Chen Yaoting agreed to meet him in the end.
It wasn't because he was curious.
At least, that's what he told himself at first.
What really made him nod was the NT$50 million.
NT$100 million was already outrageous enough. Now, just by moving the experience up a few days, the payment had jumped straight to NT$150 million.
What did NT$50 million even mean?
He used to make NT$50,000 a month. Even if he worked for more than eighty years without eating or drinking, he still couldn't save that much.
Now, all he had to do was say yes, and he'd get another NT$50 million.
So when the black Mercedes stopped in front of his building again at 8:10 p.m., he didn't hesitate for long.
The driver opened the door for him.
Ms. Shen was sitting in the back seat this time too.
She wore a black suit jacket, with a tablet resting on her lap.
The first thing Chen Yaoting asked after getting in was, "Where are we going, exactly?"
"Yangmingshan."
"The client lives there?"
"He's there tonight."
"His house?"
"One of his residences."
One of them.
Those three words alone left Chen Yaoting feeling a little annoyed.
The rich really did live in a world where even houses weren't counted as "one."
The car drove all the way toward Taipei.
Ms. Shen barely spoke.
Chen Yaoting, on the other hand, couldn't stop asking questions.
"Can I ask what he does later?"
"Yes."
"Can I ask why he chose me?"
"Yes."
"Will he answer?"
"That's another matter."
"Can I refuse the early start?"
"Yes."
"Even after meeting him?"
"Yes."
Chen Yaoting glanced at her.
"Your company keeps emphasizing that I can refuse. That actually makes me think something's suspicious."
Ms. Shen said calmly, "Because with truly expensive transactions, the most important thing isn't coercion."
"Then what is it?"
"Consent."
Chen Yaoting didn't ask anything else.
More than forty minutes later, the car left the main road and began climbing into the mountains.
The houses along the way grew fewer and farther between.
At last, they came to a black iron gate with no sign on it at all.
Only after the guard confirmed the license plate did the gate slowly open.
What lay inside wasn't an ordinary mansion.
It looked more like a small estate hidden in the mountains.
Neatly trimmed trees lined both sides of the driveway.
Farther in, a building composed of enormous floor-to-ceiling windows and dark gray stone emerged from the night.
There was no tacky gold décor.
No enormous fountain.
Instead, it was so quiet that the silence itself felt oppressive.
The car stopped.
Ms. Shen got out first.
"Please follow me."
Chen Yaoting walked through the front door.
The first thing he saw was a gigantic floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the mountains.
Taipei's nightscape stretched into the distance.
The interior lights were dim.
Several paintings he couldn't understand hung on the walls.
There was no television.
Not a single stray object.
He couldn't even see any servants.
After walking down a long hallway, they arrived at a spacious sitting room.
Someone was already inside.
An old man sat by the window.
Chen Yaoting recognized those hands at first sight.
Thin and gaunt.
Age spots covered the backs of them.
A silver-gray watch encircled the old man's left wrist.
It was exactly the same as the one he'd seen during the neural-sync test.
He stopped in the doorway.
The old man slowly turned around.
He was in his seventies.
His hair was almost completely white.
His cheeks were slightly sunken.
A pair of thin-rimmed glasses rested on his nose.
He wasn't wearing a suit, but a dark blue knitted cardigan.
He didn't look like the domineering billionaire Chen Yaoting had imagined.
He was quiet instead.
Even a little frail.
But two people stood beside him.
One looked like a private physician.
The other looked like an assistant.
That arrangement alone was enough to reveal his status.
The old man studied Chen Yaoting for several seconds.
He didn't speak right away.
Being looked over like that made Chen Yaoting deeply uncomfortable.
Finally, the old man spoke.
"Come a little closer."
It was the same voice from the test.
Low.
Hoarse.
Chen Yaoting stepped closer.
"You're the client?"
The corner of the old man's mouth twitched.
"You can call me Mr. Gu."
"Your full name?"
The assistant beside him seemed about to speak.
Mr. Gu raised a hand.
"Gu Chengyue."
Chen Yaoting froze for a moment.
The name was completely unfamiliar.
At least, he had no memory of it.
But when he pulled out his phone to search for it, Ms. Shen reached over and pressed down on his wrist.
"Now isn't a good time."
Gu Chengyue noticed.
Instead of being offended, he smiled.
"It's fine. He'll look me up later anyway."
"Am I famous?" Chen Yaoting asked.
"I used to be more famous."
"What did you do?"
"A lot of things."
Gu Chengyue looked up at him.
"Technology, logistics, medicine, real estate."
Chen Yaoting frowned.
"So you spent NT$680 million just to be me for seven days?"
"Yes."
"Why me?"
Gu Chengyue didn't answer right away.
He looked first at Chen Yaoting's shoulders.
Then at his hands.
Finally, his gaze stopped on his face.
"Stand up straight."
"Huh?"
"I want to take a look."
Chen Yaoting immediately felt a spark of anger.
"I came here to negotiate, not to let you inspect me like merchandise."
The sitting room fell silent.
The assistant's expression shifted.
Ms. Shen said nothing.
Gu Chengyue didn't get angry.
He only smiled, very slowly.
"Good."
"What's good?"
"Your temper's still intact."
The more Chen Yaoting listened, the more irritated he became.
"What exactly are you choosing?"
Gu Chengyue leaned back in his chair.
"A body that life hasn't worn down too much yet."
"You wouldn't spend NT$680 million just to walk and run, would you?"
The old man looked at him.
This time, he was silent for several seconds.
"Your heart rate recovered very quickly during the treadmill test this morning."
Chen Yaoting frowned.
"You could see that?"
"I bought the complete experience. Of course I can see the evaluation."
"You got all my information?"
"Whatever the contract permits."
"You even know about my girlfriend?"
"I know that there's someone."
"Her name?"
Gu Chengyue didn't answer.
That silence only made Chen Yaoting more certain.
He was beginning to feel that the NT$150 million wasn't free money after all.
Someone had already broken his life down into one data sheet after another.
Height.
Weight.
Friends.
Girlfriend.
Habits.
They probably even knew which way he turned in his sleep.
"What are you planning to do with my body?"
"Live for seven days."
"That's not an answer."
"To you, it isn't."
Gu Chengyue lowered his gaze to his own hands.
His fingers were thin.
His skin hung loose.
"I take twelve pills every day now."
"I have to stop and rest after walking two hundred meters."
"I can't drink."
"I can't eat anything too salty."
"I can't stay up late."
"Last month, I almost fell while showering by myself."
He looked back at Chen Yaoting.
"What do you think I want to do?"
Chen Yaoting couldn't think of anything to say.
"I want to eat a bowl of beef noodles without checking the sodium content."
"I want to drink two glasses of whiskey without needing a doctor sitting beside me."
"I want to walk all night without getting out of breath."
"I want to still be awake at two in the morning, not because I can't sleep, but because I don't want to yet."
The old man spoke without emotion.
He was almost unnervingly calm.
But the calmer he sounded, the stranger Chen Yaoting found it.
NT$680 million.
And all he was buying were things Chen Yaoting took for granted every day.
Gu Chengyue suddenly asked, "Have you ever thought that the things you have now that cost the least are actually the things I want most?"
Chen Yaoting didn't answer.
"Youth," Gu Chengyue said.
"You wake up with it every day."
"So you don't think it's worth anything."
"But I don't have it."
"If I want to buy it back, I have to pay NT$680 million."
The room went completely silent.
Chen Yaoting had still felt uncomfortable being treated like a product.
But for a moment, he actually understood the old man in front of him.
It wasn't sympathy.
Just understanding.
If a seventy-something-year-old really had NT$680 million to trade for seven days in a twenty-nine-year-old's body, would he do it?
Most people probably would.
"Then why move it up?" Chen Yaoting asked.
Gu Chengyue raised his eyes.
"Because my body may not make it to next week."
Chen Yaoting stared.
The private physician beside him glanced at the old man.
Gu Chengyue spoke as if he were discussing someone else's affairs.
"My test results got worse two days ago."
"The doctors want me hospitalized."
"I don't want to go."
"So you added NT$50 million and told me to come tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"You're afraid you won't make it in time?"
"Yes."
The answer was too direct.
Chen Yaoting didn't know how to respond.
Gu Chengyue held out his hand.
The assistant handed him a tablet.
He tapped it a few times, then pushed it toward Chen Yaoting.
A new addendum was displayed on the screen.
"Early Experience Compensation."
NT$50 million.
It was written clearly enough.
"Besides that, I'll give you another option."
"What is it?"
"If you're willing to rent yourself out for another fourteen days after the seven days end."
Chen Yaoting's expression changed.
"How much?"
"NT$300 million."
"My payment?"
"Yours."
Chen Yaoting's breath caught.
NT$150 million once.
NT$300 million next time.
NT$450 million in total.
He hadn't even started the first experience, and he was already staring at another astronomical figure.
Gu Chengyue looked as if he'd known Chen Yaoting would be tempted.
"You don't have to answer now."
"Why do you want fourteen days?"
"Because seven days is too short."
"You haven't even experienced it yet."
"I know."
The old man smiled faintly.
"When you reach my age, you understand exactly how short seven days is."
Chen Yaoting stared at the addendum.
For the first time, a dangerous thought surfaced in his mind.
If one time paid NT$150 million,
and the second paid NT$300 million,
what about the third?
A billion?
Two billion?
A few nights of sleep, and he could truly enter that world.
He wouldn't just buy one house.
He'd buy the whole building.
He wouldn't just buy one car.
He'd have ten parked in the garage.
He could make everyone who had looked down on him before unworthy even of sitting at the same table as him.
But the next second, another thought came to him.
"Are you going to touch my girlfriend?"
Gu Chengyue looked at him.
"If you don't authorize it, I won't."
"I'm saying it now. Don't."
"All right."
"You can use my phone, but don't send out my private photos."
"All right."
"Don't borrow money."
"All right."
"Don't break the law."
Gu Chengyue smiled faintly.
"That's already the rule."
Chen Yaoting spoke faster and faster.
As if drawing clear boundaries could turn the whole thing back into a simple transaction.
Gu Chengyue agreed to everything.
He didn't even haggle.
That actually helped Chen Yaoting relax.
"Then I'll do it tomorrow."
Ms. Shen finally spoke.
"Confirming that you accept the early experience?"
Chen Yaoting looked at Gu Chengyue.
The old man looked back at him.
The two of them seemed to stand at opposite ends of life.
One was twenty-nine and so poor he had nothing left but his body.
The other was seventy-three and so rich that all he lacked was a body.
"Yes," Chen Yaoting said.
"Tomorrow."
Just before he left, Gu Chengyue suddenly called out to him.
"Chen Yaoting."
He turned around.
"What?"
Gu Chengyue slowly rose from his chair.
The people beside him immediately moved to support him.
But he pushed their hands away.
He stood on his own.
Very slowly.
His legs even trembled a little.
Then he walked, one step at a time, toward Chen Yaoting.
The distance between them shrank to less than a meter.
The old man reached out.
He squeezed Chen Yaoting's arm.
Chen Yaoting immediately frowned.
"What are you doing?"
Gu Chengyue acted as if he hadn't heard.
His fingers lingered on Chen Yaoting's arm.
Feeling the muscle.
The body heat.
The skin.
A strange light suddenly appeared in those old eyes.
It wasn't lust.
It wasn't greed either.
It was more like a man on the verge of dying from thirst seeing water.
"So warm," he whispered.
Chen Yaoting instantly got goosebumps.
He pulled his arm away.
"Don't touch me like that."
Gu Chengyue didn't get angry.
He only looked at his own hand.
"After tomorrow," he said softly, "these hands will temporarily become yours."
On the way home, Chen Yaoting kept thinking about those words.
Not, "Your hands will become mine."
But, "These hands will become yours."
He didn't know why, but the phrasing made him deeply uncomfortable.
It was as if Gu Chengyue hadn't come to borrow his body at all.
It was more like he was getting familiar with something that was about to be delivered to him.
It was almost eleven by the time Chen Yaoting got home.
The first thing he did was search for Gu Chengyue.
The first result that appeared made him sit up straight.
"Founder of Chengyue Group."
Below it was a photograph from more than a decade ago.
Gu Chengyue wasn't nearly as old in the picture.
He stood onstage at a listing ceremony.
A whole row of political and business figures stood beside him.
Chen Yaoting kept scrolling.
Logistics companies.
Medical equipment.
Data centers.
Commercial real estate.
Overseas investments.
There were so many companies under the group that he couldn't possibly read through them all.
One financial magazine from ten years ago had even listed Gu Chengyue among Taiwan's top several dozen richest people.
His assets were estimated at tens of billions of New Taiwan dollars.
Chen Yaoting's mouth slowly fell open.
"Damn."
So NT$680 million might really not have been as outrageous to Gu Chengyue as he'd imagined.
He kept searching.
There was less news from the past few years.
His last public appearance had been two years ago.
Farther down was an old report.
The headline read:
"Gu Chengyue Announces Withdrawal from Group Operations Amid Reports of Failing Health."
He was about to open it when his phone suddenly displayed an alert from LEV.
"Experience countdown: 10 hours."
"Please complete the following before 7:00 tomorrow morning."
No food.
No alcohol.
Do not take any undeclared medication.
Avoid strenuous exercise.
Pickup at 7:30.
Procedure begins at 9:00.
Estimated time of restored consciousness:
Nine a.m., seven days from now.
Chen Yaoting stared at that line.
Suddenly, it all felt real.
Tomorrow at nine, he would fall asleep.
When he opened his eyes again, seven days would have passed.
During those seven days, the world would go on.
The sun would rise as usual.
His friends would keep sending messages.
His girlfriend would go on living her life.
Convenience stores would keep opening for business.
Only he would be absent.
His body would still be there.
But the person inside it wouldn't be him.
Chen Yaoting sat on the edge of the bed for a long time.
Finally, he opened LINE.
His girlfriend happened to send him a message:
"Are you free tomorrow?"
He stared at the words.
After thinking for a few seconds, he replied:
"The company scheduled out-of-town training for the next few days. I might not be able to see you."
She replied quickly.
"Where?"
He paused.
Then typed:
"Taichung."
He sent it.
A few seconds later:
"Okay. Tell me when you get back."
She even attached a heart sticker.
Chen Yaoting stared at the heart.
For the first time, he felt a trace of guilt.
He hadn't told anyone the truth.
How could he explain it?
I'm lending my body to a seventy-three-year-old billionaire for seven days.
If he said it out loud, people would only think he was crazy.
He set his phone aside.
Midnight.
Nine hours left.
Two in the morning.
Seven hours.
He still couldn't sleep.
A little after three, he simply got up and took a shower.
He stood in front of the mirror.
Looking at himself.
His hair.
His eyes.
His nose.
His shoulders.
His chest.
His arms.
He had never looked at his own body like this before.
Because starting tomorrow, these things would temporarily no longer belong to him.
He raised his right hand.
The person in the mirror raised his hand too.
Made a fist.
Relaxed it.
Made another fist.
Everything happened as naturally as it should.
But when he imagined Gu Chengyue using that hand tomorrow to pick things up, open doors, eat, and even touch his own face, he felt a strange discomfort he couldn't put into words.
At 7:28 a.m., the black Mercedes arrived right on time.
Ms. Shen didn't come this time.
The driver only said, "Good morning, Mr. Chen."
He got into the back seat.
The door closed.
His phone displayed one final notification.
"Experience countdown: 1 hour 27 minutes."
He didn't say a word the entire way.
At 8:40, they arrived at the LEV Medical Center.
He changed into an examination gown.
Signed the final confirmation.
The doctor checked his blood pressure again.
Drew blood.
Confirmed his identity.
Five minutes before nine, he lay down on the same bed as yesterday.
The equipment was connected one piece at a time.
Ms. Shen finally appeared.
She stood beside him.
"Five minutes left."
Chen Yaoting stared at the ceiling.
"I'll really have NT$150 million when I wake up?"
"Yes."
"A direct transfer?"
"Within twenty-four hours."
"Where is Gu Chengyue now?"
"Next door."
He turned his head sharply.
"Next door?"
"Synchronization requires both parties to undergo the procedure at the same time."
Just then, a faint mechanical hum came through the other side of the wall.
Gu Chengyue was right there.
Separated from him by only one wall.
Chen Yaoting suddenly began to feel nervous.
He wasn't having second thoughts.
It was the feeling that only appeared right before taking the leap.
"What if I say stop now?"
Ms. Shen looked at him.
"It will stop."
Chen Yaoting fell silent.
Three seconds.
Five seconds.
Finally, he smiled.
"It's NT$150 million."
Ms. Shen didn't smile.
"Yes."
"Let's start."
She nodded.
The technician pressed the control panel.
The silver device above his head slowly descended.
A low-frequency hum began to sound.
Chen Yaoting's vision gradually blurred.
His eyelids grew heavy.
The last thing he heard was Ms. Shen's voice.
"Mr. Chen."
"See you in seven days."
Darkness washed over him.
In the final second, just as his consciousness was about to disappear completely, he suddenly heard another voice.
Not Ms. Shen's.
Not the doctor's.
It was Gu Chengyue.
Clear as day, inside his mind:
"Finally."
The next second,
there was nothing.