[Revised edition, revised edition, revised edition!! Hurry, hurry, hurry and add it to your library! A minor official who wants to die every day, outwardly composed but secretly mischievous VS an unhinged crown prince whose only pleasure in life is watching a certain man court death every day.]
Shen Yangge's eyes flew open. He gasped violently for air, his pupils contracting as he pressed a hand over his heart, as though that agonizing pain and suffocating sensation still lingered.
Only after a long while, once he had recovered his bearings, did he realize he was lying in an extremely cramped space. He reached out to feel around. It seemed to be the wall of a coffin.
Soft, subdued sobs drifted to his ears from time to time, accompanied by chanting he couldn't understand.
Was he dead already?
Was someone holding a funeral for him?
No, that wasn't right. He had neither a father nor a mother. Who would hold a funeral for him? Besides...
Suddenly, an icy voice rang out. "Seal the coffin."
Shuffling footsteps approached.
Thud!
A nail was hammered into the coffin. The faint vibration made Shen Yangge's eyes widen, his lashes trembling. He could clearly feel the movement of the coffin. Didn't that mean he wasn't actually dead?
Hah... hah...
The air inside the coffin grew thinner and thinner. With every breath, heat and suffocation closed in. Driven by his body's instinctive desire to live, Shen Yangge pushed against the lid with all his strength.
Once, twice-finally, he pushed one corner of the lid open and thrust his hand out.
The sobbing around him stopped abruptly. For a moment, everything went dead silent.
Then deafening screams erupted, one after another.
"Ah..."
"Th-the corpse is rising!"
Shen Yangge pushed the lid aside until the gap was wide enough for his head, then stopped.
Bewildered, he stared at the scene before him: a crowd of panicked men and women in unfamiliar clothing kneeling on the floor, and a crude mourning hall draped in white funeral cloth.
"Someone! Someone, hurry up and shove him back in!"
A girl standing on the left, dressed in sackcloth mourning garb, shouted loudly, her voice filled with uncontrollable fear and terror.
Yet no one dared step forward at her command. Her face twisted as she snapped, "What, are you refusing to obey me now? Or aren't you afraid he'll come knocking on your doors in the dead of night?"
Perhaps that last threat frightened the servants kneeling on the floor. Trembling, they exchanged glances, then scrambled up and approached the coffin.
They shakily muttered under their breath, "Young master, please rest in peace. May you be born into a good life next time. We're only following orders. Please be magnanimous and don't hold this against lowly servants like us."
"That's right. We weren't the ones who killed you."
Shen Yangge's mind was a jumble. Before he could sort out his thoughts, a maid stepped forward and grabbed his shoulder, gritting her teeth as she tried to force him back into the coffin!
Fuck off.
How could Shen Yangge possibly agree to lie back down in that coffin? Suffocation was no pleasant experience.
Shen Yangge fought back, swinging his arm sharply to fling away the maid pinning him down. Then he raised his lowered head, a terrifying menace in his eyes.
He opened his mouth and lifted his face from behind the curtain of black hair. His hoarse voice seemed to force each word out through clenched teeth. "Go on. Try touching me again. You won't have to wait until the dead of night. I'll take your life right now!"
"Aaaah! A ghost! A ghost..."
The maid he had flung aside landed on the floor with a thump. Bracing herself with both hands, she stared in terror and scrambled backward with her feet, accidentally knocking into the basin used to burn paper offerings. It clattered over, spilling paper ashes across the floor.
The entire mourning hall descended into chaos. Ever since the man sitting up in the coffin had lifted his head, the girl who had given the order hadn't taken her eyes off him.
She froze for a long moment before asking fearfully, "Shen Yangge, are you a man or a ghost?"
He murmured, "Shen Yangge?"
After a moment of bewilderment, realization struck him. He had transmigrated!
Suddenly, a sharp pain tore through his head.
[Beep... beep, beep, beep... beep!]
A mechanical voice abruptly sounded in his mind.
[Ding-dong-you have been bound to the 615 Death-Seeking System. 615 is now officially at your service.] [Ding-dong, you have successfully triggered the main quest, "Death Is Rebirth." As long as the host dies normally in a manner consistent with the plot and his character, he can return to his original world.]
Huh? What... the hell?
The sharp pain subsided.
Shen Yangge raised a hand to brush the long hair away from his face, only to discover that his hand was pale and smooth, slender with distinct knuckles, every finger delicate. A conspicuous black mole sat between his wrist and thumb. This wasn't his body!
His loose sleeve slid down to his elbow, revealing white patterns along its edge.
Having received no answer for so long, the girl knitted her brows. Just as she was about to ask again, he answered her.
The pain in Shen Yangge's skull had eased, but his mood couldn't have been worse. He bared his teeth in a sinister cackle. "Am I a man or a ghost? A ghost, of course!"
The girl was utterly terrified. Her shoulders trembled and her legs threatened to give way. That single look felt as though thousands upon thousands of evil spirits from hell were staring at her.
Shen Yangge slowly stood up inside the coffin, then climbed out with considerable effort.
For fuck's sake, what unlucky bastard had he transmigrated into?
He leaned against the coffin, sweat trickling down his temples, and cast a sidelong glance at the maid his words had frightened into... uh...
After catching his breath, Shen Yangge turned his gaze back to the girl's face and casually tossed out, "Hey, I'm back to claim your life."
The girl truly panicked, her voice trembling and stumbling. "What are you all standing around for? Hurry up and..." She never finished.
A woman in sackcloth hurried in through the main entrance. When she saw the man leaning against the coffin in the middle of the mourning hall, she choked out, "Yang'er!" and rushed toward him.
The joy and excitement in her tear-filled eyes were deeply moving. She clung tightly to the child she had lost and regained.
Holy shit. The impact made Shen Yangge's vision go dark. His frail body finally gave out, and his eyes rolled back as he fainted in the woman's arms.
In his hazy daze...
He heard someone speaking. "Master Shen is no longer in any danger. He merely lacks vitality and is physically weak. I will prescribe a few doses of medicine. With some time to recuperate, he will certainly recover and be just as he was before."
"Good, good, good. Wonderful, truly wonderful. Thank you, Doctor Liu. Thank you so much."
Doctor Liu remarked, "Judging by the second young master's features, he is not destined for a short life. Having survived this ordeal, he is sure to rise swiftly to great heights."
Shen Yangge opened his eyes and turned his head, seeing the two people keeping watch by his bed. He froze briefly, then remembered that he had transmigrated. In that case, was the woman standing before him the original owner's mother?
Doctor Liu hastily took his leave.
Now out of her mourning clothes, the woman looked gentle and dignified. She sighed, reached out to touch Shen Yangge's forehead, and said:
"Yang'er, your father... he had no choice but to do what he did. Even if you resent him or are angry with him, I won't try to persuade you otherwise. But from now on, you must tell me if anything happens. Don't keep everything bottled up."
Shen Yangge had none of the original owner's memories, so he simply agreed with whatever the woman said. Occasionally, he took the initiative to ask a few probing questions. Only when he grew sleepy did she get up and leave, finally giving him the chance to sort through the information he had gathered from her.
The original owner had offended the crown prince. His own father had subjected him to family discipline and punished him by making him kneel in the ancestral hall for an entire day and night. Who could have known he would die?
[The original owner offended the crown prince, was punished by his own father to kneel in the ancestral hall, and died. He even had the exact same name as me...]
This damned familiar plot.
Wasn't this Century of Prosperity, the wish-fulfillment political intrigue novel on a certain fiction site that he'd stayed up reading before dying suddenly?
[This is a boys' love novel with no female lead! Don't read if that's not your thing!!]
Before you continue