"Special breaking news broadcast: half an hour ago, Mr. Ye Chen, Chairman of Tenglong Group, passed away due to illness at the age of eighty-nine! Mr. Ye Chen had no wife and no children, and during his lifetime he left a will to donate his entire fortune of four hundred billion to charitable foundations..."
————
"Huh?"
Inside the crude, two-bedroom rental apartment.
Ye Chen slowly opened his eyes.
"Where is this?"
As Ye Chen let out an astonished gasp,
he instinctively scanned his surroundings.
The living room, less than fifteen square meters,
was littered everywhere with cheap liquor bottles and cigarette butts.
Stinky instant noodle containers mingled with the stench of alcohol and tobacco,
making the place look more unkempt and messy than a dog kennel!
"Isn't this the rental apartment I lived in sixty years ago?"
Everything felt painfully familiar, awakening the lingering, indelible memories of the past sixty years that had haunted Ye Chen's heart.
Instinctively remembering the weeping sounds by his hospital bed right before his death, he thought his soul had somehow retraced its steps to a scene from sixty years ago, before he died.
Before he could think further,
"Clatter!"
The front door of the apartment was pushed open from the outside.
"Daddy!"
A childish, crisp voice rang out.
A little girl of four or five years old skipped joyfully into the apartment,
completely ignoring the filth and stench inside,
and entirely uncaring of his own unkempt and slovenly appearance.
She rushed straight up to him and hugged his leg tightly.
"Wuu wuu, Daddy, Youyou missed you so much! Please don't fight with Mommy anymore, okay? Don't let Mommy take Youyou to Grandma's house anymore, okay?"
Youyou!
In an instant.
Ye Chen felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
Feeling the warmth of his daughter hugging his leg,
feeling Youyou're tears soaking through his trousers,
Ye Chen's mind went completely blank.
Was this not a backtracking of the soul?
Had he actually been reborn, sent back sixty years in time?
"Youyou, come back!"
An angry scold interrupted Ye Chen's thoughts.
A woman came into Ye Chen's field of vision: she wore a dress, possessed delicate features and an intellectual temperament, yet her entire person radiated an aura of dejection and haggard exhaustion.
Chen Yinuo!
The woman who had appeared in his dreams countless times over the past sixty years, the woman who had woken him from those dreams in tears time and time again.
In his past life, he had lived to be eighty-nine, yet he had carried a crushing burden of guilt for a full sixty years.
If not for his scoundrel ways,
his wife Chen Yinuo and daughter Ye Youyou would never have died.
It was him—he was the one who had single-handedly destroyed his own family, and driven both his wife and daughter to their bitter graves!
And what made him an even greater scoundrel was that even after his wife's death all those years ago, he had still harbored hatred for her betrayal, hating Chen Yinuo for dragging their daughter down to death with her.
It wasn't until half a year later, after learning the whole truth,
that he finally went to pay his respects at his wife's grave for the very first time.
That time, he cried for three whole days and nights.
Without eating a single grain of rice, without drinking a single drop of water.
If the cemetery patrol hadn't discovered him in the end, he probably would have reunited with his wife and daughter in the netherworld right then and there.
Yet never had he imagined
that the heavens would grant him such an unfathomable chance:
rebirthing him back sixty years in time!
"Y--Yinuo!"
Gazing at Chen Yinuo—the woman he had dreamed of countless times over the past six decades, whose voice and smile had accompanied him for all those sixty years—
Ye Chen choked, his voice turning hoarse.
"Ye Chen, just how do you intend to torture our mother and daughter before you're finally satisfied!"
Seeing that the room she had meticulously cleaned until it was spotless five days ago had once again reverted to a nightmarish mess,
Chen Yinuo cried out in a breakdown.
With that, she strode over and pulled Ye Youyou back to her side.
"Ye Chen, I'm begging you, please just agree to sign the divorce papers, okay? I've had enough. If this goes on any longer, I'm going to lose my mind—I really am going to lose my mind. I already need sleeping pills just to fall asleep. Show some mercy and sign the divorce, consider it letting our mother and daughter go, please!"
Composing her emotions, Chen Yinuo half-raised her hands, shaking her head as she forced herself to accept the filth and disorder that seemed almost too familiar by now, speaking in a tone that bordered on desperate pleading.
She once thought she had found her true love, the man to whom she could entrust her entire life.
For his sake, she ignored her family's objections,
turning down wealthy, handsome, and successful suitors.
She resolutely chose Ye Chen, because she believed Ye Chen would work together with her to create a wonderful life of their own making.
And because of that choice, she had broken off all contact with her family, only restoring ties with her maternal home after Ye Youyou was born.
Yet never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that the true love of her choice would undergo a drastic change in personality after a failed business venture. He became an alcoholic and a compulsive gambler, lost all drive, willingly wallowed as a lazy good-for-nothing, and transformed into a violent abuser who would resort to beating and kicking her at the slightest sign of displeasure!
Chen Yinuo had given him chances countless times, hoping to reawaken his life and spirit.
Yet what she got in return was only an escalation of his behavior after each empty confession of remorse.
The high-achieving scholar of yesteryear had become an irredeemable piece of trash and a demon!
Anything of value in the house had been sold off by him for cheap to fund his gambling debts.
The only things left un-sold were herself and their daughter, Ye Youyou.
And the crisscrossing new and old scars hidden beneath her clothes were all the merciless, brutal handiwork of his beatings.
In Chen Yinuo's eyes, this so-called husband had long since become a demon, her living nightmare.
"Yinuo, I—I know I've failed you both. I don't dare dream that you'll forgive me in just a few words, but give me a chance! I'll change, I'll change, okay?!"
Ye Chen's voice trembled as he stammered.
"You'll change? What are you going to change with? How are you going to change? Can a dog stop eating shit? You can't, you'll never change! Haven't you told me things like this at least a hundred times? But every single time, didn't you just come back worse than before? Enough, I've had enough!"
They say there is no greater grief than a deadened heart.
Chen Yinuo, whose heart had already died completely, quieted down.
She shook her head with detached indifference and let out a cold laugh.
The moment her words fell,
stomp stomp stomp—!
A flurry of heavy footsteps suddenly sounded from the stairwell.
Immediately following,
a dozen tattooed men who clearly looked like trouble barged directly into the narrow rental apartment.
The leading man gave a playful smirk.
"Well well, what a nice, complete family gathering!"
***
"Who are you people?"
Seeing these menacing intruders,
Chen Yinuo pulled Ye Youyou behind her instinctively and asked with a frown.
"If I said we're angels bearing gifts of wealth, would you believe it?"
The leading man looked Chen Yinuo up and down and smiled playfully.
"Are you here for Ye Chen?"
Under his gaze, Chen Yinuo took an involuntary step back.
The leading man didn't answer.
He sneered and looked toward Ye Chen. "Hotshot, did you think that by not answering our calls, we wouldn't be able to find you? You're already a full week overdue. Twenty-seven grand including principal and interest—isn't it about time you pay up?"
"He owes you twenty--seven hundred thousand?"
Chen Yinuo pointed at Ye Chen in disbelief and demanded of the men.
"That's right, you're his wife, aren't you? What, shouldn't a wife share the burden for her husband?"
The leading man gave Chen Yinuo an evil-looking smile and stepped forward, as if wanting to close the distance toward her.
"You bear the consequences of your own actions. If you dare drag my wife into this, I swear I'll trade my life to kill you!"
Seeing the man make a move toward Chen Yinuo,
Ye Chen snatched a liquor bottle from the floor and let out a hoarse roar.
In this instant,
memories of his past life rapidly pieced themselves together and replayed in his mind.
In his past life, it was precisely this loan shark collection visit that completely pulled back the curtain on his dark existence.
On this very day in his past life, he had watched like a beaten dog while Chen Yinuo was harassed, not daring to utter a single peep from beginning to end.
In the end, beaten bloody and kneeling on the ground, he had begged bitterly before they granted him a one-week extension.
After these debt collectors left,
he—who had threatened death and refused to divorce no matter what—finally signed his name on the divorce agreement Chen Yinuo pulled out.
Yet faced with a high-interest loan of twenty-seven hundred thousand, let alone a single week, even if you gave him a hundred weeks, he couldn't have scraped it together.
The week vanished in a flash, and before he could even pack his things to flee from the debt, he was cornered by the collectors.
What baffled him for half a year afterwards was that, after taking a brutal beating, those loan sharks had actually let him go.
Not long after that, Chen Yinuo took Ye Youyou and remarried, wedding a bald, middle-aged corporate executive.
This made Ye Chen harbor a deep resentment toward Chen Yinuo, believing that her persistent desire for a divorce was because she had already hooked up with a wealthy man outside!
It wasn't until half a year after Chen Yinuo and that bald executive died together in a fire that he found out the truth.
He discovered that the reason he had been let off by those loan sharks back then was because they had called Chen Yinuo, telling her that if she didn't pay up, they would kill Ye Chen!
To save him, a desperate and cornered Chen Yinuo had no choice but to borrow money from the bald middle-aged executive who had been relentlessly pursuing her, using herself as payment by agreeing to marry him!
And after the remarriage, that bald executive's demonic nature gradually surfaced. His obsessive, paranoid need for control and his domestic violence at the slightest disagreement eventually dragged even four-or-five-year-old Ye Youyou into the nightmare, subjecting her to brutal beatings.
Driven to a complete breakdown with no tolerance left, Chen Yinuo spiked the man's drinking water with sleeping pills one night, then set a fire to drag both him and Ye Youyou down with her into the sea of flames!
It wasn't until half a year after the tragedy befell Chen Yinuo and Ye Youyou that he, Ye Chen, finally learned the whole story.
Only then did he realize that the ones who killed Chen Yinuo and Ye Youyou were none other than him—him, this cursed bastard!
If not to save him, Chen Yinuo would never have borrowed money from that bald executive.
Without that loan, Chen Yinuo would never have married the man.
And without the marriage, such a human tragedy would naturally never have occurred!
It was him—he was the one who had destroyed his wife and daughter!
Now, the heavens had granted him a chance to return to his past life, to the time before those tragedies.
He must not let them repeat—he absolutely must not!!!
"Who do you think you're trying to scare with a beer bottle and your yapping? Do you seriously think the debtor is the kingpin here?"
The leading man halted his steps toward Chen Yinuo.
Seething with rage, he strode toward Ye Chen.
"Beat him! Before we talk about the money, teach this little bastard how to behave first!"
At the leading man's fierce command,
the group of street thugs immediately swarmed Ye Chen with a flurry of punches and kicks!
Although the Ye Chen of his past life, after achieving success, had mastered formidable combat skills—making it difficult even for military experts and seasoned fighters to get close to him, let alone a mob of ordinary people—
the body he currently inhabited had long since been hollowed out by self-abandonment. No matter how many martial arts techniques he knew, his frail frame simply couldn't execute them.
"Don't hit my daddy! Wuu wuu, bad guys! You bad guys aren't allowed to hit my daddy!"
Seeing Ye Chen subjected to a brutal gang beating,
little Youyou cried heartrendingly.
Had Chen Yinuo not held her back tightly, the little girl would have rushed right over.
As for Chen Yinuo, a cold sneer played across her face.
Instead of feeling heartache over Ye Chen's beating, she felt an immense sense of gratification!
Scumbag like him—it served him right, right, right!!!
Crack—!
Bang!!!
Abruptly,
Ye Chen, still trapped in the middle of the beating, smashed the glass bottle he had been gripping tightly all along.
Clutching the jagged half-bottle in his hand, his face bruised and swollen, he gathered all his strength, gritted his teeth, and lunged at the leading man!
With one arm locked around the man's neck, he pressed the jagged glass directly against the man's carotid artery at point-blank range.
"Stop! Everyone fucking stop right now!"
In an instant,
the leading man, held hostage by Ye Chen's piece of glass, screamed in terror.
"Hotshot, Ye Chen, Brother Ye, let's talk this out, okay? Don't be rash, please don't be rash! This is a lawful society, murder is a capital crime! Calm down, just calm down, okay?!"
People who lived on the streets understood the logic of a cornered dog better than anyone.
The leading debt collector was genuinely terrified—terrified that a desperate Ye Chen would actually plunge the glass in!
As for talk of a lawful society and capital punishment for murder,
Ye Chen turned a blind eye and deaf ear.
Disregarding the blood streaming from his head down past his eyes,
he said, "Give me one more week. One week from now, I'll pay you back in full with principal and interest, down to the very last cent!"
"Drop the bottle first, then we can talk nicely. Deal? Deal?!" the loan shark demanded, held in check.
"I said, give me another week!" Ye Chen applied slight pressure with his hand, the glass instantly piercing the man's skin tissue as a tiny bead of blood welled up.
"Fine, fine, one week! Another week for you, I agree, I agree!" the leading loan shark yelled out.
Hearing that,
Ye Chen finally relaxed his grip and let the man go.
Although these were merely verbal promises,
given Ye Chen's understanding of these underworld figures, he chose to believe them!
"Brother Biao!"
"Brother Biao!"
"Brother Biao!"
The next second, the thugs immediately swarmed back toward their leader.
"Get lost!"
Clutching the slightly bleeding wound on his neck with one hand,
he waved away the thugs who tried to lunge forward with the other.
The leading loan shark pointed at Ye Chen, grinding his teeth. "You’ve got guts. Fucking hell, you really have guts! I misjudged you. One week—I'll give you one more week. If I don't see the money a week from now, not even the heavenly king himself can save you!"
"Let's go!!!"
With a wave of his massive hand,
these loan shark thugs came fast and left just as quickly.
Inside the rental apartment,
there was suddenly left only Ye Chen with his bleeding head, Chen Yinuo with her expression of absolute indifference, and Youyou sobbing uncontrollably!
***
"Mommy, Daddy's bleeding! Daddy's bleeding!"
Held back desperately by Chen Yinuo, little Youyou pointed at Ye Chen and cried in her babyish voice, "Daddy, I want to go to Daddy!"
Chen Yinuo, however, remained unmoved and refused to let her step forward.
"Youyou be a good girl, don't cry, Daddy's fine!"
Ye Chen clutched the wound on his head, looking at his daughter from afar as he spoke with utter bitterness.
Yet he didn't step forward either.
"Ye Chen, oh Ye Chen, I knew you deserved to die, but I never imagined you deserved to die enough to go borrow loan shark money! My wedding ring sold by you, my work computer sold by you, my grandmother's hairpin sold off for pennies by you—take a look, look around this room to see what else is left to sell. Go on, take it all!"
Gazing at Ye Chen, whose face was covered in blood and looked terrifyingly gruesome, Chen Yinuo let out a mocking, cold laugh.
"Wife..."
"Don't call me wife, it makes me sick! I don't know what kind of sins I committed in my past life to choose to believe you and marry you!"
Refusing to give Ye Chen a chance to continue, Chen Yinuo shouted.
"Twenty-seven grand in loan shark debts, twenty-seven grand in loan shark debts... Heh, go ahead and destroy yourself. If you've still got a shred of humanity left, then sign this divorce agreement. Consider it me begging you—if this drags on any longer, the one you're destroying isn't me, it's Youyou!"
With that, Chen Yinuo fished a divorce agreement out of her cheap street-market handbag.
In his past life,
Ye Chen had signed the divorce agreement because he was too spineless to utter a single sound when Chen Yinuo was being harassed.
In this life, the heavens had given him a chance to return to those years, and what he wanted to do was make amends. How could he possibly sign this divorce agreement again?
"Yinuo, give me one more chance. Just one last chance, okay?!" Ye Chen struggled to say.
"A chance? One last chance? How many times have you said that? Do you think there's any chance I could still believe you? Heh, if you don't sign the papers now, you're just dragging me and Youyou down to die with you!" Chen Yinuo sneered relentlessly.
"Yinuo, that twenty-seven grand we owe—one week from now, I'll pay it all back with interest. From now on, I won't gamble anymore, I won't ever do anything to let you down again. Trust me, just this once, one last time, can you?" Ye Chen begged.
"You don't even blush when you brag anymore, do you? Twenty-seven grand, one week—what are you going to use to pay it back? Going back to the casino to strike it rich overnight? In your current state, where you're better off dead than alive, let alone twenty-seven grand, you couldn't even scrape together twenty-seven bucks! Alright, saying any more is meaningless. Sign the papers!" Chen Yinuo said.
As for Ye Chen, she no longer harbored a single shred of empathy.
Because her heart had already been shattered, battered, and killed entirely!
Time and time again she had chosen to forgive, time and time again she had chosen to live in self-deception.
What she got in return, however, was this beast lying to her with escalating frequency!
The word 'disappointment' was no longer nearly enough to describe Chen Yinuo's inner state.
She knew that if this continued any longer, she would go crazy—she really would lose her mind; she would die—she really would die!
"Give me a month. If you still don't see any change in me after a month, if you still can't change your view of me after a month, then if you still insist on a divorce, I'll sign the papers!"
Ye Chen shook his head, his gaze resolute.
A month?
Chen Yinuo laughed!
It wasn't that she looked down on Ye Chen, but this fellow simply couldn't change; within three days at most, he would show his true colors again!
"Do you think there's any point?" Chen Yinuo asked.
"Yes!"