"Half an hour remains before this exam ends. Everyone, keep an eye on the time!"
Hearing the voice, Chen Hao groggily woke up from the desk.
The words "2000 National College Entrance Examination for Ordinary Institutions of Higher Education" and a line of bold black text on the cover leaped into view.
Damn it, how did I fall asleep?
Chen Hao looked at the clean, untouched test paper on the desk and panicked.
There was no time left. At this critical moment, a lifesaving formula surfaced in Chen Hao's mind.
If there are three long choices and one short, choose the shortest.
If there are three short choices and one long, choose the longest.
If there are two short and two long, choose B.
When in doubt, choose C.
Without hesitating, he got to work. It was better than handing in a blank sheet. What if the teacher who wrote the exam had actually followed this pattern?
Chen Hao could only "deceive" himself this way and seek a sliver of comfort.
Two minutes later, all twelve multiple-choice questions were done.
For the remaining fill-in-the-blank and written-response questions, Chen Hao started with the ones that looked familiar and simple.
Sigh, he would leave it to fate and do however many he could.
Twenty minutes later, he had hastily completed six fill-in-the-blank questions and two written-response questions.
Only a few minutes remained before the papers had to be handed in. There clearly wasn't enough time.
Unlike other subjects, math didn't award points for writing something vaguely related. You either knew it or you didn't—not even guessing was an option.
If only they were all multiple-choice questions.
The July sunlight was exceptionally bright. A gentle breeze drifted in through the window, dispersing the summer heat and bringing the examinees a touch of coolness.
The fans on the front and rear walls of the examination room hummed as they spun. It was truly perfect weather for the college entrance exam.
The deadline to hand in the papers was fast approaching.
Thinking of his parents' earnest hopes, all his years of hard study, and the overwhelming likelihood that he would have to repeat the year—
The hand gripping Chen Hao's pen gradually began to tremble uncontrollably. The thin shirt on his back was already soaked with sweat.
What should he do?
Chen Hao turned his head toward the examinees around him, who were carrying out their final checks, and looked at them with envy.
Bang!
The sound of a fist pounding the desk rang out, followed by a stern, frigid voice from the front. "Examinee Chen Hao from Senior Three, Class Five, is suspected of cheating. This exam will be scored zero, and he is disqualified from all subsequent exams!"
Chen Hao turned his head back just in time to see the invigilator tearing his test paper to shreds.
As for the invigilator's face—
He couldn't make it out.
"No!!!"
Chen Hao shot upright from the bed, his face filled with terror.
It had only been a dream. Thank goodness it had only been a dream!
He let out a long sigh of relief.
Although more than twenty years had passed since the college entrance exam, he still occasionally dreamed of that day. It had practically become a lifelong shadow.
If he hadn't suffered from diarrhea during the math exam and performed poorly, he wouldn't have ended up at an ordinary junior college. With those extra few dozen points, he could at least have gotten into a proper university. Would his life afterward have been different?
At the very least, it would have been much better than his current situation, right?
He often thought that way.
"When a person frequently recalls the past, it means their present life is unsatisfactory." —Lu Xun
Housing prices at their peak, a massive mortgage weighing on his back, an unfinished pre-sale apartment, unemployment in middle age, and even a routine physical revealing coronary heart disease.
Chen Hao felt as if his life had been cursed. The hemp rope always broke at its thinnest point.
As a former IT code monkey, who would have thought that after spending half his life writing code and saving money, he would end up working for the bank, ultimately left with nothing?
The only consolation was that he had never married or had children. Otherwise, he might have ruined their lives too—although he had bought the house in preparation for getting married someday.
Unfortunately, there were no ifs. Chen Hao stared blankly out the window as the morning sun shone in from outside, its mottled light and shadows resembling his wavering life.
Chen Hao gathered his thoughts and gradually came to his senses.
Where did he have time to lament spring and autumn? He needed to get up and deliver food!
Suddenly, Chen Hao's motion as he got out of bed seemed to freeze in time.
Hmm? Something was wrong!
The house he rented had no curtains.
A familiar patch of jade-green curtains flashed through his mind.
Having noticed the anomaly, Chen Hao began examining everything around him.
An old desk held a bulky monitor and an extremely ugly computer tower. One wall was plastered with posters of the Four Heavenly Kings, Nicholas Tse, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and other stars. A long fluorescent tube light hung from the ceiling.
This was his bedroom. His home.
Everything was distant yet familiar.
Had he been reborn?
Chen Hao hurried to the desk and, following the location stored in his memories, pulled a mirror from the drawer below. He studied himself in it.
His features were sharply defined, his eyes bright as stars, and his face somewhat refined. "Holy crap, Nicholas Tse is so handsome!" This was what he had looked like around the age of twenty.
Feeling the youthful vigor revealed by his morning exercise, Chen Hao murmured, "It's good to be young."
Especially the thick, black hair on his head—it made him cherish it all the more.
In his previous life, his irregular diet and sleep schedule, combined with heavy work pressure, had caused gray hair to spread across his head before he was thirty. His hairline had receded, and by thirty-five, he had begun showing signs of balding.
This time, he would definitely learn his lesson. He would never stay up late again!
As for this transmigration experience, Chen Hao was very satisfied. Five stars.
He just didn't know what day it was.
"Dad? Mom?"
No one answered.
Had they gone to work?
While eating the breakfast left on the table, Chen Hao turned on the television. The morning news was playing, so he ate and watched at the same time.
He found the information he wanted: February 22, 2002, the eleventh day of the first lunar month.
After breakfast, Chen Hao turned off the television and returned to his bedroom.
Since he had restarted his life, he wanted a free and fulfilling life.
"System?"
Chen Hao called out in his mind.
After a long while, there was no response.
That made sense. Knowing the future was already the greatest cheat. What more could he ask for? Having a system appear in a modern-life transmigration story would be too overpowered, like killing enemies with one slash for 999 damage and having equipment explode everywhere. It would be meaningless.
Following the habitual way he had thought about problems in his previous life, he first considered what he wanted to do, then how to do it.
Chen Hao took out a notebook and pen and began writing and sketching on the desk.
First, he wrote his life goal at the top of the first page: A free and fulfilling life!
Then he established several milestones below it, arranged in order of priority.
Financial freedom, letting his parents enjoy their later years, and seeing unknown sights.
The first two were easy to achieve. He could casually buy houses, stocks, Bitcoin, and so on. It was all money. But one, it would take time, and two, it would be boring. Was that all he wanted after being reborn? What a waste.
He circled the third goal and began to think.
Chen Hao recalled several modern transmigration novels he had read before.
Become a plagiarist?
He wrote several words in the notebook: songs, novels, movies.
Plagiarize songs? He was tone-deaf. He only recognized musical notation, could hum only the chorus of popular songs, and couldn't even remember the lyrics.
Songs were crossed out first.
Write novels? He only remembered a few famous scenes.
"Thirty years east of the river..."
"My name is Xiaowu, Wu as in dancing."
"The Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin."
Other than that, he didn't even know the protagonists' names. A few days after finishing a novel, he had basically forgotten what had been written at the beginning.
Even if he remembered the entire plot, he would still need the writing ability to support it. The protagonists in other people's novels generally had systems to assist them. As someone who had consistently failed Chinese throughout school, Chen Hao shook his head and abandoned this painful idea.
Novels were crossed out.
Movies? If he tried making one, he knew nothing about cinematography and remembered only the general plot. Without a system, that would be pure suicide.
Become an actor? He lacked Uncle Chu's talent and opportunities, and couldn't endure the hardships of being an extra. Of the countless extras, apart from Uncle Chu, he only knew Baoqiang, who had fought his way to success.
The waters of the entertainment industry were too deep. He couldn't handle them.
The final option was crossed out.
It had seemed exciting and immersive when he read about it back then, but now that he was actually facing it, careful consideration showed that almost none of it was feasible. It was all nonsense.
What else was there? Chen Hao's mind raced.
He had spent half his previous life stumbling around in the Internet industry and had at least entered a major company before ultimately being laid off. Aside from that, he truly knew nothing else. In that case, he would continue struggling in the same field.
After all, he still had some capital there.
Following that line of thought—
From the traditional Internet to the mobile Internet,
from Web 1.0 and 2.0 to the current trend toward Web 3.0;
from Shanda and The9's rise and decline, to the three-way battle among BAT, and then the sudden emergence of Xixi and Douyin.
The battle between WeChat and Feixin, the fierce competition in microblogging, the Hundred Group War, P2P, shared transportation, and short videos.
Countless Internet waves had swept through an endless succession of changes and concealed countless treacherous undercurrents. Yet in his previous life, he could only remain an ant, struggling to survive for the sake of making a living amid the endless waves, with no time to look beyond them.
A few minutes later, Chen Hao had a goal.
This time, he wanted to become a helmsman, controlling the direction of the ship as it rode the waves and sailed straight toward the open sea.
Since that was the case—
Chen Hao wrote several large characters on the cover of the notebook.
Internet Chronicle!
Ideas surged forth. The pen in Chen Hao's hand scratched rapidly across the page as he wrote feverishly.
Line after line of information appeared in the notebook.
While his memories had yet to become completely blurred and forgotten, Chen Hao listed all the general dates and events from the past twenty years.
Campus social media, food delivery, ride-hailing, video platforms—some terms appeared faintly on the page.
The purpose and general outline were in place. Now, only the most crucial link was missing!
Where should he dig for his first bucket of gold?
At the thought of this,
as a qualified Internet addict who had read countless rebirth novels,
as a reserve member who had imagined countless rebirth scenarios and was always prepared,
how could he not have a contingency plan?
The corner of Chen Hao's mouth curled up. He picked up his pen and wrote two strings of numbers on the last page of the notebook.
10, 11, 12, 13, 26, 28 + 11
04, 05, 10, 21, 26, 30 + 16
This time, he finally had the chance to verify whether the lottery was a matter of probability or statistics.
The book has been signed. Two chapters published daily (12:00 and 20:00), with stable updates. Please recommend it, add it to your collection, and follow along!
My thanks to all the esteemed readers~ Orz
Before you continue