Jiaming and Lingjing

"Hah—hah—Hee—"

As the sun rose, crisp, energetic shouts echoed from the grass. Amidst a large group of elderly people doing morning exercises, a young girl with pigtails and a delicate appearance was diligently practicing a set of Wing Chun. A little boy named Jiaming lay on the slope above, idly watching the group practice martial arts.

It had been two months since he had regained this child's body.

During this time, for the first ten days or so, he had pretended to have amnesia, feigning deafness and muteness. Later, he gradually figured everything out. Jianghai City, where he was now, was a leading major city in the country. Since the reform and opening up, it had benefited greatly, with rapid economic development. In general, the upper echelons of Jianghai were dominated by a few family enterprises. These families were mostly deeply rooted, with many connections in both central and local government. They had not suffered much damage during those years of turmoil. The Huang family was one of them.

His mother should have been a direct descendant of the Huang family, but there was a family rule: anyone marrying a Huang family woman had to be a live-in son-in-law. His father, proud and arrogant, had eloped with his mother. Not long after his birth, both parents died in a landslide. The Huang family had initially disowned them, but seeing his young age, they eventually felt some pity and took him in to raise him.

Despite being called "young master" by the stewards and servants, his status was actually that of an outsider. His mother's situation was a source of deep shame for the family, and many of the children his age in the family knew about it, so they would mock and bully him whenever they had the chance. His recent decision to run away from home was likely due to being unable to bear this treatment. Little did he know that upon leaving, he would encounter two assassins from Peiluojia searching for new blood.

In the past six months, the only person he had become relatively familiar with was the little girl named Lingjing. Her family was also a distant relative of the Huang family. His father and Lingjing's father, Ye Han, who ran a martial arts school, had been good friends. After his parents died, the Ye family had wanted to adopt him, but the Huang family had a more legitimate claim to custody.

Over the years, although he lived with the Huang family, he spent more time playing at the Ye family's. Even though Lingjing was a girl, whenever he was bullied or wronged, she would step in like a guardian spirit to defend him. Therefore, even after being reborn, Jiaming tried his best to follow the little girl's arrangements and live a life befitting a child.

The experience of attending school for the first time was novel to him. There were no strict instructors, no bloody battles accompanying every class, and no constant threat to his life. Everything was incredibly free. The only constraint was that whenever he zoned out in class, Ye Lingjing, his deskmate, would give him a sharp tap, demanding he place his hands on the desk and sit up straight. She was the Young Pioneers Captain at school, with a sense of duty to supervise her classmates.

He diligently tried to imitate his old handwriting and kept his test scores hovering around the passing line. This wasn't difficult for Jiaming. The world of children was interesting, and he enjoyed sitting quietly and observing. However, the world of children was also frustrating because they always liked to engage in childish and maddeningly annoying games and activities. Lingjing, as a responsible captain, always dragged him along whenever there were performances or extracurricular games. While these children had fun, Jiaming felt on the verge of a breakdown.

In terms of family, he wasn't a child the Huang family paid much attention to. Apart from the other children who would think of him when they wanted to bully someone for amusement, the adults generally treated him like air. He didn't get to join the evening meals around the large dining table; he had to eat in the side hall or in his room. Every month, Butler Bai would give him pocket money, the same amount as the other children, but it was always snatched away by the other children on the night it was given.

For him now, not being paid attention to was a state he longed for. As for his money being taken, he would get it back that same night and, on the side, take their homework notebooks and burn them. The next day, the entire mansion would be in chaos, unable to find peace. Of course, since these brats consistently had poor grades, missing homework notebooks were often just treated as excuses for avoiding assignments, followed by scoldings. Jiaming would then smirk mischievously from the side.

Every day at three in the morning, he would get up and go to the outskirts of the city for training. This ten-year-old body was still too fragile. Forget fighting; even holding a gun with a significant recoil could dislocate his arm. After completing a session according to his previous assassin training, he could usually get home and dive back into bed by around 5:30 AM. By 6:00 AM, Lingjing, dressed in her sportswear, would come through the back door and tap on his window. Lingjing didn't like the children he lived with. Moreover, Jiaming lived in the last room on the first floor of the mansion, so it was more convenient for him to get dressed and jump out the window. After that, the two of them would jog to the outskirts again.

At this time, there weren't many leisure parks in Jianghai City, so this grassy slope on the outskirts was popular with morning exercisers. Jiaming would usually lie on the grass to rest, while Lingjing would practice her punches diligently beside him.

Lingjing had been practicing martial arts with her father since she was young. Her most proficient styles were Wing Chun and Tai Chi, and she had even won regional championships in martial arts competitions with these two styles, though they were purely exhibition matches. On the way back after their morning exercises, they would often encounter an uncle selling steamed buns while pushing his bicycle. Lingjing would pay ten cents for two buns and then eat them all the way back to her family's martial arts school.

Although Lingjing's father, Ye Han, had a literary name, he was actually a burly man with a full beard. It was more common for martial arts instructors to be like him back then to maintain order. Ye Han's wife was named Duan Jingxian, a renowned doctor specializing in surgery. She was as beautiful and gentle as her name suggested. One specialized in fighting, and the other in treating injuries, a perfect match, complementing each other like husband and wife. Both were kind and enthusiastic people. In a sense, perhaps only this family was Jiaming's kin in this world.

Time slowly passed, and the weather grew colder. As the end of the year approached, Hongxing Primary School had already started its winter break. Lunar New Year's Eve was February 3rd that year. Jiaming and Lingjing finished their exams on January 23rd and went to school to collect their report cards on the 27th. This time, Jiaming scored seventy in Chinese and seventy-five in Math, a significant improvement from his previous scores. Little Lingjing was even happier than if she had gotten perfect scores, attributing it to her excellent guidance as captain, believing the slow learner had finally awakened. The Ye Han family was also very pleased. Ye Han attributed Jiaming's awakening to his injury, implying he should be shot a few more times. However, he was reprimanded by Duan Jingxian for the entire evening, after which he clarified that he wanted Jiaming to come and learn martial arts during the winter break.

Jiaming, naturally, was busy coming up with excuses to refuse, such as having a lot of winter homework or the Huang family brats constantly looking for him. Inwardly, he thought that the children currently studying here were all from wealthy families, possibly "young masters" or "heirs" from prominent families. While he used to be bullied, he now had to guard against their many weaknesses. If he made a mistake like in the movie "The Eagle Shooting Heroes," where he might say, "Your position is too perfect, I can't help but kick you. It's been a long time since I've kicked so satisfyingly," it would lead to more trouble. All he wanted now was an ordinary life.

So, what would an ordinary life be like for Jiaming?

It would be a life like that of an ordinary person, he thought. He should study like a normal person through primary school, middle school, high school, and university. Perhaps he would have a few romantic relationships in high school or university, then enter society, find a job that wasn't too high or too low, and a few years later, find a wife who matched him, and just continue on that path. He might have one or two dreams and strive to achieve them. Of course, as long as he tried, it wouldn't matter if he didn't succeed. When he was old and surrounded by grandchildren, at the age of sixty or seventy, he would quietly pass away. Some would cry, but soon forget him; some would be happy, but also soon forget him. Although it was hard to imagine what it would be like to have a troublesome child who cried and fussed all day, wasn't this the happy life depicted in many books?

With these thoughts, time quickly turned to the end of the year. The martial arts training couldn't be avoided, as Ye Lingjing could see through his excuses without even needing to think. On February 2nd, Jianghai City was covered in heavy, goose-feather-like snow. The television station called it a sign of a good harvest year.

The 3rd was Lunar New Year's Eve. As usual, he went out with Lingjing through the back door for training in the morning. Upon their return, the entrance to the Huang family mansion was bustling with vehicles, many of them Audi 100s, a very stylish model at the time, as it was the car of choice for officials. Inside the hall, people came and went, with visitors paying their respects and seeking connections, demonstrating the Huang family's status in Jianghai City. The children were chasing each other in the garden, throwing snowballs or setting off firecrackers. Jiaming and Lingjing watched for a while. Lingjing looked at the children with disgust and said, "We're not staying here. Let's go back to the martial arts school. Dad secretly bought a lot of firecrackers."

Thinking he would have to spend the morning pointlessly setting off firecrackers with a child, Jiaming felt like blowing up the entire planet. Just as he was pondering how to escape, several voices in the courtyard called out to him, and then a group of chubby kids ran towards them energetically.