Chapter 1

"Sorry, Lu Ming, I don't want it to be like this either, but if we continue, my father..."

The long-haired girl released the hand she had held for ten years and walked away without looking back, eventually disappearing from sight.

"An Xin~"

The young man named Lu Ming murmured to himself, then opened another can of beer. It had been several months since the breakup, and every time he thought about that scene, the pain still pierced his heart. After all, it was a ten-year relationship!

In fact, he knew this moment would come sooner or later, but he always held onto a fantasy. Reality, however, burst the bubble of his illusions.

He was an orphan who grew up on the streets and in an orphanage. After graduating from junior high school, he became a film projectionist through self-study. She, after ten years of hard work, became a well-known music producer. The gap between them grew wider and wider. One was lost in a world of movies, while the other was famous and wealthy. A breakup was inevitable, wasn't it?

Growing up in a cold and lonely environment, losing the only ray of light, he could only numb his nerves with alcohol.

Another can of beer down, Lu Ming suddenly felt short of breath and weak all over. He couldn't help but remember his long-dormant alcohol allergy, which had almost killed him the last time it flared up!

Was it going to end here? His eyelids could no longer lift, but his heart was filled with regret. "I'm also on the fringes of the entertainment industry, why didn't I know to work hard? If I could become a dazzling superstar, would this have happened?"

...

"Ah~"

The clear cry of a baby woke Lu Ming. He opened his eyes and discovered a devastating fact: he had become a baby, a lonely infant abandoned at the orphanage door!

Could it be... Could it be that he had been reborn, back to the time when he was abandoned? If so, couldn't he start over and make a big change?

As soon as this thought crossed his mind, he felt dizzy and immediately realized something was wrong. A baby's brain couldn't handle too much thinking, and he was now oxygen-deprived.

Damn! Was he going to die right after being reborn? Before he lost consciousness, he saw an old white lady pick him up.

A powerful being in the heavens played a not-so-big joke, making him a second-time abandoned child born in 1980, but this time in the North Hollywood Norton Children's Home in Los Angeles, instead of an ancient Eastern country.

According to the cursive English carved on the necklace around his neck, he had a new name—Ryan Jenkins!

I've become a little foreigner? This was the reality that Lu Ming, or Ryan, had to accept.

Life in the orphanage was cold and boring. Ryan always felt a drive to learn everything he could. Thanks to his extraordinary language talent in this life and the careful guidance of the old director, he could already speak, read, and write English fluently by the age of four.

Staying in the orphanage was not a long-term solution, but he didn't know what to do. He immersed himself in learning and reading, and before he knew it, he had read through the books in the library several times.

That year, to get more funding, the orphanage organized children over four years old to participate in Hollywood's Halloween parade. It was then that Ryan realized the famous Hollywood was just south of the orphanage.

The moment he stepped onto the Walk of Fame, the classic movies and English songs he had seen and heard in his previous life immediately flashed through his mind, as clear as if they were etched in his memory.

The parade made him incredibly clear-headed. As time passed, Ryan discovered that his body was much stronger than that of his peers, his thinking was exceptionally clear, and he was particularly sensitive to music and rhythm. He also had an extraordinary ability to construct images and words.

Although he didn't know if he had any acting talent, from the moment he opened his eyes, he was performing—first as a baby, then as a child, and in the future, as a teenager and young adult. Even if some people found him a bit strange, no one ever suspected anything. Acting had become his instinct.

Could it be that heaven heard his dying wish in his previous life and wanted him to roll in Hollywood? Ryan understood what his drive was—to become a dazzling superstar!

This was good, maybe he could even see his favorite stars from his previous life and become friends with them?

Although Ryan knew Hollywood was a real arena of fame and fortune, not a dream theater, he still set himself an unreachable goal. Since he had a second chance at life, he had to realize some of his previous life's fantasies, right?

With a goal, Ryan studied even more diligently. He learned painting and music from art college students who did volunteer work, and Chinese and Cantonese from Chinese staff—just to have an excuse for knowing Chinese.

In short, he studied everything related to art and tried to describe the images in his mind with words, practicing for two years until he gradually developed his own style and characteristics.

Director Katie had long noticed Ryan and always thought he was the smartest child in the orphanage. However, it was strange that no one wanted to adopt him, finding his personality too introverted and odd.

Ryan also felt a bit melancholic. Among the people who adopted orphans, there were millionaires and even billionaires. He had fantasized about becoming part of the "daddy's boy" clan, but some things seemed to have been decided at the moment of his rebirth. Even at six, he was still living there.

Director Katie was Ryan's only reader. Perhaps because she was Jewish and Ryan had some Jewish features, she was initially surprised but gradually got used to having a genius child around.

She collected all of Ryan's practice works and selected the best science fiction stories, mailing them to an old friend at a magazine. Unexpectedly, these stories were published.

When Ryan saw the magazine the old director handed him, he knew his years of hard work had not been in vain. To prepare for the future, it was time to start!

Apart from his routine physical exercise and study time, Ryan devoted himself to writing, or rather, plagiarism. He began adapting famous children's movies into novellas or short stories.

Novels and movies are different media. Adapting movies into creative, non-detrimental texts required effort, but it didn't trouble him much. With the help of Director Katie, including adaptations of "Home Alone" and "Toy Story," his stories were smoothly published, and he received a writing fee. The old director even set up a bank account for him.

These achievements didn't satisfy Ryan. He needed a heavyweight stepping stone to open the doors of Hollywood in case of future setbacks. He set his sights on a hugely influential work— "Jurassic Park"!

He had never read the original novel of "Jurassic Park" and could only adapt it based on the movie. To fit his six-year-old age and identity, he made the main character a young boy instead of Dr. Grant.

Although he had the movie as a reference, to avoid suspicion, Ryan asked Director Katie to help him gather information on dinosaurs and cloning. It took nearly four months to complete the 250,000-word novel after multiple revisions.

From the start of writing to the final publication, the old director provided a lot of help. This Jewish woman had surprising social connections.

By early winter 1986, after a few months of lukewarm reception, the novel entered the top ten of the national bestseller list, bringing Ryan a substantial royalty.

At the same time, Director Katie retired due to health reasons, and the new director, a black woman named Macy, took over. Ryan keenly noticed that her eyes were filled with disgust and greed when she looked at the orphans.

The new, pig-like director's appointment led to a sharp decline in the living standards of the orphanage. Hunger became a norm, and physical and verbal abuse became daily occurrences. She even exploited loopholes in the adoption system to do "adoption" business, turning orphans into human commodities.

After reading a letter from the "Alien" magazine, the black director set her sights on Ryan, especially after using her guardian authority to check his account and being stunned by the string of zeros.

Such a large sum of money belonging to a child was a heaven-sent opportunity for her.

However, things weren't as simple as she thought. Before leaving, Director Katie had realized the potential trouble this money could bring. She specially entrusted an old friend to find a reliable lawyer for Ryan. Without alarming the lawyer, it was almost impossible to get the money. The best way was to gain Ryan's absolute trust and support.

Unfortunately, she didn't understand that Ryan's body housed a soul as intelligent as, if not more intelligent than, hers. Her attempts to flatter, bribe, and deceive him were as laughable as a circus clown in his eyes. However, his young age and body limited his actual ability to resist.

Hunger, scolding, cursing, and even beating might terrify other children, but Ryan was never afraid. He had endured even harsher tests in his previous childhood and had already overcome the toughest challenges.

The black pig director simply locked him in a remote room and had two black workers take turns monitoring him. As long as he didn't submit, he wouldn't be free.

Time slipped into 1987, and Ryan welcomed his second seventh birthday. His sky was already clouded over. He began to look for opportunities. Waiting and being controlled were not the fates he wanted. Although he had left the orphanage only a few times in seven years, he still wanted to break out of this prison. Only the vast sky outside could bear his soaring wings.

With continuous effort, he finally removed the hinge of the door that locked him in. Taking advantage of the black workers' bathroom break, he escaped the orphanage.

When the morning light fell into his eyes, Ryan's body trembled slightly. He understood how precious freedom was to humans.

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