“Gu Mengyao! I’m asking you one more time! Where did all the money go?!”
“I… I spent it, so what?!”
“Every time I got paid from a project, I transferred it to you right away. We barely spend anything at home besides groceries, and my mom handles all the gift-giving for family occasions — you never had to worry about any of that. So where did all that money go?”
“I… I… bought a few handbags and some makeup and stuff.”
“Give me your phone.”
“What for?”
“I want to see the transaction history. I want to know exactly where the money went.”
“I already told you I spent it — what more do you want? It’s not my fault you can only bring home that much in a month. My best friend’s husband gives her fifty or sixty grand every month…”
“Shut up! I’m telling you right now — I’ve got a dozen people at the company waiting on their paychecks. If I can’t pay them, I’ll have no choice but to sell the house we bought last year!”
“No! Absolutely not!”
“I’m not asking for your opinion. I’ve been the only one bringing in money this whole time. That house has nothing to do with you.”
“But my name is on it too.”
“Hand over the property deed.”
“No.”
“Give it to me!”
“No!”
……
“Where’s the deed?”
“I…”
“Answer me!”
“The… the house. I already gave it to my little brother. He’s getting married soon, so I gave it to him as a wedding gift.”
“Gu Mengyao! That deadbeat brother of yours has been freeloading off your parents ever since he graduated. I set him up with job after job, and every single time he’d quit after a few days. I’ve done more than enough for him. Now go get that deed back. Right now.”
“I already transferred it to him. His name is on it now.”
“You—!”
……
“Xu Ye, did you just say — you’re going to sell the house we’re living in?! Where am I supposed to go?!”
“These past years you’ve been funneling my money to your parents and that deadbeat brother of yours. Go live with them.”
“Xu Ye, I swear to God, if you sell this house, I want a divorce.”
“Fine.”
“…What did you just say? You want a divorce?!”
“That’s right. I’m done. Think about how I’ve treated you all these years, then think about how you’ve treated me. I should’ve walked away a long time ago.”
“You were the one who chased after me, remember.”
“Worst mistake of my life. You happy now?!”
……
“Xu Ye, you’re really going through with the divorce?”
“Yeah.”
“But…”
“No buts. She’s ruined my life.”
“I didn’t think she’d turn out like this either. You’ve been married this long and she’s still throwing everything at that useless brother of hers. Women like that are terrifying.”
“I don’t even know what I saw in her back then. If only I could get a do-over.”
“It’s getting late. I’m heading home — I don’t want my daughter waking up in the middle of the night with no one there. You want me to call you a car?”
“Nah, I want to walk.”
“Alright.”
……
“Ahhh!”
“Someone got hit! A car just hit someone!”
“Call 911!” [TL: The original says 120, which is China’s emergency medical number, equivalent to 911.]
“What was he even doing in the middle of the road?”
“Looks like he’d been drinking.”
“There’s so much blood… you don’t think he’s dead, do you?”
“That car was going fast. There’s no way he made it. Don’t go over there — just wait for the ambulance.”
……
Am I… dead?
In a daze, Xu Ye slowly opened his eyes. A sharp burst of sunlight hit him head-on, and he snapped them shut again immediately. His head felt like it had been packed with lead — heavy, throbbing, and dull all at once.
Somewhere nearby, he could faintly hear the soft scratching of pencils on paper.
Xu Ye raised his head and looked around.
“An… exam room?”
The classroom was scattered with twenty or thirty students, every one of them with their eyes glued to the test paper in front of them. Up at the front, two middle-aged teachers sat at the podium, scanning the room.
What’s going on?
Why am I here?
Xu Ye steadied himself and looked down at the paper on his desk.
“2014 National College Entrance Examination — English.”
“I’m… in the middle of the college entrance exam!” [TL: Known in China as the gaokao, a high-stakes national exam that largely determines college placement.]
“I came back — to my gaokao exam room in 2014?!”
Xu Ye’s eyes went wide. He pinched his thigh hard, and the moment the pain shot up to his brain, a wave of emotion hit him like a flood.
It’s real.
This isn’t a dream.
Outside the window, the sky was a brilliant blue, with lazy white clouds drifting across it. The June weather was mild and pleasant, and every few minutes a gentle breeze drifted in through the window, cool against his skin.
Xu Ye let out a quiet laugh at the absurdity of it all, then glanced up at the clock on the wall.
4:15 PM.
Forty-five minutes until they had to hand in their papers.
English was the last subject on the gaokao. The irony was that Xu Ye had always been lopsided as a student — his Chinese, math, and science scores were all solid, but English was a different story. Passing was a luxury he rarely got to enjoy.
He remembered it clearly. His total gaokao score had been 485 points. The cutoff for a standard four-year university that year was 471, and he’d scraped into a private one.
His English score? 52 points.
The cutoff for a top-tier university that year was 526. If he hadn’t bombed English, he might have actually had a shot at one.
Of course, that was the version of him from back then.
It’s worth noting that most people hit their mental peak during their senior year of high school. If you handed present-day Xu Ye a gaokao math paper right now, getting 50 points on it would be nothing short of a miracle.
The answer sheet on his desk was already filled in — though mostly with random guesses. That had always been his test strategy.
If you don’t know any of it, fill in the whole sheet first, then go back through from the top. If you spot something you actually know, change the answer. If not, leave it.
Not that it was completely random, of course.
Xu Ye had strictly followed the golden rule: “Three long, one short — pick the shortest. Three short, one long — pick the longest. Two short, two long — go with B. All over the place — go with C.”
Results-wise, his luck had not been kind to him.
After the gaokao, answer keys were usually released within a week. Since he was confident about everything else, Xu Ye had gone through the English answer key the moment it came out and estimated his score on the spot.
“Wait — what is this?”
Xu Ye stared down at the English paper, brow furrowing tight.
Something’s off.
Something’s very off.
How, after all these years… do I still remember the answers?
“Yeah — yeah, that one’s A, that one’s B, that one’s B too — holy crap. Is this like, some kind of perk that comes with being reborn?”
The moment he realized he still had the answers memorized, Xu Ye grabbed his eraser and started correcting his answer sheet.
Listening comprehension.
Multiple choice.
Reading comprehension.
Writing… writing he couldn’t fix. He hadn’t studied any model essays back then. That section would have to stay.
He finished his corrections with enough time left to go through everything once more.
When the minute hand hit twelve—
Ding ding ding~
The last exam of the gaokao was over.
Some students walked out of the exam room beaming. Others shuffled out looking heavy with worry. A few came out looking completely deflated.
For most people, the gaokao is the one chance in their lives to climb out of the circumstances they were born into.
Those who did well walked out happy. Those who didn’t walked out gutted.
Xu Ye stepped out of the classroom and looked around at the seventeen and eighteen-year-olds surrounding him. In that moment, a feeling he couldn’t quite put into words rose up from somewhere deep in his chest — a rush of excitement, of possibility, of something electric.
Me.
Xu Ye.
I’ve been reborn.
(End of Chapter)