Chapter 1: Rebirth

A continuous stream of foul, black, highly toxic gas bubbled forth from the swamp. The corpses of countless victims who drowned to death in that swamp started crawling out, movements stiff and rigid. From inside the undead corpses, hair-raising inducing blood red devil ants slowly burrowed through the flesh, crawling out onto the body's surface. A large volume of tiny blood red devil ants speedily crawl down the undead and continue forward. The distinctive sha-sha sound produced from their onwards march is enough to chill a person's blood.

The remaining survivors lucky enough to still be alive and witnessing this scene started to scream and shriek in panic, one after another. However, it is futile to try and stop the approaching footsteps of death…

Very soon, the undead and devil ants gradually begin to surround the living humans. Dread and horror painted the face of everyone, but nobody wishes to die so quickly. The only path of escape they can take is to flee towards the mountain. If one is afraid of taking this route, they will still die in the end.

The more Huo Zaiyuan feels the sound of tiny insects crawling begin to get closer and closer from behind, the more anxious he becomes. He absolutely does not dare to look over his shoulder. He knows he has to escape by himself, he has to live…

In the moment he reaches out to clutch the firm soil of the mountain in order to pull himself upwards, the person in front of him suddenly brought their foot down, stepping firmly on his hand. Not bothering to wait for his reaction, that person turned to look at him, expression exceptionally malevolent. "Go and die! Your death will buy us more time to survive!"

After saying this, that cruel person lifts their leg and send a kick to his stomach. This kick is quite strong. Hua Zaiyuan felt a flash of pain in his stomach, his breath knocked out, his entire body tumbling down the mountain right away. And then…

…the sound of crawling reach his ears and his entire being explodes with pain. The bloodthirsty, carnivorous devil ants crawled all over his body, piercing through his skin and burrowing deep into his flesh. Blood flowed forth endlessly. Eventually, he was totally covered in a sea of red…

…Huo Zaiyuan's eyes snap open, his skin drenched in sweat, heart thudding violently due to experiencing extreme fright, as if it would rip through his chest and leap out. He pants heavily, greedily gulping down air, his entire body is stiff and devoid of strength.

Bright and beautiful sunlight shines through the window, so warm and gentle. There is no trace of foul, black, toxic gas in the air, and no twinging pain caused by devil ants burrowing through skin and flesh. All that happened just now seemed like it was simply a nightmare. Gradually, Huo Zaiyuan felt his heartbeat calming down bit by bit, his breath becoming less erratic and his body regaining strength.

What is all this about?

His gaze slowly sweeps across. What he sees is a place he is extremely familiar with - the interior of the house he rented. But didn't he die already? He was kicked down the mountain by that heartless woman, his corpse buried under the swarm of devil ants. So why is he back at this place?

Slowly turning his head, his eyes lands on a white iPhone4 laying at the bedside. Huo Zaiyuan unhurriedly reached out to pick up the phone, unlocking it, only to discover the date displaying on the screen read 30th April 2011, the time reading 13:52, as well as twelve missed calls.

"Th-this…what in the world is happening?" Looking at the phone's screen, Huo Zaiyuan murmured lowly, completely not daring to believe his eyes.

He clearly remembers he died being eaten alive by those devil ants, so how did time reverse once he closes and open his eyes? No. That's incorrect. This shouldn't be time reversing. Could it be…

Thinking for a while, Huo Zaiyuan lifts his hand and gave himself a rather brutal slap. His cheek burned with pain, letting him confirm that he isn't dreaming. This is great, really great…he didn't die, he didn't die, he unexpectedly resurrected in the past.

Now that he knows he is not dead, Huo Zaiyuan is wild with happiness, bouncing around the house for quite a while, only calming down when the tenant downstairs banged on his door and rained curses on him. Embracing the lunchbox left over from breakfast in his bosom, he wolfed it down while lying on the rail of his porch, gaze drifting down towards the bustling street below from time to time. The leftover food had long become cold and hard, but having experienced the harsh lifestyle of a person on the run during his previous life, Hup Zaiyuan instead feels that the cold meal is still incomparably delicious. As for the busy street below, before he felt the noise was incredibly vexing due to the sound of chatter and noise from various small businesses. Now, he instead feels that it sounds rather nice.

♪ Younger now than we were before…Don't let me go…♪

At this moment, a burst of music that served as his phone's ringtone sounded, his phone's screen lighting up. Looking at the caller ID, Huo Zaiyuan's originally faintly smiling expression disappeared momentarily. Only after leisurely polishing off the food in the lunchbox did he slowly answer the call.

["Huo Zaiyuan, the lawyer is already here. Even if you don't want to sign the contract today, you will still have to!"]

Translator’s notes: No footnotes for this one. This novel’s chapters are shorter and slightly more easy to translate since there’s no obscure historical phrases and whatnots. (੭ु˙꒳˙)੭ु⁾⁾*✭

Also [“text”] = conversation over the phone