Chapter 1: Strange Crossing

  "Oh, I'm so sorry, Master. I owe you three bucks." A slender arm with a smooth, snowy complexion stretched out, holding several small bills with long fingers painted with bright red nail polish, speaking in a sweet and sticky tone.

  Liu Ze skillfully tightened the last screw, looked up, and saw that the woman was leaning over to talk to him, her full breasts almost bursting out of her low-cut top, a patch of white skin shining brightly, nearly dazzling his 24K titanium eyes. It had to be said that this woman's outfit was quite eye-catching, a pink off-the-shoulder mini dress, black fishnet stockings, and white high heels with rhinestones - considering it was still early spring, Liu Ze was still wearing thick woolen sweaters - in this season, walking down the street in this outfit would definitely get a 100% head-turning rate.

  The woman wasn't particularly beautiful, her looks were at most 7 out of 10. With heavy makeup on, she looked like she was only in her early twenties, but her figure was absolutely stunning - the right curves bulged and the right parts jutted out, just those overflowing waves were enough to feast one's eyes on. Liu Ze stopped his gaze for a second at her chest before quickly shifting it away and taking her money.

  "It's okay, nothing to worry about." Liu Ze was an appliance repairman and often interacted with the women of the households. Although they were all dressed in bright and shiny clothes and would spend thousands or even tens of thousands on a handbag, they would often haggle over a few dollars. Liu Ze had long been used to it.

  "I'm really sorry, I don't have any change today." The woman apologized repeatedly, but her tone was tinged with the satisfaction of having saved a few bucks. "How about I pay you back another day?"

  No change? Why not take out the whole hundred yuan bill? Liu Ze smiled faintly. "No need, just a few bucks." He quickly packed up his tools and prepared to leave, "Remember to check for leaks, if there's a leak, fix it early, otherwise it's easy to burn out the motor."

  "Thank you, Master." The woman had a smile all over her face. "You've been busy for half a day, come in and have a cup of tea."

  "No, I have other business." Liu Zewen politely declined. This woman was sexy and pleasing to the eye, but she really had nothing to do with him. Their lives were two parallel lines that would never intersect, each person having their own life.

  At this time, a Mercedes-Benz stopped at the door, and a slightly fat middle-aged man got out of the car. He was wearing a suit and his leather shoes were shiny. The woman rushed over quickly, took the middle-aged man's arm, and said: "Husband, how do you have time to come see me today?"

  A middle-aged man smiled and said: "As soon as I got off the plane, I came to you first. Baby, I bought that diamond necklace you liked last time."

  The woman's face was filled with joy, and her smile lit up her whole face. "Thank you, dear husband!"

  A middle-aged man noticed that there were other men in the yard, and slightly furrowed his brow. However, his brow relaxed immediately as he saw Liu Ze wearing a blue work uniform, carrying a toolbox, with a washing machine beside him. "Oh, is the washing machine fixed?"

  "Yes, Liu Master's craftsmanship is really good. In our small district, all the household appliances that are broken are repaired by him, and he repairs them well and cheaply."

  A middle-aged man looked Liu Ze up and down with a scrutinizing gaze and said, "My laptop can't get online, can you fix it?"

  Liu Ze could clearly feel the disdain in his eyes, and dealing with these rich people was indeed somewhat oppressive, but this feeling was fleeting. Liu Ze had been engaged in repair services for many years, and the people he came into contact with were naturally of all shapes and sizes, so he had developed a calm and unruffled personality. Even when facing the richest of the rich, he was still very composed. He didn't have a psychology of resenting the wealthy, nor did he have any thoughts of fawning over them. No matter how much money others had, it was theirs, and being envious or jealous would not help. Earning his own money, although meager, was dignified and upright.

  He straightened his waist and said with an attitude that was neither arrogant nor humble. "Let's check first, if it's just can't access the internet, the problem shouldn't be big."

  The middle-aged man didn't say anything else and went back to the car to fetch a notebook. Liu Ze took over the notebook, his eyes lit up, and it turned out to be the latest Apple notebook, with an eight-core processor, 32G of memory, and a 1T hard drive, all top-of-the-line high-end configurations. He quickly checked it and said, "It's just that the built-in wireless network card is broken, replacing it with a new one will do."

  "Can it be fixed now?"

  "No, this wireless network card is specifically for Apple laptops. I don't have the necessary parts right now, so I'll need to take it back and repair it. It can be delivered tomorrow morning."

  The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, after all, this thing is worth tens of thousands of yuan. The woman smiled sweetly and said, "Don't worry, dear, Master Liu has been doing business here for many years and has a good reputation. If we give it to him to fix, he won't mess it up."

  The woman helped pack the vote, and the middle-aged man nodded in agreement. Liu Ze quickly put the MacBook into his backpack. The middle-aged man was still a bit worried and reminded him again: "You must be careful, don't delete anything on the hard drive."

  "Don't worry, if I really damage it for you, I will compensate at the original price."

  "By the way, there's also this solar panel battery, take a look at it too. Every time it's fully charged, it can only be used for three or four hours at most."

  Liu Ze took over and put it away, walking towards his own Haojue 125 motorcycle. After riding for over a decade, this motorcycle was also on the verge of being scrapped. He kicked the starter several times, but it still wouldn't start. The middle-aged man said with a hint of mockery: "Master, it's time to change to a new bike - nowadays small-displacement cars aren't that expensive either."

  With one final kick, the motorcycle's engine finally let out a loud roar. Liu Ze smiled wryly and said, "This motorcycle is still more convenient to ride, and it saves gas too. Let's go—"

  To be honest, Liu Ze has been thinking of replacing his car for a long time, even if it's a second-hand one. But when he touches the money in his pocket, he gives up on this idea. Now driving is not like before, you can't do without a driver's license. I heard that taking the driver's test is not only expensive but also very difficult to pass. New cars are too expensive, while second-hand cars are cheap, only a few thousand yuan, but the fuel consumption and maintenance costs are enough to give people headaches. Seeing others driving their own cars, whether they have money or not, his wife has to squeeze onto public transportation every time she returns to her parents' home, and when she comes back, there's no good face for him to show.

  It's not that the wife is complaining, but in terms of figure and appearance, she was a beauty back in school, with many suitors. But as fate would have it, she ended up marrying him, who is so ordinary. After all these years, whenever this topic comes up, his wife can't help but say with some resentment that she was blind to have followed him, and that following anyone else would be better than following him. However, despite what she says, Liu Ze really can't find any fault in his wife's housekeeping, she is diligent and hardworking, taking care of the household chores without complaint, keeping their small home spotless, and after a long day at work, no matter how tired she is, she always manages to cook delicious meals for the family. As she says, the children are at an age where they need nutrition the most.

  Thinking of his wife, Liu Ze's heart felt warm and fuzzy, but also deeply guilty. Time was like a knife, her temples had already grown several strands of white hair, her eyes had added several wrinkles, the beautiful face of her youth was gradually fading away, and her slender figure had lost its curves, but her beauty remained in his heart, never disappearing. Over a decade of sharing weal and woe, over a decade of not leaving each other's side, they had walked through the dull and uneventful years together. Although they would occasionally quarrel, the reasons were always trivial things like their neighbors buying a new car or colleagues moving into a new house, and his wife, with her strong competitive spirit, would blow up and vent for a while, but after the storm passed, life continued on its usual track. Yet every time this happened, Liu Ze felt extremely ashamed, it was his own incompetence that couldn't provide his wife with a better life, a poor husband and wife, a hundred sorrows.

  After the last passion, Liu Ze stroked his wife's smooth back and discussed with her: "Why don't you learn to drive? We'll buy a car first. If it's expensive, we can't afford it. A QQ or something like that would be fine." His wife thought for a moment and said: "Let's pay the down payment first. The price of a suburban house is still acceptable. The kids are all grown up, so we should at least move to a bigger house. Otherwise, every time we get intimate, it feels like we're having an affair."

  They have two children, the elder is a boy who is in high school, and the younger is a three-year-old girl who is in kindergarten. The three-year-old daughter Niu Niu is obedient and sensible, every day when she comes home, she rushes to him from afar, "Daddy——" hugging his neck and kissing him nonstop. At this moment, he is undoubtedly the happiest.

  At the small shop by the street, he bought two lollipops, his daughter's favorite snack - when other kids were tired of eating McDonald's chicken nuggets, he could only afford to buy two lollipops to make his child happy. Watching his child savoring the lollipop with relish, his heart felt a pang of sorrow. He was a man, he had the responsibility to provide for his family and be their umbrella against wind and rain, and he wanted to work hard, relying on his own abilities to change their difficult circumstances.

  Liu Ze was born in a rural area, his mother is a peasant, and his father is an ordinary worker. In the 1970s, relying solely on his father's monthly salary of 28 yuan and 70 cents, a family of seven lived a very frugal life. Liu Ze grew up eating corn bread and wearing his brothers' and sisters' old clothes. When he went to school, he was extremely biased towards certain subjects. He got full marks in history and geography, and his Chinese and math grades were also passable. However, English was a complete mess for him. He could recognize the 26 letters individually but had no idea when they were combined together.

  After graduating from junior high school, Liu Ze started his working career. At that time, he was young and arrogant, thinking that with his own ability and perseverance, he could make a name for himself. He worked in a coking plant burning coke, dug coal in a coal mine, smelt steel in a small steel mill, burned ceramics in a ceramic kiln, was an assistant coach at a martial arts school, did sales, ran errands, and even did multi-level marketing (he was the kind at the very bottom of the pyramid). Only later did he start repairing electrical appliances. Having walked many roads, Liu Ze finally understood the ups and downs of life.

  All the trials of life are a kind of wealth - this was what an old fortune teller with a white beard and an otherworldly air told him.

  Liu Ze laughed, this fortune teller has almost become a philosopher! Wealth? Joke! In this society, if you're not the second generation of officials or the rich, without a powerful father or connections to rely on, for the working class to change their predicament, it's like trying to climb to heaven. The ideal is too grand, but reality is very harsh.

  The sky was getting dark, and Liu Ze rode his motorcycle not on the asphalt road, but turned onto a dirt road that had not been hardened. Taking this road home would save half an hour of driving time, and in order to hurry back home and reunite with his family, he chose this rough mountain dirt road today.

  He had walked this road several times before, and apart from it being a bit bumpy, he hadn't felt anything out of the ordinary, but today seemed to be an exception.

  A distant rumbling sound came, dust flying everywhere, the birds that had already returned to their nests cried out and flew into the air, Liu Ze also felt the earth shaking.

  Earthquake? A thought flashed through his mind, but he quickly denied it. It didn't seem like an earthquake, more like a collapse. This area had been mined for coal for a long time, and the underground mine layer had formed empty cavities, resulting in large areas of subsidence. Recently, there had been small-scale collapses, causing walls to fall and buildings to crack, making people's hair stand on end.

  Liu Zei saw that the situation ahead was not good, so he quickly turned around, but that damned rotten motorcycle died on him and wouldn't budge. The broken road surface was spreading rapidly towards him like a wildfire, the sound deafening, and the dust filling the sky. Liu Zei didn't dare hesitate any longer and abandoned his vehicle to escape.

  But the collapse speed exceeded his imagination, and before he could jump over the small beam, he felt a void under his feet. The entire piece of land was rapidly sinking down. He made a desperate leap, his hands grasping tightly onto a clump of shrubs on the edge of the cliff, his body suspended entirely in mid-air. Looking down, through the swirling dust, it was simply an endlessly deep black hole, and if he fell, his life would be forfeit.

  Liu Ze used all his strength to try to climb up the cliff, but his feet were suspended in mid-air, with nothing to step on. Relying solely on the strength of his arms, how could he possibly climb up? Time was ticking away second by second, and his physical strength was also dwindling bit by bit. The numbness in his arms had rendered them powerless to support his weight of over a hundred kilograms, and his brain was almost numb as well. A sense of despairing sorrow permeated his entire soul. Farewell, warm home! Farewell, my beloved wife and children!

  He closed his eyes in agony, tears streaming down his cheeks, and finally fell into the endless darkness like a kite with a broken string.