Li Hao’s eyes snapped open, and for a long moment he lay utterly still, staring at the familiar watermark on the ceiling above his dormitory bunk. The low hum of an old air conditioner, the faint smell of instant noodles and cheap cologne, the muffled sound of someone snoring in the next bed—every detail struck him with the force of a physical blow. He was back. Not in the sterile white room where Jack’s men had left him to rot, not in the cold confines of that prison of the mind, but here, in his freshman dorm at Qingbei University, the year he was nineteen.
His hands trembled as he raised them before his eyes. Young hands, smooth-skinned, with no calluses from years of desperate labor. Hands that had not yet held the weight of betrayal, that had not yet clawed at the floor while his world shattered. He let out a slow, shuddering breath. *I’m back. I have a second chance.* The thought was so immense it seemed to fill the entire room, pressing against the walls, threatening to burst forth. The last memory of his past life—the cold concrete, the mocking laughter of Jack Williams, the unbearable sight of Lin Xiaoxiao’s hollow eyes as she walked past him—washed over him, but he forced it down. He could not afford to drown. He had a mission now.
The events of that life played behind his eyelids like a movie he wanted to burn. The successful startup that crumbled under legal assault, the three women he had loved more than himself, each one taken and twisted beyond recognition. Jack Williams, the smiling black businessman with a snake’s soul, had hunted them down methodically, patiently, savoring every step. Li Hao had been helpless, watching from the outside as his lovers were brainwashed, remade into slaves of depravity, and then used as weapons to torment him. The final blow had been Lin Xiaoxiao’s lips uttering the words, “I only serve real men now,” while Jack laughed in the background.
But that was the future that no longer existed. This was the present, and he was going to rewrite it.
He sat up slowly, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. The room was dim, dawn light just beginning to creep through the dusty blinds. His roommate, a chubby guy named Zhang Wei, was still dead to the world, snoring with his mouth open. Li Hao allowed himself a grim smile. In this timeline, he would never let Jack even know these women existed. He would become rich, powerful, and untouchable long before the hunter could sharpen his claws.
The first step was the tech company. In his past life, he had pioneered a revolutionary algorithm for mobile payment security—a system that would become the golden standard three years later. But in that timeline, he had been too trusting, partnering with the wrong investor, and the project had been stolen from him before he could patent it. Not this time. He had the blueprint in his head, the full code, the business plan, and the knowledge of every pitfall. He would register the company within the week, fund it with his savings and a small loan, and launch before anyone else could copy the concept.
He dressed quickly, moving with the economy of a man who had learned to waste no motion. The mirror above the sink showed him his younger face: sharper jaw, brighter eyes, that cocky half-smile he had worn before the years of bitterness had worn it away. He practiced the smile now. “Hello, world,” he said quietly. “I’m back, and this time I’m not losing.”
The first few days were a blur of action. He withdrew all the money he had saved from part-time jobs—a modest sum, but enough to file patents and rent a tiny office space just off campus. He contacted a few trustworthy classmates from his past life, young coding prodigies who would later become millionaires, and pitched them his vision. They were skeptical at first, but his conviction was infectious, and when he showed them a partial prototype of the algorithm running on his laptop, they signed on.
Within two weeks, “Apex Pay” was a registered company. Within a month, they had secured an angel investor—a man Li Hao knew would not betray him, because in his past life he had watched that same investor go to prison for fraud, ensuring he never got the chance. The money flowed in, and the work intensified. Li Hao threw himself into eighteen-hour days, driven by the memory of what he was racing against.
It was on a crisp autumn afternoon, after a particularly grueling round of negotiations, that he saw her. He had just exited a coffee shop near the university’s north gate, still reviewing emails on his phone, when a familiar laugh made him freeze. The sound was like a key turning in a locked door, unlocking a flood of warmth and pain. He looked up, and there she was.
Lin Xiaoxiao stood at a fruit stall twenty meters away, her back half-turned as she haggled with the vendor. Her hair was tied in a simple ponytail, a few strands escaping to frame her cheek. She wore a plain white blouse and a light blue skirt, the same innocent outfit she had worn the day they first met in high school. The afternoon sunlight caught her face as she laughed again, her eyes crinkling with genuine delight, and Li Hao felt his heart crack open.
She was alive. She was untouched. She had not yet been kidnapped, not yet brainwashed into a hollow shell that would whisper dirty words while wearing a forehead dot tattooed with “Prostitute Female.” She was just Lin Xiaoxiao, the girl who had loved him first, who had held his hand during a thunderstorm and said, “I’ll always be with you.”
He walked toward her before he could think, his legs moving on instinct. She turned at the sound of his footsteps, and when she saw him, her eyes widened. “Li Hao?” Her voice was uncertain, as if she could not believe he was there.
“Xiaoxiao.” He said her name softly, letting all the yearning of his past life bleed into that single syllable. “It’s been a long time.”
She blushed, the color spreading across her cheeks like a sunrise. “I heard you started a company. I saw it on the campus news—Apex Pay, right? That’s amazing.” She hesitated, then added, “I thought you’d be too busy to remember old friends.”
“I could never forget you.” The words came out before he could stop them, too intense, too raw. He saw her breath catch, and he forced himself to smile more casually. “I mean, who else would tell me I’m wearing mismatched socks?”
She laughed, looking down at his feet. He was wearing socks, but they were both dark blue—probably matching, but she pretended to scrutinize them anyway. “I’d say they’re both the same, but the left one has a hole in the toe.”
He glanced down, genuinely surprised to see a small tear in the fabric. “So much for my reputation.”
For a moment they just stood there, the noise of the street fading into background hum. Then the fruit vendor coughed loudly, and Xiaoxiao turned to pay for her bag of apples. Li Hao stepped forward and laid the money on the counter before she could. “Let me. It’s the least I can do for an old friend.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I want to.”
She looked at him, and something in his gaze made her lower her eyes. “Okay. Thank you.” She took the bag, then added quietly, “Do you want to walk for a bit? I’m heading back to the library.”
They walked side by side through the campus, the trees shedding golden leaves around them. Li Hao kept his pace slow, savoring every second. He told her about the company—the good parts, the parts that would impress her without sounding like bragging. She listened with genuine interest, asking intelligent questions about the technology, about the market, about his plans. He had forgotten how sharp she was beneath that sweet exterior. In his past life, she had been studying education, planning to become a teacher. It was Jack who had stolen that future from her.
“You’re really going to be a billionaire someday, aren’t you?” she said, half-joking, as they passed the old oak tree near the humanities building.
“I don’t care about the money,” he said, and meant it. “I care about building something that matters. Protecting the people I care about.”
She tilted her head, a curious smile playing on her lips. “That’s a weird thing for a tech entrepreneur to say.”
“Maybe I’m a weird entrepreneur.”
They stopped near the library steps. A group of students passed, some of them glancing at Li Hao with recognition—he was already becoming a campus celebrity. He ignored them, focusing only on Xiaoxiao. She was fidgeting with the strap of her bag, clearly unsure how to end the encounter.
“Can I call you?” he asked, keeping his voice light. “Maybe we can grab dinner sometime. Catch up properly.”
She looked up, her eyes searching his face. In her past life, she had trusted him unconditionally, and he had failed to protect her. This time, he would earn that trust and guard it with blood. “I’d like that,” she said softly. “I’d really like that.”
They exchanged numbers, and she walked up the steps, pausing to turn and wave once before disappearing through the glass doors. Li Hao stood there for a long moment, letting the cool breeze dry the moisture from his eyes. *I won’t let you down again, Xiaoxiao. I promise.*
Over the following weeks, his life settled into a rhythm of intense work and stolen moments with her. He took her to dinner at a quiet restaurant, then to a jazz club he knew she would love. They talked for hours about everything and nothing—her childhood, his dreams, the novels she was reading, the code he was writing. He held her hand during a movie, and she leaned into his shoulder, her warmth seeping through his shirt like a promise.
On a rainy Saturday, he showed her the office—a cramped space with three desks, two monitors, and a whiteboard covered in equations. “It’s not much,” he said, a little embarrassed.
She walked around, touching the equipment with reverent fingers. “It’s yours. You built this.” She turned to face him, her expression serious. “Li Hao, I’m so proud of you.”
The words hit him like a punch to the chest. In his past life, she had said those exact words the night before she was taken. He stepped forward, pulled her into his arms, and held her tight. She stiffened for a second, then relaxed, her arms wrapping around his waist. “I’m not going to disappear,” he whispered into her hair. “I’m going to be here for you. Always.”
“I know,” she murmured. “I believe you.”
They became a couple publicly soon after. The campus buzzed with the news—the tech prodigy and the sweet education major. Business colleagues teased him about his “college romance,” but Li Hao didn’t care. Every moment with her was a treasure, a rebellion against the future he had seen.
Meanwhile, Apex Pay exploded. The beta launch in November attracted attention from major banks, and by December they had closed a series A funding round worth three million dollars. Li Hao was featured in local business magazines, interviewed on student radio, and invited to speak at entrepreneurship forums. He handled all of it with the calm confidence of a man who had done it before, but inwardly he kept his focus razor-sharp. Every penny was reinvested, every partnership vetted with paranoia, every security protocol double-checked. He would not let Jack Williams or anyone else tear this down.
But there was another face he remembered from his past life—the cold, aristocratic beauty of Su Wan’er. In his previous timeline, they had met during his second year, after he had already made his first million. She had been the campus queen, the heiress of a real estate empire, untouchable and proud. And yet she had fallen for him, slowly, reluctantly, and then with a fierce loyalty that Jack had exploited until she was nothing but a puppet of black worship, her body tattooed with lewd symbols and her mind hollowed out.
He had loved her too, and her fall had been the sharpest blade of all.
So when he saw her name on the registration list for the annual intercollegiate debate competition, he made a decisi
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