On a rainy morning, the cool air made the soft bedding even more tempting than usual—perfect weather for lazing in bed, cuddling with a loved one.
Even Gu Fu, who wasn’t someone who indulged in comforts, particularly enjoyed the idle and cozy feeling of sleeping on a rainy day. Unfortunately, today she was destined not to get her wish, because her beloved had encountered a slight problem.
It all started when Gu Fu, still half-asleep, reached out to hug Fu Yan, only to be pushed away by him.
The moment Fu Yan pushed her away, Gu Fu instantly woke up. It was something that had never happened before. Even when she’d done things that angered him, Fu Yan would only ignore her—he’d still let her hug, touch, and even kiss him, though he’d bite her when she did.
But to push her away with resistance—this was a first.
Gu Fu’s immediate reaction wasn’t sadness, anger, or suspicion that Fu Yan had lost interest in her. Instead, she asked—
“Where are you feeling uncomfortable?”
As she asked, Gu Fu sat up and looked toward the person lying next to her.
Once she saw him clearly, even someone as accustomed to dealing with storms and upheavals as Gu Fu couldn’t help but freeze in place.
On the messy bed, Fu Yan had pushed her away and retreated against the wall. He wasn’t wearing his usual loose nightclothes but a flowing white robe with wide sleeves. His face was expressionless, and a hint of wariness glinted in his eyes—something that felt foreign to Gu Fu.
It was not just this that made Gu Fu sense something was off, but also the fact that Fu Yan was no longer wearing the earring she had personally put on his left ear last night. In fact, there wasn’t even an ear piercing anymore.
That ear piercing had been given to him by Gu Fu herself after they got married. The Empress had gifted Gu Fu a set of jade jewelry, which was quite valuable and had a fine luster. However, the designs were overly simple and plain, and Lin Yuezhi had disliked them so much that she never let Gu Fu wear them even once.
Since the Empress had bestowed the jewelry upon her, Gu Fu couldn’t just give it away. But keeping it unused felt like a waste. After taking a closer look, she figured the slender jade hairpin, carved in the shape of fine bamboo, could be worn by Fu Yan.
One time, when Gu Fu was drunk, she somehow found the jewelry set again and, holding the long, teardrop-shaped earrings, begged and coaxed Fu Yan until he agreed to let her pierce his left ear.
Since then, Gu Fu had developed a habit of collecting earrings—gold, silver, wooden, stone, simple, elaborate… Whatever she put on Fu Yan’s ear always added a unique charm to him.
But now, standing before her was a Fu Yan without an ear piercing.
If she didn’t have confidence in her own abilities, Gu Fu might have suspected that someone had snuck into their room in the middle of the night and secretly swapped her Fu Yan for a stranger.
As Gu Fu stood dumbfounded, Fu Yan, leaning against the wall, spoke up and asked her, “Who are you?”
Gu Fu: “…”
That’s a good question.
Gu Fu didn’t believe it. She thought maybe Fu Yan found it uncomfortable to wear earrings while sleeping and had taken them off. As for the missing ear piercing, perhaps it was just too far away for her to see clearly.
Gu Fu, who had once been a scout and was confident in her eyesight, doubted her own perception for the first time. To confirm her suspicion, she leaned closer to Fu Yan, reaching out toward his left ear.
Fu Yan tried to brush her hand away, but Gu Fu swiftly pinned his wrist down.
With her other hand, Gu Fu pushed aside the hair by Fu Yan’s ear and pinched his left earlobe—
No ear piercing, not even a mark where one had been.
The air grew still, and now it was Gu Fu’s turn to ask, “Who are you?”
A flicker of confusion flashed in Fu Yan’s eyes, and Gu Fu caught this subtle change. The familiar expression stirred her even more—could there really be two people in the world who looked this much alike? Or… could he actually be Fu Yan?
Gu Fu’s gaze slowly shifted from Fu Yan’s face to his neat collar—there was still one more way to confirm his identity.
Before Gu Fu could tell him to take off his clothes, Fu Yan said, “My name is Fu Yan.”
Gu Fu responded, “Do you know who I am?”
Fu Yan slowly shook his head.
Gu Fu tugged at his collar, “I am Wang Xi’s wife.”
Fu Yan’s eyes widened, though whether it was from Gu Fu’s words or her refusal to take no for an answer as she undressed him, she couldn’t tell.
Gu Fu’s method of confirmation was simple and direct. After being together for so many years, they might not even remember certain marks on their own bodies, but they knew every birthmark, scar, and mole on each other’s bodies in exact detail.
Gu Fu used more force than she would normally dare to on Fu Yan. And after checking, she found that this person who looked exactly like Fu Yan—even his casual gestures and expressions were eerily similar—seemed to be the very man she held so dear to her heart.
Additionally, Gu Fu noticed not only that Fu Yan’s ear piercing had disappeared, but also that some of the scars on his body had vanished—scars that had been acquired after the two of them met.
A bold idea suddenly occurred to Gu Fu, and she asked the Fu Yan before her, “How old are you this year?”
The forcibly stripped Fu Yan looked at Gu Fu with sharp, icy anger, refusing to speak further.
Gu Fu realized that if this person really was Fu Yan, but from a time when he didn’t know her, then by now he must have been driven mad with anger and would never cooperate in answering her questions.
Just as Gu Fu was at a loss for what to do next, Yi Ye’s voice came from outside the room, “My lord, Master Si has arrived.”
Master Si—Si Ya, Fu Yan’s senior brother.
Gu Fu quickly replied, “Please, invite him in!”
Yi Ye’s footsteps faded away, and Gu Fu rose to freshen up and change her clothes. When she turned around, she saw Fu Yan had already tidied his clothing and was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching her. Feeling a bit guilty, she said, “Senior Brother has come, though he didn’t give any advance notice. Maybe he knows what’s going on here.”
Even as she said this, Gu Fu wasn’t entirely sure—but it turned out that Si Ya had indeed come for this very reason.
Unlike Fu Yan, who had remained almost unchanged for the past decade, Si Ya, older than Fu Yan, now had a few strands of white hair mixed with his black hair, making his appearance more mottled.
However, age hadn’t altered Si Ya’s personality. He remained as irreverent and talkative as ever—
“I observed the stars last night and saw that the Time Star had reversed, so I knew something was going to happen. No matter how fast I hurried, I still didn’t make it in time.”
“To be honest, this shouldn’t have involved my little junior brother. But since he’s the emperor’s twin brother and doesn’t have the aura of a ruler to protect him, of course, he got caught in this big mess.”
“A reverse journey through time, a once-in-a-millennium event. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it…”
Si Ya rambled on for a while before Gu Fu finally understood what he meant—
For reasons Gu Fu couldn’t fully comprehend, the Fu Yan from this time and the Fu Yan from nine years ago had swapped places with each other.
In other words, the Fu Yan standing before her was twenty-five years old, the Fu Yan from a time before he knew her.
Taking advantage of Si Ya pausing to drink some tea, Gu Fu quipped, “So it turns out, Senior Brother, you’re not just a charlatan after all.”
Si Ya choked on his tea, coughing, “How can you call that trickery?”
Gu Fu asked, “Then do you have a way to bring Wang Xi back?”
“No need to worry,” Si Ya replied, catching his breath. “The Time Star will revert after three days. After three days, everything will go back to normal. In the meantime, I’ll stay at your residence to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
Gu Fu replied smoothly, “Then I’ll trouble you, Senior Brother,” though inwardly, she knew Si Ya wasn’t reliable. She ordered Yi Ye to take Si Ya to rest, while secretly instructing the Secret Cabinet to keep a close watch on him, ensuring he wouldn’t flee if anything unexpected happened.
Gu Fu took Fu Yan to meet with Si Ya in a tea room.
After Si Ya left, only Gu Fu and Fu Yan remained.
Now that Gu Fu knew this person was indeed Fu Yan, her attitude changed.
She glanced at Fu Yan and muttered softly, “If only you’d aged a little, I would’ve figured it out sooner.”
But Fu Yan hadn’t changed much over the years. The most noticeable difference—his ear piercing—had been left by Gu Fu herself.
Sometimes, Gu Fu couldn’t help but wonder if her Wang Xi was truly an immortal.
Fu Yan furrowed his brow. He had clearly understood the current situation, but unlike Gu Fu, he still didn’t believe it.
Since he didn’t know Gu Fu, and although Si Ya was his senior brother, he was well aware of Si Ya’s habit of lying at the drop of a hat. So Fu Yan asked Gu Fu, “How can you prove that what you’re saying is true?”
It wasn’t difficult to prove. Gu Fu took Fu Yan outside, and they rode a carriage to Xuanyang Street. Lifting the window curtain, she let him take a look at the Imperial Preceptor’s Residence.
The residence now stood where the Qitian Tower had once been, which had been burned down by Prince Ying.
Unless a god descended from the heavens, no one could have flattened the Qitian Tower overnight and built a mansion on its ruins.
The carriage did not stop in front of the Imperial Preceptor’s Residence but circled around, eventually returning to Marquis Zhongshun’s residence, which was not far from Xuanyang Street.
After getting off the carriage, Gu Fu opened an umbrella and said, “The day after we got married, we moved here. You preferred it to the Imperial Preceptor’s Residence.”
Fu Yan followed Gu Fu into the residence, but after a while, he stopped and said to her, “For these three days, I will stay at the Imperial Preceptor’s Residence.”
Gu Fu didn’t stop immediately. After realizing what he said, she shifted the umbrella over Fu Yan’s head before stepping under it herself and asking, “Why?”
Fu Yan noticed her unconscious gesture and paused before replying, “The person who married you isn’t me.”
Gu Fu understood. “You think you and him aren’t the same person?”
Fu Yan nodded. “Yes, so we’re not husband and wife, and I shouldn’t be staying here with you.”
Gu Fu smirked slightly. “So you’re avoiding suspicion?”
Fu Yan nodded again.
But Gu Fu knew that Fu Yan wasn’t the type to care much about “propriety” and was certainly aware that, given the current situation, staying at the residence as usual would be the best course of action.
The main reason he wanted to stay at the Imperial Preceptor’s Residence was likely because he didn’t trust her.
It made sense. The residence could prove it was nine years in the future, but it couldn’t prove they were married.
They could have gone to see the emperor to confirm it, but unfortunately, the emperor was on a southern tour and wouldn’t return for a while.
After pondering for a moment, Gu Fu finally said, “That won’t work.”
Fu Yan asked, “Why not?”
The cold wind, carrying fine rain, blew Fu Yan’s long, loose hair into disarray.
Gu Fu instinctively raised her hand to tuck a strand of hair behind his ear, saying, “Yuan’er is coming back tomorrow. That child is even fussier than you. If you don’t tell him a story to put him to sleep, he’ll throw a tantrum at night.”
What does she mean, fussier than him?
Fu Yan felt more and more like Gu Fu was lying, but he suppressed his doubts and asked, “Who is Yuan’er?”
Gu Fu replied, “Gu Yuan, your son and mine.”
Fu Yan’s indifferent expression finally showed a crack. In his mind, marriage was something that could never happen to him. And yet, not only was he married, but he also had a child?
Seeing his expression, Gu Fu couldn’t help but laugh. “We’ve been married for five years. Is it that strange to have a child?”
Fu Yan lowered his eyes and didn’t say anything.
As the rain poured harder, Gu Fu pulled him back inside, telling him to take off his rain-soaked clothes. She then fetched a clean set of clothes from the wardrobe for him to change into.
Fu Yan glanced at the wardrobe and noticed that the clothes were neatly divided. The left side was all white, while the right side had clothes of various colors—both men’s and women’s clothes mixed together.
After changing, Fu Yan was pulled by Gu Fu to sit down in a chair. She started drying his hair with a cotton cloth and asked, “Aren’t you curious why the child has my last name?”
Fu Yan wasn’t curious. If all of this were true, he knew the reason: “The name ‘Fu Yan’ was given to me by a swindler. I would never let my child bear the surname ‘Fu.’ Since ‘Wen’ is the imperial surname, naturally, the child would take your last name.”
Gu Fu shook her head. “That’s not the case.”
Fu Yan was surprised, not expecting his guess to be wrong.
Gu Fu explained, “The emperor said the child could have the surname Wen, but when I gave birth to Yuan’er, there were complications, and I almost lost my life. You said the child should take my surname to remind yourself that I was the one who gave birth to him, otherwise, you’d be tempted to strangle the little brat.”
Fu Yan was speechless.
He couldn’t imagine having such hostility toward a child.
Gu Fu continued, “I was worried at first, but I later realized that whenever Yuan’er cried, you were powerless against him. That’s when I knew you were just saying it out of frustration. In the end, Yuan’er still took my surname because the emperor wanted him added to the imperial family register, but you didn’t want him entangled with the royal family.”
Fu Yan hesitated for a moment, because that indeed sounded like something he would think.
After drying Fu Yan’s hair, Gu Fu turned to change her own clothes.
She took off her garments one by one, and when she was down to just a chest wrap, she suddenly remembered that the current Fu Yan wasn’t the one she was familiar with, so she glanced back at him.
—Fu Yan, sitting in the chair, had already turned his head away and wasn’t looking at her.
Gu Fu chuckled softly and resumed changing.
She put on a short, open-front top, leaving the hem outside her skirt, causing the collar to be wide open.
As Gu Fu gathered her hair up, Fu Yan could see that near her neck, close to her shoulder and at the back of her neck, there were many red marks and bite marks, provocatively disappearing beneath her collar.
“Does it look a bit scary?” Gu Fu met Fu Yan’s gaze through the mirror and told him, “You’re the one who bit me.”
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