Chapter 100 The End of the Main Text
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“How coincidental, you’re here too?”
Chu Feng walked out of the DNA identification center and heard a familiar voice behind him. He turned his head and saw a blue shared bike parked next to his Lamborghini, with a man wearing bandages sitting on it.
…X?
“How come you’re here?” Chu Feng lowered his head and asked, “Is your leg… okay?” Chu Feng asked.
X got off the bike gracefully. “It’s an electric-assisted bike, no need to pedal.”
“Let me give you a ride back later?” Chu Feng sat in the driver’s seat. Although X’s legs could move normally, they probably couldn’t withstand prolonged activity. X’s hotel, Golden Orchid Star, was also on the way home.
“Thank you.” X accepted the offer, then changed the subject:
“I didn’t expect to see you here.”
X glanced up at the signboard of the building in front of them: DNA Identification Center.
Chu Feng’s hand on the steering wheel stiffened, suddenly feeling awkward as if caught red-handed.
He chuckled twice, intending to brush off the question vaguely, “Just passing by… for some errands…”
X got straight to the point:
“Are you here for DNA testing too?”
Chu Feng: “…”
X looked at the silent Chu Feng and spoke frankly:
“DNA identification requires samples from two people. It might be a bit presumptuous, but I still want to ask, did your deceased husband leave behind any DNA information? I think it might help clarify some doubts in my mind.”
“…!”
Chu Feng looked at X in astonishment, not expecting X to be so direct.
X continued, “I compared several DNA institutions in H City and found that only this one has a highly secure computer system that won’t leak DNA information. I didn’t expect you to find this place. So, does it mean your ex-husband left behind DNA information?”
“…”
X guessed it all correctly. Chu Feng had nothing to say and could only utter a vague agreement.
“Well, that’s great.” X deliberately said, “Didn’t expect to meet you here at the entrance. If it’s convenient, shall we go in for the test now?”
X leaned casually against the car window, looking at Chu Feng with a smirk:
“Shall we? I provide my DNA, and you provide your ex-husband’s. After comparing, we’ll both have a clearer understanding.”
“Maybe… it’s not necessary.” Chu Feng seemed to realize something, his expression a bit unnatural. “I just… did the test. The results will be out in five days.”
“Really?” X pretended to be surprised, putting on a puzzled expression and curious tone, “You already have my DNA?”
Chu Feng: “…Yeah.”
X feigned innocence, his tone revealing pure curiosity:
“When did you collect it? I had no idea…”
“…” Chu Feng hated how cunning X was. X was just like Xie Shiyu, a very cautious and meticulous person. Chu Feng gritted his teeth and said, “How could you not know.”
X looked at Chu Feng with innocent eyes, a look of pure curiosity on his face: “I really don’t know. I’m very curious, where did you collect my DNA from?”
Chu Feng didn’t answer. He lowered his head slightly, looking at the steering wheel, avoiding X’s gaze, and remained silent for a while before saying softly:
“The condom…”
X stared at Chu Feng through the half-open car window, a hint of amusement in his eyes. He pretended to be confused:
“…What did you just say? I didn’t catch that.”
Chu Feng glanced at him, “You clearly heard!”
X chuckled, his voice slightly hoarse, reminiscent of Xie Shiyu’s voice from the past. He casually opened the passenger seat of the Lamborghini and sat next to Chu Feng:
“I was wondering why we were missing one, so you picked up the condom.”
“You knew and still asked!” Chu Feng stepped on the gas, and the Lamborghini roared away.
X sat in the passenger seat like a triumphant fox, secretly observing Chu Feng.
He noticed that Chu Feng’s face remained calm and expressionless, but when the condom was mentioned, the tips of his ears, peeking out from his black tousled hair, turned slightly red.
X stared at those slightly blushing ear tips, wanting to reach out and pinch them.
“Is there something on my face?”
Chu Feng noticed X constantly looking at his profile.
“Here.”
X pointed without touching, Chu Feng was driving, so he didn’t want to disturb him.
Chu Feng: “Is there something on it?”
X pointed to his left ear and smiled, “It’s turning red.”
***
Chu Feng instantly felt his ear heating up.
X didn’t say anything at first, but as soon as he did, Chu Feng immediately remembered how Xie Shiyu used to notice whenever his ears turned red. Xie Shiyu in high school was very impolite; whenever he noticed, he would reach out and pinch his earlobes, making them turn even redder and hotter.
At this moment, his ears seemed to have muscle memory. Even though there was no one pinching them now, they started to heat up.
X: “Oh, it’s getting even redder now.”
The green light turned red, and Chu Feng stopped at the last intersection, feeling a bit annoyed:
“We’re almost at the hotel, get ready to get off.”
X chuckled, as if he used to tease Chu Feng like this, with both ears blushing shyly, but his words were harsh, like a cat with its fur standing on end.
In the past…
Something flashed through his mind like a carousel, and X frowned, trying to think deeply about it, when suddenly his head started throbbing violently.
X held his temples and lowered his head, feeling like there were little people in his head pounding nails.
“What’s wrong?”
The red light turned green, and Chu Feng, driving, saw X’s unusual expression:
“Do you have a headache?”
“It’s nothing.” X pressed his temples and started reciting words according to the instructions of his psychologist, trying to calm his mind.
One boring English word after another popped into his mind, soothing the pounding little people in his head, and his mind gradually calmed down.
Chu Feng: “…Are you really okay?”
“It’s nothing.” X raised his head slightly. “Just a fragment stuck in my head, a simple craniotomy will fix it.”
“…” Chu Feng: “?? And you call that nothing?”
X: “It’ll be fine in a couple of days.”
Chu Feng: ?
X: “Tomorrow, I have to fly to Country M for the craniotomy.”
***
“Tomorrow?” Chu Feng: “Why so sudden?”
X: “It’s hard to schedule with the doctor.”
His surgeries were arranged by the company’s medical robot Neo, as cranial surgery carries significant risks, and there’s a chance of dying on the operating table. Therefore, they sought out the world’s top neurosurgeon, someone who even performed brain surgery for world leaders.
Normally, it’s impossible to schedule appointments with such top-tier doctors, and even if you manage to queue up, it would take a long time before the surgery could be done.
Considering X’s urgent need to recover his memories and remove the fragment from his brain, Neo Medical Robot not only scheduled an appointment with a regular doctor for X but also analyzed big data to determine which time slots the doctor’s appointments might be canceled. Using its automatic ticket-grabbing function, Neo managed to secure a slot with the world-class surgeon for X in advance.
“I’m going to Country M for surgery tomorrow, and I might be back in a few days.”
“You already booked your plane ticket?” Chu Feng: “For such a major surgery, why didn’t you tell me?”
X blinked, seeming a bit puzzled.
After losing his memory, he always went to the hospital alone, went under the knife alone. No one would come to take care of him.
The medical robot Neo would ensure his health and life because a healthy body can contribute more to the gaming company. As for his psychological well-being, Neo didn’t care. Whatever X complained to Neo about, Neo would just repeat:
“Dear, please endure a little longer~”
X had never thought about sharing his pain with another person.
***
The Lamborghini stopped at the Golden Orchid Star Hotel, where X was supposed to get off.
But he didn’t move; there was silence in the car.
Chu Feng didn’t look at X; he stared at the steering wheel in his hand, feeling like he had crossed a line with what he just said.
Since last night, he couldn’t explain what his relationship with X really was.
If it was like his relationship with Xie Shiyu, if Xie Shiyu went to have surgery without telling him, flying to Country M tomorrow, only telling him today, he would definitely scold Xie Shiyu!
But X…
What were he and X?
Regulator and player? Newly acquainted online friends? Adults who slept together once? Xie Shiyu’s potential replacement?
If it was any of these relationships, then it didn’t seem necessary for X to tell him about the surgery.
Chu Feng didn’t know in what capacity he should question X: Why didn’t you tell me about the surgery? He just blurted out his words in a fit of anger.
Chu Feng cleared his throat, pretending he hadn’t said those words earlier, and changed his tone:
“This surgery is quite major. How come… you never mentioned it?”
X could sense Chu Feng’s deeper thoughts. He leaned closer from the passenger seat, pressing near to Chu Feng, who did not pull away.
X asked, “If I tell you, will you come to see me?”
Chu Feng initially wanted to say, “Of course,” as visiting someone who has undergone such a major surgery is naturally the right thing to do.
But gradually, he noticed from X’s expression that X was using the surgery to probe his deeper intentions.
X was going to country M for surgery, requiring an international flight.
If Chu Feng were to visit X… he couldn’t bear to see someone with amnesia undergoing surgery alone in a foreign hospital while he just casually checked in. So, basically, he would end up accompanying X to country M for the surgery.
—Without knowing if X was really Xie Shiyu.
The DNA test report would take five days to come out.
X had previously struggled back from the brink of death alone. Although his body wasn’t as healthy as a normal person’s, his life skills were strong. He didn’t really need someone’s company to proceed with the surgery; he could manage on his own.
Chu Feng was very willing to help X and take care of him during the surgery, but he knew X didn’t need this kind of sympathetic, pitying help. X needed him… in another way, perhaps a form of commitment.
X’s breath was almost against Chu Feng’s ear as he spoke softly, sounding a bit aggrieved:
“You’re not going to come, are you?”
Chu Feng gradually fell silent.
X decided to be frank: “Chu Feng, let me ask you directly. If the DNA test shows that I’m not the same person as your ex-husband, can we still continue?”
Coming to accompany him for the surgery was equivalent to accepting him. Even if he wasn’t that ex-husband, they could still continue.
Otherwise, it was utterly impossible.
***
The familiar Lamborghini, the familiar silence.
After a long pause, Chu Feng replied softly:
“I don’t know.”
***
To Chu Feng’s surprise, instead of disappointment, X smiled.
“What are you smiling about?”
X: “I’m happy.”
Chu Feng: ?
X smiled and said, “You saying you don’t know means there’s still a chance. It’s much better than saying it’s impossible.”
Perhaps Chu Feng and his ex-husband had once deeply loved each other, and his ex-husband’s death had become an indelible filter, forever preserved in Chu Feng’s heart.
No matter who Chu Feng was with later, this filter, like a touch of moonlight, would never spoil, nor could it be replaced by anyone else.
But X didn’t care about these things. He was someone who purely focused on results. Regardless of whether Chu Feng still held someone else in his heart, in reality, the person sleeping beside Chu Feng was him, and Chu Feng’s remaining life would also belong to him.
A dead person will never have a chance again. No matter how beautiful the filter is, once someone dies, everything is gone. They can only stare blankly in the underworld. There might not even be an underworld.
So, no matter what, one must survive. This has always been X’s belief. Only by living can everything else be possible.
He smiled as he opened the door of the Lamborghini and cheerfully got out:
“I’ll come back to see you after the surgery.”
Through the car window, X added to Chu Feng:
“No matter what the DNA report says.”
***
Three days later
On the roadside, a flower shop was selling several bunches of chrysanthemums.
Lin Lan picked a few white chrysanthemums, thinking that in a couple of days, it would be Brother Xie’s memorial day.
Brother Xie wanted to celebrate their wedding anniversary together, so he changed to an earlier flight to rush back, but unfortunately, that flight ended in a crash. Therefore, Brother Xie’s wedding anniversary became his memorial day.
This was more heartbreaking than accidents on any other day. Lin Lan wrapped up the chosen white chrysanthemums. In late June of previous years, he had exams at the university and couldn’t visit Brother Xie, only having time to visit the grave during the Qingming Festival holiday.
This year, he had graduated, finished his thesis defense in early June, and had no major commitments at the end of June. Lin Lan thought that he could accompany his cousin to visit Brother Xie. Cousin must be feeling very upset these days, perhaps having a family member to accompany him would make things a little better.
“Cousin—Cousin—”
Returning home, Lin Lan got no response. He suddenly realized that the house was empty!
He immediately rushed to his Cousin’s bedroom, afraid of seeing something unexpected…
Opening the bedroom door, fortunately, he didn’t see overturned stools or hanging ropes.
Rushing into the bathroom, he also didn’t see blood all over the floor or a wrist-slitting knife.
“…Cousin?”
It seemed Cousin wasn’t at home.
Lin Lan had participated in the Dream City fifth-anniversary offline event with online friends a few days ago, staying at a hotel near the venue and hadn’t returned. Unexpectedly, Cousin wasn’t here when he got back.
Lin Lan immediately began to worry. He thought that two years had passed… and was about to officially enter the third year. Cousin should have been able to let go a little, right? He wouldn’t… really have resorted to extreme measures, would he?
Lin Lan bombarded Chu Feng’s WeChat with frantic messages, ready to call the police immediately if he found that Cousin was missing…
Buzz…
After a while, Cousin sent a message:
“In Country M.”
***
Country M, City W, in front of a world-class medical center, a red light was lit outside the operating room.
Chu Feng sat outside the operating room, staring at the red light.
He had come.
He didn’t know if he should continue with X, but he couldn’t bear to let X, an amnesiac patient, undergo such a major surgery alone.
Regardless of whether X was Xie Shiyu, Chu Feng hoped X would recover as soon as possible.
***
After a day of flying, a day of jet lag, and a day of preoperative examination, before X went into the operating room, he gently squeezed Chu Feng’s hand.
“Nervous?” Chu Feng asked him.
X smiled, “I’ve had hundreds of surgeries, big and small.”
Chu Feng felt a pang of heartache. He couldn’t help X, who was about to undergo brain surgery, only hold his hand tightly.
“But…” X looked at Chu Feng seriously and said, “This is the first time I’ve felt what it’s like to have someone waiting for me outside during surgery.”
Chu Feng also smiled, “What does it feel like?”
X: “Hmm… probably the feeling of being loved.”
“You’re good at being cheesy.” Chu Feng tapped X’s hand lightly, then let go of it. “Go in, I’ll wait for you here.”
Because they spoke Chinese, the nearby medical staff couldn’t understand them. They pushed X’s bed into the operating room.
The red light lit up, and the lengthy craniotomy began.
***
The red light above, like the sun, sunrise, hope, and like dusk, the setting sun like blood, was a helpless end.
Chu Feng sat outside the operating room. He had imagined more than once that Xie Shiyu had been rescued by a rescue team, undergoing emergency treatment in the hospital, and he was waiting outside like this.
But reality didn’t give him that opportunity. The rescue team told him that there were no remains.
Perhaps in the high temperature of the plane crash, the person had already turned into a charred corpse, perhaps turned into ashes, fallen into the Pacific Ocean, and his twenty years of affection had become calcium carbonate on the ocean floor.
At this moment, he felt like he was standing at the crossroads of fate, half was the ecstatic feeling of regaining something lost, and the other half was the disappointment of an empty basket after a futile effort.
If the DNA test report ultimately said that X was not Xie Shiyu, then should he and X end it here, or…
Chu Feng lowered his head, looking at the tiles on the ground, reflecting the red light of the surgery, like the sun. Regardless of sunrise or sunset, the sun was always the same sun, never changing.
He gradually let go of these tangled thoughts and focused only on waiting for X’s surgery results.
Although craniotomy carried certain risks, X’s surgery wasn’t as difficult as tumor removal surgery. It was just removing a fragment, and although there was still risk, having such a top-notch doctor meant the surgery’s success rate was very high.
Plip-plop…
Chu Feng turned his head and saw a silver-gray robot sliding toward him.
It was X’s dedicated medical robot, Neo. This metal thing had always been taking care of X.
Chu Feng touched the touch screen on Neo’s abdomen and saw X’s surgical schedule.
After the craniotomy, the next surgery was skin grafting, also at this top-tier treatment center in Country M, and the skin tissue had already been sent here for cultivation.
After these two surgeries, X would be completely restored.
***
7 hours later
Ding—
The red light indicating surgery in progress went out.
The doctor walked out, and Chu Feng stood up, momentarily thinking of the scenes often depicted in TV dramas, where the doctor shook his head at him, telling him they had done their best…
***
The doctor, with gray hair and wearing a mask, nodded at Chu Feng and said in English:
“The surgery was very successful.”
***
X was still unconscious because the surgery was quite significant. The doctor said he would wake up tomorrow.
Neo nodded and pushed X’s hospital bed, quickly taking X into the next surgery, skin grafting.
Chu Feng: “Do we need to continue like this?”
Neo: “Yeah, it’s better for the patients to stay in the hospital once, get everything done. It’s more convenient for them.”
Skin graft surgery poses no danger, and the skin tissue was cultured from cells taken from X’s body before, so there’s no rejection reaction. The main issue is the time consumption; Chu Feng waited almost a whole day outside the operating room.
The deadline of five days is approaching.
The technicians from the DNA identification center messaged him; tonight, the DNA comparison results would be ready.
As the moment of the results approached, Chu Feng appeared even calmer.
On his ring finger, the diamond on the wedding ring sparkled quietly.
Chu Feng remembered what X said to him that night:
“This is your promise, not your shackle.”
He remembered further back, when he had just lost Xie Shiyu. He was immersed in the Dream City game every day. Eventually, he became so addicted that he couldn’t return, almost reaching the point of brain death.
Xie Shiyu, aged 27, led the entire city’s Xies onto the exploding train, collectively committing suicide to bring him back from the game to reality. At that time, 27-year-old Xie Shiyu said to him:
“Chu Feng, take care of yourself.”
***
At dusk, the orange-red light painted the hospital’s white corridors, stretching Chu Feng’s shadow long.
Buzz—
His WeChat vibrated. Chu Feng opened it and saw Lin Lan’s message:
“[Cousin, what time are you coming back from Country M?]”
“[Do you want to go together tomorrow to pay respects to Brother Xie? I bought flowers.]”
Tomorrow…
It seemed to be coming so soon.
Chu Feng looked at that sorrowful date, and his heart was already somewhat numb.
Xie Shiyu’s grave contained no bones, just a cenotaph. Sometimes Chu Feng didn’t even go there; he felt that the photo wall next to his bed held more of Xie Shiyu’s essence.
During the memorial days, Chu Feng didn’t like going to the empty graveside, worshipping at the broken tombstone with nothing on it. He preferred to look at the old photos they took together.
He recalled the twenty years he spent with Xie Shiyu, undoubtedly the most beautiful time of his life.
The small water gun from kindergarten at five, the childhood adventures in the residential building at seven, the piano competition playing love songs at thirteen, the unspoken crush in junior high, the first kiss at fifteen, the secret romance in high school, the adult night at eighteen, the marriage in university at twenty…
Such beautiful memories. If they were to gradually become shackles for someone else to continue living, turning into barrels of bitter and painful memories, it would truly be a betrayal of their most beautiful feelings.
Chu Feng remembered the 27-year-old Xie Shiyu. He carried all the Little Xies of the city, as well as all his memories. He boarded the train loaded with explosives, and at the moment of the explosion, everything left him.
All of that could be said to be the plan of the 27-year-old character, Big Xie, or it could be said to be a fact accepted by Xie Shiyu, the character. Game characters don’t have independent consciousness. Each 1/n of the Little Xies was not a complete Xie Shiyu, but when all the Little Xies were together…
They made decisions just like the real Xie Shiyu he knew would.
“Chu Feng, take care of yourself.”
This sentence overlapped with what X said that night, echoing in his ears:
“It’s your promise, not your shackle.”
Chu Feng turned the wedding ring that Xie Shiyu personally put on him. The diamond, like a star in the night sky, shimmered with their past brilliance.
His phone laid quietly in his pocket. Chu Feng no longer checked the progress of the DNA identification report almost every half an hour like before. It was as if he had made a decision.
Chu Feng pushed open X’s ward—
***
After the craniotomy and skin grafting, X, who was lying on the bed, looked no different from before, with bandages all over his body.
The doctor said it would take at least a week to remove the bandages. He was still in a coma now, perhaps not waking up until late at night.
The medical robot Neo prepared two dinners. Chu Feng put X’s portion in the thermos, and he forced himself to eat one.
Chu Feng had almost not slept for two days, keeping an eye on X’s surgery all along.
Now that all the surgeries were finally over, and X was safe, Chu Feng, holding chopsticks, had his eyelids fighting to stay open. The dishes and rice blurred in his vision.
The medical robot Neo suggested, “Do you want to take a nap?”
Chu Feng lightly agreed. His eyes closed uncontrollably for the third time.
Neo: “Lie down for a while. If there’s anything, I’ll wake you up. Humans need rest.”
Chu Feng also felt that his physical strength was exhausted to the limit. If he continued like this, he would end up in the hospital before X was discharged.
“Yeah… wake me up in ten minutes…”
Chu Feng laid down beside X’s sickbed. He only intended to rest for a while, but as soon as he closed his eyes, he quickly fell asleep…
***
When Chu Feng woke up again, there was no light on around him.
Only the faint blue light shone on the bed.
He didn’t know what time it was now, perhaps very late. The medical robot Neo seemed to have disappeared somewhere, leaving only him and X in the ward…
Chu Feng was about to get up to ask about X’s condition when suddenly, he felt his pants pocket… empty.
Instantly, Chu Feng realized what the blue light on the bed was—
X was peeking at his phone!
“How… could you…”
Chu Feng was about to question X why he took his phone without permission, but suddenly, Chu Feng realized something…
His phone password was Xie Shiyu’s birthday.
And Xie Shiyu valued personal privacy. Even as the CEO of a multinational corporation, his birthdate couldn’t be found online.
“How did you know… my phone password?”
Chu Feng seemed to sense something; his voice trembled.
The person on the sickbed didn’t say anything but turned the phone around to show Chu Feng.
On it was an email: [DNA Identification Report]
His heart was instantly seized. Chu Feng’s gaze was fixed on that report, as if it was caught by an octopus’s sucker, until he reached the end—
DNA identification result:
[Similarity: 100%]
[Determined to be the same person.]
“Chu Feng.”
Xie Shiyu, wrapped in bandages, reached out from the hospital bed and held another hand that was trembling violently:
“I’m back.”
***
His whole body froze.
Suddenly, it boiled again in an instant, and bubbles of steam rose from every part of his body.
Chu Feng sat stiffly in place, feeling so hot, his face must have turned red…
In fact, his complexion was as usual, seemingly unchanged even with Mount Tai collapsing in front of him.
But there was someone who always knew when he would change.
Xie Shiyu smiled and raised his phone to Chu Feng. It was 23:59, the “:” flickered a few times, then changed to:
00:00
Time passed midnight, and a new day began.
From today onwards, there would no longer be Xie Shiyu’s memorial day. Instead, it would be replaced by another important day.
On their seventh wedding anniversary, Xie Shiyu left him. There were no eighth or ninth anniversary commemorations in his marriage, only two years of endless memorial days.
And now, they welcomed the third year.
Xie Shiyu lightly held Chu Feng’s hand and reached out with the other, finally pinching Chu Feng’s bright red ears as he had wished:
“Wife, happy tenth wedding anniversary.”
— Love each other for the rest of our lives.
Author’s Note: The main story is finished! There will be many side stories to follow, such as how Old Xie uses Dream City to greatly enrich their married life, and the secrets of 17-year-old Little Xie, among others. The next book will be “Competing to Be Your Life-Saving System.” I’ll start it once I have a lot of drafts ready; updating daily without any buffer is really exhausting. Thank you to all my readers for your understanding and patience!
Want to show your support? Come donate at Paypal or Ko-fi to show your appreciation! :)
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Thank you author and lazygirl translation, such exciting journey