Ren Yu, this comrade, was truly cunning.
Liu Chen mumbled to himself, a faint smile on his face.
He placed his phone on the bedside table and plugged it in to charge. Glancing at the time on the screen, it was already past ten in the evening.
He looked at the uncurtained window and the city lights filtering into the room. Liu Chen rolled over, turned to his right side, and closed his eyes.
"Good night."
-
Familiar white mist. Liu Chen had thought he would dream of Ren Mo or Sang Ling's past life tonight.
But when the dense fog dissipated, Liu Chen was stunned. The protagonist of this life movie was none other than Lai Jielun.
Unexpected, yet also logical.
After seeing Mi Zhuzhu before, Liu Chen had thought he would continue to dream of Lai Jielun. However, on the car ride, he had dreamt of Sister Yu Li first.
In his past life, Lai Jielun's class had no transfer students, nor Ren Mo. As the son of the homeroom teacher, he was subtly excluded from the cliques within the class.
Liu Chen watched Lai Jielun, who usually loved to play pranks, eating alone in the cafeteria, staying alone in the classroom to close the door, and waiting to go home with his mother.
Liu Chen watched Lai Jielun silently achieve high scores in his senior year of high school and then choose S Province Normal University.
Liu Chen watched Lai Jielun become even more withdrawn on the university campus. After graduation, he became an excellent professor. He lived his life step-by-step according to his family's expectations, like any ordinary person being pressured to marry.
Later, he started dating a girl he met through a blind date. They had a sweet period of love, but soon, they began to discuss marriage.
Lai Jielun used all his savings, plus the money from his family, to buy a three-bedroom apartment in C City after the housing prices had skyrocketed.
They held their wedding at a four-star hotel. During the wedding, Liu Chen saw the homeroom teacher, Lai Jing.
Whether it was because she was a few years older than she was now, or because ordinary life and琐碎杂事 had taken their toll, Teacher Lai Jing exuded a profound sense of weariness.
But she was still happy for her son's major life event.
After marriage, Lai Jielun and his partner had a daughter, and they raised her together.
Soon, the scene shifted. Lai Jielun appeared to be around forty-something. He was sitting on the sofa in the three-bedroom apartment he had bought with great effort ten years prior.
Holding a piece of paper, Liu Chen walked closer and leaned next to Lai Jielun, looking at the contents of the document.
Through experimental proof, Lai Xue and Lai Jielun were not blood related.
Only after seeing this sentence did Liu Chen notice that the ashtray on the coffee table was already stuffed with cigarette butts.
From outside the door came the sound of a little girl talking, and the sound of a key unlocking the main door.
Lai Jielun, as if a playback button had been pressed, quickly stuffed the document under the sofa cushion, then bent down to empty the cigarette butts from the ashtray into the trash can, and tied the plastic bag shut.
Just as he finished tying the trash bag, the little girl rushed into the house. Upon entering, she ignored her father sitting on the sofa and instead ran directly into her bedroom, slamming the door shut with a loud bang, seemingly to vent her dissatisfaction.
Seeing the little girl's face, Liu Chen finally understood why Lai Jielun had thought to do a paternity test.
She looked nothing like Lai Jielun, nor did she look like Lai Jielun's blind date.
"How many times have I told you, smoking is bad for your health? Besides, with the money you spend on cigarettes, I mentioned it last time, about signing Tiantian up for summer camp. You said you'd transfer the money these past few days. Where is it?"
The blind date seemed unfazed by her daughter's behavior. Instead, she placed her Gucci bag on the sofa and, without looking up, berated him.
Let alone Lai Jielun, who was already sensitive, even Liu Chen felt suffocated at this moment.
Just as Liu Chen thought Lai Jielun would produce the report, he heard Lai Jielun say:
"Let's get a divorce. We'll split the house half and half, and the child is yours."
"Lai Jielun, are you crazy? You want a divorce? I tell you, no way!"
Just as Liu Chen thought they were going to argue, the scene suddenly changed.
They stood at the entrance of the Civil Affairs Bureau. Lai Jielun held a red divorce certificate. The blind date turned and got into a red Mercedes-Benz and drove away. Lai Jielun hailed a taxi and returned to an old residential area.
Lai Jielun was silent the entire way. When he returned to his parents' home, Lai Jielun handed the divorce certificate to his mother, Lai Jing, who opened the door.
Lai Jing subconsciously took the divorce certificate. After she looked down and clearly read the words on the red booklet, she instinctively threw it back to Lai Jielun as if it were scalding hot.
The Lai Jing teacher in front of him had long lost the spirited demeanor that Liu Chen remembered. She was entirely silent.
Without consulting his family, Lai Jielun divorced his wife of ten years and was also kicked out of the house.
Just as Liu Chen was confused about why Lai Jielun said he was kicked out, he saw a text message on Lai Jielun's phone.
1.8 million yuan was transferred into Lai Jielun's account.
However, Lai Jielun's parents genuinely believed that Lai Jielun had left with nothing. After repeatedly questioning him but getting no explanation for the divorce, Lai's father angrily cursed at Lai Jielun.
Divorced in his early forties, without a house or a car, even a second-time bride would be reluctant to marry him.
Moreover, Lai Jielun did not seem willing to enter another marriage. Life went on like this, with classes, going home, cooking, and taking care of his parents.
Then the scene changed again. Lai Jielun's photo appeared in a niche at a public cemetery. Liu Chen quickly noticed that two spots away from Lai Jielun's photo was Mi Zhuzhu's photo!
This astonishing coincidence made Liu Chen wonder if, perhaps, even without himself, Lai Jielun and Mi Zhuzhu might have met in this lifetime?
Just as this thought flashed through Liu Chen's mind, the white mist dissipated.
Just as Liu Chen expected to wake up after watching a life movie, as he had before.
But the white mist in front of him seemed to have stalled. Liu Chen tentatively reached his hand into the mist and found that the mist was like a wall.
He was trapped here by the white mist.
Liu Chen felt a bit panicked, but soon, he found that the white mist dispersed.
Only when he saw the scene after the white mist dispersed did Liu Chen finally understand the meaning of that period of time.
It was similar to how Mi Zhuzhu's dream had many scenes. He had just woken up after finishing the dream. However, Lai Jielun's life movie had been short, so the white mist was changing the disc...
This was Liu Chen's interpretation. Otherwise, otherwise he couldn't explain why Sang Ling suddenly appeared before him.
The current scene was the first time he met Sang Ling, during an interview at a local television station.
However, this time, without himself, Sang Ling did not dare to question the makeup the makeup artist had applied. Sang Ling on stage was heavily made up, like a township actress in her early thirties.
After the interview, Sang Ling was dragged to film advertisements for tutoring classes she had never attended.
That summer, Sang Ling found a tutoring job. By the time school started, she had saved some money.
When she started school, Sang Ling's appearance quickly attracted suitors. However, Sang Ling was too busy with her studies and tutoring outside of school to have time or inclination for romance.
Soon, Sang Ling reached her junior year, the time to look for internships. Due to being busy with work and studies, Sang Ling was not familiar with her classmates and could only submit resumes during campus recruitment.
Finally, Sang Ling secured an internship at a company located in the eastern part of Beijing. Thanks to her hard work, Sang Ling was successfully hired full-time after her internship.
However, due to the high rent in Beijing, Sang Ling had to wake up at six-thirty every morning and take the subway and then the bus, just to successfully clock in at nine o'clock.
Soon, the scene shifted. Sang Ling, three years after graduation, used her accumulated savings to buy a house in C City. However, history always repeated itself. In her past life, Sang Ling had also chosen a five-year loan for a three-bedroom apartment. The difference was that because the purchase was made five years later, the furniture in the old house was too worn out, so Sang Ling bought all new furniture.
After doing all this, Sang Ling continued to work in Beijing. She lived frugally every month to pay off the mortgage in C City, which had increased in price.
Through day-after-day overtime and long-term frugality, Sang Ling, at thirty, paid off the mortgage completely and saved a considerable amount of money.
At this point, the company began restructuring, which meant layoffs.
Sang Ling, unmarried and childless at thirty, was among the first to be laid off. Fortunately, she had savings and severance pay, so Sang Ling simply returned to C City.
The white mist shifted. Someone invited Sang Ling to start a business, but Sang Ling refused. She returned to C City and opened a tutoring school. Perhaps drawing on her tutoring experience from university, she became a top mathematics instructor at the school.
Because she was attractive and had a career, a house, and a car, people soon began to pursue her.
Sang Ling chose a dentist who was five years older than her. After marriage, they had two children, a son and a daughter. Their lives were simple and happy. The only drawback was that both of them were very busy, and the children essentially grew up in the hospital where their parents worked and at the tutoring school.
The son grew up to honorably inherit his father's profession and become a dentist, while the daughter became an orthopedic surgeon.
As Sang Ling grew older, she allowed her tutoring school to be managed by several top instructors, earning dividends each year. She then devoted herself to looking after her grandchildren at home.
Sang Ling's funeral was dignified. Her husband, leading their two children and four grandchildren, along with two great-granddaughters in kindergarten, kept vigil beside her.
Liu Chen deliberately leaned closer to look at Sang Ling's expression in the transparent coffin. She looked very peaceful.
-
The white mist enveloped him, and Liu Chen opened his eyes.
To be honest, although Lai Jielun being cuckolded was miserable, what moved Liu Chen the most at this moment was Sang Ling.
Sang Ling, whether in her past life or this life, lived very diligently. Not only that, but Sang Ling was also very cautious. In his dreams, he had seen Sang Ling refuse several invitations to start businesses together, and also reject several potential suitors who appeared to be wealthy and handsome.
Therefore, compared to Lai Jielun in his past life, who didn't know how to rebel and always obeyed his parents, or Zhuzhu, who had no plans and became a housewife only to be cheated on, or Sister Yu Li, who lost faith in everyone after being hurt by marriage.
Sang Ling's life could be described as bittersweet.
Thinking of this, Liu Chen felt a sense of melancholy. Life was truly wondrous.
In this lifetime, Lai Jielun rebelled against his parents and went to the Central Academy of Drama with his mother's support. Mi Zhuzhu became a prominent influencer on Weibo with her unique sharing style, a quintessential career woman. Sister Yu Li, under Guo Da's sincere confession, chose to re-enter marriage.
As for Sang Ling, Liu Chen felt that her decision to accept Ren Mo's proposal was perhaps not as rational as in her past life. But then he thought, all of Sang Ling's caution in her past life was because her life had no room for error.
If she made even one wrong choice, all her efforts would be in vain. She would have to start all over again, and the difficulty would only increase.
Now, in this life, the reason she accepted Ren Mo's proposal was probably because Sang Ling had the confidence to bear failure.
-
Ren Yu woke up very early. Recently, Chenchen seemed to have been having nightmares, often talking in her sleep.
"Zhuzhu, don't cry, I'll beat her to death for you!"
"Wuwu, Sister Yu Li, don't be sad, I'll always be your good friend!"
Ren Yu could tolerate these two. But why!
Why did Chenchen's sleep-talking tonight also include Lai Jielun!
Ren Yu, who had been lying flat with his eyes closed, pretending to be asleep, quietly opened his eyes when he heard Lai Jielun's name. He turned his head to look at Chenchen, who was sleeping on her side facing him.
"Lai Jielun, wow, so tragic. Your daughter isn't yours, and you're splitting the house..."
Hearing Chenchen's words, Ren Yu didn't know whether to be jealous or to offer condolences to that child, Lai Jielun.
What was their Chenchen's mind filled with?
Dreaming about friends being cuckolded in the middle of the night?
"Wow, Sang Ling is amazing, hardworking, enjoys overtime, and didn't fall into the trap of consumerism."
Hearing this, Ren Yu frowned slightly.
If he remembered correctly, Sang Ling was his younger brother's girlfriend, the woman Ren Mo had successfully proposed to today.
A second-year student who just started university?
In Chenchen's dream, she was a hardworking, overtime-loving employee? Consumerism trap? What did that mean?
Was consumption a trap?
Ren Yu was filled with questions. At the same time, he began to look forward to Chenchen mentioning his own name.
He really wanted to know what kind of person he would be in Chenchen's dreams.
Just as Ren Yu held his breath and waited, he saw Chenchen's eyelids twitching rapidly.
To prevent Chenchen from waking up in the middle of the night and finding him with his eyes open, Ren Yu quickly turned his head back, quietly and peacefully playing the role of a sleeping self.
Then...
Ren Yu heard Chenchen sigh?
Then, the mattress began to shake slightly. Chenchen seemed to prop herself up on her arm, gazing at him.
Just as Ren Yu was wondering whether to pretend to wake up, he felt Chenchen moving closer to him.
Soft lips accurately landed on his forehead.
"Husband, good night."