Chapter 1: Awakening to Find the Goddess of Harbor Island Beside Me!
All characters and events in this book are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons or events is purely coincidental!
Hong Kong Island.
Inside a hotel room.
“Ah!!!”
A woman’s startled scream jolted Chen Hao awake from his hazy slumber.
He immediately sat up, feeling dizzy and unwell.
Beside him lay a breathtakingly beautiful woman, clutching the blanket tightly around herself, her face a mix of shock and fury as she glared fiercely at him.
At that moment, Chen Hao was utterly bewildered.
Who was this woman?
She seemed vaguely familiar.
Yet, he couldn’t place her.
Why was he sleeping beside her?
What on earth had happened last night?
“Who are you?” Chen Hao asked, confusion written all over his face as he looked at the stranger who felt oddly familiar.
“Bastard!” the woman snapped.
“That question should be for you!”
“Who exactly are you?”
“How did I end up here?”
“What did you do to me last night?”
The beautiful woman’s eyes blazed with anger as she stared at Chen Hao.
“I…” Chen Hao was about to say he didn’t know anything.
Suddenly, recognition struck him.
This stunning woman seemed to be Li Zhi, the dream girl of countless men and the reigning Miss Asia!
At that moment, fragmented memories flickered through his mind…
Last night, he had drowned his sorrows alone in a bar in Lan Kwai Fong.
Because he had been reborn.
Reborn into a strange world.
In his previous life, he had spent over twenty years clawing his way from nothing to become a billionaire.
He had planned to retire early and enjoy life.
But fate had played a cruel joke on him, sending him reborn into an unfamiliar world.
In this world, he was still himself, but he had been reset to utter poverty.
His life had restarted.
He felt as if the heavens were mocking him.
Did he really have to toil for another twenty years?
It was almost unbearable.
Frustrated, he had come to a bar in Lan Kwai Fong to drink away his troubles.
As he drank, a commotion caught his attention.
He turned to see two men harassing a beautiful young woman.
She looked familiar, but he couldn’t recall her identity at once.
However, from her accent, he realized she wasn’t a local from Hong Kong Island but from the mainland.
A stranger in a strange land.
Because he was also from the mainland.
He quickly stepped in and drove the two men away.
Then, he sat down with the woman and started drinking.
Through their conversation, he learned that this woman was none other than Li Zhi, the dream girl of many men and the Miss Asia champion.
What an incredible coincidence!
Li Zhi confided in Chen Hao that ever since her father brought her to Hong Kong Island, she had felt the discrimination from the locals.
Many locals mocked her as a “mainland girl,” calling her a “northern girl.”
In Hong Kong, “northern girl” was a derogatory term for women from the mainland who were looked down upon.
Despite her efforts and winning the Miss Asia title in 1986, she was still scorned by the local entertainment industry.
She worked diligently to break into the scene, acting seriously.
But the Hong Kong entertainment circle always looked down on her as a “mainland girl.”
Not long ago, she starred alongside Hong Kong superstar Zhou Runfa in a film.
During a fight scene, she insisted on doing her own stunts without a double.
As a result, Zhou Runfa, harboring the same disdain as other locals, fought her fiercely, nearly endangering her life.
She was eventually carried off the set on a stretcher.
Later, at a charity concert, Zhou Runfa and Zeng Zhiwei deliberately threw cake in Li Zhi’s face, humiliating her greatly.
Of course, these events had not yet occurred.
Chen Hao, having been reborn from the future, knew of these incidents from the news.
Chen Hao was downcast because he had inexplicably been reborn into this strange world, stripped of everything.
Li Zhi was distressed because she was discriminated against for being from the mainland.
Both were miserable souls adrift in a foreign land.
So they drank together, glass after glass.
They lost count of how much they drank.
What happened afterward was a blur to Chen Hao.
He only vaguely remembered supporting each other, stumbling out of the bar drunk.
They had found a random hotel and rented a room.
Upon entering, he felt a sudden warmth wash over him, then everything grew hazy as if something indescribable had occurred between him and the woman...
Could this woman be Li Zhi?
Had they really slept together last night?
“Uh…”
“Miss Li Zhi…”
“My name is Chen Hao!”
“You should remember me!”
“Last night, at that bar in Lan Kwai Fong!”
“There were two men trying to harass you.”
“I helped chase them away!”
“Then... we drank together…”
Chen Hao tried to recount the events to jog Li Zhi’s memory.
Sure enough, with his reminders, Li Zhi gradually began recalling last night.
“So it was you!”
“But… why am I sleeping here?”
“What about my clothes…”
“What exactly did you do to me last night?”
“Don’t tell me you—”
Li Zhi grew increasingly agitated.
Her head throbbed painfully.
She only remembered Chen Hao driving off the two men and drinking with him afterward.
Everything else was a blank.
It was as if she had blacked out.
She had no idea how she left the bar or why she was sleeping next to Chen Hao.
She knew nothing of what had transpired between them.
All she knew was she was now naked.
She feared this man before her might have taken advantage of her.
“I’m sorry!”
“I drank too much last night!”
“I don’t know what really happened!”
“But if anything did happen, I will take responsibility!”
Chen Hao was a man of integrity.
He would never be the kind to deny everything after the fact.
“Take responsibility?”
“How exactly?”
“I don’t even know you!”
“Besides, you took my first time…”
“Waaah…”
Li Zhi’s words trailed off as tears welled up and spilled over.
Suddenly, she lifted her tear-streaked face, glaring at Chen Hao.
“I’m calling the police!!!”