Now that they've all been reborn, who wouldn't be living life to the fullest?

[Free brain storage; only smart people can see this message.]

[A failed author's fantasies before he died from poisoning after eating a cheap meal.]

[If you find the rescue plot at the beginning cliché, you can skip directly to the first chapter of this book—Chapter Nine.]

[Gods, please read a couple more chapters! It's so tough being a newbie writer; all I can manage each day is a bowl of Longjiang braised pork trotters rice at mealtimes.]

A bowl of Longjiang braised pork trotter rice reveals a man's romance—filled with bitterness and tears, he can only afford to share a meal.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The high seas stretched as far as the eye could see.

boom--!!!

Rumble!!!

The explosions erupted from two closely packed ships, each about 20 meters apart, sending flames soaring into the sky and engulfing all lives in an instant.

……

On a yacht offshore.

"Hahahaha! Second Brother!!! We did it! Big Brother was blown to bits! Not a trace left! Just ashes!"

A burly, honest-looking man stared at the disappearing signal on the satellite communicator and excitedly turned around and shouted.

"What big brother? Now, I am the big brother!!!" the one-eyed man corrected coldly, his voice filled with barely suppressed excitement.

"Yes, yes, yes! The one before died, now the second brother is the eldest brother!!!"

"Fuck you! I'm the third-in-command of an international drug cartel, and he even cares about my prostitution! From now on, I'll be a prostitute every day! I'll even be prostituting myself in front of his portrait!"

"Look at your pathetic self." The one-eyed man clicked his tongue. "What a pity about that batch of goods; it was worth hundreds of millions of US dollars."

"What are you afraid of, brother! The entire gang will be ours soon, we'll earn this money back eventually!"

"Hahaha! You're right!"

"From now on, the world belongs to my one-eyed self!!!"

……

Jiang County, a small town in the south, is scorching hot in the height of summer.

In the grove, a famous "battleground for couples" on campus, the morning light filters through the branches and leaves, casting dappled shadows.

"I... I'm still alive???"

Su Yifeng lowered his head, staring blankly at his outstretched hands, his pupils dilating in shock.

"Su Yifeng! If you don't say something, I'm really going to ignore you!"

Class beauty Li Jiaying's pretty face turned angry:

"You promised to give me a birthday present as soon as my scholarship of 6,000 yuan came through. Are you trying to back out now?"

Feng Haoxiang, standing to the side, gloated and fanned the flames:

"Yingying, he's obviously regretting it. It's just a five-thousand-yuan phone, look at him, head down, so cowardly."

"Today is your eighteenth birthday! I only have five hundred on me, and I even borrowed two hundred to buy you that necklace. Look at him—he doesn't need to borrow any money, he just spends some of his scholarship money."

"Isn't it obvious who treats you better, Yingying?"

Scholarship? New mobile phone? Li Jiaying? Feng Haoxiang?

Su Yifeng slowly raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the two people he had personally killed in his previous life.

...I was reborn back to this day.

The turning point that plunged his life into the abyss!

Twenty years ago, on this very day.

During the summer vacation after the college entrance examination, 18-year-old Su Yifeng was one of only two students in the school to be ranked among the top 100 in the province and received a scholarship of 6,000 yuan.

He was blind to the girl he liked at the time; she asked for the latest model mobile phone as a birthday gift.

Su Yifeng, who had never received more than ten yuan in pocket money since childhood, was extremely reluctant, but under the stimulation of Li Jiaying and Feng Haoxiang, he blindly agreed.

Everyone understands the principle of striking while the iron is hot, so Li Jiaying immediately pulled Su Yifeng along, and the three of them headed straight for the mall.

Then, tragedy struck...

On her way to the mall, in her haste, Li Jiaying bumped into an old man at a corner where there was no surveillance camera.

As expected, the old man lived up to expectations. Even though there was nothing wrong, he started throwing a tantrum and extorting money from people on the spot.

He held onto Li Jiaying tightly, refusing to let her leave, and the two began to argue.

Feng Haoxiang reacted quickly, shoving the old man to the ground. Li Jiaying took the opportunity to break free, and the three of them fled in panic.

I thought that was the end of it.

Three days later, Su Yifeng was arrested—on charges of manslaughter.

It turned out that the old man broke two ribs after being pushed down, suffered a heart attack that night, and died after a day of intensive care.

In court, Li Jiaying and Feng Haoxiang had already conspired to pin the blame on Su Yifeng.

The old man's gambler son also insisted that Su Yifeng was responsible, crying and demanding compensation.

Even more deadly was that the old man left behind a recording before he died, describing the physical characteristics of the person who bumped into and pushed him... which matched Su Yifeng perfectly.

The sudden accusation left Su Yifeng's mind blank; he could only repeatedly murmur, "It wasn't me...it really wasn't me..."

Ultimately, he was sentenced to six years in prison by a fair judge. Li Jiaying and Feng Haoxiang were acquitted.

It wasn't until many years later, when Su Yifeng was released from prison and sent these people to their deaths one by one, that the whole truth of what happened back then came to light.

Small towns are shallow and full of scoundrels. On the day the old man was hit, his gambler son used his connections to investigate the family backgrounds of all three people.

Li Jiaying and Feng Haoxiang both come from ordinary working-class families and can't make much money off each other.

Su Yifeng was different—a typical orphan, adopted by his uncle and aunt from a young age, but he was rich.

His parents died in a car accident shortly after he was born. The perpetrator was a rich second-generation heir who was driving under the influence of alcohol. The insurance company and compensation paid out hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Including the scattered assets left by his parents and the property that was later acquired through demolition compensation, his total assets amounted to just over two million yuan.

For the past eighteen years, the monthly child support payments from the court to my uncle and aunt have increased from the initial two thousand to five thousand, and the remaining estate still has more than one million.

How could the old man's son know all this so well?

Because Su Yifeng's uncle was also a gambler. Although the two were not close, they knew each other.

When a gambler gets carried away, what can't he say?

Upon learning that Su Yifeng possessed a million-dollar inheritance, the old man's son first had his father record his voice based on Su Yifeng's physical characteristics.

Then they found Li Jiaying and Feng Haoxiang, and brought a group of tattooed brothers to intimidate and threaten them, saying, "If you don't cooperate, we'll kill your whole family."

The two men were already feeling guilty, and knowing that the old man's death was related to them, they went along with it.

What followed spiraled out of control – the problem wasn't the old man's heart attack, but rather that it excited the gambler's son even more, since he could demand more compensation.

The problem is that Su Yifeng's uncle and aunt took the opportunity to swindle him out of his entire inheritance and refused to pay a single penny in compensation.

If he obtains the family's forgiveness, Su Yifeng may only be sentenced to two or three years, and if he behaves well, he may even be released in one year.

But his uncle and aunt had long been worried: Su Yifeng would inherit the estate when he turned eighteen, and the fixed child support payments would be gone.

Isn't this the perfect opportunity to swallow this money?

Trapped in the police station and completely lost, Su Yifeng obeyed his uncle and aunt's every word.

The outcome was predictable—the money was swallowed up, no compensation was paid, and he was sentenced to six years in prison.

In order to live with dignity in prison... to put it simply, to keep his chrysanthemum safe, he was ultimately imprisoned for a full ten years.

……