Chen Hao looked at the Fairy Sister sitting before him. With her neat bangs and long, straight black hair, this was a brand-new version he had never seen in his past life.
Not only was her appearance unfamiliar, but even her personality seemed somewhat erratic.
Was she just flirting with me?
Having not seen each other for a few years, the young girl had certainly grown up. Since when did she know how to use the honey trap?
"Little Baozi, what have you been up to lately?" Chen Hao shook his head to clear away the pink bubbles of imagination; he needed to maintain an elder's dignity in front of the young girl.
"I just don't know what to do. I've been slacking off for over half a year, waiting for you to come and rescue me, uncle," the young girl said, reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, even though it wasn't out of place at all.
She really was flirting with him, but Chen Hao remained immune, focusing entirely on shabu-shabu beef.
The young girl had mentioned earlier that he looked rather green and immature right now, but that was actually because he was too thin. Chen Hao had been a picky eater since childhood, so he remained quite skinny until graduating from university.
Later, after graduation, unwilling to be an extra and relying on his handsome face, he found a wealthy girlfriend to support him, which was when he finally started working out. Working out had one great benefit: it cured his picky eating. After eating fitness meals for a while, he felt that as long as there were carbs, everything tasted damn good.
In his thirties, thanks to his robust physique, he truly reached the peak of his appearance from his past life. It wasn't that he wasn't handsome now, just a bit too thin. He needed to eat more and build his body back up quickly. A robust physique paired with a twenty-year-old face would look even more handsome.
"Uncle, how did you suddenly recover your memories? I thought you had disappeared, and I was so sad for a long time."
The two hadn't seen each other in years, but after just a few casual remarks, they recaptured their old, seamless intimacy, and the young girl immediately began asking the question she cared about most.
In his past life, Chen Hao's main profession was living off women, while his side hustle was being a film and television commentator on short-video platforms.
Because the Fairy Sister generated massive traffic, he frequently reviewed her works—though as everyone knew about the Fairy Sister's works, those in the know understood.
After all, Chen Hao was a graduate of the Film Academy and still had some pride. In a video lasting just over ten minutes, he would typically spend the first half-minute praising the Fairy Sister's face, and the remaining ten-plus minutes ruthlessly roasting her acting skills and her eye for scripts.
Because he loved roasting the Fairy Sister and had reviewed every single one of her works, he earned the label of the ultimate anti-fan leader of the Fairy Sister, attracting hundreds of thousands of followers.
Chen Hao didn't mind; he was just trying to make a living. Since some people enjoyed watching him roast the Fairy Sister, he was more than happy to cater to the traffic.
To gain more followers, he planned a live-commentary video covering the scene of the Fairy Sister's famous falling-into-the-water incident. But while delivering his commentary on-site at Jiuzhaigou, he accidentally slipped and plunged into the water, recreating the exact same incident as the Fairy Sister...
Perhaps the Fairy Sister's fans held a deep grudge and wanted him to experience a real-life version of "You think you can do better? Then you do it!"
Or perhaps the exact spot where he fell into the water happened to overlap with the Fairy Sister's falling spot, causing him to time-travel from 2024 back to 2004.
At that time, the Fairy Sister was busy shooting The Return of the Condor Heroes, fell unconscious after tumbling into the water, and Chen Hao took advantage of the vulnerability, crossing over into her body.
The Fairy Sister had only fallen unconscious, not died, which resulted in a fierce battle between the two for control of the body. Since the Fairy Sister was the original owner and Chen Hao was an outsider, most of the time he couldn't win against her.
To secure a bit more usage time for the body, Chen Hao started spoiling her future life to her. He even wrote songs for her and told her about upcoming events in the entertainment industry.
From their initial antagonism to their later peaceful coexistence, the two had managed to get along quite well.Later, after Fairy Sister finished filming The Return of the Condor Heroes, she found an excuse to go to Chen Hao's hometown and tried reaching out to a fifteen-year-old Chen Hao back in 2005. After that, the soul of the middle-aged Chen Hao from her past life transferred into the body of the present-day Chen Hao.
To Fairy Sister's surprise, however, the moment this guy returned to his own body, he promptly forgot his memories of the past life and of the time spent inside her body.
In truth, the souls of the middle-aged Chen Hao and the young Chen Hao shared the same origin, so the moment they met, they began to merge. This integration process took several years, during which occasional fragments of past-life memories would surface, though they remained incomplete.
It wasn't until a few months ago, when the two souls completely merged, that he remembered everything—including the layover he made mid-journey inside Fairy Sister's body.
Chen Hao had originally intended to pretend not to know her. After all, they hadn't seen each other in years, so he could just act as if that "layover" had never happened.
Yet, after considering it for a while, he decided it wouldn't work.
The girl knew the secret of his rebirth. If he spent his life in obscurity, he might manage to keep the secret safe.
Still, he had no intention of giving up the cheat code of rebirth; sooner or later, he would make a name for himself. By then, Fairy Sister would undoubtedly notice something was amiss and come looking for him anyway, which would only strain their relationship.
That was why, a few days before freshman registration, he called Fairy Sister to let her know that he was back.
As Fairy Sister helped Chen Hao blanch slices of beef, she listened to him recount the soul-fusion process over the past few years.
Yet she didn't really care about all that—as long as uncle was back, that was enough. She cared much more about uncle's current appearance.
Clearly a handsome uncle, he had suddenly turned into a green, inexperienced freshman, and she found it so hard to get used to.
Besides, watching Chen Hao deliberately put on a mature air and speak in such a measured, unhurried tone always made her want to laugh.Previously, in order to trick her into letting him use her body, this guy had often put on an air of profound wisdom. Back then, he appeared to be an uncle in his thirties, and she was only seventeen, so she hadn't noticed anything unusual.
But now that she was twenty-two, it felt incredibly jarring for this guy—who was actually only nineteen—to talk to her like an elder.
"So that's how it is. Should I still call you uncle from now on? Won't people think it's a bit weird if they hear that?" The young girl’s face lit up with excitement. She had been calling him "uncle" for over half a year and was now eager to gain the upper hand in their forms of address.
Chen Hao thought it over and said, "You can still call me uncle in private, but if anyone else is around, just call me by my name."
"I think I’ll call you 'Rat' instead; nicknames are more intimate," the young girl declared decisively, not really caring whether Chen Hao agreed or not.
She had learned about the nickname "Rat" when she first got to know Chen Hao a few years back, an event that had even caused quite a stir in the news at the time.
However, years had passed, and most media outlets had forgotten about the incident. But since they would likely be spending a lot of time together in the near future, that old story was bound to be dug up again. It would actually serve as a perfect explanation for how they had first met.
"Call me whatever you want, but I’m still going to call you Little Baozi." Since the mouth belonged to the young girl, Chen Hao had no way to force her otherwise. Besides, he truly possessed the soul of a man in his thirties; he couldn't bring himself to call this young girl "senior," it just wouldn't come out.
Hmm, calling each other nicknames—that seemed fair enough!
"How have you been these past few years?" Chen Hao asked, signaling that it was now the young girl's turn to speak.
After regaining his memories, he had searched for news about her online. He knew she had signed with Sony Music and had even gone to Hollywood to film *Wanted*. He found it all quite miraculous.
But news online wasn't always reliable; to get the real story, he needed to hear it from her directly.