Chapter 10: True Heart, False Words

He was so serious that Fu Rangyi thought he was a bit of an idiot, completely unaware of how private this location was. This person really had no sense of boundaries, no sense of self-preservation. Would he share the special marks on his body like this with all the friends who sent him postcards? What was so special about it then?

Special.

Fu Rangyi suddenly realized a very serious matter—his brain, which had been repeatedly self-disciplined countless times, was once again starting to conjure up these dangerous words. He sternly told himself to stop, trying to eliminate these concepts: unique, special, possess, belong… these thoughts would only bring him unnecessary trouble.

After speaking, Zhu Zhixi sat down again and said casually, “This kind of thing is still quite private, very much like something only real couples and real spouses would know.”

“Is that so?” Fu Rangyi’s tone was much colder than before.

“Yeah,” Zhu Zhixi answered naturally. “This one on me is just covered when I wear jeans. You usually can’t see it.”

Fu Rangyi just looked at him, very quietly.

“What about you?” He suddenly threw the question back. Before getting an answer, he raised an eyebrow and answered with a smile, “I know you have a mole on the web of your right hand. And here.” He touched the back of his neck. “At the location of your glands.”

Fu Rangyi’s expression became even stranger. “How did you know?”

“Unlike some people, my eyes work very well,” Zhu Zhixi was still proud. “But everyone can see those. Are there any that you can’t usually see?”

“You don’t need to know.” Fu Rangyi lowered his eyes, his fingers lightly tapping the tabletop. “No one will test you on these things. Even if they do, you can refuse to answer. It’s an offense to you.”

Okay. Zhu Zhixi knew he was a tough clam to crack, his sense of boundaries at a Great Wall level. Being able to ask this much was already pretty good.

He looked at the filled-out questionnaire, satisfied and full of confidence. “Alright, I think that’s about it. Didn’t you say we’re going to your parents’ house for dinner in a few days? This time, there definitely won’t be any problems.”

Fu Rangyi thought he was being overly naive. It was almost impossible to lie without being discovered. “Will doing all this even be useful?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Zhu Zhixi put down his pen, lay his head on the table sideways, and looked at him very seriously. “Understanding each other is very difficult.”

“Understanding is not love,” Fu Rangyi said.

“You’re right,” Zhu Zhixi admitted, and at the same time, sat up straight and continued to explain. “But sometimes, even couples who are really together don’t understand each other. It’s just that they are influenced by pheromones, producing a desire to mate and reproduce, and mistakenly think it’s love.”

“Are they really in love? If they were, there wouldn’t be so many tragedies in this world. That’s not love at all. Real love isn’t like that.”

Fu Rangyi raised his eyes and stared at him, his gaze serious and earnest. He didn’t completely agree, but he respected Zhu Zhixi’s expression and didn’t interrupt. After listening to him quietly, he spoke in a deep voice.

“So, what is your point of view? What is love in your eyes?”

“The first step to loving each other is to understand each other,” Zhu Zhixi said with certainty. “Without this step, it’s just passion. It will fall apart sooner or later.”

Fu Rangyi didn’t comment on this, although in his view, love was a self-deceiving illusion. Love based on understanding was the same. But he subtly guided the conversation. “You talk as if you’re an expert in this area, very experienced.”

Zhu Zhixi paused for a second or two. For the first time, he didn’t retort, his expression even surprisingly sincere. “If you’re talking about romantic love, I haven’t had any. I admit this is all theoretical.”

“But, I love my family, my friends, including every stranger who has ever helped me. I know very well what that feels like. So I know, the deeper the understanding, the deeper the emotional connection between people.”

Fu Rangyi was quiet for a few seconds. He had to admit that for a moment, he was indeed moved by this overly sincere speech. But he quickly came to his senses, becoming rational and calm.

“From what I hear, I think you’re exaggerating the role of love and mutual understanding. It’s not that this view is wrong, just a bit emotional. But try to pull the perspective back, look at it from a more macro angle. Then you’ll find that, let alone love, happiness, desire, pain… all of it can be ignored, because the existence of humanity itself is extremely insignificant.”

This concept was too negative. Zhu Zhixi wanted to argue, but Fu Rangyi continued the discussion.

“If, as you say, every couple makes a list like this and understands each other, can they avoid tragedy? Not necessarily, right?” Fu Rangyi put his glasses back on. The lenses refracted a blue light, obscuring his light-colored irises, creating an elusive illusion.

“There is a portion of people in this world that, even if you spend a lot of time having in-depth conversations, you will eventually find that what resonates with you is not the person’s essence, but his false packaging. Then you will be disappointed, you will be hurt. Your active exploration, your active exposure, will instead cause a greater tragedy.”

He was no longer being sarcastically confrontational, but steadily outputting a counter-argument, his tone gentle, restrained, and even full of patience. But this made Zhu Zhixi stunned for a moment.

The flimsy piece of paper was held between Fu Rangyi’s fingers. He looked at Zhu Zhixi, and for the first time, spoke like an elder. “When another person fully understands you, it also means they know how to hurt you.”

After hearing this, Zhu Zhixi didn’t immediately retort, but looked into his eyes. For a moment, he vaguely thought he was about to touch the real Fu Rangyi. It was an intuition. He had touched something that looked like it would shatter at a touch. But soon, it disappeared.

Fu Rangyi not only quickly put on his protective shell but even became the person he was in front of outsiders—restrained, mature, and even with a gentle dignity. But this, far from making Zhu Zhixi retreat, made him even more determined.

“Professor Fu, when you view something as a weapon, only then does it become a weapon.” He looked at Fu Rangyi, his eyes brave and frank. “How the world treats you also depends on how you see the world. So I’m not afraid. No matter who it is, as long as they want to understand me, want to be my friend, I will openly reveal myself and give them the most sincere answers. As long as they want.”

His eyelids were so pale they were almost translucent, as if you could see the network of his blood vessels. But his dark pupils were piercingly bright.

Fu Rangyi’s gaze was heavy. A brief, evenly matched standoff occurred between them. Until Fu Rangyi suddenly found a contradiction and chose to break it.

“Is that so?”

“Of course,” Zhu Zhixi said without hesitation.

“Then that’s very strange. I had suspected before that maybe your family forced you into a blind date, into marriage, to make you settle down. But I saw with my own eyes that they love you very much and don’t seem like the type to do these things. And you don’t seem to need a marriage that much either.”

He stood up, but his hand moved down, his fingertips hooking the necklace around Zhu Zhixi’s neck. He lowered his eyes, staring at the star-ring pendant trembling at his fingertips. “So, a sincere person like you, why did you enter into a fake marriage with me?”

Zhu Zhixi was stunned. He belatedly realized that in the preceding conversation, he had been unconsciously led into a trap, from being the one asking questions to the one being interrogated, step by step, biting at each other, until finally, Fu Rangyi delivered the final blow, asking the question he really wanted to ask.

Over the past many days, he had hesitated whether to tell him. Although their marriage was essentially one of mutual benefit, he felt a bit guilty keeping his partner completely in the dark. But even if he told him, no one would believe it. He had asked almost everyone around him at the beginning.

Zhu Zhixi clenched his left hand.

The living room suddenly fell silent. The warm-toned lighting filled the entire space, and the flowing air turned into a thick maple syrup, enveloping them.

Fu Rangyi sat leisurely, his right elbow propped on the edge of the wooden table, his palm supporting his chin. A scrutinizing gaze came through the glass lenses, landing directly on his face. Perhaps because he was a few years older, or perhaps because of his profession, even though he remained silent and didn’t press, there was still a faint sense of pressure.

This gaze was not unfamiliar to Zhu Zhixi; it was his usual state when he worked at home.

Half a minute later, just as he was about to give up on getting an answer and was about to sarcastically comment on Zhu Zhixi’s selective sincerity, Zhu Zhixi suddenly made a move. He extended his left hand towards Fu Rangyi and opened his palm.

[48 days 17 hours 12 minutes 13 seconds]

What is this for? Fu Rangyi glanced at his empty palm. For a second, he even suspected he might be asking him to place his hand on it.

“Actually, I don’t want to hide it from you, but you probably won’t believe it if I tell you.” This person’s tone became even more serious than before. “The morning of the second day I returned to the country, a few days before our blind date, a countdown suddenly appeared on my hand. And I found that the time displayed represents how much longer I have to live!”

To make himself more believable, Zhu Zhixi described the process in detail, not missing a single point, even tracing the specific shape of the countdown in his palm with his finger. Of course, he also included Fu Rangyi’s important role in this absurd story.

“I found that only you can save me! As long as I’m near you, the countdown slows down, or even pauses. I can’t just watch myself die like this. So when you proposed marriage, I was thinking, this might be my only way to save myself. I’ll extend my life first, then find another way to completely get rid of this damn countdown. That’s my purpose. I swear.” He raised four fingers in a row next to his ear and looked at Fu Rangyi sincerely.

Fu Rangyi frowned and was silent for a few seconds, as if trying hard to digest this absurd matter. After a while, he began to ask some questions, such as “What was the initial countdown?” and “How many seconds does it pause for?”

Zhu Zhixi answered all his many questions honestly. Then, the two fell into silence again. After a long while, Zhu Zhixi looked at him with an extremely sincere gaze and emphasized, “Everything I said is true.”

After speaking, he pounded his left palm with his right fist in a wronged and angry manner and began to mutter. “Damn countdown, why can only I see it? Since there’s someone who can make it pause, why can’t he see it too? It makes it so I can’t explain anything now…”

“Let me see your hand again.” Fu Rangyi extended his hand towards him.

Zhu Zhixi was stunned. His hand movements also stopped, and he subconsciously handed his hand over obediently. Fu Rangyi didn’t hold it directly. He propped his chin with his left hand, tilted his head slightly, and examined it, as seriously as looking at a 3D model of an archaeological site.

“The countdown you mentioned, about where is it?” His tone was faint, his index finger lightly tapping his palm. “Here?”

So itchy. Zhu Zhixi suddenly felt uncomfortable, and a thin layer of sweat quickly formed on his palm. “About there,” he hummed like a mosquito.

“Horizontal?” The fingertip slid lightly from left to right. It felt like a feather brushing against his palm.

“Mmm.” Zhu Zhixi was very uncomfortable and abruptly pulled his hand back, putting it down and secretly clenching it, even forgetting to look at the countdown.

He kind of believes it? Asking so carefully… This was actually a happy thing. At least, so far, there was finally someone willing to listen to him tell this strange story seriously, and even though he couldn’t see it, he was looking seriously.

But.

“I have a friend who’s in medical school,” Fu Rangyi suddenly spoke, breaking the brief silence.

Zhu Zhixi suddenly looked up. Is this… believing his words??

“Sigh, actually, the day this thing appeared, I went to the hospital…”

Fu Rangyi didn’t let him finish. “He does research on neurology and is currently recruiting special test subjects. I think you fit the bill.”

Zhu Zhixi’s face immediately fell. I can’t believe I had expectations for this harsh person… “You don’t have to be so roundabout to call me crazy. What I said is really true.”

“I believe you,” Fu Rangyi glanced at his palm, his tone faint. “You say you can see it, but others can’t. If it’s not a problem with your visual nerves, it’s a problem with your brain nerves. This attribution is very reasonable, right?”

Zhu Zhixi was furious. He picked up his phone and stood up to leave, his threatening tone very fierce, but then it suddenly became a whisper. “I can’t be bothered to talk to you anymore. Anyway, the fact is I’m about to die, so I’m in a fake marriage with you to extend my life. Believe it or not.”

Fu Rangyi raised an eyebrow. “Why are you suddenly whispering?”

“Because it’s already 10 o’clock! Roommate rules!” Zhu Zhixi pointed to the clock in the living room and hissed at him in a low voice.

Fu Rangyi was stunned for a moment and almost laughed. Looking at his lively appearance, he felt from the bottom of his heart that the word “death” had no connection with Zhu Zhixi at all. But his expression was so serious it seemed like there was really something going on. As expected of someone who had studied directing? Such a sense of conviction.

He swirled the cup in his hand, a faint smile on his face. “Extend your life… your reason for marrying me is quite a joke.”

Having already walked far away, he remembered something, turned back halfway, and took the heart-drawn questionnaire from the table. He also said, “I hope it’s a joke too. Otherwise, it won’t be long before you become a widower.”

Fu Rangyi also whispered, “Thank you for your blessings.”

“You’re welcome, just slipped out!” He slammed the door shut.

Fu Rangyi was still sitting at the dining table, staring at the handwriting on the paper. He belatedly found it ridiculous and laughed. After laughing, he came to his senses and stared at the shackle-like metal bracelet on his wrist.

That night, the bracelet recorded his hormones and heart rate. Everything changed again and again, fluctuating frequently, very unhealthy. Fortunately, in the end, he had seen through Zhu Zhixi’s true colors. His pheromones stabilized and returned to normal.

He hadn’t figured out why Zhu Zhixi had to lie, let alone why he had to tell such a bizarre lie. After these days of getting along, he knew that Zhu Zhixi was not stupid. On the contrary, he just had an innocent face but was actually full of mischief and cunning tricks, just like that sticky, soft glutinous rice candy. Many people must have fallen for his tricks, been deceived, and been bewitched by his manipulative little tactics, losing all reason.

Zhu Zhixi had once again left his strange water cup on the dining table—this time the one that looked like an apple. He had too many bad habits. But Fu Rangyi was already getting used to these bad habits.

He leaned back in his chair, reached out to put the lid on the cup, and with a clink, the apple was whole again. He took it off again, and with another crisp sound, the top of the apple was sliced off.

After playing with it for a while, he stood up, washed both cups, placed them side by side in the cup cabinet, turned off the lights, and went back to the study to read a paper for a while.

When he was ready to go back to the master bedroom to sleep, there was still light seeping from under the door of the guest bedroom.

Zhu Zhixi was originally chatting with a friend when suddenly, a chat box from [Fu Rangyi] popped up on WeChat. The last time they had sent each other messages was when they added each other to share photos. He was stunned for a second and clicked in to take a look. Fu Rangyi had shared a public account article with him—”Entering the World of Science: The Secret of the Longevity Village.”

Even though he had a bad feeling, he couldn’t help but open it. Sure enough, after scrolling past the title was a huge “Sleep Early to Save Your Life” meme. He was speechless and conveniently changed Fu Rangyi’s nickname.

[Zhu Zhixi: What’s it to you? I’m not sleeping, I’ll just die early.]

He received a reply not long after.

[Pretty Widower: Your lifespan is related to my reputation.]

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Author’s Note:

The daddy vibes are coming, aren’t they?

After the heart-to-heart talk, Juicy got the scent of Professor Fu’s pheromones, and Professor Fu got a new nickname from Juicy ().