Beijing, Business District

18:31, year 2024

The city of Beijing was at peak rush hours. Most companies were closing, and the streets were full of tracking, and people wanting to go home after a long day of work.

The sky was getting dark, and thick, gray clouds started to form. A few moments later, rain started to pour.

In one of the business districts, an office worker sat at his desk, typing on his computer. He had a face that could easily blend into a crowd, with features that were neither striking nor unremarkable. His dark hair contrasted with his once bright and lively eyes, which now held no spark as they were fixed on the monitor.

“Xiao Bao, could you do me and favor and finish this list I have here.” Director Zhao pointed towards an enormous pile of documents. “These are all important tasks that still need to be done, and you should have them done before you leave.” Director Zhao said as he smiled.

Xiao Bao looked at expected face of his boss. He wanted that to curse that old, greasy man. He wanted to refuse the task, but he didn’t dare to speak back against his boss. He needed this job, or else he’d wouldn’t be able to pay rent, all he could do was force a smile. “Not a problem.”

“Good.” Director Zhao walked towards a female colleague, smacked her ass, and took her with him. He had a smug look on his face, and placed his arm around her shoulder, embracing her. He whispered in her ear “I have reserved a room at this hotel…”

The woman grabbed her bag, and then they left the office together. Xiao Bao was now left by himself as everyone had already departed.

Xiao Bao made sure that everyone left, when he let out a deep sigh. “Motherfucker,” He threw some papers he was supposed to check on the ground. “Thanks to you, I will not leave the office until 20:31.”

The worst part was that he would not get paid for working overtime. Frustrated, he let out a sigh of resignation before getting to work.

By 21:00, Xiao Bao finished all the work. It took longer than expected, and now black circles started to form around his eyes. All he wanted was to be home, and lay under the warm blankets of his bed.

He shut down his computer, and prepared to go home.

As Xiao Bao was outside, tons of rain landed on his head, causing himself to be dripping wet. He tried to find his umbrella, but realized that he left it at the office, now that the building was closed, he was forced to get home without one. He cursed himself--why did he always have to be so unlucky?

The way back home didn’t went as smooth as planned. Due to all the rain, traffic was slow, and most public transport had lots of delay. Instead of the usual 20 minutes, it took Xiao Bao one hour to get to his destination.

When Xiao Bao arrived in front of his apartment, he felt that his mental energy was exhausted. The absence of light created an unsettling darkness that seemed to suffocate the surroundings. As he walked towards the entrance, his eyes were drawn to something lying on the floor. His eyes widened, and he instinctively took a few steps backward. His heartbeat quickened as he felt a sense of fear. There was a pool of blood, and there was a corpse laying in it.

When Xiao Bao realized it was a corpse, he almost lost his composure and fell to the ground. His breathing started to quicken, until he couldn’t control it anymore.

He grabbed his phone, and tried to call the police while his entire body was shaking.

After a few seconds, a female voice answer the call.

“Hello, you’re speaking with operator Jing Ling. How can I help you?”

“M-my name is Xiao Bao, and w-when I walked towards the entrance of my apartment I saw a corpse.”

“Alright, sir. Try to stay calm. What is your adress? Are you certain the person is really dead?”

“I-I’m not sure. I will go take a look.” Xiao Bao hesitated for a moment, but he decided to take a closer look at the lifeless body laying in front of him. He stepped towards it, and looked at it from a different angle, trying to see the corpse’s face.

He almost threw up as he looked at the female corpse--Both her eyes were purple, and bulged up, it was clear that she was a victim of physical violence. He face was beaten to a pulp, her nose was broken and dislocated, and her lips torn off and in its place a bloody wound.

Xiao Bao was horrified, and never saw such a mangled corpse. He felt a sense of dread, and his hope in humanity was lost. Humans can be such heartless creatures.

Xiao Bao couldn’t see the rest of the body, because the victim wore a big, black jacket that covered up her entire body.

15 minutes later, there were sirens, and the blue and red light of cars. The police had arrived at the scene. A bunch of police officers sealed off the environment, and bunch of forensic experts took photo’s of the corpse with their equipment.

Then a handsome man in his forties walked towards Xiao Bao. He had a stoic expression on his face, and was dressed in a beige trench coat with shiny black shoes.

“I’m Long An, the detective in charge of this case.”

“My name is Xiao Bao.”

“Alright Xiao Bao, could you show me some identification please, and afterward tell me about what happened.”

After Xiao Bao showed his identification, he explained the situation.

“Alright Xiao Bao, that’s all I wanted to know. We’ll contact you if we have any further questions.”

As Detective Long An walked away, a female police officer whispered something in his ear. His expression turned solemn, and looked at Xiao Bao with an apologetic expression.

Xiao Bao noticed the detectives expression he towards him. “Is something wrong?”

Long An took a deep breath, placed a hand on Xiao Bao’s shoulder and said. “The police found the identification of the victim in her jacket. She was your sister. I’m so sorry.”

Xiao Bao’s face turned pale, and in these few seconds, his entire world had collapsed. The detective words went into the background. The last things he heard were: “It appears your sister was victim of rape as there were traces of sperm found, also signs of multiple culprits…”

He didn’t listen to the detective as he could focus only on the corpse. He ignored everything else and his vision became hazy. He sank to his knees, causing detective Long An to be worried. Long An tried to help him, but he pushed his hands away.

Xiao Bao couldn’t contain his tears anymore, and he cried as hard as he could. He started screaming, and everyone surrounding him felt bad for him, all they could do was giving him an apologetic expression.

Then a text notification unexpectedly appeared before his eyes.

[Do you wish you had a second chance?]

Xiao Bao rubbed his teary eyes, making sure that he wasn’t crazy. To his confusion, the text notification persisted. What was going on?

No matter how much he blinked, or rubbed his eyes, the text in front of his eyes wouldn’t go away.

The people that were watching at him, looked at him as if he was a crazy person.

After a minutes, he became tired, and decided to answer the question, because he had nothing to lose anyway. He silently answered 'yes' in his mind, and then a sudden dizziness overcame him, causing him to collapse to the ground and lose consciousness. Everything around him faded into darkness.