1

In August 2038, you were born into an ordinary family. Due to some fantastical reason, you were reborn as a baby.

Everything seemed no different from your previous life, except that your root had become slightly smaller. Well, this didn’t matter much; in your heart, you were determined to become extraordinary in this life.

Then, not long after, you experienced the first slap of your life.

When you curiously looked around with wide eyes, your new father was anxiously staring at you because you weren’t crying at all, not making a sound.

Worried you might have aspirated amniotic fluid, your father gave you a hard slap on the buttocks.

This time, you really cried.

Because it was excruciatingly painful.

2

Back home, you entered the most painful period of your life: breastfeeding.

Because you retained all your memories from your previous life, you had no emotional connection with your new parents, and you had to accept a harsh reality.

As an adult male with intact memories, you found yourself doing something psychologically uncomfortable.

And you couldn’t refuse.

In your tiny brain, your chaotic thoughts clashed fiercely with your infant body.

Sex, fear, psychological turmoil, and breakdowns repeatedly played out in your mind.

You had many ambitions, but you had no choice. You could only console yourself during the quiet nights, telling yourself it was okay, just like being in prison.

But this prison lasted a very long time.

3

Fortunately, you didn’t die from anxiety and managed to get through that period.

Now, you’ve started school, and your exceptional performance convinced your family to enroll you in the best elementary school.

Hearing this made you feel a bit suppressed because it meant a significant financial burden for your ordinary family. You tried to persuade your parents that you didn’t need to go to such a place.

But that was impossible. Your parents lovingly patted your head, telling you that as a child, you wouldn’t understand, and that they wouldn’t let hardship or poverty hinder your future.

Without any decision-making power, you watched as your family slid further into financial strain.

You thought it was okay, relying on your past life’s memories; elementary school would be a breeze.

And it was. In the best elementary school, you continued to excel, showing a maturity far beyond your age.

You felt everything was going as you had planned, that life was unfolding as you envisioned.

4

But fate’s blows came quickly, giving you little time to adjust.

Entering middle school with a dazzling reputation, you suddenly realized you couldn’t control everything.

You tried to recall your previous life, only to find that you’d forgotten all the knowledge from middle and high school. You could have studied hard in elementary school, but if you had such a resilient academic spirit, it’s hard to imagine how you were just an ordinary man in your previous life.

You comforted yourself, thinking it was okay; even if you had to start over, you’d still have an advantage over others.

However, you soon discovered that academics required talent.

You still couldn’t grasp the dry and tedious math. Your only advantage was a slight improvement in English and social sciences compared to your previous life.

These grades kept you at the top of your class but no longer at the pinnacle.

People around you started to feel disappointed, and this disappointment peaked in high school.

It was the same for you.

In the intense pressure and isolation of high school, you couldn’t fathom why you had to endure another three years like this. You tried desperately to study and maintain your grades, but your lack of talent in certain subjects was evident.

More painfully, you had no familiar advantages left. You had long forgotten high school knowledge, and you had planned to start studying in middle school, but maintaining your current grades took all your energy.

So, suddenly, you were back at the same starting line.

This disparity and pain made it even harder for you to focus. Your only luck was that you managed to date the girl you liked in high school, even though being with her always filled you with a sense of guilt.

She was too young and too innocent.

Amidst the pain, you realized your original plan was a complete failure. Just keeping up with your studies consumed most of your time, and your family had no extra money to support any early planning.

And you were just an ordinary person. In your previous life, you were a financial novice for twenty years and never succeeded in business. You didn’t know what other avenues were available for achieving a class leap.

You resigned yourself to fate.

5

You got into a slightly better college than in your previous life. This might be your advantage, but the sense of disparity still surrounded you and your family.

You felt a bit ashamed, but at least the college was far from home, so you didn’t have to hear any gossip.

Living on your family’s allowance, you continued dating your girlfriend in college, which seemed to be your only talent — approaching relationships with enough maturity.

In college, you lived frugally, saving money while constantly reflecting on the path you took in your previous life.

You had worked in many companies, going back and forth, and apart from that, you seemed to have no additional income. So, you thought, why not try investing? Maybe accumulating experience from now on would be beneficial for your future.

But the money you saved by living frugally had to support certain activities with your girlfriend, yet you still chose to invest it.

One day, while accompanying your girlfriend back to her hometown, you were dozing off in the car when you suddenly realized that her hometown was the same place as your hometown from your previous life.

Through the window, you saw the dilapidated graves of your previous life’s parents, but you just turned your head, and no one knew what you were thinking.

Time continued to fly by, and soon you graduated.

6

In the vast job market, you felt lost, just like everyone else. You didn’t know what to do because at this moment, you were really too ordinary.

Your academic qualifications were mediocre, your resume was average, but fortunately, you had genuine emotions, which earned you what you believed to be love.

But you were truly unwilling to accept this fate.

So, in an instant, you found the answer. You decided to take the civil service exam for entry-level positions.

Relying on your interpersonal skills from your previous life, you believed that at least in handling social relationships, you would be far better than your peers.

This time, it seemed you made the right bet.

You passed the exam, and by being cautious, obedient like a loyal dog, and handling tasks proficiently, you gained the appreciation of many people.

You thought perhaps the real opportunity was here.

7

Time still did not stop turning, and troublesome matters followed one after another. Due to being separated from your girlfriend, the conflicts between both families intensified.

You needed a house, money to take care of your parents, whose bodies were gradually deteriorating due to hard work.

The enormous pressure fell on your shoulders, and sometimes when you woke up from a dream, a sense of unwillingness would surge, but the pain remained with you.

You became silent because there were too many things you couldn’t share with others.

You continued to work, but suddenly realized that perhaps getting a promotion was a distant dream.

But you were still lucky, as you walked into the hall of marriage with your first love, which was actually the most extraordinary thing in your life.

However, you vomited on your wedding day.

Perhaps it was during the vows, you suddenly thought of your previous life.

Many, many years ago, you had done the same thing — holding a woman’s hand in front of guests and smilingly saying to her, “I will love you forever.”

Suddenly, you didn’t know how long “forever” was.

You also suddenly didn’t know what love really was in your heart.

8

The hands of time continued to turn, and everything came so quickly.

Your wife’s pregnancy, the birth of your child, the aging and death of your parents. You began to shuttle back and forth between the hospital and the government office outside of work.

You mechanically did the things you had done in your previous life, with the only fluctuation being the day your child was born.

You rushed into the delivery room like a madman, trying to kill the newborn child.

Many people held you down, but you just shouted, “He is just like me.”

You knew that you might just be overly sensitive, but many people began to think you were crazy.

Then came your aging, and your wife’s aging. You spent a lifetime but didn’t reach the so-called official position, yet you and your wife managed to gather the funds for your child’s education and living expenses.

You supported this family, worrying about everything for your child, then slowly.

Your child grew up, and you grew old.

And then.

Your parents, your in-laws, and your wife all died. The friends and elders you knew in this life also began to pass away.

The day your wife died, she held your hand, seemingly returning to the time when she first met you, with curious light in her eyes, just like when she was sixteen.

She gently told you that she felt she had never really understood you all her life, and she thought you were very, very tired.

But she also smiled and told you that she felt it was enough to have loved you in this life.

You just held her hand and watched the light in her eyes suddenly go out.

But at that moment, you didn’t cry; you just fell into a daze.

You thought of many, many years ago when you had also held another woman’s hand like this, and she had long been dead.

9

After your wife died, you called your son. He was already established and looked very tired.

You scrutinized this son, and it seemed you had never really understood him. You used to have your defenses, but at this moment, you suddenly felt relieved.

You hugged him tightly and then told him you were leaving and that he shouldn’t come looking for you.

Your son was somewhat surprised, but in the end, he nodded.

After leaving home, you went to many places.

You went to a certain mountain you remembered from your previous life. Amidst the weeds were two graves: one was yours, and the other was your wife from that time.

You suddenly collapsed in front of the graves and then fell into a deep sleep.

In your dream, you saw many people, all waiting for you. You wanted to cry, but as soon as you made a sound, you woke up from the stupor.

You struggled to stand up and took a car to a distant temple.

You remembered that in your previous life, there had been a young monk in the temple when you were old. But when you stepped into the temple this time, there was only an old monk.

10

The old monk was not surprised by your arrival; he just led you to the statue of the Bodhisattva and asked if you felt any regrets.

You looked up at the solemn and dignified Bodhisattva statue and, with a faint smile, told the old monk that you had once tried your utmost to achieve a class leap and become an extraordinary person.

You once thought your greatest failure was still becoming an ordinary person.

But now, you seemed to understand that what you truly regretted was never cherishing the life of an ordinary person.

You told the old monk that you had wasted a lot of time and a lot of love. You had many questions that you never figured out in the end, such as who you really were, who you truly loved, and where it all began and ended.

The old monk also smiled and told you that life has no do-overs.

You shook your head and said, “Life shouldn’t have do-overs.”

The old monk pointed to a large bell in the courtyard and told you that he had been ringing the bell all his life. Whenever he couldn’t figure out how to become enlightened, he would do this.

The old monk urged you to give it a try, so you did.

You grabbed the rope tightly and then swung it with all your might. A clear bell sound suddenly rang out, echoing through the surroundings, resounding through the sky like a crane’s call.

The sound passed through the temple walls, through the vines on the mountain, over the broken bridge on the small river, and across the vast yet desolate plain.

The bell sound swept through the mountain wind, carrying your love and hate, your confusion, your rights and wrongs, traversing your two lifetimes, and finally spiraled down, landing on your grave.

You suddenly realized something. This might be the last bit of enlightenment for an ordinary person like you, at the end of your life.

The old monk walked over to you. He watched as your breathing became calmer and fainter.

You looked at the old monk and told him you had figured out the answer to his long-standing question: how a person should become enlightened.

The old monk leaned down.

With your last bit of strength, you uttered three words:

“Don’t look back.”

Finally, you truly passed away.