Reborn as a Dog: Liu Ruyan, It's Time to Pay Your Debts

Lin Bufan spent thirty-four years living a life more miserable than a dog’s.

For ten years as the live-in son-in-law of the Liu family, he endured the scorn of his father-in-law, Liu Zhenshan, and the meddling of relatives. He poured his heart into three failed business ventures, all to give his wife, Liu Ruyan, a decent home, only to crash and burn every time. He thought that giving everything he had would eventually warm someone’s heart, until he walked in on the sordid scene in their bedroom: the woman he treasured was nestled in Niu Touren’s arms, laughing at him as a “useless good-for-nothing.”

Fury drove him to attack, but Niu Touren smashed a desk lamp over his head. In his final moments, he saw only panic in Liu Ruyan’s eyes and heard Niu Touren say casually, “He’s just a live-in son-in-law. Get rid of the body.” Even more ironically, the Niu family had power enough to make one sentence in court, “self-defense,” send the killer walking free. He floated in midair, watching his parents grieve until their hearts broke and his enemies leave arm in arm. Only then did he understand that justice had never been meant for ordinary people.

When he opened his eyes again, he was the Samoyed “Da Bai” in Liu Ruyan’s arms, the pet he had once brought home himself to keep her company.

Now he had furry paws and a tail that wouldn’t stop wagging, but no right to speak. He could see his enemies carrying on behind closed doors and hear them plotting over his assets. He found evidence on a computer that he had supposedly “killed himself,” but he had no hands with which to hand it over. His teeth couldn’t bite through his enemies’ bones, so all he could do was chew bitter dog food.

Lin Bufan hadn’t forgotten: he had returned as a vengeful spirit, full of hatred. Even in a dog’s skin, he would dig up the pit where his body was buried, bark to wake the numb and indifferent, and make everyone who owed him his life or his love taste what it was like to fall from the clouds into the mud, even if he had to spend his whole life as a “revenge hound.”