Hello everyone, my name is Liu Chang'an (Revised)

The city of Junsha has kept its name unchanged for three thousand years. Liu Chang'an remembers that during the Shang Dynasty, Junsha belonged to the Yangyue lands, the branch of the Baiyue tribes.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Junsha belonged to Qianzhong Prefecture of the Chu State.

The Qin Dynasty divided the nation into thirty-six prefectures, with Junsha being one of them. Later, the Western Han Dynasty established the Junsha Kingdom, the fief of the King of Junsha, which governed thirteen counties.

In the Junsha of today, aside from the artifacts in museums, not a single ancient monument remains in the city. The Great Fire of Junsha during the War of Resistance Against Japan is listed alongside the breach of the Huayuankou embankment and the Chongqing air-raid shelter tragedy as the three great catastrophes. Because of that fire which consumed everything, it became one of the most severely damaged cities in World War II, alongside Stalingrad, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.

In a nation that mobilized its entire strength to invade China, there are no innocent souls under an atomic bomb, but Junsha should not have suffered such a fate. After the reconstruction, all traces of the burning and the pain were erased, and it seems to have been gradually forgotten.

This is the place where he fought through blood and fire.

More memories slowly surfaced in Liu Chang'an's mind. He lay motionless in the construction site next to the Baolong Center, his entire body in excruciating pain. He took a deep breath and could feel waves of agony radiating from his chest and spine, making him keenly aware that his fractures were extremely severe.

Looking up, the Baolong Center beside him was the tallest building in Junsha. Even in the dead of night, the lights embedded within the glass curtain walls made the building look like a jade ladder leading to heaven, shining brilliantly.

For once, the starry sky was visible today. A galaxy stretched from the northeast to the south, like a torrent of brilliant starlight, pouring out for hundreds of millions of miles.

As the stars shifted and the moon grew thin, the towering city skyline blocked the fiery clouds of sunrise and the first rays of dawn.

Liu Chang'an opened his eyes again, feeling the morning air. Even in a city plagued by heavy smog, the air after dawn always seemed uniquely different.

Hearing the distant roar of construction machinery starting up, Liu Chang'an looked up at the cloud-piercing Baolong Center next to the site. He rolled over and climbed up, vaulted over the wall with a single leap, and landed steadily.

He patted his backside; his pants were naturally tattered. Liu Chang'an took off his jacket and wrapped it around his waist to cover the hole in his trousers. Bare-chested, he walked along the construction site fence, looking no different from any other young man working on the site.

It was just that his skin was fairer, lacking the bronze tone accumulated from years of toil, and devoid of rough pores or hard muscle definition.

Liu Chang'an twisted his neck, and a middle-aged man in khaki-blue overalls shouted, "Hey kid, looking for work?"

Liu Chang'an looked down at his mud-stained pants, hesitated for a moment, and nodded. "What kind of work?"

"Clear out that pile of broken bricks and fill in the puddle," the middle-aged man said. Seeing Liu Chang'an's hesitation, he added impatiently, "Just one day's work, daily pay. I'll pay you as soon as you're done."

"Alright." Liu Chang'an flashed a smile, revealing two rows of teeth.

Large buildings are basically constructed with reinforced concrete, and only temporary site walls use gray bricks. The fleet from the Baolong Mansion had occupied the unfinished driveway, preventing construction equipment from reaching the area, so the puddle had to be filled by hand.

Liu Chang'an didn't change into work clothes. Fan Jian gave him a hard hat to wear. He didn't need to wear the uniform, but he absolutely could not enter the site without a hard hat, even if this was just the outermost perimeter.

Liu Chang'an worked busily all morning and finished filling the puddle, then went to find Fan Jian to collect his pay.

"A full day's work, and you finished it in just one morning?" Fan Jian was somewhat skeptical. He ran over to inspect the work, then laughed. "I couldn't tell, but you're quite capable. What's your name?"

"Liu Chang'an." Liu Chang'an took the two hundred yuan, signed the paper, and prepared to leave.

"Leave your phone number. I'll call you if there's more work," Fan Jian said casually. The construction site couldn't just hire anyone, and today was only an exception because it was so early and his regular crew had been pulled away for other tasks.

Liu Chang'an smiled and scribbled his number on the slip. He knew there probably wouldn't be any more work; today was likely just a coincidence.

Fan Jian thought his smile was quite pleasant, his teeth white and clean. He figured he must have just come out to make a living.

Casually placing the slip among a stack of signed papers, Fan Jian continued his patrol of the site. The section he was in belonged to the supporting facilities for the Baolong Center. The main structure of the Baolong Center had already been completed and put into use, standing 452 meters tall with a total floor area of 980,000 square meters. Although the building's height didn't rank very high in the country, the depth of its foundation pit was the second deepest in the nation. As one of the construction personnel, Fan Jian felt a sense of pride.

"Hello."

Just as Fan Jian finished his rounds, he saw a woman in a black professional skirt suit walk over to greet him.

Fan Jian involuntarily reached into his pocket to touch his betel nut, then gave a sheepish smile. "Hello, is there something you need?"

"I'm looking for a young man who works at your site. He was working in that area just now," the woman said, pointing.

Fan Jian paused. Wasn't that where Liu Chang'an had been working? Fan Jian couldn't help but size up the woman again. She had the air of a standard secretary or assistant: tall and slender, not wearing stockings, a pair of cutout black high heels, no extra accessories, and a figure that men admired most. There wasn't much of a smile on her face, but she didn't seem overly cold either.

The key was her face, framed by rimless glasses—young and beautiful.

Fan Jian had seen secretaries accompanying company executives on inspections, but clearly, in terms of temperament, figure, and appearance, this woman was in a different league.

"His name is Liu Chang'an, but he's not one of our regular workers. I just hired him temporarily for the day." Fan Jian wondered to himself: what was the relationship between this young woman and Liu Chang'an? A migrant worker moving bricks and a beautiful, proud high-level white-collar worker—what could they possibly have in common?

The young woman frowned and looked back behind her.

Only then did Fan Jian notice that not far behind the young woman stood a girl who was exceptionally beautiful. She had her hands in her pockets, looking lazily up at the sky, not appearing to look in their direction at all.

She was also holding a dog—an extremely fierce-looking Rottweiler. There was one kept at the construction site, but in terms of appearance and build, it clearly couldn't compare to the one the girl had.

"Do you have his contact information?" the young woman asked again.

"I do," Fan Jian said, then hurried to search through the pile of slips.

After a while, Fan Jian found the slip and read the phone number to the young woman.

"Thank you for your trouble." The young woman noted down the number and turned to leave.

Fan Jian took the betel nut out of his pocket, popped one into his mouth, and watched the swaying waist of the woman as she walked away, chewing until his mouth filled with saliva.