Human Calamity

"We can break up, but you have to return the 380,000 yuan bride price!"

Li Dongxu gripped his phone, his face twisted, hysterical fury suppressed beneath his hoarse voice.

He was about to lose his mind!

Two months earlier, by chance, he had met a girl named Hu Diehua. She was beautiful, long-legged, pure yet seductive. He had fallen for her at first sight and taken the initiative to pursue her.

To his surprise, Hu Diehua was interested in him too.

After several dates, they quickly made their relationship official. Before even a month had passed, they were already discussing marriage. Everything had gone smoothly.

Li Dongxu had thought that he would soon marry and start a family, living a happy and fulfilled life.

But Hu Diehua had righteously declared that if he wanted to marry her, he had to prepare a bride price of 500,000 yuan!

Li Dongxu was only a white-collar worker. Where could he get that kind of money? After much pleading and bargaining, he had managed to haggle it down to 380,000.

He withdrew the little savings he had accumulated over seven years of work and borrowed money from every aunt and distant relative he could find, finally scraping together the bride price.

After that, he happily began preparing for the wedding.

But just last night, he had returned early from a business trip. He bought flowers and went to Hu Diehua's home, intending to surprise her.

Then, at the entrance to her residential complex, he ran into Hu Diehua walking home nestled against another man, the two of them wrapped in each other's arms.

Li Dongxu could not believe it and angrily demanded to know who that man was.

Who would have thought that before the man even opened his mouth, he turned his backside first? He looked at Li Dongxu with mockery and coldly said that he and Hu Diehua were true love, while Li Dongxu was nothing more than a spare tire.

Hu Diehua said nothing. She did not even spare Li Dongxu a glance, clearly acknowledging it by default.

Humiliated and enraged, Li Dongxu charged at the man, only to be knocked down by a single punch. Stars burst before his eyes, and blood streamed from his nose and mouth.

"You skinny dog, you dared pursue my woman too?"

"Hahaha! You dated her for two months and only held her hand a few times. You never even kissed her, did you?"

"Idiot, we sleep together every day!"

The man mercilessly mocked him, then put his arm around Hu Diehua and swaggered away.

Li Dongxu returned home in a daze. He did not know how he got through the night, but by the next day, he had finally calmed down enough to call Hu Diehua. He wanted nothing else—only his 380,000 yuan bride price back.

"What bride price? When did you ever give me any bride price?"

Hu Diehua's sneer came over the phone. "I was just playing around with you. I don't owe you anything. Don't contact me again."

She hung up.

"You bitch, why did you lie to me?" Li Dongxu panicked and hurriedly called again, only to find that her phone was switched off.

Li Dongxu was beside himself with rage. He completely exploded, grabbed a kitchen knife, and stormed out the door.

The night was enchanting, and the barbecue stall was bustling.

Four close friends sat around a table, chugging beer, gnawing skewers, and shooting the breeze.

Not only had they grown up together, they were sworn brothers as well.

Whenever they had free time, they would gather to hang out.

"Come on, come on! It's rare for us all to get together. Let's have a few more drinks."

They urged one another to drink as they chatted about everything under the sun.

Fang Zhixing looked at Zhang Changji. The latter was covered in tattoos and looked like a street punk. Fang Zhixing smiled and said, "How've you been? I heard you got another girlfriend?"

"Hahaha, what do you mean, 'another'? Do you think I'm that kind of guy?"

Zhang Changji raised his hand and shook the diamond-studded luxury watch on his wrist a few times, his face brimming with smug delight.

Fang Zhixing clicked his tongue and quickly asked, "What does she look like? Have you slept with her yet?"

Zhang Changji immediately waggled his brows, saying everything without saying a word.

But suddenly, Zhang Changji jerked his head up. His eyes widened, and a look of shock appeared on his face.

A man wielding a kitchen knife came charging over like a madman, his face filled with fury, his expression hideously twisted. He swung his blade and chopped down.

Great Zhou · Dan Prefecture · Qinghe Commandery!

Golden-well parasol trees bore yellow autumn leaves; frost came at night behind unraised pearl curtains.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo~"

Outside, a rooster crowed.

At the first pale light of dawn, Fang Zhixing woke from a nightmare. Looking around at his dilapidated, drafty thatched hut, he felt as though he had lived through another lifetime.

As the rooster's crow faded, that primitive, simple alarm clock made Fang Zhixing believe once more that he truly had transmigrated.

The original owner was named Big Ox. He was eighteen this year and had been born in a mountain village amid the Crouching Ox Mountains of Qinghe Commandery.

Big Ox had lost his mother as a child and his father as a teenager. What he had inherited was one thatched hut—with a fence, cool in winter and warm in summer—half a mu of poor farmland, one puppy, one bow, eighteen arrows, and one quiver.

Three days earlier, Big Ox had taken the family dog into the mountains to hunt, only to encounter a black bear. Terrified, he had fallen into a mountain hollow and struck his head on a rock.

And so, when he woke again, he had already become Fang Zhixing.

"Grrr~"

The moment Fang Zhixing woke up, his stomach began growling. Waves of hunger washed over him. He climbed out of bed and searched the utterly bare, rundown hut, yet could not find a single bite to eat.

With no other choice, he pushed open the door, walked to a large chipped water jar, and scooped up some water with a gourd ladle to drink, temporarily staving off his hunger.

"Woof woof!"

A mottled little dog ran over from behind him, seventy percent husky and thirty percent native mutt.

"I'm hungry, I'm hungry! I'm starving to death!"

A stream of complaints rang inside Fang Zhixing's mind. "Fang Zhixing, hurry up and find something to eat, or I'm going to starve to death!"

Fang Zhixing turned around and glared at the floppy-eared little puppy lying on the ground, which looked only a few months old. Rage rose in his chest as he snapped:

"You still have the nerve to say that? If you hadn't seduced someone else's fiancée, would that lunatic have hacked me to death?"

"Why are you yelling at me?"

The little puppy looked pitiful and knew it was in the wrong. It whimpered telepathically, "Fine, I was wrong, okay? Who the hell could have expected that lunatic to start chopping people with a knife? Besides, when that lunatic was chopping at you, why didn't you dodge?"

"Dodge? You sure know how to dodge, don't you!"

Fang Zhixing picked up a wooden stick and swung it at the puppy.

"Yelp~"

The little puppy bolted, with Fang Zhixing chasing after it.

Before they had even run two laps, both man and dog stopped and collapsed onto the ground.

These two brothers in misfortune were simply too hungry. They had no strength left to fool around!