Chapter 2

The system kept talking. The gentle smile he’d worn on the day I started college overlapped with the face on the panel before me. I swallowed my last mouthful of rice.

“Can a dead person come back to life and be the male lead?”

Seeing that I’d finally stopped crying, the system chirped happily.

“Of course, sweetheart. Whoever you want, I can get him for you. Don’t worry. All the men I’ve chosen bring their wives good fortune. Money, love, power—my precious girl gets it all.”

I listened quietly to its chatter, my nose stinging.

It had been so long since I’d heard such wholehearted affection.

Ever since I’d started keeping Yu Jingchen confined three years ago, every homecoming had meant sneers and barbed remarks.

“Then him.”

It wasn’t that I wanted to be with Pei Qingyan. I just thought it was a shame for someone so gentle to have left the world so quietly.

“Can you make him suffer less?”

I didn’t know what had caused his illness. The system paused, then thumped its chest in assurance.

“Don’t worry. I promise you a healthy male lead.”

I had nothing left to say. I lay back on the bed, and my phone vibrated.

I took it out. A notification showed Yu Jingchen’s location at the airport.

It took me a while to remember that he still had another tracker on him.

It was inside a bracelet I’d given him. He hadn’t been wearing it when he left, but somehow it was back on his wrist now.

I deleted the tracking app and opened WeChat Moments.

[Freedom, here I come.]

Yu Jingchen had posted it a minute earlier. The photo showed only his wrist, the bracelet, and a plane ticket to Saipan.

He’d even tagged the exact airport location.

I stared at the photo for a long time, then put my phone away and fell into a heavy sleep.

Half dreaming, I was back in college.

A handsome, sunny young man looked at the record in my hands, the tips of his ears red.

“As long as you like it. It took me ages to find a copy.”

“If you really want to thank me, have dinner with me tonight.”

The scene shifted. His arm was around my waist, his eyes full of love.

“Let’s get married after graduation, okay? Meng Qingge, I love you so much.”

But my parents objected. I fell out with my family and threw myself into my company, while Yu Jingchen began neglecting me more and more.

He said I was always so busy my feet barely touched the ground. I didn’t care about him at all.

He often went drinking and clubbing with other people, like a child acting up for my attention.

After his disreputable friends talked him into causing trouble at a bar yet again, I canceled a meeting in my packed schedule and rushed over to bring him home.

I sat on the couch for a long time before giving him two choices.

Either he stopped going out without my permission, or we broke up.

Yu Jingchen chose the first.

At first, everything was fine. But as time went on, he grew increasingly restless.

He no longer wanted to be kept under house arrest, yet he wouldn’t agree to break up.

I spent my days struggling to keep the company afloat, then came home to his cold stares. We were both exhausted.

I’d wanted to end things more than once. But on so many nights of desperate passion, he’d bitten the back of my neck and said that even if we tormented each other to death, we could never part.

When I opened my eyes, it was broad daylight.

I really was poor now.

I couldn’t even afford curtains.

Sunlight shone straight into my eyes. I sat up and looked at the empty pillow beside me.

When I checked my phone, Yu Jingchen had posted ten updates overnight.

Boarding, landing, checking into the hotel, breakfast. The latest was from ten minutes ago.

Every post had a location tag. I put the phone away.

I didn’t want to play along anymore.

I was so tired.

I had a project to discuss today. I didn’t want to know where he’d gone next. I only wanted to know when my life would get better again.

The system said it would be soon.

“Sweetheart, your future should be bright and dazzling. That miserable room isn’t meant for you, and neither is that jinx.”

I hadn’t expected the system to work so quickly. Looking at the man in an immaculate suit before me, I nearly dropped my documents.

Pei Qingyan seemed surprised too. His eyes lit up at once.

“Junior! It’s been a long time.”

Still dazed, I sat down and exchanged pleasantries, staring at his flawless face.

It felt as though it had been an eternity since we’d last sat this close and talked.

“Here’s to working together.”

The boyish awkwardness was gone. He waved a hand in front of my face.

“All this time, and you’re still such a daydreamer?”

“Drifting off even while signing a contract.”

His smile was gentle. My hand trembled as I signed my name.

I didn’t know whether I was overwhelmed at seeing an old acquaintance restored to life, or at finally seeing a glimmer of hope for myself.

For years, no matter how much overtime I worked or how hard I tried, projects that were practically mine had inexplicably vanished.

This was the first one I’d secured without a hitch.

“Well, sweetheart? I wasn’t lying, was I? Leave that jinx and all your luck comes back. He was bringing you nothing but disaster!”