Chapter 12: The Truth

Di Ye was not from 2023; there were many clues, the most obvious of which were two. The first was regarding the murder case of Xia Fangfei; he could only provide some information he knew, but could not use the internet in 2023 to find more data. The second was that he clearly cared about his parents and friends, yet never collected information about them in 2023, and didn't even mention them.

"Di Ye, get some sleep. Xia Fangfei and I are going out to eat, and we'll pack a portion for you on the way back."

"Don't go to any secluded places."

"We're just eating downstairs. Stop letting your imagination run wild and get some good rest."

After Huang Ya and Xia Fangfei left the hotel room, Di Ye propped up his pillow as a cushion, sat up, pressed the button on his Electronic Watch, summoned Di Ye, and continued the conversation they hadn't finished.

"Your image is blurrier than before. What's going on?"

"After I died unjustly, my consciousness stayed in the Electronic Watch and didn't dissipate because I had three strong obsessions: catching the real culprit, succeeding in the postgraduate entrance exam, and taking care of my family and friends."

Di Ye held up three fingers and said with a smile, "You've already found the real culprit, the postgraduate exam is no problem, and you've taken good care of Xia Fangfei and Huang Ya. As long as you take me to see my family one more time, I can be completely liberated."

Di Ye recalled the sigh and instructions he saw from Huang Ya at noon, feeling a sense of loss. He tried to persuade him to stay: "The real culprit hasn't been caught yet, the postgraduate exam hasn't started, and as for taking care of Xia Fangfei and Huang Ya, that's out of the question. I'm an impatient person; you should supervise me until I've handled all these matters."

"No need, I trust you."

"I don't even trust myself."

Di Ye shook his head and insisted, "Don't try to persuade me. I've stayed in this Electronic Watch for 28 years and am already exhausted. Every day is torture. Besides, if I don't leave, not only will you be unable to inherit my memories and abilities, but you will also always keep a distance from my family and friends. So, whether for your sake or theirs, I must disappear as soon as possible."

Di Ye was silent at this. After a while, he remembered something and said, "Before I transmigrated, I received a few messages from Zhong Zhiming urging me to submit my draft. When you were pretending to be me, you used that memory, right?"

"That's right."

"Then I suppose my body in 2023 has already been sent to the morgue by Zhong Zhiming."

"I've looked through your memories. After you were injured in a car accident in 2021, your lifestyle was very irregular and your health was poor. The possibility of sudden death was high."

Di Ye smiled reluctantly and explained, "My parents both died because of that car accident. I felt it was meaningless to live alone, so I was a bit self-indulgent."

"You lost your parents and lived alone; I have my parents but died myself. We are both fellow sufferers, so it can be considered fate."

After saying this, Di Ye took out Di Ye's ID card from the Light Screen and pointed to the number on it, saying, "The day you were born in 1996 happens to be the day I was executed."

Di Ye was startled, sat up straight, and asked, "Such a coincidence?"

"It is just that much of a coincidence."

Di Ye felt that if there were too many coincidences, they weren't coincidences at all. He asked, "After I died suddenly in 2023, transmigrating to January 1, 1995, before the crime—was that your doing too?"

"I don't have that kind of ability. It might have something to do with Xia Fangfei's obsession before she was murdered."

Di Ye felt his scalp tingle and asked, "Is Xia Fangfei in the Electronic Watch too?"

"No. I'm just guessing. She must have hated me to the core before she was murdered, wanting to find a boyfriend who could protect her, so she stuffed me into the Electronic Watch to serve time and pulled you over from 2023 to take my place."

Di Ye felt this was Di Ye's guilt at work and that the guess might not be accurate, but there was no way to verify it. He turned to ask, "What is the origin of this Electronic Watch?"

"I don't know. I've studied it for over 20 years inside and haven't figured out anything. It's quite strange anyway; it could be a Godly Treasure or Alien Technology."

"Nonsense."

After explaining the cause and effect of his past and present lives, the two were speechless across the Light Screen. After a moment, Di Ye said, "They should be back soon. You should rest for a while; I'll continue to study the code of those Open Source Software in your memory."

Di Ye was greatly impressed and said, "You really have a deep passion for programming."

Di Ye smiled faintly and said with regret, "It's a pity I wasn't born in your era; otherwise, I definitely could have become a world-class programmer."

"You absolutely could have."

"Actually, you could too. Your memory contains a vast amount of excellent resources. As long as you study seriously, you will definitely become the best programmer of this era."

"I'll do my best."

Di Ye used to imitate the video call mode of 2023, cutting off the image before closing the Light Screen. This time, he didn't bother to pretend and, along with the Light Screen, turned into a stream of light and returned to the Electronic Watch.

Di Ye took off the Electronic Watch, placed it on the bedside table, then got up and walked into the bathroom. Looking at the increasingly familiar face in the mirror, he muttered to himself, "You are who you are now, and the world is what it is right now."

After saying this classic line from The Godfather Part III, Di Ye washed his face with a towel, walked to the bed, flattened the pillow, lay down, and stared at the ceiling, planning how to deal with Feng Shijie.

Yesterday in the classroom, Shi Yucheng said he asked Xia Fangfei out only because he wanted to use her to persuade Di Ye to get the internship spot at IBM.

This guy had terrible psychological resilience; he was locked in a Neck Choke at the time and was so scared he almost wet his pants, making him unable to think. The credibility of what he said was very high, so he likely didn't have the intention to harm Xia Fangfei, but was just used by Feng Shijie as an accomplice.

Yesterday morning, Di Ye had already sold the IBM internship spot to Shi Yucheng, but Feng Shijie didn't know. He was still asking Di Ye about the IBM internship this morning, which showed that the two of them were not in frequent contact.

This morning, fearing complications, Di Ye didn't say he had already sold the spot, but instead said it wasn't certain yet. As a result, in the afternoon, Feng Shijie went to inquire about Xia Fangfei's family situation through a counselor at the Foreign Languages Institute, which showed that the two of them were still in contact.

"It seems I should start with Shi Yucheng to figure out Feng Shijie's background."

"Before going to find Shi Yucheng, I must first clarify the situation of the dinner that night."

After straightening out the logical relationships, Di Ye sat up again, pressed the Electronic Watch, called Di Ye out again, and asked, "After you got drunk that night, was it Lin Jiayong who sent you back to the Tongzi Building?"

"I was dizzy from drinking at the time and don't remember."

"Then what is the last scene you remember?"

"When I came out of the restaurant, my BB Pager received a phone number, so I dialed it from a nearby public phone booth, but no one answered on the other end. Afterward, Peng Guangzhou gave me a bottle of milk, saying it could help sober me up. I sat on the side of the street for a while after drinking it, feeling the world spinning as if I were floating in the air, and I don't remember anything after that."

Hearing him say this, Di Ye's expression became grave. He speculated, "Shi Yucheng's father is the General Manager of the Xinmin Pharmaceutical Factory. I suspect he obtained controlled medical anesthetics from the factory and had Peng Guangzhou put them into the milk you drank."

"But I didn't feel any anesthesia at the time."

"There are many types of anesthetics; some can cause hallucinations and temporary memory loss."

Di Ye was thoughtful upon hearing this and said, "The police said there were no signs of a struggle at the scene, and Xia Fangfei was strangled to death without almost any resistance... Feng Shijie and Shi Yucheng are both short and not strong. Could it be that they used anesthetics as well?"

"It's possible. I'll go check it out later."

"Exchanging information like this is too inefficient and prone to errors. Tomorrow, take me home, resolve what needs to be resolved, and then directly inherit all my memories. In this way..."

At this moment, the sound of a key unlocking the door came from outside. Di Ye, likely not wanting to see Huang Ya and Xia Fangfei, turned into a stream of light and returned to the Electronic Watch.

Huang Ya and Xia Fangfei brought Di Ye a bowl of fried rice and a portion of old duck soup. After he wolfed it down, he said, "You two stay here tonight; I'm going back to school to take care of some things."

Xia Fangfei was a bit worried and urged, "You're not feeling well, don't run around and tire yourself out. Rest for the night and go back to school tomorrow."

Di Ye got up and did a few fitness movements, smiling as he said, "I'm already better. Besides, if I don't leave and someone sees me spending the night in a hotel with you two, I might get arrested by the police as a hooligan."

Huang Ya was a movie buff who often frequented video parlors and was well-informed. She disagreed, saying, "Hooligans don't necessarily have to operate at night; they can do things during the day too. The three of us have been in this room for so long; if you were going to act like a hooligan, you would have done it already."

Xia Fangfei was relatively pure; she threw a pillow at her and said coquettishly, "Huang Ya, be a bit more reserved. Don't always be so bold."

"Forget it! I only came here to take a shower, but you followed Di Ye to spend the night—you're much bolder than me."

"I'll teach you to spout nonsense..."

Although the scene of the two girls playing around was pleasing to the eye, Di Ye was in a rush to deal with Feng Shijie, so he returned to the school, found Lin Jiayong watching people play cards in Dormitory 404, called him out into the hallway, and asked about the process of taking Di Ye to the Tongzi Building.

"You drank too much that night and were completely unconscious; Peng Guangzhou and I had to drag and carry you all the way to the Tongzi Building, and we were half-dead from exhaustion."

"Was it the two of you who carried me upstairs?"

"No, we found someone downstairs to help, and we carried you up together."

"Do you and Peng Guangzhou know that person?"

"We don't know him; he was smoking at the stairwell at the time, and when he saw we couldn't carry you, he offered to help."

Di Ye described Feng Shijie's appearance and asked, "Was it this person?"

"That's right, it was him."