Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name is Tang Wei.

I died in Lu Cheng’an’s arms five years ago.

Stomach cancer.

After I died, I met God.

God didn’t believe in love. He made a bet with me: if Lu Cheng’an fell in love with the soul beneath my unfamiliar skin within one hundred days, he would give me a chance to be reborn.

If he didn’t, I would lose the right to reincarnate forever.

Of course, the wager came with two conditions.

First, I could not use any method to directly tell Lu Cheng’an that I was his dead girlfriend.

Second, I could not appear before him until five years later.

If, after five years, he could still see through an unfamiliar body and fall in love with my soul, then that would be true love.

Such harsh terms.

But for the chance to return to Lu Cheng’an’s side, I agreed anyway.

At the time, I was lost in the joy of being able to reunite with Lu Cheng’an. I didn’t notice God lowering his head and looking at me with silent pity, saying nothing.

Alone, I endured five years in a vast, empty fog.

Lu Cheng’an was the only pillar of faith that kept me going.

I believed he loved me just as I loved him.

Even if I had to crawl, I would crawl back to his side.

I endured five years in the Great Wilderness, and five years later, I was reborn.

The body I was reborn into belonged to a wealthy young heiress named Song Yao. She had died from excessive drinking.

The day after I was reborn in her body was her birthday.

At that birthday banquet, I met Lu Cheng’an, because “my” father was a shareholder in his company.

A reunion after five long years.

I think my entrance that day must have been grand. It was an occasion of perfume, gowns, and glittering excess.

Beneath the dazzling light of a massive crystal chandelier, I held the rail of the spiral staircase and descended step by step.

“My” father took my hand and led me up to Lu Cheng’an, introducing me to him. “Cheng’an, this is my daughter, Song Yao. She just came back from overseas. Please take good care of her from now on.”

After five endless years apart.

Lu Cheng’an had changed a great deal. The contours of his features had grown more mature, and as he stood quietly amid the noisy crowd, he carried a different kind of elegance, one tempered and refined by time.

Suppressing the joy of our long-awaited reunion, I looked straight into his eyes and tried my best to appear poised and composed. I gave him a reserved smile, then held out my hand and said to him, word by word, with utter seriousness, “Hello, Lu Cheng’an. Let me introduce myself. My name is Song Yao, your future girlfriend.”

I knew a relationship needed to develop gradually, step by step. But I didn’t have much time. All I could do was force my way into Lu Cheng’an’s world with an almost suicidal aggressiveness.

I needed him to remember me in the shortest time possible.

I hadn’t expected him to look at me then, at the smile blooming in my eyes, with such indifference. He gave me a faint, polite nod and said, “I’m sorry, Miss Song, but I already have a girlfriend.”

I didn’t take it seriously at the time. I thought he was joking.

That it was merely his way of rejecting me.

Until I entered Lu Cheng’an’s company and became his secretary.

In truth, he had stopped hiring female secretaries long ago, probably because every single one had wanted to use proximity to get the moon first and leap straight into becoming the boss’s wife.

To get to his side, I used a few tricks.

“My” father was the largest shareholder in his company. Lu Cheng’an would never refuse a shareholder’s tiny request to “let my daughter intern at your company for a while.”

I learned that Lu Cheng’an really did have a girlfriend three days after I started working at his company.

His new girlfriend was named Su Luo, and she had a face exactly like the one I had when I was alive.

The moment I ran into her and Lu Cheng’an happened in a rush. It was during the lunch break, at the peak of the dining rush, and the elevator for all thirty-two floors was packed.

When I stepped out holding a towering stack of documents, I didn’t see anyone and crashed into her.

The files in my arms scattered across the floor. I apologized as I hurriedly crouched down to pick them up.

Then I heard Lu Cheng’an’s voice, so gentle and so familiar, except this time, he was asking Su Luo beside him, “Are you all right? You’re not hurt, are you?”

My hands froze. Then I lifted my head and looked up.

Su Luo’s face looked so much like mine used to that it was like staring into a mirror, and for a brief moment, I went into a daze.

Lu Cheng’an had one arm half around Su Luo as he checked the place where I had bumped into her. Su Luo shook her head to show she was fine, so he lowered his gaze to me.

His features were handsome and sharp. When he wasn’t smiling, he looked very cold. I had actually rarely seen this expression on him, because in my memories, he was always gentle and smiling in front of me.

Especially toward the end, when I was about to die. He treated me like a fragile work of art, cherishing me with a kind of cautious reverence. During that time, he did nothing else. He didn’t hold meetings, didn’t handle documents. He simply stayed by my side every moment, as if afraid I would disappear in the next second.

But now he looked down at me from above, his expression cold, his voice devoid of emotion, his eyes filled with undisguised disgust as he said to me, “Watch where you’re going next time.”