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

The clock struck seven in the evening; Lin Ying closed her homework and glanced at the clock on the wall.

"That's enough for the first draft of the outline. Those with messy handwriting, rewrite it tomorrow." Lin Ying stood up and pushed the bottle of birth control pills that had caused the trouble aside. "The course on human physiology and basic pharmacology will be officially added to the schedule next weekend. You guys better be on your toes."

Su Jun buried his head in his arms in frustration, too exhausted to even speak. Su Cheng rubbed his aching wrist and mumbled a reply.

Su Zhihao sat on the large single sofa next to him, still rubbing his swollen and stuffy chest, his face ashen.

"Second Uncle, that's enough for today." Lin Ying slung her schoolbag over her shoulder.

"Hmm." Su Zhihao stood up, his tone softening a bit. "Ah Ying, you've had a tough day. If Maria hadn't found out early, I'm afraid I would have been really screwed over by these two bastards."

Su Zhihao turned and called out towards the door, "Old Wang! Prepare the car! We'll take Miss Lin back to Sai Wan!"

Lin Ying wanted to decline, saying she would take the tram herself, but seeing Su Zhihao's disapproving look, she didn't say anything more and simply nodded and thanked him, "Thank you, Second Uncle."

Before leaving, Su Zhihao turned around and pointed at the two brothers on the coffee table: "Write! I'll be sitting right here watching you tonight! If you miss a single word, you're going to Kowloon City tomorrow to wash dishes for me!"

Behind me came Su Jun's sobbing, his voice trembling with tears.

Lin Ying went to the entrance to change her shoes. Hearing the noisy sounds inside, she quickly walked out the door and got into Su Zhihao's car.

After the car door closed, it smoothly drove into the Causeway Bay night. Lin Ying bit her lower lip.

The thought of Su Zhihao holding the hospital test results and loudly proclaiming that her "estrogen levels were approaching ovulation" and then of Su Jun and Su Cheng saying righteously, "We just want you to use contraception," made Lin Ying's shoulders tremble uncontrollably.

Lin Ying took a deep breath, dug her nails into her palm, and forcibly shifted her attention.

But my mind just wouldn't cooperate, and the image shifted back to that bottle of female birth control pills, and Su Zhihao's words, "I thought I was just bored because I'd been single for too long."

The car sped along and finally stopped at the entrance of the alleyway of Yu Fat Building in Sai Wan.

"Thank you, Uncle Wang." Lin Ying said calmly as she got out of the car.

When Lin Lanying returned home to Yufa Building, she was listening to the radio: "Sister's back? Why are you so late today?"

Lin Ying nodded: "Yes, I took care of something at the Su family's place. Mommy, I'm going back to my room to put my schoolbag away."

Before her family could ask any more questions, Lin Ying quickly ran back to her single bedroom and closed the door behind her.

Lin Ying tossed her schoolbag onto the bed and leaned against the door.

"Hahahahahaha!" The laughter that had been held back for hours finally burst out in this small bedroom.

Lin Ying clutched her stomach, laughing so hard she was panting.

In her previous life, Lin Ying spent eighteen years lying in a hospital bed, reading many books, experiencing the coldness of life and death, and witnessing the price tag of family affection. Reborn in Hong Kong in the 1980s, she experienced class barriers, relied on her intelligence to acquire resources, and always remained calm and pragmatic in dealing with matters.

Even after combining two lifetimes and reading countless medical cases and dramas, Lin Ying had never encountered anything so outrageous and absurd!

Two loveless, teenage boys, to prevent their father from marrying a stepmother, having a second child, and fighting for the family fortune, secretly stole their aunt's birth control pills and fed them to their father! After a month of this, they caused a gangster boss to suffer from hormonal imbalance. Not only did he lose clumps of hair, but his estrogen levels also skyrocketed...

"Hahahaha... Help..."

Lin Ying threw herself onto the bed, hugged the blanket and rolled around on it, laughing until tears streamed down her face.

"Dong dong dong!" Lin Lanying slammed the door hard: "Amei?! What are you doing?! What's wrong with you?"

Lin Qian ran over too, banging on the door and shouting, "Sister! Are you seeing a ghost? Father! Sister's possessed inside!"

He Dazhu rushed to the door and shouted, "Sister, open the door quickly! Did those Su family members bully you? Old Dou is going to get the kitchen knife right now!"

Hearing the commotion outside, Lin Ying wiped away her tears with her sleeve, took two deep breaths, stood up, and opened the door.

As soon as the door opened, the entire family of three stared at her.

"I'm not possessed, Lao Dou, don't take the knife." Lin Ying leaned against the door frame, panting.

Lin Lanying looked her daughter up and down: "Why are you smiling like that if you haven't been wronged? When you were always first in your grade, you never even showed your teeth! What happened?"

Looking at her anxious mother, Lin Ying recalled Su Jun's words, "It was Su Zhi who said that this would be helpful for Auntie."

"Pfft..." Lin Ying covered her mouth and laughed again. "It's okay, Mommy, it's really okay. It's just... too funny."

Lin Qian jumped up and down in a panic: "What's so funny? Tell us so we can all laugh!"

Lin Ying waved her hand; This kind of thing involves the face of the film's major shareholder. If Su Zhihao's privacy is spread around, Brother Hao might really flatten his own house tomorrow.

Lin Ying could only give a vague explanation: "Su Cheng and Su Jun made a huge blunder. They listened to their cousin's bad idea and gave their second uncle random medicine. They were caught on the spot, causing a huge uproar."

Lin Lanying looked at her suspiciously: "Did you take the wrong medicine? How can taking the wrong medicine be so funny? Look at you, you're laughing so hard you're crying."

Lin Ying wiped away the wetness from the corner of her eyes and looked at Lin Lanying seriously: "Mommy, believe me... This is the first time in my life I've encountered such an outrageous misunderstanding. If this were written into a script and made into a comedy movie, it would definitely be a hit throughout Hong Kong."

Lin Lanying rolled her eyes speechlessly and poked Lin Ying's forehead.

"I think you've gone crazy writing that 'Death by Light' novel. You can make a movie out of anything. Alright, as long as you weren't wronged, go wash your face and get ready for dinner!"

He Dazhu breathed a sigh of relief, muttering, "Those two young masters from the Su family are indeed not as bright as our little sister."

That night, Lin Ying lay in bed, eyes closed, occasionally letting out a muffled chuckle in the darkness. This dark humor of reality was even crazier than any zombie movie concocted with painstaking effort.

------

The next afternoon after school, Lin Ying returned to Sai Wan as usual, carrying her schoolbag.

Lin's Tailor Shop: Lin Ying pulled out a folding table and sat down in the corner, flipping through her English exercise book to do her homework. Lin Lanying was at her sewing machine, head down, stitching. The smell of oil from the roast meat shop outside drifted in through the alley, giving the shop a lively, down-to-earth atmosphere.

Just then, the old-fashioned rotary dial telephone on the counter rang.

Lin Lanying kept her feet on the pedals and said, "Sister, answer the phone."

"Okay." Lin Ying put down her pen, walked over, and picked up the microphone. "Hello, Lin's Tailor."

A burst of laughter came from the other end of the phone: "Hahahaha!"

Lin Ying knew who it was without even guessing: "Aunt Chen."

Chen Meishan laughed so hard she could barely breathe on the other end of the phone: "Ah Ying! It's me! Oh my god... Do you know about your second uncle's situation? Hahahaha..."

Lin Ying held the microphone, her voice tinged with laughter: "If Auntie is referring to the incident where Su Cheng and Su Jun listened to Su Zhi's common sense and administered drugs indiscriminately, then I was there yesterday and know everything."

"Hahahaha!"

The two of them laughed again, even through the phone line.

Lin Lanying stopped what she was doing at the sewing machine and looked at Lin Ying with a puzzled expression.

"Ah Ying, you have no idea what happened this morning!" Chen Meishan started gossiping.

"Early this morning, the second brother stormed into our Central apartment building, his face as black as Bao Zheng's. He slammed an empty medicine bottle onto our coffee table. He pointed at Su Zhi and demanded, 'Did you steal the medicine from the drawer to give to those two brothers?'"

Lin Ying asked with a smile, "Brother Zhi admitted it?"

"Su Zhi was stubborn and wouldn't admit it at first!" Chen Meishan laughed, slapping her thigh. "Then the second brother casually grabbed a golf club and said he was going to hang him outside on the balcony to get some fresh air. Su Zhi immediately peed his pants and confessed everything!"

Chen Meishan mimicked her son's tone perfectly: "Su Zhi said that he overheard me and my friends talking about how taking this medicine would prevent us from having a fourth child. He thought it was a miracle cure that would prevent both men and women from having children! So he secretly gave it to Su Jun to protect the family property!"

"What did your uncle say?" Lin Ying asked.

"Your eldest uncle was completely stunned after hearing this. Your second son was furious, saying my medication had caused his estrogen levels to be higher than a woman's during ovulation for the past two weeks. In the end, your eldest uncle could only quickly pull out his checkbook and say he'd give his second son some money to improve his health." Chen Meishan laughed so hard she was breathless on the phone. "Su Zhi got a beating from your eldest uncle with a feather duster!"

"He deserved to be slapped." Lin Ying's assessment was fair.

Chen Meishan caught her breath. "Aying, your aunt has a question for you, just between us. You were there yesterday, did you get a good look at the second son?"

Lin Ying was taken aback: "What are you looking at, Second Uncle?"

Chen Meishan couldn't hold back anymore: "My second son's breasts have gotten bigger!!! Hahahaha!"

Lin Ying recalled Su Zhihao's gesture of clutching his chest and feeling suffocated yesterday, as well as the obviously taut buttons on his shirt.

"Hahahaha!" Lin Ying's defenses were breached once again by this detail, and she laughed so hard she could barely stand, leaning against the counter.

"Really! I'm not kidding!" Chen Meishan continued, adding insult to injury, "This morning he was standing in my living room yelling at me, and the outline of his pectoral muscles... oh my god, at first I thought he'd just gained weight recently, but it turns out it's because those two bastards fed him so much that he's had a second puberty! I had to pinch my thigh to keep from laughing out loud in front of him!"

Lin Ying was truly speechless now.

Lin Lanying walked over and looked at her daughter suspiciously: "What are you two, old and young, doing over the phone? Laughing so loudly, aren't you afraid of outsiders hearing?"

Lin Ying covered the microphone and squeezed out a sentence to Lin Lanying: "Mommy, Second Uncle... he's gained weight." Then she immediately turned her head and continued to smile.

On the other end of the phone, Chen Meishan finally calmed down a bit: "But laughing it off, this is really too embarrassing. When the second brother left, he fiercely instructed that if this got out, he would blow up all the apartment buildings in Central. You must keep this a secret."

"Don't worry, Auntie." Lin Ying took a deep breath. "I won't tell."

"But Ah Ying," Chen Meishan changed the subject, "the second brother told me today that you're going to give those two rascals an extra lesson on human physiology and basic pharmacology this weekend?"

"Yes, double the price."

"Count me in!" Chen Meishan declared confidently. "That good-for-nothing Su Zhi doesn't even understand male and female anatomy, yet he dared to steal and distribute medicine recklessly, almost turning Second Uncle into Second Aunt! This weekend, I'll pack Su Zhi up and send him to Second Brother's place too. I'll still pay for his tutoring. You give those three a good brainwashing!"

"Deal." Lin Ying readily agreed.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Ying looked at the setting sun streaming in through the window and let out a breath.

The drama of the gangster's father taking on his own son has temporarily come to an end, but after this incident, Lin Ying is convinced that the material provided by the real world is hardcore enough.

Although this matter cannot be leaked, if we take the gangster background, add elements of endocrine disorders and father-son conflicts, and repackage it into another social ethics comedy script... it will definitely cause another box office sensation in Hong Kong cinemas next year.

"Do your homework." Lin Ying rubbed her sore cheeks from laughing and picked up her pencil again.