Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

The next day at the hospital was even gloomier than yesterday. When the news broke out that Zixin had lost all his memories, the Chen family felt devastated. Zixin remembered nothing and the sense of loss and confusion he felt was heartbreaking to bear for everyone.

Yunru was outside the ward, sobbing in silence. He and Yubi tried their very best to make him remember something. Anything. But Zixin only returned their efforts with a blank gaze.

He felt a soft pat on his shoulder and saw Jun and Ai standing before him. “Bro…sister-in-law…”

He jumped into his hug, breaking down into tears.

“Hey…” Jun patted his head. “Don’t cry.”

“Then what should I do, Bro? I am not able to help him at all. He looks at us like…strangers. It hurts, Bro.”

“Yunru.”

He sniffled and looked at Ai.

“I know it hurts a lot. Seeing the one you love not remember you is a painful feeling,” she lamented. “But that’s why you have to be stronger. You know everything. But Chen Zixin doesn’t. Imagine not knowing anything about one’s own identity must be so frightening.”

He blinked.

“You wake up and you realize you don’t know anything about yourself. Suddenly, there are strangers all around you, claiming that they are your family. It is really difficult to trust others when you are in such a state. It feels like an existential crisis. Chen Zixin is suffering even more than us. That’s why we have to be stronger for his sake.”

He softly gasped in realization. “Y-you are right. I didn’t think of it this way…I am stupid.”

She smiled. “You aren’t. You are his cute little brother.”

Yunru wiped his eyes. “Why did things turn out this way? Who hates my brother so much!? If this accident didn’t happen, then Bro would have been in Shanghai with us.”

Jun furrowed his brows. “With us? Wasn’t he on his own business trip?”

“No. He was going to stay at the same hotel with us. I even confirmed his booking on the first day of our trip.”

Ai recalled him talking to the receptionist on that day.

He blinked. “Really?”

Yunru nodded. “Bro was mean. He didn’t tell me much about it. Just that he was going to meet someone special.”

Jun widened his eyes. “He has someone he likes?”

“I think so. He was there at the Summit too.”

“Ah?”

“I know right? I was just as shocked as you! But I did see Bro outside the hotel. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was attending the Summit too. Bro was so secretive! He is not really interested in reading books, so I couldn’t believe that he was at an event like that.”

“Yeah…” Jun said, “Does that mean the one he likes is a writer?”

“I thought so too. Isn’t that why he wanted to come to Shanghai? Because of the fest. Maybe that writer was at the fest too.”

Ai asked, “He revealed nothing about this person?”

Yunru pursed his lips. “No. He just said that if everything went alright, then he was going to introduce that person to us.”

Jun tilted his head as a faint memory resurfaced his mind. “Wait, wait. Now that you say that…I remember Bro Zixin coming to me one day. It was about making his account on Reading Point. What, maybe it was around one year ago?”

Yunru stared at him, speechless. “Reading Point? That chat forum for readers?”

“Yeah.”

He remembered that day Zixin had come to Sky to meet him.

*Flashback*

One year ago, Sky Publishing.

Jun lifted his gaze off his laptop and was surprised to see Zixin in front of him. “Bro.”

“Jun.”

“How come you are here today?” He asked, interested.

He calmly sat on the chair opposite him. “I want your help.”

“With what?”

“I want you to make an account for me on Reading Point forum.”

Jun stared at him hard. “Reading Point? You read books?”

“…Not really.”

“Then why would you want to become a part of a forum? They are also so noisy which we both hate so much. We are not exactly chatting types.”

Zixin stayed silent as if he was contemplating something hard, most probably an excuse.

Now Jun was even more interested. “Hoo…Is it someone special?”

His expression gave out nothing.

“What? Is it seriously a woman? You want to join Reading Point because she is there?”

“…No.”

Jun laughed. “Ah so it’s definitely a crush. Wow, Bro. You didn’t even let us know that you found someone you liked. But why are you asking me? Can your cute little twins not help you with it?”

Zixin answered, unfazed. “They cannot keep anything in their stomachs for too long. They will babble everything out.”

Jun choked.

They will be so heartbroken to hear you say that.

He shook his head. “What do you need?”

Zixin said, “Create an account for me. I tried, but it’s not letting me do it. I don’t know much about these things.”

Jun frowned. He opened the forum on his laptop and asked, “What were you typing?”

“Chen Zixin.”

Jun coughed. “You were typing out your real name?”

“I cannot? It’s simple.”

“Well you can, but it’s advisable not to,” he shrugged. “It’s always better to use a random username than a real name and not compromise your identity.”

“I see.”

“I think you were putting a space in your name. That isn’t allowed.”

“Oh. Then what random name should I put?”

“Anything that you like or something that matches your personality.”

Zixin gave him a blank look, making his mouth twitch.

He is not really good with this creative stuff…

“Forget it. I will choose one for you. Hmm…” he touched his chin thoughtfully, “what name should I choose?”

Then he smirked a minute later. “Found a good one.”

“What is it?”

“MrPerfect,” he proudly said.

“…”

Zixin blinked. “I am not obsessed with perfection as much as you.”

“Hey. You are unable to choose, so at least appreciate my help rather than complaining, Bro,” he snorted. “What is wrong with the name I chose? You are perfect in every sense. Looks, money, family.”

Zixin didn’t give much further thought on it. He simply wanted his account created.

“Done,” Jun smiled. “You can chat now.”

“How does this work?”

He showed him. “There are different channels here. Mainly it’s readers discussing their favorite books.”

He slowly asked, “How do you search for another user here?”

Jun raised his brow and chuckled. “That search bar above? If you know the username of that person, you can find it here and send her a friend request.”

“Got it.”

Jun curiously asked, “Who is that person?”

Zixin paused and ever so softly smiled. “You will know one day.”

*Flashback ends*

Jun now remembered it clearly. To others, it might have been only a year back, but to him there was his whole past life years he went through.

Yunru complained with grievance. “That was mean of Bro to do that…I could have kept his secret very well!”

Ai seemed to be thinking about something as she asked, “But I was talking to you on the forum, right? Not Chen Zixin?”

Jun replied. “Yes, that was me.”

“How is it that you were using the same username?” She tilted her head.

“Oh? That was because Bro told me one day to delete the account from Reading Point. He sounded quite low that day. When I urged him, he said that that person left the forum. So, he had no need anymore to remain on the forum. He said he only chatted with that person, and if she wasn’t there anymore, he saw no point in being there.”

“Oh, I see.”

“As for why I am using the account, I asked his permission. Since the account was already created and he didn’t want to use it, I thought I could use it instead to chat up with potential good authors and search for new talent for Sky’s benefit. It was a good place to explore. He had no problem with it. He literally chatted with only one person, so it wasn’t like others really knew who MrPerfect was. He was just another member of the forum.”

Ai nodded with understanding.

Yunru asked, “That means that you must have seen the chat history, right? You didn’t come to know who the mystery woman was?”

“It doesn’t work like that. Reading Point has a policy that if you delete your account, your associated chat histories also get deleted for security reasons. Also,” he smacked on his head. “It’s not nice to peep into someone’s messages like that, Yunru. If he wanted to take time to reveal it to us, we shouldn’t pry our way and invade his privacy.”

Ai nodded at that too.

“S-sorry…” he scratched his chin. “So Bro left Reading Point and then yesterday, he was coming to Shanghai to meet someone. Was that the same woman?”

He smiled. “You know how he is. She must definitely be the same woman. I was just wondering if she knew that he was coming or he kept it as a surprise?”

Ai said, “Indeed. If he told her that he was coming, then wouldn’t she have been waiting for him? How will she know that he got into an accident?”

Jun gave it a thought. “I will see if I can find anything about her. If he really likes her then, I wouldn’t want her to misunderstand Bro Zixin.”