Returning to Infancy with my Nemesis - Chapter 84

––– A strange text message.

Tang Mian’s first reaction was that it was sent to the wrong person, or it was some junk message from a group send.

Otherwise, how could someone address Fu Shizhao as “sister”? Fu Shizhao in this life was someone he had watched grow up since childhood, and he didn’t have any peculiar habits…

Tang Mian unlocked his phone with puzzlement and opened this message to find out what was going on. The entire message history between two phone numbers instantly appeared in front of him.

With a light movement of his finger, Tang Mian scrolled directly to the topmost message, and his brows furrowed involuntarily.

The first message was sent by Fu Shizhao to the person on the other side, and its content was probably aimed at persuading the person to break up with Wei Haifan. It also included a rather large file labeled “Wei Haifan.”

Tang Mian opened this file in confusion and found records of Wei Haifan’s various misdeeds. These were all things he didn’t know about, whether in this life or the previous one.

Tang Mian’s heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

The time the first message was sent was right around the beginning of the school year.

It was much earlier than when he and Fu Shizhao encountered those three stray cats and Wei Haifan outside of school that Saturday night. Why would Fu Shizhao send these things to the other person so early?

It’s as if… he already knew these things would happen, knew that Wei Haifan would mistreat this girl, and wanted to give her a heads-up in advance.

But how would Fu Shizhao know?

At that time, let alone Fu Shizhao, Tang Mian hadn’t had any contact with Wei Haifan.

Unless… unless…

Unless Fu Shizhao was like him.

Like him, Fu Shizhao was reborn.

Tang Mian was startled by his own thought and dared not think further. He nervously continued scrolling through the message history. There weren’t many messages, and he quickly finished reading them. He knew that Wei Haifan was currently dating a girlfriend this semester.

At the beginning of the school year, he had even seen that girl come to find Wei Haifan. The two of them stood in the corner outside the classroom, laughing and talking. Later on, he didn’t see them much, and Tang Mian just thought they broke up.

After all, in the previous life, as friends, Tang Mian knew that Wei Haifan, like his previous life’s Mu Zichen, had rich emotional experiences, having dated many partners in just three years of high school, so he didn’t think there was anything strange about it.

But now, it seemed that things weren’t so simple.

Tang Mian felt as if something in his mind had suddenly exploded.

It exploded into a mess, and he couldn’t piece it back together properly.

It wasn’t because of Wei Haifan and this girl, but because of Fu Shizhao’s series of abnormal actions.

It was already mid-May, the windows were open, and the night breeze was warm, which felt very comfortable on his body. However, Tang Mian felt as if his heart was being roasted under the scorching sun of early August.

Before Tang Mian could continue to think, he suddenly heard the sound of water from the bathroom stop. Fu Shizhao’s room was connected to the bathroom, and he could hear everything clearly from inside.

Tang Mian knew that he had finished showering, and by now, he should be using a towel to dry himself, then he would change into pajamas and come out of the bathroom.

Tang Mian quickly set this message as “unread” and tried hard to recall the exact position of Fu Shizhao’s phone when he left, hastily putting it back where it was.

After doing all this, he took out a new sheet of paper, picked up the neutral pen on the table, and anxiously buried himself in writing.

When Fu Shizhao walked out of the bathroom in clean pajamas, Tang Mian was using a neutral pen to black out the letters on the test paper.

Hearing the sound from the bathroom, Tang Mian suddenly withdrew from his thoughts and nervously glanced at his test paper. He quickly turned the paper over to the other side and quickly wrote the word “solution” under a big question.

After all, it was a math test, writing from back to front—no problem.

Fu Shizhao came straight to Tang Mian’s side and casually glanced at Tang Mian’s test paper, saying in Tang Mian’s anxious heartbeat, “We did this test a few days ago. After you finish, you can check it against mine.”

Many tests and materials in the school were ordered uniformly. Although they were from different disciplines, they were still studying compulsory textbooks, so there were many overlapping parts.

Tang Mian nodded hastily, trying hard to focus his attention, and struggled to finish reading the question he had just written “solution” under, then slowly began to write down the steps to solve it with a dull mind.

Fu Shizhao didn’t notice Tang Mian’s abnormality; he just thought he was solving the problem too seriously.

After all, Tang Mian usually concentrated when doing homework or drawing, and didn’t like being interrupted. It was a good habit.

Fu Shizhao casually picked up his phone from the table. Tang Mian deliberately put down his pen, picked up the cup belonging to him from the side, and slowly took a sip of the warm flower tea inside, pretending to be leisurely.

The flower tea was made by his mother and was very fragrant and slightly sweet. As the temperature rose recently, it was easy to get overheated, and Tang Mian liked drinking it. But now, he felt like he couldn’t suppress the restlessness in his heart.

Would Fu Shizhao notice that he had checked his phone?

It should be Fu Shizhao who feels guilty for acting like a thief, why does it become me…

With a “bang,” Tang Mian put down the cup in his hand, suddenly stood up, and walked quickly towards the direction of the bathroom. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

He didn’t want to stay in the same space with Fu Shizhao anymore. He wanted to be alone.

Fu Shizhao’s gaze shifted from the phone screen to Tang Mian’s figure, his eyes slightly darkening as he watched Tang Mian disappear behind the tightly closed bathroom door. When he picked up his phone just now, he didn’t unlock it immediately. Instead, he habitually glanced at the series of notifications on the lock screen. No message replies.

But after unlocking it, the message icon showed a new unread message from Zhan Wanqi.

It seemed as if someone had clicked into this message, but deliberately marked it as unread after exiting.

Although it couldn’t be guaranteed that Tang Mian had seen these messages 100%, it was probably around 70-80%.

Fu Shizhao casually picked up the math paper Tang Mian had been writing on, and smoothly saw the characters he had blacked out on the front of the paper with a black pen.

Tang Mian only did this when he was lost in thought.

A hint of amusement flashed in Fu Shizhao’s eyes.

The last twenty or thirty could be added as well. It was a hundred percent certain that Tang Mian had seen these intentionally left messages. Fu Shizhao didn’t know how to describe his current mood. After casting the bait for so long, he could finally reel it in.

There was joy in the harvest, but also uneasiness about whether the fish he caught met his expectations.

But now was not the time to rush things, after all, the initiative of this matter was in Tang Mian’s hands. He had to follow Tang Mian’s reaction and acceptance to proceed, and he couldn’t rush it.

Fu Shizhao lowered his head again, thinking about how to reply to Zhan Wanqi. Right now, the most important thing was to help Zhan Wanqi.

Although it was a bit frustrating to be mistaken as a female “sister,” Zhan Wanqi’s reply was actually a good thing.

In the previous life, Zhan Wanqi had no one to confide in or rely on, so she chose to endure silently, bearing everything alone and letting the scum go unpunished.

In this life, she had this text message, though she didn’t know the sender’s information, it was full of goodwill. She saw herself behind the phone number as her only support.

Fu Shizhao wouldn’t let her down.

Consider it… as a reward for being a part of him confessing this matter to Tang Mian.

Tang Mian squatted in the bathroom for a long time, thinking for a long time, his mind filled with the big words “Fu Shizhao is also reborn.”

Although this sounded absurd, Tang Mian couldn’t think of any other reason to explain the incidents in these messages.

If Fu Shizhao was also reborn, the fight between Fu Shizhao and Wei Haifan in the past life would make sense. Everything could be connected.

Yes, if he could be reborn in that car accident, why couldn’t Fu Shizhao, who was also in the same accident, be reborn?

He was reborn when he was three years old, and the first person he saw after being reborn was Fu Shizhao.

At that time, he pinched Fu Shizhao’s face hard, making him cry, insisting on kissing him to stop his tears. If Fu Shizhao at that time was also reborn…

Tang Mian thought of many things that happened later.

Fu Shizhao seemed to have known him well since childhood.

Fu Shizhao suddenly appeared at Grandma Fu’s birthday banquet, being raised under her knee. He used to think it was his own butterfly effect, but thinking about it carefully, this matter was too coincidental.

And… Fu Shizhao being bullied by some children from the Fu family. He remembered the names of those children more or less from the previous life, but because they bullied Fu Shizhao, Grandma Fu, who was particularly protective of him, suppressed them ahead of time, along with their families.

There were also the coincidences during this year’s Chinese New Year when he suggested going to Yangchun Temple. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence at all, but intentional on Fu Shizhao’s part, the purpose was self-evident, pretending for so many years, pretending to be tired, and not wanting to pretend anymore.

There were many, many more details that Tang Mian couldn’t recall for a while.

Tang Mian chuckled with anger.

What an actor, Fu Dog.

Although he was angry, he felt more inexplicable… joy. Fu Shizhao didn’t die either, and he was reborn with him. He had to admit that he was happy. Many things from the previous life that he hadn’t figured out could now be answered.

But these things had to be put aside for now. Fu Shizhao had lied to him for so many years, and this was a done deal.

Tang Mian pressed the toilet’s flush button hard, turned on the tap at the sink to wash his hands, and walked quickly towards the bathroom door. He had been in the bathroom for too long.

Regardless of whether Fu Shizhao had noticed that he had seen the message or not, he had to get out now.

He didn’t plan to confront him directly. Confronting him now would just lead to him playing into his hands.

He wanted to see how far Fu Shizhao would continue to act.