Even a fool knows what this situation means.
Zhou Zhou sat in the restaurant, looking up at the crystal chandelier above him with a blank stare. His unfocused vision made him feel powerless. He had been trying to appear relaxed lately, but the oppression was ever-present.
The double blow, both physical and mental, made him fully aware that he was now an unhealthy person.
The crystal pendant reflected the light, and staring at it for a long time inevitably caused a feeling of soreness in the eyes. Zhou Zhou felt her tear ducts filling up, and tears were about to well up.
"It's bad for your eyes, stop looking at it." A warm hand blocked his entire view, blocking out the bright but irritating light.
Zhou Zhou took that hand and gently rubbed it against the side of her cheek, as docile as a kitten that had just finished nursing.
Fu Hengzhi, wearing an apron, held a bowl of seafood porridge in one hand and let the other person rub against him with the other hand, standing still with his eyes fixed on the other person's face.
During this time, her fingertips curled slightly inward, gliding over the other person's thin and sunken cheeks. Her eyes lowered, her gaze dim, and her soft voice carried a hint of caution, "You've lost weight, eat more."
The table was laden with stir-fries made from various fresh vegetables, light yet flavorful, making it a very healthy and compliant meal.
Zhou Zhou shook his head and kissed the other person's palm, leaving a warm, wet kiss in the center.
She buried half her face in the other person's palm, slowly closed her eyes, and whispered, "Just eat normally."
Fu Hengzhi's Adam's apple bobbed, and he opened his mouth as if to say something, but then bit his lower lip and remained silent, giving a faint "hmm".
"I forgot how to use the coffee machine, and I also forgot where I put the instruction manual. The coffee I brewed was sour and bitter, and tasted like dishwater."
"I'll drink it."
"Pfft, no need for you, I'll take it out to..." Zhou Zhou opened his mouth but suddenly stopped, then resignedly continued, "and give it to him to drink."
Oh no, I can't remember the other person's name again.
"Fu Hengzhi".
"I am here."
“Fu Hengzhi.” Zhou Zhou repeated, raising her head and resting her chin in the other’s palm, looking at him tenderly, “Fu Hengzhi, isn’t the anniversary of my parents’ death coming up soon?”
“Yes, two more days.” Fu Hengzhi put down the seafood porridge, pulled out a chair and sat down next to the other person, put his arm around the other person’s shoulder to make sure Zhou Zhou could rest his head on his shoulder, and coaxed, “I’ll prepare in advance, I won’t forget with me here.”
"You have to remind me." Zhou Zhou buried her face in his shoulder, her voice growing softer and softer, "I'm afraid I'll forget."
"I will always remember." Fu Hengzhi forced himself to suppress his voice, trying to suppress the feeling of something stuck in his throat and make his voice sound normal.
The restaurant suddenly fell silent. The bowls and plates on the table were still steaming. Fu Xiaofan sat alone opposite the two people, quietly feeling the tranquility between them.
After a moment, Fu Hengzhi stirred, gently picked up the unconscious Zhou Zhou, carried her upstairs to the bedroom, carefully placed her on the bed, covered her with a blanket, and adjusted the air conditioning temperature.
"Zhou Zhou." He wanted to call out the other person's name, but no sound came out.
He sat dejectedly on the floor by the bed, quietly watching the other person's sleeping face. Despite being only twenty-five or twenty-six years old, he still looked like a student. His cheeks were slightly sunken, and his pale lips and dark circles under his eyes could not hide his good looks.
After watching quietly for a while, Fu Hengzhi couldn't help but lower his head and bite his lip to keep quiet.
About thirty minutes later, the bedroom door on the second floor opened, and Fu Xiaofan stared at the figure appearing at the bottom of the stairs, watching Fu Hengzhi walk step by step to the dining table.
With reddened eyes, Fu Hengzhi glanced at the food on the table that was getting cold, and looked at Fu Xiaofan, who was sitting at the table in one position without moving. His voice was still a little hoarse when he spoke.
"Let's eat."
"Mmm." Fu Xiaofan nodded, not daring to say another word, obediently picked up the small bowl in front of him, and sipped the porridge inside.
Fu Hengzhi just stared at him, then reached out and touched the inside of his own bowl of porridge. It was icy cold to the touch. Seeing that he was eating with relish, he wanted to say something but then stopped himself.
He sat in the chair without saying a word, picked up the bowl of porridge, and drank it all.
Zhou Zhou had been sleeping soundly until now. When she opened her eyes, she saw sunlight filtering through the gauze window, heard birds chirping in the courtyard, and heard the breathing of the person next to her.
With her waist held by the other person, Zhou Zhou gently turned over to face Fu Hengzhi, reached out and touched the other person's cheek, her fingertips caressing the corners of the other person's reddened eyes, a wave of bitterness surged in her heart, and then everything in front of her became blurry.
Why, why does it have to end like this?
Why couldn't he have realized it sooner? Perhaps then they could have avoided the pain for both of them.
Zhou Zhou forced back the tears that were about to well up, slowly removed the other person's hand from her waist, and quietly got up and closed the door.
The door to the second bedroom opened, and the little figure lying on the bed opened its eyes almost at the same time, looking warily at the doorway. Upon seeing a familiar figure, it lowered its guard.
She sat up, glanced at the tears on the other person's face, and shut her mouth before she could ask anything.
"System, is there really no way to change it?"
Zhou Zhou broke down as soon as she opened her mouth, tears streaming down her face like an unstoppable torrent.
"Why me? But I'm clearly not him!"
"I am not him. I changed my fate, but am I still destined to meet the same end?"
"This is not fair! I've only just begun my life. I have a lover, a career, and we're going to have a lovely child... This is not fair! Why has fate written it this way!"
Zhou Zhou crouched by the bed, clutching his head in anguish. This was the first time in a long time that he had vented these emotions to the system, his voice trembling: "This isn't fair... This isn't fair to Fu Hengzhi either... Why did we have to gain it and then lose it so quickly..."
Fu Xiaofan's eyes were filled with pity and sorrow. His human body told him that he should shed tears at this moment, but the biggest feedback from the system at this moment was a bunch of emotional fluctuations from the character in front of him.
These fluctuations repeatedly eroded his consciousness as a system, making him increasingly inclined towards being a human being.
But what kind of human is he? He's just an ordinary maintenance system in one of countless systems, and the person in front of him, the person he was, the person he's now nominally called his father, is just a piece of data in the book.
The data is created and continued by developers known as authors, and the ending is always fixed and cannot be changed.
"I'm sorry..." Fu Xiaofan dragged her small body off the bed, her bare feet touching the cold floor. She slowly bent down, knelt on the ground, buried her head in the other person's arm, and repeated, "I'm sorry," over and over again.
[Author's Note]:
It's a happy ending, it's a happy ending, QAQ
Chapter 124 A Tragic Ending
Chapter 124 A Tragic Ending (Part 1)
=========================================
Zhou Zhou cried until her eyes were swollen and her throat was hoarse before she finally pulled herself out of her despair.
Before Fu Hengzhi woke up next door, Zhou Zhou tidied himself up and sat alone on the balcony of the second bedroom, gazing at the beautiful scenery outside. Fu Xiaofan held his hand and stood silently beside him. The sadness was fleeting, and both he and Fu Xiaofan tacitly agreed not to mention the emotional breakdown that day. Afterwards, Zhou Zhou ate, drank, and laughed as usual, as if nothing had ever happened.
Everything seemed normal, if one could ignore his declining memory and emaciated body.
In just two days, Zhou Zhou's physical and mental changes were not only due to insufficient nutrition, but also to the death of brain cells. Because of the problem in the brain center, the function of other organs in his body also declined. He is no longer as energetic as before. His reaction ability is slow and his movements are hesitant, like an elderly person whose reflex arc has been lengthened.
Fu Hengzhi seemed oblivious to his changes, continuing to express his love for her with warm and thoughtful gestures every day. He prepared the same meals daily, gradually making them lighter but still including both meat and vegetables. He would help her finish what she couldn't eat, creating a normal dining environment.
The night was long, and Zhou Zhou, unusually, suffered from insomnia under these special circumstances. He opened his eyes in the early hours of the morning, staring blankly at the dark ceiling. After a while, he raised his heavy arm to support himself as he got up, moving slowly so as not to wake the person next to him.
After a rustling sound, accompanied by the gentle knocking of the door lock, the white light in the bathroom came on.
The person sleeping soundly in bed opened their eyes the instant the door closed.
In the first few days, Zhou Zhou would look in the mirror and observe his daily changes. Later, he lost a lot of weight and looked extremely haggard, so he avoided looking directly at himself in the mirror when washing up.
He was afraid. When a normal person's appearance is ravaged by illness, they will inevitably experience some psychological problems that are difficult to resolve. He was afraid that he would also experience the same situation and lose control of his emotions, thus disrupting the balanced atmosphere that his family of three had created.
This was the first time he had observed himself so closely as he was being ravaged by illness. The round, chubby cheeks of his former face were gone without a trace, and his sharp chin was now covered by a layer of skin and flesh that perfectly accentuated the angles of his facial bones. His cheeks and eye sockets were sunken inward, and there were dark circles under his eyes. His lips were also pale. Overall, he looked like a pitiful patient who had been suffering from a long illness for a long time and was about to die.
The person in the mirror had fluctuating eyes, and their hand lingered up and down along the shape of the bones on the side before they slumped their head down limply after a moment.
Fu Hengzhi had been sitting on the edge of the bed staring at the bathroom door for over ten minutes. It was too quiet inside, and he couldn't get any feedback from the other person, which made him increasingly anxious and flustered.
He couldn't stare at the other person too intently; he knew the other person was deliberately creating a balanced atmosphere at home, trying to minimize the impact of a tragic future.
The neatly made bed sheet was crumpled under his fingers, and five more minutes passed, but there was still no movement.
Fu Hengzhi slowly got up and walked towards the bathroom. He pressed down on the doorknob and entered the room. He saw a slender man staring blankly at the sink with his head down. The moment the door opened, Zhou Zhou seemed to come back to her senses and slowly looked up at him.
"Can't sleep?" Fu Hengzhi walked closer to him, gently put his arm around the other's shoulder and waist, turned him around to face him, and cupped the back of the other's head with his broad palm to make sure he could lean on his shoulder.
Fu Hengzhi carefully observed the other person's emotions, as if coaxing his own child, and whispered, "Is something on your mind?"
"Death anniversary..." the person in his arms murmured, their voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz. Tomorrow is the death anniversary of Zhou Hongping and Yang Peixue, a couple whose bodies were lost in a plane crash at sea. Only two pieces of clothing belonging to the elders were placed under their tombstone.
"I remember, I won't forget." Fu Hengzhi heard him clearly and gently patted the other person's back with his palm.
"...My parents will go, right? Look at me now..."
During this period, apart from Wang Kunxiang who came to the house earlier, Duan Yun and Fu Hongjiang have not seen him yet. When the elders said they wanted to see their grandson, Fu Xiaofan coaxed them by saying he wanted to be with his father.
Fu Hengzhi was silent for a moment, then pulled the other person into a tight embrace and said firmly, "It's okay, I'm here. Leave this to me."
In winter, it's manageable; with extra layers of clothing, scarves, hats, and masks, his thin frame and features can be concealed. But in the sweltering heat of summer, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius, it's far too difficult to hide these features without being noticed.
Zhou Zhou gave a soft "hmm".
The next day, sunlight shone on the face of the thin young man on the bed. He was sleeping peacefully, half of his face buried in the soft goose feather pillow. The person next to him was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring intently at him, his eyes bloodshot from staying up all night.
Zhou Zhou hadn't been out for a long time. As he sat in his familiar black Maybach and watched the car gradually drive out of the residential area, he felt inexplicably nervous.
He didn't know if he was afraid of going out looking like this, or afraid that Duan Yunfu and Hongjiang would discover his appearance.
The black suit with long sleeves and trousers, along with the black mask that covered most of his face, did not give him a sense of security.
There were still crumpled tissues under the passenger seat. Zhou Zhou kicked them with her toes and rummaged around to find a container to clean up the trash, but was stopped by Fu Hengzhi while waiting at a red light.
"Don't worry about it, I'll clean it up later." Fu Hengzhi said, pursing his lips, and then added, "I accidentally spilled some water."
It's more like explaining the origin of the paper ball.
There were also crumpled pieces of paper under the driver's seat. Zhou Zhou stared at them without saying anything. After a moment, he turned his gaze to the window and gave a faint "hmm".
He hasn't been sleeping well these past few days; even the slightest noise can wake him up. But he keeps his eyes closed to maintain a sleeping state because he knows that this will put the other person at ease.
He knew that during the half hour he closed his eyes, the other person hadn't slept at all, watching him from the bedside. He also heard the other person tiptoeing out of the bedroom and the sound of a car driving away from the courtyard half an hour later.
They knew each other inside and out, they tacitly understood each other, and neither of them dared to expose the fragile veil between them.
The cemetery was unusually quiet at this moment; those who came here did not make a sound and remained remarkably silent.
Holding a bouquet of chrysanthemums, Zhou Zhou walked side by side with Fu Hengzhi to a tombstone inscribed with the names of the two people he loved most in the world.
"Dad, Mom, I've come to see you."
Zhou Zhou placed the bouquet in front of the grave. When she saw a bunch of white chrysanthemums next to it, she paused for a moment, but didn't pay much attention. She then slowly bowed to the tombstone.
He stared at the two names above, remaining silent.
Dad, Mom, I've experienced so many things and met so many people in my life. My life experiences have become so rich. I want to tell you about them now, but there are too many to list... I'll tell you about them when we meet again.