Chapter 1

Twenty years ago, a day that should have been filled with joy turned into the darkest pivot point of my life.

My wife, rushing back to celebrate my birthday, was tragically caught in a multi-car pile-up on the highway.

Her life ended right there, in that moment.

From then on, an endless wave of guilt drowned me. I always felt like my birthday was what killed her.

Carrying this unspoken burden, I became a yes-man to my in-laws, doing everything they asked, as if that could somehow lessen the罪 in my heart.

I handed over my publicly listed company, which I’d meticulously built over years, to my in-laws without a second thought.

That was the culmination of my life’s work, but at the time, I didn't spare a single thought for my own future.

Not only that, but I also transferred every piece of real estate I owned, one after another, to them. Watching my assets slip away, I felt no hesitation.

Stripped of all my income, my life instantly plunged into crisis.

To make ends meet, and to pay off escalating medical bills, I had to swallow my pride and become a delivery driver. Rain or shine, I zipped through the city streets, just to earn a little more.

But the constant strain eventually broke me. One day, I collapsed from exhaustion and ended up in the hospital.

The doctor told me I needed urgent surgery or my life would be in danger, and the surgery would cost ten thousand dollars. For me then, it was an astronomical sum.

Left with no choice, I swallowed my shame and asked my in-laws for a ten-thousand-dollar loan for my surgery. To my shock, they showed no pity.

Instead, they viciously called me a "vampire," accusing me of trying to scheme money out of them.

No matter how much I begged, they remained indifferent. Finally, because I couldn't pay, the hospital heartlessly kicked me out.

I lay there, alone, on the hospital steps, watching the crowds pass by, my body wracked with pain, my heart consumed by despair.

Slowly, I lost consciousness. It wasn't until after I died, my soul hovering above, that I witnessed the heartbreaking truth.

My wife hadn't died in that car crash at all! She and the male nanny I’d hired to care for my in-laws were living it up, enjoying my money.

It was then I understood: everything that had happened was a meticulously planned charade by her entire family, all designed to swindle me out of my fortune!

As I was engulfed in boundless regret and fury, the world suddenly spun around me.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back twenty years, on the very day my wife was supposed to return for my birthday.