Keira’s eyes widened as she inspected both of her hands. There were small but deep cuts on both of her wrists. It appears that the original owner committed suicide before Keira entered the body.
Keira sighed as she felt pity for this woman. How hard must her life have been for her to end her life?
Keira felt lethargic from the loss of blood and the mental and emotional strain from the first world. She laid back in bed and stared at the white ceiling again.
Keira, “Elly, how are Fritz and the others after I left?”
No response.
‘This situation seems familiar.’
Keira called again, but as expected she got no response. She could not even communicate with System 999 in her mind. This also happened in the first world.
Maybe, every time we travel worlds, Elly lags behind.’
Her eyelids grew heavier but she tried to fight the drowsiness that overcame her. Keira knows she had to stop the bleeding first or this body would experience dying twice. She lifted her heavy body with the support of the nightstand and proceeded to go to the bathroom in hopes to wash the sticky blood and find a first aid kit.
Staggering her way to the bathroom, Keira managed to successfully find the first aid kit inside a closet and begins washing the wound and dressing it. She laid back in bed and let the sleepiness consume her. She still had to wait for her system to go back online again before taking action.
After sleeping throughout the whole day, the light outside was already dim. Although her body still feel kinda faint, it was not as severe as it was once before. Keira tried calling out her system once again, but still no response.
“How odd…” Keira thought, that perhaps her Elly lagged behind last time due to the error that occurred at the last world but it seems like it happened again. However, even though a day has passed, Elly still hadn’t returned.
‘Well, I could use this time to reflect on what happened so far.’
Keira thought how odd everything was. She once asked System 999 before starting the missions why she was chosen out of all the people that had died. System 999 only responded that they randomly select their hosts and that she was just lucky enough to be chosen and was given the opportunity to continue living her life if she manages to complete the missions assigned to her provided by the main system. System 999 also assured her before that ‘they’ systems were reliable and would not put their hosts' souls at risk; that the hosts' only focus, should be on the mission.
With System 999’s explanation, it was fair. It was a give-and-take situation. But where was the system that told her that ‘we systems are reliable and would not put their hosts’ souls at risk?!’. It was due to their incompetence that an error occurred and dragged her soul back to these worlds again!
What’s even odder was that the man in each world contains irrefutable similarities to the man in her world! Out of all the male leads she had met, this world’s male lead had the most resemblance, not only with his mannerism but also with his looks. They were almost parallel with each other!
Was she truly chosen by the main system by chance? Or is there more than meets the eye?
‘What I do know, is that the main system could not be trusted.’ So she also couldn’t trust her Elly.
‘And to add to that, this world contains so much dog blood1In Mandarin, you use the term 'dog blood' to describe something as 'cheesy': 狗血Gǒu xiě. that it makes me wanna throw up literal blood.’ Keira couldn’t help but let a sigh escape her lips.
When Keira transmigrated into this world. She was merely a replacement for the first love of the male lead due to their similar features. The male lead’s name in this world is Ezekiel Cu, while her first love’s name is Stella. Ezekiel and Stella met at university. Ezekiel belonged to a poor family who could barely make a living with his parent's jobs and Ezekiel's side job. He still managed to attend university with the help of his scholarship.
Stella lived the complete opposite life of Ezekiel. While Ezekiel struggles, Stella could obtain anything that she wanted. However, their social status didn’t prevent their love from blossoming. With Ezekiel’s sharp intelligent mind that is on par with his ravishing looks and temperament, who wouldn’t fall in love with this perfect man?
Ezekiel fell in love with Stella because she was the first one to truly show him kindness despite his background and looks. He fell in love with her charming looks and innocent demeanor. So they dated throughout their university years. But the seemingly perfect love that blossomed throughout the years finally faced their biggest challenge. Stella’s parent’s allowed their relationship to happen because they were still in university so they let Stella ‘play’ to her heart's content. What they didn’t expect, was for Stella to still be dating this man even after college and truly fell in love with this man who is in no way deserving of their pampered daughter.
They decided to talk their daughter out of the relationship, but this only resulted in Stella storming out of their house and seeking refuge in Ezekiel’s small apartment. While this made their love stronger, this made Stella’s parents upset at their daughter’s behavior and furious towards the man who corrupted their lovely daughter to make her disobedient.
If they could not approach their daughter, then they should approach the root of the problem. So when Ezekiel went out to work, he was dragged into a van and was brought to meet Stella’s parents. They first bribed Ezekiel to break up with Stella, but seeing that this only angered Ezekiel, they began threatening to kill his family if he were not to end their relationship.
Left with no room to escape, Ezekiel could only promise Stella’s parents to break up with her upon returning home. Satisfied, they personally sent Ezekiel back to the apartment where Ezekiel and Stella currently reside in. Ezekiel slowly walked up the stairs to the apartment in deep misery. He didn’t know how he should break the news to Stella, but he still had to do it. His parents' lives were on the line. Even though he lived a poor life, his parents gave him everything they could to provide for Ezekiel.
Ezekiel broke up with Stella in the pretense that he got tired of their relationship and that he hated having to provide for another person when he was already having a hard time living with himself with his starting salary. Thinking that this is what Ezekiel truly thought, Stella left the apartment full of tears and ran back to her parents.
This left Ezekiel completely heartbroken. He thought that if his poor status didn’t mark him, then Stella’s parents would accept him. Thus he began to think that… If he could be rich enough for Stella’s parents to recognize, then maybe, they would finally allow their relationship.
When Stella returned home, Stella mentioned that she wanted to go abroad because she could not bear seeing Ezekiel’s face. Hearing this, Stella’s parents were ecstatic. They were a little saddened to part with their beloved daughter, but it was better than risking the two of them meeting and having the truth exposed!
The very next day, a plane was already arranged for Stella. She directly left A City and went to C City. Ezekiel then heard the news of Stella leaving, his already cracked heart shattered into millions of pieces. He could not bear the thought of not seeing Stella again, he could not bear to imagine other guys getting together with Stella, he could not bear her living without him.
With determination in mind, Ezekiel worked thrice as hard. In order to get Stella back, he needed to build connections and become rich, but this is easier said than done. However, with Ezekiel’s great potential and dedication, it would not be impossible.
Working multiple jobs at the same time, spending the extra time in planning, and investing the extra money in establishing the Cu Company did he slowly crawl up the ladder. After the Cu Company had a stable foothold in the business world, he made no pause and started to recruit reliable people under him, built connections, and have great investors in his business.
Building the Cu Company at the age of only 22 years old, he managed to climb on top of the ladder at the age of 28 years old, becoming the youngest successful entrepreneur and youngest self-made billionaire. Achieving such a feat in one’s life was already remarkable in itself, but reaching that stage at a young age was another level. But not a level that the male lead could not handle.
Being single at a marriageable age would always cause ‘flies’ to flock. Rumors had it that Ezekiel never dated anyone except for one special girl. They also knew it was taboo to mention the name of that woman in front of him. The rumors also said that he would ‘accompany’ girls who had the same appearance of his past lover that left him before he became successful, but not actually get in a serious relationship with them. The girls were only there as Ezekiel’s one-night stands or there to only accompany him during meals for a few days before vanishing and being replaced with another identical-looking woman.
As to why that previous lover left this bachelor remains a mystery that left the online community to speculate.
When Keira arrived in this world, she was already in a contractual relationship with the male lead. She had already become one of his ‘kept’ lovers that was bonded by a contract to keep their ‘relationship’ discreet and that Keira would always be available when the male lead would need her.
It wasn’t even proper to call it a relationship as Keira was only a stand-in for the lover that has yet to return, like the other previous women Ezekiel had before. The male lead would randomly call her for meals or call her to accompany him during the night.
Her mission was to make the male lead fall in love with her, remove her status as a ‘stand-in, and expose the ugly side of his so-called ‘true love’. Yes, Stella was not the innocent girl that Ezekiel thought she was.
‘She was only a selfish bitch that wanted to obtain everything she could.’ Keira felt irritated to think about that stupid Stella who was clingy to the male lead who looked exactly like that ‘man’ in her world.
In actuality, Ezekiel wore a green hat2The expression “wearing a green hat” (戴绿帽子 or dài lǜ mào zǐ) means your partner/husband/wife cheated on you because the phrase sounds similar to the word for cuckold. without him knowing. Stella formed a relationship with a rich business tycoon in C City while she and Ezekiel were still dating. This didn’t mean that Stella didn’t have any affection for Ezekiel, it was that she wanted the affection of both men.
When Ezekiel dumped Stella, she was really heartbroken. That's why she sought comfort in her other lover’s arms. Even though she knew that her parents were behind Ezekiel’s sudden breakup, she didn’t tell off her parents and instead, asked them to send her to C City where her other lover resides.
When news came to C City that a new rising handsome bachelor in A City was actually Stella’s ex-boyfriend—Ezekiel. Stella wanted to immediately return to A City. A City is richer than C City and now that her ex is richer than her boyfriend in C City, why would she stay in C City? But Stella still wanted to keep this rich man by her side, so she could only stay a little while longer finding the right excuse to leave him, but just enough for that rich man to not forget her. She needed somewhere to come back to when things with Ezekiel would go awry. She had confidence that Ezekiel didn’t forget their love as she had implanted her presence very deeply in Ezekiel’s heart.
And she was right. Throughout the five hard years, Ezekiel never forgot Stella. He keeps waiting for her to come back. Despite now having many connections, Ezekiel’s influence only stemmed in A City and didn’t reach far enough to C City. It would be impossible to spread influence to every city in a short span of time after all.
When Stella returned to A City, Ezekiel immediately knew. But Keira had already initiated her plans while still subbing as ‘Stella’. Although her status in Ezekiel’s mind was still a substitute for Stella, her presence as ‘Keira’ had already made a mark on him without him realizing it.
Stella and Ezekiel got back together and ‘fixed’ the misunderstanding between them that happened in the past. Ezekiel tried hard to make up for the lost time they had and to make up for breaking up with Stella, yet how could Keira allow Stella to get away with putting a green hat on Ezekiel?
