Even now, although Lin Fanxing’s left eye had not been injured yet, the unforgettable pain had already wrapped itself around him.
Run!
This time, Lin Fanxing did not hesitate.
He had no time to think about why he had come back to life. Maybe the heavens themselves thought he had died too unjustly and could not bear it, giving him another chance. Or maybe his resentment was too heavy for the ox-headed and horse-faced guardians of the Underworld to drag him away. Even if they forced him in front of Meng Po, he still would not drink that bowl of soup.
He was only twenty-six years old. His life had just begun to improve.
Now, time had turned back by two years. Twenty-four-year-old Lin Fanxing could not afford to make another mistake.
His foot slipped.
Using the frightening flashes of lightning outside as illumination, Lin Fanxing stumbled back into the bedroom. The sounds of pursuit and curses behind him seemed to clutch at his ankles, stopping only when he slammed the bedroom door shut and locked it.
He leaned weakly against the door, but in front of him were only simple furnishings.
A bed. A wardrobe.
“Where do you think you’re running?! Open the door, and we can still talk this out! If you don’t open it, don’t blame us for getting rough!”
“Fuck, that little bitch locked the door!”
“Son of a bitch…”
The curses were exactly the same as the ones in Lin Fanxing’s memory.
Not even back then, two years ago, did Lin Fanxing believe their lies. How could opening the door possibly lead to a peaceful conversation?
Opening it meant death.
So at the time, not only had he refused to open the door, but in his panic, he had even hidden inside the wardrobe. But the him from back then had never imagined…
That it would become an even more miserable fork in the road.
This wooden bedroom door was nothing more than a mayfly in a storm. It could never hold them off for long, so in only a few minutes, those burly men would kick it open. They would search the room, drag him out alive, pull him all the way from the bedroom into the living room, and treat his screams like entertainment.
Why was his fate still this miserable even after rebirth?!
In despair, Lin Fanxing staggered forward two steps.
He could not hide under the bed.
He could not hide in the wardrobe.
Did he even have any other way out?!
The door began to shake violently. Kick after kick slammed into it, the vibrations striking painfully against his chest as cold sweat covered his face. After wiping it away once, his gaze shifted toward the window.
Outside, thunder roared, and lightning flashed. The glass looked as though it had shattered itself apart, with endless streams of water running down its surface.
Lin Fanxing could not care about anything else anymore. Barefoot, he rushed toward his only escape route.
In panic, he unlocked the window. Below was a three-story drop, but from behind him came two deafening bangs. The familiar cracking impact rang directly in his ears. Back then, it had been after those exact two sounds that the men burst into the room.
Lin Fanxing did not dare look back, terrified that history would repeat itself. Yet the corner of his left eye still caught everything happening by the door: the door panel had been kicked crooked, one corner already splitting upward. A thick hand reached through the gap, the wrist twisting awkwardly as it grabbed the doorknob from the inside.
One-third of a savage face appeared through the opening, belonging to the man who had haunted Lin Fanxing’s nightmares. The same man who had shoved his fingers into his eye socket.
Fear erased the last trace of hesitation.
Lin Fanxing tore open the sealed window he had only recently paid to install, then lifted one leg onto the smooth windowsill. Half his body was already hanging outside. Mixed among the rain were tiny hailstones that struck the bridge of his nose, but the pain only reminded him that it was not a dream.
“Grab him! Don’t let that little bastard escape!”
“With a face that pretty? What a waste if he gets away!”
The curses directed at him made Lin Fanxing shudder. Back then, he had never seen how these people rushed into the room, but now, he saw everything clearly.
One second ago, the massive hand opening the door had still been at the frame.
The next second, it clamped around his ankle.
Lin Fanxing kicked with all his strength toward the man’s stomach, deliberately throwing his center of gravity outward.
Three floors.
A fall from this height could easily kill him, extinguishing the second life he had finally gotten another chance at. But he would rather gamble once than fall into these people’s hands again.
The sensation of weightlessness surged during the fall. Without hesitation, Lin Fanxing “threw” himself out, decisively, as if tossing away garbage.
His back faced the ground while his face remained turned toward the window. From the pitch-black opening, several hands stretched out wildly one after another, grasping frantically through the air, trying to catch the escaping him.
Lin Fanxing watched those hands grow farther and farther away…
But just when he thought he had escaped disaster, another horrifying face leaned out the window. Immediately after came the broad shoulders and upper body of a tall man.
Clearly, he intended to jump down, too.
Today, no matter what, they were determined to catch Lin Fanxing. Alive or dead.
In the next instant, Lin Fanxing’s back slammed against the ground, and the back of his head crashed hard onto the asphalt from the force of the fall. He was probably stunned for two or three seconds, but quickly regained consciousness. The rain kept him awake, washing over the pain spreading through his entire body.
When he wiped the water from his face, the man at the window had actually climbed onto the outdoor air-conditioning unit on the second floor. Just one more step, and he would reach the ground, cutting off Lin Fanxing’s path to survival all over again.
Unwilling to accept it, Lin Fanxing forced himself up. The fall had left his whole body weak; even taking two or three steps was difficult. He almost stumbled forward on his knees as he ran.
Damn the heavens!
Was his death in the last life not miserable enough to please fate? Even after being reborn, was it still trying to drive him into a corner?
How long are you going to torment me?!
The torrential rain gave him no clear path to follow. The entire city was buried beneath a catastrophic thunderstorm, white rain crashing down in sheets.
Suddenly, a beam of high light pierced through the curtain of rain, illuminating the chaotic streaks of water and lighting up the deserted road. Before Lin Fanxing could even turn around, an arm wrapped around his waist so tightly it nearly forced bile up his throat. It felt as if his diaphragm had split apart.
Then, his body lifted off the ground.
Only when both feet left the earth did he realize someone had swung him upward. By the time his mind caught up, he was already seated on the back of a motorcycle.
The person in front of him had appeared as if descending from the sky itself, grabbing him by the waist and tossing him onto the motorcycle’s back seat before stepping over in one motion and twisting the handlebars.
The motorcycle shot forward like a streak of lightning. Thunder roared together with the rain, but now another sound cut through the storm: the powerful growl of the engine.
Lin Fanxing had no helmet. In his panic, he twisted half his body to look back. The large man who had been standing on the second-floor unit had already jumped to the ground.
“Go! Faster!” Lin Fanxing shouted, slapping the stranger’s back hard.
The engine roared louder as the spinning wheels kicked rainwater against Lin Fanxing’s ankles. The man behind them gave chase relentlessly, but no matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t compete with the motorcycle’s acceleration.
After one sharp turn, he finally disappeared completely, and Lin Fanxing finally let out a breath. Only after escaping did all the strength leave his body at once, like waking from a nightmare.
He didn’t even have the energy to ask:
Who are you?
Where did you come from?
Why did you save me?
All he had left was ragged breathing and the lingering terror of surviving disaster. He could barely feel the freezing rain anymore. As for the shock of being reborn, it overwhelmed every other sensation.
The black motorcycle carried him through the city, like a GPS rerouting the course of his life.
Suddenly, the stranger in front released one hand from the handlebars and grabbed Lin Fanxing’s left hand, where it rested weakly against his back.
Only then did Lin Fanxing truly register the contact.
He stared blankly at that unfamiliar hand. His emotions were still trapped in the shadow of being hunted down, and he instinctively resisted physical contact, shaking the hand off.
Even if this person had saved his life, Lin Fanxing still didn’t desire excessive closeness with anyone, at least not at the very moment. Besides, his mind was a complete mess.
What now?
Where was he supposed to get several million to repay the debt? And where the hell had that little bastard Fan Xing run off to?!
And there was another terrifying consequence, too.
Before his rebirth, Lin Fanxing had landed that movie role only because one important supporting character wore a prosthetic eye, perfectly matching his condition. But now he had managed to save both eyes, and the butterfly effect had already begun to flap its wings. If that movie started filming again two years later, someone of Lin Fanxing’s status would never catch the director’s eye.
What a disaster.
Patch one hole in the roof, only for another to burst open.
But while Lin Fanxing’s thoughts spiraled wildly, the stranger grabbed his left hand again. This time, the grip was much stronger than before, firm and unquestionable as he pulled Lin Fanxing’s hand toward his own waist.
This time, Lin Fanxing didn’t shake him off. He gently rested his hand there instead, as his reason had finally started to return. He accepted the kindness of the person who had saved him. The stranger was telling him to hold on properly.
Yet the hand still refused to loosen.
Rather than holding him, it felt more like restraining him tightly, as if the person behind him might vanish into thin air the next second and disappear forever.
Lin Fanxing could even feel pain as those thin fingers pressed into his skin like needles. Lightning flashed again, and in that brief brightness, the stranger’s skin looked even paler than his own.
“Hold tight,” the stranger finally spoke.
He wore a black motorcycle helmet, and his voice came muffled from inside it, calm and steady, as though he had already known he would run into Lin Fanxing tonight.
But to Lin Fanxing, being unable to see his face only made him feel more oppressive. He didn’t know what posture to take, and holding onto the man’s clothes felt awkward. Pressing against his waist felt strange, too. In the end, he could only use the proper riding position for a passenger seat.
He leaned his upper body forward completely, placing himself against the stranger in a posture of total trust, and even wrapped both arms tightly around his waist.
Only after he corrected his posture did the hand gripping him finally loosen and return to the handlebars.
Still shaken, Lin Fanxing gradually became aware of how thin the person in front of him was, and how hard his bones felt beneath his clothes.
Like embracing a piece of iron.
However, the rain stripped away their body heat, yet the “iron” in Lin Fanxing’s arms still carried a faint warmth.
After another ten minutes of riding, the motorcycle finally stopped in a very secluded place. Today was June 6th, and the city had already issued a catastrophic thunderstorm warning, so the streets were completely empty.
The motorcycle stopped beneath an abandoned parking shed. There was no one around, only two people who looked half-dead.
Lin Fanxing climbed off the bike and collapsed onto the ground in a miserable heap. His shorts and T-shirt were soaked through, clinging tightly to his chest and thighs.
Using the dim streetlights outside, he shivered as he looked toward the stranger, but the man still hadn’t turned around. All Lin Fanxing could see was a thin back.
Black T-shirt. Black pants.
Even the helmet stayed firmly on his head. The black motorcycle had become Lin Fanxing’s Noah’s Ark, rainwater sliding down its surface in clear streams.
“Thank you. Really… thank you,” Lin Fanxing said after catching his breath.
The stranger still didn’t move, like a machine that had lost power.
“I… I’ll give you money. I’ll pay you.”
Lin Fanxing was genuinely frightened out of his mind, speaking in a confused rush. The other person had saved his life, so… wasn’t he just waiting for Lin Fanxing to bring it up himself?
Only after hearing those words did the stranger finally react. Still holding the handlebars, he slowly turned toward Lin Fanxing.
As expected…
He wanted money.
Lin Fanxing instinctively shrank backward, pressing himself closer to the wall.
“I can never repay this kindness, but… but give me some time. Leave me your phone number. Once I… once I earn some money, I’ll give you… Twenty thousand?”
Another flash of lightning reflected across the stranger’s black helmet. His movements were slightly stiff, impossible to read through the visor. Lin Fanxing retreated again and again until his soaked body pressed against the dusty cement wall behind him, his neck awkwardly stiff.
…Was the amount too little?
As the stranger began walking toward him, Lin Fanxing pressed even the back of his head against the wall.
“Then… thirty thousand?”
The stranger didn’t nod. Instead, he stepped forward with an overwhelming presence, looking down at him from above. The light behind him was completely blocked, and Lin Fanxing was entirely swallowed by his shadow. Tilting his head up to meet his gaze, the outline of that shadow pressed heavily across Lin Fanxing’s face.
“…Forty thousand?” Lin Fanxing let out a miserable, strained smile. “I really can’t afford more than that.”
But the stranger only used his calf to part Lin Fanxing’s bent legs.
Lin Fanxing instinctively tried to close them again, pulling them together, but the stranger once again forced his trembling, rain-soaked legs apart. The toe of a black sneaker brushed against the hollow of his ankle as the man crouched down between his legs. Even while squatting, his height was impossible to ignore. The black T-shirt clung tightly to his body, outlining a lean, elongated frame, like a teenage boy still stretching upward, every bone seeming to absorb nutrients and grow with restless intensity.
“Who are you?” Lin Fanxing looked at the hand reaching toward his face. The pain of having his eye destroyed in his previous life surged back again, but he had no strength left to run. The man’s fingers were longer and thinner than those of the debt collectors.
Was he from another group?
Lin Fanxing’s mind spiraled between rebirth and fear, even imagining… if those fingers were to pierce his eye socket, would they be able to gouge his eyeball out completely, or just blind him once more?
“Fifty thousand… don’t… don’t hurt me,” he swallowed hard.
Only now did it dawn on him that this person might not be a good man at all. After all, in order to avoid creditors, he had never told anyone his rental address. The only people who could have found him were the debt collectors.
The hand did indeed come toward his eyes, but instead of striking, it pressed against the right side of his face, covering his slightly reddened right eye.
Lin Fanxing’s breathing stopped as the stranger raised his other hand. Then, in front of Lin Fanxing’s left eye, he held up a pale, bloodless index finger, asking,
“Say it. What number is this?”
T.N: If you like his novel, you can read up to chapter 13 on my Patreon, with new updates coming every week!
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