Trapped in the Same Day for a Thousand Years: Do You Still Remember Ma Huifang?

Welcome to Trapped in the Same Day for a Thousand Years, produced exclusively by Feilu Novel Network, written by Sang Ze and narrated by Wang Xiaomo and Lao He.

Until Wu Chen and Lu Guangnian walked out of the restaurant, the diners kept watching them. They were less blatant about it now, but their eyes never left the two men.

Luxury cars crowded outside. Wu Chen and Lu Guangnian walked to the edge of a flower bed before stopping.

"Boss Lu, you believe me now."

Wu Chen slipped a hand into his pocket, glanced at Lu Guangnian, then looked toward the street. Night had fallen, and traffic flowed beneath a blur of colorful lights.

"At least you were right about one thing. She lied to me. There's definitely something going on between her and Liu Ligang. I'll investigate."

Lu Guangnian sounded noncommittal, but he was already at least eighty percent convinced.

No man wanted to admit he had been cheated on. And in his case, infidelity barely began to describe it. This was a plot to take his money and his life.

"How did you know all this?"

"Who told you?"

Lu Guangnian shot Wu Chen another sideways look.

"Boss Lu, you need to understand. If you weren't close to Ruobing and didn't call A Tai your brother, I wouldn't have told you any of this."

Wu Chen gave a faint smile. "Running into you today was a coincidence. I told you because of Ruomin and her brother. There's no need to pry."

"Why do I know?"

Wu Chen turned back to the glittering night street. "We can't let the bad guys get away with it, can we?"

Lu Guangnian fell silent. He couldn't read Wu Chen. There was something unusual about him. Few people spoke to Lu Guangnian in that tone anymore, much less said they were helping him for someone else's sake rather than because of his power.

Lu Guangnian now believed Wu Chen really was Li Ruobing's boyfriend. He had met her three previous fake boyfriends and had barely spared them a glance. They had been nothing more than meek lackeys serving as shields.

Wu Chen treated Li Ruobing as an equal. Leaving her in the restaurant while he took Lu Guangnian outside for a private talk proved that much.

And Li Ruobing had defended Wu Chen earlier. When she called him "my boyfriend" in response to the "pretty boy" Lu Guangnian's wife had mentioned, Lu Guangnian understood how much Wu Chen meant to her.

Lu Guangnian wondered about Wu Chen's background. Perhaps he came from a powerful family, or perhaps he had some unusual position or talent.

But none of that mattered. Lu Guangnian cared far more about his own predicament.

"Thanks, brother."

Lu Guangnian clapped Wu Chen on the shoulder. Stripped of their positions and connections, it was a simple, heartfelt thanks.

Lu Guangnian was over thirty years older than Wu Chen, but calling him "brother" was a habit of his. He had always been young at heart.

Most men in their fifties or sixties already had grandchildren. Lu Guangnian had spent years unable to have children, and that had shaped his outlook.

It was like a woman who remained unmarried at forty and still dressed in youthful fashion, compared with a woman who had married at twenty and raised a child to adulthood by forty.

Years of motherhood changed a person's perspective, values, and state of mind.

"Have you told anyone else about this?"

Lu Guangnian asked.

"Not yet."

Wu Chen replied.

"Though Ruobing will probably ask what I said to you in a minute."

Lu Guangnian ran a hand through his hair and turned toward the street. Pain and sorrow welled in his eyes.

"It doesn't matter. Secrets never stay buried forever. People will find out sooner or later."

Lu Guangnian said no more.

"What are you going to do about Liu Caixiu, Liu Ligang, and the child?"

Wu Chen asked.

Lu Guangnian paused, then turned to him. "The child really isn't mine?"

He didn't know why he trusted Wu Chen so readily. Perhaps Wu Chen's words had explained the questions that had troubled him for years. Once Wu Chen said Liu Caixiu and Liu Ligang weren't siblings, all the strange details finally made sense.

Still, Lu Guangnian wanted the boy to be his son. He was traditional and wanted children who could inherit everything he had built after he was gone.

"He isn't yours."

Wu Chen sounded certain. "Liu Caixiu timed her arrival in your life. She spent those few days around ovulation with you, then went to Liu Ligang. You know your condition. Unless a miracle happens, you can't have any more children."

Lu Guangnian looked awful. His gaze moved from one end of the street to the other without focusing on anything. A faint redness rimmed his eyes.

"I'll have another paternity test done tomorrow,"

Lu Guangnian said.

He sniffed and pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

It was an unopened pack of Yellow Crane Tower 1916. As far as Wu Chen knew, Lu Guangnian had once been a heavy smoker, but he had quit after Liu Caixiu became pregnant.

Two years later, he had started smoking again, though sparingly. He barely smoked a few cigarettes a day.

He always carried a pack, not for himself, but to offer guests while entertaining them.

Lu Guangnian opened the pack, took out a cigarette, and offered one to Wu Chen.

"I don't smoke."

Wu Chen raised a hand to decline. Lu Guangnian put the cigarette between his lips and lit it. He drew deeply, exhaled a cloud of smoke, then sniffed hard. His uncertain gaze stayed on the street. His thoughts were clearly in turmoil, and he needed the cigarette to ease the strain.

Lu Guangnian abruptly took out his phone, as though something had just occurred to him. He dialed a number. "Ermin, get someone to find Liu Ligang. Bring him and the people close to him at the company, including Dong Zhiheng's lot, to that villa in the western suburbs."

"Yes, hold all of them there until I arrive."

Xu Ermin was a senior vice president of Juli Group and had been Lu Guangnian's close friend for decades.

After hanging up, Lu Guangnian smoked and drifted into another daze. His mind was a tangled mess.

"There's a saying: if you're going to help someone, see it through."

Wu Chen gave a faint smile and turned to him. "Do you still remember Ma Huifang?"

Lu Guangnian snapped back to himself and shot Wu Chen an odd look. "You can't be much over twenty. You even know about her?"

Ma Huifang had been Lu Guangnian's first girlfriend more than thirty years ago. "I know more than that. I know she broke up with you because you cheated on her. You were twenty-three, right?"

"You two met at seventeen and spent six years together. Then you betrayed her for a woman from a dance hall!"

Wu Chen's words were harsh.

Lu Guangnian said nothing. So many years had passed that he could barely remember Ma Huifang's face. But he would never forget her name.

It had happened in the 1990s, when the country was developing at breakneck speed. People willing to take risks could make fortunes. Overnight riches were no fantasy.

Lu Guangnian had been one of those risk-takers. He and Ma Huifang had loved each other and even planned to marry. But after meeting new people and making some money, he had lost his way.

Back then, he hadn't thought he was wrong. He had thought Ma Huifang wasn't good enough for him. Only after he had made something of himself did he look back and realize how wrong he had been.

But wrong was wrong. What he had missed was gone.

"Did you investigate me?"

Lu Guangnian turned to Wu Chen, his expression grave.

For someone Wu Chen's age to know something so long past was suspicious.

"Does it matter what I do?"

"You can ask Ruobing. See if she'll tell you."

Wu Chen continued.

"What matters is that Ma Huifang was pregnant when she broke up with you. She didn't end the pregnancy. She gave birth to a boy. So you don't just have a son now. You have a granddaughter, too."

Thud!

The cigarette fell from Lu Guangnian's hand. He stared at Wu Chen, dumbfounded.

This was why Wu Chen had asked Lu Guangnian outside for a private talk. Otherwise, there was nothing left to say. He had already told him what he needed to know. Lu Guangnian could investigate the rest himself. One more paternity test with the boy would reveal the truth.

Wu Chen had brought him out to tell him that he had a descendant.

The injury that left Lu Guangnian infertile had happened when he was twenty-six. Before that, he had been healthy and strong. Of course he could have fathered a child.

During the Millennium Reincarnation, Wu Chen had investigated countless people and learned countless private secrets and histories. It often made him marvel at how cruelly fate could toy with people.

Lovers turned out to be siblings separated for years. Someone fled a fatal hit-and-run, only to discover the victim was his own father. Babies were switched at the hospital: one meant for poverty grew up in wealth, while one born to wealth lived worse than a dog.

There were too many stories like that.

One point was worth mentioning: Wu Chen had not discovered Ma Huifang through Lu Guangnian.

He had investigated so many people's connections that their social circles had become a web, linked together through one person after another.

Wu Chen had found Ma Huifang through her son, Ma Jiawei.

Ma Jiawei was thirty-two, held a master's degree, and worked as head of the technical department at Donghai Flash Technology Group.

The owner of Flash Group was Zou Hai, who was fifty.

He had been among the country's earliest programmers. A former hacker, he was a top expert in the field.

While learning programming, Wu Chen had reached a point where he thought his skills were outstanding and wanted to test himself against an expert. He met Zou Hai first, then discovered that Zou Hai had a prodigy working for him: Ma Jiawei.

Ma Jiawei's technical skills had surpassed his mentor's. That was how he had become an executive at a publicly listed company at thirty-two.

Later, Wu Chen wanted to meet Ma Jiawei within a single day, so he investigated him. To his surprise, Ma Jiawei had taken his mother's surname and had no father listed.

While investigating Ma Huifang, Wu Chen calculated when she had given birth. Counting back the months of pregnancy gave him the time she had conceived.

Eventually, an elderly neighbor told Wu Chen the name of Ma Huifang's first boyfriend: Lu Guangnian.

Ordinary people rarely knew the name of Lu Guangnian, the man behind Juli Group.

The wealthy people most people knew were either the richest in the country or the richest in their city. Even the second-richest local figure might be unknown. People knew the companies but not necessarily the names of their owners.

There were too many rich people. Ordinary people could name only the handful who appeared in the news all the time.

Ask a random person on the street to name the ten richest people in their city, and many wouldn't be able to name even one.

Wu Chen, however, had already investigated Lu Guangnian by then. He recognized the name but initially thought it belonged to someone else.

Further investigation showed it was no coincidence. Ma Jiawei's biological father was Lu Guangnian, the East Sea real estate magnate.

"My son... You..." Lu Guangnian stared at Wu Chen, stunned. He could not even finish a sentence.

"Your granddaughter is already five."

Wu Chen smiled.

"Is that... Is what you're saying true? You're not lying to me? Xiaofang, she... she..."

"She was pregnant back then."

Lu Guangnian's breathing grew heavy. He could hardly catch his breath. Emotion was surging through him.

"Why would I lie to you?"

Wu Chen kept smiling.

"Your son has done very well for himself. Exceptionally well. His mother raised him right."

"Your granddaughter is adorable, too. I think you'll like her when you meet her."

"She's at that mischievous age." Lu Guangnian covered his forehead and rubbed it hard.

He paced a few steps, breathing even more heavily than before. Disbelief, excitement, anxiety, and fear that it was all a lie warred within him.

Wu Chen took out his phone, opened his messages, and typed rapidly with one hand.

"What's his name?"

"What's my son's name?" Lu Guangnian stepped toward him again.

"Ma Jiawei. He took his mother's surname."

Wu Chen kept his head down as he spoke, then sent the message.

Lu Guangnian's phone chimed, but he seemed not to hear it. Even if he had, his thoughts were elsewhere. "Xiaofang..."

"She never married all these years?"

Lu Guangnian asked, suddenly tense again.

"No. She raised the child alone."

"You hurt her deeply. Perhaps she stopped trusting men and chose to live on her own."

"Those years were hard on her. She raised a child while working, endured people's judgment, and sometimes held down several jobs. But the worst is behind her now."

Wu Chen continued. "Your son earns a good income, so Ma Huifang doesn't have to work so hard anymore. She can finally enjoy life."

"Where are they?" Lu Guangnian lunged a step forward.

"Here in East Sea."

Wu Chen said, "Check your phone. I just sent you their address and numbers. You can go find them, but you should prepare yourself."

Lu Guangnian could hardly wait to pull out his phone and read the message.

"Ma Huifang never left East Sea. There may have been a time when she didn't know where you were. But once you became successful, she must have heard about you. She knew you were rich and getting richer, yet she never came looking for you."

Lu Guangnian slowly lifted his head from the message. Wu Chen met his eyes. "The deeper her love was back then, the deeper her hatred is now."

"You have plenty of money, but they aren't struggling. They don't need your help."

Lu Guangnian's gaze gradually lost focus. He seemed lost in memories.

"Boss Lu, we should go back. Everyone's waiting for you."

Wu Chen glanced at his watch.

Lu Guangnian came to his senses, but Wu Chen had already turned toward the restaurant.

Lu Guangnian hurried after him. "Brother, brother, don't go yet. Tell me more." "You can find out for yourself. Once you see them, you'll have answers to many of your questions."

Wu Chen looked back as he spoke.

They entered the restaurant together. Lu Guangnian headed upstairs, while Wu Chen went toward Li Ruobing at Caijin Restaurant.

Wu Chen noticed two middle-aged men standing by Li Ruobing's table, apparently exchanging pleasantries with her. More people must have come to greet her while he was outside.

"Boss Lu, I'm going over."

Wu Chen spoke to Lu Guangnian.

Before he could leave, Lu Guangnian seized his hand and pulled him close. The way he held Wu Chen's hand and leaned in to whisper made them look unusually close.

"You'd better not be lying to me. You know what'll happen if you are."

Lu Guangnian spoke quietly. He was terrified Wu Chen had deceived him.

"And if I'm not?"

Wu Chen asked with a faint smile.

"Then I'll swear brotherhood with you."

Lu Guangnian said.

Wu Chen coughed, then said, "Forget it. At your age, I don't want to die on the same day as you."

Lu Guangnian finally let Wu Chen go and hurried upstairs.

Wu Chen straightened his suit and walked toward Li Ruobing.

After only a few steps, he was surprised to see who was chatting with Li Ruobing. One was Mu Sihai, owner of Mu Biomedical Group, a leader in the East Sea biomedical industry. The other was Wan Jianmin, owner of Donghai Wanmin Biochemical Group, a raw-material supplier and partner of Huancai Fashion Company.

They were Mu Qingqing's father and the father of her best friend.

What made the encounter awkward was that Wu Chen had slept with Mu Qianqian just yesterday.