85: Chapter 85: The Truth Comes Out – In My Previous Life, I Was a Top Genius

Meanwhile.

In the Magic City, in a high-end residential complex.

A young girl wearing pajamas was holding her phone, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably.

On the screen, it was playing the "remote assistance" advertisement from the launch event.

"Mom..."

She choked out as she dialed the number.

"Mom, are you asleep?"

On the other end of the line, her mother's gentle voice came through.

"Not yet, what's the matter, honey?"

"Mom, I... I want to come home to see you."

"I'll come back this weekend, is that okay?"

Her mother laughed.

"Silly child, don't bother if you're busy with work, Mom is fine."

"No!"

The girl wiped away her tears.

"I want to go back, I want to teach you how to use your phone."

"I want to let you keep up with this era too."

On the other end of the line, there was silence for a few seconds.

Then, her mother's voice came through with a sob.

"Okay... okay... Mom will wait for you..."

Similar scenes were played out countless times across the country this night.

This launch event by Guanghui Technology.

Did not just showcase technology.

It also awakened that sense of guilt and longing for family in countless hearts.

...

1:00 AM.

Guanghui Technology building, CEO's office.

The clamor was shut out beyond the thick floor-to-ceiling windows.

Su Qingxue sat on the leather sofa, holding a cup of hot tea with both hands, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force.

She did not look at the myriad of lights outside the window.

Her gaze remained glued to the man opposite her.

Lu Li leaned lazily in his chair, his tie loosened, and two buttons of his shirt undone.

He looked very tired.

But that confidence and arrogance emanating from his very bones were more dazzling than the neon lights outside the window.

"Are you tired?"

Su Qingxue asked softly.

Lu Li shook his head, took the tea she handed him, and took a sip.

"It's okay, just a bit dry in the throat."

Su Qingxue stood up, walked to his side, and handed him the teacup.

"Drink some water."

Lu Li took the teacup, drank, and then looked up at her.

"Was tonight's show satisfying enough for you?"

Su Qingxue did not smile.

She stood up and walked in front of Lu Li.

She didn't speak, just bent down, stretched out her slightly cool fingers, and gently smoothed the furrow between his brows.

The movement was very light.

As if touching a fragile piece of porcelain.

"Lu Li."

She spoke, her voice a bit hoarse.

"At the end of the launch, you said that was the key to the second world."

"Is it Virtual Reality, right?"

Lu Li raised an eyebrow, reached out to wrap his arm around her waist, and pulled her into his embrace.

"CEO Su is indeed sharp."

"No."

Lu Li restrained his smile, his eyes becoming deep.

"Stronger than Virtual Reality."

"That is complete brain-computer interface technology, it is true... Virtual Reality."

Su Qingxue's body stiffened slightly.

She looked down at this man.

For two years.

He had been like a mystery.

Even though he played games and slept in every day, he could casually produce technologies that shocked the world.

Every time, he said it was obtained by a friend, from a technical team abroad.

Even last time when they came out of the old man's house, if he didn't want to answer, she wouldn't ask, respecting his secrets.

But tonight.

That Virtual Reality which was enough to subvert cognition.

She was truly a bit curious.

"Husband."

Su Qingxue's voice was trembling.

"What exactly have you experienced in the past? Why can you produce those epoch-making things?"

Lu Li looked at her.

Looking at the worry, fear, and that unreserved love in her eyes.

He fell silent.

Having hidden it from his wife for so long, at first it was to avoid work, but later when he learned her company was truly being targeted, he was furious.

He kept making moves, and now Tianqiong Technology was like an ostrich with its head buried in the dirt after being beaten.

He saw his wife busy with work, staying up late, and thought he might as well bring out the Robot technology.

Thinking carefully, there was no need to hide it, at least not from his own wife.

Although this was the greatest secret of a transmigrator, he could reveal some of it to his wife.

After a long while.

He sighed, buried his head in her soft abdomen, and his voice came out muffled.

"If I said..."

"My brain holds the memories of another world."

"Would you believe it?"

Su Qingxue did not move.

Her palm rested gently on the back of his head, her fingers running through his hair.

"I believe you."

Her tone was without hesitation.

Lu Li looked up, his eyes a bit dazed.

"In those memories, I am Lu Li, but not like I am now, I was... an old man who exhausted his life's efforts for scientific research."

"I had no life, no friends, no you."

"I only had the laboratory, only cold data."

"In the end..."

Lu Li smiled self-deprecatingly and pointed to his heart.

"Here, it stopped beating."

"Death from overwork, a very cliché ending, right?"

"That feeling was very cold."

"Consciousness dissipating bit by bit, just like sinking into the deep sea... just like the heart being held down..."

Lu Li's voice was very light, as if telling someone else's story.

But Su Qingxue's face instantly turned ghastly pale.

Her pupils contracted violently.

Death from overwork.

Heart stopped beating.

The coldness of the deep sea.

Countless nights, she had been awakened by Lu Li's sleep-talking.

He would convulse in his dreams, gasping for air, like a drowning person unable to grasp a piece of driftwood.

So that was it.

That wasn't a nightmare.

That was the death he had truly experienced.

That was the end of his past life.

No wonder he never wanted to go to work, always avoiding work.

So he had really experienced these things.

Su Qingxue felt as if her heart was being gripped hard by a large hand, hurting so much she couldn't breathe.

She had always thought that her husband was a heaven-sent genius.

But she didn't know.

These so-called "genius" attributes were obtained by him at the cost of his life in his past life.

Tears.

Burst from her eyes without warning.

Dripping onto Lu Li's cheek, scalding hot.

Lu Li was stunned for a moment, just about to reach out to wipe them.

"Don't cry, it's all in the past, am I not alive and kicking now..."

Before he could finish his sentence.

Su Qingxue suddenly crouched down and hugged him tightly.

Hugging him so tightly.

As if wanting to knead him into her own bones and blood.

"Lu Li..."

Her voice was filled with sobs, trembling uncontrollably.

She didn't ask how advanced the technology in that world was.

Nor did she ask what would happen in the future.

She just buried her face in the crook of his neck, her warm tears wetting his shirt.

She asked a question that instantly broke Lu Li's defenses.

"At that time..."

"You were all alone over there, rebirth..."

"Was it very painful?"

Lu Li's body stiffened abruptly.

All his disguises, all his nonchalance, completely collapsed at this moment.

Was it painful?

How could it not be painful.

That loneliness, that despair of being near death.

In his past life, he was a revered academician, the backbone of the country.

But he was also a loner.

When he died, there wasn't even anyone around to call for help.

And now.

Someone was asking him if it hurt.

Lu Li's eyes turned red.

He reached out and hugged this silly woman back tightly.

"It doesn't hurt anymore."

He whispered in her ear, his voice as gentle as if coaxing a child.

"Because I have you."

"In this life, I have you."

...

Outside the window.

The night scene of the Magic City was still brilliant.

In front of the Guanghui Technology flagship store, a long queue waited in the cold wind.

The young man at the front of the line was shouting excitedly at the camera:

"Family! This is the new era!"

Yes.

This is the best era.

Because technology is no longer cold.

Because someone, carrying the warmth of two lifetimes, came stepping into the light.