Chapter One: Brothers

  In G city's deep night, a quiet alley was witnessing a passionate fight.

  The scene looked a bit monotonous, with four big men ganging up on one man wearing an undershirt, who didn't resist and let them punch and kick him.

  "You still want to hide? Do you think you can fly? Even if you could, I can knock you down." As he spoke, the burly man kicked the man in the chest with a loud thud, and then pulled away the other three who were still punching him: "Don't kill him, this little guy is going to die on us, who will we get our money from?"

  The three of them stopped, one of whom stepped forward and lifted the man's collar: "Kid, when are you planning to pay back the money?"

  The man wiped his mouth and spat out a mouthful of scarlet saliva, grinning from ear to ear: "Four brothers, I've been having bad luck lately."

  "Bad luck!?" The big man stepped forward and kicked him: "When the hell did you ever have good luck? If you had good luck, I'd be beating you up right now!"

  "After all, people always have good luck sometimes."

  "Give me a punch!" The big man was enraged. This wasn't his first time knocking on the door, nor was it the first time he had heard men use such an excuse.

  These people are very experienced, don't want to harm you, but can also make you bedridden for several days.

  "Halt!!" A loud shout came from the alley entrance, and the approaching person couldn't see his face clearly yet. However, he swiftly grabbed a nearby trash can and charged over.

  It was too late to prevent it. The newcomer kicked over the trash can and knocked a person down, then immediately shielded himself beside the man: "Chen Chu, are you okay?"

  "It's not the first time, what's the big deal? However, can you come a bit earlier next time?"

  "Oh? So it's your friend! How convenient!!" With a fierce stance, the big man was about to step forward.

  But the newcomer was not simple, he drew his gun and pressed it against the big man's chest, which was about to strike back. A gun shining with cold light in the dark night was pressed against his chest: "Barbarian, your reputation in G City is not good, even if I collapse now and say you assaulted a police officer, no one will doubt it."

  The barbarian's eyes showed a hint of fear: "What about the police? I'm just trying to return money, is that against the law?"

  He pushed away the barbarian, and the man took out a black bag from his arms and slammed it on the barbarian's chest: "Get out!"

  The barbarian's eyes lit up, as long as they could make money by doing things, the rest didn't matter. However, he picked it up and weighed it, and his eyebrows furrowed: "This is not enough."

  "That's all, if you don't want it, bring it here, I'll take you to get a refund."

  The three little brothers beside him were not working, they rushed up and wanted to take action, but this barbarian had a bit of brains, he blocked the three people, coldly smiled and said: "You can't save him for his whole life." After finishing speaking, he fiercely stared at Chen Chu for an eye, then took the three little brothers away.

  In the quiet alley with no one else around, Chen Chu spoke up and said: "Hao Bing, thank you."

  Hao Bing plopped down beside Chen Chu, putting away his gun: "Chen Chu, he's right, I won't be able to help you for the rest of your life."

  "Hehe, I won't be unlucky for a lifetime."

  "We've known each other since childhood, I know what kind of person you are. From elementary school to high school, your grades were always the best in class. You finished college a year ahead of schedule and after just half a year of working, you earned a salary of over a million. Chen Chu, someone like you wouldn't think about relying on gambling to get back on track with life!" As he spoke, Huan Bing became more agitated, grabbing Chen Chu's collar and saying: "It's only been a year, and because of your losses from gambling, you lost all your savings, and your fiancée who was supposed to marry soon. I'm asking you, how long has it been since you last visited your parents?"

  Chen Chu looked at Huang Bing. If he were a normal person, he would have shown a hint of shame by now, but Chen Chu's gaze didn't waver in the slightest. However, neither could he see anything from it.

  Let Chen Chu go, and Huan Bing looked up at the sky with a sigh: "You always make everything easy to succeed. In the past, reading was like that, and later we went together to learn Sanshou. You got the youth group champion of our G city in half a year. At that time, the elders around us all thought you were a real genius, and you didn't disappoint everyone in the future. You took the best university in the country and got an excellent scholarship. Damn it! Now I think of these things, looking at you now, I feel like I'm dreaming!"

  "You don't understand, I've finally found something that I thought I could never do."

  "Damn it." When Haung Bing heard Chen Chu say this sentence in a calm tone, he suddenly became angry and said: "Are you crazy?"

  Chen Chu stood up, dusting off his clothes, but the footprints on his white shirt were still clear; under the dim light of the alley lamp, Chen Chu at this moment looked like he had summed up his current life to Hao Bing: "I'm getting married soon, you also know who my wife is, with her personality if I continue to help you like this after marriage, she will definitely quarrel with me."

  "Thank you, Haobing..." Chen Chu said with a genuine smile on his face. He took off the necklace from around his neck and handed it to Haobing: "Consider this my red envelope to you, as a thank you for all your help. I won't bother you again in the future."

  "Stop right there!" Haungbing grabbed Chen Chu, who was about to leave: "I really want to shoot you with one bullet. I told you before, even if I only had 10 dollars, as long as you needed it, I'd give you nine! I'd keep one dollar for the bus fare back home. Did you think I was joking?"

  "I know you're not joking, but I don't want to joke around anymore." Pushing away Huang Bing's hand, Chen Chu rubbed his somewhat disheveled hair: "Earlier when you mentioned Dad and Mom, hmm... it's been a long time since I've gone back. Tomorrow, come with me to take a look, and when the time comes for Dad to scold me, you have to help pull him away."

  "It's fine if you know! Come on, go to my place and rest for a night. Tomorrow I'll take a day off and we can go together." Huáng Bīng put his arm around Chén Chū's shoulder and started walking.

  Chen Chu didn't move: "I want to walk by myself."

  Hao Bing glanced sideways at Chen Chu for a while: "You're not the kind of person who would commit suicide. Alright, you go back yourself, tomorrow I'll take leave from work and pick up the car to come get you."

  "Line."

  Hao Bing suddenly reached into Chen Chu's pocket and pulled out his wallet. When he opened it, there was no money inside, only a photo that caught his eye. The photo showed Chen Chu with another woman who had her arm around Chen Chu's neck, both of them smiling brightly. Hao Bing couldn't help but stare at the photo for a moment before coming back to reality. He then pulled out several hundred yuan from his own pocket and stuffed it into Chen Chu's wallet. Holding the wallet and the necklace that Chen Chu had given him earlier, Hao Bing said, "Don't tell me again that this pair of wedding rings has no meaning to you. If they really have no meaning, why are you still keeping this photo?"

  He snatched the purse and necklace, Chen Chu grinned: "Alright, now I have no secrets in front of you."

  With an annoyed expression, Chen Chu slapped him and said, "Let's go."

  Two people walked out of the alley, and after a series of reminders from Haung Bing, he left. Chen Chu looked at his receding back, thinking to himself that what he owed was not money, but these emotions - those of his parents, his fiancée's, and...

  Suddenly, Haung rushed back and took off his outer garment to hand it over to Chen Chu: "You look like this, if you encounter a patrol police officer, they will arrest you for questioning, put on the clothes."

  Chen Chu sighed, thinking to himself "And then there's the matter of Hao Bing...", but! This absolutely doesn't mean that Chen Chu has repented, in his view, whatever he puts out, he must win back just as much! This isn't simply a matter of money.

  This looks like the psychology of most gamblers, but Chen Chu is different. He is more persistent than those gamblers because his life has always been smooth and he never doubted that there was anything he couldn't do.

  Watching Chen Chu put on his outerwear, Huan Bing finally felt at ease and left.

  Chen Chu pulled out a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pants, lit one up and started walking towards the underground passageway.

  In the dead of night, underground passageways were a hotbed for robbery cases. However, as far as Chen Chu was concerned, as long as they didn't take his coat, his necklace, or the photo in his wallet, everything else was negotiable.

  Perhaps today Chen Chu's bad luck had reached its peak, as he walked into the underground passageway and only saw a beggar leaning against a trash can, fiddling with something. At the same time, in the blink of an eye, Chen Chu saw that the walls on both sides of the passageway were plastered with the same kind of dazzling propaganda posters.

  Leaning back and puffing out smoke, Chen Chu was thinking about the annoying life.

  Just as he was passing by the beggar, the beggar suddenly spoke up: "Hey..."

  His words were a bit stuttered, perhaps because he hadn't communicated with people for a long time. Chen Chu turned his head and looked at the beggar: "What are you doing?" Chen Chu thought that even if he was down on his luck, it wasn't to the point where beggars would think of robbing him when they saw him.

  The beggar held something similar to a wristwatch in his hand, with jumping numbers on it: "This... I don't recognize the characters written on this, can you help me take a look?"

  "Wouldn't be a bomb, would it?" Chen thought to himself, finding the guess somewhat laughable. A beggar making bombs in an underground passageway? He walked forward and took it over, Chen holding it up for a look: "Are there any words on it?"

  "Behind... in the back."

  "Chen suddenly turned around and noticed: "Boundary C-3 type connector.""

  "Do you know what it means?"

  Chen Chu furrowed his brow, " 'Boundary', seems like I've seen it somewhere". As he thought, Chen Chu slightly tilted his head back, and a red image flashed in his field of vision. Suddenly turning his gaze sideways, Chen Chu looked at the wall beside him. The poster had a woman who didn't seem to be affected by the flames, wearing clothes that seemed too little even on a hot day. At the bottom of the poster were two big words "Boundary!". As he walked closer, Chen Chu examined it carefully and found small words written on one side saying " 'Boundary' C-3 type connector" and many similar ones. It seems this wristband is a connector for this game.

  Above that was a price tag "50,000 RMB". Chen Chu stared at the beggar in surprise: "You picked this up?"

  The beggar apparently misunderstood Chen Chu, he rushed forward and rudely snatched the connector from Chen Chu's hand: "This is mine!" He was excited, and his speech was no longer stuttering.

  Chen Chu looked at the beggar with a taste, and after holding back for half a day, he said: "Damn it, you're much luckier than me." After finishing speaking, Chen Chu turned around and left, he hadn't reached the point of going to rob the beggar's things.

  However, as Chen Chulai left, the beggar's eyes gradually changed. He looked at the thing in his hand and then looked at Chen Chu again. After a few moments, he seemed to have made a decision: "You... you wait!"

  Chen Chu turned around impatiently: "What else is it!"

  "You want it? Want... I'll sell it to you." As for this beggar, he had no use for the thing at all. Seeing that Chen was interested, he thought he might as well sell it to him.

  "How much money?"

  "Twenty... twenty bucks!"

  Chen's eyes widened, his expression extremely strange. After a while, it seemed like tears could be seen in his eyes. "Could it be... Could it be that my luck is changing!? I got something worth 50,000 for just 20 bucks?"

  "Fifteen bucks!" Seeing Chen's wide-eyed expression, the beggar thought he had quoted a high price.

  Chen took out his wallet and pulled out a 100-yuan bill: "Take it!"

  "Huh?"

  "Return my money!"

  "I won't back down."

  "Give it to me first." Chen Chu frowned.

  The beggar thought for a moment, and since he had already received the money, he naturally gave the thing to the other person.

  Chen took over the wrist guard and walked back in front of the poster again.

  The beggar saw that Chen Chu was not paying attention, and he suddenly had a crooked idea. He quietly took a few steps back, ran to the entrance of the underground passage staircase, and suddenly turned around and ran!

  Chen Chu stared at the poster for a while, muttering to himself "50,000 yuan, selling it online at half price shouldn't be a problem". With that thought, Chen Chu put away his wrist guard and turned to leave. As for the beggar, Chen Chu didn't even consider waiting for him to return the money.