A single glance, an eternity.
How fast is the mind? In a thousand years, only a single thought turns. How fast is a thought? A lifetime flashes by in an instant. Some say that, in the moment before death, you can relive your entire life. Jack Young wasn’t sure if that was true, but suddenly, he found himself pulled away from the real world—an irresistible force yanked him into the Mindscape World, where he stood before a phantom door. The door stood wide open, but inside was nothing but blinding white light, impossible to see through. What lay beyond was a complete mystery.
His mental energy was draining, and at that moment, his inner world hit maximum speed—subjective time practically came to a halt. Jack Young glanced at the open elevator door with a complicated expression, hesitated for a split second, then took a deep breath and stepped inside.
With one step, he crossed the boundary and entered the white light.
Once through the door, the white light vanished after just a single step, but Jack Young realized he was still inside an elevator. This elevator felt much more ordinary, with four solid walls. Directly opposite him—where the phantom door had been—was a fully transparent wall, like a sightseeing elevator, and it too had an openable door. It was a double-door elevator. On Jack’s left was a row of buttons, lined up in a neat vertical column.
The buttons had no words or numbers—each was engraved with a tiny landscape, like the pattern on a coin. The top button glowed faintly, showing an ice lake, which seemed to match his current location. The rest of the buttons, going down, had all sorts of different designs. The lines were simple, but you could make out indoor and outdoor scenes.
Boom—the door closed behind him, sealing tight in the blink of an eye. Ding! A chime sounded, and he felt a sudden drop as the elevator jolted and began to descend. Through the transparent wall, Jack Young saw the elevator sink into the ice, plunging deeper into the lake. The brightness outside faded to dark blue, then rapidly turned black, as if symbolizing his descent into the depths of memory.
Jack Young stood still in the elevator. Outside, the dark ice sometimes flashed with chaotic images, like the depths of space. He could glimpse scattered scenes, but never the full picture. Soon, the elevator slowed down. Ding! The second button on the left lit up. Jack saw a new scene rise up along the bottom edge of the transparent door, just like an elevator descending past floors—until it filled his entire view.
Whoosh—the transparent door slid open. In front of him was a... well, a huge lecture hall, or maybe a giant classroom. It looked like the elevator door had replaced the original back door of the room.
"This place is..." Jack Young instinctively stepped out of the elevator and into the scene. The classroom looked familiar. "Isn't this the Corporate Training Center?" The large hall was filled with over two hundred people, clustered in small groups. Everyone was dressed to the nines, looking serious. But beneath all that forced composure, you could still spot the typical student jitters—nervous, awkward, and just a little bit green.
Someone spoke from the podium: "Welcome, everyone, to our company's interview. I'll be giving a brief presentation about the process..."
Jack Young walked quietly for a couple of steps. As the only oddball in this scene, not a single person noticed him. That’s right—Jack suddenly realized this was just a memory, not something actually happening. "This place..." Jack spotted a guy sitting in the back row. A fragment of memory surfaced, and he nodded to himself, "Oh, this is my company interview!"
Yeah, look at that guy in the last row—wasn’t that him, two and a half years ago? November 11, 2011, the most single Singles’ Day ever. That’s right, on that day, he’d hustled over for campus recruitment and made the long trip to the company for the interview. There were 216 candidates, and he’d sat in the very back row.
Jack Young slowly walked up to the boy and looked at his younger self. Yep, that’s exactly what he’d looked like back then. Just over 1.8 meters tall, kinda decent-looking, a bit tan, and definitely had that homebody vibe. Nothing especially impressive—no martial artist’s aura, no heroic posture—just your average guy. Oh, and nearsighted too. Seeing that squinty kid, Jack couldn’t help but smile.
It came back to him—he’d been in such a rush that day, he’d left his glasses at the hotel. The whole interview, he couldn’t actually see anyone clearly, not even the interviewers’ faces.
But still—he remembered one person. Just a silhouette.
Following his own gaze from that memory, Jack looked to the opposite corner of the classroom. Right in the middle of the front row sat a young woman. That’s right, he remembered now. There were over two hundred people in the room, with layers of people in between, and he’d forgotten his glasses, but somehow he’d still seen that distant silhouette clearly. No one could explain why, but at that moment, everyone else faded into a white blur—only that figure stood out.
Tall, elegant. So confident it was striking, so elegant it was different. That simple ponytail, hair just a touch golden—not dyed, but completely natural. That day, it was just one glance, and something in his heart skipped. He didn’t look again, didn’t think about it, just focused on the presentation about his future. After the recruitment, he never asked who she was, didn’t know what she looked like. That silhouette was like a candid photo—click, the shutter snapped, and it got stored in his memory.
"So, that was our first meeting." Jack Young stepped back into the elevator, knowing this scene was over. Time to dig deeper into more memories.
Whoosh—the door closed, and the elevator kept sinking. Just like going down another floor, the next scene to enter view was still the classroom, but things had changed. Jack Young saw that only about seventy young people were left, grouped in sixes, chatting away.
"August 1, 2012. First day on the job—orientation." Jack Young quietly recited what this scene meant. "Back then, all the new hires were split into groups for team exercises, and I sat..." He looked toward a seat near the front, and sure enough, that’s where he’d been. And right at his left elbow, sitting as his desk mate, was that same girl! After more than half a year, fate had them side by side—what were the odds? What a coincidence!
Jack Young couldn’t help but walk over, staring in a daze at the boy and girl chatting. For the first time, he saw the girl’s face up close—she wasn’t very tall, skinny but not fragile, pale but not sickly. Her bright white smile was dazzling. Honestly, she wasn’t the prettiest woman Jack had ever seen—not even in his top ten.
Still, he just couldn’t look away.
The two had just met, but they clicked instantly.
It was like some invisible antenna had connected them.
The girl spoke up, her voice more firm than soft: "Your name’s Jack Young? That’s a cool name—like winning with surprise! I’ve got a 'Qi' in my name too, but it’s different from yours. I’m Qi Xi—Qi as in 'neat,' Xi as in 'dawn.'"
Then the scene sped up. Jack watched the boy and girl chatting happily, getting to know each other fast.
One said he was from Shandong, the other from Shaanxi.
One cracked jokes in Shandong dialect, the other fired back in Shaanxi slang.
A simple round of introductions, but suddenly everything felt familiar. Since it was team training, of course there’d be all sorts of exercises and challenges to tackle together. The instructor handed out a sheet listing everyone’s talents—time to flex those communication skills and assemble a dream team.
The boy glanced at the list and grinned, "I can sing, dance, and play piano—just me and we’ve got it all covered!"
The girl raised her eyebrow, a bit teasing: "We just met, but I’ve got to say—you’re full of it, aren’t you?"
The boy widened his eyes: "Oh, you don’t believe me? I’ll show you when we get back!"
Jack Young watched quietly as the two spent the morning in class, then naturally went to the cafeteria together for lunch, and in the afternoon, both showed off in the classroom. He’d been sharp and showy, but the girl kept up, and together they crushed the other groups. After work, they rode the company shuttle together, chatting all the way. He’d never been such a chatterbox, but with her, he just couldn’t stop—gesturing, laughing, totally fired up.
"Qi as in 'neat,' Xi as in 'dawn'—Qi Xi... So this is how we met."
Whoosh—the elevator doors closed, and the memory elevator kept going down.
Stop after stop, scene after scene.
Jack Young saw the two of them trying to pay for utilities, but they were totally baffled by how the electric and water cards worked in Tianjin Binhai.
Jack Young saw them heading to the bank to activate their payroll cards, but they got lost in the little streets of Tanggu, trying to figure out which branch was open on Sundays.
Jack Young saw the two of them shopping together. Their apartment was pretty well-equipped, but they still had to buy all their own pots and pans. He saw a supermarket—Happy Mart. Inside, the boy pushed the cart while the girl picked out groceries nonstop. This bowl, that pot, these oranges, those apples. You like oranges, I like pineapple.
"I’m older than you, so this time I’m treating!"
"You’re only a few months older than me, aren’t you?"
"It’s still the difference between ‘87 and ‘88. Plus, I’m a Leo, and you’re a Gemini—I’ve got you beat by ten months!" Yep, this girl was a lioness. "Here, help me grab that Yakult—I can’t live without it!"
"Sure. Oh, and that pickled chicken feet by your hand—grab me a pack, I can’t live without those either."
Jack Young watched the boy and girl picking out things in the supermarket. He nodded and stepped back into the elevator. Whoosh—the doors closed. This time, instead of sinking, the elevator shot up, rising back to the surface of the mind-lake—
Back in the real world, Jack Young and the girl locked eyes. In a split second, countless emotions flickered in Jack’s eyes, finally melting into a simple smile.
So, this girl was his friend after all.
Jack Young broke into a pure, genuine smile: "Long time no see, Qi Xi."
The girl across from him looked complicated, opened her mouth, then just nodded: "Yeah, long time no see, you silly... Jack Young."
Jack Young, out of habit, took the cart and put the Yakult in it for the girl: "See, I still remember your favorite drink." So that’s why he’d grabbed it without thinking. But—his eyes unconsciously swept over the cart.
Inside the cart were two packs of pickled chicken feet.
—I’d actually forgotten I used to love these.