Chapter 697: Fake Memories, Real Development
“What?”
“Like I said, do you remember our first date? The first time we went out?,” Zhen Liu repeated. While Zhen Liu did have the memories of this first date, they weren’t exactly his. However, they were definitely real memories that Jin Fang had.
Jin Fang looked a bit surprised at Zhen Liu’s question, expecting him to be a bit more comforting, but she decided to humor him.
“Our first date? Let me think…ah, I remember now…”
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On our very first date, we decided to visit the park back when it was new.
The Zhen Clan, the Wolfe Family and the Corradas all pitched in to help get it made in an effort to beautify the city, but it was the Diggers Union that helped to set up the underground area necessary to actually build the place.
There were originally plans to do it above ground, but then it was observed that doing so would require the usage of several hundred gallons of water that was already a precious commodity at the time.
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“…a little after the park was built, you took me there because you thought it’d be a nice change of pace from the dry, hot air we were used to dealing with.”
“Yup,” Zhen Liu agreed, his own “memories” corraborating this story. “I believe I also made the observation that mushroom lights looked…”
“Surprisingly tasty,” Jin Fang finished while remembering the moment. “And I joked that you were thinking like one of the pigs that Uncle Zhen Hou was raising at the time.”
“Yeah!”
“Haha, I haven’t thought about that moment in a while.”
“Well…I got plenty more memories we should reminisce on…”
For the next few moments, Zhen Liu and Jin Fang did exactly that:reminisce.
Zhen Liu brought up the time when they were children and how Jin Fang used to take her job as his attendant incredibly serious at the time, to the point where she would be found sleeping under his bed, hiding in his closet and occasionally on the ceiling of the bathrooms.
“How long were you even waiting in some of those places? Because I swear you were always a step ahead of me.”
“Oh, I can’t tell you that. A lady has to have some air of mystery to her after all.”
“Mother?”
“Yes.”
“I really need to figure out what she does…”
The two of them then remembered how prior to the Kaijin, the Library and a certain pair of smartass spirits coming into his life, Zhen Liu used to try and practice every cultivation formula under the sun. Well, every cultivation formula he could find in the family’s library.
“I blew myself up trying to practice the [Inferno Fox Mantra]…”
“You almost drowned studying the [Octopus Boxing Manual]…”
“And I almost suffocated reading the [ Cyclonic Owl Method]… wait, didn’t I go blind for like three days after trying to cultivate an Luxarii formula?”
“Oh gods right, that was when you found the [Prismatic Strider’s Dance]!”
“How I have not died from any of those incidents?”
“I don’t know, but I do remember there being mention of a betting pool amongst the staff and some of your cousins on whether or not certain formulas would kill you or be surprisingly compatible.”
“That’s…simultaneously understandable and a bit fucked up.”
Zhen Liu and Jin Fang then turned their memories to more recent affairs; such as when he came back from the dead and now she was simultaneously relieved and pissed that he almost died in the first place, the times Jin Fang got to know the kaijin on a deeper level and the shenanigans Logos and Pathos got them in out of boredom. Like the time Pathos decided to let Jin Fang play one of the dating sims they managed to re-create.
“I actually have a question in regards to one of those games.”
“It it about how I’m not as pretty as the fellows in those games?”
“Pfft! No…it’s actually more in regards to settings. What’s prom?”
“Ah…I have half of an idea on that…”
Eventually, the memories made between the two of them began to move to the present, and that’s when they finally stopped reminiscing. It was at the end of this though that Jin Fang asked a question that had been bubbling in the back of her mind since the very start of this moment.
“Xiao Liu…as nice as it was to think back on all of these moments, what was the point?”
At hearing this question, Zhen Liu presented a smile as he was waiting for this moment.
“I…one time read this quote from a wise man that I found realvent to not only the kaijin, but to practically everyone else I know. Do you want to hear it?”
“Okay…”
“The circumstances of one’s birth is irrelevant, it’s what one does with the gift of life that determines who they are.”
“…what?
Feeling that he needed to explain more, Zhen Liu simply followed one of his favorite movie quotes with a small exhale before elaborating.
“You’ve seen how I kind of just…make the kaijin right? How I just sort of make them out of random items mixed with human desires and how, initially, one could get the impression that they’re kind of…nightmare fuel…just by staring at them?”
“Well…” Jin Fang didn’t want to admit it, but Zhen Liu was right with his observation. The kaijin were mildly terrifying at first glance. They had this aura of unnaturalness that caused something in the back of her head to feel nervous, but at the same time…they were entirely too goofy and friendly to be seen as anything other than hyperactive demon children…sometimes. Other times they actually did live up to their images, but in surprisingly heroic ways.
“Well the point is, despite them having rather questionable origins, of which I think some of them might be the resurrected dead…”
“What was that?”
“The point is, despite their weird points of origin and how they look like monsters from old storybooks, all of the kaijin have used their gift of life to just…enjoy it. Sure they have questionable means of doing so sometimes, but they all more or less just embrace the fact that life is beautiful and strange. Right?,” Zhen Liu asked.
“Right…”
“Now let’s focus on you and your memory question. Does the fact that you don’t remember where you came from, or who your family was, change who you are?”
“That…”
“Because, as you and I just demonstrated, you did make a bunch of real memories that have shaped who you are now.”
“What?”
“Maybe you’re actually someone who had been transported to the future. Maybe you’re the reincarnation of one of my predecessors. But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, because it was you who made every decision ever since,” Zhen Liu finished explaining.
“…huh.”
‘And besides,’ Zhen Liu(Thomas Lee) quietly commented to himself, ‘I am definitely not allowed to judge anyone else about their origins being muddled as all hell.’
Jin Fang was quiet as she mulled over her boyfriend’s words.
“The circumstances of one’s birth is irrelevant, it was what one does with the gift of life that determines who they are.”
It was a strangely heavy quote, but…it made a lot of sense to Jin Fang’s circumstances.
She had no idea what her origins at this point even was…but it didn’t matter. Whether she was an orphan picked off of the streets by Lady Daria, or some princess from centuries ago that had been tossed into a time portal to present say, it didn’t matter.
She was still Lady Daria’s disciple, she was still a member of the Zhen Clan and she was still Xiao Liu’s girlfriend.
But above all of that, she was still…Jin Fang.
Every decision she ever made, or ever will make, was still hers.
So why did it matter where she came from?
It didn’t.
“Xiao Liu.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you. This…was surprisingly helpful.”
“Anytime,” Zhen Liu replied while not so subtly wrapping his arm around Jin Fang’s shoulders. “I’d be a shitty boyfriend if I wasn’t able to help my girlfriend go through a identity crisis.”
‘Especially an identity crisis type I am all yoo cognizant about.’
With this heart to heart moment giving way to silence, Jin Fang and Zhen Liu proceeded to just sit and enjoy the night air of Willow Scale City.
Now that they weren’t fighting for their lives or for a long lost honor or whatever…the two of them could finally appreciate the city for what it was.
A beautiful city in a foreign yet familiar land.
“…”
“…”
“Should I have a brought a blanket?”
“Nah… I prefer your body heat.”
“…aight.”
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=Well…that was sickeningly sweet.=
=I do…you ever think about our past relationships?=
=That explains the voice message machine…=
