CHAPTER 01

“Brother, I’m telling you the truth, so listen to me,” Kristy said, yelling and pleading simultaneously. “Look at that woman’s hand carefully. She has all her nails looking sharp fine, except the middle fingernail. Do you know why? That’s because she definitely masturbates. That’s what women do. One of my friends does the same! So, your girlfriend isn’t as pure and holy as you think!”

“You’re lying!” Ulmer refused to believe his younger sister’s words. “Brianna would never do such a thing! You’re just trying to separate us because you’re jealous!”

“Huh? Why would I be jealous?”

“Because she’s beautiful!”

A few months after the siblings had that conversation.

On a dark cold night, at around two o’clock, the 23-year-old Ulmer was standing on the bridge, crying and feeling more pain than a man with many bullets in his chest.

“You were right, Kristy,” Ulmer’s eyes were clouded with tears. “You always mocked me, so I thought you were trying to break my bond with Brianna, but what you said that day… I should have listened to it. There were clues, but I did not see through them. Now, it hurts so badly.”

Nobody in his family was affectionate with Ulmer, neither his parents nor his siblings. But he thought he at least had Brianna, his girlfriend of two years. She was his first love, and his only love. He met her online. Though it was a long-distance relationship, he met her eight times. The ninth time was supposed to be a big surprise for her on her birthday, but he was utterly shocked to see her naked with many men in her own home.

His heart collapsed at that moment, and he couldn’t even digest what he saw. His feet didn’t want to walk back to his home, as he felt like he had no one else left in this world to live for.

Even as he was standing on the edge of the bridge, staring into the abysmal river, he had no one to apologize for because he didn’t think anyone would cry over his death.

“I loved her unconditionally, but…” he sniffled quite a lot. “Truly a pathetic life I’ve lived…” he wiped his tears and tossed his mobile and purse behind him. “If there is a next life, I’d like to be born as someone who never feels as lonely and helpless.”

Without any hesitation, he closed his eyes and jumped. He crashed into the river.

At the same time, not too far from that bridge.

Ulmer’s long-distance lover, Brianna, was standing on the balcony of her duplex house, wearing a woolen coat with nothing else inside. In the background, there were seven men lying lifelessly on the floor, looking like mummies that were drained of all their life force.

Brianna was calling Ulmer’s mobile. “Tsk, why isn’t he picking it up?” she tapped the mobile against her forehead. “I was planning on making that virgin my thousandth meal. My ultimate experience. I spent two years manifesting his sacral energy by acting like I loved him. But he appeared out of nowhere and saw everything. But what’s interesting is that I tried to put him under hypnosis, but my seduction skill didn’t work on him because of the shock he was in. I can’t let him talk to anyone about what he’s seen. No matter what.”

She called someone on her mobile and told him, “Deal with Ulmer. I’ll send him the address.”

“What about his family?”

“If he revealed anything to his family, then deal with them, too.”

“Got it.”

The phone call ended, and Brianna removed the sim card, broke it and then tossed the mobile away. “It’s a pity that I couldn’t have him, but my visit to this world ends here. Time to return to Syslon.”

She glanced back at the dead bodies of the men, and they all caught on fire and disintegrated into bits. 

She then raised her hand to her face and moved it downward, which made her become invisible.

At seven in the morning.

Ulmer suddenly woke up and found himself lying on the shore of the river.

“I’m alive?”

He was so disappointed by the fact that he was still alive.

“Do I not have luck even in death?”

He sat there motionless for a while before finally getting up to his feet. As he walked, he looked down and noticed a locket hanging by his neck.

It was a golden dove locket.

“What the…” he quickly took it out and closely observed. “Is this real gold? How did it end up with me? Wait, come to think of it, how did I even survive? I don’t even know how to swim, so how?”

Even after thinking about it for a few seconds, he didn’t get anywhere, so he put his thoughts aside, hid the gold chain in his pocket, and continued to walk.

After taking a few steps, he took out the gold chain and put it in his underwear instead.

Now, he felt safe.

“If I give this to Brianna…” as he was saying, he stopped midway, remembering what he had seen last night at exactly twelve o’clock when he entered Brianna’s home. Just thinking about it gutted his stomach. “That’s right. She’s not the Brianna I knew. She’s a liar. She was probably lying to me from the beginning. She must get pleasure from fooling people like me.” His heart ached as the only person he loved in this world turned out to be a fake. Now, whom should he live for?

Ulmer then traveled 440 miles back on the train to get to his home.

However, to his shock, there were police officers and two ambulances there. He rushed over to the scene, only to see the four dead bodies of his parents and two sisters.

“Whoever did this must have had a great grudge on them.”

“The neighbors said they had a son, didn’t they? Maybe he killed them and ran away or something.”

As the officers talked about their deaths, Ulmer silently stood there unable to process what he was seeing.

“It’s him!” one random man in the crowd pointed at Ulmer. “He’s their son!”

“What?” the officers were shocked by it, and they forcibly pushed him to the ground and cuffed him.

“Mom… Dad… Kristy… Grace…” tears flowed nonstop from his ears, but the officers dragged him away to their car.

He should have been the one that died, but why was his whole family dead?