Fu Hengzhi felt a sudden unease and frowned as he called out, "Zhou Zhou."
As he spoke, he walked towards the bathroom. The bathroom light was on, but no one was there. His pace quickened, and Fu Hengzhi glanced at the dressing room again, but still no one was there.
On the sofa where Zhou Zhou was changing clothes, there were clothes that hadn't been put away yet. These were the clothes Zhou Zhou had worn when she was discharged from the hospital that morning. Fu Hengzhi seemed to catch a glimpse of a color that shouldn't be there. He went over and pulled out the white cotton sock that had been pressed down under her pants. The sock leg was still stained with a small patch of blood, which had dried into a rust color by now.
Fu Hengzhi reacted quickly and dialed the number again. After two rings, there was still no answer. The veins on his right hand, which was gripping the phone, bulged. The more nervous a person is, the more they will hold onto anything around them.
He dialed another number, and a kind female voice came from the other end.
"Hey? Hengzhi, what's up?"
"Aunt Feng, where are you?" Fu Hengzhi asked.
"The old lady and the old man will arrive tomorrow. Madam asked me to come and help out at the old house." As he finished speaking, he could hear voices around him. Fu Hengzhi could hear that it was Duan Yun's voice.
"Xiaoheng called? What's up?"
"Aunt Feng, has Zhou Zhou gone out?" Fu Hengzhi didn't say directly that Zhou Zhou was missing, for fear of causing panic on Duan Yun's side. It would be best to find out the truth, but if that wasn't possible, he had other ways to find her.
But reality is like that, a sudden and harsh blow.
Aunt Feng's puzzled voice came from the other end of the phone, "Xiao Zhou? He was still at home when I left. What happened? Is he missing?!" The voice on the other end of the phone suddenly became tense.
Fu Hengzhi clearly heard Duan Yun ask, "What happened to Xiaozhou?!"
"It's nothing, it seems he went out again," Fu Hengzhi said. "He replied to my message."
"That's good." The person on the other end of the phone breathed a sigh of relief. Duan Yun took the phone, intending to say a few words to Fu Hengzhi, but as soon as he called out "Xiao Heng" after getting the phone, the other party hung up.
Duan Yun: "..." This brat dares to hang up on his mother?!
Fu Hengzhi was extremely anxious. He left the villa and went straight to the garage to get into the driver's seat of the car he had come from. He opened his phone, scrolled through a few pages, and tapped an icon in a hidden corner.
After the interface is displayed, there is a red dot, which indicates the location of the target.
Without saying a word, Fu Hengzhi drove there, making several phone calls along the way, but all to no avail.
As the car sped along in the rain, Fu Hengzhi became more and more familiar with his destination as they got closer. Following the navigation, wasn't this the Zhou family's former residence?
Where did Zhou Zhou go? Why isn't she answering the phone? Fu Hengzhi recalled Zhou Zhou's abnormal mental state when she came here last time.
The car sped along the ring road. Upon arriving at his destination, Fu Hengzhi went straight to the eighth floor. Because the elevator wouldn't come down for a long time, he rushed up the emergency staircase. When he got to the door, he tried to enter the password based on his memory from the last time he came.
Fortunately, the door opened on the first try.
Upon entering the house, he found it in complete disarray, as if it had been ransacked. Fu Hengzhi took a few steps inside and heard rustling voices around him.
'Can't you be a little gentler with me? I've become like this all because of you.'
"Refusing to stage an accident to extort money, are you planning to stay here permanently?"
"Can't I? This is my home."
"Correction: This is my home."
'Are we even distinguishing between ourselves? What's yours is mine, Dad~~'
Hearing that address again, Zhou Zhou slapped a towel over the other person's head, stood up angrily, and shouted, "I told you not to call me dad! Who the hell am I to you...?"
"dad?"
"Huh?" Interrupted from speaking, Zhou Zhou turned around and met Fu Hengzhi's gaze, who was standing behind her after the door opened. Her eyes widened, as if she hadn't expected him to be there. "You..."
"Dad?" Fu Hengzhi interrupted him again, frowning as he looked him over.
Zhou Zhou was wearing loungewear with the sleeves of her pants rolled up high, and there was a band-aid on her right calf. Part of her clothes were wet, and half of her naked body was visible in the bathtub behind her.
"Hmm~" A small face peeked out from under the towel, blinking its dark, bright eyes as it looked over with surprise.
And this appearance is at least 90% similar to the person in front of him.
"He just called you 'Dad'?" A surge of anger rose in Fu Hengzhi's chest, his chest bulging with rage. He gritted his teeth and repeated, word by word, "He called you 'Dad'!!!"
Zhou Zhou had never seen Fu Hengzhi so angry before, and hurriedly said, "Listen to me first."
The child was frightened by his behavior and huddled in the bathtub, using Zhou Zhou's thigh as a shield. He hurriedly said, "Dad, please explain!"
"Don't call me dad!"
"Don't call him Dad!"
[Author's Note: Post-Interview]
Zhou Zhou: That was the closest I ever came to domestic violence.
Fu Hengzhi: At the time, I only felt a green net covering me, but even so, I never thought of fighting with my baby. I was only thinking about how to throw this little brat out.
Polite brat: You?
Hahaha, what an unexpected plot twist! Chapter 88: Zhou Zhou becomes a father! What a coincidence! Hahahaha!
Chapter 89 Twist, Twist, and Twist Again
=====================================
Zhou Zhou admitted that when he heard the other person say "my life," his heart almost stopped, but only for a moment, because he could not connect the four-year-old child in front of him with the original owner of the body.
"Little boy." Zhou Zhou pulled herself out of her fear, composed herself, squatted down, and looked gently at the cute boy in front of her with a smile. "Where are your mom and dad?"
"Dead." The little boy's big, bright eyes, which had been blinking just a second ago, were now filled with tears. As if he had remembered something, his chubby little face fell, filled with sadness.
"...I'm sorry, it's all my fault, brother." Zhou Zhou knew he had brought up something painful for the other person, so he pursed his lips to express his apology, reached out and gently patted the other person's head. "Tell your brother, why are you here?"
"I've come to find you!" The little boy, unable to control his emotions, looked at the adult in front of him with teary eyes and repeated loudly, "I've come to find you!"
"What do you want from me?" This child is so strange. Zhou Zhou looked outside helplessly, hoping to find someone who looked like the other person's guardian. Unfortunately, there were only lights and flowers and trees in the yard, and no trace of anyone.
Zhou Zhou was busy looking for the other party's parents in the yard when the little boy stretched out his short hand and grabbed the other party's collar.
"Holy crap, how come you're so strong, kid? Let go, let go!" Due to the height difference between the two, Zhou Zhou stumbled as the other person grabbed him, almost falling to the ground. Fortunately, he managed to kneel down and support himself with his right leg.
"Ouch—" His knee was injured a second time, and he gasped in pain. "What's wrong with you, kid...?"
Before she could finish speaking, the little boy's face loomed closer, and he suddenly leaned in. Zhou Zhou didn't even have time to stop him, but luckily, the other person controlled the situation precisely, and there was no dramatic scene of the two of them touching mouths.
Holy crap, cold sweat trickled down Zhou Zhou's forehead as he thought to himself, "How can this kid be so strange?"
"Don't you think I look familiar?" The little boy stepped back slightly, his childish voice surprisingly deep, creating an overwhelming sense of incongruity. "In that world, don't you even remember what you looked like as a child?"
Zhou Zhou's expression gradually changed from tense to blank as she carefully considered the little boy's words, while also taking a look at his appearance.
It was only then that he realized that the child in front of him was more than 90% similar to himself, with the remaining 10% difference being due to their different ages.
“…Zhou Zhou?” The original owner shared the same name as him. When Zhou Zhou called out, the little boy pouted slightly, raised his chin, and snorted.
"I suppose so." 'Little Zhou Zhou' looked down and saw the bloodstains on the other person's pants. His chubby little face scrunched up like a big steamed bun. "Why are you always getting hurt?"
As she spoke, she stretched out her little hand and touched that spot, saying with concern, "Now that I have a physical body, I can no longer help you regulate your bodily functions... Hey, snap out of it."
The little boy waved his short hand in front of Zhou Zhou, pulling him back from his reverie. Zhou Zhou stared warily at the seemingly harmless little boy in front of him.
"What do you mean by 'you can be considered the original owner'?" Zhou Zhou asked. "You have a physical body? You're regulating my body's functions? What are you talking about?"
"You want to know?" 'Little Zhou Zhou' rested her chin on her hand, blinked her round eyes at him amusedly, and said, "Come with me and I'll tell you."
"..."
"...Didn't I say I was coming with you? Why am I driving?" Zhou Zhou fastened his seatbelt and glanced at 'Little Zhou Zhou's' small figure struggling to climb into the passenger seat, looking at him with a puzzled expression.
"How can I drive with this body?" 'Little Zhou Zhou' stood on the seat and reached for the seatbelt, tightening it with a few heaves before slowly sitting down. The contrast between his height and the car seat was too great. Seeing him like this, Zhou Zhou actually had the urge to install a car seat in the back seat.
"Where to?" Zhou Zhou started the car and drove out of the residential area.
'Little Zhou Zhou' chuckled, 'Someone as cowardly as you, who doesn't even dare to open the door, actually dared to come out with me alone.' Then his tone changed, becoming low and hoarse, 'Aren't you afraid I'll become king of the mountain?'
"If you could do that, you would have made your move when I opened the door." Zhou Zhou was only flustered for a short while before regaining her composure very quickly.
On one hand, it was due to his rational personality; on the other hand, it was because he had a strange sense of familiarity with the 'original owner' in front of him. This feeling did not come from the soul, but rather from the attachment to the body.
"Boring~" the child drawled, pointing in a direction, "Go home, to the place where we used to live."
Upon hearing the word "us," Zhou Zhou raised an eyebrow and drove towards the Zhou family's former residence.
"Are you the original owner?" Zhou Zhou asked while turning the steering wheel, "What do you mean by 'tentatively consider'?"
"Let's just say it is me then." 'Little Zhou's' answer seemed half-hearted.
"And what about me?"
"The same to you."
"..." Zhou Zhou glanced silently to his side while waiting at the red light. 'Little Zhou Zhou' looked at him and blinked, saying, "What are you doing?"
"I... am you?" Zhou Zhou asked tentatively.
Upon hearing this, 'Little Zhou Zhou' frowned, and actually thought about the question seriously for a moment before nodding and saying, 'It used to be.'
"..." What a load of rubbish! Zhou Zhou simply changed the subject, "Why go to the old house? What's there?"
“Yes,” 'Little Zhou Zhou' said solemnly, “I died there…”
"Screech—" Zhou Zhou's car had already reached the entrance of the residential area when he heard this and slammed on the brakes, looking at his side in alarm.
'Little Zhou Zhou' was almost thrown out. She grabbed the seatbelt tightly, stared at Zhou Zhou with a resentful look, and finished what she hadn't said.
"...when I was still a system."
"What the hell?"
Every time she came here, she was accompanied by someone. The first time it was Fu Hengzhi, the second time it was Wang Kunxiang, and the third time it was... Zhou Zhou silently looked down at the child beside her, then turned her gaze back to the door. Who knows how many secrets are hidden behind the door? The system said it left everything there.
The other party was unwilling to say more. Zhou Zhou sighed. What was bound to happen would happen. He had been trying to figure out his own secrets, but when the Pandora's box containing those secrets was placed in front of him, he hesitated.
To open or not to open.
"Hurry up! If I weren't too short, I would have opened it for you." Seeing that he was still hesitating, 'Little Zhou Zhou' rolled his eyes and raised his hand. His short hand could reach the doorknob, but he couldn't touch the row of password numbers on the doorknob.
Zhou Zhou opened the door, and the room was a mess, as if someone had broken in. "What did you do?" He frowned at 'Little Zhou Zhou', but the other shrugged.
"That's not important anymore."
As soon as he finished speaking, he stared straight at Zhou Zhou. Strange characters, which should have been scrolling through the depths of his dark eyes, turned out to be strings of code.
Their eyes met, and Zhou Zhou felt himself frozen in time, like a prisoner bound to a long wooden bench. Someone took a thin chisel and poked it into his skull, making a small hole before pulling it out. Then, a tube was inserted into the hole, and some unfamiliar memories flowed in like a trickle of water.
The throbbing pain beneath the cerebral cortex was unbearable for Zhou Zhou; he couldn't even let out a painful howl and could only curl up on the floor.