Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

After receiving the eight hundred yuan from the clan, Lin Ying's life did not become easier; on the contrary, it became even more packed.

She knew better than anyone else that being smart was one thing, but whether or not one studied was another. In her previous life, she lay in a hospital bed with a photographic memory, but could only learn about the world through books and screens. In this life, she finally had a healthy body that could run and jump, and the opportunity to enter a top university like St. Paul's. She couldn't possibly take advantage of her talent to lie down and be lazy.

Hong Kong will never give anyone a chance to slack off.

Ever since she paid the fees and enrolled, her free time has been completely filled. Computer literacy classes are held three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; dance classes are held twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays; and swimming classes are scheduled for Saturday mornings. All extracurricular classes, which are not on weekends, are held without fail after school ends at 3:30 p.m.

While other students would carry their backpacks and call out to their friends to take the school bus home after school, Lin Ying would turn a corner and walk alone towards the west wing of the teaching building.

The computer lab is located in the innermost room on the third floor of the west wing, and this is the course that Lin Ying values ​​most right now.

There are strict rules before entering. All students must change into blue soft-soled shoe covers issued by the school at the entrance. Water cups are absolutely not allowed to be brought into the room, and all school bags must be stored in the wooden cabinet outside the door.

Mr. Shao, who teaches computer classes, is a young man with a middle parting and wearing a jacket. He is said to be a part-time lecturer hired by the school board from a foreign company in Central at a high price.

In the first lesson, Mr. Shao pointed to a dozen or so beige miniature computers lined up on a long table and said to ten carefully selected fourth-grade students, "Don't be fooled by its appearance; it looks like a TV with a keyboard. It will change the way the world works in the future."

When the screen lights up, it emits a faint, greenish glow, displaying not graphics, but lines of mechanically flashing English cursors.

In Hong Kong in the 1980s, most ordinary families had not yet adopted color televisions. These expensive foreign machines were like gibberish to elementary school students. While other children hesitated for a long time about which button to place their fingers on, Lin Ying quickly mastered the machine after Mr. Shao demonstrated the power-on process and simple commands.

Her fingers moved with lightning speed across the keyboard, tapping out precise characters.

"You used to use it at home?" Sir Shao asked in surprise, standing behind her.

"No, this is my first time using it." Lin Ying's hands didn't stop, "but I remember the key diagram and command logic you just wrote on the whiteboard."

Shao Sir nodded with admiration: "You reacted quickly, but just memorizing isn't enough. You need to understand the machine's rules. The computer can't guess what you mean. If you miss a punctuation mark, it won't work."

"I understand," Lin Ying replied, staring at the green cursor jumping on the screen.

She liked this feeling. Machines are much simpler than humans. They have no class bias, no emotions. If you give the right instructions, they will give you the right results.

Besides the mentally demanding computer classes, other physically demanding classes are even more challenging.

The original owner's body had been mentally impaired for nine years. Although the Lin family had taken good care of her for a period of time after she regained consciousness, her limbs were still weak.

On the first day of dance class, during leg stretches, a dozen or so girls clung to the barre in the dance studio next to the auditorium, tears streaming down their faces from the pain. Lin Ying was in pain too, cold sweat pouring down her forehead; the aching from the muscle stretching was unbearable! But she still endured it, following the teacher's instructions and gradually slowing her breathing.

Swimming lessons were another hurdle. The first time she went into the water, the moment the water reached her chest, the suffocating feeling of not being able to breathe due to heart and lung failure in her previous life came back like a nightmare; Lin Ying's body instinctively stiffened and trembled in the water.

"Don't be afraid of the water! Relax and hold your breath!" the coach on the shore shouted, blowing his whistle.

Lin Ying closed her eyes, gripped the edge of the pool with both hands, and forced herself to open her eyes underwater, exhaling a string of bubbles. If it didn't work the first time, she tried twice; if it didn't work the second time, she tried ten times. When she climbed ashore after the class, she was soaked to the bone and so tired that she could barely lift her fingers, but she felt at peace.

She truly felt that this body with its strong, beating heart belonged entirely to her.

Every evening after finishing these demanding classes, it was usually already dark. The school bus dropped her off at the entrance of the alleyway of Yu Fat Building in Sai Wan. Carrying her heavy schoolbag, the first thing she did was turn into Lin's Tailor Shop.

Inside the shop, Lin Lanying was still sitting in front of the sewing machine, pedaling to make handmade suits for her customers.

Lin Qian was lying on the table doing his homework, with half a pencil stub in his mouth.

"Sister, you're back." As soon as Lin Ying entered the door, Lin Qian immediately put down his pen and smiled ingratiatingly.

Lin Ying put down her schoolbag, washed her face at the tap in the back, dried her hands, and walked over, directly snatching the arithmetic book from Lin Qian's hand.

She glanced at it, frowned slightly, and tapped one of the lines with her finger: "Seven times eight equals fifty-four?"

Lin Qian explained in a low voice, "I was writing too fast and my hand slipped."

Lin Lanying's sewing machine stopped with a "click," and she glared at Lin Qian, scolding, "Slippery hands? Do I have to loosen your bones with a bamboo stick so your hands won't slip? Your older sister spent the whole day at school, and when she got back she had to check your homework, and you're just trying to fool me?"

Lin Qian fell silent and looked pleadingly at He Dazhu, who had just come in from outside carrying a toolbox.

He Dazhu had spent the whole day polishing jade with Master Su, and two band-aids were still on his fingers. He walked in, put down his box, glanced at the arithmetic book on the table, and sternly tapped the table: "Little brother, a man should keep his word. Your grandfather said the Lin family doesn't raise spendthrift sons. If you don't study hard, I'll make you a small plane tomorrow and you'll come with me to learn the trade."

Lin Qian's face immediately fell, and he quickly pulled back his arithmetic book to grab an eraser: "I'll change it! I'll change it right now!"

"Before you go to bed tonight, copy 7, 8, 56 ten times and give it to your older sister to check; if you miss even one, you won't be allowed to eat breakfast tomorrow." After saying that, Lin Lanying turned around and started working on the sewing machine again.

Lin Ying pulled out a chair and sat down next to them, opening her textbook and listening to her parents' impartial scolding.

In this family, no one spoiled or abandoned Lin Qian because of her good grades and being treated like a "golden phoenix." If you can study, study hard; if you can't, learn a trade. This is the Lin family's simplest and most rigid rule.

However, as the days went by, Lin Ying's sense of urgency grew stronger and stronger.

Because Hong Kong is truly a place where even breathing costs money!

Although I only paid 1,000 yuan for the computer class because I was the top student in the grade, the original English reference books recommended by Mr. Shao later cost several tens of yuan each, even though they were thin.

The soft-soled shoes for dance class wear out and need to be replaced; the swimming cap and towel for swimming class also cost money; the daily lunch tickets in the canteen, the miscellaneous expenses for buying pencils and notebooks... all flow out of the house silently like a trickle of water.

Lin Lanying started sewing later and later at night, and He Dazhu practiced carving jade from scraps even more diligently, even buying meat less often at the dinner table; Lin Ying noticed all of this.

She's only nine years old now, so it's impossible for her to work in a restaurant washing dishes and serving food; she wants to write articles and submit them to newspapers, but she doesn't yet know how to get in touch with the editors in Hong Kong's cultural circles; she desperately needs a way to quickly and legally monetize the knowledge in her head.