Beep, beep, beep!
"We're losing the patient!"
"Let the family in to say their final goodbyes!"
In the hospital room, several doctors in white coats watched the steadily falling vital signs. They exchanged glances, shook their heads, then opened the door and stepped outside to deliver the news apologetically.
"Chao Ci!"
"Chao Ci!"
"Ci!"
Five white-haired elderly women hurried into the room, their bearing dignified, traces of their former beauty still lingering.
On the hospital bed lay a gaunt, white-haired old man with his eyes closed. His fingers trembled. He could hear the voices around him, but his body would no longer respond.
He did not even have the strength to get up and embrace the women he loved. He was dying, already slipping into his final moments.
His name was Lin Chao Ci, and he held an extremely high position (specific details omitted). Years of overtime and working on the front lines had taken a devastating toll on his health. While reviewing documents the previous night, he had suffered a sudden brain hemorrhage.
Despite an entire night of emergency treatment, he had not pulled through.
"Chao Ci, open your eyes and look at me! Don't fall asleep! Don't fall asleep!"
"Chao Ci, we never got to be together in this life. In the next one, you have to choose me! You have to choose Shuang'er! I'll keep waiting for you, always!"
"Chao Ci, you promised you'd take us traveling after you retired! You big jerk, you can't break your promise! Sob... wake up, or I'll get angry!"
As Lin Chao Ci's vital signs grew weaker and weaker, the five women sobbed uncontrollably and sank limply to the floor. They desperately wanted to tell themselves that this was all a dream.
But reality was that cruel.
Hovering on the brink of death, Lin Chao Ci heard his loved ones crying. His heart ached, filled with overwhelming guilt.
They had waited for him their entire lives, yet he had still let them down.
Goodbye. I'm sorry. Once again, I'm the one breaking my promise. If there's another life, I swear I won't let you down!
Lin Chao Ci's vital signs finally flatlined. Two tears slipped from the corners of his eyes.
In a parallel world, at Municipal Committee Compound No. 1 in Haikou City.
"I've been reborn?"
Looking in the mirror at his youthful face and body, Lin Chao Ci pinched his cheek in disbelief.
"Ow! That hurts!"
He had pinched a little too hard, leaving a red mark on his fair, tender cheek.
"I can feel pain. This isn't a dream or a hallucination! Thank goodness, I've really been reborn!"
It took Lin Chao Ci a long time to collect his thoughts and accept that he had been reborn.
"Wait, what year and month is it?"
Lin Chao Ci hurried over to the desk and glanced at the calendar.
"January 13, 2000. Good, good. There's still time!"
Lin Chao Ci remembered with perfect clarity that today was the day an old classmate his father had known for decades would come to Haikou City to open a branch office. Short on cash, he would ask his father to help him obtain a loan.
His father and this old friend had been classmates throughout middle school, high school, and university—more than a decade in all. They had been very close as students, but after entering the workforce, they had lived in different places and rarely kept in touch.
His father valued old friendships. After checking his former classmate's identity, company assets, and documents bearing official seals and finding nothing wrong, he had acted as guarantor for a bank loan of fifty million.
With the municipal Party secretary as guarantor, the loan had been approved in just a few days.
But once his father's old classmate received the money, he simply took it and ran.
His father had been left with a colossal mess. He was responsible for repaying the entire fifty million to the bank.
Fortunately, the family had inherited quite a collection of jewelry and antiques. Only by selling off a considerable portion had they managed to repay the loan.
Otherwise, his father would have become the first municipal Party secretary to appear on the list of delinquent debtors.
Word of the incident had also spread and reached his superiors. Furious, they had given his father a major disciplinary demerit and barred him from promotion for three years.
A provincial vice governor had been about to retire, and his father had been the likely successor. Instead, forget advancing to ministerial rank—he had nearly lost his position as municipal Party secretary.
Only later had they learned that the whole thing was a calculated scam.
That old classmate had never been the owner of a major company. He was a gambling addict buried in debt.
His father's political rival had spotted him and dressed him up for the part. Those company credentials, proofs of assets... all of them had been fake.
His father's political rival had also coveted the vice governor's post. Their conflicting views had already bred years of resentment, and knowing how deeply his father valued loyalty and friendship, he had deliberately devised this trap.
His father was such an honest, trusting fool.
That political rival had happened to be second in line. After the vice governor retired, he had successfully advanced to ministerial rank.
"Heh. You succeeded in my last life, but don't even think about it in this one. This time, I'll gather evidence and put a parasite like you behind bars years ahead of schedule!"
Given another life, Lin Chao Ci had no intention of watching his father die in despair and meet the same fate as before.
In this life, Lin Chao Ci would change the ending and rewrite his regrets.
This time, I want it all. I'll make them happy and give those women the very best.
Lin Chao Ci checked the time. It was past eight in the evening. At this point in his previous life, his father would have been drinking with that swindler. Meeting an old classmate after so many years apart naturally called for a few drinks.
Besides, people in the Dragon Nation liked discussing business over drinks. The two had hit it off immediately and had not parted until after ten.
"Hello! Uncle Li, do me a favor. Is anyone near you?"
"No one's around. What are your instructions, Young Master Ci?"
"Buy a few listening devices and voice recorders and install them in President Wang of the Tonghai Group's car! Don't let anyone notice..."
"Understood!"
Lin Chao Ci had called Uncle Li, his father's driver.
Uncle Li had previously served as his grandfather's bodyguard. Once an elite soldier with extraordinary combat skills, he had continued working as his father's driver after retiring.
Uncle Li's wife had once suffered complications during childbirth. His grandfather had used his connections to arrange for the country's best obstetrician to treat her, saving both her and their child.
In his previous life, Uncle Li had remained unwaveringly loyal until his death.
That was why Lin Chao Ci felt comfortable entrusting him with something as important as planting listening devices.
As for installing them himself... what a joke. Lin Chao Ci was an ordinary person, not a special forces soldier. Forget planting anything—he would probably be spotted the moment he approached.
Besides, with Lin Chao Ci's status, did he need to do it himself? It wasn't as though he lacked capable people.
There was no need to make things harder for himself.
The voice recorders should capture plenty of evidence. Whether he handled it himself or passed it to his father, that would make things much easier.
Beep, beep!
The flip phone in Lin Chao Ci's pocket suddenly rang.
He glanced at the number. It was one he knew intimately, one he would never forget.
After answering, Lin Chao Ci opened his mouth, but emotion choked the words in his throat. For a moment, he did not know what to say.
"You big jerk, why are you late again? Do you know how long I've been waiting downstairs? If you don't come out soon, I'm not going shopping for ingredients with you!"
A sweet female voice came from the other end. She sounded a little angry, as though she were scolding him, yet her words came out soft and sweet, almost coaxing.
P.S. 1. Anything that can't be written will simply be omitted.
2. This is a parallel world. Please don't associate it with reality; any similarities are purely coincidental.
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