Financial freedom starts from graduation

Chapter 413: Subverted Reality A Song of Ice and Fire

As if a drowning man had just broken free from his restraints, Zhou Wang suddenly sat up from the recliner. He felt as if the burning pain still lingered in his body, and the extreme dryness of his mouth made Zhou Wang unbearable.

"I'm so thirsty... Water, give me some water!"

Amid Lin Ran's confused look, Zhou Wang snatched the glass of freshly squeezed lemonade from her hand and drank it all up in a gulp.

Lin Ran was a little embarrassed because there was a clear lipstick mark of hers on the rim of the cup.

However, this small scene naturally would not attract any attention from Zhou Wang or Xu Wenxi. Seeing that Zhou Wang was not in a good state, Xu Wenxi quickly handed over the glass of juice in her hand.

After drinking two large glasses of juice in a row, Zhou Wang finally breathed a sigh of relief and felt like he was alive again.

"Boss, what's wrong with you? Did you have a nightmare? Are you okay?"

Xu Wenxi asked with concern.

"I……"

Zhou Wang looked around. The sky was high and clear, and the river breeze was blowing gently. He was still sitting on the yacht on the Huangpu River. Everything he had just experienced seemed like just a dream, but those experiences were so real.

He remembered the soft touch of Ding Yi's lips, the weight of Nie Xiaoyun that far exceeded her appearance, and the angry sigh of Ding Yi's father...

For a moment, Zhou Wang couldn't even tell whether it was just an illusion or a memory he had forgotten.

"I'm fine, I just had a nightmare."

Zhou Wang waved his hand, "Don't talk for now, I want to be quiet."

After Zhou Wang gave such instructions, the two women naturally shut up obediently. Only one of them helped Zhou Wang light a cigarette silently, while the other went to pour the juice again.

After smoking a cigarette, Zhou Wang finally regained his composure, but there was still some tingling in his head, a bit like the swelling after a hangover, which was quite uncomfortable.

After thinking about it, Zhou Wang took out his mobile phone. Although it was just a "copy", he was still quite curious about what happened to Ding Yi's parents in the real timeline.
He then checked and found that the mayor of Jingcheng that year was indeed Ding Boyu. Also, the fact that Nie Xiaoyun had served as the general manager of Jingcheng Chihong Company was also true.

"So, everything else is probably true, and only the 'incident' is false?"

Zhou Wang was stunned. When he thought that Ding Yi might have attended high school in Jingcheng, he felt some strange feelings in his heart.

But no matter what, that "fire" that seemed to have some other conspiracy behind it and had some strange traces...it couldn't possibly exist, right?
Zhou Wang, who felt inexplicably troubled, searched the Internet directly. Sure enough, there were a total of three fires reported in Jingcheng City that year, and only one in the urban area, which was a fire in an ordinary residential building and resulted in the death of a couple.

There are no records of fires in large factories found on the Internet, nor are there any reports of casualties from other accidents.

"It seems that I was overthinking. It is indeed just a time and space created by the system..."

Zhou Wang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Just out of some cautious mentality, Zhou Wang called his father Zhou Dajun again.

"Hey, son, what's wrong?"

The call was connected quickly, and Zhou Dajun's steady voice was heard on the other end.

Zhao Guihua could be vaguely heard nagging at the side, "What's wrong? It's rare for your son to call you, and you still have to ask him what's wrong..."

Hearing his mother's nagging, Zhou Wang felt somewhat ashamed.

He is indeed in less and less contact with his family now, not just because he is always busy, but also because most of the time even if his parents call, Zhou Wang inexplicably doesn't want to answer unless it's something important.

"Dad, you are with my mom, and it sounds like there is someone else here?"

"I'm playing cards with your Uncle Jiang and Aunt Guan. We've also made an appointment to go to KTV to sing in the evening."

Zhou Dajun replied with a smile.

When Zhou Wang heard that his parents were "hanging out" with Jiang Qingkui's parents again, he felt both happy and helpless.

The good news is that because of the change in his identity and status, Zhou Dajun is now a real figure in Jingcheng, and his social circle is also changing invisibly.

In the past, even if the two families had a good relationship when they lived upstairs and downstairs, it would not be possible for them to have such close interactions.

Moreover, under the influence of Jiang Qingkui's parents, some of the parents' living habits and leisure and entertainment methods are becoming more diversified and fashionable, and are no longer limited to square dancing, playing mahjong, etc.

All in all, this is definitely a good thing...it means that parents' lives are getting better and better.

But what worries Zhou Wang is that the better the relationship between his parents and the old Jiang couple, the more troublesome it will be for him to deal with the relationship with Jiang Qingkui in the future.

This was also the fundamental reason why he passed the "Jiang Qingkui copy" without even thinking about it when the draft round started.

Money can be the basis for solving problems, but it cannot be the only means to solve problems.

Anyway, Zhou Wang has no good solution for the time being.

Zhou Wang quickly put away his random thoughts and asked, "Dad, I want to ask you something."

"You said."

"Do you remember 2020, the year I took the college entrance examination...did any major accidents happen in Jingcheng? For example, a fire?"

"ACCIDENT?"

Zhou Dajun was stunned. "No, Jingcheng is such a small place, and there don't seem to be any major problems in recent years. If you are talking about the county town below, there may be a few..."

"It's either a county town or an urban area."

When Zhou Wang heard Zhou Dajun say this, he no longer had any doubts and immediately said it with a smile.

"Downtown? There shouldn't be any. Anyway, I don't have any impression of it..."

"That's fine."

Zhou Wang was about to respond and hang up the phone when Zhou Dajun's voice suddenly paused, "Wait a minute, Wangwang, your Uncle Jiang wants to talk to you... I'm on speakerphone."

Zhou Wang was startled. At this moment, Jiang Jiaxing's voice rang out from the other end of the phone. "Hello, Zhou Wang, I seemed to hear you asking about the fire just now. If you are talking about the fire, then it seems that there really was an accident..."

"What accident?"

Zhou Wang suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.

"Well, I don't know the details, but I remember your 20 years very clearly. A comrade-in-arms who was very close to me suddenly resigned from Chihong Company that year. I was very puzzled at the time. He was considered a middle-level backbone of the company. How could he suddenly leave when he was doing well?"

Jiang Jiaxing recalled, "It was only later when he was drunk that he confided a few words, saying that a big fire had indeed occurred in Chihong Company, and the resignation of some of their employees was directly related to the fire..."

"Has this kind of thing ever happened in Chihong Company?"

Zhou Dajun at the side couldn't help but interrupt, "Why haven't I heard of it..."

"It seems that because there were no casualties in the fire miraculously, the company leaders suppressed the matter..."

While Zhou Dajun and Jiang Jiaxing were talking, Zhou Wang was already frozen in place, his heart filled with turmoil.

it is true?
The [incident] that he thought was imaginary actually happened? !
For a moment, Zhou Wang had a splitting headache. He found that what happened in the [copy] began to be confused with his own memory, making it increasingly difficult for him to distinguish clearly.

Was it the system confusing cause and effect, changing the past timeline through the so-called [copy], or was it originally his experience, but that memory was also "sealed" by the system. "Zhou Wang, why are you asking about this?"

Jiang Jiaxing's voice brought Zhou Wang back to reality. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

"It's nothing, I just saw some gossip on a forum and asked casually... By the way, Dad, Mom, do you remember if I had any abnormalities before the college entrance examination?"

"Speaking of this, I remember it most. You were such a bad boy. You didn't come home every day. You said you were going to review with your classmates. You even stayed at their house for two days and didn't come back..."

Zhou Wang's mother, Zhao Guihua, immediately said with a smile, "If I hadn't seen that you didn't perform badly later and were admitted to Caida University, and your father said that you know your limits, I would have broken your legs!"

Zhou Wang listened to his mother's complaints in a daze, without any more questions in his mind.

If nothing unexpected happens, his so-called "missing two days" was probably because he was exhausted from fighting the fire and stayed in the hospital for two days.

As for why his parents didn't know about this, there may be multiple reasons. On the one hand, it was due to Zhou Wang's deliberate concealment. On the other hand, it was related to the attitude of Ding Yi's parents.

"Dad, Mom, I have something urgent to do, so I won't talk about it for now!"

After hanging up the phone in a hurry, Zhou Wang started searching online again with some questions in his mind.

This time, he expanded the scope and even included some news from Beidu.

After a moment, Zhou Wang put down his phone, looking dazed.

Sure enough, when you peel back the clues, everything has a traceable origin.

That year, there was indeed an old man named Ding in Beidu who was hospitalized, but he survived. It was not until two years later that the old man named Ding passed away due to a sudden illness.

In the previous year, Ding Boyu had resigned from Jingcheng and was promoted to Mingcheng. Similarly, Nie Xiaoyun was also transferred to Mingcheng, but left the state-owned enterprise system and joined the association.

Putting these pieces of information together, Zhou Wang vaguely understood why the accident was not reported...

That "fire" was not only a life-and-death crisis for Nie Xiaoyun, but it was also probably the last straw that broke the camel's back for the Ding family, which was already on the verge of collapse at the time.

Assuming that he had not appeared, regardless of whether Nie Xiaoyun could survive, the other employee he saved in the incident would most likely have died in the fire.

As long as there are casualties, this accident will never be suppressed. The consequences will be a real disaster for the Ding family.

If you think about it more deeply, if Nie Xiaoyun also died in this accident, it would be even more devastating, because it would be equivalent to the breakup of the two families...

After figuring this out, Zhou Wang breathed a sigh of relief.

So it seems that the "promise" is also true?

Zhou Wang thought about it and sent a message to Fang Lu, the monitor of his freshman year class, who was also one of the few girls who had a good relationship with Ding Yi at that time and had appeared at Ding Yi’s birthday party.

Fang Lu seemed very surprised that Zhou Wang contacted her suddenly, and she told him everything she knew.

"Ha, you said Ding Yi is such a good student, why did she come to Caida? Don't you know that Ding Yi had to apply to Caida because she missed a subject? At that time, we said it was a pity for her. It should have been easy for her to go to Tsinghua University or Peking University..."

……

Zhou Wang, who knew the whole truth, hung up the phone silently.

In this way, many things can be explained.

I can only say that it was a coincidence and everything is the fault of the dog system.

However, thinking of the system, Zhou Wang only had time to check the series of prompts after the end of the "copy" event. He had already experienced the Myth Chessboard, although he was not sure what the difference was between the [Time and Space Magic Book] and the [Realm of Crouching Dragon].

Anyway, judging from the name, "Time and Space Magic Codex" sounds very magical, and the system also marked it as "unique", which means that this chessboard may be more impressive than "Crouching Dragon Realm"...

As for the newly appeared "character card" and "social bond" mechanism, Zhou Wang was really confused.

After opening the system interface, Zhou Wang discovered that there was indeed a new sub-interface, and in this interface, a card emitting faint light was floating.

When he touched the card with his mind, it instantly transformed into a lifelike projection of a person, which was exactly the appearance of Ding Yi.

The "little Ding Yi" in front of us is like a vivid figurine, with various changing expressions. Because of its reduced size, it is inexplicably cute.

Moreover, Zhou Wang discovered that as his thoughts changed, he could actually change her clothes.

JK outfit, black silk suit, kawaii loli outfit... after changing them one after another, Zhou Wang found that only the long dress was suitable for Ding Yi's temperament.

After having fun for a while, Zhou Wang finally remembered to study his business.

He first took a look at the system's explanation of the [Bond] mechanism.

[When the relationship between a specific character and the host reaches the "destined" level, the host can spend a certain amount of reputation points to open the small card of the corresponding character]

[Small cards will show the bond between the character and the host, and between characters (excluding hidden bonds)]

"It's simple and clear, but what's the use of this bond? Looking at the previous prompts from the system, it seems that it will be very helpful to me?"

Out of curiosity, Zhou Wang looked at Ding Yi's character card.

……

[Character Card - Little Ding Yi]

[Activated bond: 1]

[Bonds to be activated: 2]

……

[Activated Bond]

[Qingmei: The character has a strong emotional filter for the host, which will affect the character's rationality to a certain extent; the character has a strong sense of spiritual belonging to the host, and firmly believes that each other is each other's only soul mate]

[Bonds to be activated]

[The Oath-taker: The character's blood relative has an unfulfilled implicit promise to the host, and feels extremely guilty]

[A Song of Ice and Fire: There is a deep connection between the characters and the characters related to the host, which leads to the characters having extremely complex views on the characters related to the host]

……

When Zhou Wang moved his gaze to the end, he was somewhat confused.

He understood the first two "bonds", which were easy to understand. [Childhood sweetheart] simply came from the time when he graduated from high school and just started college. [Oath-bearer] referred to either Ding Yi's father or mother, and it was more likely to be Nie Xiaoyun.

But what the hell is "A Song of Ice and Fire"?

Zhou Wang didn't understand what it meant at first, until he stared at the three words "Ice and Fire" for a long time, he slowly thought of a possibility.

Among the people who might be related to him and involved with Ding Yi, it seemed that only the senior schoolmate fit this description.

But...is there actually a "background" between Jiang Mo and Ding Yi that I don't know about?
This unscientific.

(End of this chapter)