Chapter 261: Sameness and Change

Chapter 261: Sameness and Change

July 20, 2020, seven in the morning exactly.

North District, Donghai City. Villa No. 36, Zunrong Donghai Huafu. The second-floor master bedroom.

On the stroke of the hour, Wu Chen opened his eyes on time. He looked up at the ceiling and smiled in contentment.

He was “back.”

The third active reset since his new life began.

The first had come after he stole Wang Zhuangyuan’s car. Wang Zhuangyuan’s men had just tracked him down, trouble was already at the door, and he had simply chosen to reset.

The second had come because Old Dao’s men meant to stage a car accident. Wu Chen completed that reset in the instant of the crash, before death took him.

Both had been foreseen and planned.

But this time—

the third reset—

had been no part of any plan.

Even so, it had been merely an unexpected development, not an emergency. Which had left him both the time and the inclination to spend half of “July 20” playing around, looking into a few things, hunting up some excitement, and finally gambling his life for the fun of it.

He had completed the active reset before dying in the car stunt.

Still smiling, Wu Chen turned his head.

Li Ruobing lay beside him, long hair scattered, faint traces of tears still at the corners of her eyes, sleeping soundly.

He tightened his arm around her a little.

Still asleep, she nestled closer, turned onto her side, and looped one arm around his neck.

She was sleeping very deeply. They had gone to sleep only two hours earlier, so his movement did not wake her.

Wu Chen himself was exhausted in both mind and body.

He had reset back here.

This was precisely the condition he should be in at seven in the morning on July 20.

He and Li Ruobing had not gone to sleep until five. And the whole time, Li Ruobing had been “competing” with him.

She had been remarkably eager about it.

Wu Chen turned things over briefly, then rolled over with her in his arms and closed his eyes again.

Sleep.

There was nothing worth thinking about just now.

He had only just reset back. First he would sleep his fill.

Five hours later.

Noon.

Wu Chen woke again.

Exactly as on the previous “July 20,” he got up alone, washed, dressed, went downstairs, and found Zhuang Xiaodie making lunch.

After talking with her a while in the kitchen, he returned to the living room.

He switched on the television, watched for a while, then began making calls.

First Song Xuan, to set the time and place for signing the contract.

Then Old Dao, to ask about Jiang Chuan.

Repetition.

Wu Chen repeated nearly everything he had done on the previous “July 20.”

Repetition of that kind put no pressure on him whatsoever.

He could time it down to the second.

He was used to it.

During the thousand-year loop he had gone mad, lost control, and in despair at an endlessly repeating life had killed himself hundreds of times.

Only afterward had he changed his thinking and begun learning every skill, investigating every matter, sleeping with every kind of woman.

At this moment Wu Chen could say with complete confidence that he had the strongest mental resilience in the world.

Bar none.

However—

repetition or not, this time he made a few small changes.

While speaking with Old Dao, he specifically instructed him to have his men tie Jiang Chuan up.

They also settled that Wu Chen would come to see Jiang Chuan that afternoon.

Afterward, just as before, Lei Cheng called.

Everything else was the same.

The only difference was that Wu Chen arranged a different time and place to meet him.

Time moved on.

Zhuang Xiaodie finished cooking.

Wu Chen went upstairs to wake Li Ruobing, then carried her down in his arms.

They ate.

What Li Ruobing said at the table and how Zhuang Xiaodie reacted were both exactly as they had been “before.”

It gave Wu Chen a very subtle feeling.

Interesting.

Before the meal ended, he made another “revision.”

“Xiaodie, get ready this afternoon. Put your makeup on and wait for my call. I’ll take you out.” Wu Chen set down his bowl and chopsticks and spoke while wiping his mouth with a napkin.

“Mm. All right, Mr. Wu.” Zhuang Xiaodie nodded obediently.

“And where are you taking your little lover for fun?” Li Ruobing asked from beside him, giving him a sidelong glance.

Her tone was teasing.

Wu Chen turned toward her.

Then he leaned in, lifted her chin with one hand, and kissed the corner of her mouth.

“Get some proper rest today. Be good.” He smiled as he finished.

“Hmph.” Li Ruobing gave the softest snort, but she asked him nothing further.

He had told her to “be good.”

Li Ruobing was not the sort of soft-natured woman who would obediently be good. Her nature ran the other way entirely: strong-willed and hard-edged.

And yet—

strangely, perhaps because of what had passed between them the night before, being coaxed by Wu Chen like this left her feeling sweet.

Around two in the afternoon.

Wu Chen left “on schedule” and drove toward Shangzao Café in the Central District.

He arrived a little after two-thirty.

He got out, went in, took a private room, and went upstairs.

The whole process was no different from the previous “July 20.”

But once he had sat down inside the room, things began to change again.

By the timing, Song Xuan was on her way here now.

And Wu Yurong was in the same car, sitting right beside her.

Wu Chen called Wu Yurong.

Seven or eight seconds passed before she picked up.

“Ahem. Hello?” She gave a light cough as she answered.

Her voice was soft and sweet, but very formal.

She was acting. Her daughter was beside her.

“Coming over with your daughter?” Wu Chen asked directly, smiling.

“Yes… how did you know?” She answered, then turned it back on him.

That really was what she wanted to know, but she kept her tone deliberately in check. A different tone would make it hard for Song Xuan, sitting right there, to judge what sort of person her mother was speaking to.

Much less could she tell exactly who it was.

“Just a guess.” Wu Chen smiled. “All right. I’ll be waiting.”

“Okay…” That was all Wu Yurong could say. With her daughter beside her, there was a great deal she could not.

Around 2:45, Wu Chen received Song Xuan’s message.

Two minutes later the door opened.

Song Xuan and Wu Yurong came in.

Still repeating.

Formal introductions, the pleasantries and the praise, ordering coffee, the interrogation that amounted to a household registration check, all the idle questions about this and that.

Eventually the conversation came around to the contract.

Song Xuan took it out for Wu Chen to look over, said a word to her mother, and rose to go to the restroom.

She had only just stepped out.

“Student Wu?” Wu Chen looked up from the contract at Wu Yurong across the table.

“What?” she answered with a sweet smile.

She stood.

She came around the table.

Wu Chen pulled her straight into his lap.

Wu Yurong turned sideways with the motion and looped both arms around his neck.

“Can’t I call you Student Wu?”

“It isn’t that you can’t. It’s only… rather strange.”

“Strange? Then what should I call you? Hubby?”

Having called him hubby, Wu Yurong kissed the corner of his mouth.

“Anything’s fine.” Wu Chen smiled, then tipped his head slightly. “Go and sit back down. Your daughter is going to see us.”

“How could she? Xuanxuan went to the restroom. That takes a few minutes at least,” Wu Yurong said.

Then, in a soft, honeyed murmur, she asked quietly, “How did you know in advance that Xuanxuan and I would come together—”

Her bright eyes flickered, as if she meant to see straight through him.

It made no sense. From noon until now she had been with her daughter the whole time. Coming along had been decided on the spur of the moment. No one else knew.

How could Wu Chen possibly have known?

Did he really know things before they happened?

While she was speaking, Wu Chen picked up his coffee.

It looked as though he were about to pour it over himself.

But since Wu Yurong was sitting in his lap, it would land on her instead.

Before she could finish, she released him on instinct, shot to her feet, and stepped aside to dodge.

Tap-tap-tap—bang!

The door was shoved open in the same instant.

“Senior!” Song Xuan burst in, wild with excitement.

Wu Yurong swallowed the question she had been about to ask—why he had tried to pour coffee on her—and her whole body jolted as though a current had run through it.

Her daughter had very nearly seen her sitting in Wu Chen’s lap.

He had warned her.

She had thought it would be fine.

Then he had merely startled her with the coffee, triggering the reflex that brought her to her feet.

And immediately afterward, Song Xuan burst in.

Did he really know things before they happened?

How could Wu Chen have known Song Xuan would come back less than a minute after leaving?

The coffee never actually spilled. Wu Chen stopped in time.

He looked at the girl who had come rushing in and asked with a smile, “Student Song, what’s the matter?”

Then he took a sip from the cup in his hand and glanced at Wu Yurong, whose expression was visibly off.