Chapter 3: Reborn in 2006

"Pain." Zhang Wangwan opened her eyes languidly. Her head felt as if it were splitting apart. She struggled to roll over, but after seeing everything clearly before her, she was completely stunned. Hadn't she fallen into the water? Had someone saved her? But that wasn't right; this place was definitely not a hospital, and the environment gave her a feeling of inexplicable familiarity.

Just as Zhang Wangwan was deep in thought, a familiar voice came from outside. "Wangwan, the porridge is in the thermal container. Drink it when you wake up later. I'll tidy up when I get back. I'm going to be late for work. If you still feel unwell, call Mom. Mom is leaving now!"

As soon as the words fell, there was a loud bang outside—a sound so familiar it made hot tears fall from Zhang Wangwan's eyes. She curled up on the bed, hugging herself tightly, and murmured, "Mom..."

If this were a dream, she hoped she would never wake up. But how could this possibly be real? Her mother had been diagnosed with cancer during her freshman year of college, and within a year, she had been reduced to skin and bones. Before she fell into the water, her mother had been too weak to even speak. How could she be so full of energy? It seemed she had kicked the bucket right along with that scumbag, Cao Ji'an!

Thinking of that bastard Cao Ji'an, Zhang Wangwan gritted her teeth, filled with hatred and regret. If she had known, she wouldn't have been so impulsive. There were plenty of ways to take revenge on a scumbag; why had she been so foolish as to use such a stupid method? Now look, she had dragged herself down with him! She hadn't even had the chance to properly repay her parents, who had worked so hard to raise her, or her older brother who loved her so much. They must be heartbroken to hear the news of her death!

As she thought about it, grief welled up in Zhang Wangwan's heart. She buried her head in her legs and sobbed uncontrollably.

She didn't know how long she had been crying when a deep, resonant chime suddenly rang out from outside. Zhang Wangwan lifted her head blankly, her eyes, swollen like walnuts from crying, filled with astonishment. She had listened to this sound for over a decade; she couldn't possibly be mistaken. This was the old pendulum clock from their home, said to be part of her mother's dowry. Ever since she could remember, she had been surrounded by this "demonic sound." When she was little, she had often been scared to tears by it, though she grew used to it as she got older. However, the family's pendulum clock had "passed away" when she was in high school; it was sent for repairs but could never be fixed, and her mother had eventually put it away. What was going on now? Was the pendulum clock a ghost too?

Full of doubt, Zhang Wangwan couldn't even bother to cry anymore. She got out of bed and ran outside. Her room faced the front door, and there was a mirror hanging behind it. Seeing herself in the mirror, Zhang Wangwan was completely dumbfounded. A minute later, a scream rang out through the house.

No sooner had she finished screaming than the front door was pounded on loudly. A woman's shrill voice came from outside, "Zhang Wangwan, what are you making a racket about so early in the morning? You're a grown girl, why are you still acting so crazy? You have no sense of propriety at all! These young girls nowadays, it's just disgraceful! Let me tell you, when your mother gets back, I'm going to have a good talk with her and tell her to keep you in line. It's just..."

The grumbling voice continued outside for ten minutes before fading away, but Zhang Wangwan wasn't angry at all; in fact, she was moved to tears of joy. She was more than familiar with the owner of that voice—it was Wang Chunhua, who lived right across from them. A woman in her forties, they lived in an old residential complex where the old houses had almost no soundproofing and poor conditions. Most of the people living there knew everything about each other. Everyone was used to leaving their doors open during the day to make it easier for neighbors to visit and chat, and the women and elderly loved to gather together to gossip about everyone's business.

Wang Chunhua was the best of them. As soon as there was any movement in their house, that woman would poke her head in to snoop. Sometimes she would even brazenly push the door open to watch the excitement. She could make up stories about things that never happened and tell them so vividly they sounded real. Over time, her mother stopped leaving the door open; even when someone was home, they kept it shut to avoid Wang Chunhua's gossip.

Perhaps because this practice displeased Wang Chunhua, she had always looked at their family with disdain ever since they started keeping the door closed. If anything happened, she would stand outside and make veiled insults. If anything inconvenienced her, she would be the first to come to their door to demand an explanation. In the past, Zhang Wangwan had stood up to her a few times, and Wang Chunhua would go around the complex badmouthing her, calling her a sharp-tongued, shrewish girl. Her mother had been furious when she heard this and had confronted Wang Chunhua for the first time, even slamming the iron gate of Wang Chunhua's house in anger. It was only then that the people in the complex realized her mother wasn't someone to be bullied, and they stopped discussing their family's affairs so openly. Wang Chunhua had gradually quieted down as well.

Thinking of this, Zhang Wangwan felt a pang of sadness that made her want to cry again. If it weren't for their poverty, others wouldn't have dared to bully them so blatantly. And because of their poverty, her inferiority complex was deeply ingrained in her bones, to the point that when she first discovered Cao Ji'an was cheating, she didn't rush up to confront and beat the scumbag like Yan Qian and the others would have; instead, she lurked in the shadows, waiting for a chance to take revenge. On one hand, she envied Yan Qian and the others for being able to wear all their emotions on their faces, while on the other, she despised her own inferiority, darkness, and cowardice.

After a while, Zhang Wangwan's feverish brain finally calmed down. She looked around. In the narrow, dim three-bedroom apartment, the living room—less than ten square meters—held an old set of solid wood table and chairs, covered in scratches with half the paint peeled off. There was a ten-inch television, popular in the eighties and nineties; because of its solid quality, it could still play a few channels. Next to the TV sat that very pendulum clock. In the corner, there were some large cardboard boxes filled with various useful odds and ends. The useless junk meant to be sold was piled outside on the balcony. The living room and dining room were connected; the "dining room" was really just a round wooden table and four chairs with no room for anything else. The kitchen was even smaller—two people couldn't even turn around inside. The bathroom was next to the front door and was just as small. The three bedrooms were the same; once a bed and wardrobe were placed inside, there was almost no extra space. Her brother's room and hers were only able to fit a desk by squeezing it in. On top of the wardrobes, under the beds—every available space was filled with items.

With her strong sense of pride, she had never brought classmates home, always feeling that such a family background would make them look down on her and make her feel inferior. Later, when she went to a private high school, she rarely came back, always feeling that the place was suffocating. But now, she cherished everything in this house, even the old furniture she used to hate so much felt so dear.

After looking at everything in the house one by one, Zhang Wangwan finally fixed her gaze on the wall calendar. It was torn to the page for April 1st, 2006—April Fool's Day. Seeing the date, Zhang Wangwan paused for a moment and muttered to herself, "Is this a prank?"

Although she said that, Zhang Wangwan was certain she had indeed returned to the year of her high school entrance exam. There were only three months left until the exam. They were the last batch to take the exam on July 1st; starting in 2007, the exam was moved to early June. Suppressing the excitement in her heart, she sat down in the dining room and drank the porridge from the thermal container.

(End of chapter)