Chen Xu woke up utterly bewildered.
A magnificent crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, its dazzling light so bright that his eyes struggled to adjust. Beneath him was an expensive custom-made mattress, softer and more luxurious than anything he had ever experienced in his previous life.
The bedroom alone covered more than 100 square meters. A solid-wood wardrobe taller than he was stood half-open nearby, with rows of high-end suits and coats hanging inside, many of them still bearing their untouched price tags.
Chen Xu abruptly sat up and wiped the nonexistent cold sweat from his forehead.
The chaotic memories flooding his mind told him exactly what had happened. He had transmigrated, and of all places, he had ended up inside a female-led revenge novel he had finished reading only a couple of days ago.
Of course, he hadn’t transmigrated into the female lead. He was a man. But he hadn’t become the protagonist either, because this novel didn’t even have a protagonist.
The central character of the novel was Lin Wanning.
Her story began like a standard female-led revenge novel. Her family was desperately poor, her parents had died when she was young, and her only remaining relative was her twin sister, Lin Wansu.
The sisters had depended on each other since childhood, living together in the cheapest old rental they could find in the slums.
The younger sister, Lin Wanning, was exceptionally gifted academically. She was destined to achieve one of the highest scores in the entire province on the national college entrance examination.
Her older sister, Lin Wansu, had a gentle and softhearted personality. She was an extraordinarily kind person who had cared for her younger sister like a mother ever since they were children. Besides attending classes every day, she worked part-time jobs and even collected recyclables for money, saving everything she could to buy study materials and nutritional supplements for Lin Wanning.
However, because Lin Wansu was poor and easy to bully, several wealthy young ladies at school and their followers treated her as their personal source of entertainment.
They threw away her schoolbag, tore up her exam papers, stole her living expenses, and brutally beat her every few days.
School bullying was terrifying. Most perpetrators were themselves immature and rarely considered the consequences of what they did. Yet their actions could inflict devastating psychological and physical harm on their victims.
Although the sisters attended the same school, they weren’t in the same class. Lin Wansu never dared tell her younger sister what was happening.
She was afraid Lin Wanning would become distracted from her studies. More importantly, she feared dragging her sister into this nightmare, because those people weren’t opponents that two impoverished sisters could possibly afford to provoke.
According to the plotline of the original novel, on the night before the college entrance examination results were released, Lin Wansu would be tricked into coming to school by the girls who had been bullying her. They would lock her inside an old school warehouse.
In their eyes, it was nothing more than another simple prank.
However, no one expected the warehouse’s electrical wiring to be severely deteriorated. In the middle of the night, a fire suddenly broke out.
Trapped inside with no way to escape, Lin Wansu, a young woman whose entire future still lay ahead of her, was slowly consumed by the flames amid utter despair.
Early the next morning, Lin Wanning discovered that her sister was missing. She assumed Lin Wansu had gone to one of her part-time jobs again and didn’t think much of it.
Soon afterward, Lin Wanning checked her examination results. Her score ranked among the highest in the entire province, so high that the exact number had even been concealed from public view.
Overwhelmed with joy, she was just about to leave and find her sister to share the good news when her homeroom teacher called.
That phone call informed her that her sister was dead.
In a daze, Lin Wanning rushed to the school and collapsed to her knees before the charred ruins. She stared at the blackened corpse beneath a white sheet while the school administrators and the parents of the bullies desperately shifted responsibility onto one another.
Something inside her died at that moment.
From that day onward, Lin Wanning went completely mad and descended into darkness.
For revenge, she threw herself into making money at any cost.
That was when the novel truly entered its main plot. Using her extraordinary intelligence and elite education, Lin Wanning built a vast business empire step by step.
Many years later, by the end of the novel, she had become an unimaginably powerful and wealthy tycoon, earning the title “Empress of the Business World.”
Then she took out a list.
One by one, she began settling every old score.
The people who had participated in bullying her sister, the school administrators who had helped suppress the truth, and even their families were spared no mercy.
She didn’t merely bankrupt them or cost them their jobs. She destroyed their families and ruined their lives completely. Even those involved who had already died weren’t spared. Lin Wanning had their graves dug open and their ashes scattered.
She didn’t even forgive the classmates who had never personally harmed Lin Wansu and had merely stood by and watched. Although she didn’t directly destroy them as ruthlessly as the others, none of them met a pleasant end.
Unfortunately, Chen Xu had transmigrated into precisely one of those bystanders.
The original Chen Xu had the exact same name as him. He was an extraordinarily wealthy second-generation heir and the only son of Chen Xi, CEO of Chen Group.
Chen Group had businesses spread throughout the province. It was one of the leading corporate groups not only in Jiangnan Province but throughout the Nation. Unfortunately, in the original novel, it became the female lead’s first major obstacle.
Chen Xu had never participated in bullying Lin Wansu. As an heir from an extremely wealthy family, he was surprisingly low-key at school. However, that also meant he rarely cared about anything happening to his classmates.
He had watched Lin Wansu being beaten and humiliated, yet he had remained indifferent because it had nothing to do with him. Occasionally, when teachers came to ask about Lin Wansu being bullied, he chose to remain silent just like everyone else.
Furthermore, Chen Group happened to be the first major opponent standing between Lin Wanning and her rise to becoming the Nation’s wealthiest person. Naturally, once Lin Wanning turned her attention toward Chen Xu, she showed him no mercy.
Chen Xu wasn’t exactly an ignorant wastrel, but he knew virtually nothing about business. After inheriting the family enterprise, he mismanaged the company until it was barely surviving. In the end, Lin Wanning effortlessly seized his family’s entire business empire.
As for Chen Xu himself, he was reduced to utter poverty and eventually survived by collecting recyclables.
Chen Xu sat there for a while, slowly digesting the memories inside his head.
Then he suddenly remembered something.
His expression changed instantly.
He grabbed the phone beside his pillow and turned on the screen.
June 24, 2026, 11:34 p.m.
Chen Xu threw off the blanket and sprang out of bed. He practically stumbled his way downstairs without even bothering to change his shoes.
Only after reaching the first floor did he remember that the villa had an elevator. He immediately turned around, sprinted toward the elevator in the corner of the living room, and frantically pressed the button for the underground garage.
Lin Wansu was going to die in that warehouse fire tonight.
Chen Xu wasn’t some selfless saint, but he couldn’t simply stand by and knowingly allow a young woman to be burned alive.
More importantly, if he did nothing, the plotline of this world would continue exactly as it had in the original novel. If that happened, his comfortable life as a wealthy heir wouldn’t last much longer either.
Ding.
The elevator doors opened, and Chen Xu rushed out.
Going there empty-handed was obviously impossible. He had no idea how severe the fire was at this moment. He didn’t even know whether the flames had started yet.
The original novel had barely described this part.
Chen Xu yanked a fire extinguisher, a towel, and two bottles of mineral water from a storage cabinet beside the elevator. He also grabbed a spare coat.
A cabinet containing car keys stood nearby. Chen Xu snatched the nearest key and pressed the unlock button.
In the corner of the garage, the headlights of an Aston Martin DBS flashed to life.
Its black carbon-fiber body gleamed beneath the garage lights. A massive front grille dominated its aggressive profile, while the sleek body hugged the ground, giving the entire car a fierce and predatory appearance.
If Chen Xu had encountered a luxury car worth millions in his previous life, he definitely would have stopped to admire it carefully.
Right now, however, he couldn’t care less.
He yanked open the door, threw everything onto the passenger seat, slid behind the wheel, fastened his seat belt, and started the engine.
The V12 engine released a deep, thunderous growl.
The black sports car shot out of the villa. Its tires shrieked against the pavement as its speed rapidly climbed.
The original Chen Xu had only recently finished the college entrance examination and didn’t have a driver’s license yet. However, Chen Xu had possessed one in his previous life.
At a time like this, he couldn’t worry about such things.
His family’s villa wasn’t particularly far from the school. With a sports car, he could definitely get there faster than the firefighters.
Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, Chen Xu pulled out his phone and dialed the fire emergency number.
Chen Xu urgently said, “The school warehouse at Linjiang No. 1 High School is on fire! Please send firefighters there immediately!”
The dispatcher replied, “We’ve already received an emergency call. Fire engines are currently being dispatched to the school.”
Chen Xu’s heart jolted.
The fire department had already received a report.
Would he still make it in time?
He ended the call and quickly sent a message to the captain of his family’s bodyguards. Then he tossed the phone aside and slammed the accelerator to the floor.
The speedometer surged directly past 200 kilometers per hour.
The roar of the engine thundered through the streets. Lights flickered on inside nearby homes as numerous residents were awakened and began angrily cursing whoever was making such an enormous racket in the middle of the night.
Within minutes, Chen Xu pulled up outside the southeastern gate of Linjiang No. 1 High School.
From there, he could vaguely see several people near the main entrance on the opposite side, craning their necks to look inside after noticing the fire. Meanwhile, faint smoke was already rising from the warehouse near the rear gate.
Since summer vacation had already begun, the security booth was empty, and the retractable gate at the school entrance was shut.
Without hesitation, Chen Xu grabbed his supplies and got out of the car.
Carrying the fire extinguisher, he rushed toward the perimeter wall, stepped onto several bricks piled near its base, and climbed over the iron fence.
The moment he landed, his foot twisted awkwardly.
A piercing pain shot through his ankle.
Chen Xu didn’t stop.
Gritting his teeth, he limped toward the warehouse as quickly as he could.
There wasn’t another person in sight anywhere on campus. The wind swept past the aging gymnasium, making loose metal panels rattle ominously in the darkness.
After rounding the gymnasium, Chen Xu smelled something burning.
He ran another dozen meters and finally saw the warehouse.
A faint red glow shone through the ventilation window high on the wall, while wisps of white smoke seeped from beneath the door.
A thick iron chain had been wrapped around the metal door, secured on the outside with a brand-new padlock.
Chen Xu rushed forward and slapped the iron door hard. A wave of scorching heat immediately spread through his palm.
Chen Xu shouted, “Lin Wansu!”
There was no response from inside.
Anxiety surged through him.
Chen Xu raised the fire extinguisher and smashed it viciously against the padlock.
Bang!
The deafening impact echoed across the deserted campus.
The padlock shook violently.
It didn’t open.
The impact numbed Chen Xu’s arms, nearly knocking the extinguisher from his hands.
Chen Xu cursed, “It’s an abandoned warehouse! Why the hell did they put such a high-quality lock on it?!”
Clenching his teeth, he swung again.
Bang!
A deep notch appeared in the padlock.
Suddenly, an extremely faint cry came from inside the warehouse.
Chen Xu froze.
For a moment, he wondered whether he had imagined it. He immediately pressed his ear against the gap beside the door.
Chen Xu shouted, “Lin Wansu? Can you hear me?”
Silence lasted for two seconds.
Then a weak voice barely squeezed through the crack in the door.
Lin Wansu pleaded, “Help… Help me…”
Chen Xu released a long breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
The girl who was supposed to die tonight in the original novel was right behind this door.
She was still alive.
And right now, he was the only person who could save her.
Chen Xu raised the fire extinguisher again and smashed it down for the third time.
Bang!
The padlock split halfway apart.
The tremendous recoil tore the fire extinguisher from Chen Xu’s hands. It crashed onto the ground, bending the nozzle, and a burst of white powder sprayed directly into his face.
Chen Xu coughed violently twice, his eyes burning painfully.
He hurriedly wiped his face with his sleeve, grabbed the iron chain with both hands, and pulled with all his strength.
The chain loosened slightly, but it was still caught around the door handles.
Suddenly, a loud crash came from inside the warehouse.
A storage rack had probably collapsed.
Immediately afterward, the smoke pouring through the gap beneath the door became much thicker. Gray-white smoke crawled along the ground, carrying an acrid, suffocating smell.
Chen Xu’s heart sank.
The fire was spreading.
There was no time left.
He grabbed the fire extinguisher and smashed it against the padlock again.
The fourth strike.
The fifth strike.
The violent impacts split the skin across his palms. Blood seeped from the webbing between his thumb and index finger, mixing with rust and white extinguisher powder until the sticky mess coated his hands.
Chen Xu roared, “Open, damn it!”
Bang!
After one final deafening impact, the padlock finally snapped.
The iron chain crashed onto the ground with a metallic clatter.
Chen Xu immediately reached out to push the door, only to jerk his hand back as the scorching metal burned his palm.
Chen Xu hissed, “Damn it.”
He looked down.
His palm had already turned bright red.
More frighteningly, there was no longer any sound coming from inside.
Chen Xu’s heart plunged.
He quickly unscrewed one of the bottles of mineral water, soaked the towel, and pressed it over his mouth and nose. Then he poured water over the spare coat until it was partially soaked and wrapped it around his arms.
Once he had finished, Chen Xu stepped back twice and stared at the iron door as smoke continued to seep around its edges.
Was he afraid?
Of course he was.
In his previous life, he hadn’t even dared stand too close to a barbecue grill. Now he was supposed to charge straight into a burning building.
Anyone who claimed they wouldn’t be afraid was simply putting on a brave face.
But behind that door was a living person.
A young woman who should have had a bright future ahead of her.
Chen Xu closed his eyes for a moment.
A sentence spoken by Lin Wanning in the original novel suddenly surfaced in his mind.
‘You clearly saw what was happening. Why did you do nothing?’
Chen Xu cursed under his breath.
Then he raised his foot and kicked the iron door with all his strength.