Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
5:00 PM, Mingcheng Hospital.
Dusk had not yet fully settled. Most attending physicians in the front treatment building had already left for the day, and though the inpatient ward still housed patients, the hospital felt significantly emptier.
Only two cars remained in the vast parking lot.
A black Maybach had been parked there for some time. After a while, a white car pulled up, and the occupant of the Maybach finally emerged—a middle-aged man in a classic butler’s attire: black suit, leather shoes, and white gloves.
He took a file from the white car’s driver, speaking to him with an air of casual indifference.
Gu Yubai stood by the corridor window on the fifth floor of the inpatient ward, directly overlooking the parking lot, affording him a clear view of everything.
To prevent critically ill patients from jumping, the hospital had reinforced every window with thick wire mesh.
Gu Yubai wasn’t nearsighted. Even through the mesh, he could discern the middle-aged man’s dismissive expression.
Nothing had changed.
Just like in his past life, the Su family had sent someone to retrieve him.
Except… this time, the wealthy family’s offer was politely declined.
Gu Yubai expressionlessly silenced his constantly vibrating phone in his pocket, catching a glimpse of the incoming calls—all from ‘Little Brother.’
----
Meanwhile, in the parking lot, Butler Zhang’s brow was deeply furrowed.
He pinched the file’s thickness, a look of displeasure on his face.
“I only gave you two days, but you didn’t have to be so perfunctory. Just two or three pages? How am I supposed to report to Mr. Su about the True Young Master’s eighteen years of life? There isn’t even a single photo of him. How will I explain that to Mr. Su?”
“You could have at least thoroughly investigated this True Young Master’s usual likes and dislikes, or at the very least, his academic performance.”
The white car’s driver was unconcerned, extending a cigarette from the car window.
He took a drag, exhaling a plume of smoke.
“What’s there to explain? Aside from the Old Master, who in the Su family cares about this True Young Master? Mr. Su boarded his flight three days ago. Three whole days have passed, and the Su family hasn’t even prepared a room for him. Does that look like they care?”
“Besides, whether Mr. Su genuinely wants him back or just wants to spite Young Master Shengli—you and I both know the truth. If it weren’t for the Old Master forcefully setting a three-day deadline before leaving for the overseas health retreat, Butler Zhang, you wouldn’t even be here.”
The driver continued, “We’re just hired hands, why stress so much? It’s strange, though. Most people abandoned like that would either starve or suffer, but our True Young Master? The moment he was abandoned at three years old, his adoptive father, Gu Mingliang, seamlessly took him in.”
“He’s truly blessed. His adoptive father, Gu Mingliang, had a bit of money—never married, no children, not even a girlfriend. All his earnings went to raising this adopted son and his deceased parents’ nephew. The kid grew up in a high-end neighborhood, drove a car worth hundreds of thousands—not luxurious, but comfortable. Plus, he attended public school and was always the pride of his teachers.”
“If it weren’t for his adoptive father’s car accident, which left him in a vegetative state, the True Young Master wouldn’t even be working now.”
“Talk about good fortune. He’d only been working for less than half a month when our Old Master happened to spot him. Never mind why the Old Master is forcing the Su family to acknowledge him. Never mind if his birth parents only care about that fake young master, Su Shengli. The point is, he’s almost never had a hard or poor life. Do we really need to worry about him?”
“Do you think that after learning his true identity, he’d abandon the wealthy Su family’s background and choose not to acknowledge his roots? No way!”
The driver was emphatic.
“He’s alone now. His adoptive father is in a vegetative state, and the brother he grew up with just left for abroad with their aunt today. If he doesn’t return to the Su family, is he going to live alone outside? Don’t criticize my brief report. Right now, there’s only one person in the country willing to care for Gu Mingliang. Once you see him, you’ll know who the True Young Master we’re looking for is.”
Butler Zhang found this quite logical.
Although he still hadn’t seen the True Young Master’s investigation file, nor even knew his name, the young man was only eighteen. Even if he didn’t care for wealth, wouldn’t he want to see what his biological parents looked like?
----
Gu Yubai didn’t know how he had been reborn.
Half an hour ago, he opened his eyes to find himself asleep by the bedside of his adoptive father, Gu Mingliang.
His adoptive father still lay motionless in a vegetative state, but he was alive—he hadn’t suffered the later hospital fire.
Gu Yubai held his fingers under Gu Mingliang’s nose for a long moment before quietly standing up and checking his phone.
The slightly outdated webpage design, the real-time news reports, and even the date in the top left corner—every detail reminded Gu Yubai:
This wasn’t Gu Mingliang returning from the dead. It was he who had been reborn.
Reborn at the age of eighteen, the year he had just finished his college entrance exams.
Unfortunately, the car accident had already occurred.
About a month earlier, after finishing their exams, Gu Yubai, his adoptive father, and Gu Yihong had planned a family trip.
On their way back, a large truck ran a red light. Gu Yubai, caught on the crosswalk, had no time to dodge. But Gu Mingliang, just a step away, had desperately pushed him out of the way. Gu Yubai was unharmed.
However, his adoptive father was struck directly by the truck, suffering multiple injuries. The impact against the ground caused a head injury that left him comatose. After emergency surgery, the doctors coldly declared him a motionless, unconscious vegetable.
Gu Yihong, who had been not far from Gu Yubai before the accident, had frantically rushed over, only to be severely injured himself. When he woke up, he was diagnosed with amnesia.
Gu Yubai called his seldom-seen aunt, who lived abroad.
She arrived quickly and, after discussion, decided to take her biological nephew—the amnesiac Gu Yihong—overseas with her. As for Gu Mingliang, now in a vegetative state, he couldn’t be moved. His aunt suggested Gu Yubai sell their current apartment to cover Gu Mingliang’s long-term hospitalization and medical expenses.
The car in the garage and their savings were left entirely to Gu Yubai’s discretion.
His aunt wanted nothing to do with him, a child with no blood relation. That morning, she left with the amnesiac Gu Yihong, telling Gu Yubai before she departed: If Gu Mingliang’s medical funds ever ran out, and if he no longer wished to care for him, he should just call her. She would arrange the funeral.
At the moment of Gu Yubai’s rebirth, their house had just been listed with a real estate agent. The car sat gathering dust in the garage. His amnesiac brother had left for the airport with their aunt and was likely already on the plane.
As for Gu Yubai himself—after calling out from his bubble tea shop gig—he had spent most of the day at his adoptive father’s bedside. Until half an hour ago, when he suddenly woke up and realized he had been reborn.
Half an hour later, the Su family’s butler would arrive, revealing his true heritage and offering to take him home to claim his rightful place.
Gu Yubai had decided to return to the Su family without hesitation.
----
By the later world’s standards of wealth and status, Gu Yubai’s previous life had undoubtedly been a success.
As the true young master who returned to his wealthy family midway through life, after graduating from university, he inherited the entirety of the Su family’s fortune. Then, through sheer luck, his assets doubled, rocketing him into the global top ten of the rich list.
The key point: the top ten in the world.
The Su family alone, even after his efforts to save it, could not have achieved such heights. His success was pure good fortune.
That was why many online called him a divinely blessed koi, the luckiest person in the world.
But before he was known as the koi, another label had stuck to Gu Yubai—jinx.
He was the most universally disliked person in high society.
Everyone said Gu Yubai was born under a cursed star, plagued by misfortune. Otherwise, how could a legitimate heir of a wealthy family have been switched at birth, then left in an orphanage for three years? Even after being adopted, he only lived an ordinary life.
His bad luck didn’t stop with himself.
It dragged down his kind adoptive father, directly turning him into a vegetable. Later, in a once-in-a-lifetime hospital fire, his vegetative father perished.
The younger brother who grew up with him, Gu Yihong, his adoptive father’s biological nephew, completely lost his memory after the car accident. Upon returning to the country, he attacked anyone who crossed his path.
In the end, Gu Yubai personally sent him to a psychiatric hospital.
The most unfortunate were the Su family.
Old Master Su recognized him at a street-side milk tea shop and brought him back to acknowledge his roots, but his kindness backfired. Within just a year of Gu Yubai returning to the Su family, Old Master Su suffered an accident, falling down the stairs and dying in agony.
Gu Yubai’s eldest biological brother was in an accident on his way home, his legs crushed by a truck, leaving him a paraplegic.
Forced to step down from Su Group’s future plans, he left heartbroken for a foreign estate to recuperate.
His biological parents’ private plane exploded mid-air during their overseas vacation, leaving no trace of them.
At the funeral, the fake young master Su Shengli jumped out to challenge him for the inheritance, only to drown in the villa’s swimming pool before the funeral even ended.
At that time, everyone said Gu Yubai was ruthless. The only surviving biological brother, Su Linyuan, who sat in a wheelchair, glared at him with venomous eyes, hating him as a curse-bringer.
This last remaining blood relative regarded him as the culprit who had schemed for power and caused the demise of the entire family.
Su Linyuan secretly colluded with other domestic companies, trying to find evidence that Gu Yubai had harmed others, in order to reclaim the family assets and send him to prison.
Gu Yubai was innocent, so he naturally had no fear of his brother’s investigations and meddling.
As the only healthy adult in the Su family, Gu Yubai effortlessly inherited all of Su Group’s nearly bankrupt yet still vast wealth.
After working tirelessly to save Su Group from the brink of collapse, he inexplicably inherited the fortune of an unknown distant relative overseas.
Gu Yubai became the world’s richest man overnight, and the term "jinx" was never uttered in his presence again.
Moreover, Gu Yubai was "ruthless." The last person who frequently opposed him was Gu Yihong, his adoptive father’s biological nephew—a brother he had grown up with, though not by blood. Back then, Gu Yubai had personally sent Gu Yihong to a psychiatric hospital.
The thought of this unhinged Gu Yihong still sent shivers down people’s spines.
After all, he had dared to point at Gu Yubai, who stood zoning out by his car outside the psychiatric hospital, and publicly accuse him in front of all the media: “You’re the reincarnation of a jinx! Sooner or later, you’ll drain the luck of everyone around you and destroy them all!” Such venomous words were truly malicious.
Later, karma struck.
Gu Yubai couldn’t remember how he had died in his past life or why he had suddenly been reborn.
Fortunately, it didn’t matter.
But it did remind him of an insignificant incident from the past—he wasn’t sure if it was related to his rebirth.
—He had once casually acquired an online fiction company located in a residential building.
It happened like this:
A young assistant, fresh out of college and interning at his company, was chatting with colleagues in the break room about a novel he’d recently read.
“Jinjiang is currently popular with a genre called ‘The True Young Master, Universally Despised, Reborn—And Now Everyone Regrets It.’ Let me tell you, it’s so good! I seriously suspect the inspiration is our company’s CEO, Gu Yubai.”
“The only difference is that in reality, there’s no rebirth, and our CEO’s fate isn’t tragic, haha. Out of everyone in the wealthy Su family, he’s the one living the best.”
“If this were a novel, our CEO should have been a universally despised true young master with a tragic ending. But in reality, CEO Gu is a natural winner, a good luck charm. Who could have guessed? Reality is indeed more dramatic and captivating than fiction.”
What was so surprising about that? Life was always full of dramatic twists.
He clung to his money, his body lived on, but his soul had died long ago.
When Gu Yubai walked out of the break room, the previously chatty employees instantly fell silent.
He offhandedly said,
“Have the business department come see me. Go acquire the Jinjiang novel website.”
With more money than he knew what to do with, he casually bought a website popular among young people.
Gu Yubai stood by the window for a long while before finally tearing his gaze away from the two conspicuous figures in the parking lot.
The only benefit of his rebirth, he thought, was that his adoptive father was still alive—even if only in a vegetative state.
Gu Yubai smirked.
After a moment’s thought, he turned and left, missing how someone appeared in the parking lot after the white car drove away.
Butler Zhang had just taken out some documents to review when a dark figure suddenly darted out and snatched them from his hands.
This… was a completely new development that had never happened in his past life.
By the time Butler Zhang recovered from his shock, the figure had already vanished.
Furious, he shouted,
“Damn thief! What’s the point of stealing a few sheets of paper? I hadn’t even seen who the true young master was yet!”
----
Gu Yubai had just finished washing his vegetative adoptive father’s face when the hospital room door was abruptly slammed open.
A rebellious-looking youth dressed in black stood panting in the doorway. He seemed exhausted, his eyes fixed blankly on Gu Yubai, his face flushed with an almost manic excitement.
This wasn’t right.
Gu Yubai’s expression remained calm and unruffled.
The young man suddenly shouted excitedly,
“Big brother! You’re alive!”
Then he lunged forward and hugged Gu Yubai tightly, his voice distant, as if in a dream.
“Big brother, this dream is so good—you actually came into my dream this time!”
A huge question mark formed in Gu Yubai’s mind.
What was Gu Yihong talking about? What dream? Wasn’t he supposed to be at the airport right now?