The Landlady and The Amnesiac

54

rokumi’s note : Just in case, if you come straight here because you have read up to Whimsical Reads’ Chapter 53 (the latest chapter on NU before I published my translations), then I suggest you to go to Chapter 25 first, because I found out that Whimsical Reads’ Chapter 46 correlates to raw’s (and my translation of) Chapter 24 while their Chapter 47 correlates to raw’s Chapter 27.

If you think it’s okay to skip that, you can also go straight to Chapter 31 because Whimsical Reads’ Chapter 53 correlates to the latter half of raw’s Chapter 30.

Zhou Jianguo never dreamed that the thing he had been concealing all along would be discovered so easily by Luo Bei.

His mind was racing, on one hand regretting that Luo Bei didn’t discover his true anomaly, and on the other hand thinking about how he should answer Luo Bei’s questions.

Based on his understanding of Luo Bei, if he avoided the subject or indicated that he had some difficulties in talking about it, Luo Bei wouldn’t pursue it further. But was he sure he wanted to do that? Zhou Jianguo didn’t know. He only knew that this girl in front of him unconditionally believed in him no matter what happened. This trust was rare and he didn’t want to disappoint her. He also wanted to reciprocate the same trust.

There was no need to hesitate. He should tell her. She deserved to see his most fatal weakness.

“Luo Bei, what I am about to tell you next may seem unbelievable to you, and you may even be wary of me from now on. I wouldn’t be surprised. But what I want to tell you is that the reason I’m willing to tell you is not because I’m a good person, but because you are a good person.” Zhou Jianguo looked at her seriously and attentively. “I don’t know who I am. My ID is also fake. Someone took me to a small clinic and when I woke up, I didn’t remember anything. My body was covered in bruises, like scratches from tree branches. Normally, I should have gone to the police station, but I didn’t want to do that. I borrowed a hundred yuan from the old doctor at the clinic.

“The old doctor was kind and only charged me for medical expenses. I took the hundred yuan and got a fake ID. Don’t look at me like that. Although I’m speaking calmly now, I did go through a period of confusion at that time. After all, it’s not a good feeling to have no memories. But I knew I had to survive. In the end, I found a job that suited me very well, which was to work on a construction site. The foreman paid me in cash and provided me with food and lodging. I continued to do that for a while.

“Later, I saved up some money and didn’t want to share a dormitory with my coworkers. With the recommendation of a coworker, I came to the urban village and rented your house. That’s how I met you. I didn’t want to spend my whole life just working on a construction site. After getting to know you, I thought about using your name to start a business.”

Zhou Jianguo sighed at the end. “I don’t know who I was before, whether I have a criminal record or not. Luo Bei, that’s all I remember. If you feel uneasy and want to take me to the police station, that’s fine too.”

Luo Bei couldn’t believe that things turned out this way, no matter how she thought about it.

However, Zhou Jianguo didn’t deceive her, she could discern that much. She asked, “Have you ever tried to find your family? Nowadays, many people register the information for missing persons.”

Zhou Jianguo’s expression suddenly became strange. He laughed at himself and said, “No, I haven’t been able to find them. After all, I don’t have complete memories. Maybe I’m just a terrible person, and nobody bothered to look for me when I disappeared.”

Luo Bei didn’t know why, but she felt inexplicably uncomfortable after hearing this. She patted Zhou Jianguo’s shoulder and comforted him, “It’s not necessarily the case. Maybe they just haven’t registered you yet.”