chapter 142
In A City, every inch of land was worth its weight in gold.
Even a shared basement at 700 yuan a month had a constant stream of people coming to see it.
After four years at Gu Zhen’s side, constantly influenced by him, the budding business instincts of Gu Yu Chu not only helped him pick out a tenant who best fit his current needs, he even managed to find the man a job he could do from home.
This tenant set up a stall at the night market under the overpass, selling handmade goods-simple processed hand-painted fans, little clay figures, small home appliances he could buy wholesale and resell at a markup. Business came in waves. The foot traffic was clearly there, yet some days he couldn’t close a single sale.
Gu Yu Chu helped him repair broken appliances. While he collected repair fees, he also gained the tenant’s trust.
The tenant started confiding adult grievances to him. “We’re all just setting up stalls, but there’s this one vendor who does crochet and wool felting-his business is insanely good. There’s a line every day; he’s making money hand over fist. Shame it’s way too hard to make those things.”
“I can do it,” Gu Yu Chu said. “I’ll make them for you. Pay me after you sell them. How about it?”
With Gu Yu Chu joining in,
Business picked up within a week.
With what money he had left after paying rent, Gu Yu Chu bought a stack of secondhand books-how-to guides for handmade crafts.
He studied the pictures on his own, puzzling them out as he developed new products.
He was so good at it that customers eventually started requesting custom orders.
Every night when they split the money, the tenant would marvel, “Is there anything you can’t do?”
Gu Yu Chu gave a wry smile. “Too many things.”
“What I can do doesn’t even count…”
Cheap skills. Things that would never make it to a proper stage.
His older brother, Gu Zhen, was the one who could do anything.
Even if the Gu Family ranked last among the four great clans of A City, the industries it touched still made people’s heads spin: real estate, hotels, malls, jewelry, luxury brands, appliances…
Compared to Gu Zhen, he was depressingly ordinary.
–
Gu Yu Chu bought two years’ worth of calendars in one go and lived day by day by tearing off each page.
Waiting.
Waiting for his sixteenth birthday.
Would his brother come?
Come to pick him up, like in his last life.
That day, he bought a simple but decent outfit, so he wouldn’t be like last time-ragged, in clothes full of holes. His steps were light when he went out.
The tenant teased him, “Dressed up so nicely. I’ve never seen you this happy before. What’s the occasion?”
“I’m waiting for someone to pick me up.”
Gu Yu Chu handed him a string of numbers. “If I don’t come back after today, pay the rent to this person from now on. One thousand a month.”
“He’s the landlord, so you’re… the sub-landlord?” The tenant froze, then laughed and cursed, “I let a brat like you con me for two whole years! You really have the makings of a cutthroat businessman!”
But those words were already behind him as Gu Yu Chu walked out of the basement.
He sat in the same grimy little diner from his previous life, waiting nervously.
At almost the exact same time,
The same person walked into the shop.
Gu Zhen said, “Come back to the Gu Family with me.”
He shot to his feet, unable to wait another second, hiding his trembling hands behind his back and trailing close on Gu Zhen’s heels.
“Okay.”
–
This time, Gu Yu Chu no longer drifted through life in a daze. He took the initiative to ask to go to school and found that he was very interested in the sciences.
A new idea quietly took root in his heart.
If everything went the same way as it had in his previous life, then Gu Zhen’s car accident would happen again.
If he could see it coming, maybe-just maybe-he could find a way to keep Gu Zhen from having that accident.
He was pleasantly surprised to discover that his grades were excellent. He could still draw his brother’s attention, but this time, it was in a positive way.
Gu Zhen praised him often, but the fatigue between his brow and eyes was impossible to hide.
Only then did Gu Yu Chu realize that back in his last life, while he lay around at home like a lump of rotting mud, complaining that his brother was never around, Gu Zhen had been fighting tooth and nail at social events and negotiations, just to secure control of the massive entity that was the Gu Family.
The boldest thing Gu Yu Chu did in this life was to push the driver to take the car over and pick Gu Zhen up when he drank too much at a business dinner, then send the driver away and help Gu Zhen out of the car himself.
In that moment, he “accidentally,” quietly brushed his lips against the side of Gu Zhen’s face.
He started looking forward to Gu Zhen’s social engagements, using that little trick several times.
Until one night, he saw Gu Zhen’s fingers move ever so slightly.
He waited in tense silence, watching Gu Zhen’s still-tightly-closed eyes before finally letting out a breath.
He probably hadn’t been found out.
–
Gu Yu Chu found that in this life, there were still some things he couldn’t avoid.
For example, being drugged by someone close to him, and ending up addicted. This time, he’d gotten into a key university on his own merit, yet his background and identity still drew envy. Before the truth came out, he’d treated the person as a friend.
Luckily, this time, Gu Zhen was still there with him.
He quietly extended the withdrawal period by several months, prolonging the time Gu Zhen spent with him.
During those days prone to hallucinations, he heard the “crackle-crackle” of paper tearing again.
Once his body recovered, he began to have frequent nightmares.
His 22nd birthday was drawing closer.
Gu Zhen’s car accident had occurred half a month before that birthday.
After much pleading, he finally convinced Gu Zhen to let him manage a subsidiary of the Gu Family. This company had foreign technical partnerships and manufactured cars.
Gu Yu Chu personally supervised the work, keeping a close eye on every step of the production process. He repeatedly emphasized to the team: “Safety.”
“I only want to make the safest car possible. Even if an accident occurs, the people inside must survive.”
“Nothing else matters.”
He was also investigating who had grudges against the Gu Family recently. He found several suspicious rivals and paid a high price to have their movements closely monitored.
–
Everything was arranged perfectly.
Yet, the thing Gu Yu Chu feared most still happened.
The car accident did not fail to appear; Gu Zhen died again.
Gu Yu Chu was in absolute agony.
Why?
He had clearly gone in the completely opposite direction this time. It wasn’t even the place where the accident happened in his previous life. His brother was driving a car that his own team had tested tens of thousands of times. No rivals had made a move. Why on earth did this happen?
The team came to him, trembling, to beg for forgiveness. “Young Master Gu, the safety features failed.”
“They failed this one time, of all times…” Gu Yu Chu suffered from insomnia for days. Staring with bloodshot eyes, a profound hatred welled up in his heart. He began to hate this joke of a world; he began to hate himself.
Then, his bones began to itch again. He peeled a piece of “skin” off his arm.
It turned out to be a piece of paper with writing on the inside:
[The brothers of the Gu Family are a study in contrasts: one capable, the other weak and incompetent. It is worth noting that this young master, who was only found and brought back by the Gu Family six years ago after being switched at birth, is always too trusting of those around him. He was too kind to his friends and was subsequently betrayed, falling into addiction. Although he eventually quit, he was essentially ruined and lacked the ability to control the Gu Family. The only one who could make Ao Tian wary was the new president of the Gu Family, Gu Zhen.]
Gu Yu Chu watched the paper he had peeled from his body, his entire being turning cold.
What is this?
He peeled more paper from his body.
What are all these things?
[Gu Zhen opposed him at every turn, winning tenders and snatching several projects in a row…]
[Fortunately, within a month, the Gu brothers passed away one after another in car accidents.]
[The Gu Family, one of the local powerhouses in A City, was thus easily taken over by Ao Tian.]
[But this was only the first step on his path to godhood. What he wanted was not just A City, but also A Province and A Country.]
Until he could no longer peel any new paper or words, Gu Yu Chu’s knees buckled, and he knelt on the ground.
He thought he had gone mad, until it took half a month for him to fully accept a fact that overturned his entire life:
He was composed of these words.
He was a character in a story.
The Gu Family was just a minor villainous family blocking the protagonist’s path to leveling up.
–
A month later, Gu Yu Chu sat in a car and, as expected, waited for his own “subsequent car accident.”
When he opened his eyes again…
He had been reborn once more.
—-
[Summary of Gu Yu Chu’s World]
Gu Yu Chu and Gu Zhen are minor villain brothers in a melodramatic “Stallion” story.
They serve as a small stumbling block on the protagonist’s path to power.
Their entire lives are summarized and controlled by a few short sentences.
However, because Gu Yu Chu developed emotions, he began to become three-dimensional. He doubted the reality of the “story” and no longer wanted to live and die according to the established plotline, so his consciousness awakened.
When he was able to step outside the world, develop feelings, think, and resist, he touched upon the essence of the story and discovered he was inside one.
After completing the necessary plotline, whenever a new reader opens the story, the world resets and repeats.
This is why Gu Yu Chu is able to be “reborn” continuously.
Actually, there are many sub-worldviews I want to write, and I don’t like writing repetitive worlds. So, you might see apocalypses with Zombies, fantasy species, rebirth, double rebirth, multiple rebirths, rebirth at branch points, transmigration, reverse transmigration, loops, paper people becoming human, non-humans becoming human, parallel dimensions, overlapping dimensions, temporal distortions, interstellar settings, Western fantasy, magic, non-humans, sci-fi, mind reading… (I can’t list any more in the ellipses, or the future Instances will be spoiled). Moreover, these will basically appear in combination and will be written for everyone slowly.
P.S. Some Chinese horror elements, such as folk funeral and marriage customs, spirit writing, soul summoning, and feng shui, really won’t be written; they will not appear in this book.