yu Bai’s body sprang into action before his mind could catch up. He only snapped out of it when Yan Jing spoke to him.

Yan Jing was tossing the blistering little box from hand to hand like a hot potato. Helplessly, he asked, “Does the Doom Orb heat up or something? Take it back— what are you blindly tapping on your phone for!”

“I didn’t…”

Yu Bai started to deny it on reflex, but then he glanced down at his phone screen.

It was displaying the text messaging app. With a whoosh, a message shot off.

In that instant, three enormous, despairing words erupted in Yu Bai’s mind like an earthquake.

Doomed!

The recipient was that phone number he now knew by heart—etched into his very DNA.

And the message itself was one he had sent countless times across the Time Loop worlds.

—Little Xie, I’m in trouble! Come quick!!