Chapter 26: Thunder and Lightning in the Countryside
“You… really… really are…”
After hearing two secrets that only he and Lu Wei knew, Zhou Lin’s understanding of reality was completely shaken, like being hit by two bombs at once. He stuttered so badly he could barely speak.
“What, you still don’t believe me?!”
Zhou Lin carefully looked Cheng Fei up and down. His words came out in a mess.
“No… it’s just… you right now… I really…”
Seeing this reaction, Cheng Fei finally relaxed a little.
Making someone as stubborn as Zhou Lin believe something this unbelievable was even harder than making money!
Still, this was a supernatural event that completely broke common sense, so it made sense he needed time to process it.
Cheng Fei grabbed a can of beer, opened it, and drank several large gulps.
“Half a month ago, Mu Li and I broke up. Then later…”
One bottle after another disappeared.
Amid the drifting smoke, half a pack of cigarettes was gone too.
Back then, whenever they sat together, one drank while the other smoked.
Now it was still the same.
Except one of them had completely changed.
Cheng Fei poured out everything that had happened during this period like dumping garbage from a bag.
After finishing, she felt a huge sense of relief.
But Zhou Lin listened with tightly furrowed brows.
Seeing the peanuts almost gone and the beer finished too, Cheng Fei grew anxious when Zhou Lin still said nothing.
“Hey, say something already.”
“Uh… surviving a disaster brings future blessings. Congratulations.”
Cheng Fei felt helpless.
Zhou Lin had always been honest and introverted. His ability to accept reality was worse than her old outgoing self.
Forget it.
Better give him more time to digest everything.
“Oh right, what happened to your voice? Don’t tell me… there’s a problem in that area, and you’re stressed about it?”
It would have been better if she had not mentioned it.
The moment she did, Zhou Lin became angry.
“Isn’t it all because of you?! During those days after hearing about your accident, I smoked so much I can’t even remember how many cigarettes I used. I only know I ruined two lighters!”
Unable to hold back, and because of their old habit of roughhousing together, he immediately wrapped an arm around Cheng Fei’s neck and pulled hard, easily dragging her under his arm.
Zhou Lin was quiet by nature, but he was a big guy.
Meanwhile, Cheng Fei was now under 170 cm tall with a small frame. Being held under his arm made her look like a little cat or puppy.
And Cheng Fei herself was not doing well either.
Her neck was slender and soft without much muscle. How could it withstand the strength of Zhou Lin’s strong arm?
A sweet fragrance drifted through the air.
The soft body in his arms made Zhou Lin freeze for a moment in confusion.
Then Cheng Fei coughed twice, instantly waking him up.
She was still the old Lu Wei in some ways.
But at the same time… not really anymore.
Letting go of her, Zhou Lin smiled apologetically.
“Your body… is way too weak.”
While rubbing her neck, Cheng Fei sighed emotionally.
“Sigh… I really am weak and fragile now. How many women actually have strong bodies…”
“……”
Cheng Fei looked helpless.
“Sorry, Old Zhou. I wanted to contact you the day the accident happened, but I was afraid I couldn’t explain it clearly over the phone.”
Zhou Lin lifted the beer can and drank the last bit.
“It’s fine as long as I know now. Not too late. So… what are you going to do from now on?”
“I still have the shop, so survival itself isn’t really a problem.”
“Heh. So how have these past days been? Using a body different from before… what does it feel like?”
Just thinking about it made Cheng Fei sigh endlessly.
Back when she was a man, she had envied women quite a bit.
But after actually becoming one for a few days, she already felt like she could not take it anymore.
In some ways, women’s bodies really were stronger than men’s.
For example, the care and attention they received could not even compare to before.
But!
Everything has advantages and disadvantages.
Take going to the bathroom, for example. It had become a huge problem.
Sometimes after drinking only a little water, she already needed to go release “some storage.” Her ability to hold it was nowhere near what it used to be.
And that did not even include needing toilet paper for everything now, plus the monthly period visits.
At night she slept badly, and in the morning she still had to wake up early…
In short, life slapped her in the face every single day with full force.
After getting beaten black and blue, the only comfort left was a tiny little sweet date the size of a thumb.
Seeing her look completely hopeless about life, Zhou Lin waved a hand in front of her face.
Cheng Fei turned back and forced out a smile uglier than crying.
“How about you try being a woman for a few days? It’s really wonderful!”
Wonderful?
Would someone make that expression if it really was wonderful?
Zhou Lin suddenly felt a chill run from his head throughout his entire body. He instinctively shivered.
“If you were a woman, you wouldn’t need to deal with coding anymore. Just marry a man and live comfortably!”
“Stop talking like it’s as easy as farting after eating ashes. You go sleep with a man first and try it yourself.”
“Ugh! Stop talking about that.”
Cheng Fei hurriedly pretended to stop him from continuing.
“See? Even you can’t stand hearing it, and yet…”
Cheng Fei rolled her eyes at him, then said seriously, “Old Zhou, honestly, stop staying at that terrible company. Whether the work is tiring or not is another matter, but the person running the company now is really awful! Fine if he treated you well, but the problem is, if someone says even one thing he doesn’t like, he holds a grudge and tries every way possible to force them out! Back then, among the old team who built the company together, there are only three people left including you, right? It was such a good company before, but now it’s been ruined into this half-dead mess. In my opinion, this ship will sink sooner or later, so why go down with it?”
Zhou Lin laughed lightly. “If it weren’t for Old Mo, I might still be fixing computers in the computer market. He gave me a chance when nobody else would. No matter what, I can’t betray the company he worked so hard to build.”
“Even now you’re still talking about blind loyalty. You might as well come help at my shop instead.”
What Cheng Fei said was true, and Zhou Lin was clearly moved by it, but what he said after that also came from the heart.
He was a stubborn person. Even if he hit a wall, he would never turn back. He would rather smash through the wall itself. The company’s situation was terrible now, but unless they fired him, he would never leave on his own.
Patting Cheng Fei on the shoulder, Zhou Lin joked, “Thanks! But your buddy here still has enough pride left. I’m not at the point where I need a woman to support me.”
“Tch!”
“I think it’s getting late. We should head back.”
“Heh.”
With a cold laugh, Cheng Fei opened the car door. Zhou Lin originally didn’t want to drive because they had been drinking, and it wasn’t safe. But then he thought about how this place only had a few unfinished buildings. Even during the day, barely any cars passed by, let alone in the middle of the night. Calling a designated driver out here probably wouldn’t work either.
Just as he was thinking that, a strange rumbling sound suddenly came from behind them. It sounded a bit like thunder before a storm, that heavy sound that made it hard to breathe, but they had never heard anything this loud before. Before they could figure out what it was, a bright bolt of lightning suddenly fell from the sky and struck the top of an unfinished building nearby.
The flash lit up the whole area, and the two of them suddenly noticed that there was actually a black car hidden in the shadows below the building.
Boom—!
Right after the lightning came an ear-splitting thunderclap. It was so loud that, in all their twenty-something years of life, they had never heard anything like it before.
The empty suburbs had nothing around except these unfinished buildings. It was lucky the lightning hit the rooftop just now, but what if the next strike hit them?
Neither of them wasted time talking. Their instinct to survive made them rush into the car.
Still shaken, Cheng Fei started the engine with trembling hands and slammed the gas pedal down. The car shot forward immediately. Luckily it was an automatic car. If it had been manual, there was no way she would have had the mind to shift gears at a time like this. She probably would have stalled the car on the spot.
The car drove away, but the dark clouds still covered the empty suburbs, and the storm only seemed to get worse.
“Wh-what kind of crazy weather is this…”
“I-I don’t care what it is, just drive!” Cheng Fei completely ignored the speed limit and traffic lights. The weather felt way too terrifying. Staying alive was the only thing that mattered right now.
After driving more than ten kilometers away, the car slowly slowed down from 130 kilometers per hour to 50. Only then did they finally calm down a little.
Just saying “that was scary” was nowhere near enough to describe how terrified they had been.
On the road, to distract themselves, Cheng Fei brought up the ridiculous matter of her marriage again, as well as her future plans.
“You’re planning to leave without saying goodbye?”
“Obviously!” Cheng Fei gritted her teeth. “Just imagining it already made you uncomfortable earlier, and you’re still asking me that?”
Zhou Lin suddenly had nothing to say.
He and Cheng Fei had really grown up together since childhood. They had played together since the days of running around naked as kids. Back then, Zhou Lin had always envied her. He thought luck was always on her side. But this time…
She had somehow gone from being the one “doing it” to the one “being done to,” and even got dropped into marriage with a “husband” out of nowhere. It was unbelievably tragic. Maybe this was the side effect of using up all her luck.
Back to the main topic.
It was true that Gao Ming had made an agreement with her, but that had been with the previous Cheng Fei. The more you thought about it, the more complicated it became, especially her current identity. She was now trapped inside Cheng Fei’s body. She could not escape it or leave it behind, like being locked inside a cage.
It meant she had to completely say goodbye to her old identity as Lu Wei. If she went around telling people she used to be Lu Wei, they would probably think she was crazy. The only choice left was to continue living as Cheng Fei.
And once that happened, there were rules she had to follow. If you used someone else’s identity but still wanted to avoid all the responsibilities and effects that came with it, there was no such easy thing in this world.
Zhou Lin stopped giving advice. This situation was such a confusing mess that even gods probably could not sort it out clearly. As long as Cheng Fei did not do anything evil or against her conscience, all he could do was support his old friend.
Screech!
Cheng Fei stepped on the brakes by the roadside. Since they had not met for so long, and after surviving such a terrifying situation together, Zhou Lin still wanted to talk more with this friend, maybe even chat all night long. But there was no time for that.
After getting out of the car, he finally said the thing he had been holding back the whole ride.
“Uncle Lu and Aunt Qin still don’t know about your situation. This kind of thing really can’t be explained clearly over the phone. When you have time, go back and let them know you’re safe.”
“…Yeah.”
“Alright, let’s meet again another day. I should head back now.”
Cheng Fei watched him walk away. She also felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. Leaning back against the seat, she stretched comfortably before quickly driving back home.