◎ First Prize from the Underworld ◎

Pink lace lampshade dusted with eraser crumbs, beige floral-patterned ceiling, cheap string lights stuck to the wall in the shape of a heart…

Shi Li lay with eyes open and spent half a minute trying to brainwash herself, but in the end, she couldn’t help complain—

It was too tacky, really too tacky.

Back then, she must have had a brain spasm to strip away the original black-white-grey minimalist style of this rental apartment and replace it with this deathly Barbie aesthetic, right?

Shi Li sighed.

What kind of aesthetic taste did she even have when she was alive?

This was the fifth year since Shi Li died.

Last week, she was informed by a supervisor from the underworld that she had drawn a first prize from the underworld’s lottery, allowing her to return to the human world in ghost form and fulfill an unresolved obsession from her life.

This once-in-a-century first prize from the underworld’s lottery was said to have a winning probability of only 0.0001%, but Shi Li felt it was utterly useless.

The key was, she didn’t even have any unresolved obsession.

She only spent a fortune buying the lottery ticket in hopes of winning third prize—a spot to reincarnate.

Nowadays, human birth rates had sharply declined while death rates rose year by year due to immense pressure across all levels of society.

The opportunity to reincarnate had become exceedingly rare and in short supply.

A priority reincarnation slot was sold on the market for six million underworld coins.

For someone like her, with no backing above and no one burning money for her below—a “wandering ghost with no ties”—waiting in line for reincarnation would take… eighty-two years.

And during those eighty-two years, she would have to serve endlessly just to maintain permanent residence status in the underworld.

Otherwise, she could be tossed into the scrap furnace at any moment and turned to ashes.

So Shi Li sought another path.

She spent all her savings from five years of service to buy a lottery ticket.

Third prize was a reincarnation qualification, with a winning rate of one percent.

Who would have thought…

She had a once-in-a-millennium stroke of dogshit luck and won first prize.

The second after the supervisor told her she had won, the prize was automatically executed—

She was projected back into the rental apartment she lived in before her death.

Shi Li stared at the tacky ceiling that hadn’t changed in five years and sighed deeply.

With this broken apartment, what could she even do after coming back?

Moreover, since that day, she had been stuck here all alone for three days.

And she strongly suspected that she might be trapped here forever.

A ghost was merely a projection of the soul in the human world, with limitations on movement.

It was nothing like those TV shows where ghosts float around freely.

She could only move freely within the projected space—that is, this apartment.

Beyond that, any action required borrowing a living person as a medium.

However…

This apartment was empty.

In this past week, she hadn’t seen a single living person.

Thinking of this, Shi Li floated up from the bed and did another round of patrol through the house.

The place was messy.

Several unwashed shirts, ties, and suits were draped over the back of the living room sofa.

It seemed the current tenant was a man.

A good apartment was being lived in like a doghouse.

There were a few half-burnt cigarette butts stuck upside-down in the ashtray.

The smell…

If she could still smell, it would probably be strong enough to make her die all over again.

Without a medium, ghosts lacked three of the five senses—only vision and hearing remained.

Shi Li floated into the bathroom.

The bathroom was quite clean.

At least the toilet had been scrubbed, and the sink and mirror had been wiped.

There were two electric toothbrushes on the counter, one black and one white.

Looked like this guy wasn’t single.

On the wide counter, the left side had a messy array of basic men’s skincare. The right side had a neatly arranged set of brand-new and expensive women’s skincare products.

Well well, big-name brands.

It was the very brand she had always wanted to buy when she was alive, but could never bring herself to splurge on.

Shi Li tried to touch the dazzling golden lid of the skincare product.

Her fingers passed right through it, touching nothing but emptiness.

She clicked her tongue and withdrew her hand in frustration.

Then floated to the kitchen.

She looked inside the fridge—

There were no fresh ingredients, just rows of soda.

There wasn’t a single bowl in the sink.

No cutting board on the counter.

Seemed like the new owner was a takeout addict.

She felt a bit sorry.

This kitchen was actually quite usable.

When she moved in, the kind landlady had paid to install a high-powered range hood.

And the sink and counter had been remodeled by herself.

The layout for washing, cutting, and cooking was very efficient…

After finishing her patrol, Shi Li floated back into the bedroom out of boredom.

She had no idea where the tenant had gone.

He hadn’t come back home for so long.

Which left her stuck here, unable to even step out to “breathe” some fresh air.

She didn’t know how much time had passed.

Just as she was dozing off, the keyhole on the front door suddenly clicked.

Shi Li snapped awake and whooshed up from the bed, flying to the entrance.

The front door opened a crack.

A man bent down at the doorway to change shoes.

She couldn’t see his face, but judging from the amount of hair, he was definitely a young man.

The lighting outside the door was dim. It was probably dusk.

After a while, the man placed his shoes into the cabinet outside and suddenly stood upright.

Shi Li’s gaze followed the top of his head, so she subconsciously looked up—Whoa, he was tall.

The next second, the man pulled a suitcase through the door and walked in. He smoothly reached out to press the entryway light switch.

The bright light revealed his face in full detail.

Shi Li’s vision was suddenly filled with an overwhelmingly flawless face.

After a brief blank moment, she finally realized—

Holy crap.

Her ex-boyfriend, Chen Du.

The “ex” wasn’t because of her death.

They had already broken up two months before she died…

Hadn’t he moved out of here back then?

Why was he living here again?

This apartment had seen a death, so it wasn’t considered lucky.

The price was always low compared to the surrounding area.

Back then, Shi Li was stubborn and didn’t believe in feng shui at all. She had boldly dragged Chen Du in to live here.

Later…

When they broke up, both had just graduated and were broke. They even fought over who got to keep this cheap apartment.

In the end, Shi Li won. Chen Du was kicked out overnight, leaving with nothing.

And then…

Two months later, one night while she was writing a news draft and studying for grad school,
she suddenly felt dizzy—

And then died for no reason.

Feng shui really was terrifying.

Thinking of this, Shi Li couldn’t help shivering and looked back at Chen Du’s face.

That meant the apartment’s price definitely took another nosedive after her death.

And he actually had the guts to move back in.

Truly…

Even more hard-headed than she was.

But after five years, he seemed to have changed a lot.

He was wearing a suit now.

…So handsome.

He should be twenty-eight now, right?

Married?

No wonder the sink had so many women’s skincare products.

Shi Li let her thoughts run wild for a few seconds and watched Chen Du pull his suitcase straight through her body into the living room.

She turned around and saw him taking off his suit jacket as he walked,
casually hanging it on the back of the sofa.

Then… he started unbuttoning his shirt.

Shi Li instantly raised her hand to cover her eyes.

A moment later, she opened her fingers just a crack.

…It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen it before.

With his back to her, he unfastened the shirt buttons one by one, reached out to place it on the sofa.

His shoulder blades and back muscles were defined and strong, extending down to his lean waist and abs.

Further down… he unbuckled his belt but didn’t take off his pants.

Shi Li didn’t know whether to feel disappointed or relieved.

But she couldn’t help but think, he had really kept in shape.

His physique was even better than when he was in his early twenties.

…Who the hell said that school heartthrobs always get fat and out of shape after graduation?

Back when she made the firm decision to break up with Chen Du, the thing she couldn’t let go of the most was his body.

So she kept brainwashing herself with that saying.

Turns out, she was wrong.

Some heartthrobs just keep getting more and more handsome.

Next, the bathroom door slammed shut. The shower started running.

Shi Li hesitated for two seconds but decided not to phase through the wall like a pervert.

She floated back to the room and sat quietly, listening to the sound of rushing water.

She never expected the apartment’s new owner would be Chen Du.

He had a new girlfriend, maybe even married, yet he still lived here…

Shi Li suddenly felt a bit bitter.

And it wasn’t because of the first part.

Indeed, during university she and Chen Du were together for two years, but both of them were rather indifferent in that regard, and both had come to Lin University from small towns. Compared to love and freedom, they valued career and achievement more.

Their relationship was more like teaming up to keep warm in the big city of Beilin, with very average feelings.

Not to mention they had already broken up.

Even if they hadn’t, five years had passed, and grass had grown on her grave. Of course he had the freedom to fall in love and get married.

What made her feel bitter was the latter part—that he still lived here.

Shi Li recalled the early spring six years ago.

She had failed the graduate entrance exam and found a temporary job as a reporter, busy to the point of exhaustion every day.

Chen Du also ran into obstacles during his internship.

He was a programmer, with a low internship salary, yet had to follow the industry’s 996 schedule and endure his boss’s endless PUA and false promises.

To better adapt to the new life, they moved out of the dorm and rented a place.

They searched around, but either the price wasn’t right or the place was too cramped.

In Beilin, a city where every inch of land was precious, it was really not easy to have a safe haven.

In the end, the agent introduced them to this apartment—the previous tenant had depression and committed suicide by jumping off the building. The incident caused a big stir, so even after being vacant for three months, it still wasn’t rented out. The price kept dropping.

At first, Chen Du didn’t agree, but he couldn’t resist Shi Li’s persistent persuasion.

What a joke. The thing working people fear most is being poor. Who cares about feng shui?

On the day they moved in and celebrated, Chen Du drank a little. Normally cold and indifferent, he suddenly hugged her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder, and spoke more than usual.

“Manager talked to me today. After two more internship cycles I can become a full-time employee. L1, pre-tax annual package of 420,000… By then we’ll move out and live in that apartment in Jing Shui District that you liked from the start.”

“Then, if you still want to take the exam, you can stay home and study quietly for a year. I can afford it.”

Of course Shi Li didn’t agree. They were just dating, not to the point of talking about marriage. Using his money to study—what was that? She just assumed he was drunk and talking nonsense, let him kiss her on the side of the face, and casually brushed it off.

But that didn’t change the fact—it was the best time in their relationship.

He wanted to earn money to support her and felt it was unfair for her to live in that apartment.

Unfortunately, before he could become a full-time employee, they had already broken up. And she never got the chance to take the exam the following year.

So…

Was it his Manager drawing him more pie again?

He didn’t manage to go full-time?

Shi Li remembered that autumn, every cold night.

Late at night, she poked her head out of the chilly blanket and watched him typing code.

The dim light from the laptop crossed over the bridge of his nose, like a bunch of fireflies crawling over a steep mountain, gathering together for warmth.Cold, indifferent, numb, and dreamlike.