Double Life (Rebirth)

  "Daming, hurry up and get out of bed, it's 7 o'clock, go to school quickly!"

  A familiar voice echoed in my ears. It was the same voice that had haunted me, the one who had lain on top of me, pinning me down with his sturdy body, and had transformed a certain girl from a virgin to a woman in my nightmares.

  "Wait a minute, mom." I rolled over in bed and replied unconsciously before continuing to sleep. The warm and bright sunlight shone through the window. Countless birds on the big willow tree outside chirped ceaselessly.

  "No! Get up quickly, or you'll be late!" Her mother's voice came again.

  "What a nuisance." I muttered, getting up.

  My head is spinning like it's going to explode. I rubbed my eyes, where am I, what's going on?

  The door opened and my mother rushed in, her short hair reaching her ears, her thin face, one hand on her waist and the other pointing at me, shouting in a clear voice: "If you don't get up now, I'll really be angry, Daming."

  "Mom... you?" I looked at my mom in surprise.

  The face in front of me doesn't look as old as I remembered, and it's even a bit beautiful. This is exactly what my mother looked like over a decade ago. However, I still can't be certain.

  "You...haven't?" I excitedly looked at mom.

  "What's wrong, Daming? Mom isn't this okay......" My mom came over and touched my head, the expression on her face instantly thawed out, saying: "Had a nightmare, Daming?"

  "I really can't say what happened... I remember falling into the water, and then my wife Zhou Siying also fell in. After that, everything was a blur, and it felt warm all around me. Later, I heard my mother's voice calling me to get up. When I got up, all the strange and fantastical things were gone. Everything from just now to the past thirty years seemed like a dream."

  In my dream, I was admitted to a third-rate university, then graduated and later joined a company that didn't match my major by chance. Later on, I met the beautiful wife Zhou Siyuan, starting a life where I envied only the love of mandarin ducks, not immortals.

  When I was thirty years old, my parents left me after a lifetime of hard work. From then on, Siyue and I, who were also orphans, became the closest people to each other.

  Just fell into the water and was woken up.

  I'm a bit perplexed, where is the me in my dream? Or is the me in my dream just an appearance in Zhuangzi's dream of a butterfly; or am I now just a person with a melancholy mood in someone's past life's grand dream. Of course, there's also the possibility that I've been reborn, carrying thirty years of dull and unremarkable memories from my previous life!

  I suddenly had the urge to bite myself or pinch myself, I don't know since when self-harm became the first choice for people who are on a streak of bad luck to determine if they are dreaming.

  I've had terrible luck since I was young, never even winning a consolation prize, let alone something with an incredibly low probability like reincarnation.

  I laughed and withdrew my hand, got out of bed and asked mom: "By the way, mom, what's today's date?"

  "April 11th." Mom replied while folding my quilt.

  "That year......" I was wearing clothes, this is what I most wanted to ask.

  "I was confused, it's dawn." My mother looked at me and smiled: "In '94, that year, you were really a confused worm."

  "September 4th?" I exclaimed loudly.

  "Ah, what?" Mom folded the quilt and then went out after opening the door.

  I returned to 1994? What about the me from '94? Facing everything in front of me, I was stunned. I don't know if Siyue was reborn like me, or that woman who fell into the water.

  It would be great if it were so. Everyone who is reborn in this place will create a new achievement, and I can too.

  I looked around. A worn-out single bed, a desk with several high school textbooks on it, and a small electronic piano. Everything was so familiar yet so strange.

  I even remember that there was a fact that I secretly put under the textbook, which was actually a yellow book. That was my favorite during my student days.

  I hastily put on my clothes and rushed to the small living room, in front of the mirror, what appeared before my eyes was a childish face that had not yet faded, with hair like a chicken coop.

  The person in the mirror was a young man in his early twenties. At that time, I still had long hair and hadn't started to go gray yet.

  It seems I really have been reborn and returned to my high school days. The things I wrote about online really happened to me, but why did such a thing happen? I am at a loss for an explanation.

  Maybe God thought I was too mediocre, so he pitied me, a small figure from the grassroots class, this time. Of course, it's also possible that my countless curses to God really worked. In any case, the fact that such a thing happened is a great blessing.

  The top priority is to find my wife Zhou Siying, and if possible, I also want to find Qi Xuefei and at least ask her why she wanted to commit suicide.

  I struck a victorious pose in front of the mirror. I looked up at the quartz clock on the mirror, and its hands indicated that it was now 6:10. During my high school days, my mother always used this method to wake me up from bed.

  Mom won again. Every time I found out that I was fooled by mom's little trick in high school, I would complain and ask why she wouldn't let me sleep a bit longer. But what I really thought to myself was, why did she always come to wake me up right when I had just pulled down some girl's underwear?

  But now, I'm surprisingly in a good mood.

  I smiled and walked quietly into the kitchen. My mom was preparing breakfast for me. Seeing me come in, she smiled and said, "Wash your face first, then eat."

  "Wait a minute, mom."

  "What's wrong." Mom stared at me in shock.

  "I love you and Dad too..." I hugged her tightly, saying the words that I had not been able to say in my past life, even after living with them for thirty years.

  I'm back, with over 13 years of experience in this era, I won't let you down again, I will definitely make you happy!

  "This child..." Mom gently pushed me away, her eyes a little moist.

  ☆☆☆

  At 7 o'clock in the morning, I was the only one left at home. The sunlight, like a mischievous child, scattered the swaying shadows of the willow leaves on my book, and the curtains fluttered, just like my thoughts.

  Sitting at the desk in a daze, fiddling with things in front of me.

  An old black backpack, dog-eared textbooks, Huang Yi's "Interstellar Rogue", a hardcover diary. Wait, it seems I've forgotten something, opening the drawer, a pack of cigarettes that cost one yuan per box catches my eye.

  It was it. I picked it up and put it in the pocket of my pants. At the same time, it seemed to have also picked up memories from my student days.

  In 1994 I was eighteen years old, in the second year of high school, an age when a timid and cowardly little boy wanted to degenerate but did not dare to degenerate.

  That was an age often bullied by others and yet dared not to speak out, and it was also an age when one locked oneself in the room and silently wept over a lost love.

  But everything is different now, isn't it? I slung my backpack over my shoulder and asked myself confidently.

  At 7:10, a clear shout came from outside the window: "Liu Ming! Liu Ming!"

  "Here!" I replied in a crisp tone. Then walked to the window and lifted the curtains. Under the sunlight, a boy wearing glasses was standing right in the middle of the ground. He was short and wore a black and white checked jacket. The person in front of me was actually my high school best friend Zhang Rui.

  "What's up Zhang Rui..." I almost blurted out, when did I think I had forgotten this friend from my high school days, yet calling out his name now was so familiar.

  "Hey!" Zhang Rui picked up a stone and threw it at the windowsill of my second-floor home, shouting: "You forgot, we agreed yesterday..."

  "Right away..." I put down the curtains, slung my backpack over my shoulder and rushed downstairs.

  I've reached the entrance of the unit and I just thought of it, now I'm no longer the same me as before, should I still be like before?

  "Billiards or video games?" Zhang Rui asked as he pushed his cart and walked alongside me.

  "Aren't you going to school?" I asked hesitantly.

  "Alright!" Zhang Rui said: "Boss, as we agreed yesterday."

  "Alright......" Although I've already forgotten what he and I said yesterday, this really is the high school me.