When Xu Tingsheng saw Zhou Yuandai again the next day, it was at a conference room in a big building in Xihu City.

Xu Tingsheng had previously met Zhou Yuandai in America and Libei thrice in total. They had also communicated via texts and calls countless times. Still, in truth, Xu Tingsheng knew full well that this was their first time meeting in the truest sense of the word-with their authentic identities and states of mind.

“I really never thought that a second reborn person would appear in this world.”

“Guarding this secret, I have already been alone for too long...”

“So, I really cherish you a lot, you know? That is why I have been so lenient towards you.”

Garbed in a silk robe that seemed to have been modified from ancient times, a skirt like a ghost bride, embroidered shoes and deep red lipstick, Zhou Yuandai seemed sinister and strange.

“Yet, you’ve made me very disappointed,” Zhou Yuandai made an incomparably pained expression, “In this world, only the two of us are of the same kind...we are exclusive, of the divine race.”

Having already worked hard to smoothen out his emotions as he was prepared to face things calmly, Xu Tingsheng very much wanted to ask, “Do you think we are playing a game, Auntie? The divine race, even?”

Still, Zhou Yuandai looked incomparably serious as she said this as there was no trace that she was joking or kidding around in the slightest. This was her actual state of mind.

“Have you ever thought about it? What would happen if our secret was exposed? Those foolish and greedy mortals would extract all our value from us before killing us, trampling on us...”

Seeing how she was acting like a witch, Xu Tingsheng could not help but smile helplessly before he looked up at the two burly men and rather dainty woman behind her, indicating: Are you a fool? Can’t they hear you?

If not for the fact that these three people were standing here, Xu Tingsheng would immediately raise the flowerpot beside him and smash this pervert before him to death for sure.

“They can’t hear us...” Zhou Yuandai pointed to her ears and said, “Creating deaf people is a very simple surgery. Also, even if they could hear us, they still wouldn’t know what we are saying...besides obeying me and protecting me, they have never learnt anything else.”

Seeing her speak of an inhuman act so readily, Xu Tingsheng felt a rising bout of nausea.

“Where do they come from?” Xu Tingsheng forcibly held it in and asked.

“The inital batch was adopted. Some were bought too...some were presented by my worshippers, their own children,” Zhou Yuandai smiled, looking full of herself.

Xu Tingsheng clenched his teeth, not saying anything.

“We need to protect ourselves as much as possible...you’ve really done too badly in this regard, which has caused me to really worry for you,” Zhou Yuandai patted her chest, revealing a concerned expression, “All is good now. I’ll protect you.”

“Thank you, but that’s not necessary,” Xu Tingsheng said calmly, “I’ve been living very well, very peacefully. I’ve really enjoyed my life up till now.”

“A life of slogging for ants? Willing to throw your life away for the sake of ants?” A furious expression appeared on Zhou Yuandai’s face as she slammed the table and yelled.

“They’re my family, friends, the one I love. They’re not ants. I...” Xu Tingsheng wanted to express that he was not of the divine race that she spoke of.

“Is that so?” Zhou Yuandai interrupted him, her expression turning provocative, “In that case, do you dare to tell them, tell your family, friends and lover that you were reborn? Go on, tell that little girl of yours...was she your girlfriend or wife in your previous life? Go tell her, tell her everything. Do you dare?”

Xu Tingsheng was silent.

“You don’t dare. If you told her...you’d worry,” Zhou Yuandai said, “So, you and I are the same. We simply can’t trust others, besides you and I who can mutually trust each other.”

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

“I just don’t want them to have to bear all this too...because it isn’t necessary and would bring about a lot of trouble,” Xu Tingsheng replied.

“In truth, I can accept this sort of mutual trust between us, even maintaining contact with you and providing you information you need. Still, please do not interfere in my life, harming those by my side...just let me lead a peaceful life. I am only an ordinary person. I can’t become a god.”

Xu Tingsheng directly threw out his bottom line, the greatest extent he could compromise.

He really could not afford to provoke Zhou Yuandai. If any of those who had been under the scopes of sniper rifles last night, along with some others, were harmed, it would be a price he could not afford to pay-even if he won in the end.

At the same time, Xu Tingsheng did not truly harbour hope towards this, because he knew that Zhou Yuandai would definitely not agree. The reason he was still saying this was to solidify Zhou Yuandai’s impression of him as someone who was useless and could only retreat.

“Impossible,” Indeed, Zhou Yuandai rejected him straight out, “You have already lost your way. I must guide you.”

Xu Tingsheng did not know what to say. He did not know how to talk with ‘gods’.

Immediately, the ‘god’ said something that left him completely speechless.

“Sadly, I can’t breed and procreate with you...” Zhou Yuandai said.

Xu Tingsheng relaxed greatly at once.

Zhou Yuandai seemed to find it a real loss as she said, “The technological development of mortals really is too slow. Too many complete plastic surgery procedures have spoilt my body...”

“Surgery?” Xu Tingsheng clung onto the main point.

“You were still yourself after your rebirth, right?” Zhou Yuandai asked.

Xu Tingsheng nodded.

“I wasn’t. When I came to, my consciousness was in another woman, a laughable, pitiful woman who lived for the sake of others. Everyday, she only knew how to cook, do laundry, raise her child...she had a husband and even a daughter who was already more or less ten...”

Zhou Yuandai seemed to be pouring out her grievances to the sole person she did not have to hide things from. She did not hold much back-she simply did not have to anyway.

“If my guess is right, you, she...that ten-year-old girl was called Lu Zhixin?” Xu Tingsheng asked.

He too had no need to conceal it. Zhou Yuandai definitely knew that he had been investigating her too. If he deliberately pretended not to have any suspicions as well as gains at all, it would conversely make her more on guard against him.

“That’s right!” Zhou Yuandai said calmly, “When you were overly close with her before, there was even a period of time when I considered killing her.”

“You...” Xu Tingsheng wanted to ask: Don’t you have any maternal instincts at all?

“Do you want to say that no matter what, she can be considered my daughter too?” Zhou Yuandai stood up and walked around, “If I were willing to be that ugly, ignorant woman and accept her identity...why would I have done this?”

She was talking about getting a complete plastic surgery.

Going by Lu Zhixin’s looks, Xu Tingsheng deduced that the ‘ugly’ woman that Zhou Yuandai spoke of was definitely much better looking than how she looked now.

“I wanted to be myself again.”

Zhou Yuandai walked in front of the glass window, her back to Xu Tingsheng.

“Do you know what is even more laughable? When I finally had a chance to return to Libei for a look, I met someone...my, own, self. I was actually alive...that me from my previous life...with time having flowed in reverse, that me from more than ten years ago was actually living, in a normal state and at the same age,” Zhou Yuandai said.