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

Lin Fu stood outside the door for a while, then pushed the door open and went inside.

"Sister."

"Grandpa." Lin Ying put down her pen and looked up at him.

Lin Fu placed the teapot on the corner of the table and pulled up a bamboo stool to sit down. He didn't look at the English that looked like scribbles, but instead picked up the third-grade math textbook on the table and flipped through it casually.

Although the old man wasn't very literate, he had spent most of his life in Hong Kong and later built this business empire, so he was quite adept at accounting and bookkeeping. He turned to the word problems at the back of the textbook, pointed to one of them, and read it aloud in the local dialect.

A shop sold 123 items on the first day and 45 more on the second day. How many items did it sell in total over the two days?

Lin Ying glanced at the long title in traditional Chinese characters and said almost without pausing, "Two hundred and ninety-one."

Lin Fu was stunned for a moment, then quickly calculated in his mind: 123 on the first day, 45 on the second day is 168... it really is 291.

He turned to another page and pointed to a simple number multiplication problem without a picture: "Twenty-seven multiplied by thirteen?"

Three hundred and fifty-one.

Lin Fu's eyes widened; he hadn't even figured out the exact number himself yet!

He refused to believe it and flipped through the book again, giving her four or five more mental arithmetic problems, such as "one hundred and forty-four divided by twelve" and "thirty-six multiplied by twenty-five." Lin Ying sat there and answered them all in a matter of seconds without making a single mistake.

Lin Fu put down his textbook completely and looked at his granddaughter in shock: "You... you've finished learning all of math?"

"I finished studying a long time ago," Lin Ying said honestly. "Third-grade math is too easy for me. I'm mainly reviewing English and Chinese now."

Lin Fu picked up the English textbook again and flipped through it. He couldn't understand a single one of the densely packed English letters. But he noticed that Lin Ying's notebook was filled with neatly copied words, with their corresponding Chinese meanings marked in tiny print next to them.

"What about English? Is it difficult?" Lin Fu asked tentatively.

"My English is alright too." Lin Ying thought for a moment. "Grammar rules are fixed, you just need to memorize them. You'll get used to the words after reviewing them a few times, it's not difficult."

"What's the hardest part?"

Lin Ying sighed, opened the thick Chinese textbook, and pointed to a densely written text: "This is it. There are so many strokes in Chinese characters. I recognize many characters and understand their meanings, but I easily forget strokes when I write them. The characters 'iron,' 'gate,' and 'change'... each one is more complicated than the last. I need to practice more; mistakes in writing characters on the test paper will result in a deduction of points."

Looking at his granddaughter's earnest expression, Lin Fu's heart was in turmoil. This child had been mentally challenged for nine whole years, and after less than a month of regaining consciousness, she had already mastered all the third-grade math? She could even learn English on her own? And her only problem was that Chinese characters had too many strokes?

What else could this be but genius!

"Good! Good! Good!" Lin Fu slapped his thigh. "Little sister, study hard. If you need anything, just tell Grandpa!"

He picked up the teapot and strode out the door, his back view exuding smugness.

That evening, the temperature dropped slightly; Lin Fu sat under the big banyan tree at the entrance of the village, drinking tea with several elderly villagers at a stone table.

"Old Lin, is your granddaughter staying with you? You mean... the one who used to have mental problems?" Uncle Chen, sitting across from me, asked casually.

Lin Fu slammed his teacup down on the stone table: "What do you mean she's not smart enough! Let me tell you, my granddaughter is a genius! She can solve third-grade multiplication and division problems in seconds! How long do you think it would take to divide 144 by 12? That little girl answered right away!"

Chen Bole waved his hand dismissively, "Old Lin, stop bragging. That girl didn't even recognize us before, and now she's a genius? Did she go to study under a deity?"

"You don't believe me? Come to my house tomorrow and I'll test you in person! If you can't pass, I admit defeat, and I'll treat you to morning tea for a month!"

The next afternoon, Uncle Chen actually came.

Not only did he come, but to see the excitement, he also invited Uncle Wang from next door and Aunt Fei, the shrewdest accountant at her general store. The three of them squeezed at the door of Lin Ying's east wing room, peeking inside.

Lin Ying was sitting at the table, practicing traditional Chinese characters stroke by stroke. Sensing the light from the doorway being blocked, she looked up.

"Grandpa?"

Lin Fu stood behind him, arms crossed, with a smug look on his face that said, "You'll see."

Chen Boqing cleared his throat, went into the house, and took out a crumpled piece of paper from his gray cloth bag. On it were a few arithmetic problems that he had specially thought of while biting his pen last night.

"Little sister, let me test you." Uncle Chen lowered his head and read out the first question: "What is two hundred and fifty-six times four?"

"One thousand and twenty-four," Lin Ying answered instantly.

Before Uncle Chen could react, Uncle Wang next to him was already frantically calculating with his fingers. After calculating for a while, Uncle Wang gasped and gave a thumbs up: "That's right!"

The plump auntie from the grocery store immediately squeezed forward: "Me! Me! Nine hundred divided by twenty-five!"

Thirty-six.

"Seven hundred and twenty divided by eighteen?"

"forty."

Lin Ying sat on the stool and answered fluently.

Uncle Chen was completely convinced. He turned to look at Lin Fu, his face full of disbelief: "Old Lin, your granddaughter... isn't the same one as before? She's like a completely different person!"

Lin Fu stroked his stubble, his eyes narrowing into slits with a smile: "I told you, genius! Granny Wu said it long ago, my granddaughter's soul has returned, she's destined for great wealth and honor!"

The news spread through the village faster than a typhoon.

In the following days, people would come to visit the Lin family's old brick house every few days, saying they were visiting Old Lin, but actually they were all there to see the "prodigy granddaughter".

Some brought their snotty-nosed grandchildren to "see it for themselves," some simply came to watch the spectacle with their rice bowls in hand, and a few skeptical old men even dug out their younger family members' textbooks to create challenging questions. Without exception, they were all thoroughly outmatched by Lin Ying's lightning-fast answers.

Li Yuzhen stood at the kitchen doorway, chopping vegetables with a clattering sound while listening to the commotion outside. She couldn't suppress a smile: "Everyone used to say my granddaughter was stupid, stupid my foot! She's a late bloomer!"

Lin Ying remained quite calm in the face of the praise from the outside world.

The genius brain of her past life contained far more than just third-grade elementary school knowledge. These arithmetic problems were as simple as breathing for her.

But she didn't get carried away by the villagers' amazement. Every night, after receiving the visitors, she would immediately close the door, sit at the table, and continue to painstakingly study those complex traditional Chinese characters, stroke by stroke.

She was absolutely confident in math and English. Her only weakness was her handwriting: the speed and accuracy of her handwriting. The exams at prestigious private schools had strict time limits, and even a single extra or missing stroke in the traditional Chinese characters on the exam paper would result in a deduction of points.