Wei Xiaoyu's clothes were inconvenient and she was still hot, so after Zhou Xuan came out, he took her to a street stall outside Chongkou and bought her a set of women's clothing, which only cost a little over two hundred yuan.
Wei Xiaoyu giggled and said, "Zhou Xuan, why are you so stingy?"
Zhou Xuan snorted and said, "Xiaoyu, do you know our current situation? We're broke, back to where we were a year ago. Whether we can go back is uncertain. Aren't you worried at all?"
"What's there to worry about? We still have to live our lives, right?" Wei Xiaoyu said with a smile. "I know I went back more than a year ago. Let me ask you, were you still a child at this time?"
Zhou Xuan was taken aback, looking at Wei Xiaoyu's smile, which was as radiant as a spring flower, breathtakingly beautiful. After a moment of surprise, he immediately understood Wei Xiaoyu's intention.
Wei Xiaoyu knew, of course, that the two of them had returned to more than a year ago, and she also knew how difficult it would be to go back again. Perhaps she could never go back to a year later and could only continue living with her current mindset. But after she asked Zhou Xuan that question, Zhou Xuan understood. She realized that Zhou Xuan had not yet met Fu Ying at this time, so there was no question of marriage between Zhou Xuan and Fu Ying, let alone any feelings between them. How could she not be happy?
She had always dreamed of this day, hoping to meet Zhou Xuan before he and Fu Ying knew each other. Now, this goal had miraculously come true, just like a dream. Also, she had always felt sorry for her younger sister Xiaoqing, but Xiaoqing didn't know Zhou Xuan at this time. As long as she seized this opportunity, cherished Zhou Xuan, and prevented him from developing feelings for Fu Ying and Xiaoqing, wouldn't that be a good thing for her alone?
Wei Xiaoyu wondered if it was a stroke of luck, or perhaps even Heaven couldn't bear to see her so deeply in love with Zhou Xuan, so it allowed her to return to a year ago with Zhou Xuan, to start all over again.
Zhou Xuan understood Wei Xiaoyu's thoughts and felt a pang of bitterness in his heart.
Although he missed Fu Ying terribly, he also understood that since using the Nine Dragon Cauldron's power to return to a period of about a year ago, his fate seemed to have changed. He could no longer continue in the same direction as before, and he had no confidence that he could once again activate the Nine Dragon Cauldron's power to return to his original position.
If they could do it all over again, would Yingying come looking for him the same way she did before?
Of all the times, he shouldn't have used the Nine Dragon Cauldron. If he had known it would travel through time instead of freezing it, would he still have done it? But if he hadn't done it, he would have been transformed and devoured by the Horse Tree. If he were given the chance to do it all over again, what would he choose?
Volume 1, Chapter 366: First Encounter
Zhou Xuan took Wei Xiaoyu to a hotel in Chongkou and booked a double room. In his dormitory at the amusement park, he only had a little over three hundred yuan in cash and less than five thousand yuan in his bank account, so everything had to be done frugally; he couldn't afford to be extravagant, otherwise he'd end up homeless.
Wei Xiaoyu smiled radiantly as she happily went to the bathroom to shower. Now, she had to seize the opportunity. Relationships between people are cultivated, not innate. Fu Ying and Xiao Qing didn't even know Zhou Xuan at this point, and she thought it was useless anyway. Besides, she wasn't a fool or a puppet; she wouldn't let him develop feelings for Fu Ying and Xiao Qing. Before, Zhou Xuan had met them first, and she had followed suit—there was nothing she could do about it. But now it was different. Now she was the first to know Zhou Xuan, and they had developed some feelings for each other over time. Not exactly romantic love, but at least Zhou Xuan no longer saw her as a spoiled, arrogant, and domineering rich girl, and he didn't resent her as a person. That was enough.
From this moment on, it begins between her and Zhou Xuan. Before, she felt guilty towards Fu Ying and her sister for doing this and thinking this way, but now she feels at peace with herself.
Zhou Xuan heard Wei Xiaoyu humming a song in the bathroom, sighed, and stopped thinking about these troubling things. He took the golden stone out of his backpack, then took a fruit knife and cut a small gash on the tip of his left index finger. As the blood gushed out, he quickly touched the golden stone.
The last time, I was asleep and didn't know how I obtained the ice energy ability, but this time I understood it very well. I had experience, and I was fully awake, so I wanted to see it clearly.
After the blood gushed out, it flowed onto the surface of the golden stone and instantly seeped into the stone, as if it were absorbed by a sponge. Then, the golden stone lit up with a very faint blue light, which enveloped the stone. Zhou Xuan immediately felt a faint tingling sensation in his left hand, as if a weak electric current was shocking him.
Then, a faint but familiar wisp of icy energy flowed from the golden stone into his left hand, lingering on his wrist. The skin on his hand became slightly more yellow than before, and the golden stone that his left hand was in contact with turned pitch black. The energy within the golden stone had been transferred into Zhou Xuan's left wrist.
With his mission accomplished, Zhou Xuan finally felt relieved. He looked up and saw Wei Xiaoyu staring at him. After a while, she asked, "Is this how you acquired your superpower?"
"Yes," Zhou Xuan replied without hiding anything, telling her the whole story of what happened on the horse. Finally, he added, "I can only try to regain the ice energy ability and then find an opportunity to strengthen it, to see if I can get that crystal again. If I get the crystal, perhaps I can return to the original time."
"I don't want to go back to the old days. Isn't it good now? We are still the same people, and our families are still the same people. We don't lack anything, and we don't have anything more. What's wrong with that?"
Wei Xiaoyu immediately shook her head and said affirmatively, then thought for a moment and asked another question: "Zhou Xuan, how did you and Fu Ying meet?"
When Zhou Xuan thought of Fu Ying, his heart was filled with tenderness, and he gazed at her longingly, while casually recounting the scene of his meeting with Fu Ying.
“I remember that day, the day I met Yingying, was August 1st, Army Day. I was working by the sea, and Yingying and her assistant Wang Jue were swimming at the amusement park where I worked. After I got this golden stone at the bottom of the sea, I met her in the sea. My first impression of Yingying was that she was a very good diver. She needed to find a diving expert to go to the bottom of the sinkhole in the United States to find the remains of her great-great-grandfather.”
Seeing the tenderness on Zhou Xuan's face and the endless longing in his words when he talked about Fu Ying, Wei Xiaoyu felt both envious and bitter. After a moment of silence, she asked, "Is today July 31st?"
Zhou Xuan casually replied, "Yes, July 31st, the tenth day of the sixth lunar month. There's no way I could forget that date."
Yes, who could forget such an event, such a day?
Wei Xiaoyu bit her lip, her face darkening. Tomorrow, Fu Ying and Zhou Xuan were going to meet. Tomorrow, she had to find a way to stop them from meeting. As long as Fu Ying didn't fall in love with Zhou Xuan, there was nothing Zhou Xuan could do. With a proud woman like Fu Ying, as long as she made a little trouble, sabotaged things a bit, and if she was a little intimate with Zhou Xuan when Fu Ying appeared, or if she secretly told Fu Ying that she was Zhou Xuan's girlfriend, Fu Ying would never have feelings for Zhou Xuan again. Moreover, she had heard from Zhou Xuan that Fu Ying fell in love with him when they were at the bottom of the sinkhole in America, and Zhou Xuan risked his life to save her. Now, as long as she prevented Zhou Xuan and Fu Ying from going to America, their feelings wouldn't develop, and none of this would have happened.
If it weren't for Fu Ying, Xiao Qing wouldn't have known Zhou Xuan at this point, and Wei Xiaoyu believed that Zhou Xuan would definitely fall in love with her.
Zhou Xuan knew that Wei Xiaoyu didn't want to go back to the original time, but he didn't know what she was thinking now. He had nothing else to say at the moment. His longing was her joy. He sighed, then went to the bathroom to take a shower. After showering, he got dressed, turned off the lights, and went to sleep.
With two beds, Wei Xiaoyu seemed unable to sleep, tossing and turning.
Zhou Xuan remained completely still, his breathing steady, leading Wei Xiaoyu to believe he was asleep.
In fact, Zhou Xuan was not asleep, but was practicing ice energy, combining ice energy with his internal energy. He had previous experience with this, so he did not take any detours and easily combined ice energy with his internal energy to transform it into a new pill of ice energy. Although it was small, this new evolutionary ability was cultivated and stored in his left wrist.
His experience was truly remarkable. This night's practice was stronger than the month he had spent practicing when he first acquired his ice-qi ability. Back then, he didn't understand or even know how it worked. Many of his abilities were only acquired through long periods of exploration. He had all that experience, and all he needed to do was strengthen the energy of his ice-qi in the future. This night's practice resulted in a slightly higher concentration and purity of ice-qi than the level he achieved a month earlier.
Initially, Zhou Xuan could only detect objects up to three meters away, and he would tire after using it once. Today, although he had also just acquired the ice energy ability, the new pill-formed ice energy, honed through years of experience, would not cause fatigue if he were only detecting objects, and the detection range could reach six or seven meters. However, the ice energy was still too weak to be converted into gold and absorbed. To reach that stage, he would probably need to further refine and strengthen the ice energy.
Today I spent several hundred yuan, and then I booked this room, which cost over three hundred yuan. Including the swimsuit and food, I spent a total of over seven hundred yuan. I only have four thousand five hundred yuan left in my card out of five thousand yuan, so I have to be careful with my money. Now that there are two of us, I can't just abandon Wei Xiaoyu. Although she's not worried about me abandoning her, Zhou Xuan still can't bring himself to do that at this moment.
As dawn broke, Zhou Xuan got up early. Knowing that today was the day he would meet Fu Ying, he was so excited that he couldn't sleep. Regaining his ice energy didn't excite him much.
After washing his face, Zhou Xuan sat on the edge of the bed, picked up his old Nokia phone, and dialed his home number in Beijing. The computer on the other end said, "Sorry, the number you dialed is not in service..."
Then I dialed Fu Ying's phone number, Zhou Tao's phone number, and Zhou Ying's phone number, but all the numbers were disconnected. After thinking for a moment, I dialed Li Wei's phone number, and this time it went through.
"Hello, who is it?" It was a very arrogant voice, clearly Li Wei's. He probably didn't recognize the number, hence the unfriendly tone.
"Li Wei, it's me, Zhou Xuan, do you remember me?" Zhou Xuan tried to make his words simple and clear so that Li Wei could understand them immediately.
"Zhou Xuan? Don't know him. I remember you my foot. Stop making these harassing calls, or I'll kill you." Then the phone went dead, clearly Li Wei had hung up.
Wei Xiaoyu cupped her face in her hands and said calmly, "You should save your breath. A year ago, Li Wei didn't even know you. He was a notorious playboy. Right now, he's probably out partying."
After saying that, he held out his hand again and said, "Give me your phone, I need to make a call."
Zhou Xuan sullenly handed her his phone.
Wei Xiaoyu thought for a moment, then called home first, put it on speakerphone, and deliberately let Zhou Xuan hear it. Her mother's voice came through the phone: "Hello, who is this?"
"Mom, it's me."
"Xiaoyu? You...where have you gone? Your dad can't find you either. Is it some dangerous mission you're on?"