Chapter 1：Never Pick Up a Man on the Side of the R

They say you should never pick up a man you find on the side of the road.

Turns out, they were absolutely right.

Zhou Mai regretted it.

She regretted it so much.

All her life, she'd lived by two rules: mind your own business, and don't bother anyone who didn't bother you. She'd spent years resisting the urge to play the hero and made a point of staying out of other people's problems.

And the one time—just this once—her conscience got the better of her and she decided to do a good deed, she ended up helping an unconscious man on the side of the road.

Her reward?

A one-way trip to the hospital.

She'd been unconscious for three days and three nights.

Now, sitting in the Zhou family's living room, Zhou Mai held up an oval compact mirror and carefully peeled back the gauze on her forehead. She reached up and touched the huge bump right in the middle.

"Ow—shit! That hurts!"

She'd tried to let it go.

Big mistake.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.

It had all started three days ago.

Some obnoxious relatives had come over that night. Zhou Mai couldn't stand listening to them drink and brag, so she'd gone out for a walk.

She'd originally planned to rent a shared bike and ride around the nearby park. But just as she was about to set off, she noticed that a giveaway for concert tickets from her favorite celebrity had been announced on Weibo.

She opened her favorite celebrity's fan page, full of hope.

And, unsurprisingly, she hadn't won.

Not this one.

Not any of the hundreds of giveaways she'd entered over the years.

She'd never won a single one.

She knew she was unlucky.

But being this unlucky was enough to make anyone wonder if the universe had a personal grudge against them.

Desperate enough to try anything, Zhou Mai searched online for ways to turn her luck around.

The first result told her to do more good deeds and build up some good karma.

Zhou Mai rolled her eyes.

The world has already screwed me over enough. The least it can do is stop asking me to be a saint.

Still thinking that, she unlocked a shared bike and got ready to ride away.

That's when she spotted a car parked in the bike lane with its engine still running, completely blocking her path.

She was already in a terrible mood. She was about to march over and give the driver a piece of her mind when she noticed the man in the driver's seat.

He was slumped motionless over the steering wheel.

No matter how hard she knocked on the window, he didn't move.

Something was wrong.

And the timing was way too perfect to be a coincidence.

She'd barely searched for ways to improve her luck, and now an opportunity to do exactly that had practically fallen into her lap.

Was the universe finally giving her a chance to turn her luck around?

Better safe than sorry, Zhou Mai called an ambulance.

She figured the man might have suffered some kind of sudden medical emergency, which would explain why he was slumped over the steering wheel.

To make sure he was still conscious, she reached for the door.

It wasn't locked.

"Hey! Can you hear me?"

She called several times, but he didn't respond.

Worried he might suffocate in that position, Zhou Mai decided to pull him upright and lean him back against the seat.

She'd clearly underestimated just how heavy a grown man could be.

The moment she managed to lift one of his arms, he suddenly lost his balance.

And then he came crashing straight at her.

The instant Zhou Mai saw him falling toward her, there was only one thought in her mind.

I regret everything.

She was never trusting another online fortune-telling trick about turning her luck around.

"Okay, okay, enough! You've been staring at that thing for half an hour! The doctor already told you it won't scar. Once the swelling goes down, you'll be fine. You're barely hurt!"

Seeing her daughter still holding the little mirror, Xu Yan finally lost patience.

"Do you seriously not know your own limits? You were supposed to save the guy, and somehow you ended up in the hospital instead! Your father and I didn't dare go to work for three whole days while you were there. Look at this house! It's a disaster. Who knows how much stuff we've had to put off because of you!"

Xu Yan kept complaining as she tidied the living room.

Her husband sat on the sofa, poured himself a cup of tea, and offered a more reasonable opinion.

"Now, that's not entirely fair. The doctors said the young man suffered sudden cardiac arrest. If Mai Mai hadn't called an ambulance, he might not have made it."

"Yeah, she called an ambulance—and then sent herself to the hospital right along with him!"

Xu Yan kicked her husband's foot as she mopped.

"Lift your feet."

"Still, that young man seems decent. You can tell he's someone who knows how to take responsibility. It was an accident, but he covered all of Mai Mai's medical bills and other expenses while she was in the hospital. He even said he'd take responsibility for anything that came up later. You don't see many young people that responsible these days."

Zhou's father patted his beer belly as he spoke.

His son, Zhou Nian, who had been sitting at the other end of the sofa, immediately objected.

"My sister got hurt because of him. She spent three days in the hospital. Of course he should pay the medical bills!"

Even now, the memory still made Zhou Nian uneasy.

The moment he'd heard that Zhou Mai had been rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, his whole body had gone stiff with fear.

Sure, the two siblings fought like cats and dogs at home. They could argue every few days and practically come to blows.

But they were still family.

If anything had happened to Zhou Mai, he would've hunted that guy down.

Unfortunately, by the time he'd reached the hospital, the "culprit" was already gone.

Otherwise, he would've made sure the guy remembered him.

"This is why I keep telling you kids to stop staying up so late! Your body doesn't give you a warning before it gives out. Look at that poor guy. Exhausted, low blood sugar, probably running on barely any sleep. What did you expect?"

Whenever something happened, Xu Yan somehow managed to turn it into a lecture about staying up late.

Zhou Mai rolled her eyes.

"You just said he was exhausted and had low blood sugar. What does that have to do with staying up late?"

"How does it not? If he wasn't staying up late, why would he be exhausted? And don't tell me his blood sugar just magically went haywire for no reason!"

Xu Yan paused, then added with complete confidence, "That young man was actually pretty handsome. But his face was ghostly pale, his lips were turning blue, and his dark circles were practically down to his chin!"

Zhou Mai had to admire her mother's talent for exaggeration.

If she hadn't caught a glimpse of the man's face before she passed out, she might genuinely have believed he'd been drained dry by years of staying up late.

Speaking of his appearance, Zhou Mai couldn't help remembering him.

The two of them had been far too close for her to get a proper look at his whole face, but his eyes and brows alone had been enough to leave an impression.

His brows were dark, thick, and sharply defined. His eyes were cold and severe. There was something about his gaze that made people instinctively follow his lead.

He had the kind of commanding presence that came naturally to someone used to being in control.

If he hadn't given her that enormous bump on the forehead, landed her in the hospital for three days, and then walked away without so much as an apology or a thank-you, Zhou Mai might even have spent a few more seconds admiring that face.

But now?

Whenever she thought of him, all she felt was rage.

"Seriously. What terrible luck."

Zhou Mai huffed.

Her father had always been a little superstitious.

At those words, his expression immediately turned serious.

"Mai Mai, actually, there is something strange about what happened to you. And you just happened to be unconscious for three days..."

He thought for a moment.

"How about this? Tomorrow is the Hungry Ghost Festival. Come with me to visit your grandfather's grave. Ask him to watch over you from the other side."

He brightened at his own idea.

"Remember last year during the Lunar New Year, when I went to your grandfather's grave? I asked him to help Zhou Nian get into Imperial Valdoria University. And look—didn't he get in this year?"

Zhou Nian stared at him.

"...Could it possibly be because I was capable of getting in on my own?"

Zhou Mai didn't mind the idea of visiting her grandfather.

Lately, she'd been having terrible luck. Instead of begging gods and Buddhas who didn't even know who she was, she might as well ask the grandfather who had loved her most when he was alive.

At least they were family.

Once she'd made up her mind, she went the very next day.

Early the following morning, her father drove Zhou Mai to a cemetery on the outskirts of the city.

They bought a bouquet of chrysanthemums from one of the shops at the entrance, then walked into the cemetery carrying a bottle of baijiu, a strong Chinese liquor, and a few dishes to go with it.

Her grandfather was buried in the largest cemetery in Crystalford, nestled among the hills on the outskirts of the city. Nearly ten thousand people had been laid to rest there over the past century.

---

Duan Yi woke with a violent jolt.

When he opened his eyes, there was nothing around him.

He couldn't see anything.

He couldn't touch anything.

All he could make out was a faint voice somewhere in the distance.

Then his memories came rushing back.

Images flickered through his mind, one after another.

A winding highway.

A black SUV tore down the road, going well over the speed limit.

Several police cars followed close behind, red and blue lights flashing as they raced after him, sirens screaming through the night.

"Duan Yi! You're surrounded! Pull over!"

The man behind the wheel was him.

And yet, he wasn't.

It was the version of him the story had written.

It wasn't until the moment his car slammed into the rock face that he finally understood.

The world he lived in was a novel.

And he was its obsessive antagonist.

His only purpose was to oppose the male lead, Lu Yubai, and push him closer to the heroine, Chen Xinuo.

He was nothing more than the pathetic clown in their little love story.

No wonder he'd always felt an inexplicable hostility toward Lu Yubai.

He'd known that going against Lu Yubai could put Baitian in serious trouble, yet he'd still turned against everyone and refused to back down.

No wonder he'd been uncontrollably drawn to Chen Xinuo the first time he'd met her.

He'd been willing to throw away everything he'd spent years building just for her—just to win her favor.

So that was the reason.

All of it.

A sharp electrical buzz filled his ears.

For one brief moment after the car went over the cliff, there was nothing beneath him.

Then came the impact.

And with it, his mind became clearer than it had ever been.

He'd expected to feel rage.

Despair.

Regret.

Instead, there was nothing.

Once he was free from the rules of the novel, his thoughts and emotions finally belonged to him again.

The love and hatred imposed on him by the plot vanished in an instant.

The only thing he regretted was that his fate had never been his to control.

Then, faintly, he heard the sound of something ticking.

Tick.

Tick...

Someone seemed to be shouting from the other side of a pane of glass.

The voice was muffled, impossible to make out.

He forced his eyes open through the pain.

The first thing he saw was a wristwatch.

The wrist wearing it seemed to be his own, resting across the steering wheel.

August 19?

August? How could it be August?

Like something out of a nightmare, his mind was fully awake, but his body wouldn't move.

He was trapped inside himself.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move a muscle.

Then a breeze slipped through the car.

Someone opened the door.

The voice that had been muffled by the glass suddenly became clear.

"Hey! Are you okay?"

A girl's voice.

Duan Yi tried to lift his head, but his body felt as though it weighed a thousand pounds.

"I've already called an ambulance. Can you hear me?"

She sounded worried.

When he still didn't respond, she tried to pull him upright from the steering wheel.

She had clearly underestimated how heavy a grown man could be.

She had barely managed to lift one of his arms when he suddenly lost his balance.

He fell toward her.

As his body dropped under its own weight, Duan Yi caught sight of a young, unfamiliar face.

Her almond-shaped eyes were wide with fear.

The next second, they both crashed out of the car.

Their foreheads slammed together.

And the world went black again.

---

Then the memory ended.

Duan Yi woke once more to the violent pulse of that strange force.

"Dad, I brought Mai Mai to see you."

At the cemetery, Zhou's father placed the chrysanthemums in front of the gravestone.

He took out the bottle of baijiu and the dishes they'd brought from home, then poured a cup of liquor and tipped it onto the ground in front of the grave.

"You stay well down there. This is your favorite liquor. I brought some for you."

Then he looked at his daughter.

"Mai Mai, go on. Kneel down and bow your head to your grandfather. Ask him to watch over you from the other side."

In the void, voices began to reach Duan Yi.

At first they were distant.

Then they grew clearer.

He focused, trying to make out every word.

And then he heard that last sentence.

The other side?

Duan Yi tensed.

Wait.

Am I dead?

In front of the gravestone, Zhou Mai knelt down.

She clasped her hands together and made a heartfelt wish.

"Grandpa, Grandpa, if you can hear me from the other side, please look after your favorite granddaughter."

She paused.

"I don't have that many wishes. I mainly just want to get rich."

Another pause.

"Actually, I'd prefer to get really rich. The kind of rich where I never have to work for the rest of my life and can eat, drink, have fun, and spend as much money as I want."

"Who are you?"

Duan Yi's voice came out tense.

Zhou Mai was in the middle of bowing when she suddenly heard what sounded like a man's voice beside her.

She immediately lifted her head and looked around.

There was no one nearby except her father.

"Dad... did you just say something?"

Her father stared at her in confusion.

"I didn't say anything."

Duan Yi realized what was happening.

For the first time since waking, his voice held a hint of excitement.

"You can hear me?"

Zhou Mai froze.