After I Traveled Through Time, My Gentle Brother Turned Dark - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I lay in the middle of the road, the headlights of the heavy truck glaring so brightly they stabbed my eyes.

Today marked exactly ten years since my older brother went missing. It was also my birthday.

He had disappeared on his way to buy me a birthday cake, vanishing from the face of the earth. No one could find him no matter how hard they searched.

That year, he was fifteen. I was eight.

In the second year after my brother disappeared, my dad divorced my mom. The year after that, he had another son with another woman.

The police believed my brother was already dead. I believed he was dead too. Only my mom still insisted her son was alive.

I had been too willful back then, always clinging to him and demanding this and that. I figured death was Heaven’s punishment for me.

My body gradually grew lighter, and the white light before my eyes suddenly sucked me in.

…

“Eunuch Yan, tell me. What is the proper punishment for deceiving the emperor?”

“In reply to Your Majesty, by law, it is beheading.”

Wasn’t I dead?

Then what was with the pain in my lungs and the voices by my ear?

I opened my eyes, but I couldn’t see a thing. I tried to speak, only to choke on a huge mouthful of water.

“Tsk. Why is a dead one moving again? Pull her up for me. Let me have a look.”

At the man’s command, someone dragged me out of the water vat.

Air rushed into my nose. I breathed desperately, and my vision gradually cleared.

“Well, well. You really do have a tough life.”

The man wore a black dragon robe, his gaze dark as he looked at me.

I followed the sound of his voice, and my whole body froze.

That face looked so much like my brother’s that I even forgot to think about the situation I was in.

The eunuch beside the man pointed at me and shrieked, “How dare you! A lowly maid actually dares to look directly upon the imperial countenance!”

At that, I immediately lowered my head.

The man gave a cold snort. “I will have your life today no matter what. I’d like to see how you manage to come back to life again.”

He waved his hand lightly, and the guard beside me drew his sword.

In all my eighteen years of living, I had never seen anything so terrifyingly exciting. My hands and feet went weak with fear.

I had only just transmigrated. I didn’t even know my current name, and I was already about to die again.

Death wasn’t scary. Pain was. I did not want to die a second time!

People on Zhihu always said you could find fellow transmigrators by exchanging secret code phrases.

What if this Dog Emperor really was my brother?

In a last-ditch effort, I shouted the only ad slogan I could remember: “When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut! Mom buys me my favorite Xizhilang Jelly!”

The Dog Emperor glanced at me in surprise, and I thought, There’s a chance!

Then he drawled lazily, “No gifts this New Year. If it’s a gift, it must be Nao Baijin.”

One of us. He really was one of us!

Zhihu had not lied to me!

My eyes lit up. I was wild with joy.

The next second, he propped his face on one hand and smiled wickedly. “Do it. Kill this member of the Transmigrators.”

My smile froze on my face, and I panicked completely.

Wasn’t it supposed to be, when fellow townsmen meet, tears fill their eyes?

The guard raised his sword, about to bring it down. In my desperation, I shouted my brother’s name: “Meng Qingran!”

The Dog Emperor’s pupils constricted, and he hurriedly stopped him. “Hold!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the gleaming sword stop less than a centimeter from my neck.

I had almost kicked the bucket. That scared me half to death…

The Dog Emperor narrowed his eyes at me. “Who are you?”

I looked left and right, then put on an obsequious smile. “Your Majesty, this doesn’t seem like a very convenient place to talk.”

The Dog Emperor rose and looked down at me from above. “Then I shall grant your wish. Come.”

I scrambled to my feet and, under everyone’s astonished gazes, hurried after him.