Boom!
Thunder rumbled, and rain poured relentlessly.
Lu Hao awoken abruptly from his nightmare, as if he had just been jolted awake.
Indeed, it was nothing less than a nightmare.
In his dream, his wife was having a secret rendezvous with another man. Shockingly, the adulterer turned out to be his chauffeur.
His wife's infidelity was something any man would find intolerable.
In a frenzy, Lu Hao went for a fruit knife aiming for the adulterer.
Unfortunately, he acted rashly!
When hiring a chauffeur, he had deliberately chosen an ex-military man for his own safety.
After all, as the richest man in Binhai City, he had plenty of people eyeing him.
Being a businessman all along, Lu Hao stood no chance against the military-trained chauffeur. He was stabbed thrice and even thrown down from a twelve-story building!
However, this was all just a dream!
Recently, due to business affairs, it seemed like it had been a long time since he last called his wife.
Lu Hao reached for his phone, intending to give his wife a call to check on her.
Yet, when he saw the old-fashioned button phone in his hand, he was completely taken aback.
This was an antiquated Motorola phone; it displayed the date as August 15, 1999.
"Old model phones are just terrible; they can't even keep the proper time!" Lu Hao complained. He didn't know whose phone this was, but there was no way it could be his.
The first cellular phone he owned in his life was a Huawei flagship smartphone he purchased in 2016.
Surrounded by pitch-black darkness in which he couldn't even see his hand in front of him, he made use of the dim light radiating from the Motorola phone. He found a red cord by his bedside and gave it a swift tug; a 20-watt light bulb emitted a faint glow that lit up every corner of the room.
The room was about thirty square meters, with extremely simple facilities. A tarnished wardrobe held a copper mirror, the floor itself was full of pits and covered in hard soil.
This was an old house from the 90s.
Lu Hao's eyes widened in surprise, thinking he was still asleep, he pinched his thigh hard.
Sssss!
He gasped from the intense pain caused by the pinch.
Lu Hao turned pale with fright and stumbled back several steps.
After sucking in a few deep breaths, he slowly approached the mirror.
In the reflection, a man in his thirties, his face covered in stubble, was staring back at him in shock.
He touched his own face, murmuring: "I've really traveled back in time. It's not a dream, everything is real. My wife cheated on me and had me killed with her lover!"
Bang!
Grinding his teeth, Lu Hao punched the wall hard.
The earthen wall suddenly caved in.
At the same time, his mind was hit by a wave of intense pain.
Countless unfamiliar scenes took root and sprouted in his mind.
It turned out that this man was also named Lu Hao, whose parents divorced when he was three. At five, his father died in a car accident.
The driver responsible for the accident compensated Lu Hao with 3000 yuan, only for it to be swindled by his uncle. In the end, he had to beg from house to house to gather the money for his father's funeral.
Later, his mother remarried, he was taken along, but his stepfather was not kind to him.
From that point onward, Lu Hao found company in a group of petty delinquents.
He tricked people since childhood, and as he grew older, he committed more serious crimes!
However, he did have a share of good deeds. When he was 22, Lu Hao saved a female university student who was working abroad from human traffickers. This girl later became his wife.
Not long after they got married, they had a child. When the child was three, Lu Hao offended a rich second generation at a skating rink, which led him to be framed and imprisoned for three years.
So far, it has been less than a month since his release from prison.
After digesting all these memories, Lu Hao sat dazed and disoriented on the narrow wooden stool.
Is there really such thing as a parallel universe in this world?
Knock, knock, knock!
A rush of knocking came from outside.
Lu Hao staggered forward to open the door.
Upon the door opening, a thoroughly soaked woman squeezed her way in.
This woman, about twenty-four or five years old, had a face that could bring down nations. Even without makeup, she easily outshone many top-notch celebrities.
She was Lu Hao's wife, Su Xiner.
Due to her soaked condition, her voluptuous figure was noticeable, making Lu Hao involuntarily swallow a mouthful of saliva.
In his previous life, as the richest man of the coastal city, he had been to numerous clubs because of business functions. He had seen no less than a hundred beautiful women.
His wife was a contemporary internet sensation, but those women simply paled in comparison to Su Xiner!
With her head lowered, Su Xiner said, "I… I want to ask you for a loan!"
A loan?
Between a husband and wife, talk of a loan?
Lu Hao immediately rummaged in his pocket. Other than his Motorola phone, all he found were bits of lint.
Only then did he realise that he was no longer the emperor-like richest man in the coastal city but instead a broke debtor.
This wasn’t the first time Su Xiner had come to ask for a loan. Each occasion saw Lu Hao respond with punches that left her with a bruised and swollen face.
Half a year before Lu Hao was released from prison, their daughter got seriously ill. Now, with their daughter's life hanging by a thread, Su Xiner had no choice but to silently endure it all. She worked at a nearby textile factory, laboring for fifteen hours each day for a meager monthly wage of 680 yuan.
What a scumbag!
Lu Hao was filled with anger, "Such a beautiful wife should be cherished and held dearly, yet someone dared to lay a hand on her. That's just monstrous!"
Upon this thought, Lu Hao wished he could slap himself in the face.
Seeing Lu Hao's furious expression, Su Xiner was shocked and quickly knelt on the ground, "Please don't hit me. I won't borrow from you anymore. I'll find another part-time job at night. I should be able to pay it off soon!"
The debt was owed to the health clinic. If it wasn't repaid, they would stop providing medicine.
"Quickly get up, I'm not going to hit you!" Lu Hao reached out to help Su Xiner, but she jerked away from him like a startled bird.
Barely noticeable, Lu Hao saw that Su Xiner was trembling.
It's understandable. In the past month alone, Su Xiner had been hit no less than ten times. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be living in a shared dormitory.
Lu Hao rummaged through the old wardrobe and handed an overcoat and a shirt to Su Xiner, "You better change your clothes quickly, don't catch a cold!"
Su Xiner looked at the clothes in her hand, then turned to stare incredulously at Lu Hao.
He seemed like a stranger to her.
He was showing concern for her!
Normally, even if she was on the brink of death, he wouldn't give a damn.
A chill breeze blew through. Su Xiner shivered involuntarily.
Her trembling hands started unbuttoning. Her smooth and radiant shoulders were exposed to the air.
Lu Hao swallowed, grabbed a pack of Panda cigarettes and matches from the table, and headed towards the door.
Despite all that Lu Hao had gone through, Su Xiner remained the wife of the Lu Hao from the past.
As the storm raged on, Lu Hao pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.
Several damp matches later, the cigarette was finally lit.
The rustling of clothes could be heard from within the house, as Lu Hao took a deep drag of his cigarette.
Even now, he found it hard to believe that something like transmigration could have happened to him.
But everything before him forced him to believe.
Quickly, Su Xiner changed her clothes. She stood still in the room, her expression tight with tension.
Finishing his last puff, Lu Hao turned around. Seeing that Su Xiner had already changed, he asked, "How much money is still lacking for the health clinic? I'll try to find a solution."
Before Su Xiner could reply, a fat, oily old man walked in from outside, "Brother Lu Hao, I've brought you some money!"
