Chapter 001: I’ve Slept with Ten Thousand 8/10 Beauties

Chapter 001: I’ve Slept with Ten Thousand 8/10 Beauties

“So you’re telling me you’ve lived through today more than three hundred thousand times?”

“That’s right. A thousand years, to be exact. Today makes it exactly one thousand years.”

In a bar awash with dazzling light, tucked into a dim corner, a man and a woman traded low words and quiet laughter.

“Tsk, tsk.” Mu Qianqian—smoky eyeshadow, hair dyed in a riot of colors—curled her lip and shook her head, smiling into her drink. “Is this how you pick up girls? Spin some outlandish tale? The technique’s old as the hills, but I’ll give you this much—the story’s entertaining.”

“Every word of it is true.” Wu Chen swirled the wine in his glass and smiled.

“True? Aren’t you worried I’ll tell everyone? We just met, and you trust me that much already?” Mu Qianqian teased.

“What difference would it make? For me, everything resets tomorrow. No—more precisely, I’m a man with no tomorrow. When I wake up again, we’ll be strangers.” Wu Chen shrugged.

“Liar. Haven’t you ever tried staying up? Just refusing to sleep?”

“I have. Plenty of times. But I fall asleep anyway. I can’t stop it.”

“Pfft. Not buying it.” Mu Qianqian lost interest in him and looked down at her phone.

She’d made plans tonight with her best friend to hit the bars together, but she’d already been waiting over an hour and her friend still hadn’t shown. Then this man had wandered over and struck up a conversation. Bored out of her mind, she’d humored him for a while—only to discover he was a lunatic who claimed to have looped through a thousand years, or some such nonsense.

“Your friend isn’t coming,” Wu Chen said mildly.

“Hm?” Mu Qianqian’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing. “How do you know about my best friend?”

“I told you already—this day repeats for me. This isn’t the first time I’ve met you. I come to this bar often. I know every single customer in here tonight.” He smiled and took a sip of wine.

“Then why isn’t she coming? Do you know that too?” Mu Qianqian pressed, determined to catch him in the lie.

“Her boyfriend showed up out of nowhere to surprise her. She can’t make it.” He glanced at his watch. “In nine minutes and thirteen seconds, she’ll call to tell you so.”

“Down to the second?” Mu Qianqian checked her phone. “It’s 10:07 p.m. Fine. I’ll give you nine minutes. If she doesn’t call, you’d better have a good excuse.”

“Deal.” He tilted his head and raised his glass.

She clinked hers against it.

“Hey—you said you’ve slept with every woman in this city who’s an eight or better. Is that actually true?” Mu Qianqian asked again.

She was bored, mostly—talking to a madman spinning stories was, at the very least, more interesting than staring at her phone.

“All of them,” Wu Chen said, nodding.

“But you only get one day to know each of them. That’s supposed to be enough?” She tried again to trip him up.

“One day, obviously not. It works for a few, but for the rest, I need to get to know them first.”

“Say I spend five days investigating a woman thoroughly. Those five days repeat, so on the sixth day she still won’t know me—but by then, I already know her tastes, her job, her outlook on life, everything.”

“So when I finally meet her for real, whatever I say and do will make her feel like I’m the one.”

“The upside of endless repetition is that I can make every mistake in the book without worrying about a bad first impression sticking. Of all the women I’ve slept with, the hardest one took thirty-six days and more failed attempts than I can count before I finally got it right.”

“You really don’t hold back when you talk,” Mu Qianqian said.

He didn’t. He had no reservations about discussing, in front of a woman, exactly how many women he’d slept with and how he’d won each one over.

Because none of it mattered. Tomorrow, everything would start fresh.

“So how many, exactly?” she asked.

“Not that many, honestly. My standards are brutal. Donghai’s got over ten million people, and maybe ten thousand of them clear an eight.”

“You slept with ten thousand women? That’s not a body count, that’s a massacre.” Mu Qianqian’s eyes narrowed further.

“Mm-hm.” He nodded.

“Yeah, right. Keep dreaming, you shameless liar.” She curled her lip again.

He shrugged, unbothered as ever. Whether she believed him didn’t matter. He’d only come out tonight for a drink and some company.

Ding.

Her phone buzzed. She glanced down—a push notification: Major Jewelry Heist Solved. She tapped it open, and something seemed to click. She held the phone out to him. “Look at this.”

It was the jewelry store robbery.

That morning at 9:30, armed men had hit Jinfu Jewelry on Donghai’s main commercial street, making off with twenty million yuan in gold, silver, and diamonds. Two clerks had been hurt in the process.

The case had broken by afternoon—three of the robbers caught, one still at large.

It had made national news, looping across every channel all day.

Jinfu Jewelry ranked among the top three jewelry firms in the country, headquartered right here in Donghai. Its owner, Su Ruiwen, was the richest man in the city, worth over ten billion yuan.

“Yeah? What about it?” Wu Chen said, glancing over the article.

“The photos. The last one.”

He looked again.

The final shot showed Su Ruiwen shaking hands with the police, gratitude written across his face. Beside him stood a striking woman with wavy hair.

His daughter—Su Qingying, senior vice president of Jinfu Group.

“You know who she is, right? The domineering female-CEO type. Wharton grad, runs her own luxury label. Total powerhouse.”

“I know her. What about her?”

“You said you’ve slept with every eight-or-above woman in this city.” Mu Qianqian rushed on. “Su Qingying’s one of the top beauties in Donghai—brilliant, highly educated. Even with your ridiculous standards, she’d clear an eight, wouldn’t she?”

“Nine point five,” he said without missing a beat. “You could count the women in Donghai who rival her looks on one hand.”

“So you slept with her too?” She was still hunting for the crack that would bring the whole story down.

“Of course.”

“You’re lying! There was a major robbery today—she’d have spent the whole day surrounded by police and reporters. When would she have had time to even notice a stranger like you, let alone anything else? She’d have been buried in chaos!”

“And on top of that, everyone knows how strong-willed she is. Plenty of men who’ve studied her for years never got anywhere. How exactly would you manage it in one day? Impossible, no matter how well you think you know her. Ha! Nothing to say now, is there?”

She laughed, thoroughly pleased with herself for cornering the madman.

“Let me answer your second question first.” He only smiled. “You’re right—she is strong-willed. But she has one fatal weakness. One that makes it easy for me to win her over.”

“What weakness?”

“Guess. It’s a good one.”

“Please. A woman that perfect doesn’t have weaknesses.”

“Now, your first question.” He went on. “You’re right about that too—once the heist happened, there’s no way she’d have had time for me. And even if she had, she wouldn’t have been in the mood for anything.”

“So that settles it, doesn’t it? Nothing left to say.” She raised an eyebrow, savoring the win.

“Except.” He leaned forward, forearms braced on the table, voice dropping with a smile. “What if I stopped the heist before it happened?”

Mu Qianqian froze.

“Today loops for me. I’ve lived through it more than three hundred thousand times. I’ve known this robbery was coming for a thousand years. Plenty of time to look into it, over and over. Do you really think stopping it would be hard?” He kept smiling.

She had nothing to say to that.

“My logic checks out, doesn’t it?” He lifted his glass, took a small sip.

“Fine! Even if your logic’s airtight, I’ve got one more question!” She wasn’t ready to concede. This was her last card.

“Ask away.”

“Have you slept with me? You said you’ve known me for a long time—so have you?” She asked it straight, even brushing a hand through her hair, fully committed now.

“No,” he said, shaking his head.

“Ha! Too scared to admit it, huh? Worried I’d ask you to name some feature of mine and you’d have nothing?” She laughed.

“Not at all. You don’t clear an eight. I’m not interested.”

Her smile froze solid.

Bang!

She slammed the table and shot to her feet, teeth clenched. “Are you calling me ugly?”

“No, no, not ugly. Just—too much makeup. Always caked in that smoky look, like some rebellious teenager. I can’t even tell what you actually look like under it. Decent bones, though, from what I can see. I’ll give you a seven.”

“You—” She looked ready to combust.

Just then—

Ring, ring, ring…

Her phone rang. She glanced at the screen—her friend. She snatched it up.

“Qianqian, so sorry! Awei just showed up out of nowhere and surprised me, I can’t make it to the bar. I’ll treat you to dinner tomorrow, promise! Hehe, gotta go—” click.