"Yunhai, this is the first time in my life I've ever been humiliated like this."
Even after a whole day, Qin Yunhai still couldn't calm down.
Wu Wei patted Qin Yunhai sympathetically on the shoulder.
The guy really had been unlucky. But then again, Chi Yu had been unreasonable, not malicious. She hadn't meant to hurt Qin Yunhai.
Compared to having all three of his roommates try to kill him, Qin Yunhai's problem was nothing.
"So what if she cheated on you? Take it easy. If you want to live well, you have to put up with a little green on your head."
"What's bothering me isn't that she cheated. It's that she insulted me. She cheated, and then she actually had the nerve to curse me?" Qin Yunhai trembled with rage. "How did I never realize Chi Yu was this kind of person?"
He recalled their conversation from earlier.
"My body is mine to control. I can give it to whoever I want. What gives you the right to suspect me and investigate me?"
"You actually want to break up with me? What happened to loving me forever and never leaving me? Heh. What a scumbag!"
"Qin Yunhai, I'll give you one last chance. Let's pretend this never happened and get back together, okay? We'll go back to how things were. I'll be your girlfriend, and you'll care for me and protect me. I'll cheat once in a while, and I just won't let you find out."
Only heaven knew how much willpower it had taken Qin Yunhai not to lose control and hit her.
People said you should end a relationship with dignity. Qin Yunhai understood that, too. But when it actually happened to you, you realized what it felt like.
Reason wasn't always there to keep you in check.
If Wu Wei hadn't called him at just the right moment, Qin Yunhai might already have been at Six Fan Gate, explaining to the constables why he'd killed someone.
"I've always prided myself on being a good judge of character. How did I get it so spectacularly wrong?" Qin Yunhai was miserable.
It was always hard for a man to come to terms with something like this.
Wu Wei calmly sipped his tea.
He wasn't good at comforting people, and he didn't think it would help in this situation.
Still, there were things that needed to be said.
"Yunhai, love is a luxury, not a necessity. You've just been dumped. It's no big deal. Do you really need to take it this hard?"
"It's not about being dumped. It's about my dignity and my judgment of people," Qin Yunhai said seriously.
Wu Wei fell silent.
He understood now. This guy wasn't all that heartbroken about the breakup itself. He was mostly embarrassed.
Lan Meng wasn't as calm as Wu Wei.
When someone entrusted you with a task, you had to see it through. Qin Yunhai had asked her for help, but she hadn't been able to do anything for him, and she felt bad about it.
That was why she'd come over on her own today. She even tried to defend Qin Yunhai. "Qin Yunhai, this actually isn't your fault. It might not be Chi Yu's fault, either. Perhaps she was influenced by some irresistible force."
It was obvious that Lan Meng meant the Heart Demon.
After glancing at Wu Wei, Lan Meng considered whether to explain the situation to Qin Yunhai.
Wu Wei nodded.
He hadn't come to see Qin Yunhai today to comfort him. More than anything, he wanted to use their conversation to confirm a few things.
So Lan Meng told Qin Yunhai what she knew.
Qin Yunhai was even more shaken than Wu Wei had been.
He was already in an extremely volatile emotional state. Being hit with such a huge flood of information so suddenly was naturally hard to bear.
But Qin Yunhai quickly calmed down. Then he asked Wu Wei, "You'd actually tell me something like this?"
Lan Meng had said that in the future, they would be close partners.
But if they were honest with themselves, until they'd been through life and death together, it was still important to keep some secrets from one another.
Wu Wei smiled, then answered bluntly. "Because I don't believe what Lan Meng said is true, I need you to help me verify it."
If he could have confirmed that Lan Meng was telling the truth, he might not have told Qin Yunhai just yet.
He certainly trusted Qin Yunhai as a friend, but he loved himself most of all—always.
Only an idiot would test a friendship by tempting a friend, and Wu Wei wasn't about to do anything that stupid.
After hearing Wu Wei's words, Qin Yunhai closed his eyes and stayed silent for five seconds. Then he abruptly opened them, his voice firm. "I don't believe it, either."
Wu Wei laughed in relief.
They'd arrived at the same conclusion.
Lan Meng grew anxious.
"Wu Wei, Qin Yunhai, I'm not lying to you. I swear it."
"I know you're not lying to me," Wu Wei said calmly. "But you don't know whether you're the one being deceived."
Lan Meng froze.
"Yunhai, do you remember the theory I once discussed with you?" Wu Wei asked.
Qin Yunhai nodded, agreeing with Wu Wei.
"A person is who they are because their memories tell them who they are. If their memories are altered, they might become someone else."
"In a sense, as long as a person's memories survive and can keep being transferred into other bodies, that person can live forever. If technology keeps advancing, we should be able to do that before long."
Qin Yunhai's words left Lan Meng feeling cold all over.
"How is that possible? How could you come up with such an unorthodox idea? How is that living forever?"
Wu Wei glanced at Lan Meng and said coolly, "That is living forever. It's just not the kind of immortality you're used to imagining. Geniuses can break the mold and come up with new ideas. Mediocrities can only accept other people's definitions and stick to the rules."
That was what set Wu Wei and Qin Yunhai apart from Lan Meng.
Wu Wei and Qin Yunhai were the ones who made the definitions.
"Lan Meng's memories must have been altered. We don't know why, but the most likely explanation is that someone wanted to mislead you into making the wrong judgment," Qin Yunhai offered.
"But what if the future you really did send me back?"
Lan Meng had already accepted that Wu Wei and Qin Yunhai's reasoning made sense, but she didn't want to admit that it might be true.
Qin Yunhai asked seriously, "If the BOSS of the opposing side really restarted the timeline, why not set it back to when Wu Wei was just born—or even before he was born? Wouldn't he have been weaker then?"
"Maybe restarting it to that point would have been harder and cost more sacrifices. That's possible, isn't it?" Lan Meng argued.
Qin Yunhai nodded, conceding that Lan Meng had a point.
"Of course. Anything is possible. But when all is said and done, you know that what I'm suggesting is far more likely than what you believe. Stop fooling yourself."
Lan Meng had no answer.
"I once had an idea: create an artificial intelligence, give it a person's data model, and have it calculate all the countless ways that person's future could unfold."
Wu Wei spoke up, drawing Qin Yunhai and Lan Meng's attention.
"Then select one of those possible futures and implant it into that person's mind. Do you think that person would believe they'd been reborn?"
Qin Yunhai's eyes lit up. "That could work. Weiwei, you really are a genius. If we combine it with my genetic technology, we could even clone countless copies of the same person and test the various possibilities the AI comes up with."
Lan Meng was utterly bewildered.
This fairy was a top student, at least. Why couldn't she keep up with these two big shots at all?
They'd all gone through the same nine years of compulsory education. Had those two secretly attended cram school?
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