Buddha-like Rebirth

Apart from a slightly clingy lover and an occasionally perverted boss, Fu Zhiyu felt that his life was flawless.

In the past, Fu Zhiyu’s quarters were next to his operation room. After working his ass off for the World Consciousness, it took him just a few steps to get there. It was more like a place to rest after work, very simple and cold.

He didn’t care about living like that before, but after Xie Ke came back, he became more and more uncomfortable. Fu Zhiyu felt that it would be impossible to live like this anymore, and he asked the World Consciousness for a place.

The World Consciousness disagreed at first, saying reluctantly, “What are you going to do? You can live wherever you want in such a large system space. Live next to the master brain, I don’t care. I can’t afford to feed you if you want this and that!”

“I do so much work for you, what’s wrong with a place? There are wages and bonuses for other people for their work. I don’t want money but you won’t even give me this.” Fu Zhiyu didn’t understand, “It’s not troublesome, it’s just a matter of moving a finger for you.”

“I don’t have fingers!”

“This is a metaphor, you know,” Fu Zhiyu reached out to the void, “Give me a piece of land, I want to build a house.”

“I won’t!” The World Consciousness changed its tune on the spot, ”Who said I didn’t give you a reward, wasn’t there Xie Ke?”

“Xie Ke was originally mine, he doesn’t count,” Fu Zhiyu firmly denied its statement, and continued to reach out, “Hurry up.”

The World Consciousness: “……”

In the end, it did it.

What Fu Zhiyu called “a piece of land” was actually a separate space that both he and Xie Ke could enter. It was a bit like the personal space of an actor, but it was much more flexible and changeable than that. It was a bit like a small world.

Fu Zhiyu was the designer of this small world, where he could build his own house as he pleased.

At the beginning, he made his home look like Xie Ke’s villa in the mountains. They had lived there for a long time and had long been used to it; but in addition to this, there was a large area outside.

Fu Zhiyu planted flowers and vegetables there. Although there was no hunger in the system space, the two of them would return home after work, pick some vegetables from the yard, cook a meal together and then eat it slowly. It was also a very happy experience.

It should be said that between lovers, no matter what they do, they are happy.

After Xie Ke had the new authority, he really had a lot of work.

The World Consciousness knew that if you wanted a horse to run, you had to let it graze, and it still wanted to give the actors some benefits.

Nowadays, there was a large pool of actors and actresses, and Xie Ke was one of the few who had no place to play. Since the World Consciousness discovered that the people in the worlds of the books had become alive, it had begun to select a large number of actors from them. Some were tempted by the benefits given by the World Consciousness, and many people voluntarily came here to take risks, such as Lin Yu, who enjoyed this feeling very much. After all, this kind of experience was difficult to have in the ordinary world.

With the increase in the number of actors, not only did the management difficulty increase, but the Lord God always needed Fu Zhiyu and Xie Ke to help, and they also needed more things. Although many actors liked the excitement of acting, they also needed to rest.

The World Consciousness intended to open up the free worlds as a place for the actors to rest and travel, and also for them to relax. But after all, the actors were different from the people in those worlds, and the World Consciousness was afraid that they would interfere with the development of the free worlds.

Speaking of which, it was a matter of “degree”, and this “degree” needed to be guaranteed by well-established rules. Xie Ke was doing this.

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When two people share the same workplace, there is nothing to separate them. Fu Zhiyu and Xie Ke cooperated tacitly, and things were not difficult to do. In general, it was a stable and happy life.

However, Xie Ke’s clingy nature was sometimes quite troublesome.

Most of the time, Fu Zhiyu indulged him. He knew that Xie Ke’s sense of security came from this and it was also appropriate for lovers to spend more time together. But sometimes Xie Ke was getting too much, and Fu Zhiyu was also angry.

Comparing the matters of the heart, Fu Zhiyu felt that even at the beginning, when he was willing to follow Xie Ke with all his soul, he wasn’t so clingy. Lovers are not siamese twins. There is no need to be together all the time.

At first, Xie Ke just wanted to see him. If he hadn’t seen him for a while, after a little longer, he would unconsciously panic. Fu Zhiyu didn’t pay much attention to this. The two of them worked and lived together, and rarely separated. He was also willing to get along with Xie Ke. This kind of long-lasting relationship made him feel comfortable.

But when Xie Ke got insatiable, he stopped being comfortable.

This was the system space. Fu Zhiyu’s body was much better than that of ordinary people, but when he got up with a backache every morning, he still felt that the World Consciousness was biassed. At least Xie Ke’s physical strength and stamina were obviously much better than his own! 

He really asked, and the World Consciousness replied to him like this: “Xie Ke’s body is newly made according to the data of the original actor, and he was the top in everything. So in theory, it is indeed better than yours. After all, your body is still the one from the world in the book. Although it has changed, the foundation is the same. But the ability is a combination, not just physical fitness. Don’t worry. If you get into a fight, you can still beat him. If you can’t, I’ll help you. I love you the most.”

“Well, you don’t need to add the last sentence, it’s superfluous, you can go now,” Fu Zhiyu rubbed his waist, “I’m very tired today, I’m not going to work anymore, you can do it yourself.”

The World Consciousness: “……”

“Why don’t I reinforce you a bit more?” the World Consciousness mused, “No matter what, don’t delay your work…”

“It’s better for you to weaken Xie Ke a little than to strengthen me. If he finds out, he will be able to toss me even more,” Fu Zhiyu finished rubbing his waist and couldn’t help rubbing his frowning brow. “I want to rest, you hurry up and go.”

“Weaken?” The World Consciousness was really thinking about it, “Shall I try it?”

Fu Zhiyu: “No, don’t touch him, forget it, I can’t count on you, I will solve the matter between the two of us by myself.”

That night, Xie Ke was driven to sleep in the study.

Fu Zhiyu’s iron heart that hadn’t demonstrated itself for a long time played a role at this time, and no matter how Xie Ke begged for reassurance, it was useless.

“Reflect on yourself and see if you dare to toss me like this in the future,” Fu Zhiyu closed the door and locked it easily, “Hurry up and go, I’m going to get a good night’s sleep.”

Xie Ke was aggrieved, but he didn’t dare to argue when Fu Zhiyu was assertive, so he could only slink away to sleep in the study.

Fu Zhiyu was comfortable for a few days, but as time went on, he thought it would be better to let Xie Ke come back; it wasn’t really necessary to separate.

The past few days must have been enough for him to reflect clearly.

But when he opened the door of the study, he didn’t see Xie Ke.

Had he gone out?

They didn’t use the study often; except for some furnishings and books that had been added, there was nothing else.

Xie Ke’s bed was tidy. Fu Zhiyu glanced at it and found a strange lump under the pillow.

He lifted the pillow and took a look. Below was a photo album.

A photo album?

Fu Zhiyu was a little confused; he had never seen this thing at home.

He opened it and took a look, only to find that it was full of pictures of him.

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There were all kinds of photos: him working with his head down, reading books, or eating. Many of them were candids, and he didn’t even notice that he had been photographed.

The first ones were the most recent, and the ones further back were more distant.

There were photos of him as an actor in that middle-level world, and there were photos of him in a suit, facing the spotlight at the award ceremony. Further back, it was him in the time of “His Name Will Live On in History“.

There were pictures of him dressed plainly and walking idly on the street; there were those of him touching the growing crops in the field, and there were those of when he was still in the palace, sitting on the swing in the garden and swinging slowly. Fu Zhiyu looked at these photos and felt a lot of nostalgia.

When he thought about it, it seemed that a long time had passed.

This photo album was arranged in chronological order, but the last one Fu Zhiyu saw was him wearing the red sacrificial costume, sitting in the exquisite sedan chair, tilting his head to look at Xie Ke. It was about the most carefully dressed he had ever been, and it completely captured Fu Zhiyu’s extremely beautiful face.

It didn’t seem to be a photo, and Fu Zhiyu didn’t know what method Xie Ke used to record his memory in this way.

“Zhiyu?”

At this moment, Xie Ke pushed the door open. Seeing Fu Zhiyu, he smiled first, and then showed him what he was holding in his hand.

“I just went out to bring this for our family. There is a new world on the side of the Lord God. There was a small problem in the process of completing the task, I helped solve it. The Lord God also used its authority to get me a little invention from that world. Come here, it can be regarded as furniture.” Xie Ke said, “Let me show it to you?”

It was actually a little trick. After it was set up, the ceiling of the room became like a starry sky, within reach. Fu Zhiyu stretched out his hand, and the shining stars like grains of rice slowly flew around him, as beautiful as a dream.

“It’s quite interesting,” Fu Zhiyu smiled. “We can put it in our room and play with it sometime.”

Xie Ke captured the words “our room” very sensitively.

Was there no need to live in the cold study anymore?

“It can also change modes, it can become clouds or something. Zhiyu, let me show you?”

“Can it change into this?” Fu Zhiyu showed him the photo album in his hand.

Xie Ke: “……”

He couldn’t figure out what Fu Zhiyu’s smiling expression meant, but it didn’t look like he was angry.

He was now very afraid that Zhiyu would be angry.

“It was taken from my memory. I always felt that it felt unreal, and I was afraid that I would forget it again, so I used the photo album,” he said honestly. “When you were angry a few days ago, I couldn’t sleep, so I couldn’t help but look at it.”

“Why put this at the end?”

“This one was the deepest memory. I secretly went to look at you at that time.” Xie Ke saw that one, and his eyes became gentle unconsciously. “It was red, very much like a wedding dress. You were also very beautiful. But I could only look at you from afar.”

Xie Ke had no hope at that time, so he regarded this moment as part of his imagination, thinking that on the day when they could really get married, Zhiyu probably would be so beautiful.

What Xie Ke didn’t say to Fu Zhiyu was that when he finally came to the end of the journey and was ready to die, he felt that he had no future, and he still remembered that one look.

That moment was very important to him. Even though Zhiyu had come back now, the sweetness of the memory when there was no more hope was something he would never forget.