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Rebirth in 1990: Rewrite Your Life
墨書 Inktalez
At around two in the morning, the surveillance footage showed a motorized tricycle parked outside the construction site gate. Shortly after, the gate was pried open, and three individuals swaggered onto the site, loading anything that could be sold—locks, pipes, rebar—into their vehicle.
Watching all of this unfold, Hu Ruoyun felt a surge of anger rise within him. How could they act with such impunity?
Last month, the night security guard, Brother Zhang, had his wages docked due to theft on the site and was now facing claims from the foreman. The month before that, another night guard, Xiao Xu, a burly man, had spotted thieves in action and rushed out to stop them. But these three scoundrels on the monitor not only refused to back down but also struck first. Despite Xiao Xu's strength, he was outnumbered and ended up hospitalized for over a week before resigning.
It was said that theft at this construction site was as regular as a woman's cycle—“it happened every month without fail…”
Hu Ruoyun had originally been a day shift guard, but after several incidents during the night shifts, the foreman assigned him to nights with a promise of an extra ten yuan per day.
He desperately needed the money.
His father, Hu Qihua, and mother, Zhao Meirong, were both in their seventies and could no longer work the fields they had toiled in all their lives. Their meager income had vanished.
His mother had been battling cancer for nearly three years now. After countless rounds of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, she had lost all her hair and her weight had plummeted from over 130 pounds to under 100. Her platelet count was low, and her white blood cell count had dropped significantly…
Conventional medications had become ineffective due to her body developing resistance. The doctors were now discussing using Bevacizumab and Paclitaxel—treatments that were not covered by insurance and cost about 13,000 yuan every twenty days!
That was an enormous sum of money—like a mountain pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe!
He had a son and a daughter; his son was about to graduate high school. If he didn’t get into college, he would end up like Hu Ruoyun—without prospects. But if he did get in, that would mean even more expenses! His daughter was also graduating from middle school soon and would need money as well.
Hu Ruoyun earned just over three thousand yuan a month while his wife worked tirelessly running a street stall selling stuffed pancakes. Their family lived on a tight budget.
Life was already difficult enough; these despicable thieves were just pouring salt into his fresh wounds.
His heart was in turmoil, feeling like a storm was brewing inside him. He had "survived college" (even if he wasn't officially enrolled) and had worked as a journalist (though for a third-rate media outlet, using the title to solicit advertisements), yet his life had been far too pathetic!
But perhaps this was his chance—these three thieves caught on surveillance could be the opportunity he needed!
If he could catch them and protect the construction site’s property, surely the foreman, Fat Zhu, would reward him with at least three to five hundred yuan. Who knows, maybe his salary could even increase by fifty or a hundred...
Hu Ruoyun grabbed a long wooden stick, about the thickness of a wrist, from behind the door of the duty room and stealthily exited.
In the backyard, the three thieves were busy loading their vehicle. In addition to construction materials, they were trying to lift a rebar cutter onto a tricycle. Damn it! Just this one piece of equipment would cost him months of salary.
Hu Ruoyun sprang into action. His movements were swift and agile, completely unlike that of a man in his forties. He swung the stick and struck one of the men in the leg, sending him crashing to the ground.
The other two grabbed their makeshift weapons—a couple of steel pipes—and charged at Hu Ruoyun. He raised his stick to defend himself, realizing that if they hit him with those pipes, it could break bones.
With courage swelling within him, he thought:
—Hitting you is protecting property; injuring you is self-defense!
With a sweeping strike, he knocked one of them down, who fell to the ground groaning in pain—he wouldn’t be getting out of bed for at least ten days. Another strike came down like a mountain on the shoulder of the second thief, causing him to drop his pipe.
One against three—total victory.
Having subdued all three men, Hu Ruoyun felt triumphant as he called Foreman Fat Zhu: “Boss Zhu, I’ve caught those three thieves who keep stealing from our site. Should I call the police?”
Waiting for Fat Zhu's praise, Hu Ruoyun spoke somewhat obsequiously. When a person is poor, their back tends to bend...
“Stop whining! Don’t do anything, just wait for me to come over!” Fat Zhu remained as arrogant as ever, even more so than before.
Hu Ruoyun was bewildered: Why did it sound like I was the one who stole something?
As dawn broke, Fat Zhu finally arrived from the outskirts where he had been staying at "Little Wife," accompanied by his "office director," Cao Lili.
The two of them didn’t ask Hu Ruoyun what had happened; instead, they first checked on the three thieves lying or sitting on the ground.
Hearing the three groaning, “Ouch, ouch,” Fat Zhu directed Cao Lili, “Find someone and call a car to take them to the hospital. Hurry!”
Then he pulled Hu Ruoyun aside. “What on earth happened? It was just a little theft, right? Why did you hit them so hard? If you injure them badly, will it be your responsibility or mine...?”
The barrage of reprimands left Hu Ruoyun dazed: Wasn’t this supposed to be about praise and rewards? Why was it turning into accountability?
Fat Zhu glanced disdainfully at the bewildered Hu Ruoyun. “You can go now. I won’t pursue the matter of you hitting someone! Your salary for this month will cover their medical expenses!”
Is there even a shred of justice in this?
Walking in a daze down the street, Hu Ruoyun had no idea how to tell his wife—who looked as old as a grandmother despite being only in her forties—that he was once again out of work and without income!
Hu Ruoyun was jolted awake by his deskmate, Xiong Debiao, nudging him with his elbow. As he stood up, still dazed, his head buzzed with confusion.
He couldn't tell if he had just been dreaming or if he was still dreaming now. Could life really branch out like that?
Just moments ago, at the age of 46, he had been working a grueling night shift as a security guard at a construction site when he was suddenly fired.
But how had he ended up in a middle school classroom now?
At the front of the class stood the homeroom teacher, Su Chongliang, a man in his fifties with graying hair and a slightly hunched back. The stern old man looked at Hu Ruoyun's bewildered expression with furrowed brows and a face so dark it seemed ready to rain. His words dripped with disdain as he scolded:
"Sit down! In less than a month, the Entrance Examination will be upon us. The school has organized extra classes for you all, even during the busy harvest season, to help you achieve good results. Even if you don't appreciate the teachers' efforts, think about your parents who are out in the fields, bending over to harvest wheat! Do you have any idea what kind of life they are living right now?
What’s wrong with you? It’s one thing not to pay attention in class, but how can you sleep like that? How can you possibly sleep?!"
Hu Ruoyun felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
Next to the blackboard, a countdown clock for the upcoming exam displayed today’s date: June 7, 1990, Thursday. Considering his birth date, he realized he was only fourteen years old!
Yet just moments ago, he had vividly envisioned his life leading up to age forty-six in fast-forward:
In this year's Entrance Examination, he barely managed to get admitted to an ordinary high school that ranked last in the county. Throughout high school, he was neither a troublemaker nor an exemplary student; apart from Language (mainly composition), which was passable, his grades in other subjects were mediocre at best. After three years, he took the college entrance exam but predictably failed to make the cut.
Whether it was luck or misfortune, it just so happened that he encountered the early rise of the "education industry." A plethora of diploma mills and dubious universities sprang up like mushrooms after rain. He never received a legitimate admission letter but ended up with a pile of chaotic notifications from institutions that promised admission regardless of scores—if you were willing to pay, they would let you enroll!
Hu Ruoyun ultimately enrolled in the two-year Computer Information Management program offered jointly by the Adult Education College and the Computer Department at Jiangcheng University, paying an annual tuition fee of 1,800 yuan. After two years, aside from receiving a "Practical Talent Graduation Certificate" from Jiangbei University, he learned nothing truly useful.
After graduating from university, he worked as a salesperson in the tech market selling computers (with no base salary), relying on published articles to secure clerical jobs at several organizations, and even worked as a commission-based reporter for Jiangbei Technology Newspaper, where he earned nothing without generating revenue.
It wasn't until his thirties that he found stability at a consulting company in Jiang City serving the telecommunications industry. His salary was just enough to feed his family, leaving him with little to save in the bank.
Before this, in 1998, Hu Ruoyun had worked as a production worker at a company in a county under Xutian City that specialized in printing cigarette boxes for the Provincial Tobacco Company. He worked two shifts of 12 hours each (with a half-hour meal break), initially as a regular worker responsible for supplying materials on the production line, handling nearly ten tons of material per shift. The thick gold card paper left his hands sore and stiff by the end of the day.
Later, he became a lead operator, closely monitoring machine operations to avoid mistakes, worrying about production from the beginning of the month to the end without a single day off.
If there was anything this company left Hu Ruoyun with, it was meeting Zhao Junliang from the security department.
Zhao Junliang entered Shaolin Temple at the age of twelve to learn martial arts. During his seven or eight years there, despite his young age, he excelled in martial arts through hard work and keen insight, earning the favor of the temple's martial arts masters. Although he couldn't claim mastery over all weapons, he was exceptionally skilled in both long and short forms of combat, wielding a staff with impressive agility.
It is said that Zhao Junliang's best achievement was holding his own against four retired soldiers simultaneously. During their two years together, Hu Ruoyun learned an extremely practical set of techniques called "Vajra Fist" from Zhao Junliang.
Thanks to Zhao Junliang's teachings, Hu Ruoyun found a night security job at a construction site at the age of forty-six. He successfully apprehended three thieves trying to steal rebar from the site but ended up losing his job because of it.
Among the three thieves was the brother-in-law of Fat Zhu, the site's largest contractor.
As a security guard, if you pretend not to see something, you can't escape blame when the company investigates. If you act bravely and confront them, you might get beaten up without anyone backing you up. Hu Ruoyun single-handedly sent several men fleeing but ended up touching some sensitive interests and was forced to resign.
Life is truly unpredictable; it's full of twists and turns, with pitfalls lurking at every corner!
In short, before the age of forty-six, Hu Ruoyun's life was bleak, miserable, filled with failures, struggles, and despair.
Now, Hu Ruoyun is forcing herself to calm down.
Whether it is a reincarnation or a rebirth, or if she has foreseen the future, as long as it is not a fleeting dream, then let her try to defy fate and change her destiny!
In her ears, a song seems to echo:
...
After enduring hardships for half a lifetime, tonight she walks once more into the storm.
She cannot drift with the tide; for the sake of her beloved family.
No matter how bitter or difficult it may be, she must remain strong, just for those hopeful gazes.
As long as the heart is alive, dreams will exist; there is still true love in this world.
Viewing success and failure with a bold spirit in life, it is merely a chance to start anew.
...
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