After half a glass of wine, the conversation finally turned serious.
Sophia set down her fork, eyes bright with a mix of hope and pleading. "Alex, the real reason I asked you out tonight is… there's something important I need your help with."
"Tell me. If I can help, I will." Alex put his cutlery aside and gave her his full attention.
Sophia explained the problem at her family hospital. "Right now we're in a bind. The unit replacement will cost about 120 million. If we take that money out, the hospital's daily operation will suffer. We want to buy the equipment on credit and promise to repay within six months. We'll even pay interest at the prevailing bank rate. Please — can you use your connections?"
Alex nodded. "Fine. I'll put a word in."
He pulled out his phone, tapped a quick message, then set it down. "I contacted the head of our marketing department. No problem. Come by my company tomorrow with your ID and we'll file the paperwork."
"That's it?" Sophia stared in disbelief.
"Of course," Alex said, amused. "Business is business. You help me, I help you. Under your management, Song Hospital will get through this. When you do, be kind to our family business."
"Absolutely!" Sophia beamed and raised her glass. "To Mr. Lin!"Alex clinked his glass. "Cheers."
With the matter settled, Sophia relaxed. She swirled the wine slowly and smiled at him.
"You're nothing like the rumors say," she admitted.
"What rumors?" Alex asked.
"You're supposed to be a useless rich kid who parties all day and lives off his parents. But you seem… different — refined, knowledgeable, someone who's seen life. Which one is real?"
Alex chuckled. "All of them."
"All of them?" Sophia repeated, surprised.
"All of them," he confirmed. "The spoiled heir, the gentleman, the scholar, the old soul — I can be whatever fits the moment. I don't live for other people's opinions."
Something fluttered in Sophia's chest. He was a man who lived by his own rules — and it made her look at him differently.
"Please — don't call me 'Miss Song.' Call me Sophia. Or Sister Song — I'm older than you, you know!" she teased.
"Then don't call me Mr. Lin. Call me Alex. Or Xiaofan, if you want," he replied with a grin.
They swapped WeChat contacts and the distance between them shrank from strangers to friends. Laughter and easy conversation filled the table.
Yet Alex kept glancing toward the restaurant entrance.
Where was the male lead — Ethan Chen? Why hadn't he shown up?
Outside, a man in sunglasses and a hat watched from the shadows, eyes burning with jealousy.
"You two, flirting again? Sophia, you shameless woman — you're my fiancée! How dare you act like this! I'll make you pay," he snarled.
This man was none other than the male lead, Ethan Chen — heir of the Ghost Valley medical line, betrothed to Sophia by her family's arrangement.
He had been reborn too.
In the original tale, after achieving the pinnacle of medical skill, Ethan returned to claim his betrothed. The moment he first saw Sophia, he decided she was his. He followed her every move, and when he saw her chatting with another man, jealousy consumed him.
He expected that his skills and status would easily put the intruder in his place. Instead, he was repeatedly humiliated and bested by the other man. Time and again he lost — and Sophia drifted farther from him toward Alex.
Unable to accept it, Ethan begged fate for another chance and was granted rebirth.
"Reborn heroes get a second shot," he thought fiercely. "This time I'll crush Alex Lin. I'll make him lose everything — beg on the streets. Everything he swallowed, he'll cough back tenfold. And Sophia will be mine."
He vowed it internally and stared coldly at the pair across the room. This dinner mattered — it seeded their partnership and quickly deepened their relationship. If he could break that connection now, he could derail everything.
His plan: make Alex sick. Even better — make the illness permanent, so blame would fall on Sophia. The hospital partnership would collapse, the Song family would be in crisis, and Ethan could step in as their savior, healing Sophia and winning the family's favor.
Perfect.
He slipped a small syringe into his sleeve. Doctors can save lives — and doctors can also take them. All he had to do was prick the right person at the right time.
Time is short. Ethan staggered in, pretending to be an intoxicated customer and edged toward Alex's table.
The commotion drew Alex's attention. "So the protagonist has arrived," he thought. The newcomer looked exactly as stories had hinted — but why the act?
No matter. If he was here, Alex decided, it was a perfect chance to test something.
He felt a rush of anticipation. "This could be interesting."
He shifted in his seat, fingers already twitching. "System, I make a wish…"
— and left his sentence hanging as the world held its breath.