CHAPTER 1 - A BODY THAT SHOULD BE DEAD

I died knowing exactly who killed me.

Feng Jiang's hands were steady when he held the knife. That was the part that hurt the most. No hesitation. No fear. Just calm, practiced certainty --- like he had already rehearsed my death a hundred times.

"You shouldn't have looked," he said.

The pain exploded through my chest, sharp and overwhelming, and the world collapsed into blood, concrete, and regret.

I remember thinking --- so this is it?

No justice. No closure. Just betrayal.

Then everything went dark.

When I woke up my first thought was that I hadn't gone far enough.

Because hell should not look like this.

The ceiling above me was white and impossibly clean. The air smelled faintly of disinfectant and something expensive, wood polish, maybe. My body felt heavy, wrong, like I was wearing someone else's skin.

I tried to breathe.

My chest rose smoothly.

No pain.

That alone sent a panic clawing up on my mind.

I sat up so fast. The room spun, but my body caught itself with strength I had never possessed before. My hands... Long fingers, unblemished, steady ---- gripped the edge of a massive desk.

These weren't my hands.

I stumbled toward the reflective glass wall, heart pounding, and froze.

The man staring back at me was tall, sharp-featured, devastatingly handsome in a cold, distant way. His eyes were dark and alert, his face pale but composed. He looked like someone who belonged at the top of the world.

He looked like Bai Xu.

"No." I wisphered.

My voice was wrong too. Deep. Controlled. Like it was used to being obeyed.

Memories crashed into me --- not mine, but his. Boardrooms. Contracts. Numbers so large they stopped feeling real. Headlines. A name whispered with awe and envy.

Bai Xu. Billionaire. CEO. TechCorp.

I staggered back, breath shaking.

I wasn't alive.

I wasn't dead.

I was something worse.

I pressed a hand to my chest, expecting to feel a wound, a scar.... Something. But there was nothing. Smooth skin. A steady heartbeat.

And then another memory surfaced, quiet and lethal.

A hospital room.

A weak body.

Doctors whispering.

Blood test altered.

A maid's trembling hands pouring something into tea.

Poison.

My stomach dropped.

Bai Xu was not sick.

He had been murdered.

I gripped the desk until my fingers turned white.

His father died years ago. His grandfather followed not long after, leaving everything --- everything, to Bai Xu. And that had made him a target. His uncle's father's brothers. Men who smiled at family dinners and sharpened knives behind closed doors.

They had been trying to kill him for years.

And they finally succeeded.

Except... Here I was.

I laughed softly, the sound brittle and hollow.

So this was the truth.

Lin Xia died because he uncovered the crimes of a powerful Family, the secret of his beloved ex-boyfriend Feng Jian.

Bai Xu died because his own blood wanted his empire.

And now I was living inside the body of a man who should already be in a morgue.

My pulse steadied, something cold and focused setting in my chest.

They think you're weak I thought.

They think you're dying.

They think they've already won.

I straightened slowly, staring at my reflection again.

"Bad luck," I murmured. "For all of you."

A soft chime broke the silence.

AI Assistant: "Good morning, Mr. Bai Xu. Your vitals appear stable today."

Stable.

Of course, they were. I was already dead once. What was little poison compared to that?

"Who knows I was... sick?"

: "You're uncles. The board. Select medical staff. Your personal maid."

The word maid sent a chill through me.

"She's still here?" I asked.

: "Yes. She is scheduled to bring your afternoon tea."

I smiled.

It wasn't a nice smile.

Before I could say anything else, another notification appeared.

| Meeting Reminder: Xian Group --- 2:00 pm

| Attending: Xian Jiang

The name hit me harder than I expected

Xian Jiang.

Warm eyes. Gentle voice. Someone who loved Bai Xu quietly, without demanding anything in return. Someone who had probably sat by his body's bedside, thinking he was watching the man he loved slowly die.

My chest tightened.

"This isn't my life," I muttered.

But it was my battlefield now.

I couldn't afford to fall apart. Not when Feng Jian was still breathing somewhere here in Y City. Not when Bai Xu's uncles were probably celebrating behind polite smiles.

Two lives had been taken.

I would not let a third go to waste.

I turned toward the window, Y City stretching endlessly below me -- glass, steel, power, and rot hiding beneath luxury.

"Fine," I said softly. "If I've been given this body..."

My eyes hardened.

"...then I'll finish what both of us started."

Revenge for Lin Xia.

Justice for Bai Xu.

And as for Xian Jiang---

I close my eyes briefly.

That would be the most dangerous complication of all.

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