The LaCrosse turned over twice in the air and finally hit the ground heavily on its tires, causing the entire car to bounce up and down several times. This made Lin Hangzhi incredibly dizzy. He unfastened his seat belt with trembling hands, escaped from the car on his hands and feet, and ran wildly along the road.
What was going on? Were aliens invading Earth? Was the world coming to an end? Why was he so unlucky?!
Lin Hangzhi ran along the curbside and turned his head to look behind him. The Gundam was unexpectedly chasing him! Poor Dr. Lin’s legs softened in fright, but his madly accelerating adrenaline also boosted him to his fullest potential. Before the Gundam could catch up to him, he abruptly veered into the narrow alley between two tall buildings.
My god…
Lin Hangzhi clung to the wall, panting frantically. The width of the alley was just barely large enough to pass through. The black steel giant wandered around the alley for a while before leaving.
It’s heavy footsteps gradually moved away, and Lin Hangzhi temporarily relaxed. It was too late for his beloved car. He hurriedly fished his mobile phone out from his pocket and sent a message to the group text he had with his parents. “I ran into a Gundam on the road! It was a super big one! It was 8.9 meters high! It lifted my car up! Scared me to death. You two almost lost your son.”
Lin Hangzhi hadn’t finished writing his text, when someone abruptly locked both arms around his neck.
That person didn’t use too much strength, and the person’s height was also much shorter than Lin Hangzhi; it ought to be a woman. But the position of her chokehold was very difficult to throw off. Plus, Lin Hangzhi had just recently been running wildly. Therefore, his struggles were momentarily ineffective and he could not resist at all.
He made a choking sound. His neck was locked in so firmly that his face flushed. The woman behind him swept his feet out from under him, and as he fell, she began to drag him backward.
When the wall he was leaning on unexpectedly vanished, Lin Hangzhi grabbed at the woman’s arms with his hands and kicked his legs indiscriminately. He was dragged into a factory building—God knew why there was suddenly a factory in the middle of the city center.
He wasn’t released until they reached a corner of the factory building. Lin Hangzhi leaned against the wall and covered his throat, coughing. He finally saw the attacker’s appearance. It turned out to be a 17 to 18-year-old girl!
The girl stood in front of Lin Hangzhi, looked down at him, and said, “Dr. Lin, do you remember who I am?”
Lin Hangzhi shook his head in alarm, looking cowardly. From his peripheral vision, he could see the door of the factory building, and he began to plan how take advantage of her inattention to run out.
If they were to fight face to face, this girl shouldn’t be the opponent of a grown man like him.
Just as Lin Hangzhi was thinking this, a tall man walked through the door. His entire right hand was unexpectedly covered with a layer of machinery, wholly turning his arm into a mechanical arm.
“This is super fun!” The youth said excitedly. He walked toward Lin Hangzhi, squatted beside him, and watched as he consciously shrank back. He said, “Don’t be afraid. Brother Lin, do you know me?”
Lin Hangzhi was speechless. Why did they both ask him this question? Should he know them?
Lin Hangzhi opened his mouth with a look of enlightenment, and then, to their surprise, he quickly said, “I know.”
“Alright.” The youth sighed. He and the girl glanced at each other. “It seems that we can only use that method.”
Lin Hangzhi asked, “What method? What do you want to do? I’ll say this first, this is a society under the rule of law. If you dare do bad things, the police will arrest you and take you to jail!”
“Normally, it does,” the youth said. “But don’t you think something’s wrong here? Why are there Gundam mechas? Why is there suddenly a factory building here, and—” He lifted up his robotic arm—“This shouldn’t exist, right?”
He was that Gundam! Lin Hangzhi’s eyes widened. He was now certain that he definitely wasn’t the opponent of these two kids. He calmly asked, “What do you want to say?”
“We want you to wake up.” The youth looked at Lin Hangzhi with a direct gaze. There was no deceit or cruelty in his bright eyes, only sincerity. Lin Hangzhi hesitated. With a sinking heart, he looked carefully at these two children in front of him, and the subtle sense of unreality returned to his mind again.
Seeing that Lin Hangzhi was quiet, Wang Que continued, “Have you received an invitation letter? The place and name of the person who sent the invitation were blacked out and could not be seen. The date written on it was the day your life should have ended.”
Lin Hangzhi did remember; how could he possibly have forgotten such a strange thing. “…You mean I should have died long ago?”
“Yes, we are already dead. And this place here is just your dream. You need to quickly wake up.”
Lin Hangzhi was lost in thought. Yes, he did receive this kind of strange invitation twice, and he did feel some kind of chill after receiving the second one—They were waiting for him to answer. The youth was squatting on the floor, while the girl was standing in a relaxed manner. Between the boy and the wall was a gap large enough for someone to pass through.
But this didn’t mean that he had to believe such nonsense talk!
Lin Hangzhi suddenly jumped up, rushed past Wang Que, and ran towards the factory door. The two of them didn’t catch up and only watched as Lin Hangzhi ran out of the factory.
As soon as he rushed out of the door, Lin Hangzhi suddenly found that the scenery outside had all changed. There were no traces at all of any tall buildings. In front of him, there were only countless tall billboards.
Lin Hangzhi’s eyes widened with shock. Before he could stop, he tripped on a protrusion on the ground and fell forward onto his stomach.
There was a gust of wind, blowing the billboard down. The star’s pretty, smiling face quickly approached Lin Hangzhi and firmly slammed onto his face.
——
After washing his face with shaving foam, Cui Zuojing turned off the tap. He gripped the bathroom counter and stared at himself in the mirror. Water was dripping down his hair and cheeks. This was obviously the face he saw everyday in the mirror, but suddenly, it looked very strange.
Cui Zuojing raised his hand to touch his face in the mirror, but only felt the cold surface of the mirror. He suddenly had the urge to punch the mirror and shatter it into pieces. Because, that man in the mirror who was facing him and lifting his arm, that man wasn’t him at all.
“Ah’Zuo, are you okay?”
Dong Zheng’s voice came from the living room. Cui Zuojing suddenly felt overwhelmed. He fist shrank back, as if scalded. He shook his head violently and responded, “I’m coming!” Then he grabbed the towel, wiped his face, and left the bathroom.
He and Dong Zheng went out to a breakfast shop outside the community. After breakfast, Dong Zheng drove Cui Zuojing to his workplace first before heading to his own company. The Audi drove steadily on the road. Cui Zuojing fell asleep in the passenger seat. Half asleep and half awake, he heard some strange sounds, like the rumble of trains passing through the rails. The faint noises seemed to have come from a long distance away.
He woke up before they reached their destination. After changing into a more comfortable position, he said, “By the way, the college entrance examination results should be out already. How are your brother’s results?”
“It was barely enough for a bachelor degree. The family plans to spend some money to send him to study abroad.” Dong Zheng sighed and said, “Only, his English isn’t too good, so he signed up for a TOEFL class. I’ll have to pick him up at noon.”
Cui Zuojing let out a sigh. The children of wealthy people sure had it different. No matter the circumstances, they had more ways out than ordinary people.
Dong Zheng continued, “Our family plans to go to Hawaii next week, and I will also go with them. I’ll probably be gone for about ten days. You’ll have to be at home alone for a while.”
Cui Zuojing thought that this wasn’t too bad. “Go and relax. You are so busy all day. I feel tired just looking at it.”
Dong Zheng still felt that he owed Cui Zuojing a little bit. The relationship between them was only known to a few people. Cui Zuojing’s salary made him completely self-sufficient, so even if Dong Zheng wanted to, he had no chance to give Cui Zuojing many material things to express his feelings. “Wait for a bit. I’ll take you out to play. We can go wherever you want.”
They quickly arrived at Cui Zuojing’s workplace. Cui Zuojing grabbed his computer bag from the backseat, then they leaned toward each other and exchanged a kiss.
“See you tonight.” Cui Zuojing was about to get off when he suddenly saw an invitation letter lying quietly in the groove of the handlebar.
Suddenly, Cui Zuojing’s thoughts returned to eight years ago. On the day of his 16th birthday, he also received an invitation letter identical to this one.
Dong Zheng asked, “What’s wrong?”
Cui Zuojing showed him the invitation letter.
Dear Mr. Dong Zheng,
Please take this invitation and go to ████ on July 6th. I will await your arrival there.
From: ██
“Today?” Dong Zheng was surprised.
Cui Zuojing sat back down again. This time, he could no longer ignore the sense of violation that had persisted for so many years.
“Dong Zheng,” he whispered. “I really think that something’s wrong.”
——
Las Vegas.
In the dynamic music, the crazy flashing lights illuminated the hunks on stage who wore nothing but tight jeans. They made all kinds of sexy movements to the beat of the music and touched their own bodies or the body of dancers around them. The oil that was painted on their skin glistened, and the air around them was packed with the sounds of screams. This euphoric atmosphere had deeply infected all the people present.
When they unbuttoned their jeans, the cheers and screams reached a peak. This was an R20 male strip club. The audience who came to watch were mostly young women, though a small numbers were made up of same-sex male.
Wang Que stood in the corner and stared fixedly at the stage. Finally, her line of sight moved away as her face flushed with shame. But, she still couldn’t help but satisfy her evil “secretive crotch-watching.” Dong Linhai’s heart was sour. He couldn’t understand what was so good about a group of men stroking their hair coquettishly; it was simply too disgusting. If she wanted to look, she could just look at him, ah. Although his muscles weren’t as exaggerated or as explosive, his build was also pretty good too!
Lin Hangzhi’s attention was not on the show at all. He showed no interest in the men and searched for traces of Xia Qiongyun instead. After being smashed to death by a billboard again in his dream, Lin Hangzhi successfully regained consciousness and joined the team to awaken the others.
When the group of hunks turned their backs to the audience and took off their last article of clothing, the audience boiled over. Dong Linhai immediately covered Wang Que’s eyes and refused to let go despite her protests. Lin Hangzhi took a glance at the stage, and then averted his gaze with disinterest. Everything that they had on stage, he also had. There was really nothing interesting to see.
Finally, he found a familiar figure in the boisterous crowd. Lin Hangzhi’s was soul-shocked, and then he shouted in the deafening music and boisterous screams, “Found her!”
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