“Woof! Woof woof!”
Just as Chang Fei smugly hung up the phone, waiting for someone to tow away the car that nearly hit him, the sound of barking caught his attention.
Turning around, he saw three or four large dogs charging at him menacingly.
For a split second, Chang Fei was stunned, but human instinct kicked in, and before the dogs could pounce, he made the fastest decision of his life!
He turned and ran!
Escaping a pack of dogs wasn’t exactly simple, nor was it particularly easy, but after running through three streets with a plan, intent, and determination, he finally managed to shake off the inexplicably aggressive dogs.
Panting, he patted his chest, wondering if his prank had caused this—had he been targeted by these dogs because of his mischief?
Huh?
He suddenly noticed something.
The dogs were no longer chasing him, but… was this a dead-end alley?
He vaguely recalled someone saying that dead-end alleys often led to “interesting” encounters.
Surely it wasn’t what he was imagining, right?
“Kid! Hand over all your money!”
A low, gruff voice came from behind.
‘Well, isn’t that just perfect…’
What a coincidence! He actually ran into trouble!
Dealing with this kind of situation was a hassle… might as well pay to avoid trouble.
For the sake of “everyone’s safety,” Chang Fei decided to handle it the simplest way.
He reached into his pocket to pull out the money he’d just gotten today—
Where’s the wallet?!
And the check?!
All he felt was a big hole.
When did this happen?
His pocket had torn, and he’d lost all his money!
With a pained expression, he turned around and forced out, “I don’t have any money…”
The moment he said it, he regretted it.
It wasn’t just one person behind him—it was several!
These guys looked like vicious thugs, perfect for a life of crime!
Even the mercenaries in his organization didn’t have this kind of intimidating presence!
They were clearly short-tempered and easily provoked!
Sure enough, one of them roared in anger, “You don’t have money?!”
Before Chang Fei could explain, a fist came flying at his face.
The teenager took the punch head-on and crashed to the ground.
Stars danced in his vision as he felt his collar being grabbed, and a pair of large hands yanked him off the ground.
It looked like a beating was inevitable.
If that’s how it was going to be…
In an instant, Chang Fei’s face turned sorrowful and anguished, tears welling up in his eyes.
Unable to hold them back, tears slid down his cheeks as he cried out in a hoarse, aggrieved voice:
“My life’s already been miserable enough! My dad doesn’t care, my mom’s gone, my relatives are after my life. I finally escaped, hiding every day, earning my own money, studying hard to get into a school to make my mom proud. But then my scumbag dad’s mistress’s son bought my hard-earned first-place score! My job was ruined because of that guy, I didn’t even get paid, I almost got hit by a car, got chased by dogs for no reason, haven’t eaten all day, and now that I’m finally home, you guys are robbing me… I was ready to give you everything I had to avoid trouble, but my pocket’s torn…”
The more Chang Fei spoke, the sadder his expression became, until he was sobbing and hanging his head.
Suddenly, he felt a hand on his head.
“Stop talking!” an emotional voice interrupted him.
He looked up to see the group of tough-looking thugs, who moments ago seemed like demons, now staring at him with tears streaming down their faces.
The man holding his head pulled a crumpled hundred-yuan bill from his pocket, sniffed hard, and sighed, “I thought we had it bad, living off robberies, but you, kid, you’ve got it worse. I thought those gray patches on you were some rich kid’s weird fashion, but it’s just mud. Take this money! We don’t bully kids like you! We won’t let you die either! If you run into trouble next time, come find us! We’ll take care of that punk who stole your dad!”
With that, the man stood up, waving his hand and shouting to the others, “Brothers! If this kid runs into trouble, you better help him out! Got it?!”
“Got it!”
Though Chang Fei wasn’t sure what just happened, everyone seemed pretty cheerful.
After shouting, the group laughed, slung their arms around each other, and left, completely forgetting about Chang Fei.
Watching them go, Chang Fei looked at the green hundred-yuan bill in his hand.
His teary expression vanished, replaced by a gleeful grin as he muttered, “Heh… I knew it. Even among muscleheads, there might be a few smart ones, but with muscles like that, their brains are probably muscle too, right? Looks like my luck’s finally turning. After a whole day of bad luck, I scored fifty yuan for free, ha!”
Chang Fei straightened his clothes and started running toward home, but suddenly felt his foot give way…
“Who the hell steals manhole covers?!”
Soaked and exhausted, Chang Fei returned to his fifty-square-meter rental apartment and collapsed by the window.
He figured he must’ve accidentally offended some deity; otherwise, how could he be this unlucky?
But that would mean gods actually exist, ha…
As if there could really be gods in this world!
If there were, why hadn’t they taken over the world already?
Amusing thought!
Chuckling to himself, Chang Fei looked up at the sky, as if he could spot a god watching him.
He didn’t see any gods, but he did see a shooting star.
Oh, wow! What luck!
To see a shooting star at the end of such an unlucky day!
Chang Fei let out a laugh, clapped his hands, and, half-joking, closed his eyes to make a wish: “Come on, shooting star! Make me a god! Once I’m a god, I’ll beat the crap out of whoever’s making me this unlucky!”
Maybe it was the beating or falling into the manhole, but his brain wasn’t quite right.
In any case, he made this ridiculous wish.
Right after he spoke, a strong gust hit him, and scorching heat made him sweat profusely.
Looking up, he saw a massive, fiery red-golden meteor hurtling straight toward him!
No way to dodge!
Holy crap!
A shooting star!
Chang Fei suddenly realized—shooting stars were just bad-luck stars, perfectly matched with his own unlucky self!
What a coincidence, what a connection!
Under the blinding light, the teenager closed his eyes, his figure swallowed by the meteor.
Unlucky teenager, dead at 14.
The end.
“Hey! Didn’t you want to be a god? Why’re you still closing your eyes?”
Chang Fei opened his eyes in shock, finding himself surrounded by ruins—ruins that looked like they’d been abandoned for thousands of years.
But that wasn’t the point.
The point was, he was completely unharmed?
Well… probably unharmed, standing on a giant crimson meteor.
Though he couldn’t feel his body at all, this had to be real, right?
There were even strange-shaped stones floating around him!
One of the stones moved, and the odd voice he’d heard came from it: “Hey! Have you decided yet?”
“What?”
“Are you an idiot? You made the wish, and you haven’t thought it through? Obviously, it’s about deciding what kind of god you want to be! These stones in front of you represent different divine positions. Pick the one you want to become! Stop wasting time babbling! Hurry up and choose! I’m busy! I’ve got a ton of other people’s wishes to handle. If your wish wasn’t so unique, I wouldn’t bother showing up for a dumb human kid like you!”
“You’re the one babbling. I only said one word, and you’re making up a whole story.”
“Are you done or not? Every shooting star grants the first person’s wish, and unlucky you just happened to be the first! Stop yapping and choose! I’m off to trick the next poor sap.”
“Hey, you just said ‘poor sap,’ didn’t you?”
“No. I said ‘lucky one.’”
Chang Fei’s mouth twitched. This stone was totally unreliable.
But a rare chance to choose for himself? Even if it was bad, how bad could it get?
“Hmm…” Chang Fei rubbed his chin, circling around, and asked the stone, “I need to think carefully.”
“What’s there to think about? Don’t you humans give anything to become gods? Here’s a cheap shot at divinity right in front of you, and you’re not jumping at it? If you miss this, you’ll regret it forever. Instead of overthinking to pick a good one, you should seize this once-in-a-lifetime chance to become a god. This is a rare opportunity.”
The stone rattled off its speech and asked, “So? Just grab one already!”
“Hmm…” But Chang Fei kept rubbing his chin, deep in thought.
The stone fell silent.
After a long pause, one side finally broke.
The stone spun around and snapped, “Human, have you made up your mind or not?”
“Can I rule some out?” Chang Fei finally spoke, flashing a harmless smile.
“Rule some out? You’re not even a god yet, and you’re already being picky?!” The stone sounded incredulous, practically shrieking.
Chang Fei kept his smile: “Exactly because I’m not a god yet, I need to choose carefully, right? If you don’t like it, I’ll just keep thinking until I come up with something better…”
“Wait!” The stone panicked, quickly interrupting.
Chang Fei’s smile didn’t waver, making the stone want to punch him: “Fine, how do you want to choose?”
“Rule out the ones that can’t descend to the mortal world,” Chang Fei said.
“Done,” the stone grumbled, and many stones around them disappeared.
“Rule out the ones that aren’t powerful enough,” Chang Fei continued.
The stone went quiet for a while but complied: “Done! No more issues, right? Pick already!”
“Rule out the ones without achievements. If I’m becoming a god, I want to be the most powerful one,” Chang Fei stated his ultimate goal.
The stone was stunned, exclaiming, “How can you rule them out like that? That leaves…”
“Huh? Is that not allowed? Well, then forget it…”
“Wait! It’s not impossible! Just stop wasting my time!” The stone was exasperated, spinning around.
Only five stones remained in front of Chang Fei.
“This one, then?”
Chang Fei held a transparent stone, devoid of any glow, feeling it was like him—low-key and restrained.
The talking stone went quiet for a moment, then let out a strange, cackling laugh: “From the moment you wake up, you’ll be a god! Whether you regret it or not, there’s no turning back!”
As soon as the words were spoken, Chang Fei felt excruciating pain, like his brain was splitting apart.
He passed out.
***
Shang Zhi’s note:
This is the revised Chapter 2 for the Dragon Boat Festival… Shang Zhi has no energy left to think about how it turned out.
In any case, the original obedient kid is gone, and Shang Zhi will keep fleshing out the character and plot from here.