這段文字充滿了奇幻色彩和溫暖的情感,描寫了一段跨越時間的相遇和一個童年的夢想。以下是這段文字的英文翻譯:
The protagonist sat before the phone booth, quietly staring at the yellowed one-way ticket. It was an inexplicable sense of familiarity, like catching the scent of your hometown's laundry detergent in a strange city, instantly pulling you back to a long-lost time and space.
A-Deng tilted his head, looking at him. "What are you spacing out for? Don't tell me… you know this Time Guardian?"
The protagonist replied softly, "I don't know… but it feels like I've seen him somewhere before."
In that instant, the glass of the phone booth suddenly glowed with a faint silver light, projecting a blurry image like a film projector—
In the scene, a small boy was squatting beside an old railway track, holding a melting popsicle, listlessly poking at ants on the ground. Behind him, an old gentleman in an outdated uniform, carrying a strange leather suitcase, sat inside a red phone booth, talking to the air.
"Excuse me—" the little boy suddenly turned his head, leaned closer to the phone booth, and asked with a tilt of his head, "Who are you talking to?"
The old gentleman looked at him with a smile, his voice very gentle. "I'm calling time, asking if it's willing to let you steal an afternoon."
The boy blinked, finding the man strange but not unpleasant.
That afternoon, they drew pictures together by the railway tracks, played hide-and-seek, and even "made a call to the future" together. The boy said he wanted to open a hotel "only for lonely yokai to stay in," because he thought the most pitiful things in the world were "things with nowhere to return."
But later, it rained. The old gentleman opened a color-changing umbrella and said softly, "I have to return to the end of time; I can't stay long. But remember, little boss… your hotel will come true."
The image flashed and disappeared. The protagonist snapped back to reality, stunned.
"So… that summer wasn't a dream after all," he murmured.
A-Deng looked at him, his gaze softening. "I told you, you were destined to be a hotel owner since you were little. You even got involved with a yokai of the 'Time Guardian' level."
At this moment, a voice came from the receiver again, much older now but still as gentle as it had been then.
"Little boss… if you're willing, I'd like to stay for a night."
The protagonist gripped the receiver tightly. "Of course, you can. I still owe you a popsicle."
The phone booth quietly flickered, as if time itself was nodding.
That night, the old hotel lit up with a special glow. A guest room that had never been opened was quietly prepared for an old guest who was decades late, with a made bed and time tea.
The door of memory was opened, and the story began anew.
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