Cold Lake!
Yao City is famous because of it. Cold Lake almost occupies half the size of Yao City. At first glance, it resembles a bright mirror embedded in the earth. On sunny days, the water sparkles. On rainy days, the mountains appear hazy and distant. Countless literati and poets have left behind exquisite verses of admiration here, creating the fame of Cold Lake and making people remember Yao City. Mozi Pavilion.
In autumn, Cold Lake shimmers with rippling light. Although the cool wind brings a slight chill to the body, under the autumn sun, the lakeside paths around Cold Lake remain lively. People enjoy themselves freely amid this beautiful scenery!
Yet in such a picturesque scene, there is one young man who stands completely out of place. The youth is dressed plainly. His face looks especially pale, with thin lips and a faint trace of fuzz above them. His eyes lack any vitality. Despite this sickly appearance, those lifeless eyes fixate on the passing girls. Occasionally, when a woman walks by revealing thighs as white as residual snow, a rare glint appears in those eyes.
The youth leans against a willow tree, scanning the girls who pass by. He looks somewhat dissolute and unrestrained!
“I never expected that after three years away, Yao City has gained quite a few attractive women!”
The youth makes no effort to hide his gaze, causing many beautiful girls to show disgust and quickly avoid this area. This sight makes the youth chuckle. “Well then! It seems finding a woman to discuss life’s ideals with, one who would appreciate me reciting ‘I park the carriage to love the maple grove at dusk’, is impossible.”
Several attractive young women avoid the youth. After glancing at him, they whisper among themselves. “Do you think this creep staring at women looks a bit like that scumbag from Yao City?”
“Yes! He does look somewhat similar. No wonder he feels familiar!”
Seeing the girls spit in disdain, their faces full of revulsion.
The youth is called Ye Chu. He was not originally from this world. Due to drunkenness, he arrived in this unfamiliar place. In his previous life, Ye Chu indulged in debauchery and excess. As a company executive, he loved frequenting various nightclubs. His life was utterly decadent. Three years ago, one night at a bar, Ye Chu got thoroughly drunk. While embracing a gorgeous woman he had just met and hooked up with at the bar, he pretended to stumble drunkenly toward her chest, which looked ready to burst out of her clothes like residual snow. Unexpectedly, she dodged in surprise. Ye Chu crashed headfirst into the door and thus inexplicably arrived in this world, his soul possessing a boy also named Ye Chu.
After possessing this boy, Ye Chu retained most of the original owner’s memory fragments. From these fragments, Ye Chu learned exactly what kind of person the original owner was.
Before having the original owner’s memories, Ye Chu already thought his previous life was scummy enough. But compared to the original owner, Ye Chu felt he had lived his previous life in vain and had insulted the pure word “scumbag”!
In Ye Chu’s view, no single word could fully describe the original owner. His character was so vile it was beyond human imagination. He fancied a jade carving from a small family, so he brought people to smash their house and seize the carving.
His followers fancied a woman, and he actually encouraged them to rape her.
Yet such acts of robbery, bullying men, and dominating women were already considered decent behaviour for him!
In his previous life, although Ye Chu had no physical strength, he was somewhat clever. Using his petty intelligence and family background, he had almost wreaked havoc across the entire Yao City.
While visiting his maternal grandfather’s house, the original owner drugged his maternal grandmother’s adopted daughter, Lin Shixin, with intent to violate her. After fleeing home, he even tried to assault his distant cousin Ji Die, whose beauty was renowned throughout the empire and who was visiting the family.
These acts completely enraged his grandfather, the Marquis of Weiyuan. In extreme fury, he severely beat him and exiled him from Yao City to fend for himself.
The original owner was precisely such a scumbag. Back then, Ye Chu’s reputation in Yao City was so notorious that he was practically a street rat. Add to that his stubborn and vicious nature and his complete refusal to cultivate, and every insulting term such as scumbag, waste, beast, and more could be applied to him.
Ye Chu had originally thought that after three years, this Yao City would have forgotten him. He never expected the people’s disgust toward him to run so deep that even after three years, some still remembered him.
Ye Chu used to think that in his next life he should be a woman and marry an outstanding man like himself. Yet he never imagined he would be reborn into such an infamous body. Ye Chu felt that a genius like him, an elegant and gentle unparalleled prodigy, should be carefully protected by all the gods and Buddhas of the heavens. Instead, the gods and Buddhas had directly ruined and blackened him. Ye Chu suddenly felt that being outstanding was also a kind of pain. There is a saying that beautiful women have tragic fates, but the same applies to outstanding men!
“Being too outstanding as a man is really no good! It invites jealousy!” Ye Chu could not help sighing, thinking how many women would lose sleep over his “passing”.
…
“Auntie! Flowers… there are flowers…” The excited voice of a little girl interrupted Ye Chu’s thoughts. Ye Chu followed the sound and saw a little girl hopping and skipping toward the edge of Cold Lake. The girl was very pretty, about five or six years old, with a bright smile on her fair and tender face.
Behind the little girl followed a stunningly alluring woman. The woman was extremely seductive and charming, with a beautiful face, long black hair cascading over her shoulders, a face as fresh as spring, a straight delicate nose, vivid red lips, and a slender waist tightly cinched. Her chest appeared even more prominent, and the thin fabric of her skirt could not conceal her long, shapely legs. One look at her eyes conveyed astonishing seductive elasticity.
Even with the memories of the peerless beauties Lin Shixin and Ji Die in Ye Chu’s mind, seeing this woman still brought a sense of amazement.
“Auntie, Yaoyao wants the flower…” The little girl pointed at an unknown flower blooming vividly by the lakeside, her voice full of joy, excitement clear on her pretty face.
The alluring woman followed behind the little girl. Seeing the girl reach for the flower, she urgently called out, “Yaoyao, don’t touch it, be careful!”
But her warning came too late. The little girl lost her footing, her body tilted, and with a sharp cry, she fell with a splash into Cold Lake.
“Yaoyao!” The alluring woman cried out in alarm, her expression panicked as she ran toward the spot.
“Ah… save me… Auntie…” The girl flailed desperately in the water, her head bobbing on the surface a few times as she called out with a sobbing voice. But since she could not swim, after splashing wildly, her entire body slowly sank, leaving no trace, only ripples where the water swallowed her.
“Yaoyao!” The alluring woman panicked and shouted desperately, “Please, everyone, help save her!”
Her frantic plea received no response. No one nearby knew how to swim.
The alluring woman saw the bubbles rising incessantly. Ignoring that she could not swim either, she jumped fiercely into the lake.
Cold Lake was famous not only for its beauty but also for its depth and coldness.
The alluring woman jumped in and dove down with sheer determination. But since she could not swim, how could she save anyone? Once in the water, she too struggled, her hands slapping the surface repeatedly, creating bursts of white foam as pale as her skin. After struggling a few times, she choked on water and began to sink as well.
“Save Yaoyao… save…”
Her words were cut off as she was submerged.
The several girls who had earlier cursed Ye Chu as a scumbag saw this scene and paled in fright. They shouted to the surroundings, “Hurry, save them! Two people have fallen in!”
But clearly no one dared to attempt a rescue. Cold Lake was dangerous. Falling in easily led to entanglement in water weeds. Unless someone was extremely skilled in the water, who would dare go in?
Just as the girls grew anxious, they noticed the youth they had cursed as a creep, the one who had been staring at women, running from afar. He leapt into the lake with a splash.
The girls had not expected the rescuer to be him. They exchanged glances. One muttered, “Looks like he is only similar to that scumbag. If it really were that scumbag, he would never jump in to save anyone. He would only stand on the shore throwing stones to make things worse!”