Wen Ya: “?”
“Are you okay?”
The boy’s usual composure shattered completely as he stared at her in disbelief.
The mixed glow of moonlight and neon lights fell across Wen Ya’s face, softening her features into something clear and gentle.
Shen Sixing’s mind was racing at full speed.
Shen Yi said, “My mom is your wife.” Shen Yi said, “My mom’s name is Wen Ya.” Shen Yi said, “You’ll have a lot of kids in the future.”
Those words replayed in his head like a film reel, and when he finally spoke, even his usually steady voice cracked:
“Your name is Wen Ya?”
“Is there a problem with that?” Wen Ya looked at his ghost-like expression, even more confused.
It wasn’t like her name was some famous alias or anything.
It shouldn’t scare someone this badly, right?
Shen Sixing stayed sitting on the ground, not getting up.
His hat was crooked, his jacket scuffed with dust, his entire demeanor utterly wrecked.
He looked up at Wen Ya again—
Rose-red dress, pearl earrings, a gentle smile. A textbook naive sweetheart.
This was his future wife.
Shen Sixing had always been the type who could keep his cool even if the sky fell.
When he’d learned of Shen Yi’s true origins not long ago, he hadn’t let out a horrified scream in the bathroom.
But now? He absolutely did!
Thinking about the fate of those five future children, Shen Sixing was at the level where he could be walking along and suddenly stop mid-step just to scream.
So the boy let out another cry: “Ah!!!”
This one was even longer than the last.
Like a male cat forcibly dragged in for neutering—a full recording of going from stress to numb despair, then back to stress again.
Wen Ya stood in front of him, arms crossed, watching him sit on the curb and let out a random series of high-pitched screams.
What a lunatic.
She loved it.
Wen Ya crouched down to meet his eye level:
“Did you hit your head? Want me to take you to the hospital?”
“I’m fine.” Shen Sixing’s tone was a bit floaty, but at least he still sounded calm.
“Alright, but are you really not going to tell me your name?” She shrugged, unwilling to give up the chase.
Shen Sixing let out a short, hopeless laugh.
Tell her?
Tell her what?
—My name is Shen Sixing, hi, I’m your future husband. I’m only eighteen and this is our first meeting, but our five kids are already waiting for us in the future?
Just imagining that scene made him feel like his mental state couldn’t possibly survive that conversation.
“…I’d rather not say.” He finally rasped out that one line.
That shady rat of a man, Shen Sixing, after successfully plotting a murder and then taking a series of hits to his future expectations, stumbled his way back home.
Shen Sixing, before having a daughter, had always lived alone.
A little over a week still hadn’t been enough to get him used to living with a child.
He still walked without looking where he was going.
Unfortunately, he stepped right on a coffee cup and tumbled flat on the floor again.
It hurt.
But more than the physical pain, the biggest shock right now was mental.
His rundown little rental had turned into a full-blown war zone.
Scattered across the floor were teacups, pillows, colorful papers, and several crooked rainbow scribbles on the walls.
Like some small animal had marked its territory with claw marks.
Shen Yi was crouched in the middle of the room, still clutching the paint gun and spraying pink patterns onto an old pillow on the floor.
She heard the noise and looked up, blinking at Shen Sixing as he lay sprawled on the ground:
“You’re back.”
“Shen Yi…” Shen Sixing lay there, not moving. He didn’t want to move. “I remember telling you before I left—don’t tear the place apart…”
“We’re poor.”
“I don’t currently have enough money for you to demolish this place. If you dirty it up, the landlord won’t give me back my deposit.”
He muttered to himself.
“…”
Shen Yi crouched down. “Sorry, Dad.”
She was only eight. With her brain still underdeveloped, she couldn’t help acting immature.
Being alone in an empty rental.
She couldn’t stop herself from doing something to pass the time.
“As far as I know, Dad,” Shen Yi sat on the floor, looking at her old man sprawled out, poking the hat on his head, “villains are usually really impressive when they cause trouble.”
“A poor guy like you—why do you have to play villain at all?”
If you don’t have money, don’t be a villain!
Not only is it pathetic, it drags down the whole villain brand.
Shen Sixing was already miserable enough, but her words drained him even further into a dead, lifeless gloom. “First of all, I’m not a villain. I’m just a killer, and a poor one at that.”
“Second, I don’t have any grand ambitions to destroy human civilization or wipe out humanity.”
“Finally, I’m just your dad, and right now, I urgently need money to send you to school.”
Shen Yi looked down at his face lying on the floor, then at the chaotic home, and felt a little embarrassed. “Sorry, Dad.”
“So, did your job go well?”
At that, Shen Sixing felt like he was falling apart.
He sat up, took off the hat that kept getting in the way, reached out and pulled her close, pressing the hat down onto his daughter’s head.
His chin rested on the top of her head, dull and listless: “Not well at all.”
Shen Yi, wearing the police hat that was a full size too big for her head, imitated his movement and tilted her head. “It failed?”
Shen Sixing: “It succeeded.”
“Then why aren’t you happy?”
Shen Sixing had trouble answering that question.
If you compared Shen Yi’s visit to a endlessly looping Möbius strip,
then her arrival meant his future was already set.
Meaning he would become the exhausted drab dad and reluctant superhero she kept talking about.
Shen Sixing: “…” He shuddered at the thought.
“I ran into a woman today. Terrifying woman. She seems to be my future wife?”
The boy stammered, sitting on the floor with his head buried in his hands, anxious and self-conscious. “But I can’t even support myself. A guy like me—there’s no way I’m finding a wife.”
“And I’ve got a little ball and chain…”
“If my parents find out I became a dad this early and have a wife too… the two of them will join forces and kill me.”
Total despair. The future looks pitch black.
“You ran into my mom?!” Shen Yi lit up instantly, tugging at his sleeve, unable to contain her excitement.
He ignored her, still gloomily covering his face.
Shen Yi crouched beside him, thinking this was tough.
In her memory, her dad was lazy and grumpy, sure, but he was still a reliable adult.
But this eighteen-year-old version—his mental state was clearly unstable.
She racked her brain for some comforting words, hesitated, then reached out and gently patted his arm: “It’s okay. The future will be fine. Love will come too.”
Shen Sixing peeked at her through the gap between his fingers and suddenly asked: “In the future, will I return to the family and become rich?”
There was a note of cautious hope in his voice.
Before this moment, Shen Sixing had never asked Shen Yi in detail about what would happen to him more than a decade later. But at this instant, he suddenly felt a flicker of curiosity—what exactly did his own future hold?
