{"id":5489,"date":"2023-05-16T10:09:47","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T08:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/?p=5489"},"modified":"2023-05-16T10:10:15","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T08:10:15","slug":"spare-tire-is-gone-chapter-91-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/2023\/05\/16\/spare-tire-is-gone-chapter-91-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Spare Tire is Gone &#8211; Chapter 91.1"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first thing Qi Cong did after coming home was to find a computer and plug in the USB drive.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The data was quickly read and a folder popped out, revealing the entire contents &#8211; a photo and an encrypted file.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An encrypted file?<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qi Cong frowned and clicked on the photo first.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An unfamiliar and yet familiar old photo became enlarged on the screen. In the photo, young boys and girls of all colors and ages were sitting or standing in a large activity room. There were approximately more than a hundred people, and a banner celebrating the successful conclusion of a summer camp was hanging high above the activity room.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This photo was taken when he first went abroad to attend an international summer camp!<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018The first time I saw you was when I was thirteen years old. We attended the same international summer camp. You were in Camp 2 and I was in Camp 4.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gu Xun\u2019s words flashed through his mind, and Qi Cong pressed his hand on the touchpad unconsciously, his eyes sliding back and forth in search of the teenager in the photo.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The banner was written to celebrate the successful end of the summer camp. He vaguely remembered this scene. When summer camp was about to end, the teachers had called all the children to the large activity room for a farewell party. He was in a hurry to see his mom, so he paid close attention to the time and the flow of the party.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As far as he could remember, all the kids from the camp attended this party.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the children, that meant that young Gu Xun was most likely also in this photo. Which one could it be, could it be&#8211;?<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qi Cong\u2019s eyes focused on the corner of the photo. A teen stood against the wall with his head bowed, seemingly in a daze.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His eyes paused for a second and then quickly moved away, continuing to slide on the photo in search. His finger on the touchpad also moved, with the line of sight wandering as he zoomed in and out the photo.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">About half an hour later, Qi Cong frowned, looking at the photo that he had zoomed back and forth several times, both puzzled and suspicious.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No?<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of a total of 108 people in the photo, 37 were photographed with full faces, 45 with side faces and 16 with their backs to the camera. While 10 had their faces obscured by others, or you were unable to see their appearance clearly with their heads down.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Except for those whose faces were blocked or their heads bowed, he carefully confirmed that no one had the shadow of Gu Xun in his appearance, regardless if it was a boy or a girl.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How could there be no sign of him?<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qi Cong unconsciously zoomed in the photo again, this time mainly looking at the children with their faces blocked or with their heads down. After combining factors such as Gu Xun\u2019s age and the differences in skin color between children from various countries and genders, he finally locked his eyes on four of them.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Was he one of these people?<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He looked back and forth at the four figures, but because he had no recollection of Gu Xun when he was young, he remained clueless even after an hour of looking.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He couldn&#8217;t help but raise his hand and slam his forehead.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How could he not remember it? Obviously Gu Xun told him how they knew each other, and clearly Gu Xun had given such an obvious hint, so how could he still not remember? How could he still not tell??<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Could it be that Gu Xun had plastic surgery?<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This guess suddenly popped into Qi Cong&#8217;s mind, but he quickly shook his head, denying it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If Gu Xun really had plastic surgery, he would\u2019ve told him directly. It was also very unlike something that Gu Xun would do.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then could it be that Gu Xun wasn\u2019t actually in this photo?<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No, it was impossible. Gu Xun adding this photo alone meant it must be meaningful.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After his thinking bore no fruit and his search remained fruitless, the time grew late. Qi Cong forced himself to collect his thoughts, suppressing the desire to immediately find and remember the teenage Gu Xun. He moved his fingers to close the photo, and clicked on the encrypted file.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A password input box popped up without a message prompt.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qi Cong moved his finger on the touchpad and tried to enter Gu Xun&#8217;s birthday.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The password was wrong.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He tried his own birthday.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still wrong, and it showed that there was only one chance left to try that day.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The number of tries was actually limited.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qi Cong blindly entered the date he and Gu Xun met three years ago.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A message popped up: Not this day.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not this day? So the password really was a date? And it was relevant to the two of them?<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The date\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qi Cong looked at the old photo again and had a sudden thought \u2013 could this file password be the real date of his and Gu Xun\u2019s first encounter?<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No it was impossible\u2026 but it must be. Gu Xun gave him this, just to make him think about it. Although he has decided to give up this relationship, Gu Xun still wanted him to think about it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His mood, which had been depressed because of the separation from Gu Xun, jumped up again. Qi Cong looked at the encrypted document and his heart beat slightly faster.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then he clenched his hand.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He will think about it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If this was what Gu Xun wanted, he would think about it. It wasn\u2019t fair that only Gu Xun remembered the past. He would definitely think about it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Time had already skipped past one o&#8217;clock in the morning, and today&#8217;s attempts have been exhausted. Qi Cong finally opened the photo and looked at it, then moved his finger to close the folder. Then he took out the USB flash drive and held it in his hand as he got up and went back to his room.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He will come back to this tomorrow.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was the last gift that Gu Xun gave him and his last request for him. He must never let Gu Xun down.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>Edited by: Antiope1<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Support translation:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=25191841\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"217\" height=\"51\" class=\"wp-image-338 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ontimestory.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/become_a_patron_button.png?resize=217%2C51\" alt=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 217px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 217\/51;\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/lajnaa\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ontimestory.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/kofi3-3.png?resize=185%2C47\" alt=\"This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is kofi3-3.png\" width=\"185\" height=\"47\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 185px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 185\/47;\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\r\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first thing Qi Cong did after coming home was to find a computer and plug in the USB drive. The data was quickly read and a folder popped out, revealing the entire contents &#8211; a photo and an encrypted file. An encrypted file? Qi Cong frowned and clicked on the photo first. An unfamiliar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spare-tire-is-gone","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ontimestory.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/4.jpg?fit=190%2C266&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5490,"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5489\/revisions\/5490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontimestory.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}