Chapter 2

### Chapter 2: Reborn

"Old Wen, get up quickly, it's time for school, or you'll be late."

"Old Wen, did you wet the bed again? Why does it smell like urine?"

Two little girls' voices reached Chen Kangjie's ears. He found it very strange. He did have a nickname, "Old Wen," but only his family and childhood friends called him that. Since he started working, no one had called him that anymore. Why was it so strange?

Chen Kangjie slowly opened his eyes and saw a short-haired girl in a floral shirt standing by his bed. He was startled, "Who are you? Why are you here?" Chen Kangjie exclaimed in surprise.

"Old Wen, what's wrong with you? Don't you recognize me? Are you sick?" the girl asked.

Chen Kangjie looked closely and found the girl strangely familiar. Upon a second glance, he was terrified and muttered to himself, "Isn't this Juyan?" This girl was Chen Kangjie's sixth sister, Chen Jing (nicknamed Juyan).

The little girl saw Chen Kangjie's dazed expression, glanced at his big eyes, and ran off, shouting, "Mom, mom, Old Wen is crazy!"

Less than a minute later, hurried footsteps were heard, and a middle-aged woman and two girls entered the room. Before they even sat down, the woman reached out and touched Chen Kangjie's forehead, then lifted his head to check his face. She muttered to herself, "No fever. His face looks a bit pale, but he doesn't seem sick."

"Old Wen, what's wrong? Juyan said you're crazy?"

Chen Kangjie finally saw the middle-aged woman. She had slightly wrinkled brows, short black curly hair, and kind eyes. She was wearing a gray cotton jacket from the 1980s.

"Mom," Chen Kangjie called out, feeling even more confused. Wasn't he on the bus? Why was he seeing his childhood sisters and young mother? Was he dead? This woman was indeed his mother, Ma Fangqin, who was only forty at the time.

The girl behind Ma Fangqin came up and held Chen Kangjie's hand, whispering, "Old Wen, what's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"

Only then did Chen Kangjie notice the two girls behind him. The older one, who looked about thirteen or fourteen, had a clear-cut face and a yellow headband, exuding a gentle and elegant aura. She was his fourth sister, Chen Mei (nicknamed Juxiang). The younger one, about eleven or twelve, had a round and solid face and was his fifth sister, Chen Mei (nicknamed Juhua). She was smiling and said, "Old Wen, did you wet the bed because you were afraid of being scolded, so you pretended to be crazy?"

Chen Kangjie then really smelled the familiar urine odor. He pulled back the blanket and looked down. Oh no, his pants were wet; he had really wet the bed. He was so embarrassed. Upon further inspection, Chen Kangjie was stunned again. What was going on? Why were his pants so small? He almost cried when he saw his tiny penis. What the hell was happening? Everything was so strange. He looked at his mother and sisters, then scanned the room.

Isn't this my childhood home? Chen Kangjie's mind was filled with endless confusion. Why was he in his childhood room? What the hell was going on?

Ma Fangqin noticed Chen Kangjie had wet the bed and was about to scold him, but seeing his dazed and abnormal expression, she held back her words.

Chen Kangjie was the youngest in the family. Usually, Ma Fangqin wouldn't scold him. The whole family doted on him, and he had never been hit by his parents. In contrast, his third brother, Chen Yuchang, was often beaten by their father. Chen Yuchang had even been beaten twice for hitting his sister-in-law after getting married.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

Ma Fangqin lovingly stroked Chen Kangjie's head and asked.

Without thinking, Chen Kangjie nodded reflexively. He didn't know how to answer his mother's question, as he still hadn't figured out what was happening.

Ma Fangqin turned to Chen Kangjie's three sisters and said, "Go to school quickly, don't be late. Juhua, when you go to class, go to the office and ask Teacher Chen, Old Wen's homeroom teacher, for a leave of absence. Tell her Old Wen is sick, and your father will write a note for her this afternoon."

The two sisters nodded and left.

Ma Fangqin lifted the blanket, picked up Chen Kangjie, and took off his pants. She then carried him to his fourth sister's bed. Seeing Chen Kangjie's blushing face, she smiled and left. Chen Kangjie heard her tidying up the bed, probably washing the soiled sheets and hanging them out to dry.

Chen Kangjie lay on his fourth sister's bed, his mind filled with confusion. He clearly remembered being hit by a large truck on the bus from Deying City to Pengcheng. How did he end up in his childhood home? If he wasn't dead, he should be in the hospital. He lifted the blanket and looked at his small arms and legs, and his tiny penis, which looked like he was only five or six years old. A thought flashed through his mind: Could he have been reborn? He looked at the calendar on the wall and saw 1986. My God, he had really been reborn, back to 1986!

Chen Kangjie crawled back to bed and hid under the blanket, his heart filled with shock and excitement. In his previous life, he had nothing and lived a miserable life. His girlfriend had left him in a mess. Since heaven had given him a second chance, he had to seize it and not repeat his past mistakes.

In his previous life, the family had a decent life, but it wasn't particularly comfortable. His mother had worked hard for decades, only relaxing after most of her children were married. His father had only reached the position of a section chief, and his meager salary had to support a family of seven or eight, which was quite tight. To ease the burden, his mother and several sisters had lived in the countryside and worked on the farm before 1985 to supplement the family income.

In this life, with such a rare opportunity, Chen Kangjie vowed to bring a beautiful turning point to his warm and harmonious family.

After a moment of thought, he thought of Li Tingyan. "She must know I'm dead. Will she cry?" he wondered.

After a while, he found himself chuckling. Why think so much? She was just a two-year-old toddler. Besides, his disappearance might be a good thing for her, as she could live freely without his constant complaints. He needed to take care of himself first.

After some random thoughts, his mind gradually cleared. Since he was here, he had to make the best of it.

Chen Kangjie got up and went to his small room, putting on a blue short pair of pants (compared to the pants he wore in his previous life, which were 1.76 meters long, these were just small shorts). He then returned to his fourth sister's room, wondering what to do. His father, Chen Qigang, had gone to work, and his fourth, fifth, and sixth sisters had gone to school. His third brother, Chen Yuchang, was either sleeping or playing outside. His eldest sister, Chen Yujun, had married Xu Guohua, who lived near the Si Jiao Tian mine. Chen Qigang had arranged for Xu Guohua to work at the mine, and they lived in a dormitory near the mine. His second sister, Chen Yufen, should be at home. She had always been good to him, so he decided to go talk to her.

Chen Kangjie left his fourth sister's room and went to the neighboring house to find his second sister, Chen Yufen.

He called it the neighboring house because the unit had only allocated a three-bedroom, one-living room, one-kitchen house to the Chen family on the first floor. Since the family was large, and they were on the first floor, Chen Qigang had built two additional rooms next to the outer wall using bricks. Chen Kangjie lived in the inner room, while his fourth sister, Juxiang, and sixth sister lived in the outer room.

The neighboring three-bedroom house was used by Chen Qigang and Ma Fangqin, with one room for Chen Yuchang (who previously shared a room with Chen Kangjie but had his own room after graduating from junior high school). The remaining room was shared by Chen Yufen and Chen Mei.

After entering the house, Chen Kangjie didn't see his second sister. Only his mother was busy in the kitchen. He ran to the kitchen and pulled on Ma Fangqin's clothes, asking, "Mom, where's Second Sister?"

"Your second sister is boarding at the farm middle school. She won't be home now," Ma Fangqin replied without turning around, continuing her household chores.

Chen Kangjie remembered that his second sister was repeating her senior year at the farm middle school in the countryside and only came home during holidays.

Chen Kangjie walked back to his fourth sister's room and casually flipped through her books, picking up her seventh-grade English textbook and reading it page by page. The more he read, the more puzzled he became.

Why? Because Chen Kangjie found that after reading the first page, he already knew the content of the second page, word for word. Although the junior high school English textbook was the same as the one he had studied in his previous life, it was surprising that he could remember the exact content so clearly after so many years.

Chen Kangjie put down the English textbook and tried to recall some high school texts, focusing on Jia Yi's "On the Fall of the Qin Dynasty."

"Qin Xiaogong, relying on the solid defenses of the Hangu Pass and the fertile land of Yongzhou, and with his ministers firmly guarding, had the ambition to conquer the world, to unify the four seas, and to dominate the eight directions..." He could recite the entire text word for word. Although he had studied and memorized it in his previous life, it had been over ten years, and he shouldn't have been able to remember it so clearly.

Chen Kangjie couldn't explain this strange phenomenon. It seemed that during his rebirth, something had enhanced his memory, allowing him to remember everything he read with precision.

Chen Kangjie secretly rejoiced. With such a powerful "cheat," what couldn't he achieve? In his previous life, he had enjoyed reading books and newspapers, except for gossip and romance. He had often read the "Half-Monthly Talk" and "Party Building" that his father brought home from the office since elementary school. After junior high school, he had read almost every issue of "Readers," "Reference News," "Global Times," and "World Pictorial" from the school library. Although he liked reading, his academic performance had never been good, and he had never won any awards. He had been a poor student in elementary school and only improved in junior high school, eventually getting into a third-rate university, Guizhou Finance and Economics College. This time, he was determined to turn things around.

The more he thought, the more excited he became, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

At that moment, Ma Fangqin, hearing Chen Kangjie's laughter, came in and saw him dancing around.

"Old Wen, what are you doing?" she asked, puzzled.

Chen Kangjie blushed and laughed, "Nothing, nothing. I just read a funny joke in Second Sister's book, hehe."

Ma Fangqin was taken aback, then walked out, wondering, "When did Old Wen start liking books? He usually sleeps in and doesn't like reading. Why is he not sleeping in and reading Juxiang's books today?" She shook her head and continued her chores.

At noon, the radio broadcast started.

Chen Kangjie's home was in the Dizhong Mine, which was part of the Liuzhi Mining Bureau in western Guizhou Province. Geographically, it belonged to the Liuzhi Special Zone of Liushui Pan City. On November 29, 1965, during the Third Front Construction period, Guizhou Province decided to establish the Liuzhi, Panjiang, and Shuishan People's Committees, which were under the dual leadership of the Ministry of Coal and the Guizhou Provincial People's Committee. On December 2, 1970, the State Council approved the establishment of the Liushui Pan Regional Revolutionary Committee, a regional-level government, and the Southwest Coal Construction Command was abolished. The original Liuzhi, Panjiang, and Shuishan mining areas were merged with Langdai (Liuzhi), Panjiang, and Shuishan counties to form the Liuzhi Special Zone, Panjiang Special Zone, and Shuishan Special Zone, exercising county-level powers and being under the leadership of the Liushui Pan Regional Revolutionary Committee. On December 18, 1978, the State Council approved the transformation of the Liushui Pan Region into the Liushui Pan City (a provincial-level city), which included the Liuzhi, Panjiang, and Shuishan Special Zones.

The Liuzhi Mining Bureau was a provincial-level first-class enterprise, and the Dizhong Mine was one of its eight mining areas, a division-level unit. It was only two kilometers from the administrative center of the Liuzhi Special Zone, making it the closest of the eight mining areas. The Liuzhi Mining Bureau was also the largest pillar of the Liuzhi Special Zone, with tens of thousands of formal and temporary employees and over 100,000 family members. The prosperity of the "small county" of the Liuzhi Special Zone was largely due to the Liuzhi Mining Bureau, which influenced production, life, economic consumption, and cultural entertainment.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the entire mining area was enveloped in radio broadcasts at 6:30 AM, 12:00 PM, and 5:30 PM, lasting for half an hour each time. The broadcasts mainly featured the Central People's Broadcasting Station. At that time, information channels were not smooth, and not many families had televisions (and those that did couldn't receive many channels), so the radio became the primary way for the general public to receive information. For those without watches, it also served as a fixed clock, similar to the ancient practice of striking the hour, except the mining area's radio only "struck the hour" three times a day.

Outside the window, the sounds of many children chattering and playing could be heard. Chen Kangjie knew his sisters had come home from school, and his father should be back from work soon.

Soon, Juyan came to call Chen Kangjie for dinner.

Entering the living room, he saw a middle-aged man already sitting on the sofa, neatly dressed and with a dignified appearance. This was Chen Kangjie's father, Chen Qigang, a college graduate from the 1970s who worked in the labor and personnel department of the Dizhong Mine.

Chen Qigang saw his son come in and lovingly waved him over.

"Why didn't you go to school today? Are you not feeling well?"

Chen Kangjie nodded, not knowing how to respond.

At that moment, his fifth sister, Juhua, laughed and teased, "Dad, you don't know, Old Wen wet the bed today and was afraid of being scolded, so he pretended to be sick, hehe."

Chen Qigang smiled lightly, "Old Wen, you're so big, how can you still wet the bed?"

Chen Kangjie wished he could dig a hole and hide. After all, he had a six-year-old body and a thirty-year-old mind.

Ma Fangqin, Juxiang, and Juyan saw Chen Kangjie's embarrassed expression and laughed.

Ma Fangqin came to his rescue.

"Let's not talk about this. Hurry up and eat. You'll write a note for him and have him take it to the teacher this afternoon."

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