Gu Ting opened her eyes. Met with her gaze was a sleek, beautiful ceiling and a complex, luxurious chandelier.
In less than half a second, she swiftly sat up from the bed. However, the moment she moved, her head throbbed with a wave of dizziness, and a stale taste of alcohol lingered in her mouth.
Scanning her surroundings, she quickly discerned that she was in a hotel suite. Judging by the lavish decor and sheer size of the room, the price tag must be astronomical.
Gu Ting did not waste time wondering why she had appeared inside a luxury hotel, nor did she care how form-fitting and revealing her slip dress was. Instead, she was struck by an immense wave of sheer ecstasy—so overwhelmed that she couldn’t help but cover her face and burst into loud laughter.
She was back! She had finally traveled back! She was finally out of that twisted, otherworldly transmigration cycle and free from the endless loop of daily transmigrations and deaths!
Originally just a fresh college graduate in China, she had been involved in a tragic car accident on her very first day commuting to her new job. When she next opened her eyes, she found herself transmigrated into an unknown, bizarre world.
On the first day, she transmigrated into a world-terrorizing, legendary grand demon, only to be skinned, de-boned, and have her inner core ripped out that very afternoon before being roasted into jerky. On the second day, she transmigrated into a fat fish, only for someone to blow up the fishpond that same day, landing her and a bunch of her fish brothers and sisters into a pot of spicy, aromatic fish-head soup. On the third day, she transmigrated into a wealthy local landlord; she couldn’t help but laugh out loud twice, and then she literally died of laughter…
Every bizarre species and every grotesque method of death imaginable—Gu Ting had experienced them all. It was torturous for both body and mind. If she hadn’t possessed an incredibly resilient psyche and firmly adhered to the spiteful spirit of “the more you want me dead, the more I refuse to die,” anyone else would have gone insane long ago.
It wasn’t until today, during her routine death and wrap-up, that she suddenly heard a sharp ding-dong: Congratulations! You have activated the Invincible Lucky Star Gacha System.
Gu Ting: “…”
Where is the invincibility? Where is the luck? Where are your ancestors for eighteen generations?!
Invincible Lucky Star Gacha System: “My invincibly lucky Master, it must be the arrangement of the heavens that brings us together here. Little Lucky congratulates you on finally collecting all 365 varieties of the Fancy Death Experience Card, successfully helping Little Lucky cleanse your misfortune. To express my gratitude, Little Lucky offers you one precious gacha draw. Upon completion, you may return to the real world.”
Gu Ting had slammed down on the draw button with all her might, accompanied by a desperate, full-throated cry of “screw your ancestors!” A burst of blinding light flashed before her eyes. When the light faded and she opened them again, she was already lying on the bed of a modern hotel.
At this moment, how could Gu Ting not be ecstatic? How could she hold back from laughing out loud?
As expected, as long as her mental state remained one step ahead, nothing could ever truly break her!
As for the prize from that unscrupulous system, it had better be something decent. Otherwise, as long as she breathed, the very first thing she would do every single morning upon waking up would be to send a cordial, profane greeting to its ancestors for eighteen generations!
Before Gu Ting could calm her racing emotions, the room door opened. A lean, handsome man walked in. He looked to be around thirty years old, with slightly long hair, and wore a light-colored suit that displayed impeccable taste.
Yet, what drew the most attention was neither his looks nor his expensive attire, but rather the pair of eyes behind his rimless glasses. They were clean yet melancholic, as if harboring the unmelting snow and ice of a frozen mountain.
But no matter how melancholic he looked, could he possibly be more melancholic than someone who had had her kidneys harvested 365 times? She absolutely detested people who tried to flex in her area of expertise!
Thus, she opened her mouth and asked very rudely, “Who are you? Why are you in my room?”
As for what kind of relationship this man had with the fake Gu Ting who had occupied her body for the past year, to what extent they knew each other, or what would happen if he realized she was different from the fake Gu Ting? What a joke. She was the original Gu Ting. What the hell was there to be afraid of?
Wang Mingxiao was taken aback by the question. After catching the strong scent of alcohol in the air, his gaze softened slightly, and he explained good-naturedly, “I am Wang Mingxiao. Miss Gu, you approached me first and arranged to meet me here at the hotel. Do you remember?”
While speaking, Wang Mingxiao poured two glasses of water. He picked one up, handed it to Gu Ting, and said gently, “Miss Gu, have some water to sober up.”
Gu Ting took the glass. As the saying goes, one does not slap a smiling face. Seeing that this man seemed to have a good temper, she let her anger subside slightly.
However, she still stared at him unkindly. “Don’t think I’m drunk! Let me tell you, I am no longer the me of yesterday. The Gu Ting who spoke to you yesterday is no longer here. The current me is telling you: everything said before is null and void. Alright, now you can get the hell out!”
Answering a call to book a hotel room with a woman he barely knew—how could he be a decent man? There was no need to show a good attitude to this type of guy.
In Wang Mingxiao’s ears, these words sounded like nothing more than drunken gibberish. Surprisingly, he didn’t get angry at all. He still explained patiently, “Miss Gu, you were the one who said you owed a massive debt, that you were backed into a corner and needed me to help you, and then you arranged to meet me at the hotel. Do you remember? I have feelings for you, but I have no intention of forcing anyone. If you are unwilling, we can just pretend today never happened, and I promise I won’t mention it to anyone. Alright?”
Gu Ting’s expression shifted repeatedly as she listened. Owed a massive debt? How much money are we talking about? She had only been back for a few minutes, and she was already hit with a double kill of a hotel hookup and a massive debt. That garbage system—truly, anyone who crossed paths with it was cursed! Otherwise, how could she, a recent college graduate with no mortgage and no car loan, owe any money?
The more Gu Ting thought about it, the angrier she became. Consequently, even looking at Wang Mingxiao made her feel incredibly annoyed. After sweeping an unfriendly gaze across his face, she suddenly grabbed Wang Mingxiao’s wrist and began pressing randomly all over his pulse points. Once finished, she abruptly let out a sudden laugh.
Wang Mingxiao felt his scalp tingle inexplicably under her gaze, but he still maintained his gentlemanly demeanor and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Gu Ting smiled. “Tinnitus, insomnia at night, frequent night sweats, and weakness in the lower back and knees… I’m talking about you, right?”
Wang Mingxiao froze for a moment. “Miss Gu, you really are drunk.”
The smile vanished from Gu Ting’s face in the blink of an eye. She let out a cold snort. “Your liver and gallbladder are in disarray, you have a severe yin deficiency in both liver and kidney, and you’ve been impotent for at least half a year. And someone like you actually thought about hooking up with me?”
Wang Mingxiao turned entirely to stone on the spot. The sense of utter brokenness that surged from the depths of his eyes at that moment made it seem as though a gentle gust of wind could easily blow him into fragments.
Taking this in, Gu Ting finally understood why Wang Mingxiao looked so melancholic yet possessed such an approachable air. His melancholy was because he couldn’t perform, and his gentle approachability was also because he couldn’t perform—a direct result of decreased male hormone secretion.
Seeing his utterly dazed and lost state, Gu Ting decided not to provoke him further. “I ghost-guessed that you came to the hotel because you actually wanted to check just how advanced your condition is and whether you’re still salvageable, right?”
The melancholy in Wang Mingxiao’s eyes grew so dense it could not be dissolved.
Gu Ting looked around the room, but seeing no melon seeds—which she desperately craved to snack on at this moment—she could only stand aside and casually wag her tongue. “Actually, it doesn’t really matter. Once you get used to it, you’ll find that without being controlled by hormones, you’ll be more rational, more focused, and it’ll be easier to succeed…”
Wang Mingxiao suddenly interrupted, staring at her with his melancholic eyes, his gentle tone carrying a hint of pleading, “Please do not speak of this to anyone, alright?”
Gu Ting: “Huh?”
Wang Mingxiao: “The 500,000 I promised to give you will still be given to you. I will add another 500,000 as compensation for tonight. What do you think?”
Although Gu Ting really wanted to flash a smile and give him an “OK” sign, she was unfortunately too accustomed to poverty. Instead, she asked, “Doesn’t this count as extortion?”
Wang Mingxiao smiled. This was a smile a poor person could never produce, as if to say: It’s just one million, are you insulting me?
“A matter of mutual consent, how could it be extortion?”
Gu Ting agreed immediately. Every second of hesitation would be an insult to that one million.
“We’ll do exactly as you say.”
From this moment on, she would forgive the fake Gu Ting for one minute and sincerely thank her for inviting such a generous sucker over!
A smile returned to Wang Mingxiao’s face, and his complexion looked a tiny bit better than before. “In addition to this, I must trouble Miss Gu to write a confidentiality agreement for me. Let the matter end here. Is that acceptable?”
Gu Ting blinked and replied instantly, “No problem! Guaranteed to leave you satisfied!”
She understood. Men—even if they turned into ghosts, they still couldn’t bear to be called incompetent.
While she appeared perfectly normal on the outside, she couldn’t help but feel a bizarre sensation internally. She had never studied medicine, yet just now she had easily deduced that this man suffered from a specific ailment. Why was she so certain? Because among the numerous characters she had transmigrated into, one was an old physician who had practiced medicine for over forty years. The reason her impression was so profound was that the old physician knew absolutely nothing else except how to treat one single condition—erectile dysfunction. That day, she had been forced to conduct consultations for a whole day’s worth of impotent men. It had truly opened her eyes; how could the impression not be deep?
Gu Ting: “…”
It must be a very special twist of fate, otherwise there was simply no way to explain this.
Wang Mingxiao breathed a sigh of relief and immediately opened his phone. “Give me your account number.”
Gu Ting found her phone at the head of the bed, unlocked it via facial recognition, and opened her mobile banking using the same method. She had barely written two words of the confidentiality agreement when her phone chimed with a notification.
Your savings card ending in XXXX received a transfer deposit of 1,100,000.00 RMB on October 01 at 18:51. Current Balance: 1,100,000.02 RMB. [XX Bank]
Gu Ting stared at the long string of zeros in a daze. To put it simply, with just a brief conversation, an extra 1.1 million had inexplicably appeared in her account?
“Why did you transfer an extra hundred thousand? Do you not trust my character?”
Wang Mingxiao smiled gently. “To cross paths is fate, so you and I can be considered friends now. It’s just a small token of my regard, which is nothing to me. Please accept it.”
Gu Ting: “…” As a pauper, what else could she say? She could only accept the money with tears of gratitude!
“Thank you, you really are a good person.”
Gu Ting swiftly drafted the confidentiality agreement and thoughtfully attached a medical prescription as a bonus, saying, “Propriety demands reciprocity. I have a century-old secret prescription here. If you don’t mind, you can give it a try.”
In any case, that old physician who practiced for over forty years only had these three to five prescriptions packed inside his brain. Whether he used it or not was up to him.
Wang Mingxiao took the agreement and the prescription, saying, “Thank you. I hope the next time we meet, both you and I will be entirely unburdened.”
Gu Ting waved goodbye. “Bye-bye, no need to see yourself out!”
What a joke. She had died 365 times and could still stand here alive and kicking. How could she possibly be easily defeated by a tiny bit of financial trouble?
After Wang Mingxiao left, Gu Ting couldn’t help but take another look at her bank card balance, her mood brightening considerably. In the very first hour of her transmigration back, she had made a net profit of 1.1 million. There was hope yet to pay off the debt left by the fake Gu Ting! Once all the money was paid back, she, Gu Ting, would be a formidable woman once more!
From the day she left the orphanage, she had told herself: the more unjust destiny is to me, the better I will damn well live! In my world, no one can torment me!
Taking advantage of her good mood, Gu Ting took a sip of water and prepared to start browsing her phone. Now that this body had returned to its original owner, she naturally needed to understand the fake Gu Ting’s life over the past year to deal with what lay ahead. She was an orphan, completely solitary and alone with no close family to answer her questions, so she could only rely on her phone.
She harbured no interest in the fake Gu Ting’s personal life or privacy, but she had to figure out whether the other party’s actions would affect her future life—for instance, what Wang Mingxiao had mentioned earlier about her owing a massive debt.
An hour passed, and Gu Ting turned off her phone. She now had a rough understanding of what the fake Gu Ting had done over the past year. First of all, the fake Gu Ting was currently signed with an entertainment agency called ChengGong Media, though her career development seemed rather mediocre.
Secondly, the fake Gu Ting had dated a boyfriend and spent a significant amount of money on him. However, this ex-boyfriend named Li Xingzhou was a complete piece of trash. Having lost money in the stock market, he begged the fake Gu Ting for help. The fake Gu Ting was foolishly naive, actually daring to use her own name to borrow five million from loan sharks. The moment she handed the money over to Li Xingzhou, he took the cash and vanished into thin air that very night.
Hounded by multiple parties for the debt and with nowhere left to turn, the fake Gu Ting begged her manager for help, which ultimately led to tonight’s shady meeting.
Upon learning that the fake Gu Ting had racked up a debt of over five million, it was impossible for Gu Ting to be happy. She could only comfort herself: a five million debt versus continuing to sing the cycle of death in another world? The answer was glaringly obvious.
Gu Ting took two deep breaths, and when she opened her eyes again, her emotions had calmed. When you have too many lice, you stop itching; when you have too many debts, you stop worrying. Tonight was her first night back. Compared to money, she cherished her own life much more.
She would properly enjoy this long-lost freedom and life; everything else could wait until tomorrow.
Gu Ting hadn’t been in contact with real human beings for a long time. Furthermore, now that the alcohol was wearing off, her stomach was getting a little hungry, and she couldn’t wait to go out and look around. Especially since this hotel tonight looked to be of quite a high class, she simply had to experience it.
As Gu Ting walked down the hallway toward the elevator, she suddenly caught the sound of cheering. Before she could listen closely, a figure lunged out from a door ahead, coming face-to-face with Gu Ting.
This person was a somewhat stockily built man, dressed in a sharp suit, with his hair slicked back to a glossy shine.
Seeing Gu Ting, the wide grin on the suited man’s face didn’t even waver; he looked absolutely elated with success.
“Beautiful, my proposal was successful! Xinxin is finally willing to marry me!” The man raised his arms and shouted, “I am the happiest man on earth tonight! Hahahahaha…”
While one’s own misfortune is painful, the joy of others can be even more enviable. Gu Ting swept a cold glance over him and stepped sideways, preparing to leave.
Immersed in his ecstasy, the suited man didn’t notice Gu Ting’s expression at all. He even cheerfully pulled several stacks of pink banknotes out of an ordinary-looking plastic bag and shoved them into Gu Ting’s hands, acting incredibly boastful. “A grand celebration for me! I’m throwing some cash around so everyone can catch some of the good fortune. Everyone who sees it gets a share! Miss, you’re the first one, you really have great luck…” As he spoke, he gave her a knowing wink.
Gu Ting lowered her head. Entering her view was the most beautiful shade of pink in the world. Stunned, she realized this thick stack had to be at least fifty or sixty thousand. She couldn’t help but reflect: The man successfully proposed, so his smile is a bit exaggerated—is that a crime? The man suddenly gave away so much money just because he wanted to share his happiness and joy—is that a crime?
It wasn’t a crime at all! Therefore…
“Brother, looking at you, you are a man of striking talent and elegant demeanor. Sister-in-law must also be a peerless beauty, gentle and wise. Here, this younger sister sincerely wishes Brother and Sister-in-law: to be united in heart forever, a harmonious union lasting a century, an early arrival of a precious child, and to grow old together in white-headed bliss. From this day forward, may all your affairs go smoothly, everything be to your liking, wealth flow in abundantly, and your endeavors grow bigger and stronger…”
By the time she finished her speech, Gu Ting’s mouth was completely dry. But it didn’t matter; she had to ensure this big brother got his money’s worth.
The suited man was left completely lightheaded by the blessings. He grabbed another large handful of cash from the bag, his laughter ringing through the air: “Hahahahahahaha… How did you know my wife is gentle, virtuous, beautiful, and elegant, and a match made in heaven with me? Little sister, you please my eye. Take this pocket change to buy yourself some milk tea!”
What else could Gu Ting do? She could only return to her room once more clutching the “pocket change” that could buy several thousand cups of milk tea. After rushing back, she could not wait to count it. There were eleven stacks in total, which meant 110,000 RMB.
Gu Ting’s mood could only be described in two words: Incredible!
Holding the pink notes, she took a deep sniff, hoping to inhale more aura of wealth. Right at that moment, several eerie noises echoed from outside the door.