"It’s either the county or the city district."
Hearing Zhou Dajun say the same, Zhou Wang had no doubts and immediately replied with a smile.
"City district? There shouldn’t be any, I have no impression whatsoever..."
"Alright."
Listening to the conversation, Zhou Wang was about to hang up when Zhou Dajun suddenly paused, "Wait a moment, Wangwang, your Uncle Jiang wants to speak to you... I’m putting him on speaker."
Zhou Wang was taken aback, then Uncle Jiang’s voice sounded from the other end, "Hello, Zhou Wang, I seemed to have heard you asking about a fire incident, if you’re talking about a fire, there indeed was an accident..."
"What accident?"
Zhou Wang instantly had a bad feeling.
"Well, I’m not too sure about the specifics, but you mentioned 20 years and I recall that clearly. At that time, a good friend of mine from the Chi Hong Company suddenly resigned, and I was puzzled because he was a key middle-level employee at the company and left abruptly."
Jiang Jiaxing reminisced, "It was only after he got drunk once that he revealed that there was indeed a major fire at Chi Hong Company, and the resignation of some staff was directly related to the fire..."
"Chi Hong Company had such an incident?"
Zhou Dajun couldn’t help but interject, "How come I’ve never heard of it..."
"It seems because the fire miraculously didn’t cause any casualties, the company executives suppressed the incident..."
While Zhou Dajun and Jiang Jiaxing were conversing, Zhou Wang was already stunned, a tempest of shock surging within him.
Is it true?
The "event" he thought was fictional actually happened?!
Suddenly, Zhou Wang had a splitting headache, realizing the events in the "instance" were beginning to confuse his own memories, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish clearly.
Did the system reverse cause and effect, altering the timeline through the so-called "instance," or was it actually his experience, and the system had "sealed" that memory?
"Zhou Wang, why are you inquiring about this?"
Jiang Jiaxing’s voice pulled Zhou Wang back to reality. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his mind.
"It’s nothing, just something I read in a forum, so I asked... Oh, Dad, Mom, do you remember if there was anything unusual before my college entrance exam?"
"Speaking of which, I remember vividly, you little brat, never home at that time, claiming to revise with classmates and stayed over for two days without coming back..."
Zhou Wang’s mother, Zhao Guihua, immediately laughed and said, "If you hadn’t performed well afterward and at least made it to Cai University, and with your dad saying you knew what you were doing, I would have broken your leg!"
Zhou Wang listened dumbfounded to his mom’s rant, his doubts dissolving.
Most likely, his "missing two days" was actually because he was drained from firefighting and stayed in the hospital for two days.
As for why his parents didn’t know about this, there might be multiple reasons, one of which was Zhou Wang’s intentional concealment, and another was related to Ding Yi’s parents’ attitude.
"Dad, Mom, I suddenly have something to do, let’s talk later!"
Hurriedly hanging up the phone, Zhou Wang carried partial questions and resumed searching online.
This time, he widened the scope, not even missing anecdotes about Beidou.
A moment later, Zhou Wang put down his phone, his expression dazed.
Indeed... when things are untangled, there’s always a trace.
That year, there was indeed a famous elderly person in Huaxia who was hospitalized, but he pulled through, and two years later, an elderly man surnamed Ding passed away due to a sudden illness.
The previous year, Ding Baiyu had resigned from Jing City and was promoted to Ming City as the head of the political legal division, similarly, Nie Xiaoyun was transferred to Ming City, leaving the state-owned enterprise system and entering the Women’s Federation.
Connecting these pieces of information, Zhou Wang vaguely understood why the incident was suppressed...
The "fire" wasn’t just Nie Xiaoyun’s life-or-death crisis; it was perhaps the last straw for the already crumbling Ding Family.
Had he not appeared, regardless of whether Nie Xiaoyun could survive, the other worker he saved during the incident would most likely have died in it.
And as long as there were casualties, the incident wouldn’t have been suppressed, and the consequences would be disastrous for the Ding Family.
Thinking deeper, if Nie Xiaoyun had also perished in the incident, it would be catastrophic, leading to two families’ breakdown...
Understanding all of this allowed Zhou Wang to sigh in relief.
So, the "promise" was real too?
Thinking about it, Zhou Wang sent a message to the class monitor from his freshman year, one of the few girls who had a relatively good relationship with Ding Yi, and once appeared at Ding Yi’s birthday party, Fang Lu.
Fang Lu seemed pleasantly surprised by Zhou Wang’s sudden contact and was quite frank.
"Ha, you ask why Ding Yi, with such good grades, chose Cai University? Didn’t you know? Ding Yi missed one subject in the exam and had to opt for Cai University. We used to say it was a pity since she could easily have made it to Tsinghua and Peking University..."
...
Knowing the whole truth, Zhou Wang quietly hung up the phone.
In this way, many things could be explained.
It could only be blamed on the dog system being unpredictable.
But remembering the system, Zhou Wang was only then able to look at the series of prompts after the "instance" event ended; he had experienced the Mythical Chessboard, though still unsure of the differences between the Space-Time Magic Book and Wolong Realm.
Judging by the names, the Space-Time Magic Book indeed felt quite magical, and the system marked it as "unique," suggesting its rank might be higher than Wolong Realm...
And the newly appearing "Character Card" and "Social Bonds" mechanism truly puzzled Zhou Wang.
Opening the system interface, Zhou Wang discovered a new sub-interface had appeared, with a faintly glowing card floating within it.
Using his mind to touch the card, it instantly transformed into a lifelike character projection, depicting Ding Yi.
In front of him, "Little Ding Yi" seemed like a lively figurine with various expressions, and its reduced size added a hint of cuteness.
Moreover, Zhou Wang found that he could change her outfit at will.
JK outfit, black silk dress, kawaii loli outfit... after swapping through them, Zhou Wang realized in the end only the long ceremonial gown suited Ding Yi’s temperament.
After enjoying this for a while, Zhou Wang recalled the need to study the important matter.
He first reviewed the system’s explanation of the Bonds mechanism.
[When specific individuals have entanglements with the host reaching a "destined" degree, the host may spend a certain amount of Reputation Value to activate the respective individual’s small card]
[The small card will display the bond relationships between the individuals and the host, individuals with individuals (excluding hidden bonds)]
"Pretty straightforward, but what’s the purpose of these bonds? From the system’s previous hints, they seem to be quite beneficial to me?"
Curious, Zhou Wang began examining Ding Yi’s Character Card.
...
[Character Card – Little Ding Yi]
[Activated Bonds: 1]
[Bonds Awaiting Activation: 2]
...
[Activated Bond]
[Childhood Friend: The character has a strong emotional filter regarding the host, which can influence the character’s reasoning to a certain extent; the character has a strong spiritual attachment to the host, firmly believing they are each other’s only soulmates]
[Bonds Awaiting Activation]
[Oath Taker: The character’s blood relatives have an unfulfilled implicit commitment to the host, bearing significant guilt]
[Song of Ice and Fire: The character and individuals related to the host have deep prior entanglements, resulting in complex feelings about the host’s related individuals]
...
Seeing the last part, Zhou Wang was somewhat puzzled.
He understood the first two "bonds," which were easy to grasp: "Childhood Friend" stemmed from the period of graduating high school and starting university, and "Oath Taker" referred to either Ding Yi’s father or mother, more likely Nie Xiaoyun.
But what was the "Song of Ice and Fire" supposed to mean?
Zhou Wang began to ponder until staring at the words "Ice and Fire" for a long time, slowly considering a possibility.
Out of those possibly related to him and connected to Ding Yi, it seemed only Senior Sister fit this description.
However... could Jiang Mo and Ding Yi actually have a "prior entanglement" unknown to him?
This defied logic.