“Hey! Wake up, stop pretending to be asleep!”
“Wake up!”
Wenwen was awakened by the cold, or more precisely, by the pain that made his entire body uncomfortable. He sat up dizzily, clutching his head. Seeing that the person on the ground had woken up, a child dressed in patched clothes and filthy all over quickly withdrew his foot from kicking and then said maliciously, “I knew you were faking it. Let me tell you Chi Wen, from now on, obediently hand over your steamed bun to me, or I’ll beat you, got it?”
Wenwen felt pain everywhere. His head ached, he was dizzy and nauseous with hunger, weak and aching all over, and cold. And to top it off, there was a loud, annoying noise babbling in his ear. “Shut up!” Wenwen impatiently scolded.
To his shock, the voice that came out was soft and very childish. Wenwen was stunned for a moment. Since he started growing up, the childishness in his voice had gradually faded, becoming clearer and more vibrant, characteristic of a preteen. This voice… should be when he was still a toddler, but why?
The child beside him, hearing the scolding from the ground, immediately kicked over, “You little brat, tired of living, daring to be fierce with me? I’ll show you…”
“Chi Daqian, are you bullying smaller kids again!” An adult’s voice came over, and the kid named Chi Daqian quickly withdrew his foot and then hurriedly ran away before the adult arrived.
Chi Daqian? It took Wenwen a while to retrieve this name from his dazed mind. Soon after, a short but stout woman came over, cursing and swearing, “Hurry up, what are you lying on the ground for? Want to dirty your clothes and change them? Do you have any to change?”
“Chi Wen! She’s talking to you, get up now!”
Chi Wen? Wenwen lifted his head and saw a somewhat familiar face. It took him a while to dig into his old memory; this woman was the director of his old orphanage, Mother Mo. Wenwen’s face suddenly changed. He turned his head and looked around. What he saw was a dilapidated and desolate courtyard, and he was sitting on the filthy ground.
This… is this the orphanage? Has he been reborn again?
Wenwen looked down at his own hands, black and scrawny like chicken claws. Had he been reborn back to his time in the orphanage? What about his mother? Where was she? Was she still alive?
Wenwen panicked. Then he was roughly pulled up, “You little rascal, do you want to die? Not responding when called!”
Wenwen looked up, his unusually large eyes filled with tears.
Mother Mo wanted to continue scolding, but in the end, she didn’t lay a hand on him and just walked away, cursing, “Crying, crying, do you think crying will get you candy…”
Left alone, Wenwen calmed down after a while. Maybe his mother hadn’t had her accident yet. He needed to stay calm and think of a way to leave the orphanage to find his parents.
Wenwen wiped his tears, leaving even dirtier marks on his face. He touched his stomach, so hungry that he didn’t even feel it anymore. First of all, he needed to understand his current situation.
Dragging his aching and weak body, Wenwen headed inside. After his reborn, he had been pampered, where a small cut would have a crowd fussing over him. Now, his whole body ached, but there was no one to feel sorry for him, making him feel even more aggrieved, nearly bringing him to tears again.
What was going on? He had just gone to sleep, so why did he wake up to find himself back in his childhood from his previous life?
He didn’t want to go through it all again… He had a good life now, why did he have to be reborn again?
Could it be that everything was just a dream, and this was his real rebirth? No, it couldn’t be. What he had experienced felt so real; it couldn’t just be a dream. He must have a chance to return.
Lost in thoughts, Wenwen entered the house.
On the other side of the corridor, a frail child timidly peeked out, “Chi Wen…”
Seeing Chi Wen look over, the child hesitantly walked out, clutching the dirty corner of his shirt, and apologetically said, “I’m sorry, Chi Wen, I didn’t mean to run away. I was afraid he would try to take my steamed bun too…”
Chi Wen sized him up, looking at the child who was half a head taller than him. He felt a sense of familiarity but couldn’t remember his name. All he remembered was that he hadn’t seen this child anymore after they grew older.
Instead of responding, Chi Wen told the child, “Take me back to my room.” He needed to lie down and sort out his thoughts. But he had forgotten where he lived and could only rely on this child to lead the way.
“Eh? Oh, okay!” The child hurriedly led Chi Wen forward and then pushed open an old, dilapidated door.
Chi Wen surveyed around. Aside from about a dozen old bunk beds closely packed together, there was not even a cupboard in the room. The children’s belongings were mostly piled on their beds, messy and disorganized. But then again, orphans like them didn’t have many belongings.
“Which bed is mine? I need to lie down.”
The child quickly pointed to the lower bunk on the outermost side and urged, “You better lie down quickly.”
After Chi Wen lay down, the child said worriedly, “Chi Wen, are you alright? Did you hurt your head when Chi Daqian hit you?” The child remembered seeing Chi Daqian punching Chi Wen’s head before he ran away.
Chi Wen stared at the dark ceiling of the bed, not saying a word. Not that he was aloof, but he was feeling uncomfortable everywhere, weak and listless, just wanting to fall into a deep sleep. He wondered if he would return to his previous life if he fell asleep now.
The child hesitated, then took out half a steamed bun he had just hidden from his bed. After a moment’s thought, he carefully tore off a quarter of the half bun and hid it back, then took the larger piece and ran over to stuff it into Chi Wen’s hand, saying reluctantly, “You better eat it quickly.”
Chi Wen opened his eyes and saw the cold, hard steamed bun in his hand. He didn’t care about the dirtiness and quickly put it in his mouth. After just a couple of bites, he choked.
“Water…”
The child patted Chi Wen’s back anxiously, “How are you? Are you okay? We don’t have water here…” They had to go to the dining hall to drink water; there was none in the room.
Chi Wen choked for a while before finally catching his breath. This time he ate slowly, taking small bites. Was his life in the orphanage this difficult?
The child swallowed his saliva, then looked at Chi Wen, “I shared my steamed bun with you, you won’t ignore me now, will you? If I hadn’t run away, Chi Daqian would have definitely taken both our buns…”
Chi Wen finished the small half of the cold, hard bun. Having something in his stomach made him even hungrier, but at least it gave him a bit of energy.
As the child prattled on, Chi Wen finally remembered which year he had returned to. He was now six years old. He remembered that at this point in time, dinner in the orphanage was a steamed bun. But the cook didn’t want to wait for them to finish eating and wanted to close the dining hall early, so he chased them out and locked the door.
The food in the dining hall was never enough to fill the children up. As a result, they were hungry every day. So, as soon as the adults left, the more domineering older children would steal the buns from the younger ones.
Chi Daqian wanted to steal Chi Wen’s steamed bun, and the other children, upon seeing an older kid stealing, quickly ran away, afraid that their food would be taken too.
Chi Wen, of course, was not willing to give up his bun without a fight, so he ended up in a fight with Chi Daqian. Having been malnourished from a young age, Chi Wen was skinny and small, even shorter than some children aged three or four. Despite his tenacity, he couldn’t overpower Chi Daqian, who was a few years older and much stronger.
Chi Wen remembered that he was knocked unconscious and lay on the cold ground for half a day, eventually catching a fever. This led to the orphanage director cursing for half a month, angry about the money wasted on him.
< Previous | TOC | Advanced TOC | Next >
Wants more chapters?
Click this page for the status of sponsored chapters.
Click this page for advanced chapters TOC.
I’m sorry, what? What’s going on here?! Is this an alternate timeline or a terrible dream?!