"You hired us, Mr. Kael. We respected that—it's just they pay more."
"Absurdity." Kael let out a low chuckle, tasting iron on his lips.
In the next seconds, bullets tore through his neck twice, his head three times, and his heart five times, before the men in suits pushed him off the balcony of his suite on the forty-seventh floor.
Heh.
What a dramatic way to die.
And, how how unlucky he was, his body wouldn't even remain intact after the fall.
The men who just shot him were his own bodyguards, former ex- mercenaries.
With their betrayal driven by greed, he wasn't even that surprised.
He guessed it was also his fault for hiring this kind of people.
He hadn't been careful enough, which led to this unfortunate event.
What Kael hadn't expected in this tragic end to his life was that the person behind it was his regular client.
He has been working under their service for years, and tonight he had won the jewelry they wanted.
But what awaited him was not the gratitude of his client, but certain death, delivered by the very men Kael had trusted.
He had no memory of offending his client, and it didn't make sense why he was being killed, so until he lost consciousness.
— × —
Nestled at the foot of the mountain, just outside Cangwei Village, stood the cramped, dilapidated house.
Inside one of its tiny rooms, reeking of alcohol and old wood.
The drunk man lay sprawled on the ground, his head bloody, seemingly lifeless.
Slowly, his chest rose, and his eyes opened, calm and clear, already carrying the presence of another soul.
Kael, from the modern world of the 21st century, had successfully been reborn in this body.
"I'm… still alive, haha." He let out a weak, sarcastic laugh and tried to sit up, only to collapse again under the sudden, unwelcome memories forcefully flooding his mind
Kael clutched his head with both hands, feeling the sticky liquid of blood.
He rolled on the dirt, groaning in pain as if his mind were being hammered open.
It f*cking hurts, damn… worse than two bullets to the neck.
Once he had calmed down, Kael had absorbed all of the original body owner's life experiences.
He had also learned the disgusting ways of his new scumbag identity.
Wan Zheng, the original body owner, was a twenty-eight-year-old abusive husband and father.
He beat his children whenever he got the chance, and made things worse by forcing himself on his wife whenever he was home.
He was heavily addicted to alcohol, refused to work or support his own family, and spent his time gambling and visiting brothels.
'What a waste of air', Kael thought as he organized all the memories flooding his mind.
He had never expected someone like him would end up in the body of someone so distant and opposite from himself.
But this was a second chance at life for him.
He wouldn't dare commit suicide.
No matter how unfavorable the situation, Kael chose to follow his life's motive: Live well, while alive.
Given this opportunity, he decided he would live fully as Wan Zheng.
As for the original Wan Zheng's soul, he had no idea if it would return or where it might be.
He would decide later what to do with it, if it ever dared to come back.
"Hurry, hurry! Father's already gone! We have to help Mother bury him on the back mountain!" The small, hurried footsteps skidded to a stop outside Wan Zheng's room.
"No… we can't bury Father now! If we do, the uncles and aunties will see us! We gotta wait… wait until it's very late at night, when everyone's asleep. That's when we can..."
"What about Mother? She already ran to Grandpa's house to get help." The third child's voice asked, tinged with fear and hesitation.
"Then we'll tell Grandpa that Father fell to the back of the mountain and the big cats ate him!" The first child countered quickly, sounding panicked. They fell into silence, the three children carefully thinking it over, and finally decided they would go through with it.
The door creaked open slowly.
As they stepped inside, the dim light of the oil lamp still burned.
Their small eyes quickly darted to the floor, expecting to see their father lying there, but found none.
Shocked and terrified.
The three children quickly moves to look round.
Only to see the silent figure sitting on the bed.
The one they thought was gone are staring back at them in the darkness.
Frozen with extreme fear and shock, the hearts of the three children almost beat out of their little chests.
They did not dare to move.
"Father… you're… alive?" The eldest of the three children whispered, yet he didn't realize it was loud enough in the quiet night.
By the time he understood what he had done, it was already too late.
An extreme fear and panic made him cover his mouth with shaking hands.
No...oh no!
He had said something wrong.
Their father would surely be angry at him, and he might even be beaten to death!
Wan Zheng obviously noticed the kid's scared reaction even in the dim room, and knew it was because of the abusive behavior of his new body toward them.
However, he had already accepted this new identity, so these three tiger cubs would be his biological sons from now on.
He would naturally never do anything like the original body owner had done to his own family.
He was not a child abuser to begin with, nor someone who enjoyed beating the people around him.
"Get me a bowl of water. I'm thirsty."
This was how the original body owner would speak. He would order his little sons around to do small tasks for him all day when he was at home.
However, Wan Zheng had only done this so the three children would leave his room, which actually worked.
The second child, who seemed the smartest, carefully took both of his brothers' hands and led them out slowly, their little hearts anxious.
Finally alone in his room, Wan Zheng stood up and tested all four of his limbs to ensure none were missing and that he could control each of them without any mishap.
Fortunately, upon feeling through all over his body, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it.
The only exception was small, painful throbs in his head from being hit by the original body owner's wife.