Ling Yixiao's original name was Yan Heng.
He had thought that he would never hear anyone call him by that name again for the rest of his life.
But to his surprise, the moment he woke up, he heard a woman chattering ceaselessly by his ear, calling the name "Yan Heng."
A woman?
Why would there be a woman in his room?
Was Ling Yiming up to his old tricks, trying to set him up?
Ling Yixiao furrowed his brows and roared impatiently, "Get lost!"
He opened his eyes, only to unexpectedly meet a pair of bright eyes, as pure and clear as water.
A woman was lying beside him.
The woman smiled at him, revealing two sweet little dimples at the corners of her mouth. "Hubby, I'm sorry for disturbing your sweet dreams."
At that moment, Ling Yixiao heard his own heartbeat.
This was an experience he had never felt before.
She just looked at him quietly, and a strong, intense emotion surged in his heart.
Ling Yixiao's pupils shrank abruptly. "Hubby?"
"Yeah!" The woman naturally planted a kiss on Ling Yixiao's lips. "Hurry up and make breakfast!"
When the woman leaned in to kiss him, Ling Yixiao's entire body tensed up. Reason told him that he should push away this strange, unidentified woman whose behavior was so bizarre. But the sudden affection welling up inside him told him not to push her away.
Ling Yixiao lowered his eyes, an obscure light flickering in them. "I'm not feeling well today."
"No wonder you yelled at me today!" the woman muttered.
The woman was still lying next to Ling Yixiao. They were sharing the same blanket, and Ling Yixiao could even smell the pleasant natural scent of her body. The tips of his ears turned slightly red, but his body did not move away.
"Then I'll go make breakfast today."
"Thanks for your hard work!" Ling Yixiao blurted out subconsciously.
The woman slipped out of the blanket and smiled at Yan Heng, who was lying on the bed. "It's nothing!"
Ling Yixiao leaned against the headboard, watching the woman leave.
She must have mistaken him for someone else!
To even mistake the person sharing her bed, she really was...
Adorably scatterbrained.
Ling Yixiao thought absentmindedly that since she had mistaken him, he might as well let her continue the misunderstanding. However, this woman's actual husband would have to be dealt with!
Just as Ling Yixiao was pondering how to dispose of the woman's husband, a massive influx of memories that didn't belong to him suddenly unfolded in his mind.
After a while, he opened his eyes, his expression complex.
It seemed he had transmigrated into the body of his alternate self in a parallel universe.
That woman really was his wife of two years, Zhu Yaya.
She was the daughter of his father's good friend, Zhu Jianjun.
He got out of bed, took a set of clothes from the wardrobe, and put them on. Zhu Yaya was in the kitchen making breakfast. Yan Heng leaned against the kitchen doorframe, looking at Zhu Yaya's back with a complicated gaze.
In this parallel universe, Uncle Zhu, who originally had no children, suddenly had a daughter.
Uncle Zhu did not die in the New Year's Eve ambush. (Because Zhu Yaya brought Yan Heng home for New Year's Eve, Yan Heng didn't take the mission with the milk tea shop boss, so he went home earlier than in the original plot, saw the murdered Zhu Jianjun earlier, and managed to save him.)
Aunt Zhao did not die in a sudden car accident.
He and Zhu Yaya met at Scott High School. Zhu Yaya could well be called Yan Heng's lucky star.
In this world, he did not witness his mother jumping off a building to commit suicide (because Zhu Yaya was in the hospital ward looking after Mother Yan for the absent Yan Heng, preventing her from jumping; Mother Yan was lucid at the time, knew of her condition, and was afraid of being a burden to Yan Heng). He was not plotted against by Duan Zong (Duan Zong being that gay man), and he did not suffer the betrayal of the entire world.
He did not become Ling Yixiao, did not betray his inner sense of justice, and his hands were not stained with the blood of innocent people.
He even avenged his father and mother. (The news Zhu Yaya saw in the ending.)
The version of himself in this world really made Ling Yixiao jealous!
After finishing breakfast with Zhu Yaya, Ling Yixiao relied on his memories to go to his workplace—the East District Police Station of the Imperial Capital.
Ling Yixiao stood at the entrance of the police station, hesitating to go in for a long time.
After accepting Old Master Ling's invitation, he had returned to the Ling family and taken over their underworld businesses.
He never thought he would ever enter a police station as a police officer.
"Captain Yan, what are you doing standing at the door?" A young man in a police uniform greeted Ling Yixiao with a cheerful smile at the entrance.
Ling Yixiao was startled when he clearly saw the young man's face.
Ling Yixiao had a very deep impression of him.
Because this young man in the police uniform was the first person he had ever killed with his own hands.
He had watched with his own eyes as this person was shot and died.
Dying with his eyes wide open in grievance.
"I'm coming in right now," Ling Yixiao replied.
It was already very late when he finished work at the police station and returned home.
But the moment Ling Yixiao opened the door, he was greeted by a room full of light.
Someone was waiting for him to come home.
Ling Yixiao's heart trembled.
Zhu Yaya was sitting on the sofa watching TV, hugging a small throw pillow. Hearing the door open, she hurriedly got up and threw herself at Ling Yixiao.
Caught off guard by her sudden embrace, Ling Yixiao stiffened all over, standing frozen in place.
"Yan Heng, my Ah Heng, I have good news to tell you."
Ling Yixiao's heart suddenly softened.
"What good news?" Ling Yixiao never knew his voice could be so gentle.
"You're going to be a father! I'm pregnant!"
A father?
He was going to be a father?
Ling Yixiao hugged Zhu Yaya back.
Zhu Yaya didn't notice Ling Yixiao's odd reaction and continued to chatter excitedly.
Ling Yixiao never expected that he would actually become a father to a child.
Zhu Yaya finally noticed that something was wrong with the person beside her. "Ah Heng, hubby, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." Ling Yixiao gently touched Zhu Yaya's belly, where a little life was being nurtured, his voice choking up. "I just feel that I'm too happy."
"Silly." Zhu Yaya leaned into his embrace, her face full of bliss.
This entire day felt like an unattainable, beautiful dream to Ling Yixiao.
Ling Yixiao really wanted to treat himself as the Yan Heng of this world and just continue living like this. But the next morning, when he opened his eyes full of anticipation, Zhu Yaya was not lying beside him, and the room's decor was different from yesterday's.
He had returned to his own world.
He leaned against the pillows on the headboard, feeling a loneliness in his heart that he had never experienced before.
He wanted to see her again.
Now, everyone in the upper-class society of the Imperial Capital knew that Ling Yixiao was frantically searching for a woman named "Zhu Yaya."
But no matter how hard Ling Yixiao searched, he couldn't find Zhu Yaya. It was as if this world simply didn't have a Zhu Yaya.
A parallel universe?
Ling Yixiao lowered his eyes and fell into deep thought, a trace of madness flashing beneath his eyelids.
Wait, in Yan Heng's memories, Zhu Yaya had told Yan Heng after they got married that she came from another dimension.
He had originally wanted to play around a bit more with Murong Beichen, Ling Yiming, and the others, but now he had something he cared about far more. So, he directly drove the Murong Group into bankruptcy. He gathered the world's top scientists and poured all his money into researching parallel universes, even though many people urged him to be rational. But he refused to listen.
He had to see her.
