Reborn With A System: Your Bragging Lies; My Fortune

CHAPTER 4 - NO NAME, NO FACE

LIN FENG'S POV

I was three steps into the stairwell, my phone gripped so tightly that my knuckles had gone white, when my foot slipped on the cracked concrete.

I nearly went down the entire flight. I caught the railing hard. My palm scraped against the rusted metal, pain shooting up my wrist, but I barely felt it. My mind was still locked on the six words glowing on my screen.

“I know what happened to you last time.”

I typed back with shaking fingers.

“Who is this?”

The reply came almost instantly. Like whoever it was had been waiting with their phone in hand.

“It doesn't matter who I am. What matters is that you listen. You died once already, didn't you? Pushed into traffic while everyone was laughing. I know because I watched it happen.”

My back hit the stairwell wall. My legs refused to hold me, and I slid down until I was sitting on the cold concrete step, staring at the screen.

Nobody watched me die, at least, nobody had ever admitted to it. I remembered that final moment with painful clarity—the truck's headlights, Ryan behind me, the laughter, the crowd that suddenly seemed to disappear when the brakes screamed.

I remembered people turning away, they acted like it wasn't real life that was actually in danger. I remembered nobody calling for help quickly enough. 

And I remembered how, afterward, everyone claimed they hadn't seen anything. It was easier for them to deny all allegations, afterall, they cared less about a nobody like me.

My thumb hovered over the keyboard, then I typed:

“Prove it. Tell me something only I would know.”

The typing indicator appeared twice, then vanished. It was like the stranger behind the keyboard was still devising the words to use properly. I waited, my heart slamming against my ribs.

Finally, the reply came.

“Ryan didn't act alone. There was someone standing behind him that night, telling him it was safe because no one would ever know.”

I stopped breathing.My mind immediately returned to the final seconds of my old life. Ryan's shoulder, the restaurant sign behind him. A dark shape partially hidden in the shadows, I'd seen something.

Or thought I had.

At the time, I'd assumed it was nothing more than a trick of my dying mind. I'd never told anyone about it because I hadn't even been certain it was real.

My hands began trembling again.

“Who was it?” I typed another message, this time, I was already getting too desperate for what could seem to be the truth.

“Tell me who was standing behind him.” There was no response, the typing indicator didn't return.

I waited, but still nothing. Whoever had sent the messages had given me exactly enough information to shake everything I thought I knew about my death, then they'd disappeared.

I stared at the silent chat, there was no name, no profile picture and no clue about who was behind the number. Just an empty conversation and a question that wouldn't leave my mind.

Who had been standing behind Ryan?

I finally forced myself to stand. My legs were still unsteady as I climbed the remaining stairs and returned to my apartment. The bowl of spilled noodles from earlier was still sitting on the floor.

I stared at it for a moment, then I sighed and knelt to clean it up.

My hands moved automatically while my thoughts stayed somewhere else.

Ryan hadn't acted alone, that was what the stranger claimed. But I couldn't know whether it was true, not yet. I had spent that night believing my death was the result of Ryan's cruelty and a moment of rage. Now someone was telling me there had been more to it.

I couldn't afford to believe everything simply because I wanted an explanation. If there really was someone else behind Ryan, I'd find out and it wouldn't take long.

And when I did, I would make sure I understood exactly what had happened before deciding what to do about it. I finished cleaning the bowl and stood at the sink.

My phone buzzed, I dried my hands quickly and reached for it.

I expected another message from the stranger. Instead, I saw a name I hadn't expected to see, not after everything that happened.

Su Wan.

I stared at the name. For a moment, memories surfaced, the quiet girl who used to sit near the back of our classroom. The one who rarely joined the others when they mocked me. The girl who disappeared from everyone's lives after graduation.

I opened her message.

“I heard what Ryan posted about your mother. That was disgusting, even for him.” Another message appeared. “Are you actually going tomorrow?” And another, “Because if you are, there's something you should know before you walk into that room.”

My grip tightened around the phone, two people had now warned me about tomorrow. The stranger knew something about my death and Su Wan who apparently knew something about the reunion and neither seemed willing to tell me everything yet.

I typed back. “What do I need to know?”

The three dots appeared almost immediately, I watched them pulse on the screen, then disappear, then return. My breath caught in my chest. Whatever Su Wan was about to tell me, she had clearly hesitated before saying it.

I waited, the screen remained silent. I glanced toward the window, the city outside continued as though nothing had changed. But my world had changed, yesterday, I had been a man who died.

Today, I was a man who had been given another chance, a strange system had entered my life. A stranger claimed to know the truth about my death and now Su Wan was warning me about the reunion.

I looked back at the three blinking dots. My instincts told me that tomorrow's reunion was going to be nothing like the one I remembered. And for the first time, I wasn't sure whether that was because of the system or because someone had been waiting for me to come back.

The three dots disappeared, then a message appeared. I held my breath as I opened it.