Chapter 1
At the end of June, in Jiangcheng, it was 40 degrees.
Li Mo was riding a shared bike, his head woozy from the sun.
A semi-transparent blue box suddenly floated up in front of him.
[Start simulation?]
Below it were two options: [Yes] and [No].
"What the hell..."
Li Mo squinted, thinking he'd gotten heatstroke and was hallucinating.
He reached up to rub his eyes.
That one move tilted the handlebars.
"Bang."
The shared bike slammed hard into the door of a black sedan parked by the curb.
Li Mo flew off the bike, rolled half a turn on the ground, and his knee burned with pain.
He got up and looked.
A Rolls-Royce.
His brain went "buzz."
It's over.
He couldn't afford to pay.
Forget paying; one wheel rim on this car was worth a year's food for him.
The rear door opened.
A foot in black high heels stepped out first.
Then a straight, long leg.
A woman in a black suit got out of the car.
Li Mo froze.
Her hair was pinned up at the back of her head, her makeup exquisite, her jawline sharp enough to have been cut by a blade.
Around thirty, she carried herself with a presence he'd never once come close to in his life.
Too beautiful.
But now wasn't the time to think about that.
"Um... I'm sorry, I'm really sorry." Li Mo stood up, his knee still bleeding, his legs a little weak. "I, I'll pay..."
Before he could finish, he got stuck.
Pay what? There was only 2,300 yuan left in his bank account.
The woman looked at the scratch on the car door, then at Li Mo.
"Are you hurt?"
Li Mo hadn't reacted yet. "Huh?"
"I asked whether you're injured." The woman repeated, her tone calm and unhurried.
"No, I'm fine." Li Mo instinctively stepped back. "The car, I definitely, I'll pay..."
"It's just a scratch." The woman cut him off. "No need."
Li Mo opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.
At that moment, the woman's phone rang.
She answered, her voice shifting into a polite, familiar tone: "Uncle Zhou, hello... Yes, I just got here from the airport... Yes, my father asked me to offer the old leader his congratulations. A promotion, after all..."
Li Mo stood there listening to those words.
Old leader. Promotion. My father.
Every one of them told him the same thing: you and people like her are not from the same world.
The woman hung up, took a business card from her bag, and handed it to him.
"Your knee is still bleeding. Go have it treated," she said. "If you feel bad about it, buy me a cup of coffee another day."
After that she got back into the car, the door closed, and the Rolls-Royce drove off without a sound.
Li Mo lowered his head to look at the card.
There was only a name and a phone number.
Liu Ruyan.
He stood by the roadside clutching the card, the sun baking his shadow down into a crumpled knot.
Blood from his knee ran down his calf.
"No chance I can reach that high," he murmured.
He stuffed the card into his pocket, lifted the shared bike with its crooked handlebars, and rode off limping.
…………
By the time he got back to his rented room, it was already evening.
A twenty-square-meter studio, with a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe, all packed in tight.
The monthly rent was 3,500 yuan, with three months' deposit and one month's rent upfront, paid just last month.
Li Mo sat on the edge of the bed and wiped antiseptic on the wound at his knee.
It hurt so much he kept hissing through his teeth.
His phone screen lit up.
Another "not a fit" notification from the job app.
He'd been applying for three months.
His resume had sunk without a trace.
He tossed the phone aside and lay back on the bed, staring up.
There was a water stain on the ceiling, shaped like a question mark.
The blue box appeared again.
Semi-transparent, hovering twenty centimeters above his face.
[Start simulation?]
[Yes] [No]
Li Mo stared at it for a few seconds.
During the day he had thought it was a heatstroke hallucination.
But now he wasn't overheated, the AC was on, and his mind was perfectly clear.
He reached out and tried to touch the box.
"Fuck."
Li Mo shot upright.
He stared at the blue panel and swiped his finger left and right across it.
It really was interactive.
"What the hell is this..." he muttered to himself.
Simulation.
Simulate what? Simulate life?
He thought about his situation.
2,300 yuan in the bank.
No one looked at his resume.
Rent was due again next month.
The diploma he'd barely had time to warm up was already a worthless sheet of paper.
Could it get any worse?
Li Mo took a deep breath, extended a finger, and tapped [Yes].
In an instant, all sound vanished.
The hum of the AC was gone.
The traffic outside was gone.
The ceiling, the walls, the light all dimmed little by little, as if someone were turning the brightness down.
The springy feel of the mattress, the roughness of the bedsheet, the sting in his knee wound, everything dropped to zero.
Nothing remained.
Complete darkness swallowed his vision.
No one knew how long passed.
Maybe one second, maybe a year.
A line of text floated up.
[Simulation started.]
…………
Li Mo opened his eyes.
No.
The ceiling was wrong.
The rental room ceiling was white, cracked, and water-stained.
Above him now hung a crystal chandelier.
He shot upright.
A big bed.
At least two meters wide.
The sheets were silk, the comforter was down, and next to the pillow was a pink remote control. He had no idea what it was for.
The bedroom had to be at least sixty square meters.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, dawn hadn't fully broken yet, and the outline of the city stretched out in the distance.
"Fuck..."
Li Mo pinched his thigh.
It hurt.
Not a dream.
Right then, he felt movement beside him.
He froze and slowly turned his head.
Someone was there.
A person was lying under the covers.
Black hair spilled across the pillow, revealing half of a face.
Li Mo's heart skipped a beat.
It was her.
That woman from the afternoon.
The woman who got out of the Rolls-Royce.
Liu Ruyan.
"Is this fucking some kind of honey trap??"
That was the first thought that flashed through Li Mo's mind.
He instinctively edged toward the side of the bed and nearly fell off.
The movement was a little too big.
The woman stirred.
She rolled over, squinted at him, and her voice was still rough with sleep. "What are you doing... what time is it."
Li Mo had his mouth open but couldn't make a sound.
The woman scooted closer, draped an arm over his waist, pressed her face against his shoulder, and mumbled, "Hubby, let me sleep a little longer..."
Hubby??
Li Mo's eyes almost popped out.
He jerked his head up and saw a photo hanging on the wall directly opposite the bed.
A wedding photo.
The man in the photo was wearing a black suit. It was him.
The woman in the photo was wearing a white wedding dress. It was Liu Ruyan.
The two of them were smiling as if they couldn't be happier.
Li Mo felt his heartbeat racing so fast it seemed ready to leap out of his throat.
Was this real?
He lowered his head and looked at the woman leaning against his shoulder.
The blanket had slipped down a little, revealing her bare shoulder and collarbone.
Her skin was very fair, and in the hollow of her collarbone lay a thin chain attached to...
a leather collar.
Black, narrow, fastened around her neck.
Li Mo's breathing turned rough.
His body's reaction was faster than his brain.
Liu Ruyan seemed to sense it.
She didn't open her eyes, but one hand slid a little lower from his waist and touched it.
She gave a soft laugh.
"Getting like this first thing in the morning."
Li Mo was rigid as a stone.
At last Liu Ruyan opened her eyes, looked up at him, and there was a lazy smile in her gaze.
"All right, I need to go to work."
She sat up, and the blanket slid all the way off.
Li Mo's eyes swept over her without control.
Her figure was outrageously good.
Liu Ruyan reached up, unfastened the collar from her neck, and casually set it on the bedside table. Then she glanced back at him.
"Tonight, when I get back, I'll let you be my dog again."
With that, she got out of bed and walked barefoot across the carpet toward the bathroom.
Li Mo sat on the bed without moving.
His heart was pounding wildly in his chest.
Only one thought remained in his head.
This life had been worth it.