Chapter 217: One Question To The World
Wang Gege could no longer stand straight after the burial ceremony.
Her legs had grown weak, and by the time they returned to the Xie Residence, she had to lean heavily against Xie Rong’s arm just to keep herself standing. The entire ceremony had passed in a strange silence, with the only sound being the occasional sobs of those who had come to pay their respects.
Xie An’an was dead.
Perhaps she had believed that death would bring her back.
Just like what had happened in the previous timeline.
If the timeline truly had rewound once before, then perhaps Xie An’an had thought she could force it to happen again by taking her own life, returning to the moment before her marriage and changing everything she regretted.
But nothing happened.
Not that day... Not the next... And eventually, seven days had already passed.
Wang Gege lowered her gaze, her fingers unconsciously tightening around Xie Rong’s sleeve.
"She really thought she could go back..." she murmured.
Xie Rong glanced at her. "To the time before our marriage?"
Wang Gege nodded slowly. "Maybe she thought that if she died, everything would restart again, just like before."
Her voice became quieter. "But if that’s what she was trying to do..."
Wang Gege lowered her gaze, her mind returning to the burial ceremony from earlier that day. "She probably failed, right, Husband?"
Xie Rong was silent for a moment before answering, "It seems so."
Wang Gege’s fingers tightened around his sleeve. "It’s already been seven days... and nothing happened."
She slowly exhaled, "If Xie An’an really believed that killing herself would send her back to the time before her marriage, then she must have been waiting for the timeline to rewind."
Her expression grew complicated. "But she died seven days ago, and we’re still here. Nothing changed. No one suddenly returned to the past, and none of the events around us were undone."
Xie Rong’s gaze lowered slightly. "Which means her death did not trigger another rewind."
Wang Gege nodded faintly. "Then... what was different the first time?"
They looked at each other as her question hung heavily in the air.
"Husband..." Wang Gege muttered slowly. "When you told me you transmigrated here a year before the marriage... Do you remember anything else from the moment you opened your eyes?"
Xie Rong remained silent for a moment, clearly searching through his memories.
"I..." He shook his head. "I don’t really remember anything else, except that I was surrounded by people who looked shocked the moment I opened my eyes."
He reached over and gently caressed her hair, his expression slightly puzzled. "Why did you ask?"
"Because..." Wang Gege paused, trying to organize the thoughts in her mind. "Thinking back, Yurou said she was giving up on you this time, and that I was supposed to be trapped in the Xie Residence..."
Her brows slowly furrowed, "But if you were already dead a year before the marriage, then this whole marriage shouldn’t have happened in the first place, right?"
Xie Rong’s expression gradually turned serious.
Wang Gege continued, "Unless... the marriage was supposed to happen before you died."
The room fell silent.
For some reason, that possibility made the entire timeline feel even more complicated than before.
"Who could answer my question?" Wang Gege pouted as she sighed, her mind becoming even more tangled.
Xie Rong reached out and gently held onto her shoulders, turning her attention toward him. "Furen... let me ask you something."
She arched her eyebrows at his words. "What is it?"
Xie Rong looked at her quietly for a moment before asking, "Is it really that important for you to know the answer to all of this?"
Wang Gege blinked. "What do you mean?"
"The timelines, the souls, why everything happened the way it did..." His fingers tightened slightly around her shoulders. "Even if we manage to find the answer, will knowing it change anything about what we have now?"
"Of course it matters!"
Wang Gege suddenly snapped, her voice louder than she intended.
Xie Rong’s hands paused on her shoulders.
"How can you ask me that?" She frowned, her eyes slightly red. "How can I just ignore everything when we don’t even know why we ended up here, why our souls were swapped, or what happened to the timeline?"
She took a breath, trying to calm herself, but the frustration in her voice remained. "If we don’t understand what happened before, how are we supposed to know what might happen next?"
Xie Rong remained silent.
Wang Gege lowered her gaze, her fingers curling slightly. "I don’t need to know every little thing..." she muttered. "But I at least want to know whether the life we’re living now is actually ours."
That last sentence would hit Xie Rong harder than her earlier anger.
Xie Rong’s expression softened when he saw the frustration in her eyes. He immediately loosened his hold on her shoulders and gently rubbed them, trying to ease the tension that had settled over her.
"All right, calm down." His voice was quiet. "That wasn’t what this husband meant."
Wang Gege looked at him with a slight pout, still clearly annoyed.
"This husband was only thinking about you." Xie Rong sighed softly. "There are already too many things weighing on your mind. If we keep digging into every mystery without knowing whether we can even find an answer, you will only end up troubling yourself more."
He gently brushed a few strands of hair away from her face, "This husband doesn’t want all of this mess to keep bothering you."
Wang Gege’s expression softened slightly, though she still looked unconvinced. "But I can’t just stop thinking about it..."
"I know." Xie Rong smiled faintly. "That is why this husband never told you to stop."
His thumb lightly brushed her cheek.
"Just don’t force yourself to find every answer at once. Whatever happened before, we are here now. If there is something we are meant to know, we will find it eventually."
She looked down, taking a few moments of silence before suddenly raising her gaze at Xie Rong again, "Husband!" She swallowed hard, "Should I use my ’One Question To The World’?"