Chapter 2: The Wretched Man
Chapter 2: The Wretched Man “Hiss…” In a run-down rental apartment, Shen Fei slowly sat up, his head splitting with pain, drawing in a sharp breath. “What is this?” He looked around in surprise, eyes full of confusion. In the less-than-ten-square-meter living room, cigarette butts were scattered everywhere, along with toppled bottles of alcohol. The air reeked of a mix of smoke and booze, and the room was in an appalling state of disarray—messier than a pigsty. “This feels so familiar… Wasn’t this the apartment I rented twenty years ago?” Shen Fei felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity. Memories from twenty years ago surged forward—it was the year he least wanted to remember in his entire ninety-plus years of life. Legend has it that when people die, their final consciousness brings their soul back to revisit the past. He assumed this must simply be a memory. Just then, the door was suddenly flung open. “Bang!” An excited, childlike voice followed. “Daddy!” A little girl of about th...