Wan Qiu closed the door to his bedroom.

They left very early, their conversation with Ran Yongrui was brief, and they didn't even return until lunchtime.

Leaning against the door, looking out the huge floor-to-ceiling window, it seemed to be snowing.

The room was warm and cozy, a stark contrast to the chilly outside, which was covered in pure white.

It was very quiet all around; you could almost hear the snow falling through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Wanqiu locked the door.

He took the notebook out of his safe in the house.

The things I wrote down in my notebook today still won't come to pass.

Wan Qiu, who had been keeping an eye on Chu Yigui, was naturally aware that Chu Yigui was very curious about what he was doing.

He must be puzzling Chu Yigui right now.

The warm underfloor heating made the blankets on the floor feel cozy. Wanqiu lay on the dry blankets, staring blankly at his laptop.

If it were Chu Yigui, he would very much like to tell Chu Yigui everything.

Wan Qiu didn't want Chu Yigui to see these malicious words, which even recorded Chu Yigui's suffering.

Since these are things that never happened, why not just let them disappear?

only……

Wanqiu didn't know what the sense of loss that had been spreading in his heart was.

He secretly kept this matter hidden.

Is this truly Chu Wanqiu's life?

Wan Qiu concluded from the novels she had read that the person before and after transmigrating into the book was a completely different person.

So, is he now taking over Chu Wanqiu's life?

Wan Qiu pondered carefully.

What is my real name?

Unfortunately, in those barren, almost endless, fragmented memories, he couldn't find any trace of his own name.

He doesn't remember.

If it were anything else, he could discuss it with Chu Yigui now.

You could talk to your second brother.

You can even talk to your parents, and even if your older brother is very busy, he will still talk to you.

but……

Chu Yigui wasn't the only one being maliciously targeted.

Wanqiu was very confused.

He opened his phone and scrolled through his contacts, only to find that almost all of his friends were in contact with his family.

And the only one...

A person who has no connection with anyone else.

Only Wang Yue.

He added Wang Yue's number, but never sent any messages.

They already talk enough during their school days.

Wan Qiu hesitated for a moment, but still sent the message.

Wanqiu: Are you there?

Wang Yue: ?

Wan Qiu was surprised to receive the message so quickly. He sat up and stared at the message eagerly.

Is Wang Yue like Zhou Peiyu, always staring at her phone?

Wanqiu: Are you busy?

Wang Yue: Reading a novel, what's up?

You must have been looking at your phone to reply so quickly.

Wanqiu: Can I ask you something?

Wang Yue: Question.

Wan Qiu edited the document several times, but found that he couldn't express his current confusion well.

Wang Yue: What are you doing? It's been five minutes since I started typing?

Wanqiu: I have a secret, and I don't know whether I should tell anyone else.

Wang Yue: What secret?

Wanqiu: I can't say.

Wang Yue: So who are you going to tell?

Wanqiu: My friend.

Wang Yue: It wasn't me, was it?

Wanqiu: No.

Looking at the long string of messages, Wan Qiu's initial enthusiasm to ask questions had already waned.

Wang Yue: Will someone die if you reveal this secret?

Wan Qiu was taken aback, then immediately replied: No.

Wang Yue: Will I go to jail?

Wanqiu was stunned and replied: No way.

Wang Yue: Then why can't I say it?

Wan Qiu: It is very likely to hurt people involved in this matter.

Wang Yue: Oh.

Wan Qiu thought for a moment, and just as he was about to type "never mind" in the input box, Wang Yue's message appeared again.

Wang Yue: Do you know what I hate most when I read novels?

Wanqiu: What?

Wang Yue: Can't you speak?! What things can't be said?!

Wang Yue: Wouldn't it be better to point out small problems from the beginning? If you keep putting them off and never speak up, won't the conflict just escalate?

Wang Yue: I understand that the plot requires it, and misunderstandings can lead to love, but when you feel you should speak up, then you should speak up! If you're in love, you should trust each other!

Wang Yue: Every time I see a scene where the confession is interrupted by an external force, I feel like vomiting blood. How could it be such a coincidence that an external force had to interrupt it?

Wan Qiu stared longingly as Wang Yue sent a long string of complaints about reading novels.

Clearly, his deskmate was just venting his emotions from reading the novel.

But Wanqiu was drawn to Wang Yue's rant.

Wang Yue: No matter what it is, talk it out, and then the two of us can solve it together!

Wang Yue: And then there are those who only listen halfway through, why don't they just listen to the whole thing? No matter what the question is, just listen to the end!

Wan Qiu stared longingly, as if he could feel the menacing aura emanating from Wang Yue.

I don't know why.

Wanqiu typed "I'm sorry" into the input box.

Wang Yue: ? I didn't say anything about you.

Wang Yue seems to have gotten addicted to complaining, and started venting at length.

Wan Qiu eagerly read through all the information until Wang Yue said she was satisfied, told him to go back to reading the novel, and then disappeared.

Wan Qiu, who hadn't kept up with the pace of replies, pitifully held his phone and reread Wang Yue's rant from beginning to end.

When you feel you should speak, speak directly and frankly.

Chu Yigui is a very obedient person. He is also very smart and calm, so he shouldn't be unable to listen to what is said.

He liked Yi Gui very much, and Yi Gui liked him too.

Although it's not love, the principles should be the same.

You must tell Chu Yigui.

To avoid being disturbed.

Wan Qiu found the sticky note in his room, went to Chu Yigui's bedroom door, and stuck the sticky note on Chu Yigui's door.

Chu Yigui heard a rustling sound coming from the door, like something brushing against it.

Chu Yigui stood up and opened the door.

When Chu Yigui saw Wan Qiu, he was not surprised at all.

It seems that Wan Qiu's arrival here was entirely expected.

Chu Yigui saw the sticky note Wan Qiu had put on the door, and then she saw the pen Wan Qiu was holding.

Wanqiu posted a lot of them, and wrote the font very large.

It says 'Do Not Disturb' on it.

For a moment, Chu Yigui didn't understand what Wan Qiu was trying to do.

"Is it... a prank?" Chu Yigui asked hesitantly.

"Wait for me!"

Upon seeing Wan Qiu, Chu Yigui immediately ran back to her bedroom and then rushed out again.

Wanqiu now had an unfamiliar notebook in his hands.

Chu Yigui did not remember Wan Qiu using this notebook, even though he clearly remembered everything Wan Qiu had used.

Did Wanqiu secretly record something in this notebook where he couldn't see it?

"I have something to tell you," Wan Qiu said to him.

Chu Yigui naturally stepped aside to let Wan Qiu into his room.

After glancing at the sticky note on the door, Chu Yigui closed the door and, after thinking for a moment, locked it.

Wan Qiu went to Chu Yigui's study, a small, separate study in the bedroom, which mainly contained Chu Yigui's personal textbooks.

They sometimes do their homework together here.

Chu Yigui thought for a moment, then closed the study door again.

Wan Qiu sat in his usual chair and extended his hand to him: "Please sit down."

Chu Yigui obediently sat down.

"Yi Gui, do you believe in ghosts?"

The sudden opening remarks caused Chu Yigui's thoughts to pause briefly.

Chu Yigui thought for a moment: "Although there is no evidence to prove that there is a ghost, if Wan Qiu said so, I think there must be a reason."

Chu Yigui observed Wan Qiu's expression and saw him nod firmly, guessing that Wan Qiu probably didn't understand that his words were actually ambiguous.

Finally, Chu Yigui met the person Wan Qiu had brought, the one he was about to speak to.

Wan Qiu placed the notebook on the table and pushed it in front of him.

"Yi Gui, take a look at this."

Chu Yigui opened the notebook.

The notebook was filled with messy notes, consisting of fragmented phrases and sentences.

Wan Qiu is extremely serious when writing anything; he writes very slowly, but his handwriting is always very neat.

However, the handwriting on the notebook was obviously messy and very large, so it was probably not written on a flat surface.

Where could it be?

It should be a soft area that doesn't easily withstand stress...

Was it written in bed?

Chu Yigui looked at the contents, and from the initial doubt, she gradually read through about half of them.

The notebook is quite thick and cannot be written in a short period of time.

It's more like a third-person memoir, the subject of which is...

Is this...blaming me?

Chu Yigui knew very well that what was written here was definitely not something Wan Qiu would say or do.

He had been watching Wanqiu closely and knew Wanqiu's character better than anyone else.

This is recorded in the notebook...

It was the worst-case scenario he had predicted, the one Wanqiu could imagine after returning to the Chu family.

Chu Yigui tried to comfort him with a smile, but he found that he couldn't smile.

Having witnessed all of this, he could have endured it before he met Wan Qiu as he is now.

But after truly becoming dependent on Wanqiu, every word in it felt like a sharp scalpel, piercing into flesh and blood one cut at a time, and then slowly being pulled out.

The blade is sharp and flat, the wound is not deep, it will bleed, and it will be painful but not fatal.

"These are the words from my memory. It seems I've transmigrated into a book. Do you know what transmigrating into a book means?"

Wan Qiu's words startled Chu Yigui.

He looked up at Wan Qiu.

Does Wanqiu understand what he's saying?

"I've read a lot of novels, and I'm sure that's true."

Wan Qiu seemed afraid that he wouldn't believe her, so she reached out and flipped to a certain page.

“Look here, here, here, and here, these are all things that actually happened, right? But I know these all happened before the events occurred.”

"I think I remember these things, but my memory is very confused, so I can't remember them clearly."

"These are all things I wrote down, but I didn't arrange them in any particular order, and I don't even know what the order is."

"Yi Gui, do you believe me?"

Chu Yigui looked down at the words.

"Give me some time, I need to process this," Chu Yigui said.

"Then accept it now, and I'll wait until you've finished accepting it." Wan Qiu sat obediently in the chair.

Chu Yigui was taken aback.

He looked at Wan Qiu, his mind still in turmoil.

Those were still his beautiful eyes, but they had absolutely no connection to the words he wrote.

She waited for him earnestly, even worried about his reaction.

Like a cat worried that its owner might drown in the bathtub, it anxiously tries to use its paws to pull its owner out of the water-filled bathtub.

Suddenly, Chu Yigui realized that her brief moment of worry was unnecessary.

At that moment, Chu Yigui found that those glaring words no longer seemed so difficult to read.

Chu Yigui calmly read through the entire contents of the notebook.

There were many repeated entries in the notebook, clearly indicating that Wan Qiu had thought of something and immediately wrote it down.

The timeline is a mess, and many parts are even impossible to predict in terms of time.

This notebook contains more of Chu Wanqiu's personal thoughts and angry complaints about his family and environment, as well as undisguised curses.

The crude words written on the paper with childish strokes create a strong sense of incongruity.

But if that's the case, Chu Yigui suddenly realized what exactly was that strange sense of unease she had been feeling for a long time.

Wanqiu would suddenly become certain of some very strange things.

For example, the fact that he might be abandoned.

For example, the thing that has been bothering him these past two days is what's been making him feel down.

Everything is written clearly in this notebook.

According to the notebook's records, he would definitely be pushed down the stairs by 'Chu Wanqiu' on his birthday.

So on his birthday, Wanqiu was almost carefully preventing him from getting near any of the stairs.

Even if it's because of Chu Wanqiu's resentment towards him that he's hindering Chu Jianshu and Yang Xiaoyu from interfering with Nanfeng's exclusive media coverage, then Ran Yongrui's scheme will surely succeed.

If each and every event was indeed predicted by the written word, then it is easy to explain.

"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Chu Yigui asked.

"At first I didn't know what it was, I just vaguely knew that it seemed like something was going to happen;

Later, when you recalled that you said it was about foreseeing the future, I think it might be.

But later, Wang Yue showed me a lot of novels, and I realized that this might be a transmigration story.

I didn't tell you because I was unsure, and I also thought you would be unhappy; the things written here are quite unpleasant.

Wanqiu is troubled.

It turns out that what Wan Qiu had been hiding all along was not his secret at all.

It's about their secrets.

Fearing that his words might hurt others, Wanqiu guarded them alone.

It turns out that they had been secretly protected by Wan Qiu even earlier.

"Why are you telling me now?" Chu Yigui asked.

“Because I felt that none of these things would happen,” Wanqiu said. “But if I knew nothing, then wouldn’t Chu Wanqiu be gone?”

Chu Yigui was taken aback.

"Is this...the real child of Mom and Dad?" Wan Qiu placed her hand on the notebook.

For Wan Qiu, this was not a notebook.

Instead, it was a person named Chu Wanqiu who disappeared.

Chu Yigui lowered her eyes.

Time passed slowly.

Suddenly, Chu Yigui asked, "Why do you feel that you are not Wan Qiu?"

Wan Qiu was taken aback.

Chu Yigui couldn't bring herself to like the characters in the book.

However, he will still endure 'Chu Wanqiu', just as recorded in the book.

But that was all; Chu Yigui couldn't bring herself to say anything friendly to 'Chu Wanqiu'.

“These are things you wrote down, but if you hadn’t written them down, they wouldn’t have existed, would they?”

Wan Qiu's eyes widened slowly, as if she couldn't quite understand.

"All the memories you possess are the complete life you lived yourself. Do these also belong to him?"

Chu Yigui denied Wan Qiu's concerns.

"You were the one who spent this time with Uncle Chu and Aunt Yang, and you were also the one who was with Brother Chu Zhang and Brother Yang Ze. Before you were abducted, before you were five years old, were those memories really of Chu Wanqiu? Or have you forgotten them?"

People are inherently selfish.

If he were to confirm 'Chu Wanqiu', it would go against his wishes.

“You are Wanqiu, and everyone knows you, or perhaps…” Chu Yigui pointed to the book, “How could you know from these fragments and sentences that this Chu Wanqiu isn’t a transmigrator?”

Wan Qiu's eyes widened.

I was completely shocked by Chu Yigui's words.

"Is...is that possible?" Wan Qiu was extremely shocked, and his tone became unstable.

Chu Yigui remained relatively calm: "No one can verify these things anymore. We have an emotional bond between us, and things are gradually getting better, aren't they?"

Chu Yigui recalled the question Wan Qiu had once asked him.

If Wanqiu harbors resentment towards Chu Yigui, what will the future hold?

"If he were Chu Wanqiu," Chu Yigui gripped the notebook, "what would the outcome be? Can you imagine how this book would end?"

Wan Qiu remembers Wang Yue saying, "This is the villain."

In all the articles Wanqiu had read, the villains never had a good ending.

"Uncle Chu and Aunt Yang have been looking forward to Wanqiu's return, but their expectations have been met with a vicious revenge, and everything will turn into a tragedy."

Wan Qiu could not deny it.

"If you're worried, we can try asking other people what would happen if something like what's in the book actually happened?"

Chu Yigui suggested.

As long as Wanqiu truly understands that the present moment is irreplaceable.

If Wanqiu understands his importance in this family, and perhaps even in the world of the book, he might no longer question his own existence.

However, after careful consideration, Wan Qiu shook his head.

"Even if I don't ask, I know I'm unhappy." That's why Wan Qiu secretly locked all these things away. "No matter what the future holds, I'll definitely be very sad."

“Yes, that’s an undeniable result,” Chu Yigui said.

Chu Yigui stared at Wan Qiu, but Wan Qiu remained resentful.

“People will strive for a ‘better’ goal.” Chu Yigui said earnestly to Wan Qiu. “Wan Qiu, you are ‘better’ to everyone.”

Wan Qiu hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Really?"

"yes."

“If I am replacing Chu Wanqiu, then I am also… a substitute.”

Before Wan Qiu could finish speaking, Chu Yigui interrupted him.

"In a world destined for tragedy, it's not necessarily a bad thing if one variable can lead to a better outcome."

Chu Yigui knew very well that people are selfish.

Just like him, if he had to choose between the current Wanqiu and Chu Wanqiu in the notebook, without any surprise, he would only choose Wanqiu.

"I chose to renounce my adopted son status for the sake of a better future."

Chu Yigui told Wan Qiu very seriously.

"Perhaps it's for the sake of something better, that's why you are Wanqiu, isn't it?"

The vastness and uncertainty of the ages.

“I saw him.” Chu Yigui suddenly opened the notebook in his hand again. “Now not only does Wan Qiu know about his existence, but I do too.”

Wan Qiu froze, seemingly unable to react.

Chu Yigui smiled and said, "Let's keep this a secret. The most important thing is now."

Just like before, this will become something they know, and only they know.

Even these incomplete records are enough to reveal a worrying, gray world.

This is a future that even the not-so-bright Wan Qiu could predict.

If this is truly the world depicted in the book...

This is a real world for them, and no one wants to face a tragic end.

Chu Yigui looked at the book.

A turbulent undercurrent sank into his eyes, as if it would engulf everything and prevent anything from emerging again.

This is something that has already happened in a different world, and we shouldn't interfere with their reality anymore.

Watching Wan Qiu leave the bedroom, he seemed to still have many unresolved questions.

But Chu Yigui knew that this was not something that could be resolved immediately.

He also needs some time to sort things out.

After all, accepting the idea of ​​transmigrating into a book requires a certain amount of mental preparation.

Chu Yigui copied down all the contents of Wan Qiu's notebook and instructed Wan Qiu to write down anything that came to mind.

Then he can begin to sort through the fragments and see if he can restore them to their original correct order.

Even though Chu Yigui remained calm throughout, she leaned against the bedroom door after closing it.

His body slid down little by little until he finally leaned against the door and sat on the ground.

The ground is not cold in winter because it has underfloor heating.

But his fingertips, which had touched the notebook, were gradually losing their warmth.

The coldness travels from the fingers to the heart.

Wanqiu's notebook was filled with Chu Wanqiu's hatred for him.

Curses, false accusations, and secret beatings were commonplace for him, and even after he left the Chu family, he was forced to return to Ran Yongrui's side.

Because of Chu Jianshu and Yang Xiaoyu's guilt towards 'Chu Wanqiu', they were exploited by 'Chu Wanqiu' to the point of destroying his high school and cutting off his chance to go to university.

The record of Wanqiu ends here in high school, and there are not enough records for the future.

But these alone are enough to illustrate the point.

I had made all the necessary mental preparations and was ready to accept this version of 'Chu Wanqiu'.

But now, they have Wanqiu.

Once you truly experience happiness, you can no longer remain indifferent to suffering.

If it's true...

grateful……

Thank you for coming into my life.

Chu Yigui quietly hugged herself with both hands.

Even his fingertips were trembling slightly from lingering fear and relief.

Wan Qiu, somewhat bewildered, carried his laptop back to his bedroom.

Things seemed to be accepted more easily than he had imagined.

Chu Yigui was indeed very smart and had a strong ability to learn, and she would definitely listen carefully to everything he said from beginning to end.

Wan Qiu has told Chu Yigui everything he knows.

From today onwards, I no longer need to be so careful about these things and I don't need to tell anyone.

Chu Yigui will listen to what he says.

The iron box, which had been suppressed for so long, was finally pierced by a tiny ray of sunlight.

The lingering, chilling air was warmed by the sunlight.

Moisture and sunlight gradually covered the open box with moss, filling the empty, cold world with vibrant life.