The Daily Life of a Lucky Star
Lin Chen rushed into the teaching building while nibbling the last bite of his meat bun, just as the final chime of the class bell faded away. Gasping for breath, he peeked through the back door and saw the advanced math teacher bending over to flip through lesson plans. Quickly, he hunched over and sneaked to the last empty seat in the back row. As soon as he sat down, the girl in front of him quietly passed back a scratch paper covered in formulas—it was exactly the answer to the homework problems he had forgotten to do the night before.
"Thanks, Su Xiao," Lin Chen whispered. Su Xiao turned her head and blinked: "Well, you did help me retrieve my notebook that almost fell into the lake last time. That notebook had all my notes for the whole semester!"
Lin Chen scratched his head. This was just one of the countless times he had encountered such "good luck." Ever since his parents died in an accident when he was in his third year of high school, this inexplicable good fortune had been following him. During the college entrance exam, every multiple-choice question he guessed turned out correct; the key university he would have missed by one point happened to lower its admission score that year. Even when walking on the street, he would find wallets stuffed with loose change, and he always managed to wait right there until the owner came looking for it.
With no classes in the afternoon, Lin Chen returned to his rented room outside the campus. It was a top-floor unit in an old apartment building, with an surprisingly low rent. The landlady had told him that previous tenants always claimed to hear strange noises at night, so no one dared to rent it. But in the six months Lin Chen had lived there, he had encountered nothing unusual except for occasional water pipe leaks. Instead, he had even found an iron box filled with coins in the corner of the balcony the previous month.
As soon as he opened the door, he spotted a strange delivery package lying at the entrance. There was no sender information, but the recipient's address included even the house number. Puzzled, Lin Chen tore it open. Inside was an old wooden box carved with intricate patterns, looking like it had been around for years. When he lifted the lid, he found a yellowed photo and a bronze key inside. The photo showed his parents when they were young, standing at the entrance of an unfamiliar mountain village. Behind them, a stone stele was engraved with three characters: "Suolong Village" (Lock-Dragon Village). Between his parents, they seemed to be holding something, but it was blurred beyond recognition.
Lin Chen's heart skipped a beat. His parents had never mentioned this place when they were alive. He picked up the bronze key; its handle was carved with a vivid dragon, cold to the touch, as if it had a life of its own. The moment his fingertip touched the key, a shrill cat's meow suddenly came from outside the window. Startled, he dropped the key onto the floor.
As he bent down to pick it up, a book suddenly fell from the bookshelf and landed right on the floor beside his hand. Lin Chen picked it up—it was a tattered diary, with his father's name written on the cover. He had never seen this diary before, and had no idea why it had suddenly appeared there.
Opening the diary, he found it recorded some of his father's experiences when he was young. Most of the earlier entries were about daily trivialities, but as he flipped to the last few pages, the handwriting became messy and hasty: "The secret of Suolong Village must not be revealed. Those things are waking up—we must guard the dragon bone…" "They're starting to notice. I can't drag my family into this…" The last page had only one line: "If Chenchen ever sees this, never go to Suolong Village. Remember—never get close."
Lin Chen stared at the diary, his heart pounding faster and faster. Suolong Village, the dragon bone, the waking things—these words swirled in his mind like puzzle pieces. Had his parents' accidental death really been just an accident? He picked up the photo and examined the stone stele behind his parents carefully. Suddenly, he noticed a tiny mark in the corner of the stele—exactly the same as the dragon pattern on the handle of the bronze key.
At that moment, his phone suddenly rang. It was an unknown number. After a moment's hesitation, Lin Chen answered it. A hoarse voice came from the other end: "You've received the wooden box, right? If you want to know the truth about your parents' death, come to Suolong Village. The address is on the back of the photo." Then the call hung up.
Lin Chen quickly flipped the photo over. On the back, a detailed address was written in pencil, located deep in the mountains of a neighboring province. He looked at the bronze key and the diary in his hands, then thought of his parents' smiles before their death. A sudden surge of courage welled up in him. Even though his father had warned him not to go, he had to find out the truth.
When packing his luggage, Lin Chen found his good luck acting up again. He had been worried about poor signal in the mountains, but as soon as he opened his shopping app, he saw a satellite phone on sale—and it would be delivered within two hours of placing the order. When preparing outdoor survival gear, the sleeping bag and moisture-proof mat that had been out of stock suddenly showed availability, and a multi-functional engineering shovel was even included as a gift.
The day before his departure, Lin Chen went to the bank to withdraw money. As soon as he walked up to the ATM, he saw the person in front of him leave without taking their bank card. He quickly called out to them, and the man gratefully gave him 200 yuan as a thank-you. He also told Lin Chen that he happened to be a long-distance bus driver and would be heading to the neighboring province the next day—he could give Lin Chen a ride to the town near Suolong Village.
"Is my luck really this absurd?" Lin Chen said to himself in the mirror. The young man in the mirror had clear features and gentle eyes, with a hint of confusion, but more determination. He didn't know what awaited him, but he knew he had to go on this adventure.