Chapter 1

Jiang Wu walked out of the teaching building. The sky at 5 PM was dark and low, rain mixed with sleet slanting under the eaves, an overwhelming chill.

Winter had arrived suddenly.

A mass of students huddled under the eaves, clothes wrapped tight, waiting for the rain to stop. Jiang Wu opened his umbrella and stepped into the freezing rain.

The ground was slippery, so he walked slowly. Near the school gate, a limited-edition supercar sped onto campus.

Jiang Wu clearly heard the conversation between the two men inside the car—

“Look, it’s Jiang Wu, that ugly freak!”

“Still hung up on that time I chased him? You little jealous thing, watch this, your man will vent some anger for you.”

The car deliberately drove through a puddle. Jiang Wu silently lowered his umbrella, completely blocking the water splashing toward him.

The supercar roared past. The voices of the two men lingered in Jiang Wu’s ears.

“Is someone of Jiang Wu’s caliber even worth my jealousy? I’m annoyed by his eyes! Crafty and cunning, like they can peer into my very soul. So annoying. And as for you, you didn’t even splash him. Don’t tell me you still have a thing for him?”

“Like hell I do! Having nightmares just looking at that face is enough. If he hadn’t tested into our school, he’d never have crossed paths with me in his life. I chased him because I lost a bet with my buddies… Damn! That’s practically my darkest history!”

Jiang Wu reached the bus stop, and those two voices finally vanished.

Route 211 pulled into the station. He folded his umbrella and put it in a plastic bag, waiting for the doors to open before boarding.

The final stop was the Old Train Station. The fare was 3 yuan; Jiang Wu’s student card gave him half price.

[Beep, charge 1.5 yuan.]

The bus was as packed as ever, like a tin of sardines. Jiang Wu reached the middle and could go no further. Suddenly, a line of dark red, almost black characters floated before his eyes—

[Xue Chunnuan, age 26, December 10, 2024, 12:42:36 AM, died from Sudden Cardiac Death.]

Jiang Wu looked up. At 182 cm, his gaze easily passed over the person in front of him to the girl beneath that text.

The girl was sitting in the second-to-last window seat. Her head was slightly bowed, nodding forward from time to time, she was sleeping very deeply.

Standard office worker attire, clutching her backpack tightly, two prominent bruised-looking patches under her eyes, her complexion pale with a bluish tint.

“Hey, you, girl by the window! Get up and give your seat, will you?” An annoyed male voice cut in. “There’s an elderly person boarding!”

The girl was deep asleep and unresponsive. The Bespectacled Man was about to reach out and shove her when a slender, pale hand blocked him.

The Bespectacled Man looked up and was met with a very ugly male face. Those light brown fox-like eyes seemed born onto the wrong face. In the dim, crowded bus, they were clear and spirited, rippling with a sparkling smile. “The Priority Seats are up front.”

In the Priority Seat in front of the girl, a Brawny Man stared out the window, motionless. The Bespectacled Man’s expression twitched. Of course, he knew the Priority Seats were up front, but he didn’t dare mess with that brawny man!

The Bespectacled Man stiffened his face and stayed silent.

A fine light, like gold leaf, flashed through those light brown pupils. Jiang Wu released the Bespectacled Man, his left hand landing on the Brawny Man’s shoulder, giving it a light pat.

The Brawny Man turned his head impatiently, about to curse, when the hand on his shoulder pressed down. His shoulder blade instantly felt like it was being crushed by a heavy object. The Brawny Man’s face went pale with pain, staring in terror at the man before him.

A flattened, frying-pan-like face. Dry, brittle, slightly yellowed hair. Dark skin. Lips so thick it looked like he had four. He stood half a head taller than everyone in the bus. Under an open dark green plaid Duffle Coat was a white hoodie, but his frame was very thin. He carried an ordinary Black Backpack, looking as if the wind could blow him away.

Yet his strength was absurdly immense. That pat just now—he could easily have crushed him to pieces!

The Brawny Man’s belligerence vanished instantly, replaced by a fawning, cautious look. “Yes, Y-You need something?”

Jiang Wu withdrew his hand, his brows radiating sunny cheer. “This elderly person is having trouble standing. Would you mind giving up your seat?”

“O-Of course…” The Brawny Man’s teeth chattered. He scrambled up, stumbled out, squeezing past the Bespectacled Man. Before reaching his stop, he rushed to the back door, slamming his hand on it. “Open the door, open it quick! I’m getting off, getting off!”

He also shot a furtive, disgusted glare at Jiang Wu. Nosy Little Brat!

The Bespectacled Man’s foot got stepped on by the Brawny Man. He was about to curse, but seeing the man’s burly back, he swallowed his words. He glanced at Jiang Wu beside him, both annoyed and resentful. He got all the credit for being the good guy! He, too, slunk off the bus at the next stop.

Route 211 drove towards the city outskirts. The crowded bus gradually emptied out, until finally, only Jiang Wu and the sleeping girl remained.

The bus pulled into the station and stopped. The driver yelled, “Final stop, all passengers off,” opened his door, and jumped out first.

It took Xue Chunnuan a moment to wake. She grabbed her bag and stood. Having been too busy to eat all day, her blood sugar was low. Dazed, she stepped off the bus, her foot missing the step. As her body pitched forward, she jolted awake, only to realize her hand was somehow gripping the door rail tightly.

She hadn’t fallen flat on her face. Xue Chunnuan exhaled in relief. A plume of white mist dispersed into the air. A Russian Purple Candy [Krokant] appeared in her field of vision.

Xue Chunnuan looked up in surprise at the unfamiliar face. He was inside the bus, three or four steps higher. Yet, standing in the doorway, the young man was still at her eye level, holding a transparent umbrella. His voice was clear and clean. “You look terrible. Have a piece of candy.”

Xue Chunnuan was dizzy with hunger. After a brief hesitation, she flashed a brilliant smile. “Thank you!”

She took the purple candy but held it in her palm, uneaten. This young man didn’t seem like a bad person, but one could never be too careful. She didn’t eat things of unknown origin outside.

Jiang Wu didn’t mind Xue Chunnuan’s wariness. He looked at the Death Notice floating above her smile, gripped the umbrella handle, then loosened his hold and said, “You should go to the hospital immediately.”

He stressed the word immediately.

Xue Chunnuan smiled. “Thanks for the reminder, I will. Goodbye.” She pulled an umbrella from her bag, opened it, and hurried off the bus.

Jiang Wu tilted his umbrella up. The now-thinner rain drummed against the fabric. He watched that line of Black-Red Characters, the Death Notice, and followed the girl into the rainy night.

Jiang Wu knew the girl wouldn’t go to the hospital.

—

The first time Jiang Wu saw the world, it was a woman with graying hair and a middle-aged man.

Above the middle-aged man’s head floated a line of black-red text. Jiang Wu opened his mouth and read it aloud, “Zhang Qingguo, age 54, acute cerebral infarction and intracranial infection caused by alcoholism, on January 5, 2006, at 10:26 PM, died after failed emergency treatment.”

The middle-aged man spoke, his breath reeking of alcohol. “He was just born?! What newborn can talk! So ugly and dark, a Monster!” He pointed at Jiang Wu’s forehead, cursing, “That damn old woman lied to me, and even brought this little monster to curse me! Scram! Ptui! I wouldn’t rent to you even if you agreed to raise the rent! Get out of my house with that little monster! Ptui, ptui, ptui, Children’s Words Carry No Harm! What an unlucky damn day!”

The middle-aged man’s fingernails were blackish-yellow and very sharp. It hurt badly when they jabbed his forehead. He reached out to push the hand away, and the middle-aged man was thrown against the wall, rolling to the floor, clutching the hand he’d pointed with as he wailed. “Pain, it hurts so much… Monster! Help! He’s a monster!”

He and Grandma were driven out.

From time to time, he would see those black-red words above people’s heads. People pointed at him, cursing ‘harbinger of misfortune,’ ‘little monster.’ He and Grandma had to move house every so often.

Sometimes, there were people who believed him. They met with illness, natural disasters, or accidents. Without exception, they still died.

Some were even scared to death beforehand.

His warnings changed nothing; they only gave others premature torment from fear.

And then there was—

The man crying and shouting that he was going to jump off a building. There was no Death Notice above his head. Below, so many, many people were gathered. Many children were so scared they were crying. He comforted them, “Don’t be afraid, he won’t jump. He’s lying to you.”

He patted his chest. “Really! You gotta believe me.”

“You vicious child!” Someone heard him and clicked their tongue, shaking their head. “Someone’s about to jump to their death, and you’re slandering them? Tsk, I wonder what kind of parents raised him!”

“He has no parents!”

“Yo, an orphan, huh? No wonder he’s uneducated without anyone to raise him! When he grows up, he’ll probably just be Scum of Society.”

His face flushed red. “I’m not! He’s the liar! He won’t die! There are no words above his head, he—”

He was carried away by Grandma. She tightly covered his mouth. When they got home, she shut the door, grabbed the Feather Duster, and heavily smacked his calves. “How many times have I told you not to let anyone know you can see those messy things! You have to be a normal person…”

Tears welled in his eyes, but he didn’t cry. Crying would make Grandma angrier, and she’d hit even harder.

In the middle of the night, he climbed onto a chair and perched by the small window. He waited a while, and sure enough, the man who was supposedly going to jump staggered past, drunk, humming a tune.

His tears finally fell. He whispered, “I didn’t lie. I have parents, they’re just gone. And I won’t become Scum of Society…”

Later, Grandma also disappeared.

She left him a Passbook, with a total of 83,479.65 yuan saved inside.

The next time he saw Grandma was when he got a call telling him to come identify the body. A cold draft blew through the corridor, lifting the white cloth and revealing her gaunt, decaying face. You could still see the traces of pain from the illness that tormented her before she died.

The staff member said, “She had been living under a bridge nearby for some time. A few days ago, a morning jogger passed by and found her lying on the ground. She had been dead for quite a while by then.”

He didn’t speak, nor did he shed a tear. He tightly grasped Grandma’s cold, stiff hand. Rather, it should be called bone—a lifeless bone wrapped in a layer of cold, stiff human skin.

It was the first time Grandma hadn’t shaken off his hand.

And it was the first time he deeply loathed his peculiarity.

If only he couldn’t see those notices. Then Grandma wouldn’t have been terrified of him seeing a Death Notice on her, leaving alone to face death in solitude.

That day, he had just saved up enough money to buy Grandma a nice pair of fleece-lined leather gloves. Outside the window, it was a cold, torrential downpour, just like right now.

Jiang Wu watched the girl walk into the narrow alley until her figure merged with the darkness and he could no longer see her. He retracted his gaze and turned around.

In that short instant as he turned his head, a figure, so intense it was impossible to ignore, suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision.

In the cold rain, the man was dressed entirely in black, holding a bright Red Umbrella. A tall, indistinct silhouette approached from the distance, wading through the dark, wet cement road. The light was dim. Beneath the red umbrella, the man’s profile traced an arc of sharp, cold white light.

Suddenly, the man stopped. The red umbrella stood still. The heavy rain pounded noisily against it, as if the canopy were studded with countless glittering pearls of varying sizes.

His face turned slightly, glancing in Jiang Wu’s direction.

Through the dense curtain of rain, Jiang Wu glimpsed half of a profoundly steady, dark eye. He could see that the red umbrella had a handle made of aged bamboo joints, and he could also see the solid gold tip. Yet the man’s face was exceptionally blurred. A distance of merely seven or eight steps felt like viewing flowers through a heavy mist, as if lost in a sea of smoke.

Jiang Wu’s long eyelashes lowered slightly. He nodded politely towards the man, then stepped away.

Behind him, that deep and steady sound of footsteps resumed after a moment, unhurriedly entering the alley.

From the station to Jiang Wu’s home was still a stretch of road.

Across the moat, the area around the Old Train Station was torn down, left with broken walls and ruins. Rail tracks crisscrossed in every direction, but they had gradually fallen into decline over the years. Apart from freight, only one cheap, old green-painted train still carried passengers.

This slow train, spanning two provinces, covered hundreds of kilometers with a total of 21 stops. It departed at 4 AM and returned at 7 PM. Farmers along the route relied on this train to cross provinces and sell their vegetables and fruits for a small profit.

Not far from the bus stop was a temporary market. Colorful tents were pitched; a table set up was all that was needed to start trading. Mostly vegetables were sold, but since the suburbs lacked large supermarkets, some also peddled daily necessities and cheap toys.

In the heavy rain, the market had scattered lights on, and a scattering of shoppers. On the muddy ground were trampled melon rinds and vegetable leaves.

Jiang Wu stepped around the mess, walking toward a familiar stall.

The temperature had dropped today. Besides the usual Bowl Fragrance to go with his meal, he was also going to make a piping hot pot of tofu soup tonight.

A small lightbulb hung from the tent’s top. The soft tofu was still very fresh. Jiang Wu picked out a piece, chose a few small Hang peppers and small red peppers, then went to the neighboring pork stall.

The orange light illuminated a few cuts of meat on the chopping board—all the less desirable parts, but the meat quality was still fresh, and it was cheap.

Jiang Wu carefully selected a piece of Pork Belly that had relatively more lean meat and handed it to the vendor.

The vendor skillfully bagged it, put it on the scale, and said, “You’re here early today. No part-time job? 7.30 yuan, let’s make it 7.”

Jiang Wu paid and took the bag. Suddenly noticing a basin of Little White Shrimp on the ground, he thought of that uninvited guest at home. He asked the vendor, “C-Can I buy one or two hundred grams of Little White Shrimp?”

It was the vendor’s first time seeing someone buy just a hundred grams or two of shrimp. She laughed and said, “Sure, I sell any amount!”

After paying for the shrimp as well, Jiang Wu took his bags and headed to the market entrance. Passing a stall selling daily sundries, he remembered he was almost out of toothpaste and walked over.

Peppermint toothpaste made his mouth burn. It took him quite a while to find a small tube of Bergamot Toothpaste.

The vendor said, “5 yuan.”

Just then, an abrupt, sharp whistle tore through the rainy night. The vendor jolted up, standing on tiptoe, craning his neck to look straight across.

The rain was a continuous torrent, pitch black, impossible to see anything clearly. Only the blaring horn sounded incessantly, getting more and more urgent.

The vendor’s voice cracked. “It’s the train station! Something big must have happened!”

Jiang Wu’s ears filled with the screams of men and women—

“The train won’t stop! Help!”

“Waaah, Grandma, I’m scared!”

“Stop pushing me! We’re gonna die!”

“Driver, stop it, quick!”

The rain poured in torrents. The train’s wheel rim had left the inner rail, speeding forward amidst sparks that flew like a blacksmith’s hammered iron. In a flash, it charged out of the Old Train Station, heading straight for the distant Kongming Long Bridge, about to crash through the guardrail and plunge into the sea!

Heavy rain clattered noisily against the tent of the food stall. Jiang Wu stared solemnly into the distance—

Dense, packed-together Black-Red Characters of the Death Notices crowded the rainy night like a 3D pixelated mosaic, so numerous they blurred into indistinction.

The helpless, aged pleas for help and cries kept drilling into Jiang Wu’s ears. Those light brown pupils, reflecting the dark night and the orange light, turned a deep, rich black-red.

People destined to die.

Save them?