My autobiography is definitely not a tragedy!
Chapter 99 - 88: Future Tense

Chapter 99: Chapter 88: Future Tense

Meng Lang pushed the IOU back in front of Duan Xian, his face serious.

"There’s been a problem bothering me lately, Mr. Duan. Could you help clear it up for me? This small token is hardly a sign of my respect."

"Is it about romantic issues?"

As soon as Duan Xian heard the familiar address "Mr. Duan," he revealed a knowing smile.

The four years of dormitory lights-out meetings were not held in vain.

"Mr. Duan’s insight is as sharp as a torch."

"Don’t butter me up. Go ahead."

"Ahem! It’s rather complicated. You see, I have a friend who recently started a company. He has many employees, but their enthusiasm for work is always low.

So, while increasing their monetary incentives, he also wants to create a more positive work attitude emotionally.

What I want to ask is about the issue of their love lives."

"Uh..."

Duan Xian was somewhat baffled.

"I have a friend" is a typical opener, but owning a company with many employees isn’t playing by the book, is it?

"Their" romantic troubles?

Multiple consultation projects was a first for me, Mr. Duan.

"Can you be more specific?" Duan Xian asked.

"For example, there’s an employee A who had great ideals and was hard-working and dedicated when he first joined the company.

But after two years, he suddenly resigned, shouting ’I need to blossom, to see the vast world’ and then boarded a plane to Beijing."

"Hmm! Sounds like a typical influencer resignation. The world is so big, he wanted to see it—the usual young people’s problem. What happened next?"

"Then the plane crashed."

"Uh..." Duan Xian was speechless. The man died, and you still want a consultation for what?

"There’s also employee B who likes to travel around the world. It’s known that he has a niece, and later he developed Alzheimer’s."

"Hmm..." Why is having a niece emphasized?

"Another employee C, because he discovered his incurable terminal illness, he’s afraid to make commitments and chose to grow old alone..."

"Stop! What exactly do you want to ask? Also, what does your friend’s company actually do?

If it’s not a plane crash, it’s Alzheimer’s and terminal illness... Is the casualty rate that high?"

"Ah! Let me finish. My main question is, these three employees obviously have love lives, but they’re all very secretive and vague about it. What kind of psychology is this?"

Meng Lang finally asked his real question.

Yes, from several episodes of hints, it was clear that he wouldn’t always be single. There was even an episode where he already had a niece, clearly indicating he had settled down.

But strangely, all the "selves" never mentioned who their significant other or partner actually was.

Name, appearance, beauty or ugliness, height—nothing was mentioned!

This made him feel like smashing the TV when the female lead’s face was blurred.

Isn’t this just tantalizing himself?

What preference?

Hearing Meng Lang’s question, Duan Xian looked at him as if he were looking at a fool.

"They are just employees; who says they are obligated to disclose their private feelings to their boss, just because he pays them?"

"That’s different! These employees have a personal relationship with the boss that’s different from usual employment relationships!"

"How is it different?"

"It’s very close, very intimate; the kind where you can talk about anything, even how old you were when you still wet the bed, you know what I mean?"

"Uh... how old were you when you stopped wetting the bed?"

"How could I tell you that?"

"Alright! Even if we accept your hypothesis and they are as close as brothers, even brothers have a right to privacy."

Drawing privacy lines with yourself? Isn’t that just nonsense?

Meng Lang seemed unimpressed.

Duan Xian added, "There’s a saying, ’Keep your likes on your lips, hide your love in your heart.’

Not every relationship is there to be shared with others, the deeper the love, the deeper it’s hidden.

This memory should belong exclusively to them, their own private recollection.

Why should such a precious feeling be shared with others?

Even if he’s as close as a brother, does he really have the right to share it?"

Upon hearing this, Meng Lang froze and found himself deep in thought.

Indeed, was he being too presumptuous?

Without experiencing someone else’s life, who was he to casually judge their love?

A line from "Scream" suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Whether you are poor or rich, whom you’re with forever, where you are buried, all are your future, which has nothing to do with me..."

Just because it’s me, do I have to share the most precious things?

From noon on a certain day, they already had a unique and unmatched second half of life, differing life experiences shape differing personalities.

In each moment of time, they are themselves, yet not themselves.

A utopian society is one where everything is shared equally by all.

Harmony in diversity is the reality.

Look at it from another angle.

If the other person really doesn’t mind sharing their exclusive emotional bond, then seeing "myself" from another universe meeting, knowing, loving, and even spending a lifetime with someone.

And then what?

Follow the script all over again?

What’s the point of saying it then? Isn’t it better to keep a bit of surprise and freshness in love?

Or maybe, freely comment, "This one is better," "That one is better," "You deserve better," and then shake my head, next one?

Wouldn’t that be making myself out to be a jerk?

Does trans-dimensional infidelity not count as cheating?

Uh... legally there seems to be no such clause, but even if it’s only "emotional cheating," it’s still cheating!

Thinking this way, even if it were me, I’d probably end up choosing to say less rather than more, nothing rather than something?

Another "mystery within the book" solved!

Meng Lang discovered that interpreting his own "autobiography" was also a process of analyzing "self."

Many unclear points, as long as one ponders deeply and then looks for answers within oneself, are sure to be correct!

And... although it wasn’t explicitly stated, from the clues hinted at in some key words, Meng Lang had already begun to form some vague guesses.

Such as Beijing, such as his aunt by marriage, such as pork rib and lotus root soup...

Meng Lang’s heart began to beat a bit faster.

Seeing Meng Lang’s unusual expression, Duan Xian suddenly laughed.

"Do you have someone on your mind?"

"Ah? What? No! I don’t! Don’t talk nonsense!"

"Okay, okay! No wonder you were indifferent when you saw my sister just now, turns out you’re already spoken for?" Duan Xian teased.

Meng Lang shook his head and sighed softly.

"Alas! I really can’t explain it clearly."

"If you like someone, you like them, if not, then not. What’s there to be unclear about?"

"You say like, but I don’t feel that much affection, yet if you say dislike, with all this buildup...

You know, is there such a thing as a very special kind of like... a future tense love?"

Duan Xian:"..."