Chapter 1: Dead

It was raining.

A crowd huddled before the tombstone.

The unique solemnity and dead silence of the cemetery weighed heavily on everyone’s chest.

A middle-aged man and woman were overcome with grief beyond words.

Su Wanqing stood just a few steps away, completely transparent.

The girl in the black-and-white photo on the monument had a bright, radiant smile, carrying the pride of someone who took for granted that the whole world adored her.

That was her—the her she used to be.

High and mighty, looking down on everyone…

And then, she died.

Su Wanqing tried to move forward but felt a heavy, dragging sensation from her feet.

Looking down, she saw a chain made of dense shadow tightly wound around her ankle, its other end buried deep in the earth beneath her tombstone.

“Wanqing… such a good girl, how could she just…”

“Sigh, I heard she ran out chasing Zhou Mingyuan’s car, and as a result…”

“Shh! Keep it down! Zhou Mingyuan is still over there!”

The deliberately hushed discussions, laced with sighs, drifted over intermittently.

She followed their gazes.

Zhou Mingyuan stood slightly outside the crowd, dressed in an expensive custom-made black suit. His posture was ramrod straight, his handsome face covered with a perfectly appropriate layer of gravity, as if he were truly sad.

Several girls who had been on decent terms with Su Wanqing gathered around him, sobbing quietly. One of them even handed him a tissue.

Zhou Mingyuan took the tissue and offered a few words of low comfort, which only made the girls cry harder, almost throwing themselves into his arms.

A wave of nausea and resentment, anger, and deep regret washed over Su Wanqing.

Zhou Mingyuan had killed her.

The two had been friends since childhood, their families connected through business. Their parents had an unspoken agreement—they wanted their children to marry.

Su Wanqing wasn’t interested in the idea, but Zhou Mingyuan was very enthusiastic.

Their parents saw both their attitudes, and Su Wanqing was eventually forced at a family gala to take the initiative and be friendly with Zhou Mingyuan.

That day, Su Wanqing had been furious and stormed out of the house.

Zhou Mingyuan, who had also been present, followed her in his car to comfort her—but this only disgusted her more.

It was raining that day, too.

Zhou Mingyuan, driving his car, blocked her blind spot at an intersection.

She was sent flying by a dump truck.

She supposedly died on the spot; the doctors came and pieced her remains together.

Su Wanqing had clearly seen the sneer of ridicule and triumph on Zhou Mingyuan’s lips in the instant before her death.

He knew that if she died, her parents’ fortune would definitely be handed over to him—their beloved future son-in-law.

Su Wanqing looked at her grieving parents before the tombstone, feeling only ridicule.

‘Crying now? Is it not too late?’

…

Raindrops passed through her body, playing a tune as they landed on the blades of grass.
So cold.

The anger, venom, and disgust in her heart quickly faded, and Su Wanqing felt an intense helplessness and confusion.

No matter how strong the hatred, no matter how much she wanted to kill Zhou Mingyuan, no matter what else she wanted to do…

But—she was dead.

This realization was like a block of ice, sinking heavily into her ethereal chest.

A small commotion stirred at the edge of the crowd, and a young man in a school uniform came to her tombstone.

Su Wanqing’s gaze subconsciously drifted toward him.

Lin Cheng.

He was a transfer student who, after arriving in their second year of high school, had intentionally tried to get close to her, telling her she must be careful and that she could discuss anything with him.

She had ignored him, finding him annoying.

Later, he did indeed help her a few times, saving her from several strange dangers.

But because he was so odd—always appearing by her side out of nowhere—Su Wanqing didn’t want to associate with him.

She cursed at him, threatened him, and ultimately pushed him away.

Thinking back on it now, Su Wanqing found it somewhat ridiculous.

To her, Lin Cheng was practically equivalent to a specific broom in the back of the classroom; she knew such a thing existed, but as for which particular one it was, she had no idea at all.

And yet, aside from telling her to be careful, Lin Cheng had done nothing but help her—never even going against her wishes.

An insignificant classmate had cared more about her than her own parents, yet she had pushed him away, only to be killed by the very Zhou Mingyuan her parents adored.

Truly laughable.

Lin Cheng bowed his head slightly, walking step by step toward the tombstone, his expression complex.

Su Wanqing couldn’t quite understand it.

Is it pity?
Or regret?
Does he like me?
He must.
After all, if he didn’t like me, why would he be so good to me?

“Sigh.”

Lin Cheng sighed, bending down to place the flowers.

On his exposed right hand were several long, narrow wounds, already scabbed over and dark brown, that extended from the edge of a bruise—like ugly centipedes coiled on his pale wrist.

Su Wanqing’s gaze froze.

BOOM!

A deathly white bolt of lightning tore through the clouds, followed immediately by the deafening roar of angry thunder.

Su Wanqing felt as if she’d been seized by an icy hand. Fragments of a moment—a dump truck accelerating wildly, the immense impact, the tearing pain—crashed violently into her consciousness!

Blinding headlights!
A scream of lost control!
Her body thrown violently by a tremendous force!
The world spinning!
The excruciating pain of shattering bones swallowing all her senses…

It hurts… it hurts so much… it hurts…

Zhou Mingyuan’s cold sneer…

The scalding pavement…

Su Wanqing, writhing on the ground…

A figure, with reckless desperation, suddenly lunged in her direction—

“Damn it! How am I still too late…!”

Lin Cheng’s panicked and vexed expression burned itself into Su Wanqing’s memory. His dangling arm was bent at a nearly ninety-degree angle.

It was him!
Lin Cheng!
He tried to save me!
He was hit too!!
He cares about me.

Su Wanqing felt an almost irrepressible joy.

She knew this thought was perverse; she should feel sad that her would-be savior was injured. But she was already dead.

So what if her thoughts were a little messed up?

Her own parents didn’t care about her feelings, but someone else did.

Shouldn’t she be happy about that?

Suddenly, a chill—one a hundred times more piercing than the cold rain—seized Su Wanqing’s neck.

Her transparent body began to tremble violently, and the shadow chain around her ankle abruptly tightened!

An ice-cold, irresistible force surged up from the ground, viciously dragging her downward!

“No!”

Su Wanqing reached out a hand in vain, trying to grab onto something—anything.

She wanted to see that figure one last time.

Am I going to the underworld…?

Her vision rapidly blurred and pulled away.

The tombstone.

The crowd.

Lin Cheng’s back…

The cold, dragging sensation pulled her completely into a chaotic, suffocating darkness.

Lin Cheng wiped the rain from his face and left the crowd.

This Su Wanqing… even a god couldn’t have saved her.
I saved her life several times, and she still didn’t get it.
I told her to be extremely careful in the rain, but she wouldn’t listen—had to act recklessly.
Killed on the spot by a dump truck. Couldn’t even be pieced back together.

This was a female-oriented novel world.

He had been killed by a Maybach on a rainy overpass and transmigrated here.

He had received a mission:
Save the female supporting character, Su Wanqing.

As long as he could keep her alive and well until her high school graduation, he would receive a legal one hundred million yuan and be able to return to reality.

But now, even after getting his arm broken once, he had still failed to save Su Wanqing.

Both of them died in a car crash on a rainy night.

If he couldn’t complete the mission, he couldn’t go back to reality.

Lin Cheng had transmigrated into the body of an orphan, and now, to treat his broken arm, he had spent all his money.

The compensation from the truck driver was yet to arrive.

Su Wanqing’s parents had only given him a token ten thousand yuan—with no follow-up.

Lin Cheng was philosophical about it.

He had done all that was humanly possible.

Su Wanqing was dead, and there was nothing he could do.

He couldn’t very well grab her ghost and keep it by his side, could he?

[System calculating…]
[Please do not leave, or unpredictable changes may occur…]
[System calculation failed…]
[Restarting mission.]
[Please protect Su Wanqing. Prevent her death and ensure she lives safely until high school graduation.]
[Mission completion reward: 100 million yuan and the ability to return to reality.]
[Please work hard. In addition to the main quest, there are many side quests to be discovered, as well as special missions. Please look forward to them…]

“…Huh??”

“Again?!”

Lin Cheng looked back at Su Wanqing’s grave.

She was dead. Thoroughly and completely dead.

She had been hit so badly she was a mangled mess of flesh and blood.

The doctors couldn’t even piece her together—they just carried her away in a bucket.

During the cremation, not even much bone ash was left.

So this mission is for me to protect a ghost?