Chapter Two: One Look Without Regret, A Lifetime of Guardianship

At this moment, Chen Ling no longer had the time to worry about anything else; what mattered was that the girl was safe.

"Ah—! Xiao Lan! Wuu—wuu!" The girl in red who had been accompanying her saw her friend lying in a pool of blood. She dropped her umbrella and rushed forward to cradle the girl, weeping uncontrollably.

Chen Ling got up and hurried to the girl’s side, intending to examine her wounds. "You have the nerve to come here! You bastard! Xiao Lan got hurt because she came to see you! Ah—ah! Go to hell!" The girl in red, upon seeing Chen Ling, lunged at him, scratching and hitting him. Seeing her friend lying in blood, her own heart seemed shattered. But Chen Ling didn’t respond to the red-clad girl’s scolding; he just stared blankly at the girl in white in the blood.

Whether from exhaustion or fright, the girl in red suddenly went limp and collapsed into Chen Ling’s arms. Fortunately, the driver had not fled and had already called the hospital.

Soon, the ambulance arrived! "Hey! Is any of you a family member? Come with us." After the nurses loaded the girl into the vehicle, one of them called out.

Chen Ling glanced at the unconscious girl in his arms and replied, "I am!" He quickly climbed into the ambulance.

A nurse tending to the girl in white noticed Chen Ling was still carrying another girl and scolded irritably, "Men like you are all the same—so fickle… Hmph!"

Chen Ling said nothing, his gaze still fixed on the girl being rescued. Realizing her words were pointless, the nurse fell silent.

In the end, the girl in white was saved, but she would never walk again. Through the girl in red, Chen Ling learned her name was Xue Lan. She had lost her parents at the age of six and become an orphan. With no other option, Chen Ling took on the responsibility of supporting her—at least providing for her daily needs.

Three years passed, and between these two strangers whose hearts had always held a place for one another, love naturally blossomed—one of the world’s most beautiful miracles.

Chen Ling continued to shoulder Xue Lan’s medical expenses, until tonight when his savings were finally exhausted. With no alternative, Chen Ling returned to his old profession… gambling. Xue Lan always flatly refused whenever Chen Ling proposed going to the casino, even knowing he had once been the King of Gamblers. She would never agree, even if it meant she would go without the medicine that kept her alive.

But now, Chen Ling was out of options. Gambling was the fastest way to get money. For Xue Lan, he was willing to do anything—even die! Unfortunately, no one would buy his life for money.

He was lucky! The first time he gambled after losing his ring finger, he succeeded; his trickery went unnoticed. Yet he misjudged human nature—not everyone accepts defeat gracefully.

Chen Ling burst out of the casino, blood streaming from his wounds, chased by a mob of gamblers wielding machetes.

With a splash, Chen Ling slipped and fell into a puddle. Blood from his wounds colored the water beneath him a ghastly crimson.

Suddenly, a patch of blackness appeared in the puddle, slowly devouring the red blood. “Eerie” and “terrifying” were not enough to describe this phenomenon—it made one’s skin crawl.

"Boy, you think you can get away? Hahahaha!" The leader stamped on Chen Ling’s back. Chen Ling, drained of strength, could only endure the humiliation.

"Run! Go on, run! Hahaha! Useless!"

"That’s right, just a useless wretch!" one of the machete-wielders jeered, echoing their boss.

"What… what is that?!" The leader, his foot still on Chen Ling’s back, noticed the writhing darkness in the puddle and hesitated.

By now, the blackness had completely engulfed the blood and began to spin slowly.

"It’s the Gate of the Dead! Run for your lives!" someone screamed. The machete-wielders, seized by panic, dropped their blades and sprinted away. The leader cursed his cowardly men, but soon fled as well.

Passersby, hearing the raving cries about ghosts and gates, only thought the thugs were mad.

The black vortex beneath Chen Ling spun faster and faster, swallowing him whole until he vanished entirely. This strange scene was witnessed by a young office worker hiding nearby—but who would ever believe him?

...

"What is this…" Chen Ling slowly regained consciousness, struggling to breathe, only to find his nose filled with nutrient solution. A tragedy indeed…

As he awakened, the nutrient solution in the pod drained from below, while a spray of clean water washed his body from above. The pod door opened, and Chen Ling scrambled out, desperate for fresh air.

He took a deep breath, then slumped onto the metal floor, taking in his surroundings. The room held nine other nutrient pods and, on a metal table at the center, ten sets of clothing. Apart from these, there was nothing else.

Seeing the clothes, Chen Ling realized with a start that he was still naked.

"Heh heh! I wonder if there are any… women…" As he dressed, he let his mind wander, giving a lascivious chuckle.

“Huh?” He flexed the ring finger of his right hand—no problem… Wait, where had his ring finger come from? He touched his palm—one, two, three, four, five—five fingers? It had grown back! Wonderful! If Lan’er were here, she could walk again! But then he remembered he had no idea where he was, or how to find her…

Better assess the situation first, he told himself.

One by one, the others began to wake. The first after Chen Ling was a college student, who exclaimed, “Damn! I can see clearly without my glasses! Yes!!” Then proceeded to lose his mind with excitement.

Chen Ling could only shake his head. Was good vision really all college students cared about nowadays? What was the point of their studies, then…

Half an hour later, all nine others had awakened. Unfortunately… there were no women. As the last person emerged, both Chen Ling and Paul sighed in disappointment.

“We don’t know what’s going on, so I’ll speak first!” a middle-aged man volunteered.

Seeing no one object, he went on, “I’m Liu Wei, from Shandong. You can call me Wei Zi. I’m a retired soldier. I was hit by a car while saving a little girl, and the next thing I knew, I woke up here!” He rubbed the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

“Now that you mention it, I remember, too. I jumped off a building, and as I was falling, I blacked out and woke up just like you,” the college student said, touching his nose and noticing the absence of his glasses before coughing awkwardly.