After Shen Meng’s car crashed into the landscaped median in the middle of the highway, it was launched into the air. It spun 720 degrees before slamming heavily onto the opposite lane.
Driven by inertia, it skidded forward, eventually crashing into the roadside guardrail and bouncing back before sliding for another stretch.
Only then did it finally come to a stop.
At some point during the whole ordeal, Shen Meng lost consciousness.
When she slowly came to, still dazed and confused, she discovered that she was standing safely outside the car.
Shen Meng roughly checked every part of her body that she could see.
She was completely unharmed.
Not even a scratch.
How strange.
Meanwhile, her beloved white 320L, which she had bought less than a year ago, was now crumpled into a twisted wreck. It was battered and broken, looking as though it might fall apart at any moment.
Yet the headlights were still stubbornly shining, casting an eerie atmosphere over the darkness.
Shen Meng felt a sharp pain in her heart when she saw it.
She had been rushing back to Nangang after finishing work because she wanted to make it home before midnight and celebrate Xu Jingchen’s birthday with him.
Well, so much for that.
Not only was her birthday surprise ruined, but her new car was wrecked too.
Shen Meng walked toward her beloved car.
But when her gaze fell through the car window, her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Another version of herself, covered in blood and flesh, was trapped in the driver’s seat of the crumpled car.
She didn’t look good.
A fragment of a red agate bracelet had pierced into the area around her heart, and bright red blood had soaked into the skin around the wound.
For a moment, Shen Meng’s mind completely stopped working.
Although the development of science had already given people the concept of parallel dimensions, actually experiencing something like this herself still left her unable to believe her own eyes.
So which one was the real Shen Meng?
“You’ve already died.”
A somewhat androgynous voice, though clearly belonging to a woman, came from behind Shen Meng’s right side.
Shen Meng jumped in fright.
She turned her head while simultaneously turning her body and taking a step backward, putting some distance between herself and the owner of the voice.
As her gaze focused, a flash of fiery red entered her eyes.
It was a woman who seemed to be slightly taller than Shen Meng. She stood three or four steps away.
The lighting was poor, and Shen Meng was standing with her back to the light, blocking some of it herself, so she couldn’t see the woman clearly.
What she could see was that the woman was wearing a red dress.
A very sexy one.
There was a slit on one side of the dress that revealed her long, fair legs whenever she moved. She stood out vividly against the night.
She wore a pair of red high heels that clicked sharply against the ground as she walked.
“You’ve already died.”
The woman in red spoke as she walked toward Shen Meng. She stopped about a meter away.
Only then could Shen Meng clearly see her face.
The woman in red wore heavy makeup. Her full, bright red lips were especially striking. Her thick, long hair fell past her chest in large, wavy curls.
It was impossible to tell her exact age, but she was beautiful, alluring, and incredibly sexy.
Shen Meng couldn’t help feeling envious when she saw the woman’s thick, luxurious hair.
She even absentmindedly raised a hand and touched her own hair.
Who among us overworked wage slaves doesn’t suffer from hair loss?
“Did that scare you silly?”
The woman in red brushed a hand through her own hair.
“You’ve already died. You can think of it this way: your physical body has died. The person standing in front of me right now is your soul.”
“My soul?”
Shen Meng lowered her head and stared at her hands.
Just then, a car drove over, and Shen Meng instinctively became nervous.
“Should we hide? Wouldn’t it be bad if someone saw us?”
The woman in red let out a mocking laugh.
“They can’t see us. Don’t be nervous.”
As if to prove her point, the car stopped a short distance away.
Two people jumped out and ran toward the crumpled wreck. They passed straight through Shen Meng, who hadn’t even had time to react, and rushed toward the wrecked car.
Shen Meng was startled when someone passed right through her body.
“Someone’s been in an accident! Call 120!”
“I’ll call 122. You call 120.”
“Should we get the person out first?”
“The fuel tank isn’t leaking, so there’s no immediate danger. We don’t know what we’re doing. We might cause a secondary injury if we try. Let’s wait for 120 and let the doctors handle it.”
“Yeah, good point.”
……
Shen Meng watched as the two people rushed around her car and her body, completely overwhelmed and confused.
She stood there in a daze.
She had no idea how much time passed before the traffic police and the 120 emergency medical team arrived at the scene one after another.
Shen Meng watched the traffic police examine the accident scene.
The doctors and nurses from 120 removed her body from the wreck. After examining her, they covered her with a white sheet, carried her into the ambulance, and drove away.
Finally, a tow truck arrived and hauled away the crumpled remains of her 320L.
The road suddenly became empty, as though nothing had ever happened.
The sky had already begun to brighten, and the number of cars on the highway gradually increased.
Shen Meng slowly backed toward the side of the road, climbed over the guardrail, and began walking aimlessly forward.
“Hey! Where are you going? If you want to go back to Nangang, you need to go this way.”
Shen Meng stopped and turned to look at the woman in red.
“Back to Nangang? Walk there? It’s dozens of kilometers away! Besides, what am I supposed to do if I go back? What can I even do?
“And shouldn’t the people who come to take me away be the Black and White Impermanence? Why is it you? Are they so overwhelmed with work that they can’t handle everything anymore?”
The woman in red laughed.
“Things aren’t quite what you think. My name is Shang Hong. You can think of me as the genie from Aladdin’s lamp.”
Shang Hong waved her hand, showing Shen Meng the red agate bracelet around her wrist.
It was a vivid red with a slight wine-red tint, crystal clear and translucent.
It looked very similar to the bracelet Xu Jingchen had given Shen Meng.
But that bracelet was already broken, and some of its fragments were still embedded in Shen Meng’s body.
“You were in a car accident. The red agate bracelet you were wearing broke, and the fragments pierced into your body. After being stained with your blood, they summoned me, and you formed a contract with me.”
“A contract?”
Shen Meng was confused.
“Shouldn’t I get three wishes?”
Shang Hong laughed.
“More or less. But it’s not three wishes. It’s one wish.
“You need to make a choice. Do you want to be reborn, or do you want to come with me to a parallel world, play a game, and experience what it’s like to be the heroine of a satisfying power-fantasy story?”
Before Shen Meng could answer, Shang Hong continued.
“You have three days to think about it. Give me your answer at this time on the third day. For now, I’ll take you back to Nangang.”
Shang Hong grabbed Shen Meng’s hand.
A flash of white light suddenly appeared before Shen Meng’s eyes.
When it disappeared, she was already standing in the hospital morgue.
Xu Jingchen had rushed over after receiving the news.
He was sprawled over Shen Meng’s now-cold body, sobbing so hard that he could barely breathe, completely devastated.
The moment Shen Meng saw Xu Jingchen, she finally came back to her senses and realized what had happened.
Tears burst from her eyes like a flood breaking through a dam.
She rushed forward, wanting to embrace Xu Jingchen, only to pass right through him and fall hard onto the floor.
“I’ve never done anything terrible! Why is Heaven treating me so unfairly?!
“My life had only just started getting better, and now I’ve died in a car accident!”
Overwhelmed with grievance, Shen Meng burst into tears.
Shang Hong didn’t try to comfort her.
She simply leaned against the doorway and watched.
Only after Shen Meng had cried herself out did Shang Hong walk over and help her to her feet.
“As the saying goes, disaster is where fortune leans, and fortune is where disaster hides. The things that happen in this world can’t be simply divided into fortune and misfortune.”
“I want to be reborn. I don’t need three days to think about it. Let me be reborn right now!”
Shen Meng grabbed Shang Hong’s arm.
“I don’t want to give up the life I worked so hard to make better. And I especially don’t want to give up Xu Jingchen! He’s the only warmth I have in this world.”
Shang Hong clicked her tongue.
“You should wait until the three days are over before making your decision.”
Shen Meng frowned unhappily.
“You said I could choose! Why are you forcing me to wait three more days now? Is this how immortals keep their word?”
Shang Hong couldn’t help laughing.
“You’ve always been so mild-mannered. You never used to contradict anyone to their face. But today you’ve suddenly grown a backbone. You even dare to question an immortal!
“Looks like dying once really does change a person!”
Shen Meng’s face immediately flushed red.
Her eyes began darting around just like they normally did.
“I… I just think you’re being unreasonable! You said I could choose, and now you’re not letting me!”
Her voice grew quieter and quieter.
Shang Hong pinched Shen Meng’s chin, forcing her to lift her head and look at her.
“I just praised you, and you’re already back to your old self!
“Let me tell you, I normally don’t meddle in other people’s affairs. I made an exception for you today and decided to interfere just this once.
“Waiting three days won’t cost you anything. If, after three days, you still decide that you want to be reborn in this world, I will absolutely keep my promise!”
After saying that, Shang Hong released Shen Meng’s chin.
She didn’t wait for Shen Meng to respond before grabbing her wrist again.
Shen Meng suddenly felt her vision blur.
She had no idea where they were going this time.