She was going to tear apart his sense of boundaries bit by bit
After accompanying Madam Ji and Old Zhuang for several days, Zhuang Fuyao returned to Boya Bay as well. She thought that after being away for so long, Liang Huaixu would at least ask a few questions about where she had gone and what she had been doing.
However, he did not.
The house was cold and quiet. She did not see the aunt, nor did she see Liang Huaixu. The aroma of food drifted out from the kitchen. She went over to take a look and said in surprise, “Why are you the one cooking?”
Liang Huaixu was wearing a gray apron and holding a spatula. Hearing the movement, he turned his head and smiled slightly. “You’re back. I made walnut and black soybean pork bone soup for you.”
After the soup was ready, Liang Huaixu ladled a bowl for her. “Try it.”
Setting aside the shrimp fried rice from last time, this scene of him personally cooking soup, where was the Liang Huaixu who usually enforced boundaries so thoroughly?
When something was abnormal, there was always a reason.
Zhuang Fuyao gave him a strange look.
This man was not planning to stop renting the place to her, was he?
Or was it something else, something bad?
Her heart skipped uneasily. “Do you have something you want to say?”
“There is something I want to talk to you about, but it’s not urgent. Drink the soup first.”
“You say it first.” Zhuang Fuyao frowned. “You’re hanging it over me like this. How am I supposed to drink it? If you don’t say it, I’m not drinking.”
“I went to see Auntie Ji a couple of days ago, and I heard her mention that you lost your memory.” His tone was calm, but there was a trace of darkness in his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Zhuang Fuyao did not expect Liang Huaixu to suddenly bring this up. For a moment, she was caught completely off guard.
Liang Huaixu said, “There’s no rush. Take your time.”
Zhuang Fuyao knitted her brows slightly. Her heartbeat could not help but speed up. This matter was actually easy to handle. She could simply say she had amnesia, just like what she had told Madam Ji and Old Zhuang.
But for some reason, her heart leaned toward another choice, a bold direction. What if she just told him the truth?
She actually really hoped to share this secret with Liang Huaixu. After all, the matter of soul transmigration affected no one more than it affected her and Liang Huaixu.
After struggling for a few seconds, she already had her answer.
“Do you believe that something like time travel exists in this world? Not physical travel, but soul transmigration.” Her tone was light.
Liang Huaixu looked at her in puzzlement. “I’ve seen it in some fantasy works.”
Zhuang Fuyao nodded and continued, “Actually, the me standing in front of you doesn’t truly belong to the me at thirty-eight. My soul is the me at twenty-two, and so are my memories.”
As she spoke, she kept observing his expression. As long as Liang Huaixu showed even the slightest sign of something being off, she planned to say she was joking.
Zhuang Fuyao’s imagination ran wild. She was a little afraid it would turn out like a science fiction movie, where she would be sent to a laboratory for research.
Liang Huaixu did not speak. He pondered for a while. Zhuang Fuyao was just about to speak again.
He suddenly said, “I believe you,” his tone firm.
Zhuang Fuyao froze and asked uncertainly, “I seem to remember that you’re a materialist.”
“But in some matters, and with certain people, there can occasionally be exceptions.”
“Aren’t you afraid I’m lying to you? What if I’m just joking?”
“Then are you lying to me?” Liang Huaixu met her gaze. “I won’t send you to a laboratory for research.”
!!! How did he know what she was thinking?!
Zhuang Fuyao’s stunned expression did not escape his notice. A layer of helpless amusement appeared in his eyes. “Back when we watched E.T. together, you often asked me whether, if you were an alien, I would call someone to have you dragged into a laboratory for experiments.”
In the second semester of their senior year, their plans for graduate school and work had already been settled, and they had a stretch of leisurely time. They traveled to many places, and when they rested, they also watched many films together, including E.T.
That memory resurfaced in her mind. Zhuang Fuyao cleared her throat softly, and her gaze grew more serious. “I’m not lying to you.”
Liang Huaixu smiled lightly. “That’s why I believe you.”
Zhuang Fuyao obligingly finished the bowl of soup she was holding.
Liang Huaixu continued to ladle more for her. “Is there anything else you want to eat? I can make it for you.”
“No more!! I can’t even finish this bowl of soup.” Zhuang Fuyao stopped him, but it was already too late.
She frowned in distress. Ever since she was little, she had hated drinking this kind of nourishing soup the most.
Before marriage, Old Zhuang coaxed her. After marriage, Liang Huaixu coaxed her. Both of them had put in no small amount of effort.
But she truly did not want to eat such “healthy” food anymore.
She slowly pushed the bowl of soup away, blinked, and said, “I already ate some other things before coming back. If I drink more, my stomach will burst.”
Liang Huaixu glanced at her, then, easygoing, picked up the spoon and drank the bowl of soup she had not finished.
“When I woke up and realized my soul had transmigrated sixteen years into the future, I was scared to death. I thought I hadn’t woken up yet, so I slapped myself. It hurt so much…”
After finding someone she could confide in, Zhuang Fuyao was like a floodgate opening. She talked nonstop. As she spoke, Liang Huaixu would occasionally ask one or two questions out of curiosity. Back and forth, the two of them chatted for a long time.
An hour later, Zhuang Fuyao opened the food delivery app. “I’m ordering fruit tea. Do you want any?”
“No. I’ll just drink tea.”
“Then I’ll order you a cup of Quxiang Jasmine, plain tea. Otherwise, one cup won’t meet the minimum delivery amount.”
“…Alright.”
After choosing the drinks, she looked again to see what tasty things there were. “I really want to eat barbecue.”
Liang Huaixu looked at her. “Didn’t you say you were stuffed?”
“Being full from a meal doesn’t affect eating snacks.”
“……”
He sighed silently. Just based on her love for junk food and her reasons for eating junk food alone, it was more than enough for him to completely believe that she was indeed the twenty-two-year-old her.
When the tea and barbecue arrived, the two of them chatted while eating skewers. Of course, it was mainly Zhuang Fuyao who ate. Liang Huaixu took one bite and then set it down.
Still, it was not a waste. For example, he drank quite a bit of the Quxiang Jasmine. She curved her eyes and said, “Isn’t it really good!”
“It is,” Liang Huaixu replied obligingly.
Zhuang Fuyao smiled in satisfaction and lazily stretched.
She felt very comfortable tonight, as if she had returned to the time when they had just gotten married. Although Liang Huaixu spoke a little less than back then, he still cooperated and accompanied her in conversation until very late.
Instead, it was she who gradually grew sleepy while talking. She muttered with emotion, “Liang Huaixu, it really feels so good having you still by my side…”
As soon as she finished saying that, the chatterbox leaning on the sofa fell asleep.
Beside her, Liang Huaixu’s eyes no longer held the composure he had shown while Zhuang Fuyao was awake. Instead, there was much more worry and helplessness.
Just the thought that she had lost her memory had already worried him this much, let alone something as unnatural as soul transmigration.
If it were anyone else saying it, anyone other than Zhuang Fuyao, he would not have believed something so far beyond natural science.
A rare confusion appeared in Liang Huaixu’s eyes.
He would never have dared to imagine that the Zhuang Fuyao who, at twenty-two, had not yet divorced him would soul-transmigrate here. He was already thirty-eight now. His mindset and emotional state were completely different from when he was twenty-two. He did not know how he should face the her of now…
After a long while, he stood up, removed her makeup briefly, then carried her to the bedroom to rest.
Zhuang Fuyao had not drunk alcohol today, so her sleep was light. She woke up halfway, in a state between sleep and wakefulness, when he was removing her makeup, but she did not open her eyes and let him carry her.
Smelling his scent at that moment, she rubbed her cheek against his neck with relief. “Liang Huaixu… husband.”
The man’s body stiffened slightly as he held her.
*
She had thought that after their all-night talk, her relationship with Liang Huaixu would move forward rapidly.
But who would have expected that in the three days afterward, she did not see him at all. She asked Aunt Yuan, and Aunt Yuan said that Liang Huaixu had been coming home every day, just leaving early and returning late, so they probably had not run into each other.
Zhuang Fuyao did not believe such a coincidence was possible. On a certain day, she deliberately woke up early to wait for him. Hearing the sound of the door next door opening, she opened her own door and went out as well.
“Liang Huaixu!”
Hearing her voice suddenly, the man’s steps halted, and a flicker of something unusual passed through his eyes.
Turning around, he saw her standing in the doorway of her room with her arms folded.
Zhuang Fuyao caught a trace of unnaturalness in his expression. “You get up this early every day? No wonder I haven’t seen you these past few days.”
Liang Huaixu said, “Yes. I’ve been busy these days.”
Zhuang Fuyao sneered inwardly. She had never seen a thirty-eight-year-old boss who had to get up at six every day to go to work.
If this old man was not avoiding her, she would stand on her head and wash her hair.
“I thought you were avoiding me.” She glanced at him sideways and spoke with layered meaning.
Liang Huaixu’s gaze shifted away, looking somewhat at a loss and a bit embarrassed.
“Driver Peng is still waiting for me downstairs. I’m heading to work first.”
…
He got into the car in a fluster, even forgetting to take the breakfast the aunt had prepared for him.
He really had been busy these days. First, he had asked someone to contact brain specialists to consult about “amnesia.”
Then, outside of work, he had also taken time to see a psychologist.
Years of working from dawn to dusk had left him with quite a few problems. His body was in a sub-healthy state. Not only was insomnia a constant, he had also developed mild depression. The doctor had provisionally decided on non-medication treatment, focusing on self-regulation and mental healing. After this checkup, however, the doctor said that his depression showed some tendency to shift toward anxiety.
Of course, no matter how busy he was, he would not be this busy.
The main reason he was leaving early and coming back late like this was that he did not know how to face her.
*
After Mother Cheng settled down in Jiang City, she and Cheng Fan went around to see the city.
When Zhuang Fuyao had time, she would come to visit them. She came today, but she was clearly much quieter than before.
Mother Cheng sensed that she was preoccupied and thought it was about work, so she comforted her. “Fufu, money can never be earned all at once. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Why don’t you come back to the countryside with me for a while…”
Zhuang Fuyao froze for a moment, then shook her head. “It’s not about work.”
“Then what is it?” Mother Cheng sat down and patted her hand. “I may not have studied much, but I’ve eaten rice for so many years. If it’s convenient for you, talk to Auntie Cheng about it.”
“There’s someone who keeps avoiding me, and I don’t know what he’s thinking,” Zhuang Fuyao said after hesitating.
Seeing how troubled she looked, Mother Cheng sensed something and deliberately said, “If he’s avoiding us, then we won’t pay him any attention either!”
Zhuang Fuyao frowned in difficulty. Mother Cheng probed, “Someone you like?”
Zhuang Fuyao looked up and nodded shyly.
Mother Cheng smiled knowingly. “What I just said was about the kind of person who messes with others’ feelings without reason. If it’s someone you like, that’s different. Just follow your own heart. Let him think his thoughts, and you do your own.”
“But there’s one condition,” Mother Cheng emphasized. “You must not do anything that hurts yourself.”
Zhuang Fuyao paused, then suddenly felt enlightened.
These principles were actually very simple. When her mind was clear, she could have figured them out herself. But as the saying goes, those involved cannot see clearly. Now that Mother Cheng had pointed it out, she turned the corner in her thinking.
Since Liang Huaixu already knew that a twenty-two-year-old soul was living in her body, and at twenty-two, they had not divorced yet, there was nothing she needed to worry about. She could completely follow her own heart, and then bit by bit tear apart all of his so-called boundaries—
On the first day of following her heart, she replaced all the conservative cotton pajamas in her wardrobe with beautiful, cool silk slip nightdresses.