“No, it’s a web novel.” Zhou Zhou said casually, while observing the other person’s expression. Sure enough, upon hearing the words “web novel,” Yuan Qing frowned in dissatisfaction once again.
Hehe, Zhou Zhou chuckled silently, thinking that the other party was really a bit arrogant, looking down on everything.
"Xiao Zhou, may I call you that?" Yuan Qing suppressed his emotions, lowered his posture, and said sincerely, "You can call me Brother Yuan. I truly consider you my younger brother."
"Okay." Zhou Zhou said with a forced smile. "Brother Yuan, what brings you here today?"
"My initial purpose in meeting you was to persuade you to get a divorce..."
"Impossible, next one."
[Author's Note: The main plot that had been vaguely emerging has finally been brought to the fore in my writing.]
Chapter Sixty-Nine: Who Am I?
===============================
Rejected without mercy, Yuan Qing gave a bleak smile. "Let me finish. I know I can't persuade you now. This is my business card. The teacher is leaving. If you're willing, I'll be your family from now on." With that, she handed over a business card from her pocket.
CEO of Cai's Limited Liability Company
Seeing the suffix, Zhou Zhou raised an eyebrow. No wonder the other party spoke in a leader's tone most of the time; it seemed they were doing quite well.
Taking in Zhou Zhou's expression, Yuan Qing smiled with satisfaction. "As you can see, if you're not satisfied with your current job, you can come find me."
"Thanks." Zhou Zhou casually stuffed the business card into his pocket and tilted his head. "But both my parents are literature professors. How did you end up working in a different field?"
Yuan Qing's smile faded, and she said without changing her expression, "This is the property of the family I married into. My current husband is not talented in this area, so I will take over."
"I see."
Zhou Zhou smiled enigmatically and finished off the now-cold food in front of him. A beam of sunlight shone through the greenhouse glass onto the center of the round table, dividing it in two: one half was Zhou Zhou, and the other half was Yuan Qing. Neither of them spoke; the beam of light seemed to separate two worlds.
"I've finished eating, I'll be going now." Zhou Zhou picked up his plate and wine glass to leave, but paused as he turned his back and said slowly, "Brother Yuan, thank you. I appreciate your kindness today. Everything is as I wish now. If my parents were still alive, I think they would also want me to be happy."
Yuan Qing didn't say anything, just quietly watched Zhou Zhou's departing figure. After a moment, she suddenly covered her face and laughed out loud, then stood up, picked up the red wine that had long lost its flavor, and drank it all in one gulp.
After saying those words, Zhou Zhou's feelings were already mixed, and his bad mood only returned when he saw someone.
"Fu Hengzhi." Zhou Zhou walked towards him with the plate in her hand, her pace quickening.
Fu Hengzhi was talking to someone in the courtyard. Upon hearing this, he turned around, took everything from the other person's hands, took out a tissue to wipe the corner of his mouth, and said gently, "Are you in a hurry? You didn't even wipe your mouth."
"Ah, I forgot." Zhou Zhou was taken aback and blushed. It would have been fine if it were just the other person, but there were other people in front of her.
"Mrs. Fu." The man greeted him with a smile, then turned to Fu Hengzhi and said, "Mr. Fu, I'll be going now."
"Alright, take care, Mr. Cai." Fu Hengzhi nodded as he saw him off.
Who is he?
“Cai Qi, the heir of the Cai family.” Fu Hengzhi saw that he was still looking at Cai Qi, so he moved slightly to block his view and pinched his cheek lightly with a hint of jealousy. “What are you looking at him for? I’ve come to take you home.”
"Where's Mom?" Zhou Zhou looked around, but Duan Yun was nowhere to be seen.
“Dad came with me. The banquet will last until evening, then he and Mom will go home together.” Fu Hongjiang had already gone to the lobby to accompany Duan Yun. The BMW that Zhou Zhou had arrived in had been driven to us by a waiter, and Fu Hengzhi opened the passenger door for Zhou Zhou.
The two got into the car, and Zhou Zhou saw Yuan Qing, a familiar face, through the car window.
And standing next to the other person was none other than Cai Lin from just now.
Just as Fu Hengzhi was about to say something, he noticed that Zhou Zhou's mind was elsewhere, so he followed her gaze and asked, "Do you know her?"
Zhou Zhou: "The one next to Cai Lin."
"That's Yuan Qing, the CEO of Cai's Enterprises and Cai Lin's partner. Cai Lin loves calligraphy and painting, and the two met at a calligraphy and painting exhibition. It is said that Cai Lin fell in love with Yuan Qing at first sight and pursued her for two years before bringing her into the Cai family."
Zhou Zhou rarely heard Fu Hengzhi talk about other people's affairs, so she looked at him, squinted, and said softly, "President Fu knows a lot about this."
"Don't overthink what people in the industry are saying." Fu Hengzhi leaned in and kissed his eyebrows and eyes. "How did you meet Yuan Qing?"
“He was my father’s student,” Zhou Zhou said calmly, his eyes lowered. Suddenly, he remembered that he should have another family in his memory.
"Can you take me to where I used to live?" Zhou Zhou paused, then murmured, "My parents' house."
In Fu Hengzhi's memory, this seemed to be the first time Zhou Zhou had brought up the old house in front of him. This had been a sensitive topic since her parents passed away. Every time he mentioned it before, she would slam the door and leave, and their relationship would become more strained.
"Okay." Fu Hengzhi pressed the other person's head into his chest, gently stroking the back of their head, and softly asked, "Shall we find a place to eat first, and then go?"
Zhou Zhou didn't say a word, but her trembling body answered the question for her master.
Fu Hengzhi looked at the person in his arms with heartache, gently patted his shoulder to comfort him, and let the other's tears soak his own clothes without saying a word.
“I’ve made a reservation. Let’s go to B University tonight after dinner to see the calligraphy and painting exhibition that the students organized themselves.” Cai Qi looked at Yuan Qing with tenderness in his eyes, but the other person’s gaze did not linger on him.
Following Yuan Qing's gaze, Cai Qi could vaguely see two people embracing in the BMW in front of him. He moved closer and put his arm around the other person's waist. "What are you looking at?"
"It's nothing." Yuan Qing withdrew her gaze and looked at the person in front of her calmly. "What did you just say?"
"The calligraphy and painting exhibition at B University tonight." Cai Qi wasn't angry at all that the other person hadn't listened to him. Instead, he gently explained again, "Haven't you always wanted to go see it?"
“That was before.” Yuan Qing strode off on her own. “I have a social engagement tonight.”
With his men gone, Cai Qi's face clearly showed his disappointment, but he still composed himself and chased after them, "There will be more tomorrow night, and there will be more at H University next door, that's your alma mater, we..."
Outside the window, the lights were twinkling. The car headed west and gradually drove out of the inner ring road. The scenery became increasingly unfamiliar until it entered an apartment complex. The environment was certainly not comparable to the Fu family villa, but it was still a high-end residence. Fu Hengzhi drove the car to the underground garage.
The two walked together to a residential building. After entering, Zhou Zhou pressed the elevator button for the eighth floor, following his memory. After exiting the elevator, he walked to the right and stopped in front of the dusty door.
A sense of familiarity, along with fragmented memories, washed over him. Zhou Zhou slowly closed his eyes and remained motionless for a long time.
This seems to be the first time the original owner has returned home in any sense since the plane crash.
Yes, for the first time, whether it was the original owner's initiative or Zhou Zhou's spontaneous arrival.
Seeing his restrained expression, Fu Hengzhi put his arm around his shoulder and pulled him half-into his embrace. "Open the door."
"Hmm." Zhou Zhou entered the password and pushed open the door, a whiff of dust hitting him.
With a 'thud,' Fu Hengzhi reached out and touched the wall, turning on the lights in the entryway and living room. The layout of the room was clearly visible; the desktops, cabinets, sofas, coffee tables, and all the large objects were covered with a layer of visible dust.
Zhou Zhou couldn't take a step, staring blankly at everything in front of him.
"Are you alright?" Fu Hengzhi was worried that the other person's emotions would collapse again, so he let go of his hand and instead intertwined his fingers with his, whispering in his ear, "Do you still want to go in and see?"
"Well, I'm just looking around. You can find a place to sit down."
"Call me if you need anything." Fu Hengzhi knew that the other party meant he didn't want him to come along.
Zhou Zhou released the other person's hand, turned and walked towards a bedroom with a wide-open door. There was a beautifully framed photo on the headboard of the bedroom.
Zhou Zhou walked over and picked it up. Using the moonlight that shone in, he reached out and wiped away the layer of dust, and the image on it gradually became clear.
*Smack!*
Fu Hengzhi was standing in the living room looking at the ornaments on the display cabinet when he suddenly heard the sound of something falling to the ground coming from the bedroom.
"Zhou Zhou!" Fu Hengzhi ran into the bedroom and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the other person was just kneeling on the floor with a broken picture frame in front of him. Fortunately, he seemed to be alright. He went over to help him up, brushed the dust off his pants, and said, "The floor is dirty. I'll go find something to clean it up... What happened?"
Fu Hengzhi hurriedly took out a tissue from his pocket to wipe away Zhou Zhou's unstoppable tears, but was grabbed by the wrist by the other party.
“Fu Hengzhi…”
"I'm here." Fu Hengzhi hugged him and gently lifted his face. The smiling eyes in front of him were already red and swollen from crying.
Zhou Zhou was in an unprecedented headache, but he couldn't care less about that and kept asking the person in front of him the same question.
"Who am I? Who am I really...?"
Chapter Seventy: Tomorrow Morning Will Definitely Be Sunny
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"Who am I? Who am I?!" Zhou Zhou kept repeating his question, his voice getting louder and louder, his emotions very unstable. Fu Hengzhi stopped wiping away his endless tears and instead reached out to hold his shoulders, hoping that he could calm down.
“Zhou Zhou, you are Zhou Zhou.” Fu Hengzhi answered the question carefully, hugging him tightly and soothing him with his hands on Zhou Zhou’s back. “You are Zhou Zhou, the only son of the Zhou family, my only partner. Be good, let’s calm down, okay? Tell me what happened.”
Amidst broken picture frames and shards of glass at her feet, a photograph lay buried beneath the wreckage. Zhou Zhou stared blankly at the family of three in the photo, remaining silent for a long time.
I really shouldn't have come here.
Fu Hengzhi was annoyed with himself. He had been too careless. Seeing that the other party had been perfectly normal for so long, he thought that this matter was already a thing of the past for the other party. He had almost forgotten how painful Zhou Zhou had been.
I shouldn't have come here.
Within ten minutes of entering, Fu Hengzhi already had the idea of taking Zhou Zhou away.
"Baby, shall we leave now?" Fu Hengzhi stroked Zhou Zhou's face and asked tentatively, "Shall we come back in a few days?"
“Leave…” Zhou Zhou murmured to himself, shaking his head in a post-traumatic stress disorder posture, his expression blank. “I won’t leave. My parents are still here. Who am I…” He then bent down, trying to pick up the photo that was pinned down by shards of glass.
"I'll do it." Fu Hengzhi didn't dare let the other person touch these sharp objects. He bent down first, picked up the photo, shook it to make sure there were no glass shards attached to it, handed the photo to Zhou Zhou, and then hugged the other person to avoid the glass shards underfoot and walked towards the living room.
A layer of dust covered the place where people could sit. Fu Hengzhi took off his coat and laid it flat on the sofa. He helped Zhou Zhou sit down and said, "Be good, sit here for a while. I'll go clean up the broken glass inside." He turned to look for a broom and other tools, but after taking two steps, he turned back and said, "I'll be quick. You stay here and don't move. We'll go home after I'm done cleaning."
Zhou Zhou's attention was drawn to the photo in her hand, her brows furrowed with lingering sorrow. Upon hearing this, she simply nodded without speaking, her fingertips lightly touching the faces of the middle-aged couple in the photo, her lips moving slightly as if calling out to them.
Why.
Actually, he noticed it the moment he met Yuan Qing in the afternoon and she mentioned her father. He realized that the original owner's parents had the same names as his parents. He initially thought it was a coincidence, but at the time, he couldn't recall what his parents looked like. After seeing the photo, the two familiar faces gradually became clear and eventually overlapped with the faces in the photo.
Yes, exactly the same, name or appearance, at least in his vague memory of it, there was no difference.
Why? Is this really just a coincidence?
Zhou Zhou asked himself again, as if something was about to break free from its cocoon in his heart, but the butterfly wings of truth were stuck in the last thin shell.
Fu Hengzhi acted quickly, finally finding the dusty cleaning tools in the kitchen. After emptying the glass shards into the trash can, he quickly ran to the living room.
"Phew." Upon seeing the motionless figure on the sofa, Fu Hengzhi breathed a sigh of relief and quietly walked over to hug the other person.
The reassuring scent that reached Zhou Zhou's nose shattered his illusion that this was all a dream.
The truth is real—Zhou Zhou is real, and Fu Hengzhi is real—but the veil of mystery still firmly covers the face of the truth, and Zhou Zhou will only think more deeply.
Why did he transmigrate into the book? If it was a soul transmigration, what about his body? Was he originally dead? Where did the original owner go? If his soul has taken over the body, what about the original owner's soul? Will the other party become a homeless wandering spirit because of his arrival?
Questions rained down on Zhou Zhou, and he was almost overwhelmed by these ingenious ideas.
"Baby?" Half a day passed, and Fu Hengzhi stood still, with no movement from the person in his arms. Fu Hengzhi looked down and realized that the other person was already breathing evenly. Almost without hesitation, Fu Hengzhi bent down, picked the other person up, and left this place, which was full of past memories but now looked desolate.
Zhou Zhou had never realized that the table in the restaurant was so big, so big that when the two of them sat facing each other, he actually felt that the other person was so small.
"What's going on?" Zhou Zhou asked, puzzled.