1972, at the turn of spring and summer, Hong Kong City.
At dusk, when the setting sun is setting, the busy streets are lined with crowds of people, there are well-dressed modern men and women talking and laughing, and there are also poor people squatting on the side of the road in rags waiting to do coolies, just like this bustling metropolis, one side is decaying , one side blooms.
With a creak, a rickshaw stopped on the side of the road.
The one who got out of the car was a teenager, about seventeen or eighteen years old, because his body was too thin, the wrinkled white shirt on his body looked empty. On his thin body was a face as pale as paper, not even a trace of blood could be seen on his lips, and his whole body showed a weak and sick appearance.
Because of this sickly appearance, you may not notice it at first glance, but if you look a little closer, you will find that this is actually a very handsome boy. The face is long, with a pair of thick black and deep eyebrows, a straight nose bridge, and lips—even the pale lips have extremely beautiful curvature.
It's a pity that he looks too weak, even when he got off the car, he seemed to be on the verge of falling. It's really hard for people to appreciate how handsome he is.
At least the rickshaw driver didn't think so.
Seeing that he looked like he was about to leave at any time, the coachman originally wanted to ask a question, but he was afraid of getting into trouble—after all, trouble is what poor people fear most. So after taking the fare from him, he thanked him and hurried away with the car.
Qiao Wen feels that the current self is really not a decent living person, after all, he has just "resurrected from the dead".
Feeling weak is really uncomfortable, but it's always good to be alive.
He walked slowly to the sidewalk, turned around and looked across the street, there was a tea house, and there was a gilded signboard hanging in mid-air, with the words "Furong Tea House" written in four characters.
If there were no accidents, in this teahouse tonight, a 19-year-old young man would stab to death a rich businessman in the city, changing the fate of himself and the rich businessman's youngest son from then on.
And the reason why Qiao Wen knew about the bloody incident that was about to happen tonight was not because he had the ability to predict it, but because he was in the world of a novel at this time.
This young man who is about to kill is the villain in the novel, and the rich businessman's son is the hero.
As for Qiao Wen himself, or the original owner of his current body, he was a good brother who grew up with the villain, a little cannon fodder who died of illness today.
Currently used, it is the most complete and best-used app for listening to books. It integrates 4 major speech synthesis engines, over 100 kinds of timbres, and is an artifact that supports offline reading. huanyuanapp.org
This character is considered insignificant in the book, because he died too early, and he didn't even appear on the scene, and only existed in the villain's memory.
That's right, Qiao Wen is a book walker.
Traveling from 2020 to this novel with the background of Hong Kong City in the 1970s, he became a small supporting role in the book with the same name.
The time went back to one day ago, in the early autumn of 2020, in a desert in the west.
The fiery desert night in July was already quite cool, and everyone in the camp had already fallen asleep, and they could faintly hear the heavy breathing from the nearby tents.
Qiao Wen was guarding the bonfire, and just as he was building a fire, he heard someone rustling over, approached him and whispered, "Brother Wen, do you smoke?"
Qiao Wen turned his head and saw that it was the young boy wearing glasses from the camping team. He and this hiking and camping team only met during the day, and he didn’t know the boy’s name, only heard that he called himself an otaku. Just got lost in the desert.
"Thank you." Qiao Wen took the cigarette in the boy's hand, lit it with a bonfire, put it on his lips, and said with a smile, "Why? Can't sleep?"
A chilly night wind blew in, and the boy couldn't help but rubbed his arms, saying, "It's pitch black everywhere, with no human habitation at all, it's really scary."
Qiao Wen asked, "First time in the desert?"
The boy nodded: "At first the team leader said he was very experienced, so I signed up. I didn't expect to get lost after walking for more than a day. Fortunately, I met you, or something might happen." He said sincerely, "I really do I admire you for daring to walk across the desert alone."
Qiao Wen shook his head with a smile: "Try it a few more times, it will be fine."
He raised his head and looked into the distance. The vast sky was full of stars, and the endless desert was hidden in the darkness. It was so quiet that there was only the sound of wind coming from nowhere. No one knew how much danger was hidden in that dark place.
And danger is always fascinating.
The boy looked at him calmly. During the day, the team ran around like headless chickens. When the drinking water was about to run out, this young man seemed to descend from the sky, leading them to find the water source, and then camped nearby.
He didn't know his identity, he only knew that he was an experienced hiker with superior physical strength and a calm mind, and was also very well equipped, so he should be quite rich. In fact, people who love adventure mostly want to find excitement because they are not short of money.
Moreover, he was still very handsome. Under the reflection of the bonfire, his handsome face with a little stubble almost had a distorted handsomeness.
Qiao Wen didn't pay attention to the boy's scrutiny. He looked at him with a smile, and said casually, "Why don't you just take a nap by the campfire? I'm by your side, don't be afraid."
The boy had this in mind: "Call me when you're sleepy, and I'll change shifts with you to watch the fire."
Qiao Wen curled his lower lip, noncommittal.
The boy spread a blanket under his body, wrapped it in a windbreaker and lay down. As if remembering something, he took out his Kindle and handed it to Qiao Wen: "If you feel bored, read a novel to pass the time."
The long night was really boring. Qiao Wen took it and opened the first book on the shelf.
"Seventy's Big Brother".
Just looking at the name, you can tell that it is a cool online article for YY.
Qiao Wen seldom read online articles, but he thought that he would have to wait until dawn when these people woke up to replace him, so he opened it out of boredom and started reading to kill time.
When he saw the villain in the story being shot to death by the protagonist, the sky finally turned pale, and the people in the tent woke up one after another.
He returned the Kindle to the boy who woke up.
The boy rubbed his face and took it, and asked casually, "What book are you reading?"
Qiao Wen said, "It's the first book on your bookshelf."
The boy said: "That online novel. By the way—" Suddenly remembered something, and said with a smile, "There is a character with the same name as you."
"Really? I didn't pay attention." Qiao Wen passed the time, reading scribbledly, and didn't notice that there was a small supporting role in the book with the same name as himself.
The boy thought he was a fan of novels, so when he talked about this, he became interested: "It's the villain Chen Jianan who died young, and only appeared in his memories. The two were poor back then, and this boy got seriously ill and had no money to go to a big hospital." In order to earn medical expenses for him, Chen Jianan went to assassinate the male protagonist's father. But after he finished killing him, the boy had already died in a black clinic in the Kowloon Walled City. Chen Jianan was greatly stimulated by this, and embarked on a path for money. An unscrupulous crooked path."
After he reminded, Qiao Wen remembered that there was indeed such a small supporting role, who was gone before the story started, and was just a character who had appeared in the memory of the villain Chen Jianan, so he didn't care about the name.
It was originally just a refreshing article to pass the time, and this kind of vulgar plot is really nothing special. Just being described by the boy in this way, he was suddenly slightly moved by the friendship of the big villain in the book.
Because he happened to have a boy who could risk his life for him, and there was even a character Nan in his name.
Others came over to say hello one after another, interrupting their chat.
A group of people washed up briefly, ate some dry food, and set off on the road before the sun rose. At noon, Qiao Wen sent them to the nearest road, and then went on the road alone to continue the unfinished desert trip.
Since Lin Nan was gone, all the adventures and journeys that the two had planned together could only be completed by him alone.
This trip to the desert was his last stop. When it was over, he would return to the mortal world and live a good life as Lin Nan hoped.
It's just that the world is unpredictable. Just halfway through the desert journey, Qiao Wen encountered a sandstorm.
The yellow sand swept across the sky, and he was quickly buried in the sand, breathing became more and more difficult, and in the end, the whole person fell into deep darkness.
He knew he was going to die.
I just don't know if I can see Lin Nan after death.
"Awen! Awen! Wake up, don't die!"
The ear-piercing howl shook people's eardrums, coupled with the violent shaking of the body, pulled Qiao Wen back from the suffocation.
A fishy heat shot up from his throat, forcing him to cough heavily, and then gasped and breathed hard, like a drowning person regaining air, the feeling of suffocation was finally relieved.
"Awen, you... you are not dead?"
Qiao Wen raised his eyelids with difficulty, and a tearful strange boy appeared in his sight, holding his shoulder and shaking violently. He finally knew why he felt seasick just now, because he was shaken hard by the child.
He took two deep breaths, calmed down a little, and said in a hoarse voice: "Hao Zai, what is your name?"
Howard
Qiao Wen was taken aback for a moment, not only did he blurt out the name of this strange boy, but he also clearly spoke Cantonese.
Just as he was stunned, suddenly there was a memory that did not belong to him, flooding his mind like a tide.
After a while, he looked around in disbelief.
It was a dimly lit small house, and he thought he was well-informed, but he had never seen such a simple and dilapidated house in his lifetime. Yellow walls, a small window with half of the glass broken, several unpainted tables and chairs in the room, and a few black pottery pots for boiling medicine on the table, the whole room smells of mixed medicine. pungent taste.
An old sitting electric fan was on the table next to it, creaking and spinning.
Dark, damp, stuffy, dirty...
The memories that just came up told him that this was a clinic, a black clinic in the Walled City of Kowloon, Hong Kong City, in the 1970s.
Seeing him waking up, Haozai finally let go of his hands shaking his shoulders, wiped his eyes, and shouted excitedly outside: "Uncle Hua! Come quickly, Ah Wen is awake!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a thin old man in his fifties or sixties came in from the outside through the curtain.
This man has a round nose and small eyes, has a long beard, and wears a melon cap that was popular during the Republic of China. He doesn't look like a doctor, but a fortune teller who sets up a stall under an overpass.
He walked over in disbelief, stretched out his hand to lift Qiao Wen's hand, frowned and took a closer look, then grabbed his wrist, checked his pulse while staring at his soybean eyes, and clicked his tongue in disbelief: "It's weird, just now He obviously stopped his heartbeat and lost his breath, how come he came back to life?"
Haozai on the side stopped his wailing and turned into sobbing, and said intermittently: "Uncle Hua, you just said that Ah Wen has gone, I almost died of fright."
Qiao Wen sat obediently on the small wooden bed under him, letting the old Chinese doctor practice observation, hearing and questioning on himself, while silently digesting the new memories he had just acquired in his mind, and sorting out the current situation.
Obviously I encountered a sandstorm in the desert, why did I come to this strange place as soon as I opened my eyes
Fortunately, he had just read the online article called "The Great Heroes of the 1970s", so he quickly determined that due to some metaphysical power, he, who should have died in the sandstorm, was reborn in the world of this novel , became the cannon fodder with the same name in the book, that is, the good brother of the big villain Chen Jianan who hiccupped early.
This world is Hong Kong City in the early 1970s—it is called Hong Kong City in the book, and the corresponding real world is actually the chaotic and prosperous Hong Kong in the 1970s.
He traced the timeline in his mind.
He remembered that when Chen Jianan died, the author described his past mental journey in a large article, and the most important memory was the day when his brother Qiao Wen, who grew up since he was a child, died.
Qiao Wen in this world has been sick since he was a child, and he fell seriously ill when he was 18 years old. He lay down in a dilapidated clinic in the Kowloon Walled City for several days. Foreign hospital treatment. However, both of them were poor children in the Kowloon Walled City at that time, so where would they have the money to go to a big hospital.
In order to earn money for Qiao Wen's medicine, Chen Jianan accepted a murder mission from the boss of the club, and the target of the assassination was the father of the leading actor Lin Zihui.
This was his first time killing people, and he did it very well. However, when he took the money and ran back to send Qiao Wen to the foreign hospital, the young man lying on the dilapidated bed in the black clinic was already chilling and stiff.
That was the darkest moment in Chen Jianan's life, that is, from then on, he vowed to become famous and make a lot of money. Since then, he has embarked on a path of no return full of evil and villains, which became the source of his future tragic ending.
If I'm not mistaken, today was the day Qiao Wen died, and it was also a turning point in Chen Jianan's fate. Combining the situation of Hao Zai grabbing the original body and shaking it violently and howling ghosts and howling wolves, and the reaction of the old Chinese doctor Uncle Hua, Qiao Wen in this world should have died originally, but because his soul entered, this body came back to life.
The original Chauvin became him.
But no matter what, he who died in the desert was reborn as another person in another world.
He promised Lin Nan that he would live a good life, even in a different world, with a different identity and body, but it is always good to be alive.