LFIA -Chapter 3

Du Qing gradually woke up.

The moment he blinked his eyes, he saw an enlarged face in front of him. He wasn’t frightened at all. He could draw every feature of this face—the eyes, nose, and mouth—even with his eyes closed. This was the man engraved upon his heart.

A man he could never forget, no matter how hard he tried.

He had deceived himself into believing that he had already forgotten this person, yet he had seen him again in his dream.

The corners of his eyes still felt damp. To the Du Qing who had been unconscious before, it had only been one or two months since he had last seen this man. But to the Du Qing who possessed memories of the apocalypse, it had already been ten years since they had last met.

Throughout the apocalypse, Du Qing had been waiting. Even though he had lived such a lowly and miserable existence, he had still struggled desperately to survive. He refused to accept dying without seeing that man even once. He truly couldn’t accept it!

He had clearly managed to receive news about that person, yet he had never managed to wait for him to come.

After struggling painfully for ten years in the apocalypse, he had ultimately starved to death inside a base. And it had happened on the very night before he was supposed to see this man.

How ironic!

Du Qing sat up, stretched out both arms, wrapped them around the man’s neck, and pulled him closer.

“Don’t move. Let me hold you for a while.”

The man stopped moving and let Du Qing hold him, burying his face against his chest.

His body stiffened. He raised a hand and gently patted Du Qing’s back, the fury filling his heart transforming into tenderness.

If he hadn’t known that woman had nothing to do with Du Qing, then after seeing those photographs, Du Qing wouldn’t be lying on a bed right now. He would have been chained to it.

Xia Lixuan kissed Du Qing’s hair.

After receiving Du Qing’s breakup call, he had even abandoned his mission, all so that he could come back and properly “teach him a lesson.”

Unfortunately, although he had postponed that mission, if he didn’t go on this one, there was another mission he would definitely have to undertake.

Being able to squeeze out an entire day to come back without letting the old man discover it was already extremely difficult.

Don’t think that just because Du Qing acted spoiled, he would let him off.

It was one thing to tell him they were breaking up, but he had even dared not to answer his calls and had gone so far as to change his phone number.

As someone who already had a partner, he still dared to flirt with young women outside.

A death sentence could be avoided, but punishment was unavoidable.

Xia Lixuan took out a small white bottle, poured two pills into his mouth, then kissed Du Qing and pushed the pills into his throat, making him swallow them.

Since this was a dream, and although he had already decided to give up on this man, he might as well regard this as some tenderness before parting.

Thinking this, Du Qing raised his head and boldly, passionately teased Xia Lixuan…

Naturally, the man pounced on him without the slightest hesitation and devoured him whole.

Du Qing felt as though he were sitting on a violently rocking ship, drifting and swaying along with the waves.

When he woke from the dream, the sunlight was somewhat glaring. Chen Yi hurriedly went over and pulled the curtains shut. The room darkened, and only then did Du Qing lower the hand covering his eyes.

Everything around him was white.

There was still an IV drip attached to his hand.

Judging by this, was he in a hospital?

“You finally woke up! If you hadn’t woken up soon, you would’ve scared me to death. We came out to have a little ‘date’—how did we end up running into something this unlucky?”

As Chen Yi spoke, she handed him his phone and complained, “Now that you’re awake, hurry up and tell your mother you’re safe. I’m almost unable to keep things under control.”

Du Qing took the phone with his uninjured hand and dialed his mother’s number.

At the same time, he said, “Water.”

Chen Yi hurriedly poured him some water.

For the past few days, he had been running a low fever. His temperature wasn’t particularly high or low, just lingering like this. She had nearly thought he might never wake up.

She had been terribly worried. What would they do if he really never woke up?

After assuring his mother that he was safe, Du Qing asked, “How long have I been asleep?”

He only remembered that they had gone to watch a meteor shower. Then a meteor had struck him, his chest had suddenly grown hot, and he had fainted.

In between, he had even had a wet dream.

“You’re in the hospital. You were unconscious for two or three days.”

Chen Yi’s expression was somewhat unnatural as she deliberately kept the timing vague.

When she had found Du Qing, as someone with experience herself, she naturally understood what the marks on his body meant.

He had disappeared for an entire night, and something like this had happened. She had even sent people to investigate, but they couldn’t find out what had happened.

If even the Chen family couldn’t investigate it, then Du Qing naturally wouldn’t be able to either.

Moreover, the marks on his body had disappeared in less than two days, which only strengthened her determination to keep the matter hidden.

After waking up, Du Qing ate and drank his fill and waited for the nurse to replace his IV drip.

“I’m going home after the drip is finished.”

Du Qing felt that his body was in excellent condition now—better than it had ever been.

Even the slight discomfort in his spine caused by spending long periods sitting in an office had disappeared. His entire body felt light and relaxed.

He reached toward his chest and touched it, but didn’t find his jade pendant.

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

Had the space been activated?

There were people in the hospital room, so it wasn’t convenient for him to check whether the mark was on his body.

Du Qing had survived for a full ten years in the apocalypse. After his death, his soul had remained intact and drifted around for many years. Only then had he finally understood that his life should never have been like that.

His maternal cousin, Du Yuejiao, had been reborn from the apocalypse. Before the apocalypse began, she had moved into their home for the sake of his space—the one-of-a-kind cultivation space.

Originally, this space was supposed to awaken within him during the apocalypse. If that had happened, his parents, Du Dad and Du Mom, would not have been beaten to death by people fighting over food during the apocalypse.

Unfortunately, the reborn Du Yuejiao had obtained his jade pendant.

The reason Du Qing had lived such a miserable life in the apocalypse had all been because Du Yuejiao had secretly manipulated things from behind the scenes.

After the caregiver helped move the IV stand aside, Du Qing locked the bathroom door, pulled open his clothes, and searched his body for a long time.

Finally, he found a tiny red dot near his collarbone.

Feeling the space’s genuine existence, Du Qing laughed silently.

This time, he would never again have to suffer from hunger.

Looking at himself in the mirror, Du Qing closed his eyes for a moment before gradually regaining his composure.

He once again looked like a gentle, harmless man, as though the madness that had just flashed in his eyes had merely been an illusion.

As he prepared to leave, he glanced at the mirror once more.

His footsteps suddenly stopped.

Du Qing returned to the mirror, his hand trembling slightly as he touched the corner of his eye.

It was smooth, exactly as he saw in the mirror.

Others might not have known, but he remembered it with absolute clarity.

There had been a tiny crescent-shaped scar here.

He had originally thought it was a birthmark.

Later, however, his mother had told him that when he was little, he had been too mischievous. He had fallen while walking and hit the corner of a table, leaving the scar behind.

But now that scar was gone.

Was this one of the benefits brought by the space?

Could it strengthen his body?

He tried squeezing the metal IV stand hard with one hand.

The steel showed signs of deforming beneath his grip.

He immediately released it.

This wasn’t the time for experiments.

Now that he possessed the space, Du Qing remembered the moment when the meteor had crashed toward him.

However, it was different from what he had witnessed while staying beside Du Yuejiao.

“Dad, Mom, I’m back.”

Ignoring Chen Yi’s objections, Du Qing insisted on returning home.

“Little Du is back? Come, let me introduce you to someone. This is your aunt’s daughter, Du Yuejiao. She just came back from overseas and will be staying at our house for the time being.”

Du Yuejiao was holding Du Mom’s arm and had already charmed her into beaming with delight. Happily, Du Mom introduced her to her son.

Du Yuejiao looked at him openly and generously.

“Hello, Cousin.”

“Hello.”

Du Qing forced out a stiff smile without any real warmth.

Before they could continue talking, he fled back to his room as though escaping.

“I’ve been sitting in a car all day. I’m exhausted. I’ll go back to my room and rest first.”

“Bang!”

Du Qing leaned against the door and slid down.

When he released his clenched fist, he saw that his palm had been scratched open by his fingernails, with traces of blood seeping from it.

She had just returned from overseas.

Was she the daughter of his divorced aunt?

He remembered clearly that after Du Yuejiao obtained his space, she didn’t even remember his aunt anymore.

At least, he had never once seen his aunt appear beside Du Yuejiao.

Du Qing stared at the wound in his palm for ten minutes.

The wound still showed no sign of healing.

He touched the smooth skin at the corner of his eye, then got up from the floor.

He locked his bedroom door from the inside.

With a thought, his entire body disappeared from the room.

The space was exactly as he had guessed while staying beside Du Yuejiao.

Inside, there wasn’t only land suitable for planting, but also a spring and a vast stretch of grassland.

There were two pots of strawberries on the balcony of Du Qing’s room.

He dug up several strawberry plants and planted them inside the space.

After staying inside for several hours and thoroughly satisfying his curiosity, he finally came back out.

When he pulled open the curtains, the outside world was already illuminated by the first lights of evening.

Du Qing opened the door and went outside.

Du Yuejiao and Du Mom were sitting together, discussing the plot of a television drama, while Du Dad was busy in the kitchen.

“Cousin, what were you doing in your room? You didn’t even answer when I knocked.”

Du Yuejiao sounded displeased.

“Sleeping. I didn’t hear you.”

Du Qing answered calmly.

The joy of obtaining the space had completely overwhelmed his disgust toward Du Yuejiao. At this moment, he was remarkably calm.

“I’m going to the kitchen to help.”

Tonight’s dishes were mushroom chicken, corn and pork-rib soup, stir-fried pork with celery, and water spinach.

“Dad, I’ll help.”

Du Dad was stir-frying the celery and pork.

Du Qing knew very well that Du Yuejiao absolutely hated pork—or, more accurately, she simply didn’t eat it.

Du Dad was currently stir-frying the celery, and hadn’t added the pork yet. Seeing him come in, he said, “Little Du, check whether the soup is ready. I haven’t added salt yet.”

“Dad, why are today’s ribs so lean?”

As he spoke, Du Qing put several pieces of pork into the clay pot where the chicken soup was simmering, then added salt.

“It’ll be ready after simmering for a little longer.”

Du Dad saw what he had done and smiled.

“Add a few more pieces. Your mother likes them too.”

Du Qing agreed.

He turned up the heat, boiled it for another five minutes, then turned off the stove and carried the bowls and chopsticks outside.

During dinner, Du Mom enthusiastically filled a bowl to the brim with corn and pork ribs for Du Yuejiao.

There were several pieces of pork on top as well.

Du Mom urged her, “Why are you so thin, Yuejiao? Girls should be a little plumper. That’s where the blessings are.”

Looking at the pieces of pork and ribs in her bowl, Du Yuejiao suppressed her disgust.

Under Du Mom’s concerned gaze, she picked up a piece and put it into her mouth. Closing her eyes, she swallowed the pork.

“How does it taste?”

“It’s delicious. Auntie, your soup tastes really good.”

Du Yuejiao put down her bowl and picked up some stir-fried celery with pork.

Watching Du Yuejiao clearly dislike pork but endure her disgust and eat it just to please Du Mom, Du Qing happily ate another bowl of rice.

“Yuejiao still needs to buy a lot of things. You two are both young and should have plenty to talk about. Little Du, go with her.”

As Du Mom spoke, she drove the two people who were clearing the dishes out of the house.

On the way to the supermarket, Du Yuejiao casually asked, “Cousin, Auntie said you have a family heirloom jade pendant. What does it look like? Can I take a look at it?”

The question went around in Du Qing’s mind several times before he finally answered, “I left it at home.”

Since you want it so badly, I’ll just buy one and bring it back.

Du Qing thought casually.