AYLS -Chapter 156

Xu Yuanzheng and Su Weizhen waited until Lin Qiao and her husband had almost finished talking before knocking and entering the room.

Xu Yuanzheng already knew about Gu Huayuan’s situation, so seeing him like this, he was stunned. “Isn’t it just a dud shell? How did it get this serious? Isn’t everyone outside saying you only suffered some superficial injuries?”

Lin Qiao asked in a daze, “What dud shell? What superficial injury?”

Cough, cough, cough… Gu Huayuan began coughing on the bed.

Su Weizhen had been frightened earlier too, but seeing Gu Huayuan like this now, she immediately understood what was going on. She tugged at Xu Yuanzheng, reminding him to have some tact.

Xu Yuanzheng suddenly understood. He then gave Gu Huayuan a thumbs-up. “Impressive.”

Even getting injured could be used as a way to strengthen the bond with his wife.

No wonder the two of them were always sweet and lovey-dovey. He decided he should learn from him—coax his own Zhenzhen more, too.

Su Weizhen said, “You two should talk things out properly. We’ll head back first. Xiao Qiao, don’t worry about lunch. I’ll have Xu Yuanzheng bring it to you.”

Xu Yuanzheng hurried to make up for his blunder. “Yes, yes, I’ll deliver the meal. You two take your time.”

After speaking, he left the room with his wife.

Lin Qiao had a simple mind, but she wasn’t stupid. Seeing the situation, she immediately realized she’d been fooled.

In that moment, her expression kept changing again and again.

Gu Huayuan had already prepared himself to be scolded by Lin Qiao, but she never scolded him at all.

“You’re not mad?”

“I was a little mad at first, but then I thought it through—this is a good outcome, so why should I be angry? Isn’t the one who should be angry Fat Cat? It’s already turned into mush, but you only got a superficial injury.”

“…” Gu Huayuan felt that even the slyest person in the world probably couldn’t bear to deceive someone like Xiao Qiao. “I’m sorry. I made you worry just now.”

Lin Qiao waved her hand. “I get it. This is… a way to spice things up.”

“…” Gu Huayuan couldn’t help it—he burst out laughing. “Yes, right, it’s… spicing things up.”

Seeing him laugh, Lin Qiao became unhappy again. “You’re not afraid that I’ll worry? That it’ll increase my negative energy?”

“No. Comrade Xiao Qiao is so smart—of course it’ll be fine.”

“Who said so!” Lin Qiao pouted. “Actually, I felt really uncomfortable just now. I held it in.”

Gu Huayuan said softly, “It won’t happen again.”

Lin Qiao pressed her lips together and let out an mm, nodding.

Then Gu Huayuan asked, “That thing you promised me earlier… you’re not going back on it, right? You have to agree to one request of mine.”

Lin Qiao finally came to her senses. “Don’t tell me… all this was just because of that?”

“Mm.”

“Gu Huayuan, I really didn’t expect you to be this childish.” Lin Qiao burst out laughing. She still hadn’t realized how important her promise was to him.

She simply thought he’d staged this whole dramatic act just to make her agree to something. Far too childish.

She said generously, “Alright, alright, a promise is a promise. If you want to tell me something in the future, just tell me. Don’t act so childish. How old are you? I really didn’t see this side of you before.”

“I didn’t see it either.” Gu Huayuan looked at Xiao Qiao and couldn’t help but smile.

Who would’ve thought he would fall in love with someone like her?

Gu Huayuan’s injuries weren’t serious, so he didn’t stay in the hospital for more than two days before being discharged.

During these two days, Lin Qiao stayed with him. Even though he was only lightly injured, he did have a concussion. Rest was necessary.

Lin Qiao also worried that Fat Cat might take the chance to make another move and go after Gu Huayuan’s life while he was weakened.

But neither of them remembered to pay attention to Fat Cat. They simply rested quietly in the hospital for two days.

On the day they returned home, everyone in the compound came over to visit again. After all, this had really been an unlucky year for Gu Huayuan. In peaceful times, he’d been hospitalized twice, and there had been all kinds of accidents in between. He’d been forced to work in logistics for months, and just when he finally returned to his unit, he ended up in the hospital again.

The only fortunate thing was that he hadn’t lost any limbs—he’d kept his life.

Sister-in-law Sheng was nearly driven toward superstition. She said Gu Huayuan shouldn’t be sent on missions for the rest of the year. This year was probably special.

She nearly said outright that he was “offending Tai Sui” this year.

Another sister even pulled Lin Qiao aside and whispered, asking whether she had messed with some mountain spirit or fox immortal Or if Gu Huayuan had.

Lin Qiao: “…”

It was only after everyone’s enthusiasm finally died down and they all left that Lin Qiao and Gu Huayuan were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

The two looked at each other and couldn’t help bursting into laughter.

“Gu Huayuan, you’re not going to have another accident, right? Otherwise the entire compound will be telling tales about you being the resident unlucky star.”

Gu Huayuan replied, “That depends on what that little worm plans to do.”

Lin Qiao was eager to negotiate with Fat Cat right away, but then Xu Yuanzheng arrived with his wife, carrying bags.

“My wife said that since you’ve been discharged, we should at least eat something good to celebrate. We’re not particular about ceremonies, but it’s good for morale.”

Lin Qiao hurried forward to take the items, then said to Su Weizhen, “Why aren’t you resting properly? You’ve been cooking for us for two days straight. It must’ve been exhausting.”

“It wasn’t tiring. Just a few dishes,” Su Weizhen said with a smile.

“For me, making a few dishes is a huge deal.” To someone like Lin Qiao—someone who treated cooking like going to war—it was indeed a major operation.

Su Weizhen said, “We also wanted to celebrate. You two are back, and Yuanzheng and I are happy. Come on, let’s eat first.”

Xu Yuanzheng echoed, “Yes, yes, let’s eat.”

Lin Qiao didn’t insist on being polite. Her bright eyes shone with gratitude as she looked at Su Weizhen. She memorized this kindness in her heart. She hoped Gu Huayuan would be able to help them in the future.

He should be able to… Fat Cat had said that in the original storyline, Gu Huayuan was Su Weizhen’s benefactor.

She just didn’t know how reliable Fat Cat’s information was.

During the meal, Lin Qiao brought up how Gu Huayuan had exaggerated his injuries to scare her.

She verbally scolded him, but her face was glowing with barely hidden affection.

She animatedly reenacted the scene.

Xu Yuanzheng’s own cheeks hurt from the sourness—these two really were a perfect pair. One dares to act, the other dares to show off.

No wonder everyone in the compound said the two of them were always like newlyweds.

Su Weizhen asked, “You don’t seem angry at all.”

Lin Qiao replied primly, “Well, it’s better that he wasn’t actually hurt. If he really were injured, that would be heartbreaking.”

Seeing Lin Qiao’s innocent expression, Su Weizhen felt heavier and heavier inside. But her resolve grew even stronger. She couldn’t bear to watch Lin Qiao lose this happiness in the future. It would be too cruel.

Both she and Gu Huayuan were good people. They should live well. Not like in the memoir, where one barely left a few words behind and the other died young. She was still hoping that when they were old and gray, she and Xiao Qiao could go do square dancing together.

After dinner, Su Weizhen and Xu Yuanzheng went home. On the way, she remained silent. Even after reaching home, she still didn’t speak.

Xu Yuanzheng asked, “Why the long face? Are you feeling unwell?”

“I’m fine. Yuanzheng, come home early tonight. I have something to talk to you about.”

“What is it? You can’t say it now?”

“It’ll be easier to talk about tonight.”

“…” Xu Yuanzheng thought maybe a pregnant woman just had more on her mind. He smiled and nodded. “Alright, I’ll come back early. Don’t overthink. Any problem can be solved.”

“Mm.” Su Weizhen replied absentmindedly.

Lin Qiao had no idea Su Weizhen was worrying herself sick over her future happiness. She and Gu Huayuan were behind closed doors, nervously handling important matters.

For two days, Lin Qiao had completely blocked out Fat Cat. She hadn’t even looked at it.

Now she finally had the time and energy to deal with that cat.

The moment she lifted the block, she saw Fat Cat still lying on the ground in the same pose as before.

Honestly, Lin Qiao was a little startled.

She’d never seen Fat Cat looking so weak.

Hopefully it hadn’t died—otherwise how would she return? The world wouldn’t collapse, would it? She quickly checked the progress bar, and oh, it had actually advanced.

That meant Fat Cat’s condition didn’t affect the progress bar at all.

Well, that made sense. This was a game. At most, Fat Cat was just some kind of self-service game customer support. Even without customer support, the game would still run.

Lin Qiao felt relieved. Cheerfully, she called out to it, “Hey, hey, hey, Fat Cat, are you okay?”

Fat Cat didn’t have the strength to speak but managed to roll its eyes. Did it look like it was okay?

These past two days, it had finally sorted out its thoughts. It seemed it had been tricked by a human.

This was simply too humiliating… utterly disgraceful for a game sprite.

More importantly, it had run out of energy.

Without energy, it wouldn’t die, of course. But it was extremely uncomfortable. From now on, even moving would be difficult.

As a humanoid game sprite, it had been created with many human-like senses and emotions.

Running out of energy was equivalent to a human starving—starving to the point of near death.

One could imagine just how miserable it felt now.

Seeing how Lin Qiao didn’t feel even the slightest bit sorry for it, it grew depressed again.

This player was truly heartless.

Not only did Lin Qiao not pity it, she even gloated, “So? Still acting all arrogant? You kept saying I couldn’t catch you before. Well, I caught you now.”

The fat cat was so furious its eyes rolled back repeatedly.

Lin Qiao even stuck her tongue out at it. “Bleh—bleh—bleh—”

“…”

After making faces, Lin Qiao finally told Gu Huayuan, “It’s really done for. I rolled its eyes so many times and it didn’t even react.”

Gu Huayuan laughed. “Ask it if it’ll behave from now on. If it will, have it blink twice. If not, once.”

Lin Qiao immediately repeated the question.

The fat cat didn’t even dare roll its eyes anymore—afraid she’d misunderstand its answer.

“Its eyeballs aren’t moving. Did it die?” Lin Qiao panicked.

Fat Cat: “…”

It really didn’t want to admit defeat, but it desperately needed energy. So it forced itself to blink twice.

“Twice! Twice! It says it’ll behave!”

Lin Qiao finally felt triumphant.

Gu Huayuan said, “Good enough. Ignore it for now.”

Lin Qiao nodded, then said goodbye to the fat cat, “Gu Huayuan said I shouldn’t bother with you anymore.”

The fat cat panicked as soon as it heard that. After saying so much, now she was suddenly ignoring it? Wasn’t this just teasing a cat?!

It grew anxious and meowed desperately.

Unfortunately, Lin Qiao didn’t give it the chance. She directly muted it, then asked Gu Huayuan, “We’re really just ignoring it like this?”

Gu Huayuan said, “Give it a little punishment first. Later we’ll do some ideological education. It needs to understand that a good life isn’t easy to come by—it needs to cherish it.”

Lin Qiao nodded excitedly. “Yes, yes, yes. We need to raise this cat’s ideological awareness.”

…

Su Weizhen spent the entire afternoon preparing her thoughts, and only by evening did she finally organize her words.

In fact, she could have talked to Xiao Qiao privately and asked her to keep it secret, that way she wouldn’t need to tell Xu Yuanzheng.

But after thinking it over, she felt that would be unfair to him.

For example, if Xu Yuanzheng told his brothers a secret but hid it from her, how would she feel?

And if one day he discovered she had told Xiao Qiao something but deliberately kept it from him, how would he feel?

Putting herself in his place, Su Weizhen decided she should trust her husband—at least this once. Of course, not everything needed to be said right away.

She only planned to explain the part involving Gu Huayuan. The space still had to be kept secret—until the day she felt it was truly appropriate. She didn’t want to test human nature, nor did she want to burden Xu Yuanzheng with more psychological pressure.

Xu Yuanzheng came home early that evening, planning to cook for her, but she had already made dinner.

Just brown sugar porridge and steamed buns.

After they ate, Xu Yuanzheng quickly cleaned up the dishes, then sat by Su Weizhen with a serious, attentive expression.

He purposely lightened the mood. “Alright, Comrade Su Weizhen, speak freely. Whatever it is, I’m ready.”

Su Weizhen took a breath and said, “What I’m about to tell you may sound unbelievable. But you have to trust me.”

Xu Yuanzheng nodded. “Okay. Whatever you say, I’ll believe it.”

“…Actually, I know things about the future. More accurately, I’ve lived in the future.”

“…”

Xu Yuanzheng froze. “Where?”

“In the future—more than fifty years later.”