At the entrance of the Fu Family Ancestral Hall.
"I can go in by myself, you go ahead with your work." Although Ruan Chen felt it was inappropriate for an outsider like herself to enter someone else's ancestral hall, she didn't really want Fu Jianzhi to accompany her.
Fu Jianzhi didn't take it to heart at all, and let go of Ruan Chen's hand. "Then I'll go to the kitchen to see if there are any fresh vegetables and fruits. Sis, would you like something light or spicy?"
"Let's make it a little lighter. Actually, a fruit platter would be enough. There's no need to go to all this trouble."
"Okay, sister, take your time looking around, it's fine." Fu Jianzhi said considerately, and took two steps closer to fasten the buttons on Ruan Chen's collar. "It's a bit chilly in the ancestral hall, be careful not to catch a cold."
His fingertips brushed against Ruan Chen's slightly cool neck.
Ruan Chen noticed that Fu Jianzhi was already as tall as her, and couldn't help but laugh and tease, "In a while you'll be taller than me. You've grown so fast. When I first found you in Meicheng, you weren't even up to my chest."
"yes."
Ruan Chen thought to herself that she could no longer call him "little thing" or "little toy" even in her heart.
Fu Jianzhi buttoned up her clothes. "I'll go check the kitchen and then arrange for them to tidy up your bedroom. It should take about half an hour. If you're done looking around, you can wander around the neighborhood and take some photos."
"Why are you so long-winded at such a young age?"
Ruan Chen waved his hand and entered the ancestral hall.
Behind her, Fu Jianzhi took a deep look at her back, a cryptic smile playing on his lips.
Ruan Chen stood in front of the row of memorial tablets, looking at each one one by one. Sure enough, they were exactly the same as what she had seen on the other timeline, without the slightest difference.
Next was the equally old-fashioned conference room. Ruan Chen walked to the side of the small table at the front, looked down, and saw a pot of tea there. When he reached out to touch it, it was still warm.
Ruan Chen finally bypassed the table where the memorial tablets were placed and walked towards the room where her counterpart in another timeline met Fu Jianzhi.
She could feel that, as time went by, her memories of that timeline were becoming increasingly blurry—Ruan Chen was very confident that in her memory, this situation was like an irresistible eraser forcibly erasing the memories related to that timeline from her mind.
This is quite normal. Ruan Chen understands that she was an intruder in that timeline, and that timelines have self-correcting capabilities, so it is only natural for her to try to forcibly erase her memories.
That's why Ruan Chen was so eager to come to the Fu family ancestral hall; she needed to use things from this world and her own timeline to aid her memory.
But Ruan Chen still had a question in her mind.
The timeline is an irreversible river with no branches or end. If, as she currently speculates, her own timeline branched at some point, eventually giving rise to her present self and her tragic self, how will the timeline correct this error?
In other words, Ruan Chen wants to know how the timeline should end.
She dared not think about the problem too deeply, as it terrified her.
She arrived at another timeline, the place where she first met Fu Jianzhi.
Ruan Chen pushed open the door, and dust particles danced in the sunlight, while the familiar scent of sandalwood lingered in the air.
Ruan Chen was startled. The scent of sandalwood?
She left the room, closed the door, and hurried back to the main hall, where there was also the smell of incense, but it was definitely not sandalwood!
She walked into Ruan Chen's room in the tragic world again and sniffed carefully.
Yes, it's the scent of sandalwood. I've smelled it in another timeline, but in the Fu family ancestral hall of this world, this scent seems to exist only in this one room.
She went outside, found the cleaning staff, and asked, "Have you ever used sandalwood in your ancestral hall?"
The cleaning staff had previously seen Ruan Chen and Fu Jianzhi chatting at the entrance of the ancestral hall. Although she did not know Ruan Chen, she knew Fu Jianzhi, so she respectfully answered Ruan Chen's question, "We used it a long time ago, but for some reason it was replaced with the current pine needle incense."
"Can you remember which year it was replaced?" Ruan Chen asked eagerly.
The cleaning staff thought for a long time and shook their heads. "I don't remember, but you can ask the young master to check for you. We keep the purchase records here."
"Okay, thank you."
Ruan Chen jogged back to the main house of the Fu family, pulled a data cable out of her backpack, and casually grabbed a servant, asking, "Is there a computer I can use?"
"The young master said that you can enter his bedroom and study."
"take me."
Ruan Chen was impatient and grabbed a servant, rushing upstairs.
The servant was even taken aback by Ruan Chen's sudden outburst and stammered, "Miss Ruan, the young master's... the young master's room isn't here, I... I'll take you there."
Ruan Chen was carrying her schoolbag and a data cable. Seeing that she was in a hurry, the servants ran over and took her there.
Fu Jianzhi's room was quite far from the main buildings of the Fu family mansion, and it was covered with moss and ivy, giving it a somewhat secluded feel.
"Why don't you clean it? It attracts a lot of bugs in the summer," Ruan Chen said casually.
“The young master won’t allow it, and actually he doesn’t come back to stay much anyway,” the servant escorted Ruan Chen to the door, opened it for her, and then took two steps back. “This is it, you can come in.”
Ruan Chen didn't pay attention to the furnishings of Fu Jianzhi's room; in fact, there wasn't much in the boy's room.
The living room didn't even have a sofa, just a few tables, a chair, and a chaise lounge.
Ruan Chen went straight to the table where the computer was, turned it on, connected to the network, and then hacked into every computer in the Fu family that was connected to the network, starting to search for the information he needed.
She couldn't wait any longer and asked Fu Jianzhi to help her investigate.
She quickly found the Fu family's purchasing records, which showed that the Fu family last purchased sandalwood five years ago.
When Fu Jianzhi was eight years old.
It was in the same year that Ruan Chen from the tragic world met Fu Jianzhi.
A month later, the Fu family switched to pine needle incense for their next purchase.
However, Ruan Chen smelled the same scent from five years later in her room.
Ruan Chen stared at the screen, her mind a jumble of thoughts. She felt like she was just one step away from seeing the truth of the whole thing, but she just couldn't seem to break through that thin layer of paper.
"Sis? What are you doing here?"
Fu Jianzhi actually knocked on his own door. His forehead was covered in sweat, as if he had just run 800 meters and was panting. "I went back to the ancestral hall and looked for you for a long time. I asked around and found out that you came to use the computer."
Ruan Chen subconsciously began to mentally prepare how to answer Fu Jianzhi's question about what she was doing.
But Fu Jianzhi didn't ask at all.
He just stood at the door and said, "Sis, are you done with your work? If you're in a hurry, I can call the driver to take you home—I'm worried you might not be comfortable using my computer, so as not to delay your business."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com