Chapter 1: An Encounter with a Scam

“Those jet-black eyes and your smiling face—I just can't forget you…” Wu Ya hummed the tune of Tong Anger's "Love Song 90" as he flew like the wind into a dust-choked alleyway.

Beneath him, the battered bicycle—whose bell was the only thing that didn’t rattle—was pedaled so hard it nearly fell apart.

On his ears, he wore a pair of headphones padded with foam.

At his waist, a tiny cassette player was clipped on.

It was 1990.

These were the must-have accessories of that era.

Suddenly—

Bang!

With a thunderous crash, Wu Ya was flung into the air and slammed headfirst into a wall.

Blood streamed down his face.

“You little bastard, are you in such a hurry to be reborn?” The furious curse of a middle-aged man echoed as Wu Ya’s consciousness faded away.

That year, Wu Ya was eighteen.

But he fell victim to a brand-new kind of scam—

Staged accident fraud.

“What… is this…” Wu Ya groggily forced his eyelids open.

A swollen-eyed face swam into view.

His mother!

Wu Ya snapped awake in an instant.

But before he could process what was happening—

“Ya'er is awake! Go call the doctor!” His mother caught the faintest movement from him.

His father rushed off at once, dashing toward the nurses' station.

“Something’s not right!” Wu Ya shook his head sharply.

Twenty years ago, both his parents had already passed away!

But now—

How could they be standing before him, alive and well?

He looked around.

The mottled walls still showed traces of their former whiteness.

The scent of disinfectant in the air stung his nostrils.

This was a hospital.

He glanced down at himself.

His arm and head were tightly wrapped in layers of gauze.

Agonizing pain ripped through him.

Everything before his eyes felt so familiar, and yet so utterly strange.

“This looks like the scene right after the staged accident when I was eighteen…”

Memories surged through Wu Ya’s mind like a tide.

His family had never been well-off. Both parents were coal miners, scraping by on meager wages. Then came the wave of layoffs, branding them as laid-off workers of the era.

Life had already been a struggle for his family.

But what truly sank them into the mire was the accident Wu Ya suffered at eighteen!

It was a car accident orchestrated by a professional scam ring, and the result was his family being extorted for ten thousand yuan!

In those lean years,

Ten thousand yuan—

For many families, it was an astronomical sum.

Especially for those like Wu Ya’s, already teetering on the edge—such a debt was crushing!

To repay the huge sum they’d been forced to borrow, his parents did every kind of backbreaking labor they could find.

But in the end, fate was merciless.

On a freezing, snowy night, the couple slipped while unloading heavy cargo and were pinned beneath it.

From that day, Wu Ya was left all alone, forced to give up his university studies.

And because of his family background and truncated education, life after entering society was a constant, bitter struggle.

He endured countless hardships.

It could be said that all the misery of Wu Ya’s last life traced back to that staged accident.

Still, no matter how tough things got, he never gave up.

That perseverance finally paid off.

At thirty, he started his own business and succeeded at last!

He became his own boss, and business flourished.

Everything seemed to be turning out well.

But—

His last clear memory was at a business banquet!

How had everything changed the moment he woke up?

“Could it be I’ve been reborn? Sent back twenty-one years, to my confused youth at eighteen?”

Very quickly, Wu Ya confirmed it.

He truly had returned to his eighteen-year-old self!

The age of sitting on street curbs, whistling at pretty girls!

“If this is fate, if Heaven is giving me this chance, I must change my life and erase my regrets!”

Awareness brought Wu Ya uncontrollable joy.

The wild, hollow pleasures of his past life were all tainted with regret.

But the love of his parents before him now was the one thing he could never let go.

“Dad, Mom, I’m back! This time around, I will never let you suffer again, and I will never let tragedy befall you!”

In his last life, he was set up.

It ruined his family and orphaned him.

In this life, he would take control, start anew!

Let his parents live free of hardship, never dying in misery.

Let the regret that had weighed on him for thirty-nine years be washed away!

“Who’s the bastard that hit my husband?”

Just as Wu Ya was lost in memory and hope for the future—

A heavily made-up woman stormed into the ward, her face twisted in anger.

Powder flew in clouds as she passed.

Behind her came the middle-aged man, his arm in a cast, groaning as he hobbled along.

“Sister, I’m so sorry. My son was reckless—it’s all his fault. Please, forgive us.” Wu Ya’s mother, Zhang Caixia, offered a humble smile.

Families like theirs, even in this remote town of Chenhai, were at the very bottom.

They couldn’t afford to offend a soul.

“Sister? Don’t talk nonsense! Are you saying I’m older than you?”

But her humility was met with a torrent of abuse.

“Uncouth woman! Apologize to my mother right now, or you’ll answer to me!”

Wu Ya’s rage flared instantly.

Without them, his family wouldn’t have been ruined.

His parents wouldn’t have died repaying that crushing debt!

His own life wouldn’t have ended at thirty-nine, just as his business was taking off!

All of it, because of the woman before him.

And the scoundrel ring she ran with.

“You caused a traffic accident and now you want to start a fight? Want me to call the police on you?”

The woman’s beady eyes flashed with arrogance as she glared at Wu Ya.

By the rules, if you refused to pay compensation for an accident, you could be criminally charged.

That was the foundation of their racket.

She didn’t believe for a second that a brash kid from a dirt-poor family like theirs could make any trouble.

“Ow, ow, it hurts! I can’t take it anymore!” The middle-aged man acted his part to perfection, moaning as he collapsed toward Wu Ya.

“Ya’er, keep your mouth shut!” Zhang Caixia hurriedly pulled her son away.

At his age, Wu Ya was hot-blooded and quick-tempered.

If he lost control now, not only would they have to pay for the man’s medical expenses, but there could be jail time ahead.

“Wu Ya, get back on that hospital bed this instant! Say one more word and I’ll break your legs!” His father was panicked, too.

They were poor.

Now people had shown up to make a scene, and he had no idea how they would pay.

If things got out of hand, it could only get worse.

“Hmph. Since you’re being so cooperative, let’s talk compensation. My husband’s medical bills, lost wages, plus my caregiver’s fee—ten thousand yuan! That’s all. Not much, is it?”

The woman lifted her chin, rattling off the demand with practiced ease.

There was no room for negotiation.

“This…” His parents were dumbfounded.

In that era, for a family like theirs—

Ten thousand?

It was a sum beyond imagination.

“Big brother, sister-in-law, for the sake of us all being locals, can’t you lower it a bit? So we might at least be able to borrow the money?”

Their voices grew even more humble.

Back then, staged accidents were a new trick.

People like them, struggling just to put food on the table, had no way of knowing about such schemes.

So they felt guilty. After all, it was their son who had hit someone.

If the matter blew up, jail was inevitable.

He had just been accepted to university, a chance to escape poverty.

If a criminal record was added to his name, his future would be ruined.

Poor parents the world over.

Those at the bottom are humble to begin with.

Now, for Wu Ya’s sake, they were willing to sacrifice every shred of dignity.

But in return—

“Not a penny less! Or your son goes to jail!”

The woman’s ruthless demand drove them to the brink of despair.

Just then—

“You certainly have some nerve.”

Wu Ya suddenly stepped forward again.

He looked at the man and woman, his eyes cold as ice.