Gu Qinghe was dead.
She died in the third year of her imprisonment in a sanatorium in Fog City, Y Country.
"Didn't you say this was the best wonder drug of your era? Why isn't it working at all?!"
A young man wearing a white lab coat and gold-rimmed glasses grabbed at his slightly messy hair, his eyes bloodshot as he roared furiously at a hovering, static-filled screen that was about to vanish.
The person on the screen sneered, looking at the young man with utter disgust, and pointed toward the person on the hospital bed not far away: "She lost the will to live, what does that have to do with my medicine?"
"Besides, you aren't the owner of the Plane Trading System, so you have no right to speak to me like that!"
Driven to desperation, the young man lunged at the hovering screen, but grabbed nothing and crashed to the floor.
The person on the screen burst into laughter. "Chen Jiahong, men may deceive, but heaven sees all. Your retribution is coming!"
Ignoring the taunts, Chen Jiahong scrambled up from the floor and rushed to the side of the hospital bed, his gaze frantic and obsessive.
"Qinghe, I loved you so much, why did you have to leave me? Why?"
Gu Qinghe on the hospital bed did not speak. She stared blankly at the ceiling as her pupils gradually dilated.
Chen Jiahong's expression shifted, and in a panic, he grabbed the nearby medical staff. "Resuscitate her! No matter what it takes, you must save her!!"
Cold liquid was injected into her body, and various instruments went to work on her, yet Gu Qinghe's eyes slowly closed.
As her consciousness faded into darkness, she looked at the screen not far away, the corners of her lips curling upward as she silently mouthed, "Thank you..."
Thank you for defying the plane rules and lying to give her poison.
To end this tragic and painful life.
The person on the screen reddened around the eyes and choked out a reply, "Goodbye, Gu Qinghe! We will surely meet again one day!!"
Gu Qinghe smiled and closed her eyes.
"No, no! Qinghe, don't die!" Chen Jiahong cried, tightly gripping her pale, bloodless arms that were covered in needle marks.
At that moment, with Gu Qinghe's death, the hovering screen suddenly emitted a harsh, crackling sound and vanished completely.
Chen Jiahong snapped his head up, frantically clawing at the direction where the screen had disappeared, and roared in despair.
"My system, come back, come back!!"
In the deathly silent ward, apart from the beeping of the monitors, no one answered him.
Outside the door, Zhou Huiru sat slumped on the floor, her face streaming with tears.
It was over, everything was over.
Her good days had finally come to an end!
Gu Qinghe's soul drifted out of her body. Without lingering in front of them, she headed straight out of the sanatorium.
She drifted across the Atlantic Ocean, returning to Shanghai, the city that had raised her.
Back to that expanse of black earth that was no longer prosperous, yet still retained faint traces of the glory once belonging to the republic's eldest son.
The eastern sun shone upon her, and her spiritual form slowly faded, but Gu Qinghe simply smiled.
The feeling of coming home was truly wonderful!
……
May 1975.
Shanghai.
Tongxing Alley.
"Xiuyuan, it's not that I'm being heartless, but before long, the whole family will have to go live in the remote mountains."
With a blank expression, Zhou Huiru placed the divorce application in front of Gu Xiuyuan.
"Sign the papers quickly so we can part on good terms. I'm going to take one child to Hong Kong City, which will at least preserve a bit of bloodline and keep the Gu family line from dying out."
Beneath his gold-rimmed glasses, Gu Xiuyuan's eyes were bloodshot as he spoke in a hoarse voice, "Is there truly no other way?"
Zhou Huiru's voice grew sharp and carried a sob as she said, "What other way could I possibly have?! These hands of mine play the piano; I can't do heavy labor. Xiuyuan, just grant me this wish!!"
Gu Xiuyuan's body stiffened, his face turning pale. He closed his eyes. "Very well, we'll get a divorce."
Gu Qinghe stared in a daze at her parents arguing over their divorce in the main hall, and at the all-too-familiar square patio.
Was this... her home in Tongxing Alley, Shanghai?
Hardly daring to believe it, she pinched herself hard.
It hurt badly.
It wasn't a dream!
She had truly been reborn, reborn back to the day her parents divorced fifteen years ago.
After signing his name, Gu Xiuyuan sat in his chair, looking rather decadent as he asked, "Which one are you planning to take with you?"
Regaining her composure, Zhou Huiru put away the application and some documents, then looked at her twin daughters standing in the patio.
Gu Qinghe's heart tightened violently, and she was about to say that she would go with Gu Xiuyuan.
Instead, her younger sister, Gu Yunyan, rushed ahead of her toward Zhou Huiru, crying as she flung herself into her arms.
"Mom, I can't bear to leave you. Take me with you! I'll be very obedient and will never cause trouble for you and my new dad!"
"Though older sister has a good temper, she's slow-witted and honest as a log. How could she help you win favor with your new dad? You should remarry and take me instead, Mom, I'm begging you!"
Watching Gu Yunyan act spoiled and ingratiate herself with Zhou Huiru while belittling her, Gu Qinghe understood instantly.
Her younger sister had also been reborn.
In her previous life, Zhou Huiru thought Gu Qinghe was more well-behaved, obedient, and less prone to causing trouble than her willful and spoiled younger sister, making her the easier choice, so she took her along when they smuggled themselves into Hong Kong City.
Hong Kong City in the 1970s was a chaotic mix of all kinds of people.
The wealthy Chen family that Zhou Huiru married into had originally risen from local ruffians and scoundrels, and they would stop at nothing for profit.
Seeing that Gu Qinghe possessed delicate, stunning looks and a gentle temperament, they harbored ulterior motives.
They packaged her into a Hong Kong City socialite, specifically to circulate among high-society elites.
Weeping, she begged Zhou Huiru to take her away, saying she would rather go begging or scrub toilets than endure a life of such humiliation.
Yet Zhou Huiru struck her fiercely across the face, cursing viciously, "Wretched girl, don't be ungrateful. If I hadn't brought you out of the mainland, you'd have died in some ditch with your father long ago!"
"Your father Chen provides you with food and clothing, lets you live in a Repulse Bay villa, and dotes on you like a princess. Isn't it just keeping the guests company? What is there to be unwilling about?!"
Afterward, ignoring her resistance, they forcibly locked her in her room, never letting her step outside except to attend social functions.
She felt as though she were going through purgatory and tried to commit suicide several times, but was saved on each occasion.
By chance, a drop of her blood fell upon the Gu family's ancestral jade ring, accidentally activating the Plane Trading System.
To better control her and use the system to make money, the Chen family injected a microchip into her body.
She was monitored around the clock, and the slightest disobedience subjected her to the torture of electric shocks.
Over a decade of exploitation by the Chen family, she gradually unlocked the 1st-tier ancient plane, the 2nd-tier beastman plane, the 3rd-tier modern plane, and the 4th-tier futuristic tech plane...
It was not until she unlocked the 4th-tier plane that she finally got the chance to drink a poison undetectable by current technology, granting her complete release.
Never had she expected that heaven would grant her a second chance!
Thinking of all she had suffered in her past life, Gu Qinghe felt a sharp ache in her heart, but unwilling to let her own sister repeat her tragic path, she offered a kindly warning.
"Yunyan, although Hong Kong City is prosperous, it's also full of unsavory elements. You won't know anyone there, and you might not adapt..."
"How could I not?"
Before Gu Qinghe could finish, Gu Yunyan interrupted her with a cold snort, her eyes full of mockery.
"With Mom there, I'm afraid of nothing. I've heard that Dad Chen's family is very wealthy, with a row of villas in Repulse Bay, a private yacht, and even businesses in Y Country."
"Don't think you can trick me with a few words so you can follow Mom to Hong Kong City and live a life of luxury. In your dreams!"
In her past life, she had chosen Gu Xiuyuan and followed him to be adopted into his family in the freezing Northeast.
Though she escaped the suffering of being sent down for labor, she lived in a rigid, cold, and heartless household, enduring their disdain and contempt at every turn.
In the end, she was even sent to prison by the whole family, serving over a decade behind bars.
And Gu Qinghe?
She became the pampered darling of the wealthy Chen family in Hong Kong City, draped in gold and silver, infinitely glorious.
When she and the Chen family returned to the mainland for family visits and investments, appearing on television news, she herself was just washing dishes in the back kitchen of a restaurant.
In this life, such a good life should be hers to live!
Seeing the smug triumph in Gu Yunyan's eyes, Gu Qinghe's expression turned cold as she scoffed inwardly.
Good words cannot persuade a ghost set on dying.
Since she was rushing to her own doom, she wouldn't stop her.
Turning her gaze calmly toward her father Gu Xiuyuan, she wore a sweet, obedient smile and said, "Dad, I'll go with you."