novelraw Chapter 1 An Unexpected Rebirth?!
Chapter 1 An Unexpected Rebirth?!
1998 years.
Lion City.
The quiet of a practice room at the Li Weisong Music School was shattered by a boy's hoarse scream!
"Ugh!!"
Li Shuo suddenly sat up from behind the floor-to-ceiling curtains in the corner of the music room, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
...They've been rescued?!
He felt a lingering phantom pain in his chest, as if the bullet had torn him apart, and he instinctively and frantically searched his body.
Before they could fully recover from the terror of death, a barrage of questions exploded into their minds.
Who was that beat-up pickup truck that sped towards him in full view of everyone on the streets of Bangkok?!
What's going on with that black Toyota Alphard that suddenly appeared and crashed into the pickup truck?!
I thought I'd escaped... but what the hell?! There were masked gunmen?! What grudge could they hold against me?!
He's just a middle-aged, "slick" uncle from a wealthy Chinese family who's had a run of bad luck since childhood and just drifts through life!
Living off the rental income from the properties inherited from his father after his death, he lives a quiet and peaceful life in Hong Kong...
If it weren't for the major upheaval in the real estate agency that Siam Property was affiliated with, he would never have secretly made this trip abroad, as he always followed his father's dying wish.
And then something really did go wrong?!
I remember that after I was shot, the world's sounds vanished rapidly.
He only caught a glimpse of several plainclothes Asian men rushing out of the black Alphard and shooting down the gunman.
One of the burly, bearded men rushed to his side, knelt down on one knee, pressed his fingers against the side of his neck, and then growled urgently into the microphone in his collar: "Damn it! VIP down! Repeat, VIP down...!"
Peninsula language? VIP? Who? Me? What is all this?! ...Then came an endless feeling of falling.
When he woke up again, he was tinnitus and dizziness, and he looked around blankly.
Huh? Where am I? Why am I lying on the floor... and what's this... curtains?
"Aaaaaah!!!"
A louder, more shrill female scream interrupted his flashback.
The next second, a sharp pain, enough to make any man's soul leave his body, suddenly shot through his groin!
"Ugh—!!!"
Tears welled in my eyes from the pain, and my legs bent over...
Through the blur, all I could see was a slender, fair-skinned girl's arm, frantically trying to pull it back.
Unfortunately, the other person lost their balance and fell backward again, causing further injury.
Despite the pain, he instinctively hooked his arm around the girl's armpit and pulled her closer...
Looking into his arms, he saw a pretty little face flushed red with shock and shame.
Her eyes were wide open, and there was a clear "phoenix tail mole" on her right eye.
The lingering pain served as a stark reminder to Li Shuo.
...This is definitely not a dream!
The girl in front of him was actually his junior sister who came to the senior class the following year after he was exceptionally admitted to the "Lee Wei Song Music School" in Singapore when he was 15!
A "niche singer" that Generation Z calls amazing!
The strongest Mandarin pop diva in Asia during the millennial era!
Sun Yanzi?!
At this moment, a Sony D-E900 Walkman that had fallen to the ground may have been affected by some kind of interference due to the vibration.
After a burst of static, the faint strains of Alanis Morissette's "Not as We," Sun Yanzi's favorite Canadian singer, began playing in her headphones...
"Reborn and shivering..."
(Trembling, he was reborn...)
In late March, Singapore's afternoons are characterized by the sticky, humid heat ahead of the southwest monsoon season.
Today, the school is holding a very important interview with a senior executive from a record company.
Sun Yanzi had been preparing for a long time, but she couldn't help feeling nervous, so she came to the music room to do one last practice session.
She walked in with a heavy heart, and just as she reached the piano, she was startled by a sudden shout from behind the curtains!
In a panicked retreat, I tripped over the piano bench and instinctively reached back to brace myself. I was worried that I might twist my right hand, but fortunately... I pressed on something soft, which cushioned the impact of the fall.
But when this palm struck, it was as if it had triggered a key, and the scream that had startled her behind the curtains instantly turned into a scream of agony!
Now she realized what she had just pressed with her right hand...
In a panic, I pulled my hand back, lost my balance again... fell down, and then awkwardly managed to get back up.
Then I felt myself being pulled into a pair of arms, into a warm, somewhat thin but very firm embrace.
A clean sheen of sweat lingered around the tip of his nose…
Huh? Why does she feel like she's clean of sweat...?
Looking up... her eyes fell upon that long, slender neck, and the prominent Adam's apple seemed to bob involuntarily as she gazed at her.
Further up, the chin has a clean and sharp angle, and the lips, which seem to be pursed in restraint, are a pale color.
A straight nose, slightly furrowed brows, and overly bright eyes... Looking at these features that seemed to radiate a soft light, the anger and resentment that had welled up in her heart... vanished as if she had forgotten them.
So, the usually cool and aloof boy at this music school actually has such a handsome face hidden beneath his messy hair!? Um... what is she thinking right now?
The blush on her fair cheeks spread all the way to her ears.
The old KDK fan on the ceiling of the music room was working hard, blowing out warm but weak air, which did little to dispel the awkward atmosphere in the room.
She hurriedly broke free from the boy's embrace and got up, but seeing that he still looked uncomfortable, she became a little worried.
"Are you...are you alright? Why were you hiding behind the curtains...it was scary!"
Li Shuo, lying on the ground, sighed inwardly...
Fortunately, this "junior sister" is as light as her name suggests. If it were in his previous life... he simply couldn't imagine it.
Looking at the vibrant, youthful face before me, a future star in the Asian Chinese music scene.
This confirms the impact of being reborn back to 28 years ago; the aftereffects are really strong!
However, in his memory, on this day in his previous life, shouldn't he have been hiding here to be lazy and sleep when he was woken up by the sound of piano practice, muttered a few complaints, and then left?
…Not that exciting!?
Adjusting my breathing, enduring the gradually subsiding discomfort, I freed one hand and waved it.
"Hiss... It's okay, just let me catch my breath."
"You...you are called...Li...Shuo, right? The Hong Konger from mainland China who can't speak Cantonese?" Sun Yanzi looked at this "junior brother" who left a deep impression on her.
Now she really wants to find a pair of scissors and cut off the hair that's covering his face...
She loves singing and was recently brought by her mother to the "Li Weisong Music School," which is highly regarded in Singapore's pop music scene.
As for Li Shuo, who had arrived half a year earlier than him but was the youngest in the advanced music class, his style in the class's regular creative quizzes was... well, let's just say it was a bit... hard to describe.
However, his skill with guitar and other electronic instruments is still quite amazing. Teachers and students sometimes ask him for accompaniment or to record demos.
For example, Li Shuo was one of her accompaniment musicians at the record company interview arranged by the school in the afternoon.
She usually has long, messy hair that almost never shows her face, making it hard to tell what she looks like. She also has a cold personality and doesn't like interacting with people.
Therefore, her communication with this "junior brother" was limited to key calls during rehearsals or some rhythmic communication.
We don't usually have much interaction.
Upon hearing Sun Yanzi's question, Li Shuo, who had basically recovered from his shock on the ground, was also stunned.
In 1998, his identity as a native of Hong Kong was more like a label indicating his birthplace.
She was taken back to Beijing by her father when she was an infant, except for a few transfers at the airport.
By then, he was almost 16 years old and had hardly lived on that land that had been returned to China.
For him, the word "mother" was a concept that disappeared when he was born on Hong Kong Island.
This is why the father's relatives' guilt and desire to make amends turned into excessive pampering.
My grandfather was a professor at a music academy in China and a master of traditional Chinese musical instruments. My grandmother was one of the earliest piano and violin educators in China to graduate from abroad.
Li Shuo showed exceptional musical talent at the age of five.
His grandparents poured all the family traditions they hadn't been able to teach his father before, which they hadn't been able to in the past, into him.
Perhaps due to the lack of a mother figure growing up, and because he is often touched by people or situations, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he becomes increasingly out of place with his peers.
Instead, the various musical instruments in his home, which could both organize his thoughts and contain his emotions, became his "friends," and he had won many awards by the time he was in high school.
In the 1990s, the wave of Western rock music swept across China.
After being exposed to electric musical instruments such as guitars, he suddenly discovered that these "new friends" could also accompany him in venting his emotions, just like "accomplices"!
So, starting at the age of twelve or thirteen, he began to let himself go and entered "adolescent rebellion" prematurely... He fully exploited that rebellious spirit.
His grandparents simply couldn't control him when he was fifteen.
Because the father was busy with his business and had no other choice, the family discussed it together.
Following the advice of his second aunt, who had married and moved to Singapore years earlier, he was sent to the "Li Weisong Music School," which was already well-known in Asia and internationally recognized, to study as a transitional institution in preparation for studying at an arts college abroad.
However, no one expected that this trip to Singapore would trigger the first major setback in his life, a period marked by inexplicable "bad luck."
"Hey... are you really alright? You look terrible... should I call an ambulance for you?" Sun Yanzi panicked even more when she saw him remain silent for a long time and his expression change.
She'd heard that boys' private parts were very vulnerable, and what if she really...
Just as she was feeling uneasy, she felt the warmth of the touch from her right hand again. Instinctively, she secretly wiped it behind her back, but the feedback from her pert area made her realize that her action was strange.
Sun Yanzi's repeated questioning pulled Li Shuo out of his chaotic thoughts.
"Please don't, it doesn't hurt anymore. Also... I didn't sleep well last night, and I wanted to come here to take a nap. I had a nightmare, and I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry, I'll be going now..."
"No need, no need! You can rest here."
Sun Yanzi interrupted, her cheeks flushed.
"I...I'll just change practice rooms...! Um, thank you for accompanying me this afternoon...!"
She practically ran, frantically grabbing the sheet music and CD player scattered on the floor, slipping on her canvas shoes, and rushing out of the music room.
The door closed gently, and silence returned.
Li Shuo calmed himself down and looked around... He caught sight of a box of "Fisherman's Treasure" lying on the ground.
It must have been something Sun Yanzi forgot about when she left in her haste.
A deeper chill crept up his spine from the memory.
Yes...it's this afternoon!
His first major mishap, a "bad luck" moment, is about to begin.
The troublesome "carrier" is this kind of throat lozenge commonly found in music schools.
Thinking of this seemed to trigger a bodily memory.
He nervously walked to a mirror in the corner, took a deep breath, and turned to the side, slowly pulling down his waistband.
High-set and smooth.
…there is none left.
The grotesque protrusions of the six realms that accompanied him for most of his previous life, constantly reminding him of humiliation and pain, are gone.
Ok!
We now know about the impending crisis, but we've managed to avoid it... and then what?
Now that I've been reborn, looking back, there are so many questions and doubts!
…Do we have to be this passive?
hum...
Deep in my mind, a dark gold, equal-armed scale suddenly appeared!