chapter 1

Tonight, the person I like will be coming to my home as a guest.

I made sure every room was spotless, lit some incense, and arranged fresh flowers.

I took a shower, put on makeup, sprayed perfume, and changed into matching lingerie and a sexy nightgown.

Once everything was ready, the doorbell rang right on time.

I rushed over to open the door and gave the man standing outside a shy smile. “You’re here.”

He glanced at my outfit and frowned. “Aren’t you cold?”

What an unromantic oaf.

“Not at all.” I lowered my eyes and smiled, slipped my hand around his arm, and pulled him inside.

The table was already set with wine. Tonight, I was determined to let things get out of hand with this man after a few drinks.

The man calmly withdrew his arm from my grasp, glanced around the apartment, and asked, “Which lightbulb is broken?”

Yes – I had tricked him into coming to fix the ceiling light.

I raised my hand and pointed at my bedroom. Breaking that ceiling light had taken me quite some effort.

Once the man entered the bedroom, I planned to push him onto the bed – maybe I wouldn’t even need the wine, and things would work out.

I was eager to try.

But before I could even pounce, he had already fixed the bulb.

Such a quick man.

I hid my disappointment and smiled. “Thank you for your help! Let me pour you a drink!”

He replied flatly, “I never drink. You shouldn’t drink much either.”

I pouted, acting spoiled. “But I bought this wine especially for you – it was expensive. Won’t you have a drink with me?”

As I spoke, I leaned my body toward him.

The man quietly took a few steps back, putting distance between us, his face expressionless. “It’s getting late. I should go.”

I wanted to strangle him.

Ignoring my resentful glare, the man left my apartment without looking back.

Gritting my teeth, still in just a thin and revealing nightgown, I rushed out and caught up to him at the elevator, grabbing his sleeve and glaring at him shamelessly. “I dressed up like this for you, and you really plan to just leave?”

The evening breeze was chilly, and I couldn’t help but shiver.

There wasn’t a trace of tenderness in his eyes. He said in a low voice, “Go to bed early.”

The elevator doors slowly opened. Without a moment’s hesitation, he stepped inside, avoiding me as if I were the plague.

Here I was, so alive and vivid, standing in front of him, making every effort to seduce him – and he was utterly unmoved.

It seemed this man did not love me.

I turned back inside, picked up the bottle of wine on the table, pulled out the cork, and staggered into the bedroom, drinking straight from the bottle.

The newly fixed light shone brightly, illuminating every corner of the room.

Only the sharpest eyes would notice the faint, unusual gaps on the wall opposite the bed.

I reached out, pressed my palm against the wall, and used a little force.

Click.

A Secret Door hidden within the wall slowly swung open.

Inside was deathly darkness and a foul, suffocating stench.

I stepped inside and yanked open the heavy curtains, letting a sliver of light into the dim space.

The small window faced the stars and moon in the night sky – so beautiful, it was almost irritating.

“It’s really hurtful. I went to so much trouble to prepare that wine, and he wouldn’t even take a sip,” I sighed softly.

Behind me came the sound of Chains clinking.

I turned around and slowly raised a smile. “Then, will you drink with me?”

Bathed in the moonlight, a man battered and broken all over was kneeling upright on the floor.

His hands, legs, waist, and neck were all tightly bound by cold Chains.

Each Chain was stained with dark red blood.

The man’s face was deathly pale. He raised his head weakly and met my gaze with clouded eyes.

After a few seconds, a faint smile tugged at his lips, and he replied softly, “Alright.”

Disgusting.

That smile of his.

*

That day was my wedding.

I had finally gotten my wish: I wore the wedding dress I had carefully chosen, and married Fang Jian, my boyfriend of three years.

Fang Jian and I were university classmates. He had pursued me since our freshman year, and in our graduation year, I accepted him.

Last year, on Qixi Festival, Fang Jian formally proposed to me. We set our wedding date for Valentine’s Day, half a year later – which is today.

A bright red carpet beneath my feet, dazzling lights overhead.

Every friend and relative in the audience looked at me with eyes full of blessings.

I thought, this must be the happiest day of my life.

Just as the emcee raised the microphone to wish Fang Jian and me lifelong happiness, the doors of the hall were suddenly pushed open.

A man dressed in a White Tuxedo stepped onto the red carpet, smiling, walking toward me one step at a time.

He was strikingly handsome, and his White Tuxedo stood out so much it was as if he was the true master of the wedding.

Everyone was stunned.

Maybe some people were even gossiping – was this man here to crash the wedding?

“Who are you?” Fang Jian was the first to speak, his tone hostile.

“I’m someone very, very familiar with the Bride.”

The man curled his lips, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

So, he was here for me.
“But I don’t know you.” I frowned.

“You don’t know me?” The man’s expression changed for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure and smiled. “But I know that you sleep on your side, that you keep a cloth doll by your bedside, that your favorite thing to wear is a white gauze dress, that there’s a small pink birthmark on your left breast, that there are three small moles on your lower back, and that you can’t help but cry during sex-the look in your tear-filled eyes is incredibly moving.”

The entire hall erupted.

The most shocked person, without a doubt, was Fang Jian.

As my fiancé, he knew better than anyone that everything the man said was true.

Countless eyes in the audience were fixed on me.

A second ago, I had been the Bride under everyone’s admiring gaze; now, I had become the most humiliated person there.

My mind was in chaos, searching for a way to respond.

During my relationship, I had never cheated, never taken indecent photos or videos, never had any drunken blackouts-I’d always been careful. By all accounts, that private information shouldn’t have leaked at all.

So, how did this man know?

Could it have been Fang Jian who revealed it? But from his reaction, he clearly had no idea.

Fortunately, Fang Jian held my hand tightly the entire time, showing that he trusted me. But his parents’ faces had already darkened, their eyes full of displeasure and suspicion.

Normally, faced with such humiliation, I might still have been able to defend myself clearly. But now, at my own wedding, with all my friends and family watching, my mind was completely blank.

With all my secrets laid bare, how could I possibly prove my innocence?

I clenched my fists, my body trembling uncontrollably, and was about to speak when a calm voice rang out-

“These are traits most people have; they mean nothing. Security, escort this lunatic out.”

I followed the voice and saw Song Wu.

My Uncle.

My original name was Song Xingdi, a name my Grandfather had casually chosen because he had wanted a grandson. But because of her health, my mother was never able to have another child. My Grandparents already favored my Uncle, and after I was born, they treated my parents even worse. So I became the least liked member of the family; in my memory, my parents never hugged me or smiled at me.

Later, they killed themselves.

After their business failed, losing all their assets and incurring massive debts, they lost all hope and drowned themselves.

In short, my Parents died without any hesitation, with no attachment left for this world.

I was five that year.

The only one in the family willing to take me in was my Uncle, Song Wu.

At the Funeral, he held my hand and never let go.

Song Wu was ten years older than me. He was just a child himself at the time, yet he held my hand tightly and promised to take care of me for the rest of his life.

But my Grandparents were not so kind. They cursed me as a jinx, a bastard, a burden, and even planned to send me away to be raised by someone else. It was Song Wu, eyes red, who stood in front of me and kept me in the family.

Always the well-mannered and thoughtful Uncle, he disobeyed my Grandfather for the first time-for me.

There wasn’t an extra room in my Grandparents’ house for me, so I could only sleep on the living room sofa, clutching my blanket. Song Wu suggested giving me his room, but my Grandfather scolded him harshly. Undeterred, Song Wu would sneak me into his bed every night, sleeping on the floor beside me, and at dawn, before my Grandparents woke, he’d quietly carry me back to the sofa.

As a child, I thought Uncle was just playing hide-and-seek with me. It wasn’t until I grew older that I tasted the helplessness and sorrow behind it.

When I hit puberty, I wanted to change the character ‘Di’ in my name. My Grandparents scolded me for being ungrateful, but it was Uncle who reasoned with them again and again until he convinced them.

Song Wu personally chose a new character for me-‘Di,’ pronounced the same, meaning the luster of a pearl.

His name, Wu, means beautiful stone resembling jade.

My name, Di, means the light of a pearl.

From then on, I was no longer Song Xingdi, but Song Xingdi.

Without a doubt, Song Wu is the most important person in my life-more important than anyone else.

But children always grow up. No matter how close an Uncle and niece are, they will one day drift apart. As I grew older, Song Wu gradually stopped holding my hand, stopped patting my head, no longer let me throw myself into his arms at will, and became colder, keeping people at a distance.

Song Wu once promised me that someday he’d buy a beautiful house and move out with me from my Grandparents’ home. Just as he promised, after he started working, he soon bought a house. The moment I graduated from university, I dragged my suitcase joyfully to his home, but Song Wu stopped me at the door and, with a cold face, said, “How could you take a promise made to a child seriously?”

At that moment, I realized Song Wu didn’t want me anymore.

Just like my Grandparents, he had finally tired of me and had enough of this burden.

Liar.

So, crying, I rented an Apartment, found a job, and started living on my own. When Fang Jian confessed to me again, I accepted him without hesitation. Because I suddenly realized that perhaps the only person in this world who had always loved me unconditionally was Fang Jian.
As time went by, I saw Song Wu less and less, to the point that I would occasionally forget he even existed, forget how close we once were.

Yet, at this very moment, in the chaos of the wedding, the only person who stepped forward to help me out was him.

Just like when we were children, once again, it was only him.

A sudden sense of confidence welled up in my heart.

I straightened my back and spoke calmly, “That’s right, I don’t know this person at all. I have no idea where this lunatic came from.”

“Oh, a lunatic?” The man grinned brightly. “Then let me go completely mad.”

Then, he pulled a Dagger from his coat and slowly walked toward me.

The hall instantly descended into chaos.

People in the audience began to scream, some called the police, others ran for the exits.

Fang Jian immediately grabbed my hand and tried to run toward safety, but after only a few steps, I was tripped by the huge skirt of my wedding dress. My body suddenly lost balance, I staggered backward, accidentally letting go of Fang Jian’s hand, and fell straight to the ground.

Before the back of my head hit the floor, a hand reached out and caught me steadily.

The man’s palm pressed firmly against my waist, and he leaned in to whisper with a low chuckle, “The Bride’s waist is really soft.”

I reflexively struggled, but after the tip of the knife pressed against my neck, I slowly stopped moving.

“Let her go!” Song Wu shouted sharply. I didn’t know when he had rushed over, but now he was only a step away from me and the man.

While everyone else instinctively backed away, only Song Wu charged toward us.

“Song Wu! Get out of the way! Don’t worry about her!”

That was my Grandfather’s voice.

Clearly, he was extremely worried about his son’s safety. As for me, his granddaughter, I could only count myself unlucky.

Song Wu didn’t move at all. He stared at the man holding me hostage, clenching his fists. “I told you to let her go.”

“I won’t.”

The man curled his lips in a provocative smile, holding me even tighter, the tip of the knife slowly piercing the skin of my neck.

Blood quickly seeped from the wound, spreading from my neck down to the front of my wedding dress, like a crimson necklace.

It wasn’t fatal, but the pain was excruciating.

Song Wu’s eyes froze, and he immediately stepped back, not daring to come any closer.

I was completely powerless to resist, dragged by the man into the elevator, heading for the top floor.

Before the elevator doors closed, I saw Song Wu trying desperately to rush in, but my Grandparents pulled him back together.

He had done his best.

The air fell into a deathly silence. I looked up at the man, only to find him looking down at me as well.

“Still haven’t remembered me, Neighbor Miss?”

His eyes brimmed with laughter, yet within that gentle smile was a chilling murderous intent.

Neighbor Miss?

I finally remembered who he was.

There is a kind of neighbor-you know he lives right next door, separated from you by only a wall. You’re so close, and yet, strangely, you never hear any sounds from next door. You might go years without seeing each other even once. You can clearly sense his presence, but he seems invisible, always managing to avoid you.

The man before me was just such a neighbor.

I lived in 403, he lived in 404.

We had been neighbors for three years, but the first time I saw him was half a year ago in the Apartment elevator. At that time, he was dressed all in black from head to toe, wrapped up tightly, with long, messy hair covering his entire face, making it impossible to see his features-completely different from the man in the White Tuxedo before me now.

That day was the Qixi Festival. Fang Jian had just proposed to me, and I was excited all night. After entering the elevator, I stared at the Diamond Ring on my ring finger for a long while, only then noticing that besides myself, there was also a man standing in the elevator.

The man exuded a strange, sinister aura, and he was unnaturally thin, looking extremely sickly. I became quite wary, unconsciously moving toward the corner, trying to get farther away from him, but accidentally dropped the Diamond Ring from my hand.

Just as I was about to squat down to pick it up, the man beside me had already bent over, picked up the ring, and handed it to me.

I took the ring in a daze, and suddenly, it seemed I smelled a scent of decay coming from him.

Acrid, eerie, terrifying.

That was not a smell that should come from a living person.

I couldn’t help but feel nauseous, moving even farther away from him, afraid of any physical contact. I quickly took out a tissue and carefully wiped the Diamond Ring he had touched.

It wasn’t until the elevator doors opened and the man walked out without looking back that I realized how rude my behavior had just been, as if I was disgusted by him.

…Though I really was a bit disgusted by him.

But under normal circumstances, isn’t it reasonable to wipe something with a tissue after it’s fallen on the ground?

Especially since it was a precious engagement Diamond Ring.

Back then, I naively thought the man wouldn’t hold a grudge over such a trivial matter.

Now, here I was, standing on the hotel Rooftop, my neck covered in bloody cuts from the man’s knife.

The Rooftop door was jammed shut with a crowbar by the man-no one could get up here.
He dragged me to the edge of the Rooftop. With just a gentle push, I would fall over thirty floors and be smashed to pieces.

“Why?” I asked, my voice trembling.

Why are you doing this to me?

Why go this far?

“Yes, why indeed?” The man’s pupils were gradually shrouded in gloom. “Maybe it’s just because you’re unlucky.”

No.

I don’t want to die.

In the face of death, dignity becomes the most insignificant thing. I fell to my knees at the man’s feet, banging my forehead against the concrete again and again, breaking the skin, drawing blood, crying, apologizing, begging.

“Please, as long as you let me go, I’ll do anything. I don’t want to die, I really don’t want to die.” My trembling hands clutched at the man’s pant leg.

“When I killed that family of three upstairs, they begged me just like this.” The man looked down at me with mocking eyes. “Humans giving up their dignity to survive-how utterly lowly.”

A family of three upstairs?

There really was a family of three living above me before. The child had just started kindergarten, bouncing around every day as if trying to stomp through my ceiling.

Last year, the sounds from the ceiling suddenly disappeared.

I thought they had moved away. Turns out, the man killed them.

He didn’t even spare the child.

My heart slowly sank to the bottom.

From the moment I was taken hostage, I had clung to a faint hope, praying that the man would get tired of his madness and let me go. Now, I realized clearly that my short twenty-five years of life were about to end.

He absolutely, absolutely would not let me go.

“There’s a Neighbor Miss living next door to me,” the man said, a chilling smile curling at his lips. “She tolerates noisy neighbors upstairs, cries for TV characters, and feeds Glutinous Rice Balls to her boyfriend with her own hands. Such a cute and kind girl-when facing someone like me, would she show even a tiny bit of kindness?”

Large tears fell from the corners of my eyes.

“Too bad, just like all the other ordinary mortals, she treats me like garbage.” The man bent down and gently wiped away my tears. “Then let this adorable Neighbor Miss die at the happiest moment of her life.”

I opened my mouth, wanting to beg, to cry, to scream, but it was all too late.

The man’s hand landed on my shoulder, and with a light push, my body was sent tumbling backward.

In the instant I fell, I heard the man softly say, “By the way, my name is Shi Yu.”

“Shi as in time, Yu as in victim.”

-Shi Yu.

The white wedding dress danced in the wind.

Fluttering, falling.

Finally, it crashed heavily onto the ground, splattering blood and brain matter.

Countless passersby crowded around, pulling out their phones to record the unlucky Bride with a broken neck.

Relatives, friends, colleagues, old classmates-everyone stared wide-eyed at the sight of my death.

Grandparents collapsed on the ground, wailing, cursing me as a true bringer of disaster, turning the wedding into a funeral.

Fang Jian stood frozen, as if his soul had left him. His Parents hurriedly dragged him away to avoid the bad luck of touching a corpse.

The only one who rushed to me was Song Wu.

He didn’t seem to mind my mangled body at all. He knelt down, pulled me tightly into his arms, and his tears fell one after another.

He was crying for me.

Could it be that this Uncle secretly loved me?

Even at the brink of death, I still had the mood to joke.

The next second, Song Wu trembled as he lowered his head and kissed my blood-stained lips.

It was a kiss I would never forget for the rest of my life.

Ignoring the stares of those around us, ignoring the uncle-niece relationship, ignoring the blood and death.

Like a prince gently kissing the sleeping Snow White.

Tragic, yet resolute.

Sadly, the magic didn’t work, and the princess did not wake up.

Death spread its giant wings and slowly dragged me into darkness.

*

When the darkness faded, I found myself in a KTV private room.

Fang Jian held a Diamond Ring, knelt on one knee before me, and said affectionately, “Dear, marry me!”

Many familiar faces cheered around us, with romantic music playing in the background.

This scene was all too familiar-it was the day Fang Jian proposed to me half a year ago.

I had been so excited and surprised then that every detail was etched into my memory.

Now, I had actually returned to this day.

I reached out and pinched Fang Jian’s face hard. Only when he cried out in pain did I confirm that I had truly experienced Rebirth.

“Xiao Di, will you marry me?” Fang Jian rubbed his reddened face and continued his proposal.

I took the Diamond Ring and threw myself into his arms, hugging him tightly.

How wonderful-I was alive again.

I had another chance.

Fang Jian smiled warmly. “I love you.”

Although this was my second time accepting his proposal, it made me want to cry even more than the first.

Only after truly dying once can you understand how precious happiness before your eyes really is.

I skillfully put on the Diamond Ring. “I love you too, but I have something urgent to take care of at home. Let’s talk more tomorrow-wait for me!”
Although I really wanted to hold my boyfriend and cry for three days and nights, what I should care about most right now is not love and romance.

Leaving the KTV, I walked for a long time along the street, breathing in the fresh air granted by the heavens, feeling my pulse beat anew. Then, I arrived at the Apartment building, entered the elevator.

A man dressed in black followed me in. His long, messy hair covered his entire face, and he exuded a chilling aura.

The elevator slowly ascended, the air so quiet it was frightening.

I took off the Diamond Ring from my ring finger and deliberately dropped it on the floor.

The man beside me immediately bent down, picked up the ring, and handed it to me.

The exact same scene as in my Previous Life happened again.

I took the Diamond Ring, staring straight at him, and said, “Thank you.”

The man said nothing, his expression hidden beneath his tangled hair.

After a moment, the elevator doors opened; the fourth floor had arrived.

The man paused, then walked out.

I followed him slowly, my eyes fixed on the back of his head.

This broken, desolate man before me would, in six months, put on a carefully prepared White Tuxedo, break into my wedding, and push me off the Rooftop.

The feeling of my body shattering into pieces was truly agonizing.

What should I do to avoid dying at his hands again?

Cautiously please him, obey him, dissolve his hatred toward me?

Back home, I walked into the kitchen, emptied all the sugar jars, then took an empty jar and knocked on the door of 404.

A foul stench rushed out from inside.

I forced myself not to cover my nose, smiled at the man, and said, “Mr. Neighbor, may I borrow some sugar from you?”

The man was slightly stunned, clearly surprised that I would take the initiative to speak to him.

After all, with his current appearance, no one would care if he dropped dead on the street.

After a few seconds of daze, the man took the empty jar from my hand, turned and walked inside. I followed him in, locking the door behind me.

Hearing the sound of the lock, the man stopped and looked back at me, confusion in his eyes.

I smiled radiantly, stepped closer to him, stood on tiptoe, and gently kissed him.

Even a Pervert who kills without remorse was, for a moment, lost in bewilderment.

So much so that he didn’t notice the knife I was hiding behind my back.

My lips stopped a centimeter from his, then I gripped the knife handle tightly, and, swiftly and forcefully, stabbed it into his heart.

Time’s “Shi”, victim’s “Yu”.

Now, the victim is him.

I admit, I was a bit impulsive.

If I failed, the consequences would be unimaginable.

But my hatred for Shi Yu consumed my entire mind-I couldn’t wait another second, I just wanted him dead.

Fortunately, I succeeded.

No one would have expected that the woman who was always weak and easy to bully would one day go mad and swing a sharp knife.

Is someone who has already died once still considered alive?

At this moment, I was more like a Vengeful Ghost crawling up from hell.

In any case, I would never again be the timid Bride of my Previous Life.

Please him? Obey him?

No, I just want him dead.

Blood kept seeping from Shi Yu’s chest. After staggering a few steps, his body collapsed heavily onto the floor.

I squatted down, pulled out the knife from his heart, and, under Shi Yu’s shocked gaze, stabbed the blade fiercely into his neck.

If you’re going to kill, don’t forget to finish the job.

Shi Yu struggled to reach out to me, opened his mouth, as if wanting to ask why.

But he could no longer make a sound.

“Yes, why indeed?” I brushed aside Shi Yu’s messy hair, revealing his weak, pale face, and gave him a victorious smile. “Maybe it’s just because you’re unlucky.”

Looking closely, he was actually quite handsome.

Especially those pitch-black eyes, clouded and unfocused in the moment of death-truly beautiful.

But, who cares?

The tip of the knife danced, stabbing into his mouth, his eyes, his cheeks, again and again.

The once-handsome face instantly became a bloody, mangled mess-hideous beyond belief.

That’s right, this look suits him better.

Blood splattered all over my face, sticky and foul.

This time, what stained my lips was no longer my own blood.

Shi Yu’s slender body convulsed, then slowly stiffened.

Only after confirming he had completely stopped breathing did I let go of the knife handle.

Turns out stabbing someone is exhausting.

But it felt pretty good.

Kneeling in the pool of blood, I raised my arm and slowly opened my palm under the lamp overhead.

The Diamond Ring on my ring finger sparkled with tiny glimmers of light.

So beautiful.

This time, no one will ruin my wedding.