“You say,” Xu Zhi heard his dry voice, “You are Zhou Mu?”
“Mn,” Zhou Mu nodded. It seemed that being naked made him feel insecure. He pointed at the bedside table, “Can I put on some clothes first?”
Xu Zhi looked along his fingers and discovered that there was another set of clothing on the bedside table, which looked like a robe.
He was so shocked when he first woke up that he completely ignored the clothes.
“When did you put it here?” Xu Zhi put his hand on the piece of clothing and did not hand it to him immediately.
“I didn’t put it there,” Zhou Mu shook his head and looked at the clothes for a few seconds before saying, “But I guess this may be prepared for me.”
Xu Zhi picked up the clothes and handed it to him stiffly. When Zhou Mu took it, their fingertips touched each other.
Xu Zhi noticed that Zhou Mu’s fingertips were warm.
It was midsummer, and the temperature in the bedroom was not low, but the hairs all over Xu Zhi’s body stood up because of the cold, and cold sweat was pouring out uncontrollably.
Zhou Mu took the clothing and shook them out, briefly distinguishing the front from the back. Then, he draped the clothes over his shoulders.
As if to prove that he was not a threat, he turned his back and tied the belt of his robe casually, seemingly relieved.
After he put on his clothes, he turned around and moved closer to Xu Zhi.
“Don’t come over here!” Xu Zhi shouted at him with a loud voice.
“Okay, okay,” Zhou Mu seemed startled by the shout. He raised his hands reflexively and assured Xu Zhi, “I won’t go.”
Xu Zhi slowly moved back a few steps, pressed his back against the wall, and then nervously moved towards the door.
During this period, his eyes were fixed on Zhou Mu’s movements.
Zhou Mu opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but Xu Zhi frowned as a warning, so Zhou Mu shut up.
Xu Zhi touched the door handle and pressed it down. He quickly opened the door and stepped out, locking Zhou Mu in the bedroom.
He walked straight to the kitchen, locked all the knives in a drawer, and then ran to the bathroom to stuff all the towels into the cabinet.
Almost all gangsters’ preferred method of killing is to kill with a knife or choke to death.
If the other party wants to fight with him, he has no chance of winning.
Xu Zhi held the key to the bedroom in his hand and walked back and forth in the small living room for several times, always paying attention to what was going on in the bedroom, feeling increasingly anxious.
Xu Zhi is not good at socializing. He has almost no friends, so he is very sure that he has never mentioned the name Zhou Mu to anyone.
After finishing writing the character outline about Zhou Mu the night before, the alarm clock rang at three o’clock, and he didn’t even have time to check for typos again.
The key to the bedroom door lock had sharp teeth. Xu Zhi held it with some force. He remembered someone once said that slight pain is conducive to thinking.
Xu Zhi walked to the kitchen, took a glass from the stainless-steel shelf on the counter, and poured himself a glass of ice water.
The temperature of the water was very low, and water droplets condensed on the outer wall of the transparent glass, sliding down the inner part of Xu Zhi’s wrist.
Xu Zhi drank more than half a glass of water and felt that his frozen brain gradually resumed thinking, and his anxiety was relieved to a certain extent.
Xu Zhi didn’t have any bad habits of sleepwalking in nightclubs, so it was certain that the person in the bedroom appeared out of thin air.
The man called himself Zhou Mu. Xu Zhi didn’t know what the Zhou Mu in his novel looked like, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed that he should look like the man in the bedroom.
That man satisfied all his expectations for Zhou Mu’s appearance.
The facial features are deep and three-dimensional, with double eyelids, a high nose bridge, thin lips and dark eyes.
But Xu Zhi has always been suspicious. At this time, he felt that maybe his memory was not reliable.
He began to think about the possibility that he had misremembered the appearance of the male protagonist in the novel, or even his name.
The laptop is placed on the desk in the bedroom. The distance from the door to the desk is about 7 steps.
He only needs to go in and turn on the laptop to verify.
Xu Zhi pinched his fingertips gently, took a long and deep breath, and opened the door with the key.
Zhou Mu still maintained his posture sitting on the bed, and when he saw him coming in, he raised his head and looked at him.
Xu Zhi only glanced at him, then looked away, and then walked straight behind the desk.
The laptop logo faced a pure white reading lamp on the table, which meant that it had not been touched.
Xu Zhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He opened the laptop, entered his password, and then his attention drifted away, lost in the clear and orderly desktop.
The desktop displayed the laptop’s default ocean and mountains background, and several neatly organized folders were on the right side of the screen. However, there was no character profile for Zhou Mu.
Xu Zhi quickly checked the folders and opened the laptop’s search bar, but any information about Zhou Mu was nowhere to be found.
Xu Zhi raised his head suddenly and met Zhou Mu’s probing eyes.
Those were a pair of eyes without any malice, but Xu Zhi felt a deep sense of powerlessness wrapping around him, dragging him towards a place of eternal destruction.
Xu Zhi was sure that the man in the bedroom was Zhou Mu.
The wall-mounted air conditioner in the bedroom is still running, and the slight sound of air flow is particularly harsh at this moment.
“Uh, hello?” Zhou Mu spoke softly, breaking the stalemate between the two.
Xu Zhi did not reply to his greetings. He asked impatiently and with clear purpose, “Do you know who you are?”
The voice was trembling.
Zhou Mu was stunned for a moment, but he still said honestly, “I know, I am Zhou Mu.”
“Yes, you are Zhou Mu,” Xu Zhi nodded. He put his hands on the desk and leaned forward, “I mean, do you know who Zhou Mu is?”
Doubt flashed across Zhou Mu’s eyes, but Xu Zhi still caught it.
“I don’t know.” Zhou Mu shook his head and kept looking at Xu Zhi, trying his best to prove his harmlessness.
Xu Zhi closed the laptop and pushed it to its original position, feeling the ringing in his ears gradually disappear.
Perhaps it was the novelist’s natural gift of a rich imagination and a good ability to accept things, or perhaps it was because so far, Zhou Mu’s behavior had all been within a safe range. Xu Zhi felt the anxiety that had been bothering him since he woke up in the morning slowly fading away.
He spent nearly a quarter of an hour mentally building himself up, convincing himself to accept this bizarre incident, and then began to organize his words.
Zhou Mu’s nervous expression and confused reaction are very real, so choosing how to explain this matter clearly to Zhou Mu is very important.
But in the end, Xu Zhi chose the most concise and least tactful way.
He told Zhou Mu bluntly, “You are a character in the novel I wrote.”
The expression on Zhou Mu’s face was stiff for a few seconds, and then gradually became exaggerated, almost comical.
His pupils were slightly dilated, and his mouth was slightly opened, looking dazed.
“Novel,” after a few seconds, Zhou Mu started to complete the rest of the sentence, “Character?”
Xu Zhi’s heart was churning, but his expression was very cold. He ignored Zhou Mu’s really unbelievable expression. After all, this expression was too normal.
“Then I,” Zhou Mu continued to confirm, “actually am a non-existent person?”
“Yes,” Xu Zhi replied mercilessly, “You shouldn’t exist.”
For a moment, Xu Zhi felt that Zhou Mu looked a little sad, which made him feel that his answer was too inhumane.
But Zhou Mu was also a big surprise to him.
“Then who are you?” The exaggerated expression on Zhou Mu’s face was almost gone, and he carefully asked Xu Zhi’s identity.
Xu Zhi gently flicked his fingers hanging on the side of his legs, and with the professionalism of a novel writer, he arranged an absolutely safe identity for himself in three seconds.
“I am Xu Zhi,” Xu Zhi came around from behind the desk and announced in a serious tone, “I am your father.”
The author has something to say: Here it is! This novel is updated daily. If something happens (to me), I will ask for leave on Weibo and in the comments.
t/n: This novel is NOT updated daily huhuhu