Although Dong Zheng said that it didn’t matter, Cui Zuojing decided not to enter the company now. Instead, he signed up for driving school and planned to wait until he got his driver’s license before seriously considering it.
Cui Zuojing still wondered if he could explore some capable things on his own, but he really didn’t have any special skills. Or perhaps he should perform a show on the street with his remaining slayer power?
Wait, if it was a special skill…there was one. Cui Zuojing looked at his computer screen.
So on this day, Cui Zuojing, on a whim, started his professional career as a game-up host, a career that a great many people failed at.
Anyway, he was idle with lots of free time.
Speak it, do it. Cui Zuojing placed an order for the relevant recording equipment, along with a much anticipated domestic horror game that just went on sale early that morning. This way, he could conveniently rub off on the heat.
He hadn’t played horror games in a while, but no matter how scary it was, to him, it was as dull as boiling water. Could it be more scary than a horror box? Of course, impossible.
He was not afraid at all.
The equipment arrived in the afternoon, and Cui Zuojing was busy for a while installing it. Once he was done, he started trial recording right away. The effect was pretty good, but the gaming process was a bit long. He recorded for two hours first, and after a rough review, he posted it online.
Cui Zuojing was recording games all afternoon, so much so that he forgot to cook, and he didn’t even hear Dong Zheng coming home from work. He had on his headphones and indulged in the adventures of confronting ghosts in a dilapidated building. His mouth was constantly analyzing the situation, calm enough to make the creator of the game cry.
‘What are you doing?” Dong Zheng curiously leaned behind Cui Zuojing and looked at the screen. Cui Zuojing wasn’t scared, but was startled by his sentence and immediately paused the game.
The roaming main protagonist was vigorously thrown away by a wandering female ghost. The ghost’s big face covered in blood filled the screen. This image successfully silenced Dong Zheng, who was most afraid of ghosts.
Cui Zuojing took off his earphones, turned his head, and said, “Recording a gameplay. Why are you back early today? I haven’t cooked yet.”
As he said this, his gaze shifted to the clock on the wall and he realized that it wasn’t that Dong Zheng came back early but that he’d lost track of the time.
“Let’s go eat,” Cui Zuojing said as he stood and stretched. Dong Zheng saw the new equipment on the desk and could guess what Cui Zuojing was doing. If A’Zuo wanted to find something to do, he was still very supportive.
They went to a nearby restaurant to settle their supper. After the meal, they walked along the street. It was a midsummer night. The streets were crowded and the evening breeze brought some rare coolness. They walked aimlessly, chatting casually about various topics. When they passed by a commercial building, they walked into the theater on impulse.
The theater was re-screening the classics. The one being shown was a 1997 Italian film “Life is Beautiful,” which was one of the highest ranking in movie history. They weren’t movie lovers. Although they’d heard the name of the movie for a long time, it wasn’t until today that they walked into a movie theater to watch it.
The audience walked in one after another. Most of them were college students and couples. Cui Zuojing and Dong Zheng sat down in their seats, opened a bottle of canned Coke and placed it between them.
The theater went dark, the advertisements were broadcasted, and the film began. Although it had undergone a 4K restoration, the picture was still slightly blurred on the big screen, and the shaking lens highlighted the full sense of the older generation of filmmaking, but soon, Cui Zuojing stopped paying attention to these.
The cheerful and light-hearted beginning lead people into believing that this was a romantic comedy, especially when Guido rode a green-painted Jewish horse, carrying his princess Dora to his uncle’s storehouse. When Dora walked into the greenhouse, Guido followed, and a few seconds later, a child’s laughter rang out. Their son Guisue ran down the stairs with a toy tank. The wonderful transition was something that could be remembered for a lifetime.
As the color tone gradually darkened, the laughter that rang from time to time became lost, and the people in the audience no longer whispered to the companions next to them. Cui Zuojing held the can of coke, silently watching everything that was changing in that light and shadow. When Dora demanded to sit on the train bound for the concentration camps, he couldn’t help taking a tissue from his pocket.
Cui Zuojing heard the sound of Dong Zheng sniffing next to him, handed him a tissue, and he took it in silence. This silence lasted until the end of the movie, when a tank drove into the concentration camp. The American soldier carried Guisue atop the tank, taking the still innocent Guisue back home to find his mother, whom he’d been separated from for a long time. He kept his childish, innocent smile, and in laughter, everything came to an end.
The lights in the theater came on brightly, but no one left right away. Cui Zuojing took the opportunity to take a look at Dong Zheng, who was leaning back in his chair in a relaxed manner. But his eyes were red, and there were tissues piled up in his hand. People who don’t understand Dong Zheng would just take one look at him and think that he definitely wasn’t the type to cry when watching movies. But in truth, Dong Zheng was very emotional; he just hid it well.
Dong Zheng looked at him. They looked at each other for a few seconds, and then they both laughed at the same time. Cui Zuojing collected the tissues and the empty can, and said, “Let’s go.”
Coming out of the cinema, they were silent. The extreme joys and sorrows in the Pure White Realm didn’t wipe out their emotions, but instead gave them a deeper sense of parting and death.
This made Dong Zheng thought about another thing: After coming from the Pure White Realm, he’d asked a friend in Yunnan to go to Wang Que’s address and school, but his friend soon discovered that only a childless couple lived in Wang Que’s house, and that there was no such person in her school.
No traces of her could be found, as if she had never existed in this world. So much so that Dong Zheng’s friend thought he had broken his brain and made up a non-existent person.
In the end, he had no choice but to unwillingly speculate that the Wang Que who had become Queen was now forgotten by the entire world, her existence erased. Only those who left the Pure White Realm remembered her.
Wang Que. Forgotten.
For the time being, Dong Zheng decided not to tell Cui Zuojing about his speculation. He needed to make a thorough investigation first.
It was getting late. After being outside for a while, they finally returned home. Cui Zuojing glanced at his submission. Although it’d only been submitted for a couple hours, due to the hot subject matter, it had already gotten hundreds of clicks. He had no expectations nor goals regarding this matter and so he closed it after a glance.
At home, Dong Zheng read an e-book while Cui Zuojing looked for an educational video about editing software. At 10:30 in the evening, Cui Zuojing washed his face, brushed his teeth, and rolled on the bed, rubbing against Dong Zheng. When he saw that Dong Zheng was still reading, he lowered his head and pushed under Dong Zheng’s arm, blocking his vision.
Dong Zheng had no choice but to put the e-book away. Clearly, Cui Zuojing had an idea about doing something else. At this time, Cui Zuojing was still slowly returning to his normal appearance at the age of 24. Childishness had turned into a heroic spirit. Dong Zheng hugged Cui Zuojing’s waist and bent down to accept his kiss.
Their cohabitating life was extremely smooth in all aspects. They both weren’t extremely lustful people and would generally only do it about three times a week. They weren’t particularly indulgent. Just like the life depicted in the Corridor of Memory. Although ordinary, their lives together were peaceful and beautiful.
This was what Cui Zuojing wanted the most.
The next morning, Dong Zheng went to work as usual. He was his own boss, and so of course, he had no off-time. Cui Zuojing woke up an hour late and started another day of decadent life.
He planned to finish recording the game today, so he ended up playing all afternoon. He had a quick lunch and continued to play. It was unknown how much time had passed, but through the headset, he suddenly heard knocking at the front door.
He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was just five o’clock.
Was Dong Zheng already back? He forgot his key? Cui Zuojing didn’t think much. He paused the game, took off the headphones, and went to open the door. The knocking continued, unceasing and irritating. Cui Zuojing yelled that he was coming and flew over to open the door.
Then he saw Dong Yi and Su Daijun standing on the other side of the door.
Behind the two of them, Dong Linhai had an expression of hopeless despair.
Cui Zuojing was stunned. He didn’t expect anyone to come. He was wearing a cotton T-shirt and underpants. His hair was messed up because he’d taken off the earphones in a rough manner, and he looked terribly sloppy.
Dong Yi and Su Daijun were also stunned. They didn’t expect that a stranger would open the door when they came to their son’s house. Dong Yi looked up at the house number, making sure they were at the right address.
“Eh, Brother Cui, you’re here!” Dong Linhai broke the deadlock with a smile, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. “Where’s my brother?”
“Dong Zheng hasn’t returned from work yet.” Cui Zuojing saw that Dong Linhai was trying to cover for him. He immediately had a change of face and turned sideways with a smile, saying, “Uncle and Auntie, come in quickly.”
Dong Yi and Su Daijun walked into the house confusedly. Cui Zuojing’s expression also mirrored theirs. The only difference was that he was so scared, he had a layer of sweat on his back.
After finding slippers for the three guests, he said, “Dong Zheng will be back in about an hour. My name is Cui Zuojing. You can call me Xiao Cui. I’m a friend of Dong Zheng. I’ve just arrived in Shanghai, and since I had a hard time finding a house, I ended up staying with him for a few days.”
“So that’s it.” Su Daijun smiled. “We told A’Zheng that we’re coming over, and he told us that we could, so we came.”
Cui Zuojing’s cold sweat came down in an instant, and then he thought of the phone he’d casually thrown on the bed. He’d been focused on playing games all afternoon and had forgotten that the phone was on silent. And just now, he was in such a hurry to open the door that he hadn’t even looked at the phone.
Cui Zuojing quickly glanced at the living room. He’d stayed in the bedroom all day today, so the living was very tidy. Dong Yi and Su Daijun sat down on the sofa and gazed around. They’d only seen Dong Zheng’s house when he first bought it, and this was the first time they saw it post-decoration. They didn’t expect for it to be decorated with such an air of life. It was better than they’d imagined.
Cui Zuojing poured tea for the two elders and quickly slipped into the bedroom to change into a suit of clothes that was suitable for meeting people, turning his disorder into something that was neat and tidy. Then he quickly folded the cover, and his phone fell out.
Dong Zheng and Dong Linhai had called him a combined total of more than 30 times.
They also bombarded him in WeChat and QQ. Cui Zuojing guiltily replied to Dong Zheng, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see these….Uncle and Aunt and Linhai have already arrived, but I haven’t revealed anything.”
A few seconds later, Dong Zheng replied with a voice message. “It’s okay. I’m already on the way back. Will be there soon.”
After he was done, Cui Zuojing slipped into the kitchen to wash some fruits. Putting them down, he politely smiled and said, “Sorry, Aunt, Uncle. This is all we have at home.”
The other people were Dong Zheng’s parents. Although they hadn’t mentioned their relationship yet, they definitely planned to disclose it to their family in the future. He had to give these elders a good impression, or they might not be willing.
“It’s okay. We just want to come and take a look. Isn’t this Dong Zheng’s home? We haven’t seen him in the past few days so we just came over.” Dong Yi looked at Cui Zuojing. He’d seen a great many people and so he was practiced at reading people. He had a good first impression of Cui Zuojing and said, “Xiao Cui and Linhai, do you both know each other?”
Dong Linhai was even more nervous than Cui Zuojing, making him rush to talk, “Yes, we know each other.”
What if his parents discover the true relationship between Cui Zuojing and his brother? Will his father break his brother’s leg? Will the father-son relationship be severed on the spot? He definitely wanted to help speak, but what would he say?
Dong Linhai brushed through a string of questions in his mind, entangling himself. By the time he recovered, Cui Zuojing was already sitting on the sofa with a hearty smile, talking a mouthful of uncles and aunts as he, Dong Yi, and Su Daijun chatted.
Dong Linhai:…………Huh?
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Cui is good with words…