'Little Zhouzhou' knelt beside him, gazing at him silently, listening to the faint growls emanating from his throat, like a dying wild beast.
In his anguish, Zhou Zhou peered into those lost memories. He saw himself holding a gilded and crimson graduation certificate, the interview invitation from his dream university, and the pale and lifeless death notice.
In an instant, the dream shattered. Those brilliant memories lost their luster like the final fireworks, slowly merging into the darkness. But then, time rewound to that point, and the beautiful dream repeated itself endlessly. Only pain accumulated. Those around him did the same things over and over again without realizing it. Only he was awake, only he was repeatedly enduring this pain.
Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he chose to end his own life...
Later, he became a young man with the same name in another world, living a simple but happy life without any memories of this place...
"Wake up! I can't take it anymore! Do you want to die again?!"
Zhou Zhou's dilated pupils gradually focused, and he met the gaze of 'Little Zhou Zhou' who was tightly supporting his head in the bathtub.
"Holy crap!" Zhou Zhou hurriedly got up, and the 'little Zhou Zhou' that was supporting his head finally caught his breath before he sat down weakly in the bathtub filled with water.
"I asked you to recall the past, not to reenact it!" 'Little Zhou Zhou' said irritably, "You almost died! You almost died completely!"
“That was just now…” Zhou Zhou sat on the bathroom floor, staring blankly at the gleaming surface.
"Your past memories." 'Little Zhou Zhou' was soaked to the bone, the fabric clinging uncomfortably to his skin. He asked angrily, "Do you remember?"
"...Is that true?" Zhou Zhou asked uncertainly, and the next second he was splashed with water in the other person's face.
"What do you think?" 'Little Zhou Zhou' looked at him angrily.
"So I am the original owner, Zhou Zhou of this world?"
"yes."
"And what about you?" Zhou Zhou asked, confused. "Didn't you say you were one too? But you also said you were some kind of system..."
“I’m the system maintenance guy. My job is to fix the bugs in the book and prevent the world in the book from collapsing.” ’Little Zhou Zhou’ stood up and began to take off his wet clothes one by one in the bathtub, complaining as he spoke, “The ending in the book is always the same no matter how the process changes, but the life point of each character is fixed. Losing even a second will cause the world to collapse. Recently, there have been a lot of bugs in the book, and I have been fixing them. Who knew that I would have missed you back then?”
"Huh?" Zhou Zhou was completely bewildered; the other party's explanation was beyond his comprehension.
"What 'huh'? Who told you to commit suicide back then!" 'Little Zhou Zhou' threw the clothes on the ground, snorted, and continued on from where she left off, "By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. I could only apply to the higher-level system to temporarily take your place, thinking that when this round of the plot ended and we returned to the starting point, I would contact the system in your world, create an accidental death for you, and then take you back..."
"Wait!" Zhou Zhou understood now. It seemed that he could only travel between the two worlds by dying, which meant, "The me in that world is dead?!"
“Yes.” ’Little Zhouzhou’ gritted its teeth. This was another turning point. The other party’s unexpected death forced it to return the soul to its original body. So at that time, it used the other party’s body’s impact with the hotel bedside table to find the right angle and hit itself hard, which made it return to its original body.
Zhou Zhou was troubled by the fact that he had actually died in that world, and hurriedly asked, "How did I die?"
“Carbon monoxide poisoning.” ’Xiao Zhouzhou’ glanced at him. “When you were asleep, it seems like the water was still boiling in the kitchen and the gas stove was still on.”
"...Grass?" With that prompting, Zhou Zhou remembered. He was so sleepy at the time that he had planned to boil water, make a cup of coffee, and then read a book, but he got angry while reading...
Now Zhou Zhou can figure it out. He is Zhou Zhou from the book. He chose to end his life because he could not bear the pain of his parents' repeated deaths. He was temporarily reborn in another world. After being reborn, he died again and returned to this body. Throughout the days when he was not in the book, the system took his place.
So melodramatic.
Zhou Zhou's brow twitched. He looked at 'Little Zhou Zhou,' who had already started taking a bath in the tub, and hesitated for a moment before asking, "So what's your situation now?"
Why did I have to explain all this to him, even though I've ended up like this?
"A monarch traveling incognito, officials going to the countryside... oh, that's pretty much the same idea." 'Little Zhou Zhou' gave an impatient 'ah,' leaning against the edge of the bathtub and staring at him. "Ever since you came back, I've been watching you, in your mind, behind your back..."
Zhou Zhou could understand the inexplicable sense of being watched from behind, but what was going on in his mind?
"What's in your mind?"
“When you first came back, I was worried that your soul wasn’t stable enough, so I stayed in your body for a while longer.” ’Little Zhou Zhou’ blinked. “So the reason your wounds healed so quickly in the early stages was all thanks to me. I helped you regulate your bodily functions.”
"So what are you now?" Zhou Zhou asked, puzzled.
"The higher-level system was afraid you'd cause another bug, so it told me to just stay with you until the plot returns to its starting point, then I won't have to do this anymore." 'Little Zhou Zhou' stared at her chubby little arms with worry. "I was tired of being in virtual form and wanted to go back to when I had a real body, but somehow the data was imported from when you were a child." The system missed the time when it replaced the other person and lived a luxurious life that couldn't be more comfortable.
“You’ve become like this…” Zhou Zhou stared at the tiny ‘self’ in the bathtub in front of him, looking worried. “Can you support yourself?”
"?" Upon hearing this, 'Little Zhou Zhou' looked surprised and murmured, "You want me to support myself?"
Zhou Zhou: "?"
"Are you willing to do that? I'm so young, don't you have any other thoughts when you look at me?"
"!" Zhou Zhou suddenly raised her voice, "That's what I looked like when I was a child. What could I possibly think of you? I'm not a pervert!"
“Fatherly love.” ’Little Zhou Zhou’ stood up in the bathtub, his naked body chubby. “Didn’t your mother-in-law want to hold her grandson?”
“You must be four years old.” Zhou Zhou sighed, rubbing her forehead. “I’m twenty-five this year, so I was twenty-one when I had you? And I already have a husband.”
He couldn't even imagine how green Fu Hengzhi's face would be when he saw this child.
"Wouldn't that be even better for both of us?" 'Little Zhou Zhou' said confidently, "A happy family."
"Beautiful my foot!" Zhou Zhou said irritably.
"Daddy, I want to rub my back but I can't reach behind me~" 'Little Zhou Zhou' held the towel and reached behind her, blinking her eyes and looking pitiful.
"Don't call me that." Zhou Zhou said as she took the towel from the other person's hand and wiped his back roughly.
[Author's Note: This is a bit complicated. If you don't understand or have any questions, feel free to ask. In short, this time, Zhou Zhou and Fu Zong happily gained a son, fulfilling Duan Yun's dream of becoming a grandmother.]
System: I'm coming clean, I want to live a life of luxury! I want to become the grandson of the Fu family!
Actually, I feel there are some minor sad moments hidden in the story. For example, Zhou Zhou repeatedly experienced the pain of her parents' death. Wang Kunxiang said that she was in pain but refused to tell him. In fact, Zhou Zhou told him at each point of recurrence, but Wang Kunxiang used the same way to comfort her at each point. So Zhou Zhou eventually broke down in the repeated cycle.
I'll let you in on a little secret: there are other hidden, slightly angsty moments QAQ.
Chapter Ninety: I Admit There Was an Elements of Gambling Involved
=====================================
That cry of "Dad" brought the atmosphere to a fever pitch. The three of them faced off in the bathroom, with the big one and the little one on the other side of the bathtub too scared to look Fu Hengzhi in the eye.
Zhou Zhou understood Fu Hengzhi all too well. Putting herself in Fu Hengzhi's shoes, if she were in his shoes today with a child who looked 90% like her, she would also feel like she was being cuckolded.
Why use someone else's face when he was a child? Now look what's happened, no one would believe Fu Hengzhi was adopted.
Zhou Zhou glanced furtively at 'Little Zhou Zhou,' who was hiding halfway in the bathtub behind him. 'Little Zhou Zhou' also raised his head at the same time, and the two, one big and one small, tried to communicate with each other through their eyes.
"Zhou Zhou, give me an explanation." Fu Hengzhi took two steps forward, his face filled with nothing but bleak sorrow in addition to anger. The child in front of him looked to be three or four years old. Even though the world's technology has advanced rapidly to meet the needs of same-sex couples to become parents, every fertility ward has strict procedures. Both partners are indispensable for the birth of the child, and in addition to a large amount of financial investment, it also requires three years of gestation time.
A three- or four-year-old child, plus the three years of gestation, would take at least six to seven years. At that time, Zhou Zhou wouldn't even be twenty years old, and wouldn't meet the requirements to become the child's father.
If gestation through technology is impossible, then artificial insemination is the only option. A four-year-old child, if the other party had a sexual relationship with a woman when he was twenty-one... Fu Hengzhi smiled bitterly at this thought, a sense of powerless defeat welling up from the bottom of his heart.
He thought the other person had disappeared and searched frantically, only to find that the other person was secretly bathing a wild child here.
"Tell me the truth, and I can overlook what happened in the past." Fu Hengzhi felt a lump in his throat; this was his biggest concession.
“Explanation…” Zhou Zhou looked at Fu Hengzhi, then at the ‘little Zhou Zhou’ in the bathtub, looking troubled. After stammering for a long time, she slowly said, “Well… do you believe in materialism?”
"What?" Fu Hengzhi frowned. In his opinion, the other party's words were no different from changing the subject.
Zhou Zhou easily understood the meaning behind his expression and waved his hand hurriedly, saying, "I didn't mean to change the subject, I just wanted to say..." He gritted his teeth and stamped his foot, saying, "If you believe in materialism, then put it aside for now."
"What do you mean?"
“What do I mean…” Zhou Zhou said as she walked to his side, naturally taking his arm, pointing at the child in the bathtub, and said, “Listen to what he has to say.”
The question was immediately thrown at the system.
"?" He was careless. He was so focused on living a luxurious life that he hastily recognized a father, but he forgot that he actually had more than one father.
'Little Zhou Zhou's' face fell. The world and system laws in the book could not be known to a second character in the book, otherwise it would be easy for bugs to appear again. But how should it be explained now?
'Little Zhou Zhou' stared at President Fu, who was nearly 1.9 meters tall, and slowly rolled out of the bathtub. During the process, because his arms and legs were too short, he fell on his butt on the smooth floor.
Zhou Zhou and Fu Hengzhi didn't react in time. They had already reached out to catch it, but they were a step too slow. Their skin hit the marble with a 'pia' sound, which looked painful.
Little Zhou Zhou seemed stunned by the fall, sitting blankly on the ground. A moment later, tears instantly filled her eyes, and with a "waaaah," her innocent childish cry echoed throughout the bathroom.
Fu Hengzhi and Zhou Zhou squatted down beside him. When they saw the child bursting into tears, the two grown men, who had never taken care of a child before, were at a loss. Although their subconscious told them that this was a system, Zhou Zhou's heart softened when she saw him crying so hard.
"Don't cry, come here, let me hug you..."
"I don't want you!" Little Zhou Zhou cried, slapping away the other's outstretched hand. Her little face crumpled as she rushed towards Fu Hengzhi, opening her short arms. "I want Daddy to hug me."
Zhou Zhou: "?"
“?” Fu Hengzhi frowned and subconsciously said, “I’m not your daddy.”
As she spoke, she looked at Zhou Zhou beside her with a puzzled expression, not understanding why the child had been calling the other person "dad" just a few minutes ago, but was now calling her "daddy."
Zhou Zhou glanced back at him and shook his head. Then he stared at the naked child in front of him and examined him closely. The child was crying his heart out. If he didn't know what kind of thing the child was, he probably would have believed it.
"Yes, you are Daddy." Little Zhou Zhou clutched Fu Hengzhi's clothes with his chubby little hands, crying with snot and tears streaming down his face, "Daddy, don't you and Daddy want Xiao Fan anymore?"
Human hearts are made of flesh and blood. One second Fu Hengzhi was angry that the child might be Zhou Zhou's illegitimate child, but the next second he saw the little guy looking pitiful and reached out to pick him up.
"Your name is Xiao Fan?" Fu Hengzhi glanced at Zhou Zhou, who had also stood up, then stared at the child in his arms with a complicated expression, and asked stiffly, "Zhou Xiao Fan?"
“My name is Fu Xiaofan.” Fu Xiaofan grabbed Fu Hengzhi’s collar and sobbed, “Daddy, please don’t abandon me. I’ve been looking for you for so long. I promise I will be a good boy and not spend money recklessly. Please don’t abandon me, waaaaah.”
Wow, it even came up with a name for itself! Zhou Zhou applauded the system's superb performance in his heart. With the show going this far, Zhou Zhou could roughly guess the direction it would take. This might be a grand cross-time drama about a biological son traveling through time to find his father.
Since none of these can be explained by materialism, this might be more convincing than stories about systems or the like?
Zhou Zhou secretly observed Fu Hengzhi's reaction. The other man was looking at the naked child wiping tears and snot on the collar of his bespoke suit, his face full of worry.
Fu Hengzhi even suspected that this was the story Zhou Zhou had taught the other party, but he dismissed the thought as soon as it came to mind. The three or four-year-old child was crying so hard that he was almost fainting, which did not seem like an act.
"You said your surname is Fu?" Fu Hengzhi reached out and patted Fu Xiaofan on the back, asking softly, "What's your daddy's name?"
"Fu, Fu Heng, Hengzhi." Fu Xiaofan sobbed, clutching Fu Hengzhi's collar and refusing to let go. "Daddy, it's so hard for Xiaofan to find you. I'm so scared. Please don't abandon me."
Seeing that Fu Hengzhi was holding Fu Xiaofan without moving, Zhou Zhou thought that since the system had gone to such lengths, he should play along. So he reached out and patted Fu Hengzhi's shoulder, saying softly, "I had the same reaction as you an hour ago."
Fu Hengzhi looked at him silently, and Zhou Zhou sighed, "I don't want to believe it either, but he really looks like me when I was a child. It's not just similar, it's exactly the same."
Then he added, "Actually, I don't believe it. The idea of finding parents through time and space is really unscientific." Zhou Zhou pondered for a moment and said, "How about we send him to one of those scientific research institutes?"
Upon hearing this, Fu Xiaofan shuddered and howled even louder, calling out "Daddy" and "Papa" repeatedly.
Fu Hengzhi reached out and gently patted Fu Xiaofan on the back. He had been thinking, but when he heard Zhou Zhou say this, he looked at him with a complicated expression and said, "...No, I think."
[Author's Note: Fu Xiaofan: Success!]
Fu Hengzhi: [Thinking].jpg
Zhou Zhou: Sending it to the research institute... I admit there was an element of gambling involved.
】