Chapter 2

"Howard, Indian temples are cultural heritage sites. How could they be as chaotic as you're saying?"

When I was reborn, all my colleagues had already changed clothes and were ready to go out, but I blocked them at the door.

Barbara felt I was making her lose face. She pointed at my nose and cursed, "I think you're just jealous of Sean and me, so you're trying to scare everyone with stories about rapists!"

The other colleagues chimed in.

"Yeah, all the Indians we've met have been pretty friendly. It's not like what he's saying—that they're all desperate and sex-crazed."

"I think he's just jealous. He's afraid Barbara will go to the temple with Sean and they'll get together, and then she won't want him anymore."

"Honestly, Howard, have you been to those kinds of places yourself? Is that why you're describing it so vividly?"

Hearing these words, my heart turned completely cold.

Here, there was a sexual violence crime every three minutes, a woman was raped every twenty-two minutes, and a girl had an abortion every hour.

But they didn't take it seriously at all, and they thought it was just media exaggeration.

The company had spent big money on a professional tour group for this team-building trip.

We stayed in luxury hotels, our tour guide was a highly educated graduate, and the places we visited were all legitimate establishments.

So along the way, everyone felt that India wasn't as chaotic as the internet made it out to be.

Barbara's assistant Sean had seen online that the temple here was very effective for finding true love, so late at night he insisted on going to see it.

Before coming here, I had already found out that the so-called temple was actually a sex temple, surrounded entirely by brothels.

Not only would it be dangerous for women to go there at night, even men could easily run into trouble.

In my previous life, I had desperately tried to stop this from happening. When they wouldn't listen to my warnings, I went to the company's senior leadership.

But my good intentions resulted in my family being destroyed.

"Everyone, please stop talking about Howard like that." At this moment, Sean stepped forward and spoke up for me. "Howard, I know you're concerned about everyone's safety. But don't worry—my dad knew I was coming to India, so he specially arranged professional bodyguards for me. Nothing will happen."

"If you're really worried about Barbara, then let her stay here with you."

Sean was nominally Barbara's intern, but on his first day at the company, people started spreading rumors that he was the company chairman's son.

When Barbara heard that Sean wasn't planning to let her go, she immediately panicked and slapped me across the face. "If you don't want to broaden your horizons, don't drag me down with you."

Then she turned around and fawned over Sean, "Sean, I have to go with you. It's so late—I'm worried."

Everyone immediately started making jokes.

"Is Barbara really worried about safety, or is she afraid Sean will find his true love at the temple?"

"With so many of us here, why is Barbara only worried about Sean?"

The people present completely ignored the fact that I was Barbara's boyfriend and kept teasing the two of them.

Sean laughed. "Everyone, stop teasing Barbara and me. If Howard gets upset, he'll probably go complain to Miss Kane again."

At these words, everyone fell silent.

Barbara's look toward me also became disgusted. "Howard, are you some kind of elementary school student? Do you have to go running to leadership about everything? We're all adults here. If something happens, we can take responsibility for ourselves."

The way she looked at me reminded me of the scene from my previous life when she pushed me onto the black bus.