Doing It Over Again

stopped at the gate, pedestrians looked at it and wondered which student’s parents were rich enough to drive around in such a car.

After Shen Shao took a few steps, a middle-aged man in a suit got out of the Mercedes-Benz and walked straight to him.

“Excuse me, are you Student Shen Shao?” The middle-aged man was very polite.
When talking to Shen Shao, he deliberately bent down to speak to him at eye level.

Shen Shao backed up a step, towards the school gate.
“Do you need something?”

The middle-aged man gave him a polite smile, took out an envelope from his coat pocket, and handed it to Shen Shao.
“Thank you for your help this morning.
This is a small token of appreciation from our master.”

After thinking about it for a moment, Shen Shao guessed this man might be associated with the injured child he met this morning.
How did they find him? He looked at the envelope but didn’t reach for it.
“Uncle, there’s no need to thank me.
It isn’t a big deal.
Our teachers always say we should learn from the example of Uncle Lei Feng, so I can’t accept your thank you gift.”

The middle-aged man looked at this skinny boy, who talked so solemnly about learning from Uncle Lei Feng, and thought he was an honest and well-behaved child.
The man glanced at the black Mercedes-Benz behind him, then tucked the envelope into Shen Shao’s pocket without any further ado.
“Teachers also tell us that good children should be rewarded.
Goodbye, child.” The man turned and got into the car.
It quickly drove away, as if afraid Shen Shao would try to return the envelope.

Shen Shao glanced at the people who were coming and going around him.
Without looking inside the envelope, he put it into the school bag he was carrying with him, then walked away quickly with the bag under his arm.

After he returned to the village, some villagers who were working in the fields saw him and went over to ask with concern how he did in the exam.
Some of them thought it wasn’t easy for a child to live alone.
They made him accept some homegrown fruits and vegetables.

These things weren’t worth much money, but Shen Shao very much appreciated the friendly gesture.

Back in his small, ramshackle bungalow, Shen Shao cleaned up the house first, then picked through the cabbage the villagers gave him.
Before he finished washing it, he heard his aunt calling at the door.

“Xiao Shao, are you back?” Liu ShuLian was holding an enamel bowl of stewed chicken soup.
When she saw Shen Shao wearing an oversized shirt and washing a head of cabbage by himself, she felt sorry for him.
She put the enamel bowl on the cutting board, pushed Shen Shao away from the counter, and helped him finish cleaning.
“I cooked a chicken this afternoon.
Have some soup to restore your health.”

The child had been studying hard the past few days, and there weren’t any adults at home to take care of him.
She wanted him to move in with her family, but her house was full of children and old people.
It wasn’t a good environment for someone who was trying to study.
It was better this way—she and her husband frequently came by to take care of Xiao Shao, and they didn’t have to worry about her children quarreling with him.

“Thanks, Eldest Aunt.
Did you have some soup already?” Shen Shao looked at the bowl of chicken soup on the cutting board.
It emitted a rich fragrance, and there was a chicken leg inside.

“Don’t worry.
It was a big, fat chicken.
Five or six kilograms.
Our family can’t finish it on our own, and we can’t store the leftovers in the summer heat.
You should help us eat a little to avoid wasting it.” Liu ShuLian felt a pang to see that Shen Shao was so sensible at such a young age.
When she thought about how her second brother-in-law ran away with another woman without a care in the world, she thought he was really the worst.
But she’d married into the Shen family, and it wasn’t her place to say it.
“Was the exam hard? It’s been so hot lately.
You should have a good rest at home.
Don’t go out and get heat stroke.”

“Ok.” Shen Shao nodded with a smile.
“Don’t worry, Eldest Aunt.
I’ll definitely pass the exam.” In his previous life, he was in bad shape and struggled to get fiftieth place on the test.
But now he had an additional twenty years of experience.
He had to make them count.

Liu ShuLian gave a few more words of advice, then saw that it was getting late.
She had to rush home to feed the pigs, so she left in a hurry.

After seeing off his eldest aunt, Shen Shao finished his meal.
Then he went to his school bag and took out the envelope the middle-aged man had forced on him.
Inside, he found a stack of blue-green hundred yuan bills.
There must be at least twenty or thirty of them.

Right now you could buy a house for as little as three or four hundred yuan per square meter, yet this person’s version of a small thank you was two or three thousand yuan.
Definitely a local tyrant.

When Shen Shao pulled the bills from the envelope, a slip of paper fell out.
On it were written two words: ‘Thank you’.
The handwriting was careful and neat, like it belonged to a child.

Shen Shao counted the money.
A full 2,600 yuan.
When he was done counting, he turned and looked at the calendar on the wall.

August 22, 1996

He’d transmigrated nearly twenty years into the past and returned once again to this empty house.
At first he couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t returned six months earlier—and stopped his mother’s suicide—but there was no way he was going to waste this kind of opportunity.

He was going to make his dream a reality, instead of letting it remain a dream.

 

TL Notes:

Welcome! ٩(◕‿◕)۶ This is a great rebirth BL story with a driven MC who’s very focused on making money, and a genius ML who’s sweet and somewhat autistic and very interested in MC ♥  

 

For additional notes about this project, contact info, and the update schedule, please see the Project Page  (っ◔◡◔)っ ♥

 

junior high school – 中学 – A school that includes grades 7, 8, and 9.
In my country, “middle school” means grades 6-8, so I went with “junior high”

experimental junior high school – 实验中学 – I interpret “experimental” to mean a school that attracts higher-quality students by using newer or more rigorous teaching methods

dichlorvos – 敌敌畏 – Also known as DDVP.
An insecticide used on crops, animals, and to control household pests (Wikipedia)

yuan – 元 – The unit of currency in China.
1 yuan is divided into 100 fen

Xinhua Bookstore – 新华书店 – China’s largest bookstore chain

uncle – 叔叔 – shūshu – Father’s younger brother.
A common form of address for a male who is one generation senior to you

Lei Feng – 雷锋 – A soldier in the People’s Liberation Army who was the object of several major propaganda campaigns in China.
The most well known of these campaigns in 1963 promoted the slogan, “Follow the example of Comrade Lei Feng.” Lei was portrayed as a model citizen, and the masses were encouraged to emulate his selflessness, modesty, and devotion to Mao (Wikipedia)

xiao – 小 – Little, small, young.
Commonly used in nicknames

Eldest Aunt – 大伯母 – dà bómǔ – Wife of father’s oldest brother.
The wife of the second brother would be called “Second Aunt”, etc.

local tyrant – 土豪 – A common term for a rich and powerful landlord or local bullying gentry in old society villages (Baidu)

 

Transliterated names, places, and titles—new in this chapter:

Shen Shao – 沈邵 – Shěn shào – Our MC

Peng County – 蓬县

Li Lu – 李禄

Mr.
Luo – 罗老师 – Luō lǎoshī.
Alternatively: Teacher Luo

Benz – 奔驰

Student Shen Shao – 沈邵同学 – Shěn Shào tóngxué.
Alternatively: Classmate Shen Shao

Uncle Lei Feng – 雷锋叔叔 – Léi Fēng shūshu

Xiao Shao – 小邵 – A nickname for MC

Liu ShuLian – 刘淑莲 – MC’s aunt, married to MC’s eldest paternal uncle.
Note: The name given for this character in Chapter 1 is “Zhang ShuLian” (张淑莲), but every chapter after that her name is “Liu ShuLian”.
I changed it here to be consistent