Chapter 1

“Director Liu, you’ve also come to attend Xiao Zhao’s wedding? Come, let us have a drink!”

Seeing the busy scene in front, I became a bit absentminded. I stiffly raised my wine glass and downed everything. I was no longer sure of how many glasses I’ve drank. I was even unsure if what I just drank was beer, wine or even just water, I couldn’t tell from its taste, not to mention who had urged me to drink.

I glanced around as I sat down, reminiscence about every little moment I spent with Zhao Yanyan, she was once my goddess. Now I could only silently watch as she became another’s bride.

Zhao Yanyan and I were classmates from high school, and also sat next to each other. Zhao Yanyan was already the focus of the school, not only her grades were excellent, she was also very talented, and most importantly she was beautiful, and was crowned a school beauty by the students in private.

Although I sat next to her, but we didn’t talk much in reality, only a few words here and there, and they were all pointless chatter. I was rather introverted in high school. Of course, since my grades were bad, I wasn’t the kind of student that was adored by the teachers, I didn’t have much attention on myself and could be counted as someone whose existence didn’t matter.

I don’t know when it began, I fell deeply in love with Zhao Yanyan, perhaps it was just a crush. I enjoyed watching her silently, every movement, every expression. However, I never told her, because she had plenty of pursuers by her side, and all of them seemed to outclass me by far.

We went our separate ways in the second year of high school when the class split. She chose to study liberal arts, while I continued on with the sciences, sciences weren’t my specialty at the team, but I always feared a new environment, thus I stayed in the original class to muddle through.

After separating with Zhao Yanyan, I thought I could forget about this woman that appeared in my mind day and night, but I was wrong. My thoughts about Zhao Yanyan didn’t decrease, but increased by day, she completely became the target of my life.

I knew that Zhao Yanyan will get into the top universities in the country with her grades, if I wanted to continue seeing her, then I had to work harder. Under this empty drive, I spent my heart and soul on the textbooks in my final year, and grasped all of the knowledge I had left in the first and second year.

Finally, my results showed in the National College Entrance Examination, and I managed to enter the Huaxia University that was well known through the entire country. Under the joyous atmosphere of my parents at home, I knew, this was all thanks to Zhao Yanyan. If it wasn’t for my yearning of her, and finding out she would apply for Huaxia University, I wouldn’t have worked so hard.

When the students reported in, I was actually surprised to see that familiar figure. I haven’t seen her for a year, and Zhao Yanyan became even more beautiful. Although I didn’t look down on myself as much as before, but compared to Zhao Yanyan, I knew that I was not worthy of her. Which student at Huaxia University wasn’t an outstanding person during high school? Comparing myself to them, I had nothing to be proud of.

What surprised me was that Zhao Yanyan, who was a school beauty of Huaxia University, had never once had a boyfriend during the four years, there wasn’t a single rumour.

It was evident during high school that Zhao Yanyan must have come from an excellent family. She had a personal driver to take her to and away from school. This was completely different from me whose parents were just workers.

During the four years of university, I kept trying to close the distance between her and I, I studied economics; studied politics; studied a lot of foreign languages; entered all sorts of clubs to improve myself, I became the ace of the basketball, football, swimming, Sanda, shooting teams, and represented Huaxia University to enter the national student competitions. It could be said that I was a completely different person during university compared to the cowardly Liu Lei in middle school, and had already become a bright star at Huaxia University. There were also a lot of girls who pursued me, but I couldn’t forget about Zhao Yanyan.

Perhaps it was due to my personality, I still didn’t confess to Zhao Yanyan, I was scared of failure, scared of being rejected, scared of losing this feeling that I had for all these years. From my perspective, although I didn’t confess to Zhao Yanyan, but it meant that I still had a chance. I didn’t want to easily waste this chance, so I still continued to improve myself, surpass myself.

After graduation, I was fortunate to get into the same company as Zhao Yanyan. Furthermore, I was still single, and so was Zhao Yanyan.

At the end of the year that I turned thirty-one, I finally climbed to the peak of my career, I became the CEO of the Huaxia region of the company. I knew that my long awaited chance had come, I was prepared to confess to Zhao Yanyan on Christmas, and tell her all of my feelings.

The proverb says that eight or nine out of ten situations don’t go your way in a lifetime.

On the day of Christmas, I ordered a bouquet of flowers at the florist early in the morning, and had also booked a room at Maxim’s Western Restaurant. I prepared to take Zhao Yanyan out for dinner, then find a suitable time to confess.

I walked into the office excitedly when the secretary Xiao Zhang handed me a pile of greeting cards. I smiled, it was great being CEO, even if you don’t send any greeting cards, other people will send them to you.

At the top of all of the greeting cards was an invitation, this was something that could be seen everyday. As the company’s CEO of the Huaxia region, I had to socialize every single day. I lazily picked it up and opened it, right after that, I felt the world spin around all of a sudden, as if I fell into a freezer. At that moment, my head was completely blank, this invitation was like a bolt of lightning on a sunny day that directly struck my chest.

Zhao Yanyan was getting married?! I suddenly felt like crying, but was unable to. What made me even unsure to laugh or cry was that the name of the groom was my assistant Xu Qingwei. He was getting married to Zhao Yanyan? Why didn’t I hear anything about it prior to this, I shook my head with a wry smile. Within this year, I had focused on my career, and rarely asked about other things. What was even more hilarious was that this Xu Qingwei was someone I had promoted from a manager of Public Relations when I became CEO, and the original assistant manager of Public Relations Zhao Yanyan was now the Public Relations Manager.

After a while, I finally calmed myself down. Since it never begun, then let it end.

I raised my wine glass, and wobbled in front of Zhao Yanyan and Xu Qingwei, then mumbled, “Xiao Xu, Xiao Zhao. I —— I wish you a harmonious unison for a hundred years, and have a child quickly!”

Xu Qingwei and Zhao Yanyan also raised their wine glasses, Zhao Yanyan smiled beautifully, then said, “Thank you Director Liu!”

I drank all of the wine in the glass and was about to return to the table, when I felt a sudden pain in the chest, and fell onto the floor.

Seeing me fall down, Xu Qingwei immediately shouted, “Call an ambulance quickly, Director Liu fainted, and his head is bleeding after hitting the corner of the table!”

Zhao Yanyan also quickly squatted and pinched my philtrum.

The ambulance quickly took me to the hospital, and very soon I was pushed onto the surgery table. I didn’t know why my mind was so clear at that point, but my body couldn’t move a single bit.

A doctor wearing a white coat looked at the machine beside the surgery table, and quickly told another person, “This is an alcoholic overdose causing the heart failure, use the defibrillator!”

Another person like a nurse immediately pressed the defibrillator against my chest.

“Raise the voltage!” the doctor in the white coat shouted.

The nurse pressed the defibrillator against my body once more.

The doctor in the white coat shook his head, and told the doctor, “It’s futile, give him a cardiac stimulant and ask him if he has any last words.”

Outside the surgery room, all of the employees of the company were waiting anxiously, the nurse ran out and asked them, “Which one of you is called Zhao Yanyan?”

Zhao Yanyan, who in a wedding dress, blanked out for a moment, then immediately ran over.

The nurse said to her, “The patient is not going to make it, he wants to say something to you.”

I opened my eyes with a lot of difficulty, Zhao Yanyan was already waiting beside me.

“Zhao Yanyan, I——I a single sentence, I always—— always wanted to say to you, Yanyan, I——I love—— you!” saying that last word, I left this world without any regret.

All of a sudden, Zhao Yanyan’s face filled up with tears, she lightly caressed the face of the person on the surgery table, no, it should be the face of the corpse, and murmured, “Liu Lei, if you told me these words slightly earlier, I would have married you at all cost——“

...*****...

Chapter 2

It was impossible for me to have heard Zhao Yanyan’s words, because I was already dead, in other words Ge pi le.

When I awoke again, I found myself inside a large palace. It looked like those royal palaces that you could often see in TV shows based on the Qing dynasty, but it also had a pretty eerie atmosphere.

Right in front of me, was a humorous looking old person that said there thinking that he was very dignified, beside them were two unique looking people that seemed to be some sort of judge. Above the three of them was a large plaque, on it was three large characters —— Yama Palace.

Ugh, you can’t be serious. My first reaction was that if this was a TV show shooting? Seeing the scene, it should be a horror one, but based on what those three people were wearing it seemed like a comedy. I couldn’t help but sigh, there are too many third rated directors now!

As my thoughts wandered, the funny old man in the middle slapped the table in anger and stared, “Who is the one down there, why are you not kneeling in front of Yama?”

I momentarily blanked, they probably treated me as a part-time actor. I shouted, “Hey, old man, you found the wrong people right? I don’t want to act!”

Hearing me say these words, those three also momentarily blanked, Judge A on the side muttered to himself, “His grandmother, this person can’t also have mental issues right?”

Judge B took out the Life and Death Note, but couldn’t find anything all of a sudden, so he said in surprise, “Something’s wrong, there shouldn’t be anyone dying right now, who is the person down there?”

The funny old man slapped the table again and said, “The person down there, you’re already dead! Give me your name quickly, so I – Yama – can organize your reincarnation!”

I died?? How did I die? I suddenly remembered, that’s right, I’m dead. After I overdosed in alcohol on Zhao Yanyan’s wedding, then died after the rescue failed I found myself here.

It seems like I am actually dead. F*ck, I’ve been an utter failure this life, in the first half of my life I was just struggling, then I died without tasting love. This made me remember a classic quote from a very old movie: There was once sincere feelings in front of me, I didn’t treasure it, and only couldn’t regret after losing it, that is the most painful thing in a human’s life. If god would give me another chance, then I would tell the girl three words “I love you”, if I had to add a limit to this love, I hope it is: ten thousand years.

That old bro Yama said that I could reincarnate? That means I still have a chance to taste love, in my next life I will not let any of the women I love go! I thought so angrily.

That’s why I said to Yama, “Old bro Yama, I’m called Liu Lei, help me organize my reincarnation quickly!”

Yama angrily replied, “Screw off! Who in your grandmother’s name is your old bro, I am even older than your ancestors!”

After many years of experience in the business industry I understood how to flatter people, I knew that if I wanted Yama to organize my reincarnation in a good family, then I have to kiss this old man’s as*. I laughed, “I just meant that old bro looks so young, so energetic looking, if you didn’t tell me, I definitely couldn’t tell how old you are! Look, when I walked in, I thought it was a TV show shooting, that’s why I begun to think, where did the director find an actor as handsome as you, you’re so much more handsome compared to Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau!” Saying this, I thought, Yama probably haven’t seen Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau, so I immediately added, “So much more handsome than that brat Pan An!”

Hearing my words, Yama’s expression filled with delight, and turned his face filled with creases towards Judge A and asked, “Do I really look so young?”

That Judge A was probably used to flattering him, and replied without much thought, “Congratulations Yama, congratulations Yama, you are top tier among ghosts, more handsome than anyone!”

Yama laughed happily after hearing so, and said kindly to me, “What’s your name again? Oh right, it’s Liu Lei, You are like my best friend! This king will accept you as my little brother! Don’t worry little bro, I’ll definitely organize a good family for you!”

I quickly thanked him, my heart was filled with joy, my ploy worked!

Yama said to Judge B, “Find out life and death times of my little bro!”

After searching for a while, Judge B’s face was filled with incredible emotions, he said surprisingly, “Yama, look, your stepbrother has a life of hundred and eighty years, he couldn’t have died now!”

Hearing that, Yama took over the Life and Death Note seriously, after a long time, he slapped the table while clenching his teeth and yelled to outside the palace, “Shit, which blind xiaogui brought my little bro here?”

After a while, a xiaogui walked over in fear and immediately fell onto the floor after seeing Yama, “Please don’t be angry, Yama, this lowly one, this lowly one had coincidentally passed by the hospital, and seeing this brat, no your little brother was about to die, so I conveniently took him here!”

Ah? Hearing that I was mistakenly brought here, I was completely speechless. I’m way too unlucky, I though this kind of mistaken arrest only happened in the world of the living, I didn’t think the world of the dead was this dark as well.

Yama shouted angrily, “F*ck this, are your eyes growing from your as*? You caused an incident when there isn’t any! This Life and Death Note clearly says, my little bro would have an incident, but it didn’t say he’ll die! Someone come and boil him into the oil wok, and never allow him to reincarnate!”

Several odd looking people… Actually, ghosts instantly arrived, and took the xiaogui away.

I was uninterested about what would happen to that xiaogui, I just wanted to reincarnate quickly, I said to Yama, “Old bro, can’t you organize little bro to reincarnate first?”

Yama replied with a sour look, “Little bro, it’s not that old bro not organizing it for you. Rather, it’s because you were brought here by that blind idiot before your life was used up, so —— ai, there’s nothing I can do!”

My heart was instantly frozen, but I still asked persistently, “I can’t be the only on who died because of an accident right? What about them?”

Yama replied, “Those people? They are just random ghosts that spend the days wandering around in the underworld, waiting for their lives to be used up so they can reincarnate.”

I was unwilling to give up, “Since I was mistakenly captured, is there a method to return my soul to my body?”

Yama looked at me in pity, “Little bro, old bro ask you, did you sign up to be an organ donor when you were alive?”

I nodded and asked confusedly, “Why did you bring it up?”

Yama shook his head in pity, “I do want to return you, but now your organs have already been put onto someone else, your body is probably already dissected by med school students…”

It looks like I wasn’t just a little unlucky! Could I be fated to spend a hundred odd years in the underworld?

At this moment Judge B seemed to remember something, and whispered a long while beside Yama’s year. Hearing that, Yama slapped his thigh and shouted, “ That’s right! My grandma, how did I forgot about this? Little bro, do you want to be reborn?”

“Rebirth?” I muttered, this wasn’t a foreign term to me, it was something often seen in web novels.

Yama though I didn’t understand, and begun to explain, “By rebirth, it means to return your soul to your body in the past——“

I waved my hand, “I understand what rebirth means, does that mean that anyone who died before their time can choose to be reborn?”

Yama shook his head, “That’s not true, we have a limited number of spots for rebirth in the underworld, it also have to accepted in heaven. I intended to sell this spot for a high price, but since you are my little bro, I’ll give you this chance! Especially since I don’t lack money.”

It seems like this spot was extremely valuable! I was right to admit Yama as my old bro! I heard that people that were reborn would often have some special powers, would I have some too? So I asked shamelessly, “Old bro, would I have any special powers after getting reborn?”

“About this,” Yama thought about it, “I don’t have any power to decide, if you really want some special powers, I can help you apply for it, but it might take quite long.”

Hearing such a chance, I immediately asked, “How long?”

Yama thought about it and said, “There’s no way to tell, maybe a day, maybe a year, the application for special powers of the previous set of people that were reborn were just returned yesterday, so this time will be quicker, probably just a few hundred years!”

Seriously, several hundred years? I quickly asked, “Did that person receive any special powers afterwards?”

Yama replied, “Receive my as*, that person’s great grandson already died, and died unhappily. His even shouted out his last words ‘When will my great grandfather have special powers’!”

Hearing that, I nearly fainted, I guess I’ll pass on it. So I waved my head, “Old bro, never mind that, if I can get special powers then so be it, if I can’t then whatever!”

Yama faintly smiled, “But old bro can give you a phone, if you have any requests for old bro, call me anytime!”

Phone? I asked, “I can still call you after returning to the world of the living?”

Yama nodded confidently, “Of course, it was just created by Edison and Bell. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Edison is the chief scientist of our Yama Technology limited.”

Judge B handed an exquisite jade pendant to me, so I asked curiously, “You can call with this?”

Yama replied with pride, “Of course, it’s a telepathic link, you can communicate with me, a god, when you miss me. The one I gave you is the newest model, it is efficient night powered, the same as solar power in your world of the living. It will charge automatically in the dark.

I’ll just believe this phone that old bro Yama is bragging to me about, and carefully hung it around my neck.

“Okay, it’s almost time, Judge A, send my little bro back,” said Yama.

I rolled my eyes, this guy is actually called Judge A.

...*****...

Chapter 3

“Leilei, get up quickly! Don’t be late on the first day of high school!” a female voice I am very familiar with sounded out beside me.

“Mom, my whole body is breaking apart, just let me sleep a while longer!” I pulled the blanket over my head and replied habitually.

That’s not right! I quickly got up from the bed, did I buy an apartment for myself in Yanjing City, where the company is? Why is my mom here?

I opened my eyes, and surveyed my surroundings. The broken single bed, the ancient red desk, the messy shelf, all of it was so familiar yet foreign.

My mom, who was in front of me, was so young. This all shows, my old bro Yama didn’t lie to me, I was reborn.

Of course, there was another possibility, and that I had a dream, a very long dream. In the dream I managed to reach thirty, and became the director of Company M in the Huaxia region. I attended my dream girl’s wedding, then died in her wedding, after that I met old bro Yama.

Thinking to this point, I subconsciously touched what was in front of my chest. The “cell phone” that old bro Yama gave me was still there, it seems like I had really been reborn.

I happy leaped up from the bed, and hugged my dear mom.

Mom patted my head and smiled, “You are a high school student from today, that means you’re an old child now. You’re still acting spoiled in front of mom?”

I shook my head, the mother that I would hug whenever I see her even after becoming thirty in my past life, she also said: In mom’s eyes, you are always a child.

I got dressed quickly, and said to my mom, who was helping me organize my school bag, “Ma, is today my first day attending high school?”

“Of course!” My mom looked at me in confusion.

“Ah!” Unable to hold back the excitement in my heart, I couldn’t help but scream. I have really been reborn, I actually returned back to 1994, the me that was about to enter high school.

The reason I was so happy was because I knew that I will never miss Zhao Yanyan in this lifetime. I opened the window, and took a deep breath of fresh air, then shouted out the window, “Beauties, I’m coming!”

I turned around, and noticed that my mom was still standing in the room, and was staring at me with her mouth wide open.

“Hehe!” I laughed, I was able to understand my mom’s expression. If you saw your child scream out for beauties after just entering high school, you probably will feel the same.

My mom touched my forehead, “Leilei, you don’t have a fever right?”

I shook my head with a smile as I walked out of my room and into the bathroom, and saw myself with a full head of messy hair in the mirror. Was I really so dull at this time in my past life? F*ck, what is this image, no wonder no girls liked me, this was worlds apart from the handsome me during university. I decided, the first thing I’ll do after rebirth would be to improve my own image.

After a simple washing up, I went to the kitchen, mom was making breakfast, dad was reading the newspaper at the dinner table. There were no wrinkles on father’s face right now, his hair was also completely black, he was thirty something, the prime age for his career.

In my memory, the nationalized factory where father worked at didn’t close, father’s future was bright as the youngest engineer at the factory. However, things wouldn’t go as expected, without any experience in my previous life, nobody would expect the kind directory at father’s factory will take out all of the funds of the factory and the salary of the workers and run away. He was captured later on, but the funds had already been transferred to another country, so all that was left was a factory shell that was in debt for over a hundred million, it was forcefully expropriated by the bank within a month.

After father was laid off, he constantly sighed, and his hair also became a lot whiter, he barely managed to support our family through driving a tricycle. This situation continued until I graduated from university and begun to work at Microsoft, the financial problems a home were finally dealt with then.

But my father’s body already wore down, and passed away within a few years.

Since I have been reborn, I naturally have to prevent this from happening, at least with my current ability, I had no problems with supporting my family.

“Dad, I missed you!” after getting reborn, I saw my father who I thought I would never see again in my past life, I couldn’t suppress my own emotions and dived into his arms.

Father put down the newspaper in his hands, and caressed my back in wonder, “What is it with this child today?”

I didn’t want them to become suspicious, so I explained, “Dad, I had a bad dream last night. In my dream, Director Zhang of your factory scammed all of the factory’s money.” Regardless of anything, I still warned him ahead of time.

“Don’t bullshit, Old Zhang is not that kind of person!” Father angrily put me down.

I knew that this dream I made up would not have any warning effect, it looks like I had to take it as it goes. I might even have my own career when that happens.

After breakfast, my parents went with me with report in. I had wanted to go by myself, but my parents refused. That was understandable, since I’ve never been to anywhere further than one kilometer away from home by myself. My primary school was on the street right behind my home, less than five hundred meters away. Middle school was also near my primary school. On the other hand, the Fourth High I was going to report to was more than ten stations away from my home, because this was the first day reporting in, no parents would be at ease, furthermore even parents of children going to university were like that as well.

The entrance of Fourth High was very busy, filled with parents and students like us that had come to report to school. Fourth High was one of the key high schools in Songjiang City, father also paid quite a lot of money for me to attend to this school. I was a typical bad student in middle school, and the middle school I was in was also notoriously bad, if it wasn’t because I was introverted and cowardly, I probably would have been depraved. Only students that have attended there would understand how terrible that school was; robbers, murderers, rapists, gamblers, a lot of the juvenile offenders in Songjiang City came from there. It would be unbelievable for that school managed to train out a talented person, I had naturally gotten a bad result in the citywide Senior Entrance Exam, and had to pay a very high price to study at Fourth High.

I couldn’t help but gasp as I say the row of good cars by the road, there were so many rich people in this era! Using my experience of my past life, I knew that there were too few cars that cost more than a million here. My sight stopped on an Audi 100, what attracted my attention wasn’t the model, but the car license plate. At this moment in my previous life, I didn’t know the meaning behind this car license number.

With Song 0 (松0) at the start were all cars belonging to governmental organizations, the number of this car license was also very small, so it clearly meant that it was the car of an important leader. It looks like our school was full of hidden talents.

Everything was all the same as my experience in my previous life. I was placed into First Year Class B. This was a key class, the result of my father’s gifts.

I quickly found the teacher responsible for receiving me, a cute girl that just graduated from a normal university, she’s also Ye Xiaoxiao, my class tutor from now on. Of course, this was from the perspective of myself as a thirty year old in my previous life. In my past life, my parents were all very confused, the class tutor of an important class that they spent a lot of money for me to get into was actually a girl that just graduated.

I only found out afterwards that our Ye laoshi has a very important background. It is rumored that her father is a very important person in the Department of Education, aside from her who teaches us English; all of the teachers of the other classes were all exceptional teachers. The reason for this arrangement was to turn Ye Xiaoxiao into a famous teacher after the College Entrance Exam three years later. In reality, Ye Xiaoxiao did become a famous teacher after we graduated, our class totaled at ninety-two pupils, aside form a few transient student, all of us got into university.

In my previous life, I didn’t have a great impression of our beauty of a class tutor. I believe this was the same from her end, is was my fault that I dragged the class behind in the first two years.

“What’s your name?” Ye Xiaoxiao asked me.

“Ye laoshi, I’m Liu Lei,” I answered sensibly, without any sense of nervousness that other students showed when they meet their teacher.

Ye Xiaoxiao looked up at me in shock, “How did you know my surname is Ye?”

I didn’t reply, only pointed at the nametag on Ye Xiaoxiao’s br*ast with a smile. I didn’t realize in my previous life, but the br*ast of our class tutor isn’t just a little big.

Ye Xiaoxiao also noticed the way I stared at her chest, but she didn’t mind. She just thought I was looking at her nametag, nobody would believe that a kid just entering high school would stare intently at his teacher’s br*ast.

Ye Xiaoxiao took out a form for me to complete, I took a lot, it is just a simple information form with our height, ethnic group, and which primary and middle school we graduated from. Ye Xiaoxiao looked at me in shock as I rapidly filled out the form. You have to know, other students were all afraid of writing the wrong stuff, so they all asked a many questions as they filled out the form.

Ye Xiaoxiao received my completed information sheet, she couldn’t help but twitch her eyebrows when her sight stopped at my results in primary and middle school. This was also within my expectations, the middle school I attended was publically admitted as a trash school, and my results on the Senior Entrance Exam had two failed subjects. The tiny bit of good impression that this beautiful teacher was probably going to disappear.

But that’s good; I didn’t want to be chosen as for any class leadership positions. With my experience in my previous life, class leaderships roles were thankless roles.

...*****...