Chapter 2
Like a vengeful ghost come from the underworld to claim his life.
The fear on Wen Yan’s face deepened.
Yang Zhen snorted, as if she’d heard a joke.
“What, you’ve been his lapdog for a few years, and now you think you’re getting your happy ending?”
“Wen only keeps you around as my substitute. You seriously think you can take my place?”
His other friends chimed in.
“The lapdog thinks she’s a person today.”
“Haven’t you looked in a mirror? You think you’re good enough for Wen?”
“With your body and your family background, you’re lucky he even lets you be his lapdog. You must have earned that privilege over eight lifetimes.”
Wen Yan gradually recovered from his terror too.
He began hurling abuse at me.
“Song Yunqiu, I turned you down, and you actually dared to push me off the roof!”
“Who the hell do you think you are? I’d have to be blind to fall for a woman like you—”
I tilted my head.
“So that’s a no?”
The rest of his words caught in his throat.
His bloodshot eyes filled with disbelief.
His gaze dropped.
A broken bottle was buried deep in the artery in his neck.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
Yang Zhen, leaning beside him, took a faceful of warm blood.
After a moment of silence,
a shriek seemed to ricochet around the little room.
Then everyone was screaming at once.
“Murder!”
“Someone call an ambulance! Song Yunqiu, stay away! I… I’m not close to Wen Yan. We’re not that good friends!”
“You’ve killed him. You can’t kill me too…”
“It was Yang Zhen’s idea to call you here! She said she wanted to see the lapdog… It had nothing to do with me…”
Wen Yan stared, wide-eyed.
He couldn’t believe it.
He’d been reborn barely a minute ago.
And he was dying at my hands again.
The system was on the verge of a breakdown.
“Why did you kill the male lead again?”
I corrected it.
“He isn’t the male lead.”
He was just a buyer working with a human trafficker.
Pretending to be a male lead.
Stealing my luck.
So.
Love you, Wen. See you the life after next.
The world fell apart.
Wen Yan’s dead face split into countless tiny fragments in front of me.
Then everything came together again.
Loop three began.
Rain fell endlessly from the sky.
I was soaked through.
With summer’s arrival, Jiangcheng’s rains had grown more frequent.
I held a box of ultra-thin condoms.
Wen Yan’s messages were still on my phone.
[Song Yunqiu, buy me a box of ultra-thins and bring them to the villa.]
[Don’t flatter yourself. They’re for Zhenzhen and me. A woman like you is only good for running errands and delivering condoms.]
[And remember, get me the biggest size.]
The timeline had moved back six months.
The system had gone from throwing its weight around to begging.
“You can’t kill the male lead again.”
I nodded.
“As long as he agrees to be my boyfriend, of course I won’t kill him again.”
The system went silent.
By now, I stood outside Wen Yan’s villa.
I pressed the doorbell.
If I remembered correctly,
in the first loop,
the two of them had been so eager that they’d already stripped and tangled together in the living room.
When I’d brought the condoms before,
Yang Zhen had laughed at me in contempt.
“Have you no shame? Coming running like this, desperate to throw yourself at him.”
“Don’t tell me you think you’re getting a turn. Take a good look at yourself.”
Wen Yan had been very pleased with his lapdog.
He’d taken the condoms and shut me outside.
This time, the doorbell had barely sounded
when Yang Zhen’s scornful voice reached me.
“Wen, your lapdog really did come running with the ultra-thins.”
She seemed to get up to open the door.
I heard Wen Yan cry out in sudden terror.
The sound scraped out of his throat in harsh, choking gasps.
He panted heavily.
Fear and death still haunted him, leaving his limbs weak and his whole body shaking uncontrollably.
He had already died twice.
The first time, he’d been pushed off a roof.
The second, a shard of bottle had pierced a major artery.
Seeing Yang Zhen get up to open the door,
Wen Yan roared hoarsely,
“Don’t open it!”
Too late.
Because I knew the door code.
011207.
His dream girl Yang Zhen’s birthday.
Wen Yan had given me the code long ago.
So I could bring him food, medicine, and documents. A lapdog at his beck and call.
Even when I had a fever of thirty-nine degrees, he still made me run an errand.
If I refused,
the system would punish me brutally.
If I agreed,
the fever landed me in hospital for three days, and Wen Yan went right back to tormenting me once I recovered.
Whatever I did was wrong.
The door was open now.
I stood in the darkness.
Behind me fell Jiangcheng’s first rain of the summer.
Lightning flashed, illuminating my sinister face.
I lifted the box of ultra-thins and asked with a smile,
“Wen Yan, can I be your girlfriend?”