Volume One: Dead End! The Twilight of Nineteen

Prologue: Withered Summer

In the early 1990s,

On the posters on the walls of beauty salons by the street, the Heavenly King Guo, with his 3/7 parted hair and wearing a bright red batwing shirt, is smiling. From the speakers of roadside shops, Andy Lau’s new song “Legend of the Hungry Wolf” is playing on repeat.

The streets are bustling with people. The food stalls are filled with the mixed aroma of hot and sour noodles and fried sesame balls. Loudspeakers blare out, “The boss of Jiangnan Leather Factory has run away” and “For one yuan, you won’t be cheated or fooled.” Under the eaves of a nearby tile-roofed house hangs a red banner with the words “Good luck in the Year of the Monkey, Happy New Year.”

However, today, people’s attention is focused on a piece of news on the second page of the “XX Business Daily.” The headline alone has caught countless eyes—in today’s terms, it instantly went viral.

The headline is shockingly just six characters: Virgin Girl Pregnant and Gives Birth!!

Fortunately, the editor hadn’t completely abandoned their integrity. The following content honestly explained the whole story.

It said that a young girl, who hadn’t gone swimming or stayed out overnight, at first just thought her period was irregular and didn’t pay much attention. After fainting several times in class and finding nothing wrong with her head, she was sent home to recuperate.

Then one night, her mother discovered the girl eating raw meat from the fridge, and her belly began to swell rapidly. Only then did they consider pregnancy. When they went to the hospital, it was found she was still a virgin (here, an interview transcript with the authoritative chief gynecologist of a top-tier hospital was attached).

People who read the report reacted differently. Some clicked their tongues in amazement, some scoffed and thought the girl must have been of loose morals and bribed the doctor to lie, while others directly accused the editor of making up stories and tarnishing the reputation of a prestigious provincial newspaper.

But what no one knew was that a week later, the reporter who covered the story jumped to their death in the middle of the night without warning. A month later, the interviewed chief gynecologist accidentally pricked herself with a needle during surgery, developed a severe infection, and died.

Before her death, she had once inadvertently told someone that the girl was extremely strange—she didn’t cry or make a sound during childbirth, smiling eerily the whole time. The most bizarre thing was what she gave birth to—it was actually a...

As for the girl herself, she seemed to wither away that summer, aging rapidly, and finally disappeared mysteriously.

Six months later, a baby was left at the entrance of the local orphanage. In the baby’s swaddling was ten thousand yuan and a note. The note had only three characters, presumably the baby’s name:

Ryan Bennett...

Chapter 1: Human Evil

Nineteen years later

Late autumn,

Cold rain drizzling endlessly,

A young man sat blankly in a coffee shop, gazing at the bustling traffic and the lively city outside the window.

Although the warmth from the cup seeped into his palm, his heart was icy cold...

Why?

Because of the hospital test report in his arms.

Although the doctor had been evasive when explaining the report, using words like “suspected,” “possible,” and “cannot be ruled out,” Ryan Bennett still sensed a very ominous feeling from it.

So, he called a client who knew medicine. He didn’t say it was his own report, just that it was a friend’s. After reading out the contents, the client casually said:

“Late-stage lung cancer, basically hopeless.”

Then, his mind went completely blank for half an hour. He just stood dazed by the roadside, not even knowing how he got home.

When he came to his senses, he found himself sitting on the edge of his bed, hands ice-cold, his heart lost. He numbly poured himself a glass of water and drank it bit by bit, only then did his mind gradually regain clarity.

Suddenly, it was as if all the strength in his body had been drained. He collapsed to the floor, clutching his face tightly with both hands, and let out a sobbing sound:

“I don’t want to die... I’m only nineteen!”

For Ryan Bennett, this November in late autumn was the longest month of his life. First, the only relative he depended on passed away. Then, just after the funeral, he was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer.

Although Ryan Bennett had suffered setbacks since childhood and his nerves had been tempered to be tough enough, faced with such successive heavy blows, he still broke down completely. He stayed in his rented room for two whole days before recovering a bit, but in the face of the great terror between life and death, he still had intermittent emotional breakdowns.

But who isn’t like this? Wandering silently in a distant place, sometimes crying out in pain, losing control and shouting at the sky, but in the end, gradually cooling down, numbly gritting your teeth and struggling in this indifferent world?