Chapter 1 That Night

"Boy, this beating will teach you a lesson. If you dare to offend Ji Su again, I'll break your legs! Understand?"

Wen Liang felt a sharp pain on his face, and he opened his eyes groggily. What he saw was an extremely handsome face, with arched eyebrows, a high nose, and thin lips tightly pressed together. His black, bright eyes shone under the dim street lamp. The face seemed somewhat familiar, though his expression was trying to look mature, the soft facial features and the youthful voice clearly indicated that he was just a child.

Who is he?

Wen Liang moved slightly, and a sharp pain shot through his calves, lower abdomen, and chest, spreading up his spine like an electric shock, reaching the most sensitive part of his brain. Even though Wen Liang was in his late twenties and had been practicing Taekwondo since he was young, with a mind as strong as steel, he still let out a groan, feeling weak and powerless.

What happened?

Memories flashed through his mind like a movie: Tan Yu, the dojo, Xu Yao, the yellow skirt, the agile figure, the beauty and power of that spinning kick... Yes, after work, he and his buddy Tan Yu went to the nearby Taekwondo gym for their usual workout. Xu Yao, a beautiful high school classmate he hadn't seen for nearly ten years but had coincidentally met last year, came for her fourth challenge after three defeats. During the match, he slipped, and the last thing he remembered was Xu Yao's fierce and beautiful spinning kick...

Wen Liang smiled bitterly. This girl is too ruthless. They were just joking around, and she went all out in these matches. This time, he slipped and fell, and Tan Yu would surely laugh at him...

"Slap!"

A loud slap landed on his face, and a trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. The young voice said viciously, "Damn, still smiling? Do you think I'm joking?"

Wen Liang finally came to his senses. The person in front of him was not Tan Yu. He looked around and was stunned.

A narrow street alley appeared before him. Not far away were two piles of construction waste, and a foul smell occasionally wafted over with the breeze. The surroundings were quiet, with only a faded street lamp casting a faint glow. While Wen Liang was dazed, he was kicked in the stomach again. This time, the attacker was a tall, burly man standing next to the handsome boy, with messy hair and a thick beard, but a similarly youthful face.

"Gu Wen Yuan, why are you wasting so many words? If he doesn't agree, beat him until he does!"

Gu Wen Yuan?

Wen Liang hadn't heard this name in many years.

Over a decade ago, Wen Liang was far from the smooth-talking, resourceful person he is now. He was thin, weak, and somewhat insecure, with average grades, a plain appearance, no special talents, and no distinctive features. He was unremarkable and didn't cause any trouble. In simpler terms, he was a face in the crowd, and in deeper terms, he was someone who couldn't even pretend to be tough. He was part of the group of introverted men who smiled at everyone but felt like they were invisible.

Wen Liang looked up at the two men and then at himself, and his face finally changed.

His thin, weak body, his scrawny arms, a tacky plaid short-sleeved shirt, and a pair of cheap green shorts, with a pair of Double Star sports shoes on his feet. This... What exactly happened?

The tall man was about to strike again, but Gu Wen Yuan stopped him, saying softly, "That's enough. This boy hasn't made a sound. Don't beat him into a stupor. His father is a city official, after all. But look at his pitiful state. Ha, beating him would dirty our hands. Let's go!"

Gu Wen Yuan turned and left, and the tall man spat at the curled-up Wen Liang in disdain and followed.

Wen Liang didn't react to any of this. He just sat there, staring blankly at his surroundings, motionless.

After a long time.

Wen Liang, enduring the pain, struggled to stand up and leaned against the lamppost. After a while, he murmured, "So... I've come back to the past."

Over a decade ago, when Wen Liang graduated from junior high school and received his high school admission notice, he was so happy that he accidentally hit Ji Su with an ice cream stick at the classroom door. Unfortunately, the ice cream stick landed right on the chest of his beautiful classmate.

Summer clothes offered as little protection as a 21st-century woman's belt, and with the classmates' loud laughter, Ji Su was both embarrassed and angry. She slapped Wen Liang and ran away crying.

To his surprise, the humiliation didn't end there. That night, a classmate named Zhou Xiaochang, who he usually got along with, invited him out to play. However, he was tricked into this alley and beaten up by Gu Wen Yuan and Mu Shan Shan.

Mu Shan Shan, it was hard to imagine that such a rough and unkempt person had such a cute name.

The humiliation of that night deeply wounded the 16-year-old boy's fragile self-esteem. In the following three years of high school and four years of college, Wen Liang became even more timid and reclusive, with a strange and isolated personality. Apart from Tan Yu, he had almost no friends. If it weren't for meeting a kind girl named Liu Yan after he started working, Wen Liang's life would have been almost destroyed. Liu Yan spent three years completely transforming Wen Liang, to the point where his former classmate Xu Yao, a girl who was always looking down on others, inexplicably fell for him after they met again.

Wen Liang knew that when a beautiful girl picks a fight with you, it means she's interested. Otherwise, why would she have so much free time to fight? Of course, Wen Liang understood this, but he already had Liu Yan, so he had to politely reject Xu Yao. However, she took it as a personal affront and sought revenge, even going so far as to beat him up in a competition, a disaster he didn't deserve.

Thinking about these past events, Wen Liang finally calmed his heart and slowly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. In his previous life, Gu Wen Yuan was always ahead of him. He graduated from high school and was admitted to Tsinghua University, then returned to the provincial capital and joined the Development and Reform Commission, reaching the deputy director level before he was 30, becoming a standout among his peers, a goal that Wen Liang could only dream of.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't match Gu Wen Yuan's good background.

Gu Shi Tong from Qingzhou was the richest man in Jiangdong Province.

Wen Liang, leaning on the lamppost, slowly stood up. A meteor streaked across the sky, splitting the dark night into two, but it quickly merged again, just like this life, which was neither black nor white, but full of twists and turns.

Since heaven has given me a second chance, I will live this life without worrying about right or wrong, black or white, seeking only freedom and happiness, and living true to myself.

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