Who would sit quietly in the car waiting to attend their own funeral?

  Shen Huai sat in the car, looking out the window at the sunbeams filtering through the ancient elm trees on Temple Street, casting dappled shadows that seemed like a deathly slumber, leaving him feeling empty and desolate.

  Behind the mausoleum garden, there are three Buddhist pagodas built during the Republic of China period, adjacent to the thousand-year-old Tianning Temple.

  These three Buddhist pagodas were originally the private Buddhist pagoda garden built by the Sun family, the largest ethnic capitalist family in Donghua City during the Republic of China era. They once housed three famous Guanyin statues made of gold, silver and jade, which were renowned throughout the province at that time.

  On the eve of liberation, Suns family moved overseas with their relatives and settled down. The fields, houses and properties of the Sun family, as well as this Buddhist tower garden, were subsequently confiscated.

  In the 1950s, after the Pagoda Garden was converted into a public cemetery, many citizens nearby stored their relatives ashes in the garden. The garden is full of towering trees and lush vegetation; there are also many rock formations throughout the garden. If one doesnt mind being near the spirits of the dead, the Pagoda Garden is actually one of the most worthwhile scenic spots to visit in the eastern suburbs of Shanghai.

  Outside the main gate of the mausoleum, there was a small square. Shen Hua parked his car at the edge of the square, under the lush trees that seemed to be dripping with dew. He watched as a Liberation-brand truck slowly drove over and stopped in front of the main gate of the mausoleum...

  Shen Hua saw his old friend and colleague at the municipal steel plant, Zhao Dong, park the car and then quickly get out of the drivers seat, hurry to the right side of the car and open the door.

  Little sister got off the car with a lead-gray urn, her delicate face still had tears on it, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, calling Shen Hui who was sitting in the car to see tears falling straight down, dripping onto the steering wheel...

  Relatives and friends who came to the funeral with flower wreaths got off from the rear carriage one after another. The couplet written in Xiao Meis regular script read: "The sad voice is hard to hold back, the cloud stays, the crying sound follows, the wild crane flies: Mourning Brother Sun Haiwen."

  Three days had passed, and the initial shock and confusion had not yet completely dissipated. But at this moment, seeing his little sister in such despair, Shen Huais heart was filled with a sharp pain. He so wanted to open the car door and rush out, loudly telling his sorrowful little sister:

  Xiao Li, Im Hai Wen! I didnt die, Im still your brother...

  Unfortunately, he is now living in someone elses body. His little sister, relatives and former colleagues no longer recognize him.

  Shen Huais hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, his fingernails digging deep into the flesh, but he felt no pain.

  He should have been dead, the ashes in the urn held by his sister were the remains of his body after cremation, but his consciousness and soul lived on in someone elses body...

  There were two people who had come to see him off, colleagues from his workplace. They didnt enter the cemetery but instead walked in this direction and stood under a trees shade smoking and resting, without noticing that there was still someone sitting inside the small car parked by the side of the road...

  "Haiwen died just like that, what a pity. If I had known this ending, it would have been better to go with Lao Xiong to the city from the beginning..."

  "Lao Xiong went to the city, wanting to transfer Hai Wen together. At that time, the factory was cooperating with Little Japan to reform and introduce continuous casting furnaces, and the factory couldnt leave Hai Wen..."

  "After all, Haiwen is also soft-hearted. At that time, he was following Lao Xiong to the city with one mind, relying on Gu Houzi who licked the buttocks of the city leaders to get on stage. Could he have stopped him at that time? You tell me, has Haiwen been oppressed all these years? Why did he live so oppressed, wasnt it because his family had no power or influence? The more talented Haiwen is, the more he will be suppressed by people like Gu Houzi - isnt it just because they are afraid that Haiwen will eventually ride on their heads? Haiwen has lived a hard life all these years. This time, after being admitted to Yan Das doctoral program, he should have been able to ignore Gu Houzis face, but unexpectedly such a thing happened... this heaven is really unfair..."

  "Haiwen is dead; his sister Xiaoli was originally dependent on him, and suddenly became lonely and helpless. In fact, she is the one who is most heartbroken, but doesnt know what to do in the future!"

  Listening to his former colleagues standing by the car, speaking on his behalf, Shen Hui felt a mix of emotions: Sun Haiwens life was his own; who could know more about his life experiences than himself?

  He graduated from the Provincial University in 1986 and was assigned to the Municipal Steel Plant. With a solid academic foundation, he mastered all aspects of production technology at the Municipal Steel Plant in just over a year, becoming an absolute technical backbone of the factory.

  Even without a background, he was highly valued by the former head of the municipal steel factory, Xiong Wenbin (also known as "Old Bear" just discussed by colleagues), and became the workshop director within two years, almost setting a record among the more than 300 state-owned enterprises in the city. Later, when the municipal steel factory built a branch in Xinjin, Xiong Wenbin proposed that he take charge of the branch, at which time he had been with the municipal steel factory for less than three years.

  However, after Xiong Wenbin was transferred away from the Municipal Steel Plant and especially after he was quickly transferred to an idle department in the city, his shortcomings without a background were thoroughly exposed.

  Perhaps his previous sharpness was too strong, and his talent and technical foundation also made him subject to double exclusion and suppression. In the past two years, he has been thoroughly kicked into the boiler room...

  In fact, going with Xiong Wenbin to the city, the situation may not necessarily be better.

  Xiong Wenbin can be said to be one of the most capable figures in Donghuas entrepreneurial endeavors. In the late 1980s, while managing the municipal steel factory, he achieved a brilliant performance with annual tax payments exceeding 300 million yuan.

  Xiong Wenbin was transferred to the city at first as the deputy secretary-general of the municipal government and director of the enterprise office, everyone thought Xiong Wenbin would soon be promoted to a more important position.

  Who would have thought that Xiong Wenbins transfer was just a trick played by some people in the city to let others take control of the municipal steel factory?

  Xiong Wenbin was transferred to the municipal government within a year and became the deputy director of the policy research office, seemingly becoming a marginal figure in the Donghua officialdom, and so far, there is no sign of him making a comeback.

  He went with Xiong Wenbin to the city, and his situation would be much better than in the municipal steel plant.

  As he thought back on his past life, Shen Hua sat in the car, his heart also filled with bitter water.

  He has seen through it clearly, a place like Donghua, where the economy is underdeveloped and opportunities for success are scarce. Those with background and power have already taken control, so even if he has great ability and talent, its hard for him to have a big future.

  Especially when others are cleverly taking advantage and flattering, your self-righteousness is the most fatal mistake.

  This world has never been fair.

  He wasnt without thoughts of leaving the municipal steel factory, but in this Donghua area, once he left the municipal steel factory, there werent many places where he could utilize his skills.

  Donghua City has several private enterprises, which seem to be of a considerable scale, but behind the scenes, they may not be cleaner than state-owned enterprises. The management of these family businesses is also dominated by crony relationships.

  Another thing, at that time his father had passed away, and his mother was seriously ill. His younger sister was still young, and the situation did not allow him to leave Donghua to develop elsewhere - although he was struggling to make a living in the municipal steel factory, his income was relatively stable, and he could barely support his family on his own.

  His mother passed away a year ago due to illness, and he successfully enrolled in the PhD program of Economics at Yanda University. He thought this was an opportunity for him and his younger sister to leave the small circle of Donghua together, but unexpectedly, an accident occurred three days ago.

  On that day, Vice Mayor Chen Mingde led a team to the Municipal Steel Factory to inspect the main technical transformation achievements of the steel factory in recent years. He was temporarily transferred from the boiler room to serve as a technical interpreter.

  Just as he climbed up the electric furnace to explain the technical transformation of the municipal steel plant in recent years to Vice Mayor Chen Mingde and his party, the rusty railing under his hand suddenly broke, causing him to fall from a height of twenty meters...

  The fall was very short, his mind went blank, and he only remembered hitting the left shoulder of Chen Mingdes deputy mayor secretary before falling to the ground, after which he lost all consciousness.

  When he woke up, he was already lying in the hospital, surrounded by doctors and other people who looked familiar but couldnt shake off the feeling of unfamiliarity. They all gazed at him with concern: "Secretary Shen, Secretary Shen, youve finally woken up..."

  He couldnt figure out what had happened at the time, and the specific process was heard from others: "Its really lucky, that worker almost fell off Chen Mayors nose tip, Secretary Shen is also very lucky: just got wiped on his left shoulder, except for dislocation, its just a more serious abrasion, needs to be hospitalized for observation..."

  "...the city steel factory should really be rectified, this year if one or two workers die its nothing, but if Mayor Chen inspects the enterprise and gets hit by a falling object, the news will spread and the officials of Donghua will lose face."

  It was as if at that moment, what should have been Sun Haiwens became inexplicably Secretary Shen Huai of Deputy Mayor Chen Mingde...

  After a long time, he roughly understood what had happened:

  When he fell to the ground, his consciousness had already left his body and should have dissipated completely, bidding farewell to this world; however, a twist of fate occurred at the moment when he was falling to the ground and hit Secretary Chen Mingdes left shoulder.

  The impact of being hit on the left shoulder was nothing, but it was the sudden shock of being involved in an accident that made Chen Mingdes secretarys soul fly away.

  If consciousness were a tangible existence, at that instant Chen Mingdes secretarys consciousness collapsed due to intense shock, and his consciousness then drilled into Chen Mingdes secretarys brain, thus surviving.

  To put it more bluntly, Secretary Chen Mingde was actually scared to death at that moment, and he was parasitic in the body of Secretary Shen Hua...

  Shen Huas injury was not serious, and he spent three days in the hospital in a daze. Today, an elderly patient in the hospital passed away, and his familys wailing woke Shen Hua up, suddenly making him realize that while he was adapting to his new identity in shock and confusion after possessing someone elses body, his little sister must be grieving over his "sudden death" and would become lonely and helpless from now on.

  Shen Huai woke up with a start, who cares about the doctors advice? He immediately rushed back to the municipal government, took a car and headed to Meixi Town, which is adjacent to the southeastern suburbs of the city.

  Shen Huai witnessed it all, from noon onwards, with his own eyes seeing his younger sister hold a funeral for him with the help of relatives and friends, sending his body to be cremated at the crematorium, and then watching as the urn was sent to Tianning Temples columbarium for storage...

  Watching his little sister in extreme pain, Shen Huan was once again so helpless: His little sister, as well as all the relatives and friends he knew, regarded him as a stranger.

  If it is said that one person has one world, from the moment they collided with each other, he must live in Chen Mingdes secretary Shen Huas world and can no longer return to Sun Haiwens world...