Four Years Ago, Her Husband Cheated on Her Body - Chapter 5

“He’s sick.”

Zhu Nanyu’s gaze remained fixed on Qiao’s pale face through the paused screen.

His voice, as if scraped by sandpaper, was hoarse with a raw, bloody sound in every word.

“Oh dear~” Lanner pulled a chair beside the hospital bed and sat down, his long legs elegantly crossed. “A corpse that’s been dead for four years can still talk. Now that’s a medical miracle~”

Zhu Nanyu finally shifted his sight from his wife’s face, giving Lanner a look of pity, as if he were an idiot.

Lanner immediately concluded: The Chief of the Transmigration Bureau, who is powerful, controls everything, and is unfailingly strategic, doesn’t even have the energy to tell me to ‘shut up’ now.

“Hahahahahahaha—!”

Lanner burst into five full minutes of wild, arrogant laughter, the echoes lasting for three days and three nights.

“Look at you, all weak and pitiful. It’ll take at least three months for you to stand up, right? I suggest you really die and reincarnate; it’ll be faster, sweetie~”

Zhu Nanyu narrowed his eyes, the intent to kill was barely concealed.

A chill ran down the big golden retriever’s spine. He quickly flashed through the consequences of angering the Chief, immediately dropping his villainous facade. He reached for a large orange from the fruit basket nearby. “Thirsty? Daddy will peel an orange for you.”

“Get lost.” Zhu Nanyu’s thin lips barely moved, a stingy reward of a single word.

“My noble Chief, calm down, please~” Lanner peeled the orange and offered it to Zhu Nanyu’s mouth, his tone smug and annoying. “Here, I don’t mind if you use me as a replacement for Jia~”

Zhu Nanyu turned his head away, the disgust in his eyes almost palpable.

“Hey, hey, hey! That really hurts my self-esteem!” Lanner exaggeratedly clutched his chest, pulling out a small, diamond-encrusted mirror to examine himself. “Am I that much worse than Jia?”

“Yes.”

Categorical, firm, and without hesitation.

Lanner lowered the mirror, his sparkling peach blossom eyes narrowing into a cunning arc. “If your precious wife is so good, how could you bear to abandon him for four years? So heartless, you scumbag~”

Zhu Nanyu tightened his lips, remaining silent.

“It was four years this time, what about next time? Five years? Ten years?” Lanner gloated. “You disappear without warning every time. What if…”

“I retired.”

“…Huh?” The playful look on Lanner’s face instantly disappeared, his eyes wide with shock. “Retired?! You’re not the Chief anymore? Are you kidding me? That’s the power to manipulate the world!”

Zhu Nanyu didn’t even bother to move his eyelid, as if the things he abandoned were not worth mentioning.

“No wonder… you usually come back completely unscathed, but this time you’re like this.” Lanner looked thoughtful, raising a hand to push up non-existent detective glasses. “Your body full of sequelae—is that the Transmigration Bureau’s punishment? What do they call that… discarding the bow when the bird is caught? Burning the bridge after crossing?”

“No,” Zhu Nanyu denied.

They didn’t have the guts.

Since it wasn’t a punishment, Lanner could only think of a worse deduction.

“Zhu Nanyu, did you die during a mission?”

Lanner once heard Zhu Nanyu mention that when executing a Transmigration Bureau mission, his ‘spirit’ was extracted from his physical body in the real world.

As long as the spirit returned completely intact, the body would be unaffected.

Conversely, if the spirit was injured or died during the mission, the spiritual energy would be damaged, and the resulting karmic retribution would accumulate on the real-world body.

As the Chief, ordinary injuries or even death would have minimal impact on Zhu Nanyu.

To make him like this…

“How many times did you die?” Lanner’s tone was unprecedentedly serious.

Zhu Nanyu thought for a moment and reported a number: “259.”

In fact, Zhu Nanyu hadn’t originally planned to quit the Transmigration Bureau.

This job was performed by his ‘spirit’ and had little impact on the real world.

In others’ eyes, each mission was just a few days of absence, which could be explained away with any excuse.

Until that rainy night.

Zhu Nanyu received an urgent mission and lost consciousness just moments before arriving home.

He broke his promise.

In the worst possible way.

So, Zhu Nanyu decided to retire.

As the Chief of the Transmigration Bureau, retirement wasn’t easy; some high-level missions could only be completed by him.

To completely break free, Zhu Nanyu pulled out all A-level and above missions and dealt with them centrally.

When executing missions, time flows differently than in the real world, but it is generally positively correlated.

The longer the mission is delayed, the later the return to the real world.

Usually, after a mission ends, time is reserved for a smooth transition. But Zhu Nanyu wanted to return to Jia’s side as soon as possible, so he ended his life the moment he completed the missions.

In ordinary worlds, it was easy enough: car accidents, jumping off buildings, drowning, poisoning… there were countless ways to commit suicide.

In certain supernatural worlds, the definition of death was extremely strict; one had to be wiped out, body and soul, to end their life.

The pain and fear brought by each death would be deeply imprinted on the soul, causing an immense spiritual burden.

Lanner didn’t dare to imagine how painful it must have been to kill himself 259 times.

“You’re truly… a madman.” Lanner covered his face, his voice trembling. “You used to care most about survival rate. You only died once in all those missions, in an infinite world, you were instantly killed as soon as the boss spawned. You weren’t convinced that time, so you re-ran that mission, eventually tearing down all space outside the boss area, causing the whole world to collapse just to complete the mission… Speaking of which, if that boss hadn’t died, he would also have become a regular person and come to the real world, right?”

“Perhaps.”

Lanner rubbed his arm, seemingly thinking of something terrible. “That boss didn’t rely on supernatural abilities or systems; he was a pure combat-type monster. What if he found out you destroyed his world?”

“It has nothing to do with me.” Zhu Nanyu closed his eyes. “I’m retired.”

“Yes, yes, yes, you wife-slave, your heart and eyes are only filled with your precious wife~” Lanner pulled out a card and dangled it in front of Zhu Nanyu like bait. “Speaking of which, I made contact with Jia two days ago.”

“Oh?” Zhu Nanyu immediately took the bait.

“He’s not as simple and harmless as you said? It took me a lot of effort to get his business card.” Lanner held the card up to him, his expression mournful. “I originally planned to add him on WeChat and try some online dating before you recovered. But I tried calling it and found out he printed his home landline number. It connected but there was no sound. Later he messaged me to explain that your wife doesn’t use a mobile phone. He’s trying to fool me; who in modern times can live without a phone?”

Jia doesn’t use a phone?

Zhu Nanyu’s eyes darkened.

He used to have his phone constantly, engrossed in Weibo, short videos, and various games.

Zhu Nanyu had to resort to every possible means to ‘compete’ with the phone for his wife’s brief attention.

Only four years have passed, and Jia actually…

“Hehehehe~” Lanner caught Zhu Nanyu’s undisguised loneliness, letting out a strange laugh and proudly tossing his golden hair. “Chief, oh no… Xiao Zhu. When you climb out of that bed, you owe Daddy a kowtow!”

Idiot.

Zhu Nanyu couldn’t even be bothered to give him a look.

Lanner leaned his handsome face close, his golden hair glinting in the sunlight, looking quite obnoxious.

Before Zhu Nanyu could tell him to ‘get lost,’ Lanner produced a document and said triumphantly, “I have reached a preliminary cooperation intention with Qianhe Group, and I strongly requested that the Deputy Chairman must communicate the cooperation details.”

Lanner winked with his right eye, sending a beautiful charm. “Whether or not I succeed in online dating with your wife depends on your performance, Xiao Zhuzhu~”

A Trip Home

After returning from the charity gala, Jia’s fever worsened.

The chill brought by the autumn rain seemed to have penetrated his bones, leaving him in a daze for a whole day before he could barely support himself to get out of bed.

When Zhou Chuanbai learned that he had been caught in the rain outside, he was furious and demanded that Lu Min supervise Jia 24/7.

After the noon nap, the sky outside the window was overcast, although it wasn’t raining.

Jia dressed neatly, tied up his hair, and started to walk out.

Lu Min anxiously began to pace around, using sign language to ask where he was going.

“I need to go home for a bit. I won’t be out for too long.”

Home?

Question marks appeared over Lu Min’s head. He held up his notepad: Isn’t this our home?

It’s over.

Master must have burned out his brain!

Jia explained, “Back to the home Zhu Nanyu and I shared.”

Since he had decided to declare Zhu Nanyu legally deceased, he naturally had to hold a funeral and lay him to rest.

The search and rescue team and local villagers searched for five years but never found Zhu Nanyu’s body; it was likely annihilated somewhere.

Jia planned to settle for the next best thing and erect a tomb of clothes for his deceased husband.

When he moved out, Jia only took his own belongings, so there wasn’t a single piece of Zhu Nanyu’s clothing in the house now.

To establish a tomb of clothes, he had to return to their former marital home to get some clothes.

It had been four years; this was the first time Lu Min had heard the word ‘home’ from Jia.

Can I go with you? Lu Min pitifully held up his notepad. Otherwise, Dr. Zhou will be angry with me.

Below, he drew a little crying bunny.

“Alright.”

The marital home was located in a prime, expensive area in the city center, just one street away from the Qianhe Group headquarters.

Jia liked to look out at the vibrant night view of the bustling city from a high vantage point, so Zhu Nanyu bought the top floor of the apartment building, featuring three floor-to-ceiling windows and a spacious balcony.

Taking the elevator directly to the top floor, the hallway, long unvisited, was empty.

Jia stood before the familiar entrance door and, relying on memory, pressed the six-digit code—their wedding anniversary plus his birthday.

The smart lock made a ‘click’ sound and opened.

The world inside the door seemed to have been paused, still maintaining the state it was in four years ago.

The soft gray cashmere sofa, the thick shaggy rug. The cat blanket Jia usually wrapped himself in was still carelessly bunched in the corner of the sofa, as if its owner would come home and use it immediately.

Jia’s slender figure stood at the doorway, silent for a long time, then walked through the living room without looking left or right, heading straight into the master bedroom.

The master bedroom was dimly lit, the king-size bed looked incredibly comfortable.

Jia walked to the bedside, opened the sliding wardrobe embedded in the wall, and saw Zhu Nanyu’s suits and shirts neatly hanging inside. He could faintly smell the man’s clean scent.

“Which one should I choose?”

Jia murmured softly, taking all the clothes out and tossing them haphazardly onto the bed.

The wardrobe was empty in an instant, and none of the clothes seemed particularly fitting.

Jia turned around and saw a small mountain piled up on the bed with clothes.

After silently staring at it for a while, he inexplicably lay down, building a nest for himself out of Zhu Nanyu’s clothes.

It felt like… he was being embraced.

Jia closed his eyes, burying his face in Zhu Nanyu’s clothes.

In the hazy state between waking and sleeping, he felt his body much lighter. The headache that had troubled him for the past two days lessened, and his body temperature gradually seemed to stabilize.

After lying there for about ten minutes, Jia picked up a shirt, his fingertips gently caressing it.

Hesitating for a moment, he suddenly propped himself up, took off his own coat and windbreaker, and slowly put on the shirt, which was obviously two sizes too big, starting to button it from the second button.

—Just like before.

Jia was 176 cm tall, not short by any means.

However, Zhu Nanyu was 185 cm tall, with broad shoulders and a perfect physique.

His shirt, worn on Jia, barely covered his upper thighs.

The loose neckline slipped down his shoulders, revealing his beautiful collarbone and a large area of pale chest.

“Wearing this feels so weird. I still can’t get the charm of the ‘boyfriend shirt’.” It was Jia’s first time wearing it. He uncomfortably pulled at the hem of the shirt, his long, straight legs squeezed together. “If it’s because it looks like a dress, you might as well just buy me a women’s dress.” “It’s different.” Zhu Nanyu’s gaze was unusually hot, his voice content and lingering. “Jia, your entire body is my mark right now.” “A mark is… never mind, no need to explain your awful fetish.” Jia wasn’t usually one to blush, but that time even his earlobes were red. He gritted his teeth and whispered, “Pervert!”

On the night of October 13th, when Jia was waiting for him to return, wrapped in a blanket, he was also wearing Zhu Nanyu’s shirt underneath.

Although he felt it was perverted and shameful inside, he held a hint of secret expectation: Since you rushed back thousands of miles for my birthday, I’ll reward you a little.

Later, when he received the call from the police, Jia hurriedly changed clothes. The shirt he took off should have been carelessly thrown into the bottom layer of the wardrobe.

He’d just use that one.

Jia opened the wardrobe again, searched inside and out twice, and then carefully looked through the pile of clothes he had already taken out.

“…?”

He confirmed that his memory was correct, and he confirmed that he hadn’t taken any of Zhu Nanyu’s clothes when he moved.

Yet, that shirt—

It was gone.