novelKilling even herself
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Xu Tingsheng tried to imagine it. Going back more than ten years in time, consciousness and memories reborn in someone else. Then, meeting himself from more than ten years ago... his hairs stood on end a little as he mainly felt at a loss.
Swiftly collecting himself, Xu Tingsheng asked, "So, in March 2003, a few days before I was reborn. One night, on the roof of my dormitory building in Libei Senior High, I met someone playing the guitar... that person was her?"
"You remember that night?" Zhou Yuandai turned and looked at Xu Tingsheng.
"I don't remember it. I heard about it from others..." Xu Tingsheng said candidly, "Also, I've always felt it to be strange. Why is it that all evidence points towards me indeed having engaged in such a matter, whereas I myself have no impression of it whatsoever?"
"The person you saw that night was me."
"To be precise, you were on the rooftop of your dormitory building, while I was on the rooftop of that teaching dormitory across from you. You seemed a bit drunk at the time as you tried learning how to play the guitar, but could not get on key... I helped you play a song."
"It's very normal that you don't remember what happened that night, because you came with memories of your previous life. In our previous life, that night never happened. You shouldn't even have seen me before."
Zhou Yuandai sat down. A strange atmosphere descended between the two as they conversed-it was as if they were jointly trying to get to the bottom of something.
"In my previous life, I never stayed in Libei Senior High for so long. Many years before you went there, I'd already left... so, I shouldn't be in the memories of your previous life at all."
"That is to say that a small portion of the memories in your two lives do not match. Then, you were reborn with memories of your previous life, with that small portion belonging to this life containing me or also her being wiped away. Of course, all this isn't important. This sort of interaction was very few."
Coming to a sudden realisation, Xu Tingsheng nodded.
"Coincidentally, it was since that time that I found you to be very interesting. Just like one would find a small cat or dog interesting... so, I started paying a bit of attention to you. Who would have thought that you would actually bring me such a pleasant surprise afterwards."
Zhou Yuandai revealed why Xu Tingsheng had been so unlucky, with her having found out about and begun keeping an eye on him so quickly.
Still, Xu Tingsheng felt confused now.
"Wait. From what you're saying, you replaced her and lived as a teacher for over ten years. In that case, your plastic surgery, your cult, your wealth and power... the timing doesn't match up?"
Xu Tingsheng asked a very foolish question.
"Who said I replaced her?" Zhou Yuandai asked.
"You just said it was you that night, " Xu Tingsheng said.
"It was just me for that day and that night. That day happened to be just after the completion of a matter. I had finally fully regained my identity. So, I want to experience it for a bit. In the day, I conducted music lessons for students. At night, I stayed at the teaching dormitory. Suddenly, for no particular reason, I felt like going to the rooftop for a look. There, I met you."
Xu Tingsheng considered what 'finally fully regained my identity' might entail.
"From that day forth, 'Miss Zhou' suddenly vanished from Libei Senior High..." Xu Tingsheng recalled Wu Yuewei having said that her music teacher had suddenly ceased showing up for lessons.
"Do you want to ask me what became of her afterwards, where she went?" Zhou Yuandai asked.
Xu Tingsheng nodded.
"Then, can you first tell me this? If you were in my position, or if your situation was the same as mine and you were reborn in someone else's body, how would you face that yourself from more than ten years ago?"
Xu Tingsheng hesitated for a bit before shaking his head, saying, "I don't know."
"It's very difficult, right? That's yourself, after all..." Zhou Yuandai revealed a difficult expression as she sighed.
This was the first time Xu Tingsheng was seeing her in such a state since the beginning of their conversation.
"So, at least this madwoman still has feelings towards 'herself'..." This was what Xu Tingsheng momentarily thought, but this illusion was quickly shattered by Zhou Yuandai.
"I was worried that if I killed her too early on, it might cause my consciousness to vanish, " Zhou Yuandai said in a serious tone.
It was actually only because of this? Xu Tingsheng's expression froze.
"I died in 2003 in my previous life... it was only 1994 then. So, I was very scared. If she died before reaching 2003... was there a chance that my memories of my previous life and entire consciousness could vanish along with that? Do you understand? I don't know if there's an underlying relation here."
Xu Tingsheng nodded, pretending to be pondering on it.
"This is your true motive in deliberately asking so much, right? You want to probe if the period of my foreknowledge has ended, " Zhou Yuandai saw through it with a single glance but continued confidently regardless, "That's right. My foreknowledge ended in 2003. The exact time was the morning of the day we met on the rooftops. I've already lost my godly power for more than four years. Fortunately, you appeared. Say, do you think there is some law that doesn't allow for the foreknowledge period of two members of the divine race to overlap?"
This time, Xu Tingsheng was pondering on it for real.
"Where is the limit of your foreknowledge?" Zhou Yuandai asked coolly.
"2009, " Xu Tingsheng answered straightforwardly.
"Only two years left?!" Zhou Yuandai sat up, looking at him nervously and menacingly.
Xu Tingsheng nodded calmly. He had to get Zhou Yuandai to believe that his foreknowledge period was limited and would be ending very soon. Only then could he force her to bet all she had on the upcoming 2008 financial crisis.
It was already very visibly apparent how much she deified and relied on 'foreknowledge'.
Of course, it was not that Zhou Yuandai would just believe whatever he said.
Still, even if she didn't believe it, there was nothing she could do about it for now.
At this point, Xu Tingsheng only still grasped the initiative in two things.
First was him living or dying.
Second was telling the truth or lying.
For the former, Zhou Yuandai could not go too far. Before she was determined to destroy everything, she could not let Xu Tingsheng feel that there was no point in living anymore.
The latter was about the previous and future scheming of the two as they tried to one-up each other to further their own purposes. Here, Xu Tingsheng could not go too far-before he grasped the entire situation, he could not overly infuriate Zhou Yuandai.
"2009, 2009..."
Zhou Yuandai was silent for a while."Your previous life..." She asked.
"Car accident, " Xu Tingsheng answered.
Zhou Yuandai nodded before pointing to herself and saying, "I leapt off a building."
"Didn't you just ask what happened to that me, where she went?"
"At the same time, from the same building... with my own hands... I pushed the other me off."
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