My First Reset and a Breakneck Escape!

Welcome to Trapped in the Same Day for a Thousand Years, written by Sang Ze and narrated by Wang Xiaomo. Wu Chen knew he was in trouble. He had never considered the consequences of his actions before. Even killing someone had been no problem, because time would reset.

But this time, time had begun to move forward.

Yesterday, Wu Chen had stabbed one man in the eye and slashed another man's throat. He didn't know whether the second man had survived. He had also invoked a powerful man's name, put on a grand show, walked away, and stolen Wang Zhuangyuan's car. Trouble was piling up.

He could still reset time, and now he could do it at will. But July 7 had passed. It was July 8, and Wu Chen couldn't reset yesterday.

If he handled the fallout badly, people in the underworld might beat him to death, or he might be executed for murder. Either was possible.

At the thought, Wu Chen smiled. Now this was what made life interesting.

Wu Chen looked out the window again. Wang Zhuangyuan hadn't come in person yet; he was probably still on his way. But dozens of his men had arrived. Wu Chen didn't know whether Liu Huzi had told the people who arrived later what had happened yesterday.

If Liu Huzi had revealed his identity, there wouldn't be trouble for the moment.

Wang Zhuangyuan certainly wouldn't dare touch him. He would only try to find him first.

If Liu Huzi hadn't said anything, Wang Zhuangyuan would probably order his men to attack at once.

Someone had dared to take his beloved car right here in East Sea. That was practically asking to die.

Wang Zhuangyuan's real name was Wang Zhe. Fifteen years ago, he had earned the highest score in East Sea's science-track college entrance exam. He should have gone on to a prestigious university and had a bright future.

But during the summer after the exam, his parents were beaten over a demolition dispute, leaving his father paralyzed. In a rage, he stabbed someone.

The story of a top exam scorer stabbing a man made headlines. Wang Zhe spent three years in prison. After his release, he entered the underworld and made a name for himself.

He had no power, connections, or money, but he had an intelligence most people in the underworld lacked.

Now Wang Zhuangyuan was a prominent figure in East Sea's underworld, with considerable power.

Wu Chen knew how to deal with Wang Zhuangyuan, but the timing was wrong this time.

In fact, Wang Zhuangyuan was the smaller problem. The bigger one was that Wu Chen had used Young Master Li's name yesterday to throw his weight around.

If word got out, that would be serious trouble. Everyone in the underworld across the East China Region might come after him.

How exciting. People were still ramming the door, and from the noise outside, several of them had gathered. What were they going to do?

Frightened, Mu Qingqing took a couple of quick steps toward Wu Chen, then cried out and fell. Tears welled in her eyes from the pain.

She was weak and sore. She couldn't run at all.

Wu Chen hurried over and helped Mu Qianqian up. Her elbow was bruised, and Mu Qingqing was in no shape to move easily. She hadn't even dressed; she had only wrapped herself in a blanket.

Wu Chen's hands were injured, too.

They were trapped inside, and the door was about to give way. What could they do?

"I'm scared."

Mu Qianqian began to cry.

"It's okay. Let's try this again."

Wu Chen smiled and rubbed her hair.

Spacetime reset. The host has reset July 8, 2020, for the first time. This reset consumed one spacetime point. Remaining spacetime points: 364,999.

7:00 a.m., July 8, 2020.

Wu Chen opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, a smile rising from his heart.

Seven in the morning was when time was tallied and when it reset.

If he reset before 7:00 a.m., he would actually return to the previous day. After 7:00 a.m., he would return to the start of the current one.

"Hey, hold on. Didn't you say July 7 kept repeating?"

"If every day resets, how do you explain today being July 8?"

A girl's voice suddenly came from beside him.

Wu Chen turned and saw Mu Qingqing wrapped in a blanket, gripping a baseball bat with both hands and glaring at him with a pout.

"Didn't you already know I was a liar?"

"When did you ever believe anything I said?"

Wu Chen smiled as he spoke. He reached out, took the baseball bat from her, and set it on the table.

"Hmph. You're no fun at all! You could at least play along!"

Still fuming, Mu Qianqian held out a hand to Wu Chen.

"You're awful." Mu Qingqing slapped Wu Chen's arm, then obediently lay down beside him and kissed his cheek.

"Do you regret it?" Wu Chen asked.

"Regret what?" Mu Qingqing asked, puzzled.

"Coming home with me?"

"Yeah, I regret it. So hurry up and reset time. Come on!"

"Hmph!" Mu Qianqian said, clearly teasing him.

"Not really? I'm a man who's slept with ten thousand women. You don't regret it?" Wu Chen asked with a sidelong grin.

"Does that matter?"

"It's not like I said I wanted to date you."

Mu Qingqing rolled her eyes at Wu Chen. "I'm afraid you'll fall in love with me."

"Pfft. In your dreams!"

"Remember, I slept with you last night, not the other way around."

"All right."

Wu Chen sat up, went to the Restroom, and brought back her clothes.

He tossed them to her gently. "Get dressed. We need to go."

"Where?"

"Can't we sleep a little longer?"

Mu Qingqing pulled the blanket over her head, stubbornly refusing to get up.

"We got ourselves into serious trouble yesterday. You know I lied to you. I'm not all that capable."

"With Wang Zhuangyuan's influence, I'd guess he'll find us soon. If we don't leave, we'll be in real trouble."

Wu Chen spoke with a faint smile.

Mu Qingqing sat up at once and quickly got dressed.

"You really don't know how to be gentle with a girl. You knew yesterday was my... my first time, but you just kept going. Doesn't it hurt anymore?"

After Mo Qianqian finished dressing, she used some tissues. "Wu Chen, stop talking. If we don't leave now, we're going to get beaten up."

Wu Chen smiled, went over, and picked Mu Qianqian up. "Let's go."

He carried Mu Qianqian out the door and through the alley. A few older residents returning from the morning market saw him carrying Mu Qingqing, but she didn't care about their stares. She really was an outgoing person.

The white Lamborghini was parked outside the alley. Wang Zhuangyuan's men hadn't arrived yet, though they probably would soon.

They got into the car.

"Where are we going?" Mu Qianqian asked after fastening her seat belt. Then she added quietly, "Are we taking it somewhere deserted and abandoning it?"

"Guess."

Wu Chen smiled at Mu Qianqian. "Ugh. Always sweet-talking and acting mysterious. Fine, I won't ask."

"All you do is make up stories."

Mu Qianqian gave Wu Chen the middle finger. In truth, that was exactly what she found interesting about him.

Of course, she hadn't gone home with Wu Chen just because he was interesting. She had gone because he had saved her.

Girls her age liked to dream about princes on white horses and heroes rescuing them, or about having a passionate romance while they were young.

But Mu Qingqing's rebellious streak meant she would never admit many of those things aloud.

Vroom!

Wu Chen had only just started the car and hadn't touched the accelerator when he heard engines revving behind them.

He checked the rearview mirror. Several SUVs were approaching, led by a Mercedes-Benz G-Class. One glance at the license plate told him they belonged to Wang Zhuangyuan's men.

They had arrived, and they had spotted the white Lamborghini parked by the road.

Interesting!

Wu Chen grinned. "Hold on tight." He switched modes, shifted gears, and floored the accelerator in one smooth motion. The Lamborghini shot forward, hit the main road, and accelerated flat out.

"Are you insane? It's morning! The roads are full of cars!" Mu Qingqing screamed.

"Look behind us. They're chasing us. It'll be bad if they catch us!" Wu Chen said, tilting his head.

Mu Qingqing checked the rearview mirror. Sure enough, several vehicles were speeding after them. But the Lamborghini was faster, and the gap kept growing.

"Don't talk. I need to make a call."

Wu Chen pulled out his phone and dialed a number. The call connected almost immediately.

An icy, businesslike woman's voice came through the phone.

Wu Chen's phone contained only the numbers of people he had known before July 7, 2020. It held no others.

Numbers he saved from people he met on July 7 would disappear when time reset.

But Wu Chen had memorized the phone numbers of everyone he had met over the thousand years of Millennium Reincarnation.

Memorizing more than a hundred thousand numbers had even been one of the ways he entertained himself and passed the time.

Memory was the only thing a reset couldn't erase, so Wu Chen had learned to use his to the fullest.

"There's a traitor close to you. He's been there for two years. Besides watching your every move, he's been ordered to steal the research data for your company's latest product," Wu Chen said as he sped down the road.

"Who are you?" Suspicion entered the woman's icy voice.

"How did you get this number?"

She had assumed a subordinate was calling her private number with urgent news.

The caller ID had shown Unknown Number, but she hadn't thought much of it. Wu Chen's words made her realize something was wrong.

Anyone who dared speak to her that way had to be a stranger.

This person seemed to know something, but she was more concerned about who he was.

"I think we should meet and talk," Wu Chen said.

"Who are you?" the woman repeated, her voice hardening.

"You'll find out when we meet."

"There's a traitor near you. I'm warning you out of kindness. You don't want to lose the Bet, do you?"

"You know about the Bet? Who exactly are you?"

"I'm warning you. If you know this number, you should know who I am. I'll find you."

"Come on. I just said we could meet, so why go looking for me?"

"Don't threaten me, all right?"

"Don't you want to know who the traitor is?"

"I don't even know who you are. Why should I believe you?"

"Am I supposed to take your word for it?"

"I'm a good person who happens to know a few things, so I thought I'd warn you."

"If you pay me a decent fee for the information, I can tell you more. About your younger brother, for example."

"I'll find out who you are."

The woman hung up immediately.

Wu Chen wasn't surprised. He knew that was her nature.

"Wu Chen, aren't we going too fast?"

Wu Chen had just put down his phone and returned both hands to the wheel when Mu Qianqian spoke beside him, fear in her voice.

The Lamborghini was flying. The force of its acceleration pinned Mu Qianqian against the seat. She gripped both sides of it, her face pale as she stared outside.

It was morning rush hour. More and more cars filled the road as they entered a major thoroughfare. At this speed, calling his driving reckless would have been an understatement.

Mu Qingqing had wanted to warn him earlier. Driving this fast while talking on the phone had frightened her half to death, but she had worried that speaking up suddenly would distract him even more.

Mu Qingqing liked the thrill of street racing and had raced herself, but only at night on empty mountain roads. Doing this in broad daylight was asking to die.

"Don't worry. Once we've shaken them, I'll slow down."

Wu Chen pressed the accelerator harder.

"Haven't we already lost them?" Mu Qianqian asked.

She checked the rearview mirror. The SUVs were no longer behind them. They had vanished from sight long ago.

An SUV couldn't match a sports car's speed, and the men driving them didn't dare risk their lives the way Wu Chen did.

"Yeah, more or less."

"I'll slow down after the next intersection," Wu Chen said.

He glanced ahead, then accelerated again. The speedometer was nearing 240 kilometers per hour.

"Do you really have to do this?" Mu Qianqian felt as though she was about to die.

"If I don't speed up, we'll miss the green light at the next intersection," Wu Chen explained.

Ten seconds later, the white Lamborghini reached the intersection of Jianshe Road and Fumin Street. It swung into a sweeping drift across the broad junction and turned right onto Jianshe Road.

The moment the white Lamborghini turned onto Jianshe Road, the light at the intersection changed from green to red.

Wu Chen knew every road in Donghai City. He knew when the traffic lights changed at every intersection, and where traffic would and wouldn't back up at any given time.

He had mapped out his route in his head. It was the morning rush hour, so he avoided every road likely to be congested. The sports car's low clearance ruled out rough roads, but he had accounted for that too. He slowed down until he was cruising at around eighty kilometers an hour. That was still fast for city streets, but no longer terrifying.

Mu Qianqian breathed a sigh of relief. She raised a fist to thump Wu Chen's shoulder, then stopped herself and merely waved it at him. She didn't want to distract him while he drove.

"You scared me to death, you jerk." "It was an emergency. Someone was chasing us. It's not like I wanted to drive that way."

Wu Chen smiled. "Weren't you afraid we'd crash?"

"We could end up on the news too, you know."

"Then the whole country would know what you did, and you'd be finished."

"We won't crash, and we won't be on the news."

"This car has smuggled plates registered to another vehicle. Wang Zhuangyuan would never call the police."

"And if it showed up in an online news report, Wang Zhuangyuan would use his connections to bury the story. It would be wiped clean in minutes."

"Wang Zhuangyuan has that much power?"

"Of course!"

"Then aren't you doomed?"

"Why did you have to steal his car?"

"Couldn't you have just left yesterday?"

Wu Chen smiled but offered no explanation.

A little over ten minutes later, the white Lamborghini stopped at an intersection near Qinghe Park in Donghai City's South District.

"Get out and go home."

Wu Chen's tone left no room for argument.

Mu Qianqian had been so focused on Wu Chen that she only now realized they had stopped near her home. She lived in Qinghe Courtyard, a villa complex beside Qinghe Park.

"You really know where I live?"

Mu Qianqian sounded astonished.

"Yeah."

Wu Chen nodded with a smile. "How many times do I have to tell you? I've known you for ages." "Right, right! I know now."

Mu Qianqian sounded as though she had suddenly figured it out.

"My bestie told you, didn't she?"

"That little traitor. She tells people everything." "Get out."

Wu Chen gave her a nudge.

"Where are you going?"

"Take me with you. I don't want to go home." "People are trying to kill me. You want them coming after you too?"

"If they catch you, they'll do you-know-what and then you-know-what. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Wu Chen was trying to scare her.

"All right, then."

Mu Qianqian climbed out, looking frightened. She leaned back down with one hand on the car door. "Be careful, okay?"

Wu Chen made an OK sign. "Call Mu Qingqing."

Only then did she close the door.

Wu Chen hit the gas and sped away.

Mu Qianqian turned toward home, but after one step, she seemed to remember something. She spun around and waved at the receding Lamborghini. It was already too far away for her to call him back.

"Oh, come on!" Mu Qianqian slapped her forehead, nearly reduced to tears by her own stupidity.

She had remembered something very, very important: she had no way to contact Wu Chen. No phone number, no WeChat, nothing. After spending the whole night with him, she hadn't even gotten his number!

Then she remembered her phone. Mu Qianqian pulled it out and called her best friend.

She had been convinced all along that her best friend had sent Wu Chen. What happened afterward had been unexpected, but surely her friend had arranged for him to strike up a conversation with her in the first place. She intended to ask her about it.

Half an hour later, Wu Chen drove the white Lamborghini into the underground parking garage of an office building. He turned off the engine, reclined his seat, and lay back with his eyes closed to rest while he waited for a call.

He knew that woman would call him herself.

Of all the problems he faced, Zhao Guai and Wang Zhuangyuan were minor ones. Young Master Li was the real problem. If Wu Chen could handle him, he could handle everything.

So the first connection Wu Chen chose to make was with a woman he had even taken the initiative to call.

She was a nine out of ten in looks, almost irresistible in charm, immensely powerful, and domineering by nature.

Wu Chen had slept with her, of course. More than once. Again and again, he had met her and slept with her on the same day.

Her name was Li Ruobing, and she was the older sister of Young Master Li, a man who could make anything happen in Donghai City.

To outsiders, Young Master Li seemed untouchable. At home, though, he was afraid of his sister. Wu Chen had no objection to becoming Young Master Li's brother-in-law.

His phone rang. Wu Chen sat up, checked the screen, and smiled. She had called.