Chapter 43 Husband and the Third Party
People who look exactly like her, a completely unfamiliar environment, all sorts of magical cell phones and electronic devices, and all sorts of strange and illogical things... After Yun Jin appeared, Hua Yu forgot about them all.
His face was pale, his collar stained with black blood, and his breathing was weak, but his eyes were bright as he looked at Yun Jin, as if two flames were burning deep in his pupils.
"Yun Jin..."
He struggled toward her, like a moth drawn to a lamppost.
He had just taken a step when the world suddenly turned upside down, and then he completely lost consciousness.
When he woke up again, he was lying on a soft, large bed, wearing clean pajamas, and the wound on his head had been re-bandaged.
"woke up?"
The familiar voice rang out, and Hua Yu suddenly stood up. The next second, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and couldn't help but groan.
"Slower."
Yun Jin quickly helped him up and only let go after he was seated firmly.
Hua Yu immediately grabbed her hand as she was about to leave and looked intently into her eyes.
It really is her.
His eyes stung, and he choked back tears: "Where did you go..."
Yun Jin sat on the edge of the bed, paused for a few seconds, and then asked, "You've been terrified these past few days, haven't you?"
Hua Yu shook her head, then nodded: "Everyone says I'm too badly injured and hallucinating, but I clearly saw you suddenly disappear with my own eyes..."
"You didn't see wrong, I suddenly disappeared," Yun Jin said gently.
Hearing her admit it herself, Hua Yu finally found an outlet for her pent-up grievances and asked, "But... how can a person just disappear into thin air?"
"Do you remember how you got here?" Yun Jin asked in return.
From the moment Hua Yu met her, her heart and eyes were filled with her. Now, after being asked this question, the memories she had before falling into a coma gradually surfaced.
People who look exactly like you, a completely unfamiliar environment, all sorts of strange cell phones and electronic devices, and everything bizarre and illogical...
Even earlier, he spent day and night wandering through the cemetery, trying to find traces of Yun Jin, but all he found was the watch she always wore on her wrist.
This morning, the cemetery security guard found him and was about to call the police. Fearing that he would be forcibly taken to the hospital by the police, he had to leave temporarily. However, after leaving, he received a call from Liu Zhuangzhuang.
Liu Zhuangzhuang said he saw someone in Pingcheng who looked a lot like Yun Jin, but before he could get a good look at the person, they had already walked away. He asked if Yun Jin had gone back to Pingcheng with him.
He had been wandering in the cemetery for three days and three nights and was almost overwhelmed by despair. Upon hearing the news, he immediately cheered up, took the Yun Jin watch, and boarded the bus back to Pingcheng.
The bus stopped in the suburbs of Pingcheng. He got off and was about to contact Liu Zhuangzhuang when the surroundings suddenly changed. Then a strange woman appeared, not only calling him by name but also saying she would take him to find Yun Jin...
As her memories returned, Hua Yu opened her mouth blankly and stared at Yun Jin in a daze.
Yun Jin pulled her hand away from his grip and took out a black wristwatch from her pocket.
The watch has been impacted and has developed spiderweb-like cracks. The strap also has multiple scratches. The watch, which already looked cheap, now appears even more so.
"Did you move the clock hands before you appeared here?" Yun Jin further prompted.
“When I got off the bus, I was bored, so I twisted it,” Hua Yu explained, her voice trailing off, “I didn’t mean to touch your things, I just…”
"You're lucky," Yun Jin said with a light laugh.
Hua Yu was stunned for a moment: "What do you mean?"
“This watch,” Yun Jin suddenly leaned closer, sat down against his arm and leg, and held the watch up to him, “is a time machine. Turn it counterclockwise once, and you can travel from 2025 to 2013. Turn it clockwise once, and you can travel from 2013 back to 2025. You must have turned it clockwise to be in the 2025 timeline.”
From the moment she got close, Hua Yu was enveloped by her fragrance, feeling dizzy as if she were drunk, and her ability to think dropped sharply.
Yun Jin said a lot, then looked up and asked, "Did you understand?"
Hua Yu snapped out of her daze: "W-what?"
"A watch can only travel between the 'present' and the 'past.' The present is 2025 in progress, and the past is 12 years ago. So you can come to 2025 or go back to 2013, but if you turn the watch hands counterclockwise in 2013, you can't go to 2001. If you turn the watch hands clockwise in 2025, you can't go to 2037. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Yun Jin tried her best to explain the watch's functions in more detail so that he could understand them as soon as possible.
Hua Yu stared at her watch for a long time before finally raising her head: "I am now..."
“In 2025,” Yun Jin smiled faintly, “that’s why I said you’re lucky. If you had turned the clock hands counterclockwise in 2013, nothing would have happened, and you wouldn’t be here.”
Hua Yu glanced at her watch again, looked at it for a few seconds, then at Yun Jin for a few seconds, and then looked down at her watch again.
After repeating this several times, he slowly exhaled, still bewildered.
Looking at his haggard face, Yun Jin patiently said, "I don't know if all time travelers are not accepted by the alternate dimension, or if only those who travel through the watch are not accepted. In any case, after using the watch, you can only stay in the alternate dimension for five days. When you saw me suddenly disappear, it was because my five-day period had expired, so I was bounced back to the original time, which is now 2025."
Hua Yu opened her lips slightly, feeling as if she hadn't fully woken up yet.
Yun Jin was still explaining, her gentle voice like warm water seeping into his heart. He belatedly observed his surroundings and didn't feel that this place was any different from the world he knew.
He gave an awkward laugh: "Are you kidding me...? It's not funny at all."
"Do you remember the person you saw before you lost consciousness?" Yun Jin asked.
Hua Yu had seen many people before she fell into a coma, but when asked this question, only one face came to mind.
He looked into Yun Jin's eyes, his smile growing increasingly forced, and a pleading look appearing in his dark eyes.
He begged her to stop making those kinds of jokes; he was really flustered and didn't like it.
Yun Jin stared at him for a long time, but in the end, she did not give him what he wanted: "He is you in 2025, and also my husband, Hua Cheng, who is 32 years old."
Hua Yu: "..."
"It all started last year when he was suddenly diagnosed with a terminal illness..."
"In June 2025, a time-traveling watch suddenly appeared on my wrist..."
“Dr. Li from the Hopkins lab had a project that confirmed the link between brain tumors and recurrent injuries. After I got the watch, I thought of a way to save him…”
"At 20, you're like a stressed cat. If I tell you the truth directly, you'll think I'm crazy and avoid me like the plague. So I can only proceed gradually..."
"Actually, I haven't investigated you or your friends. The reason I know you so well is because, from my perspective, we've known each other for many years..."
Yun Jin's gentle voice formed invisible threads, wrapping around Hua Yu's neck inch by inch, gradually tightening to create the illusion of suffocation.
He lowered his eyes, thinking that everything in front of him was probably fake—the hospital room was fake, the watch was fake, and even the brocade was fake.
In reality, he was still in the cemetery. After searching for a long time, he finally collapsed from exhaustion and fell into his final dream before dying.
But in his dreams, there was no revolving lantern of his life, no trace of the moments he had shared with Yun Jin; only a series of entirely new and strange scenes.
Hua Yu felt regretful because, compared to this brand-new and strange dream, he would rather have embraced and kissed Yun Jin in the final scene than sit here listening to her tell some boring story about traveling through time to save her lover.
Five months have passed since Yun Jin's first time travel.
Five months is a short time, but a lot happened, enough for her to talk about for a very long time.
After recounting the last plot point, Yun Jin got up and poured two glasses of water, placing one on the bedside table and drinking the other herself.
After drinking the water, her throat was finally no longer dry. She sat down again on the chair next to the hospital bed and looked at Hua Yu gently.
Hua Yu had thick bandages wrapped around her head, her head bowed, her bangs falling to cover her eyes. Although she had no expression, her whole being exuded a profound sense of sorrow.
“I know all of this is unbelievable, but I believe you can understand.” In the silence, Yun Jin spoke slowly.
Hua Yu looked at her as if in an old film with a broken frame, even her breathing was paused.
"How am I supposed to understand this?" he murmured softly. "Do you mean I should understand that there really is a watch that can travel through time, or that I am now twelve years in the future? Do you mean I should understand that my self-righteous love was a complete scam from beginning to end, or that you two are deeply in love, and therefore I deserve to be a tool?"
"You and he are the same person." Yun Jin wasn't good at comforting people, so this was the only way she could offer this reminder.
“Yes, we are one person.” Hua Yu smiled, but her eyes held a hint of sorrow. “You saving him is the same as saving me, so I don’t even have the right to be angry, right?”
Yun Jin fell into a long silence.
The light on the floor was gradually swallowed by shadows until the last ray of sunlight disappeared, at which point she said seriously, "You can be angry."
Hua Yu lowered her eyes, quiet and still, like a beautiful painting, and did not react to her words.
Looking at him like this, Yun Jin recalled the drowning prevention videos she had watched back in middle school.
People who are truly drowning don't struggle desperately like in TV dramas. Instead, they float silently in the water as if asleep, until their last breath of oxygen runs out, their bodies slowly sink, and they can no longer open their eyes.
Yun Jin hated this association with death and leaned forward to grab him.
"Hua Yu..."
Hua Yu instinctively dodged, and Yun Jin's fingers missed their mark.
The next second their eyes met, and Hua Yu could see a hint of surprise in her eyes.
He was also taken aback for a moment, and his first reaction was to make amends.
But as soon as he reached out his hand, Yun Jin sat back in her chair and calmly met his gaze.
It seemed that the slight ripple that had just occurred to him was merely his illusion.
Hua Yu stared at her for a long time, then looked down at her own fingers and found that they were still in the position of trying to grab her.
He gave a self-deprecating laugh and whispered the question in the deathly silent room: "Did you ever love me?"
“I have always loved you,” Yun Jin said.
Hua Yu raised her eyelids and looked at her indifferently: "I'm talking about myself, not your husband."
Yun Jin: "You are my husband."
Hua Yu countered, "What if I'm not?"
After asking the question, before Yun Jin could answer, he laughed at himself.
“If I weren’t,” his smile faded, his eyes reddened, “you would never have appeared in front of me, never tried to get close to me, and never loved me.”
"Hua Yu..."
"Don't call me Hua Yu!"
Hua Yu's voice suddenly rose, her breathing became rapid, and her eyelashes were moistened by non-existent water vapor.
He was filled with grief and anger, but all his intense emotions, reflected in Yun Jin's calm eyes, were like firewood soaked by the heavy rain, burning for a long time before producing only a wisp of weak white smoke.
"What am I to you... anyway?"
Hua Yu felt that the only way to preserve her last bit of dignity at this moment was not to cry, but as soon as she opened her mouth, tears still fell.
"What am I, anyway...?"
He seemed to be asking Yun Jin, or perhaps himself, his voice so soft it was almost sleepwalking.
"When I was about to leave the cemetery with you, I thought all the pain was over, and I felt so happy... But now you're telling me that it was all a lie."
Yun Jin's eyes flickered slightly, and her fingers, hanging at her sides, gradually tightened around the hem of her clothes.
“Everything is fake. Your love for me is fake, and so is our happiness,” Hua Yu wiped away her tears haphazardly, her words suddenly becoming faster. “In the cemetery, I said my name was Hua Cheng, but you said you preferred to call me Hua Yu… Can you tell me the truth? Do you really like the name Hua Yu, or do you think I’m not worthy of being called Hua Cheng, which is why you call me Hua Yu?”
Faced with his questioning, Yun Jin paused for a few seconds before replying, "Hua Cheng is your name. How could you not be worthy of being called Hua Cheng? I'm just used to calling you Hua Yu."
It turns out it was just a habit.
Hua Yu lowered her head, wanting to laugh, and then she actually laughed. But as she laughed, the wound on her head hurt too much, and suddenly tears streamed down her face.
Yun Jin stood up, wiped the corner of his eye with her finger, and found that she couldn't wipe it clean no matter what she did, so she simply hugged him.
Hua Yu buried his face in her lower abdomen, his favorite scent lingering around his nose.
He didn't push him away, but his shoulders trembled even more violently.
"I'm sorry," Yun Jin said.
She anticipated his reaction when she decided to tell him everything.
She also wanted to keep the secret and spare him the truth, but things had developed to this point, so she had no choice but to tell him the truth.
"I'm sorry," Yun Jin said again.
Hua Yu hugged her waist, calmed down, gently pushed her away, and looked at her again.
"You know what? Even knowing all this, I'm still glad I'm here today, to see for myself that you're safe and sound," he said softly.
Yun Jin brushed some of his hair aside and cupped his face in her hands.
“So you win,” he said, looking at Yun Jin with a wet smile. “Making me fall in love with you is indeed the best way to control me. Even if I hate you to death now, I will cooperate with the treatment and try to make your husband live to be a hundred years old, so that you won’t have wasted your time.”
“You are my husband. If he lives to be a hundred, it’s the same as you living to be a hundred,” Yun Jin whispered.
Hua Yu didn't want to hear those words anymore and turned her face away, refusing to look at her.
"I will get proper treatment. You... don't come again. I don't want to see you." He said in a hoarse voice, each word a resolute statement.
Yun Jin stood silently for a long time, then turned and left after saying, "Take good rest."
As soon as she left, Hua Yu could no longer control her emotions and collapsed onto her pillow, crying silently.
In the next room at the same time, Hua Cheng and Lan Li, after a long brainstorming session, looked at each other in silence.
Not long ago, Hua Cheng saw someone who looked exactly like him in the lobby on the first floor.
The moment that person walked towards Yun Jin, his first thought was: This kid is a piece of trash!
That shameless scoundrel actually had plastic surgery to look like him; no wonder he managed to win Yun Jin's heart.
He grew angrier the more he thought about it, and just as he was about to rush over and beat the little trash up, the little rascal suddenly collapsed.
"I didn't hit him!" Hua Cheng raised his hands to prove his innocence.
Yun Jin glanced at him and left three sentences.
The first sentence: He is you 12 years ago, Hua Cheng at the age of 20.
The second sentence: I mentioned the watch's functions to Lanli.
The third sentence: I have information about Li Yueshu's project on my computer.
Then, together with the medical staff, they pushed the small trash can away.
Hua Cheng and Lan Li were left in the lobby. After a long silence, they returned to the top floor and entered the ward that Yun Jin had temporarily requisitioned.
Both he and Lan Li were intelligent people, and Lan Li was also a seasoned homebody who was good at accepting all kinds of bizarre plots.
After careful analysis, the two deduced the current situation based on only three sentences from Yun Jin and a pile of information.
“So… he is you at 20 years old. All the strange things Yun Jin has done during this time were to prevent him from getting hurt,” Lan Li tried to summarize.
Hua Cheng nodded: "Yes."
So this is the secret of Yunjin. What a grand show!
Lan Li breathed a sigh of relief, then turned her head and saw Hua Cheng staring blankly. She immediately looked at him with sympathy.
Although he is the same person at 20 and 32, Yun Jin has left him here to accompany another person, and he must be feeling bad about it.
Lan Li felt it was necessary to help her sister maintain harmony in her family, so she tried to ask, "Are you alright?"
“…Hmm?” Hua Cheng looked up and met Lan Li’s gaze, then suddenly chuckled, “She loves me so much.”
Lan Li: "..."
Is this insane?
“She came to me when I was 20 years old in order to get treatment for my illness,” Hua Cheng emphasized.
Lan Li: "...I know."
I heard him mention it when we were squeezed together in front of the computer looking at project materials.
Although her relationship with Hua Cheng was just so-so, she should have been heartbroken that he was so seriously ill. But before she could even process her emotions, she found a way to save him in the project materials.
...It's hard for her to be sad again!
“I always thought she had a third party in her life, but I didn’t expect that to be the case,” Hua Cheng said, still basking in joy. “She’s only ever had me from beginning to end.”
Lan Li's lips twitched. She thought to herself that although there was only you from beginning to end, there are now two 'you', so there's no need to be so happy.
Before she could even speak, Yun Jin pushed open the door and came in.
Hua Cheng and Lan Li immediately stood up.
"Is everything clear?" Yun Jin glanced at them.
They both nodded at the same time.
Yun Jin: "If there's nothing else, let's all go home. I'm a little tired right now and don't want to talk."
"I understand, I'll leave now."
"My home is right next to my wife."
Lan Li and Hua Cheng spoke at the same time. Lan Li's lips twitched, and she asked with genuine emotion, "How can you say something like that so calmly?"
Hua Cheng ignored her and solicitously pulled Yun Jin to a chair, starting to massage her shoulders.
Lan Li rolled her eyes at him and left.
"Wife, are you hungry?" Hua Cheng massaged her vigorously.
Yun Jin grasped his hand to stop him.
Hua Cheng paused: "He got angry with you?"
"No." She actually hoped he would get angry.
Hua Cheng stared at her face for a few seconds and understood: "It's normal to find it hard to accept when you first learn the truth. I'm still in a daze."
Yun Jin looked up at him, but couldn't see what was wrong with him.
I'm quite happy, actually.
Hua Cheng held back for a while, but couldn't help but laugh: "How about this, let him calm down first, and I'll go and talk to him tonight."
"Don't..."
“I can do it,” Hua Cheng said confidently, covering her mouth. “He and I are the same person. No one knows him better than me.”
Yun Jin frowned and took his hand away: "Behave yourself and don't provoke him."
...Why are you protecting him so much?
Hua Cheng suddenly felt a sense of crisis, but then realized that it was a bit ridiculous for him to be so wary of himself, and calmed down.
“Okay,” he said.
That evening, while Yun Jin was out for dinner, he secretly slipped into the room next door.
Hua Yu was sitting on the bed in a daze when he heard the door open. He immediately looked over and saw the person he least wanted to see.
When their eyes met, they both frowned slightly.
Even though I know that we are the same person, I still feel a little uncomfortable seeing him wearing my face.
Judging from each other's expressions, they probably shared the same thought.
Hua Cheng let out a soft sigh, feeling that he was indeed more mature, composed, and debonair, so he took the initiative to greet him: "Have you eaten?"
"What are you doing here?" Hua Yu was too lazy to engage in any pretense with him.
Hua Cheng seemed oblivious to his hostility. After closing the door, he sat down familiarly beside the hospital bed and re-examined his face.
After a long pause, Hua Cheng exclaimed, "At 20, I was indeed as beautiful as a flower."
Hua Yu: "..."
"He's just too beautiful; he doesn't have the charm of a mature man," Hua Cheng sighed.
Hua Yu ignored him, keeping a cold face and remaining silent.
"Are you still angry with Yun Jin?" Hua Cheng asked.
Hua Yu: "What's it to you?"
"Don't be so impulsive, I'm here to comfort you." Hua Cheng leaned back in his chair and casually crossed his legs.
Hua Yu couldn't help but glance at him again.
Is this really him at 32? His features are more defined, his aura is stronger, and every gesture exudes composure.
The composure that comes with wealth, status, and success is a composure he lacks. Hua Yu's heart sank. Just as she became wary, she heard him say, "Knowing that Yun Jin often comes to see you only to save me, you must be furious, right?"
Hua Yu: "..."
What a tasteless mouth! A complete scoundrel.
Unaware that his image in the other party's mind had changed from a 'powerful opponent' to a 'boring rogue', Hua Cheng inexplicably started to smile, only returning to seriousness after he had finished laughing.
"It's normal for you to be angry, but I hope you can understand that she only did that because she loves me too much. But you didn't gain nothing, right?"
Hua Yu kept a sullen face and refused to communicate.
Hua Cheng didn't care: "You've fallen in love with her, haven't you? You've fallen hopelessly in love with her, haven't you? Yun Jin has that kind of charm that makes men and women fall in love with her. I understand how you feel right now, and I sympathize with you deeply. But things have already come to this, there's no use in you continuing to dwell on it. You might as well let go of your feelings for her, take good care of your injuries, and strive to live a long and healthy life so that you can grow old with Yun Jin."
Hua Yu really didn't want to talk to him, but he kept talking and talking, and in the end he even brought up the topic of growing old together.
He couldn't help but sneer: "Who will grow old with her?"
“You,” Hua Cheng said frankly and shamelessly, “are me, we’re the same person.”
Hua Yu: "Why should I take good care of my injuries and let you grow old with her?"
"Otherwise what?" Hua Cheng laughed. "You two aren't from the same time and space. Do you really want to grow old with her?"
Although Hua Yu was still in pain from being deceived, she didn't want to be outdone, so she retorted, "Why not?"
"You really want to be a third party? How could you do this? Don't forget you're the only one in the repair shop who wouldn't steal a customer's motorcycle. You're a good kid!" Hua Cheng said, heartbroken.
Although she knew they were the same person and had accepted this strange fact, Hua Yu was still stunned when she heard him say something she had always been secretly proud of. She felt a strange and unsettling feeling.
Seeing that he was no longer speaking, Hua Cheng thought he had persuaded him and said with a smile, "Don't think about anything during this time. Just focus on cooperating with the doctor's treatment. Once you're fully recovered, you can go back to your 2013."
Hua Yu only heard the last sentence, and coldly raised her eyelids: "Why would I go back to 2013?"
Hua Cheng paused, his expression turning indifferent: "You don't want to leave?"
"I'm not leaving, what can you do to me?" Hua Yu looked at him defiantly.
Sparks flew in the air. Hua Cheng chuckled, a hint of adult detachment in his eyes: "Interesting. Looks like you're destined to be the other woman."
"I met Yun Jin in July 2013. What year did you meet?" Hua Yu sneered.
Hua Cheng, who met Yun Jin in August 2014: "..."
"Judging from the timeline, who is the third party between us?" Hua Yu asked again.
Hua Cheng, whose mind hadn't quite caught up: "..."
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Author's note: A new brain is definitely easier to use!
Big Flower: Impossible!
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