The wealthy woman's car sped away with Xu Da, and the bodyguards followed closely behind in another vehicle.
I had only had a little wine and wasn't drunk, but a sense of powerlessness permeated my entire body.
"Do you want me to give you a ride back?" It was the long-legged young socialite from just moments ago.
"Don't trouble yourself, thank you."
"You've been drinking and can't drive. Let me take you instead?"
"I have a driver." The socialite looked as though I had asked a very foolish question.
It was late at night, and after giving it some thought, I figured I was a tall man now, and the Xu Family had plenty of money, so I shouldn't have anything to worry about. I agreed.
"Where to?" the socialite asked.
"XX Road, Number X."
"Is this your home address?"
"My brother's place."
"Aren't you afraid of walking in on something?" The socialite smiled with an ambiguous expression.
That wealthy woman from just now...
"Then drop me off at a hotel." I really didn't want to see any eyesores.
"We're here."
"Isn't this your house? Sorry to bother you, good night."
"Why aren't you getting out?"
"Aren't we supposed to go to your place first, and then I'll head to the hotel?"
"Since you're already here, come inside and sit for a while," the socialite said seductively.
I wanted to politely decline, but Xu Zhi's body had already stepped out of the car and followed her inside. Damn it!
Once inside the socialite's large villa, she told me to make myself at home while she went to change her clothes.
It was only then that I suddenly realized I didn't even know her name.
Just as I was sitting on the sofa trying to figure out how to coax her name out of her, the socialite finished changing.
"I still don't know your name." Having run out of clever tactics, I had to ask her directly.
"You don't remember me?" The socialite looked somewhat surprised.
"I suffered a head injury, and I can't remember a lot of things," I confessed.
"Oh... My name is Qin Di."
"Nice to meet you, Qin Di."
"You can sleep in the guest room here tonight. I live in this villa alone, so no one will say anything."
I still wanted to go to a hotel, but my body genuinely felt a bit tired—the alcohol must have had a strong delayed effect—so I agreed to Qin Di's suggestion to rest for the night and leave first thing in the morning.
As it turned out, I was beaten awake the next day.
When my consciousness cleared a little, I found myself half-dressed and being swarmed and beaten. Qin Di was wearing very little, being held by an elegant, luxurious-looking woman as she cried off to the side.
What on earth had happened?
Aside from Qin Di, I didn't recognize a single person in the room.
"Speak, you bastard, how did you ruin my daughter?" a stern-looking middle-aged man demanded.
"Ugh..." I felt a searing pain in my lower body and passed out.
When I woke up again, I was back in the hospital.
I was surrounded by the exact same people I had first seen when I arrived in this era, though their reactions were somewhat different.
After the nurses and doctors finished their rounds, I was left all alone. Not a single member of the Xu Family was present.
I zoned out for a while, still unable to figure out what had happened, and had no choice but to ask the system for help.
To my surprise, the system actually answered this time.
As it turned out, the day after that night, Qin Di's parents came to the villa to visit her and found me sleeping in the same bed with her. When they questioned Qin Di, she explained that it had been too late, so she let me stay in the guest room for the night, and she had no idea why I ended up in her bed.
A single man and an unmarried woman sharing a room while half-dressed—Qin Di's father was furious. He immediately ordered a few bodyguards to give me a severe beating, and I had passed out only after getting hurt right there.
Even though I woke up, that area kept throbbing with pain from time to time.
During my stay, Xu Da came to visit and told me that Mom and Dad were extremely angry with me. Not only had I offended the Qin Family, but the Chang Family was also talking about a divorce, and they didn't want to see me anytime soon.
Divorce? I thought of my nominal wife, Changxia.
The first time I was discharged from the hospital in this era, Xu Da drove me back to the villa shared by Xu Zhi and Changxia. Little did I expect that the moment Xu Zhi saw Changxia, he would flare up like that again.
Changxia felt intense disgust toward my hormonal surges and visible "changes" every time I laid eyes on her, and I also found it terribly awkward to keep reacting that way.
After that, I stayed exclusively at Xu Da's villa and never saw Changxia again.
And now, a message popped up on my WeChat from her: *Let's get a divorce!*
To be honest, seeing the WeChat message from Changxia didn't evoke any real feeling in me; in my eyes, she was a complete stranger.
Once divorced, I wouldn't have to constantly "stand at attention," nor would I have to worry about fulfilling marital duties, so divorce didn't seem like a big deal at all.
Just as I was about to reply "Okay," a male voice rang out: "You are not allowed to divorce!"
I looked around the room—there was no one there. Could it be the system?
"It wasn't me!" Little System immediately cleared its name.
"It's this young master, Xu Zhi."
Xu Zhi?
"This young master still has consciousness left, and I will never let an unidentified person like you misuse my body."
So it was Xu Zhi's residual consciousness.
"Let me tell you, divorce is absolutely out of the question. Changxia is my woman, and I will never hand her over to anyone!" "If you want to pilot my body, you'd better cooperate with me."
I remembered Director Qu and Master Fang again, and thought of the five-year deadline...
It seemed I had no choice but to cooperate with this loud-mouthed man for now, otherwise carrying out that task would be practically impossible.
"Fine, I can listen to you and refuse the divorce, but as for your wife..."
"You don't need to worry about her," Xu Zhi interrupted me. "Just maintain the right attitude and simply refuse to divorce. If we're firm on not divorcing and it still ends in divorce anyway, I won't blame you."
Since that was the case,
I replied to Changxia's WeChat message: "I do not agree!"
"Then I'll see you in court," Changxia replied as well.
"Sigh," I heard a barely audible sigh. It was Xu Zhi; this playboy actually harbored quite deep affection for his wife.
"Xu Zhi, since the two of us are now sharing one body, you'd better tell me some of your major background details, otherwise it'll be hard for me to get things done. Also, control your hormones and physical reactions—this is your second time being beaten into the hospital."
"The first time wasn't my fault," Xu Zhi retorted, sounding very unconvinced. "Standing slightly at attention when seeing a beauty—isn't that just showing respect for beauty?"
"What kind of logic is that?"
"Stop wasting breath. My consciousness is weak; it takes two months of gathering energy for me to appear for a single day, and my total active time in a day cannot exceed one hour."
"If you have any questions, ask them quickly and don't waste time. In exchange for you cooperating with me on refusing the divorce, I'll answer properly."
For the next hour or so, I spent my time learning all about Xu Zhi's past.
Once we finished talking, I called out to Xu Zhi again, but as expected, there was no response.
Still, having learned quite a bit about Xu Zhi's affairs, I felt a lot more grounded, and I no longer feared not knowing how to handle certain situations.
The worst part now was that a certain spot was still faintly throbbing with pain.
Just now, Xu Zhi seemed to have mentioned a good buddy of his who was a very famous andrologist. Talk about someone handing you a pillow right when you're feeling sleepy.
Xu Zhi had also mentioned that his friend was usually quite busy and not easy to see, so I hurriedly took out my phone, found "Liang Ze" in my contacts, and dialed.
I have to say, he really was a great friend. He pushed off a big client for his colleague and rushed right over to check on me.
"I've been running around like crazy and never had the chance to visit you, but I never expected you'd get hurt again," Liang Ze said the moment we met.
Thick-rimmed glasses, black trousers, a white shirt, and a face as jade.
I never imagined a playboy like Xu Zhi would have such an elegant and refined good friend.