Chapter 1

I do not know how long I lingered in the chaos before I woke up. How was I not dead? "Mr. Xu, you're awake?" "He's awake!!!" Mr. Xu? Me? Following the shouts, a group of doctors and nurses rushed into my hospital room one after another. "That's wonderful, Mr. Xu! You've been in a coma for a month, and you're finally awake!" Chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter... "Zhi, you're finally awake, sob, sob..." A middle-aged woman and a young man lunged toward me. "Ahem, as long as you're awake, that's what matters," a middle-aged man said, unable to hide the joy on his face. Half a month later, I was discharged from the hospital. I hadn't died, but I was no longer a woman. I had been reborn—a good thing! But the fact that I had turned into a man—was that a good thing? I had no idea. Occasionally, I would think back on Director Qu and Master Fang, feeling as though it were a lifetime ago. I wondered if he had made it through that ordeal. Having been a woman for thirty years, suddenly having to live as a man was something I would need time to get used to. However, it seemed someone had no intention of letting me adjust at my own pace. "Second brother, your big brother's got something good to show you." By that look alone—even if I weren't a man—I would understand completely! Xu Bai, the eldest of the Xu Family, thirty-five years old, was a playboy in the truest sense. Spending money and chasing women were the most important things in his life, and everything else took a backseat. Father Xu, Mother Xu, and Grandma Xu had scolded him countless times, but some people are just problem children who grow up to be problem adults. They never learn to behave; if anything, they only get worse. Chasing women, so long as it didn't cross moral or legal boundaries, was something I—Qiu Zhi, back when I was a woman—didn't see any real harm in, provided it was entirely consensual. Yet this fellow, just two or three months ago, had actually gone and hooked up with a married woman.Xu Zhi was thirty-two years old. Before his soul was replaced by mine, he had also been a playboy, though he still retained a shred of a bottom line—albeit a very thin one. When he first found out about this affair, he urged his eldest brother, saying there were so many single women out there, what was the point of ruining someone else's family?

To that, his brother replied that the woman's husband had no idea.

"Even if he doesn't know, end it immediately!" Xu Zhi roared.

Xu Da refused to listen at all, continuing to do as he pleased, and even claimed that if you were going to chase thrills, you had to see it through to the end.

He even set up a love nest, bringing the married woman to his own private villa to carry on their illicit affair.

After catching them in the act a few times and cursing them out furiously, Xu Zhi hadn't seen the two of them together for a while.

It wasn't until a month and a half ago that Xu Zhi discovered they hadn't broken it off at all, and his brother had even gone over to the woman's house to philander.

Worse still, they were caught in bed by the woman's husband!

After taking a severe beating from the husband, Xu Da returned to the villa and called Xu Zhi.

While helping his brother apply medicinal ointment, Xu Zhi cursed him out, telling him he deserved every bit of it.Halfway through, a call came in. Xu Da put it on speakerphone, and a sweet voice tinged with tears came through: "Xu Bai..."

"Jiaxin..." Xu Da immediately grew nervous. "How are you?"

"Xu, if you have any guts, come over to my house and clear things up, or I'll beat this old hag to death."

"I'm coming right now, just wait. If I get over there and see that Jiaxin is hurt, you're the one I'll hold accountable."

With that, Xu Da prepared to head out.

Xu Zhi hurriedly stopped him. "Brother, use this chance to cut things off completely. Are you really not afraid of getting beaten if you go over there?"

"Even if we're cutting things off, I have to ensure her safety. Otherwise, am I even a man?"

The two brothers stared at each other for a moment.

"Fine, I'll go with you to sort it out clearly."

"Good brother!"When we arrived at the villa of Ling Jiaxin and her husband, as soon as we stepped through the front door, we saw a burly, rough-looking man holding a tear-streaked woman. "You're here? You've got some nerve," the burly man said angrily. "A-Bai..." The tear-streaked woman tried to lunge toward Xu Da; it seemed this must be Ling Jiaxin. The burly man slapped Ling Jiaxin across the face. "How have I treated you poorly? How could you still pull this right in front of me?" Xu Da instinctively moved to stop him, but several burly thugs suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swarmed Xu Zhi and his brother, beating them mercilessly. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, the two brothers were soon bruised and battered. While taking blows, Xu Zhi tried to go help his older brother, remembering that Xu Da had just recently been injured. Ling Jiaxin kept pleading with the burly man, "Husband, I was wrong, stop hitting them. If someone dies here, none of us will escape the consequences..." The man paused to think, then called off the thugs. Xu Da, his old injuries aggravated by the new ones, looked half-dead. Ling Jiaxin seemed to want to come over to help, but in the end she stopped herself and instead threw herself into her husband's arms. The man seemed quite pleased with this, pulling Ling Jiaxin into an embrace. Xu Zhi struggled to help Xu Da up. After walking a few steps, he tripped over the threshold. Xu Zhi fell backward... For the past half-month, these seemed to be the only memories I could recall; it appeared the rest of the original owner's memories were beyond my reach. Learning that I had lost many of my memories, the Xu Family had been deeply worried and kept helping me find doctors. The doctor said that my physical functions showed no temporary abnormalities, and that recovering from amnesia was simply a matter of fate—though seeing scenes that had once left a deep impression or were relatively stimulating might help accelerate memory recovery. Fortunately, the doctor said there was nothing major wrong with my body; otherwise, even though Xu Da's injuries had just healed, Father Xu would still have lost his temper and beaten him up. Yet right now, Xu Da—who was pulling me along to watch a video—seemed to have forgotten the pain the moment his scars healed. When I scolded him a few times, this guy actually claimed he had specially tracked down this footage to see if it might stimulate me into remembering something. Unbelievable! Good grief, I had been a lifelong single virgin at thirty in my past life—what kind of bad karma had I generated to end up sitting here watching this stuff? I was completely speechless. Especially when I looked at the male lead in the video with his bizarre, complicated looks—it honestly made me a little nauseous. When the video finished, Xu Da looked at my expression of suppressed nausea and blurted out an astonishing remark: "No wonder you didn't have kids after being married for two years—turns out you're frigid!" "What? I have a wife?" "Looks like you really have lost your memory, you even forgot you have a wife." ... "Though I heard the two of you don't get along. Look at you—you've been in a coma for a month and a half, and she only came once while you were in the hospital. In the half-month since you woke up, she hasn't shown her face even once. Tsk tsk." ... "At first I thought the problem was with her, that she couldn't appreciate a wealthy hunk like you, but who would've thought the problem was you? Such a waste of a great beauty." ... "Hey, hey, hey, are you listening?" "I'm listening, Big Brother. What's her name?" "What? You're asking me what your wife's name is? Oh... oh oh... Her name is Changxia." "Oh." "Wait a minute, aren't you—?" Xu Da shot me a sideways glance, and when I looked down, I saw that I was actually fully aroused!!! "Actions speak louder than words, eh? Heh heh." Xu Da wore an expression that said he understood everything. My god.