Prologue

The blazing sun scorched the earth; this summer seemed even hotter than usual. Streets and alleys bustled with people, presenting a scene of thriving activity. As the weather grew hotter, people wore less and less, and groups gathered by the roadside to wait and watch pretty women.

Huo Hai, a young man who should have been no different from them, stood amid the sweltering summer heat with an icy chill in his heart.

"Is there anyone as unlucky as me?" Huo Hai muttered to himself. He no longer cared about anything around him. The lofty ambitions he had held since graduation had vanished completely beneath the cold words and harsh treatment of prospective employers, leaving behind only indifference and exhaustion.

Every night, his heart was filled with confusion. He did not know where his future path lay, nor did he know what he ought to do. Every day, every moment, Huo Hai felt like a walking corpse. For something like this to happen to him, heaven truly was unfair. Huo Hai was not someone who blamed heaven and others, yet even he had begun to complain.

They said good men did not live long, while scourges lasted a thousand years. Huo Hai remembered that it was precisely because of this saying that his grandfather had given him such a name. Its homophone meant "scourge," so that he might live a long life and enjoy great wealth and honor.

Huo Hai's father, however, had not shared his grandfather's way of thinking. Since childhood, he had taught Huo Hai that good would be rewarded and evil repaid. That sentence had deceived Huo Hai for over twenty years. Being a good person was nowhere near so easy.

Thinking back, he had practically never pocketed anything found on the road. Whenever he saw an old lady crossing the street, he would go help her. Whenever he saw rubbish on the ground, he would pick it up. He had never had the chance to do any great good deeds, but he had done countless good deeds within his ability. By that reckoning, he should have accumulated quite a lot of hidden virtue, shouldn't he? His life should have gotten better, shouldn't it?

Of course, by now, for certain reasons, he no longer dared help old ladies to their feet. But he still always gave up his seat to elderly people on the bus. No matter who met him, they praised Huo Hai as a good man.

But where was a good man's reward? Was this what he had gotten? If it had merely been difficult to find work after entering society, that would have been one thing. It was not a big deal; no one won others' appreciation right from the start.

With no job, at least he still had some comfort in his heart. His girlfriend, who had sworn eternal love with him ever since high school—every cent Huo Hai earned from odd jobs had been spent on her. Sometimes, he had to eat instant noodles for several days straight. Hadn't he treated her well enough? He could not possibly stretch out his hand to ask his family for money at a time like this; his skin was not that thick.

But what had he received? Last night, the girlfriend he had been with for a full six years had asked to break up with him.

Even now, thinking back on it, Huo Hai still felt as though his whole body was floating. "Heh heh, I'm a good person, so we're not suitable for each other. Bastard. We're not suitable for each other? Then are you suitable for that old geezer?" Huo Hai's heart felt as though it had been thrown into an ice cellar.

When his girlfriend had proposed breaking up yesterday, Huo Hai had thought she was merely dissatisfied again and throwing a tantrum. Today, he had cruelly taken out all his remaining money and bought a ring, intending to give it to her and coax her. But what had he seen? The girlfriend who had broken up with him only yesterday had thrown herself into the arms of an old man old enough to be her grandfather today.

Why? Because that man had arrived in a sports car. Someone like Huo Hai could struggle for a lifetime and still never dream of driving such a sports car.

Forget a sports car—even his livelihood had yet to be settled. What could he do? He too wanted to be like those protagonists, rush out, and give that old geezer a vicious beating. But could he really do that? Did he dare?

That was right, that old geezer was certainly no match for Huo Hai in the prime of his youth, but what about the bodyguards beside him? Besides, even if he beat the man, then what? Could he escape the other party's retaliation? Could what he had lost come back? Even if it did, what would he use to support her? What if that old man retaliated against his parents? What could he do then?

Such was the sorrow of the poor. What had happened to this world? Huo Hai did not know. Like a walking corpse, he did not even have the thought of standing up for himself. He simply walked back like a walking corpse, returning to the small room he rented.

Looking at the ring in his hand, Huo Hai gave a bitter laugh. "What am I going to do about next month's rent?" He had bought the ring; could he return it? After a long while, Huo Hai pulled an old book from beneath his bed and began flipping through it.

His grandmother had left it to him. She seemed to have once been Miao and possessed the skill of raising gu and insects. But as reform and opening-up progressed and science flourished, his parents had not believed in such unscientific things at all. Only Huo Hai had been fascinated by these mysterious things when he was young, and he had studied with his grandmother for a time.

The book recorded the proper method for using spiritual energy to feed insects. Spiritual energy? What was that? Did Earth even still have it? As for using blood, Huo Hai had been afraid of pain as a child. He believed all children were the same.

Therefore, after all these years, Huo Hai had not managed to raise anything. Still, he had memorized everything in the book clearly. Along with it, he had firmly committed to memory some acupoints and meridians related to the circulation of true qi.

"Ah, what use is any of this?" Huo Hai shook his head helplessly, the bitterness on his face growing deeper. Could raising insects pay his rent? Never mind that he could not raise them at all—even if he truly did raise something, what could it do? From what he knew about gu insects, what use did they have besides harming people?

In modern society, if one wanted to hurt someone, a knife or a gun was more effective. After reading through it once more, Huo Hai placed the book on the table.

Gritting his teeth, he went outside and bought a case of beer and some small dishes, then began eating by himself. "Tomorrow, I'm going home. I'll never come back to this place again." What Huo Hai ate was food, but what he swallowed were tears.

No one knew how long it had been before Huo Hai felt waves of dizziness, then slumped over the table and fell asleep.

The next day, sunlight poured through the window and fell across Huo Hai's face. Huo Hai, hungover from a night of drinking, slowly opened his eyes. "It's dawn. Ah, what's past is past. What is there left to let go of? Home, I'm going home. Even if I have to go back and farm, I won't stay in this place anymore." His face relaxed for a moment, though his heart remained bitter.

Leaving a big city was easier said than done. Of those who came to a big city, who wanted to leave? Those wealthy and powerful people might always be running toward the countryside, but who among those who needed to support their families could give up the income a big city provided?

Huo Hai felt utterly out of place in the big city. Of course, what hurt even more was his girlfriend's betrayal. Before money, anything could be betrayed. Not wanting to see her hurt again, Huo Hai decided to leave this place.

After packing his things—though there was really nothing much to pack—Huo Hai pulled his luggage and left the room he had rented temporarily. There was no need to seek out the landlord either. The landlord would come early to collect rent; once he discovered Huo Hai had left, he would naturally rent the place to someone else. Huo Hai did not want to see that hateful face of the landlord's either.

At most, he would lose a few days' rent. I can afford that loss. From afar, Huo Hai saw an old man sweating profusely as he carried goods onto a tricycle. His heart trembled instinctively, and Huo Hai wanted to go forward and help.

But the leg he had just stepped out with unconsciously drew back. "Heh, I can't even help myself, yet I want to help someone else. Is there any benefit in it? After being a good person for so many years, all I got in the end was a good guy card."

Huo Hai mocked himself, suppressed the urge to help, and turned away. At heart, Huo Hai was still a good young man who had not been tainted. But good young men were creatures that could not survive in this society.

Because he had seen someone who needed help and had not helped, Huo Hai felt terribly upset. After all, it went against the education he had received since childhood. When one shattered one's own outlook on life with one's own hands, anyone would feel miserable. Distracted, Huo Hai did not notice at all that the green light ahead had turned red. Still dazed, he continued walking forward.

Screech... A piercing sound of brakes suddenly rang out beside him. Huo Hai lifted his head blankly. Then pain suddenly struck his body, and he seemed to soar through clouds and mist as he was flung into the air. Dazed Huo Hai finally understood.

"I... I've been hit and sent flying." The words "car accident" surfaced in Huo Hai's mind. At the moment of death, he thought of nothing else but his past—the good deeds he had done one after another. Great or small, every good deed he had once done flashed through his mind. He had never expected that these would be what he remembered most deeply.

Because of his kindness, he had gained a girlfriend others envied. Because of his kindness, he had yielded every opportunity to others. Yet now, even finding a job was still a problem for him. In the end, this was actually how it would turn out.

Would his parents be heartbroken to death when they found out? His parents' faces flashed through Huo Hai's heart. Then came his grandmother, followed by his grandfather. "Little Hai, you must live well forever, just like your name."

His grandfather's kind face passed before his eyes. "Yes, that's right. My name—I am Huo Hai. I, Huo Hai, swear to heaven that if there is another life, I will live up to my name. Good men do not live long, while scourges last a thousand years. I swear, I will never be a good person again." With fury in his heart, Huo Hai turned his final breath into his oath.

After that, his body seemed to slam into something. His vision went black, and he knew nothing more.