At night, Gu Wen Zhu sat in the room alone, dazed, waiting for Xia Yi silently.
During the evening, the whole house was in chaos. He immediately stretched out his hand to support Father Xia when he fainted, but Mother Xia quickly pushed him away and went into the room with Xia Yi’s help. And he only stood there in the yard, stunned. Seeing all the servants hurried and passed him, bumping him in his shoulder from time to time, telling him to excuse them.
Finally, he retreated to a corner with no traffic and stood there cluelessly, not knowing what was wrong. Xia Yi ordered the servant to send him to his room when he was living here, then he left in a hurry to stay by his unconscious father’s side.
When Gu Wen Zhu suggested going with him, Xia Yi did not clearly reject him, but showed a troubled expression. Gu Wen Zhu immediately said understandingly, “Then you should go alone. Do not make the two angry again.”
Xia Yi saw the confusion in his black eyes, his heart went soft. He wished to stay and comfort him, but he recalled about his father who was lying in bed, and so he only gave him a kiss on his face, saying gently, ”It’s alright. Don’t worry. I will be back in a minute. Wait here.”
Gu Wen Zhu quickly nodded, “Go. I will wait for you here.”
The moment Xia Yi closed the door, he could see Gu Wen Zhu standing in the room looking at him. With the light shining from behind him, his facial features were distinctly showing, his brow ridges pointed upwards with his eyes deep in his eye sockets. Those eyes were extremely dark in color, just like a pool of water, dark and deep.
Although he was not saying anything, Xia Yi knew that he was nervous and anxious.
He was hurt.
Thinking of this, Xia Yi felt a pain in his chest, as if a needle had stabbed his heart, making him feel trembling pain. He hesitated. He looked as if he had made a decision, then he pushed the door open, “Do you want to go with me? We will talk to my father together.”
When he finished his sentence, Gu Wen Zhu, who was standing stupefied in the room, had his eyes lit up.
Xia Yi walked in, hugging his strong and thin waist, placing his head on his shoulder, “Zhu. This is not your fault. Do you know that? Men are not allowed to be with each other in this world.”
“Men? But you are not a man. You are a ger.” Gu Wen Zhu murmured with confusion in his voice.
Xia Yi raised his head, looking into his eyes, “In this world, there are no gers. There are only men and women. That’s why my parents got angry when they heard that we got married. Zhu. That’s not about you. It’s not that you are not good or something. Do you get it?”
Gu Wen Zhu was baffled, “So your father was unhappy not because of me doing anything wrong or me being not good enough?”
“Correct.” Xia Yi nodded affirmatively.
“And there are no gers in this world. You are a man in this world. So they forbid us from getting married?”
“Right.” Xia Yi affectionately held his face in his hands, nodding again.
Gu Wen Zhu’s expression relaxed slowly, the end of his lips lifted upwards, showing a relieved smile, looking clear and pure, “Then let’s see your parents together. I will try to make them accept me.”
“Let’s go together.” Xia Yi held his hand. That palm was warm and dry, making him feel steady and calm. Then they pushed the door open and walked out.
Mother Xia sat beside the bed. She was massaging Father Xia’s side of the head, speaking randomly. Father Xia lied in bed with closed eyes, listening without a word. When Xia Yi pushed the door open, Father Xia opened his eyes immediately to look upon hearing the sound. Xia Yi walked to the side of his bed, slowly picking up his father’s hand which was on the blanket to hold it in his hand tightly.
“Father. I know you want the best for me. That’s why you are so mad. Although father and mother have never mentioned this, I know deep down that your greatest hope is that I could live this life with someone who loves me and treasures me by my side. I have already met that person. And it’s Zhu. I am not a good son and I always make you angry, making you worried for me. I wish I could be a good son from now on, not breaking your hearts. But, father, mother, not this time. Because if I leave Zhu, I will be sad for my whole life, and I cannot be happy again.”
Gu Wen Zhu stepped up as well, he lifted his sleeves, landing his knees on the ground heavily, “Father. My feelings towards Yi are real. No matter what happens, for my whole life, I will love him, protect him and make him happy. I will never depart with him. Even death could not take us apart. Please let me take care of Yi.”
Father Xia was still not talking, lying there with closed eyes. But his breath was becoming rough. The corner of his eyes was wet. His lips were slightly trembling.
Mother Xia was already sobbing, she used a handkerchief to cover his mouth. After a while, she spoke again, with a resigned and bitter tone, “My dear. Just let them be. You know that Xia Yi has been stubborn ever since he was a child. If he thinks something should be in some ways, he would never accept them in other ways. Stop getting mad so that you won’t harm your own health and your relationships with him.”
Seeing Father Xia not saying a thing, Mother Xia waved at Xia Yi and Gu Wen Zhu, “Go back to your room. Let your father rest.”
In the room, Gu Wen Zhu laid on the bed with carvings with his body tilted. He saw Xia Yi touching and seeing things curiously in the room.
“Zhu. Look at this shelf in the room. They didn’t put porcelain cans and bottles on it. Instead, they have placed some baskets, statues and stuff here. It’s interesting.”
Xia Yi picked up an exquisite basket, he laughed and said, “I think this disappeared Xia Yi had similar characteristics with me, no wonder father and mother did not feel anything wrong.”
Gu Wen Zhu nodded absentmindedly, he spoke hesitantly, “So, if father and mother are not kicking me out and let me stay with you, does it mean that they are okay with us?”
“That’s right. Elderlies cared for their pride. They have already accepted you in their hearts though they haven’t yet with what they are saying.” Xia Yi happily grinned.
Then he felt pain in his heart after smiling. How deeply have his parents been loving him to make them agree with this? This kind of marriage at these times was such a shocking thing. His father was a magistrate. It was like the secretary of the municipal party nowadays. How much pressure was he going to get from his colleagues after this? He made his mom and dad worried in his home world, and now he has made his father and mother worried for him since he got here.
He was really making people take care of him. He was thinking and pacing in the room, then he randomly pulled open a drawer of a cabinet beside him. The drawer was opened, Xia Yi was stupefied, and he saw a small doll wearing a red long outer robe.
That doll was about an inch tall. Its head was hidden deep in the drawer and could not be seen, but the fabric and the cutting of the clothes were well made and exquisite. Xia Yi thought it was interesting, so he pulled the doll out. When he looked at the doll in his hand, he quivered, his eyes widened, and he froze.
F**k f**k f**k… Xia Yi could only think of this word in his mind.
The doll in his hand was a plastic ultraman with clothes on. Xia Yi had an unbelievable feeling about this. He quickly undressed that layer of clothes and revealed that red and white ultraman in front of him.
This ultraman toy, the type which costs a few ten dollar bills, that he loved to play with when he was a boy. It even had its arms crossed in front of it, showing its signature post. This ultraman could be seen in different toy stores. Xia Yi had had a few of them when he was small. But wasn’t this from his home world? Why would it appear in the cultivation world in the very room of Xia Yi’s?
His thinking had turned into a mess. He only stood there, dazed, with that ultraman in his hand.
What is going on?
Gu Wen Zhu had discovered the abnormality of Xia Yi and had straightened himself to sit up from his tilting position, “What happened?”
Xia Yi did not answer, standing there, stupefied, looking like he had been struck by lightning. Gu Wen Zhu stood up and walked towards him in confusion. He extended his hand to take the ultraman from him.
“What’s this?” Gu Wen Zhu was checking out the ultraman, pinching, “A monstrous head with a human body, and naked.”
Frowning, he saw the petite clothes in Xia Yi’s other hand, and he hurriedly took them to put onto Ultraman’s body, “Let him wear something. Or else it would be indecent. What kind of strange toys are children in the cultivation world playing?”
Xia Yi was confused and did not notice what Gu Wen Zhu was saying. He had a few ultramen when he was little. They were all of different poses. The one he loved most was exactly like the one in front of him. But somehow he had lost it. He searched for it and he asked his parents. His parents told him there had been a break-in and it had been stolen.
Sad, he made a scene out of it, he rolled on the ground and cried, making his father so angry that he pulled him up to hit him. Before that ultraman disappeared, that was his favorite toy, he would hold it always and placed it beside his pillow when he slept. That winter, when he sat beside the coal stove eating chestnuts roasted by his father, he made Ultraman’s head touch the chimney without noticing.
It was his father who noticed it smoking green, so he grabbed the ultraman away from him. Although he did that in time, the back of the plastic toy had already been burnt. Thinking of this, Xia Yi suddenly took that properly dressed ultraman from Gu Wen Zhu, then he undressed it in a minute again and flipped it to its back.
Under the candlelight, the back of that ultraman had a black burnt spot as big as a copper dollar.
What’s going on? What’s going on? Xia Yi murmured. Confusion and fear in his eyes. Why does my toy appear here? What if… what if… Xia Yi had a guess.
“179, 179.” Xia Yi called out to the system urgently, “Tell me. When did you begin to have a glitch?”
“The moment when you first transmigrated to the farming world.” 179 answered.
“No. You are lying to me.” Xia Yi spoke coldly.
“Host. I didn’t lie to you. According to my information here, we discovered that glitch since you arrived in the farming world.” 179 pleaded himself not guilty.
“If that is a recent glitch, then you tell me about this, how did my toy when I was a child ended up here? Don’t tell me that the toy transmigrated with me. My ultraman had disappeared for years. Plus, do you think that I would make ancient Chinese clothes for the ultraman to put on?”
179 did not reply, as if he was processing. After a while, he responded affirmatively, “Of course it won’t. Because they totally don’t match. If you have to make clothes for it, you should give him some armor.”
The focus of the System was not ordinary, but all the paths lead to Rome, they all came up with the conclusion that this ultraman did not arrive at this place recently, it had been here for a long long time.