Chapter 1: Rebirth
Slept with the wrong person?
Where am I?
Li Guoqing blinked his eyes in confusion, his head heavy with the effects of alcohol.
He rubbed his temples with his hand, trying to recall...
All he remembered was last night, troubled by company affairs, he was invited by his good friend to drink at home.
In a bad mood, the alcohol dulled his senses. He didn't know how long he had been drinking or how much he had consumed.
He just remembered pouring drink after drink into his belly, as if only alcohol could dispel the troubles in his heart.
The sunlight streamed in through the window, completely waking him up, and he squinted as he looked around.
Where is this? Li Guoqing pushed himself up with his right hand, sitting on the bed, shaking his heavy head and looking around.
The dilapidated walls, covered in mottled cracks, and the empty room greeted him.
Looking at this unfamiliar yet familiar room, Li Guoqing suddenly felt dumbfounded.
As he was about to get up, he noticed a delicate and boneless figure lying beside him,
A young woman with skin as smooth as condensed fat.
Who is this person? He seemed to have never seen her before? Yet there was a hint of familiarity?
"Rebirth?"
Li Guoqing squinted, realizing that he had returned to the summer of August 20, 1982, thirty years ago.
Memories surged like tides, constantly emerging.
Yesterday (August 19, 1982), he was intoxicated and indulgent, beating his wife.
His wife wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, laughing in anger, and ended up drinking most of a bottle of liquor before passing out on the bed.
That night, he and his wife enjoyed the long-lost pleasures of family life.
So, the person beside him was his wife from thirty years ago?!
Thirty years ago, he spent his days drinking and playing cards, squandering all the money at home.
His wife repeatedly advised him to no avail, always ending up getting beaten. Finally, under the insistence of her mother-in-law, she divorced him.
For thirty years, he had never seen his wife again. So much so that he had forgotten what his young wife looked like.
Looking at his wife sleeping beside him, a smile spread across his face.
Great! She's the woman I love the most.
God has given me a chance to be reborn, to meet you again! As he immersed himself in the joy of rebirth, his wife, Wu Xinyi, moved her fingers and gradually woke up with a groggy head.
She rubbed her head with her left hand, and as soon as she opened her eyes, the sunlight made her eyes shut tightly. After a while, she gradually adjusted to the light.
She looked around, and when she saw Li Guoqing naked, she jumped up from the bed in shock.
Finding herself naked, she hastily grabbed the blanket at the edge of the bed and covered herself tightly.
She glared at Li Guoqing with hatred in her eyes.
Her disappointment in Li Guoqing was so extreme that she hadn't let him touch her recently.
Never did she expect that after getting drunk yesterday, such a thing would happen.
"Xinyi!"
Li Guoqing broke the awkward silence, looking at Wu Xinyi with apologetic eyes.
"Did we... last night?"
Li Guoqing blurted out in panic.
"We didn't do anything!"
Wu Xinyi shook her head, grabbing the patched clothes at the foot of the bed and hurriedly running to the bathroom.
Wu Xinyi's attitude towards him tore Li Guoqing's heart apart, as if his heart was being squeezed, making it hard for him to breathe.
How much of a scoundrel had he been over the years to disappoint his wife like this?
He saw disgust in his wife's eyes, but couldn't see any love.
At that moment, a hurried knocking came from outside.
"Open the door! Open it now!"
A middle-aged woman's voice came from outside the room.
"Li Guoqing, I know you're inside! Open the door for me!"
The voice was both unfamiliar and familiar.
Li Guoqing rubbed his temples and remembered; it was the landlady!
He hurriedly put on his clothes, shaking his head at the patched clothes. Then he walked up and opened the door.
"Oh, you're all here?"
The landlady walked in, fanning herself with a fan.
After entering the room, she glanced disdainfully at Li Guoqing, then turned to Wu Xinyi.
"Xinyi, the rent has been overdue for so long, isn't it time to pay?"
Who was Li Guoqing? Everyone in the factory knew him.
As for the rent, she could only rely on Wu Xinyi, who was honest and dependable.
"Rent?!"
Wu Xinyi was taken aback.
Didn't she lend the money to Li Guoqing two days ago? He had solemnly promised that he had already paid the landlady.
What's going on?
With a hateful look in her eyes, Wu Xinyi glanced at Li Guoqing and then turned to the landlady, embarrassed:
"Sister, please give me a few more days for the rent. I'll definitely pay you in a few days."
The landlady hesitated as she looked at Wu Xinyi, then turned to glance at Li Guoqing.
Sighing, and her tone softened:
"Xinyi, I know your situation. I didn't want to rush you, but you've owed me four months of rent. How can you manage to pay it all by yourself when your man is always drinking himself senseless?"
"I'm not pressuring you, it's just that the rent has been overdue for too long. I think you should move out today and I'll rent the place to someone else."
"The rent you owe me, you can pay me back when you have the money in the future."
The continuous delay in paying rent had already made the landlady lose her patience. At this moment, she just wanted to kick Li Guoqing and his wife out of the house and find new tenants.
Wu Xinyi's body softened, tears in her eyes, and she begged the landlady:
"Sister, please give me three more days. I'll borrow money from someone. If I really can't pay by then, we'll move out ourselves. Please, just give us a little more time!"
The landlady hesitated, feeling conflicted.
But she couldn't just throw them out directly. Softening her tone, she said:
"Alright, alright! Three days, but you must move out then!"
She didn't believe that Wu Xinyi could gather the rent in three days. She thought that enduring for three more days was all she could do.
As for the rent owed before?
Wu Xinyi and her mother worked in the factory, they couldn't run away. She would come back to collect it later.
After saying that, she shook her head, disappointed, and walked out of the door.
After the landlady left, Li Guoqing subconsciously reached into his pocket. There were only a few cents left, having squandered all the money his wife had given him.
"Li Guoqing!"
After seeing off the landlady, Wu Xinyi looked at her once beloved husband with widened eyes. The words of reprimand were at the tip of her tongue but were swallowed back down.
Quietly, she tidied up her clothes, grabbed her backpack, and prepared to leave.
"Xinyi, where are you going?"
Li Guoqing's heart raced, and he hurriedly stepped forward to ask.
Wu Xinyi halted her steps, disappointment evident in her gaze as she coldly replied, "I'm going to borrow money!"
With that, she left without looking back.
Borrow money?
Li Guoqing's mind raced.
On August 18, 1982, his wife gave him the borrowed money to pay the landlord before rushing off to work at the factory.
That afternoon, he went out drinking and gambling, squandering all the money.
On August 20 (today), the landlord came to urge them for the rent. His wife went to her mother to borrow money.
But her mother refused.
Unable to borrow money, they were eventually evicted by the landlord.
His wife was taken back to her mother's house.
And then they got divorced!
Li Guoqing watched his wife's retreating figure, feeling a pang of pain in his heart. It felt as though his heart was being squeezed, aching and sore.
No!
I must find a way to make money. I can't let my wife leave me.