Chapter 1: Self-Rescue

Squat down, stand up, jump! Raise your leg, do a split, then a little hop...

They were such simple movements, yet when Xiao Zhiguang finished, his face was alight with excitement. He pressed his hands against his knees, unable to suppress the smile at the corners of his mouth. He hadn’t had his legs broken, wasn’t slumped in a wheelchair reeking of urine—he could move freely, and it felt wonderful!

He picked up the Nokia 3210 on the table and glanced at the date. Though he was reluctant to believe it, Xiao Zhiguang had to accept the truth: he had been reborn! Sent back twenty-four years, to October 27, 2000, the first day of the tenth lunar month.

A date auspicious for weddings and ancestral rites, but inauspicious for burials or grave repairs.

He remembered this day so well because it was the day he was to marry into the Xue family—a day that marked a turning point in his fate.

Old Master Xue, already eighty-four, was gravely ill and not expected to live much longer. The most renowned feng shui master in Tianhai, Zhang Yiyan, had declared with absolute certainty that if the family brought in a son-in-law to lift the old man’s spirits, he would survive this crisis and live another twenty-four years, reaching the age of 108.

Xiao Zhiguang had just been discharged from military service and assigned to the criminal police force, eager to make something of himself. But he faced a father gravely ill and an astronomical surgery bill. The once optimistic and sunny Xiao Zhiguang was bent beneath the weight of his troubles.

When he didn’t know where to turn, his colleague Xue Shuyu—the little princess of the Xue family—suddenly approached him with an offer: forty thousand yuan, if Xiao Zhiguang would pretend to be her boyfriend and marry into the Xue family for a year. The money would be his.

He thought it would be a turning point in his life, never guessing it was the mouth of a bottomless abyss...

He checked his phone—it was exactly ten o’clock. If his memory served, the Xue family had already discovered that Xue Shuyu had run away. The bride, who should have been welcoming her husband in a wedding ceremony, had fled before the nuptials!

In ordinary families, a runaway bride would mean little more than offering apologies to the guests and rescheduling the wedding.

But in Tianhai, the Xue family was a prestigious clan, one of the city’s greatest. They could not bear such disgrace.

Since the son-in-law would be marrying into their family, and by local custom, such a man was scarcely considered human—at best, a useful beast of burden—and since the wedding was meant only to prolong the old master’s life, the auspicious hour could not be missed.

With no bride, they made Xiao Zhiguang bow to the ancestors with a hen in his arms. And to prevent him from fleeing as well, they broke both his legs...

Scenes from his previous life flashed before his eyes like a lantern show: the stench of urine, the searing pain in his legs, the humiliation that seared his soul and could never be erased.

It was now ten o’clock—one hour before they would break his legs. Xiao Zhiguang knew his time was running out.

Should he run away like Xue Shuyu? Or find a way through this crisis, at least to save his legs?

Last time, after his legs were broken and he was forced to bow with a hen in his arms, Xiao Zhiguang carried that stain on his soul for the rest of his life—a shame that could never be washed away.

From then on, Xiao Zhiguang lost his name. Everyone called him the crippled son-in-law of the Xue family. There was never any respect for him, only thinly veiled contempt. Some whispered behind his back, others mocked him to his face...

Even later, when Xiao Zhiguang became the Xue family’s shadow, wielding the power of life and death, faithfully handling their dirtiest affairs, and working like a dog, he was never granted the slightest respect.

When the old master was on his deathbed, Xiao Zhiguang was forced to drink a pot of poisoned wine, buried with all his secrets beneath the old man’s coffin as a grave sacrifice.

Lifetime after lifetime, nothing but a loyal hound for the Xue family...

Now, finally given a second chance, was he to struggle again in the Xue family’s mire?

Xiao Zhiguang wanted to run, but his father was still in the hospital, scheduled for surgery in three days. If he left now, what would become of his father?

Since he couldn’t leave, but refused to bow with a hen or become known as the crippled son-in-law, he had to find someone to help him get through this crisis.

He knocked on his head, thinking rapidly. According to his past life’s memories, Xue Shuyu had already escaped to Kuala Lumpur. There was no way to find her in time.

But...

Suddenly, Xiao Zhiguang’s eyes lit up with an idea. He flung open the dressing room door and dashed out. The wedding venue was already prepared: white flower baskets filled with blazing red roses lined a romantic aisle of scarlet carpet. A grand crystal chandelier hung from the gilded dome, each crystal sparkling with brilliance.

The tables stood in neat rows on either side of the carpet, and scattered clusters of guests whispered among themselves.

Xiao Zhiguang scanned the scene and finally spotted a tall figure in the corner. He hurried over.

“Wenwen, it’s been a long time!” Xiao Zhiguang greeted, taking a seat across from Xue Wen, looking her up and down.

Xue Wen’s complexion was pale and cold. Though only twenty-four, her face was thin, and faint crow’s feet already marked her eyes. She wore a slightly loose light pink cheongsam, but the fabric was so old that the collar was frayed.

Her features bore a striking resemblance to Xue Shuyu’s, for Xue Wen was her elder sister. If Xiao Zhiguang married into the Xue family, by rank he should call her elder sister-in-law.

If Xue Shuyu was the Xue family’s little princess, born with a silver spoon and showered with affection, then Xue Wen was the overlooked shadow fate had battered.

She had never been favored in the Xue family. More a servant than a daughter, she ate leftovers, wore hand-me-downs, and slept in the storage room...

At nineteen, she became pregnant out of wedlock, disgracing the family’s name and was cast out. She raised her child alone, struggling so much that, at twenty-four, she looked closer to thirty-four.

“Hello, Zhiguang.” Xue Wen nodded, a perfunctory greeting. She wanted nothing to do with him, afraid her sister would get jealous or misunderstand.

Life was already hard enough. Xue Wen didn’t want her sister to think she coveted her fiancé or invite trouble upon herself.

But Xiao Zhiguang grabbed her hand, as if seizing a lifeline. “Old classmate, something’s happened. I need your help!”

Startled, Xue Wen jerked her hand as if scalded, but couldn’t break free. She glanced anxiously around, then hissed, “What are you doing, Xiao Zhiguang? What do you want?”

“We were just ordinary high school classmates. Now you’re my sister’s fiancé—you’re both about to be married! If you’re seen pulling at me in public, people will get the wrong idea. My sister won’t be happy—”

“Shuyu has run away. There’s no bride for the wedding. Only you can help me now!” Xiao Zhiguang’s gaze, already intense, grew even more fervent.

“What do you mean? I don’t understand.” Xue Wen was stunned, frozen in place.

“The bride has run, a shame beyond measure for the Xue family.” Seizing her moment of confusion, Xiao Zhiguang leaned close and whispered, “Go to the dressing room, put on the wedding gown, and pretend to be the bride. Let the wedding go on.”

“You’re insane! That’s preposterous—”

Before she could finish refusing, Xiao Zhiguang pointed to the stage. “That’s your daughter, isn’t it? A lovely little girl!”

Xue Wen froze again. Then her eyes blazed with madness. “Xiao Zhiguang, what’s that supposed to mean? Are you threatening me?”

“No. I just want to propose a little deal—one that benefits us both.” A smile crept onto Xiao Zhiguang’s lips as he made a silent decision: if being good had brought him only suffering, perhaps it was time to learn to be ruthless. If it meant reaching his goal, he would try any means necessary.