Su Yiran moved his hand away after a few touches, frowning: “Your inner clothes are wet too.” He became worried and quickly urged Gu Yuanting towards the bathroom, “Hurry and take a hot shower, get rid of the chill.”

Gu Yuanting, caught off guard, was pushed two steps before stopping: “No need, it’s just a light rain.”

Su Yiran pushed him twice but couldn’t move him, so he coaxed him: “Ting Ge, I’ll be worried if you catch a cold. Go on, be a good boy, okay?”

His voice was soft.

Gu Yuanting: “…”

Gu Yuanting went into the bathroom.

Su Yiran felt relieved that he had listened and went back to the kitchen to continue cooking.

He finished making the meal and placed it on the dining table, covering it with a plate to keep it warm.

A moment later, Gu Yuanting emerged from the bathroom after showering. Su Yiran subconsciously turned to look.

Gu Yuanting was shirtless, his waist muscles taut. Drops of water from his damp black hair trickled down his strong body, tracing his eight-pack abs downwards, disappearing into the towel wrapped around his lower body.

A surge of hormones hit Su Yiran, who unconsciously swallowed, his legs turning soft.

“Y-y-you, you, quickly go to the bedroom and get dressed!” His face was flushed, his heart thumping wildly. He chaotically pushed Gu Yuanting into the bedroom, even managing to grab his abs in the commotion.

Gu Yuanting: “…”

Gu Yuanting went into the bedroom to change, and only then did Su Yiran compose himself.

He felt a bit embarrassed thinking about it. They had been married for so long, yet whenever he saw Ting Ge’s body, he would still be utterly smitten, dizzy, and almost unable to move.

Su Yiran briefly despaired of himself for being so easily swayed. Then, Gu Yuanting came out, dressed.

He watched Gu Yuanting adjust his jacket collar as he emerged, then suddenly remembered something and asked him, “Oh, did you wear long johns?”

Gu Yuanting: “…”

After an exchange of glances, Su Yiran knew he hadn’t. He then asked, “You didn’t wear long johns this morning either, did you?”

Gu Yuanting suddenly felt an inexplicable tension: “…”

Su Yiran knew. Alright, no, he gave him a reproaching look.

Gu Yuanting felt inexplicably flustered, standing by the bedroom door as if in punishment for a moment, then finally turned back and re-entered the bedroom: “…I’ll put on my long johns.”

Su Yiran was satisfied. After Gu Yuanting came out dressed, he pulled him to sit on the sofa and took a dry towel to dry his hair.

While drying, he couldn’t help but lecture him, nagging about things like, “Even if you don’t like wearing long johns, you can’t be willful, you still have to wear them,” and “This morning your legs were aching from the cold, why are you so careless with your body,” and “What will you do when you’re older?” and so on.

He knew Ting Ge had always disliked wearing long johns, and every season, he always had to supervise him to get him to put them on, which was truly troublesome.

Gu Yuanting listened silently, feeling the gentle touch of the towel on his head. Perhaps because of the added long johns, he actually felt a bit warmer.

---

A New Reality

It wasn’t until dinner that Su Yiran casually asked him, “By the way, where did you go when you went out earlier?”

Gu Yuanting seemed to awaken with a start, the warmth on his body instantly receding. He remembered the purpose of his outing and returned to his faint tone: “Just walked around randomly.”

Su Yiran had merely asked casually. Hearing his reply, he assumed Gu Yuanting had gone out to clear his head and didn’t suspect anything.

Gu Yuanting, thinking about the morning’s events, absentmindedly finished his meal and entered the study.

In the morning, he had actually gone to the First Hospital in the city center.

After confirming that he wasn’t being monitored, listened to, or followed, he took a taxi to the hospital and underwent various examinations. The results wouldn’t be available for another two days.

On the way to and from the hospital, he observed the city.

This was City A. In his impression, City A used to be a tourist-oriented second-tier city. Later, with strong national support and a large influx of capital investment, City A developed rapidly, completing its industrial upgrade within a few years and transforming into a new first-tier city primarily focused on high-tech, with tourism as a secondary industry.

He had once opened a group branch in City A and attended several meetings there, so he was familiar with some of the city’s landmark buildings. One of these landmarks was officially completed in the year City A was designated a new first-tier city.

But now, while other landmark buildings were still present, that new building was inexplicably gone. City A, as he saw it, clearly didn’t exhibit the development level of a first-tier city; it remained the slow-paced, tourist-oriented second-tier city it once was.

He also saw various passersby, with no anomalies. The public displays on the streets, the hospital calendars, people’s phones—all dates seemed to indicate to him that it was indeed October 22, 2020.

Gu Yuanting lowered his long eyelashes, opened his laptop, and continued his work.

---

In the blink of an eye, a few days passed.

Tomorrow, the dessert shop would open.

Su Yiran arrived at the shop early in the morning and thoroughly cleaned and wiped every corner, not stopping until even the smallest nooks were spotless.

He then scanned the shop again, meticulously adjusting the positions of some small decorations with a touch of perfectionism, finally feeling satisfied.

The raw ingredients needed for making desserts had already arrived two days ago. He began preparing various pastries and sweets for tomorrow’s display and cold counters.

He worked busily until past noon, around 12 PM. Su Yiran had only finished about half, with some still baking in the oven.

If Ting Ge had been there helping him as usual, everything would have probably been mostly done by late morning.

Unfortunately, Ting Ge was busy with something outside today.

Su Yiran felt a little disappointed thinking about it.

At that moment, the doorbell chimed. The people delivering the shop sign had arrived.

Su Yiran’s spirits lifted, and he quickly went to greet them.

This shop sign had been custom-ordered by him a week ago from a famous sign shop in the city. It had a white background, simply adorned with some fresh artistic borders, and in the center, four large characters were written in a slender, black artistic font: “Yi Ting Desserts.”

It matched his shop’s decor style, following a simple, artistic, fresh aesthetic.

Su Yiran helped the sign shop employees steady the ladder placed outside the shop door, looking up as they hung the sign above the entrance. Looking at the two characters “Yi Ting,” he suddenly remembered the scene when they named the shop.

The characters “Yi Ting” were a homophone derived from his and Ting Ge’s names. At the time, they had just decided to run the dessert shop together, and Su Yiran, on a whim, decided on this name. Ting Ge was very pleased and gently kissed him.

With the sign hung, Su Yiran signed for it and saw the sign shop employees off. He stood alone outside the shop, looking up at the sign, at the characters “Yi Ting,” smiling for a while, then thinking of Ting Ge recently, he became lost in thought again.

Ting Ge had been very busy these past few days.

For several consecutive days, Gu Yuanting had been locked in the study in the mornings, busy on his computer. He would go out without eating lunch and wouldn’t come home for dinner, staying busy outside until very late at night.

In total, they had only exchanged a few brief sentences over these past few days.

Su Yiran knew that Gu Yuanting occasionally made investments in stocks and options and also worked part-time as a named consultant for a financial company, but he had never been this busy before.

Feeling a bit empty, he entered the shop and made himself a few desserts for lunch.

Mug cakes, strawberry sago, mango crepe cake, taro balls with grass jelly—he ate them all in one go, instantly feeling delighted, his disappointment vanishing.

Desserts save humanity!

Su Yiran continued to work with renewed vigor until 4 PM, finally preparing all the pastries and other sweets needed for tomorrow and placing them in the large freezer.

He checked everything again, then reviewed tomorrow’s new store promotion plan, confirming there were no issues. Finally, he took a few photos of the new store and posted a nine-grid collage on his WeChat Moments:

New store grand opening tomorrow with great discounts [heart] Friends who love desserts, come and taste! [rose][rose] Address: xxxxxxx [rose] [Yi Ting Desserts] [heart][heart]

The accompanying images included two shots of the shop interior, six of various enticing and delicious desserts, and one of the shop’s QR code.

After posting to his Moments, Su Yiran closed the shop. Remembering that Gu Yuanting liked mangoes, he picked up a box of mango pancakes on his way out, planning to take them home for him to try.

---

Gu Yuanting was at the First Hospital in the city center.

He held a stack of examination reports in his hand. The results of the various tests he had taken earlier had come out two days ago, but he had been too busy to pick them up until this afternoon.

The examination results were all normal.

No brain disease, no psychological disorders, no signs of artificial modification to his body, and all other indicators were normal.

In addition to these, there were other medical records. Gu Yuanting slowly flipped through them.

Finally, he closed the documents and left the hospital.

These past few days, Gu Yuanting had been secretly investigating many things, both overt and hidden.

He had indeed come back from the dead, returning to 2020, the year he was twenty-six.

But unlike his previous life, his left leg was not disabled; it only had a tiny, insignificant chronic ailment.

He also hadn’t returned to the Gu family eight years ago.

Furthermore, compared to the timeline of his previous life, the beggar organization that had led to his tragic childhood and the human trafficking organization were both busted more than a year earlier.

The mastermind behind his abduction, his so-called “stepmother,” was also imprisoned earlier.

All of this was “his” doing in the shadows.

Everything was different from his previous life. He had even married early and formed what appeared to be an ordinary, small family.

A small home, yet it seemed somewhat warm and happy.

Gu Yuanting had read about the theory of parallel worlds.

The parallel world theory, also known as the multiverse theory, states that the same person exists simultaneously in multiple universes, living different lives.

He finally concluded that his soul had not returned to its original trajectory but had instead come to a parallel world, becoming the twenty-six-year-old “self” in this parallel world.

The “original owner” Gu Yuanting of this world was another him in a parallel universe.