After Failing to Reverse the Plot, I Made My Escape - Chapter 11

“He is my husband. And he will only ever be mine.”

Yu Fuqiu suddenly jolted awake from his memories. Looking at the cold, vintage key in his hand, he took a deep breath.

His gaze returned to that familiar corner, but the car was not there.

That car was the first thing they bought with their first earnings. Years ago, they had saved for a long time, went to see cars together, took it for a test drive, and finally drove it home as excitedly as two happy children.

Inside that car, there was the smell of the instant noodles they ate while squeezed together. There were the songs they played while looking at the snowy mountains outside the window during their first road trip on Route 318. It was also in that car, while he was vomiting from the bumpy ride, that he first realized he was pregnant with Xiao Chun. That car carried too many of their firsts.

Yu Fuqiu could not care about anything else. With trembling hands, he dialed that strange, new number.

The call connected within seconds, as if the person on the other end had been waiting for him.

A lazy voice came from the other side. “Yu Fuqiu?”

It was a voice he knew down to his bones. Hearing it through the narrow speaker of the phone, Yu Fuqiu’s legs went weak, and he had to lean against a pillar to remain standing.

“Tingzhi,” he said, steadying his voice. “Where did our car go?”

“The car?” Yu Fuqiu heard the sound of a key turning on the other end. “The Maybach, the Bentley, the Porsche 911?”

“Which of my cars are you referring to?”

He said “my” instead of “ours.”

“Oh.” Chang Tingzhi raised an eyebrow, his tone full of mockery. “Do you mean that BTR Pony 2020 model?”

“That piece of junk worth only ten or twenty thousand? Naturally, I had Uncle Wu send it to the scrap yard.”

Yu Fuqiu’s body stiffened, and his voice involuntarily rose. “Why! Why did you sell it, or even send it to a scrap yard? That was our first car! It was our,”

“So noisy.”

Chang Tingzhi interrupted him coldly. He put down his pen, his eyes behind his glasses devoid of warmth, filled only with the annoyance of being disturbed and a high handed scrutiny. He even leaned back slightly, crossing his hands, and said to the phone, “Crying again?”

He said with disgust, “Are your tears really that worthless? Crying over a pile of scrap metal.”

“That was not junk!”

“That was our,”

“Our?” Chang Tingzhi spoke as if he had heard a huge joke. He slammed his pen onto the floor so hard it nearly snapped. “How long are you going to keep deceiving yourself?”

“That idiot died long ago. The person in front of you now is me, Chang Tingzhi.”

“That fool who would drive a junk car with you, live in a rented room, and hold onto naive fantasies about the future is long dead!”

“I,”

Yu Fuqiu wanted to say something more.

“If you waste my time with such boring questions again, remember that my time is worth millions per minute. You could not afford that price in a lifetime.”

The call was abruptly disconnected. The dial tone hammered against Yu Fuqiu’s eardrums like a drum.

He walked out of the garage in a daze, clutching that cold key tightly in his hand.

From not far away in the villa area, a car horn sounded. Yu Fuqiu instinctively tried to avoid it, but the car pulled up and stopped right in front of him.

“Hey, Qiuqiu!”

Yu Zhuo’s head popped out from the car as he opened the door. “Why are you here alone?”

“It is so cold. Is Old Chang really willing to let you out by yourself?”

Yu Zhuo was a mutual friend of his and Chang Tingzhi. He had just returned from Country M not long ago and was not yet aware of Chang Tingzhi’s current condition.

“He, he has things to do. He asked me to go to a certain place first,”

Yu Fuqiu’s body shivered, and he let out a sneeze. He was only wearing a thin, beige turtleneck sweater, which provided almost no warmth in the open street.

The cold wind blew his soft, dark hair against his smooth forehead and cheeks, sending stings of biting cold through him. The tip of his nose quickly turned a fragile crimson, and his fair earlobes were so red they were almost transparent, looking as if they would shatter at a light touch.

Yu Fuqiu could not help but hug his arms. His thin frame looked increasingly slender in the cold wind. The hem of his cashmere cardigan was lifted by the wind, vaguely revealing a waist that seemed small enough to be held in one hand.

His exposed neck and wrists were frozen into a cold, jade like texture, with faint veins visible beneath his nearly transparent skin.

Yu Zhuo’s throat moved twice. Facing those slightly red eyes, he took off his coat and draped it over Yu Fuqiu’s shoulders. His fingertips unconsciously brushed the long hair, and the soft strands touching his skin sent ripples through his heart.

“Speaking of which,” Yu Zhuo’s eyes flickered. “Old Chang asked me to take you to this place half a month ago.”

“I have a gift for you in my car. Old… prepared it.”

“Get in. I will drive you.”

Yu Fuqiu’s face was buried in the oversized coat. He reached out with his pink, frozen fingertips to pull the coat tighter and gave Yu Zhuo a faint smile. “Thank you, Yu Zhuo.”

Watching that slender figure get into his passenger seat, Yu Zhuo felt as if ants were biting at his heart, a slight itch. He instinctively put his fingertips under his nose, where the scent of Yu Fuqiu seemed to linger.

“Yu Zhuo?”

Yu Fuqiu blinked his watery eyes, poking his head out from the window like a little rabbit.

Yu Zhuo cursed himself inwardly. This was his best friend’s wife!

He got into the car, handed the gift from the back seat to Yu Fuqiu, and said with a bit of guilt, “This is the gift I prepared for you. I did not know what you would like, so I just chose something.”

“Happy fifth wedding anniversary.”

Yu Fuqiu was stunned. He took the gift carefully and slowly opened it.

What met his eyes was a pair of beautiful sky blue eyes.

It was a Ragdoll cat.

“How, how did you know I wanted a Ragdoll cat the most?”

Yu Fuqiu liked cats very much, but Chang Tingzhi was allergic to cat hair. He had been forced to give away the cat he previously owned and could only pet cats at cat cafes at most.

He had only ever mentioned this idea to Chang Tingzhi. How did Yu Zhuo know?

“I passed by last time and saw you squatting at a door petting a Ragdoll cat. It just so happened that my Ragdoll cat had a litter, so I brought one to you.”

In reality, Chang Tingzhi had found him half a year ago to use his Ragdoll cat for breeding. He had selected the best looking kitten and raised it for a few months to ensure it was friendly. Half a month ago, he told Yu Zhuo to give it to Yu Fuqiu as a fifth anniversary gift.

“Thank you, Yu Zhuo.”

He held the Ragdoll cat tightly. The corners of his gentle eyes turned red, and the mole at the corner of his eye looked even more inviting.

“Don’t cry! I,” Seeing Yu Fuqiu sniffle, Yu Zhuo panicked instantly. In his confusion, he pulled out a tissue and carefully wiped the corners of Yu Fuqiu’s eyes. He nearly held Yu Fuqiu half in his arms. With the pleasant scent lingering near his nose, Yu Zhuo’s throat moved, and his body went stiff.

“Don’t cry, okay? I will take you to my house to see the other Ragdolls later. My cat can do a backflip.”

The tears at the beauty’s eyes were gently wiped away. His eyes curved like peach blossoms in April. The spring breeze of his smile left Yu Zhuo dazed.

Until they got out of the car, he pursed his lips. “Can you have a meal with me?”

He felt that his words were inappropriate. It was the man’s fifth anniversary; why was he trying to intrude? He hurried to fix his mistake. “As friends, we can have a meal occasionally. Call Old Chang to come along too.”

“Ah… okay.” Yu Fuqiu hesitated but still agreed, holding the cat carrier in his arms. “The coat,”

“It is fine. You keep it on for now. There is a heater in my car, it is very warm. I am already sweating.”

Yu Zhuo took off his hoodie, wearing only a tight black tank top underneath. He revealed his sturdy muscles and wheat colored skin with smooth lines, and a few beads of sweat were visible.

Yu Fuqiu was amused by his actions, and a faint sense of expectation rose in his heart.

Tingzhi asked Yu Zhuo to pick him up, so perhaps…

He turned around and slowly walked toward the location mentioned in the envelope.

It was a shop located at a corner.

Both sides were clustered with flowers that bloomed year round. When the wind blew, petals fell onto the stone path, making every step fragrant.

This was the place where Chang Tingzhi first proposed to Yu Fuqiu.

At that time, Chang Tingzhi was holding a diamond ring. He looked steady, but when he said his vows, his voice trembled uncontrollably.

Looking at the child he had raised himself, Yu Fuqiu’s heart nearly melted.

He walked step by step along the stone path, where reality and memory overlapped.

“The road you walk must have flowers in bloom and the sound of crowds.”

One step.

Another step.

The path was not long. Yu Fuqiu walked slowly to the end and pushed open that fresh door. Ding-ling!

The bell on the door made a crisp sound.

“Qiuqiu, welcome back.”

Chu Baoli stood in the shop, her eyes curving with a smile.

“Sister.”

Even though he knew it was impossible for Chang Tingzhi to appear here, the moment he was pulled from his fantasy to touch reality, an endless sense of loneliness swept over him.

In that moment, Yu Fuqiu still inevitably clutched his chest, nearly unable to breathe.

“Tingzhi prepared this half a month ago.”

Chu Baoli took out a document with handwriting familiar to Yu Fuqiu.

“To my wife.”

Yu Fuqiu’s hands trembled as he took the document and carefully opened it.

He took out two documents from inside.

They were two Real Estate Ownership Certificates.

“Tingzhi bought this storefront. Actually, he wanted to buy it and give it to you a long time ago, but the elderly couple who owned it refused to sell. This time, their children are taking them abroad to retire, so Tingzhi finally bought it.”

“There is one more. Tingzhi told me it is the home where he was raised. He wanted to present that home to you once again.”

Chu Baoli only found her relative when Chang Tingzhi was in university, so she had heard about his previous life but did not know much.

It was a very old and remote little house, but it was built with money Yu Fuqiu had saved bit by bit from acting as an extra and running street stalls. That little house provided them shelter from the wind and rain, where Yu Fuqiu raised Chang Tingzhi for ten years.

Later, debt collectors found Chang Tingzhi. To escape them, Yu Fuqiu had no choice but to sell the small house at a low price and take Chang Tingzhi into hiding.

“Qiuqiu, Tingzhi… perhaps he is being a bit excessive now, but his love is engraved in his bones.”

“You have been together for fifteen years, and even Xiao Chun is seven years old. Is there anything you cannot get through?”

Chu Baoli took off the bracelet from her wrist. “This was given to me by our mother before she passed away. I am giving it to you now.”

“Do not lose faith in Tingzhi completely, okay?”

“We are looking for a way to bring the original Tingzhi back. This is only temporary.”

“Moreover,” Chu Baoli sighed softly. “You raised him yourself and planted the seeds for so many years. Are you going to let someone else enjoy the fruit?”

“Do it for Xiao Chun. After all, he is only seven.”

“You do not want Xiao Chun to grow up in a broken home, do you?” Chu Baoli said softly.

Yu Fuqiu bit his lip, tears falling onto the property certificate that bore his name.

Since he had transmigrated into this book and had a child with Chang Tingzhi, and now Chang Tingzhi had only lost his memory and forgotten him, the plot had not yet truly started.

Even if it did, he would turn it around.

Chang Tingzhi.

No matter what he became.

He was his Chang Tingzhi, the one he had raised himself.

Yu Fuqiu gripped the two pieces of paper. With a raspy voice and eyes sparkling under the shop’s lights, he said, “You are right.”

“He is my husband.”

“And he will only ever be mine.”