Chapter 001: A Dream of Fifteen Years

It is said there are two kinds of happiness in the world. One is the happiness you realize only after experiencing it. The other is the happiness you can feel in that very moment—so precious that just the memory of it can make you happy for a lifetime. But most people never experience such happiness.

……

The moment he woke up in the morning, sunlight gently caressing his cheek, Ryan Carter was surprised to find himself covered with a quilt, one of his feet—his left—dangling off the bed. Luckily, the bed frame stopped him, or he would have fallen off the steel bed.

Like an acrobat suspended in midair.

His mouth hung open, as if he wanted to scream, but like a miserable mental patient whose mouth was forcibly covered, he stared at the man in front of him—a man he had known for twenty years, now less than thirty meters away, about to get out of bed. The man flashed him a charming smile, revealing a slightly protruding tooth, seemingly surprised by Ryan Carter's current posture.

Most speechless of all was a man sitting at a rectangular table, savoring a fried dough stick. At that moment, he picked up a thermos and poured hot water into a cup on the table. The scalding water, midair, seemed to claw and dance, but as if someone had pressed pause on a computer game, it hung eerily in the air.

Just one minute ago, Ryan Carter's world was still running normally.

Two days ago, as a so-called online writer barely scraping by, Ryan Carter received his 800 yuan manuscript fee for the month. After paying next month's rent and electricity, he had only 300 yuan left. He called his mother, and hearing her constant coughing, he knew her asthma had worsened again. But feeling the few bills left in his pocket, Ryan Carter gave a bitter smile. That night, after finishing half a case of beer, he staggered out onto the street, only to have his vision go black and lose consciousness.

When he woke up again, this was the bizarre scene before him!

Ryan Carter's life could be described as the epitome of tragedy. At twenty-one, after graduating from college, his parents arranged for him to work at the township government office near home. Although it was a temporary job, there was hope of becoming a full-fledged civil servant. But Ryan Carter, believing that 21st-century college graduates should venture out, told his parents that as a member of the first graduating class of the new millennium, he would never work at the township office. Unexpectedly, all the temps from that batch became official civil servants three years later.

In the end, Ryan Carter struggled outside for five years with miserable results, finally dragging his weary self back home. He rented a small thirty-square-meter apartment in the city and began life as an online writer. He had missed the golden age of online literature; while others made a fortune writing simple stories, he could barely make ends meet. In the end, he didn't even find a girlfriend, becoming a true leftover man.

He vaguely remembered, at a college reunion, his ex-girlfriend clinging to a man rumored to be the deputy mayor's son, looking at him with pity, as if grateful she hadn't ended up with such a loser. By now, she was probably preparing to go to the capital...

If life is made up of countless turns, Ryan Carter could only say that while others find hope or success at their turns, his were nothing but a French classic full of helplessness and regret—Les Misérables!

Ryan Carter had even once believed that his life would be as written in a novel: living an ordinary life, constantly toyed with by cruel fate, fading into some dark corner of society, ultimately becoming an average person, marrying an average wife, having average children, and spending the rest of his days in endless reminiscence.

Looking at everything before him with mixed feelings, the deepest memories in Ryan Carter's heart were like fallen leaves stirred by the autumn wind, brought forth from what seemed like a distant past. Seeing his roommates, who had all gone their separate ways after graduation, he was overwhelmed with emotion.