Rebirth: WLSB Chapter 1
TL: (NU), Hermit
Editor: Hermit
TLC: Hermit
This chapter is just a teaser. I do not plan on picking up this project full time, but I decided to translate a few chapters since I had some free time. Most of this chapter was translated by lalalyly on a spoiler thread on , but I edited it here and there. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Rebirth
Shu Ning lay on the hospital bed with blurred vision, wondering, ‘in the end, what happened?’
In prison, it was common to fight and scheme against each other, fighting and gangs forming were everyday events. During noon today, two people started fighting and Shu Ning got dragged into it. As he dodged, he was unlucky and tripped, falling from the second floor, causing his head to split open, covering the floor with blood.
Bad luck really can’t be blamed on society.
It seemed… he wasn’t going to make it. His body felt weaker and weaker, his head felt heavier and heavier, and he couldn’t even hear the surrounding sounds clearly anymore.
Shu Ning wasn’t scared, it even felt like he was free of all his worries. His life was such a huge failure that it was practically a joke.
As a child, he was an illegitimate child brought up by his maternal grandmother, envying those children who had their parents’ love. In a sudden turn of events when he was in middle school, his mother returned. She cried bitterly while holding Shu Ning remorsefully. She said that they would never be separated again and wished that their family of three could live happily together.
Shu Ning who desperately craved familial love threw himself into his mother’s embrace without the slightest hesitation. As he experienced the unfamiliar warmth and familial love, he was ecstatic and fully believed in her.
The him then was really naive!
How was it possible that a cold-blooded woman who had abandoned her child for so many years could suddenly treat that child well?
In order to see his mother smile and to live up to her expectations, Shu Ning worked hard to improve himself, protect his younger brother, and curry favor with his birth father. He lived cautiously and conscientiously, so wary and vigilant that he was even afraid to buy his favorite sports car. He could only drive a low-profile, dependable, black Audi. Secretly, Shu Ning fiercely fought against his birth father’s oldest son. He naively listened to his mother’s lies and thought that his parents were true love partners and that his older brother Shu Heng was the product of an arranged marriage that shouldn’t have ever existed.
Shu Ning even felt that his childhood of suffering in the rural village and the separation of his parents were all Shu Heng’s fault.
Shu Ning exhaled and closed his eyes as he was starting to feel a sleepy.
At that moment, there was a commotion outside as if a VIP was coming. Shu Ning smiled bitterly. In the past, wasn’t he a cool young rich master? Otherwise, how could his vain boyfriend happily pretend to be a begonia? How else could his miscreant friends call him brother?
Shu Ning pretended to be a well-behaved youth in front of everyone, but he was secretly performing misdeeds. When he got thrown in jail, he found himself even more alone. His former best friends specially came to kick him while he was down. Now that he thought about it, he was really dumb. He clearly didn’t have the skills yet he put his all into creating mischief. When he thought back onto it, Shu Ning felt his reflection was unfamiliar.
The door opened, and many people came in.
“How is he?”
A low, mellow, and rich voice was particularly attractive, displaying a man’s carefully reigned in, ferocious temper. A penetrating gaze settled on Shu Ning’s deathly pale face.
The hospital director and the doctor both broke out in a cold sweat. The man they had just sent over wasn’t going to make it and had no hope of resuscitation. By President Shu’s appearance, it seemed as if he had a deep relations.h.i.+p with this man who was about to die.
Shu Heng is a powerful man. Resolute and decisive, he could be cla.s.sified as the lord at the top of the food pyramid. Our hospital cannot afford to offend him! The hospital director organized his thoughts and tactfully explained, “We were told that he was wounded too deeply in jail and wasn’t sent over immediately for emergency treatment. Because of the long delay, he’s already…” dying.
The normally expressionless Shu Heng frowned. His special a.s.sistant immediately got the hint and sent the doctor and hospital director out of the room.
“President Shu, don’t be too sad. The prison warden is my old cla.s.smate. According to your wishes, I had already greeted him and asked that he take extra care of Second Young Master Shu. I’m sorry that this accident happened. My condolences.” The special a.s.sistant bent at a 90 degree angle in apology. He was very uneasy as cold sweat soaked his back.
“Accident?”
“Yes,” The special a.s.sistant was afraid to rise.
“Investigate.”
“Yes.” The special a.s.sistant left at once. His legs felt like jelly. If President Shu requested an investigation, that meant that someone hurt Second Young Master Shu. d.a.m.n it! The special a.s.sistant’s eyes turned cold. Being one of the few that knew of President Shu’s birth history, the special a.s.sistant would never dare to look down on Shu Ning, the real ‘crown prince’. If second master hadn’t been incited by his birth mother into having no feelings for his birth father and not having the ability to succeed the company, why would President Shu condescend to hand over the expensive management company to allow second master collect dividends and comfortably live an aristocratic life?
The grace of adoption that he had received, could not be recompensed.
It was extremely quiet in the room. Shu Heng sat for ten minutes before getting up. “That year, I didn’t release the evidence of your mother’s and your crimes. I only collected the evidence to force your mother to give up on the right of inheritance and be content with her lot. She would stay Mrs. Shu and live in the main house with no decreases in her living expenses… Yet I didn’t expect that she’d rather you take the fall before allowing Shu Yao relinquish the right of inheritance and ran away that very night.”
“If you hadn’t had a DNA test, I really suspect that you aren’t her child.”
“She’s made quite a few small movements lately. I don’t know if she had anything to do with what happened to you right now, but I think it’s very likely. If you die, she has a reason to come back and live in the main house again to act against me. For Shu Yao, her younger son who is almost an adult, she is willing to give up on you. After all, she has 20% of the company’s shares. If you add on yours, she has a chance of winning.”
“You should go peacefully. If it really was her, I will take care of it.”
Shu Heng looked at Shu Ning determinedly, then turned and left. When the door closed, a tear trickled out of the corner of Shu Ning’s eye.
What an awful truth! That year when the criminal evidence was being reported all over the place by the media and Shu Ning fell from grace, his mother cried as she took out a contract pertaining to his shares. The beneficiary was his blood brother Shu Yao. At the time, Shu Ning felt like it was a matter of course in case something happened to him because he couldn’t let Shu Heng, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, off lightly.
It was extremely ridiculous that the familial love he had been looking forward to for so long only amounted to this. Even though his mother had not come to visit him over so many years and didn’t make a single phone call, Shu Ning kept finding reasons to calm his feelings of dissatisfaction. Shu Yao was still little. Mother needed to take care of him while opposing Shu Heng. She naturally couldn’t break away to visit someone in jail.
In actuality, the reason why he could live so comfortably in jail was because Shu Heng had organized it.
Big Brother. I’m sorry. All this time, I was naïve and misunderstood you. If only I hadn’t fought against you from the beginning and was an obedient little brother, would everything end up differently?
After all, no matter how Shu Ning provoked him, Shu Heng never dealt with him harshly. In contrast, it was his birth mother who…
Regret and remorse mixed together. Shu Ning who had been numb suddenly started to feel pain beyond endurance. A white light shone so brightly in front of his eyes that he couldn’t even open them. His body felt as if it was going to dissolve.
I feel awful…I don’t want to die…
Who’s shouting…?
“Shu Ning…Shu Ning. How are you? Ah! Don’t scare me… Shu Ning? Hey Hey Hey! My G.o.d! So much sweat! Should I call an ambulance? Shu Ning, wake up! Or I’ll go find the teacher!”
Calling a teacher for help seemed like something from the far away past, like something a child would do in elementary school.
“Shu Ning~Shu Ning!”
So loud! Shu Ning felt agony as he sat up and opened his eyes.
The scene he took in was extremely strange. There was a long cabinet in front of him and it even had names on it! He looked down to see a washbowl, soap, shampoo, and other toiletries thrown together chaotically. It was all products from 20 years ago. Shu Ning rubbed his aching temples to ease his awful headache. Then he gazed into a pair of extremely worried eyes which cleared his head.
“Cla.s.s monitor?”
The cla.s.s monitor raised an eyebrow, “You You You~You~are you okay?”
“Are you a person or a ghost?”
“Did you have a nightmare?” The cla.s.s monitor waved his hands in front of Shu Ning. When he saw his black pupils following his movements, he felt relieved, “ You scared me to death.”
“Did I scare the pee out of you?” Me too.
“This little lord stopped peeing the bed 800 years ago!” The cla.s.s monitor angrily jumped up off the bed, ashen-faced. “I worried about you, yet you are laugh at me!”
Shu Ning grimaced then looked at his run-down dormitory and his naggy, annoying yet warm-hearted and kind cla.s.s monitor. His mind went blank and his ears rang. Could it be that I’ve been reborn? How could it be? It’s too weird. But the light of hope was like a weed he couldn’t ignore and made him anxious to seek proof.
“Cla.s.s monitor, when is this? I mean month, day year?”
“I don’t blame you for not studying well but not having common knowledge is too tragic. As the cla.s.s monitor, I should tell you without asking for anything in return…” blah blah blah –nonstop torrent…
For the first time, Shu Ning listened to the cla.s.s monitor speak with patience and felt very warm. In the past, the person he disliked the most was the cla.s.s monitor who wielded his good studies to lecture others. He was also tall, good at sports, and handsome. All the teachers liked him. Why? But now, Shu Ning collected the useful information. He learned the approximate time he had returned to in his middle school days as well as some things he’d forgotten.
Shu Ning’s expression darkened suddenly.
“What’s wrong? Finding me bothersome again? It’s for your own good that I’m saying so much, okay?”
“I understand. Thank you, cla.s.s monitor.”
The cla.s.s monitor’s eyes lit up like a husky looking for praise. He sat back down by the bed and started to nag again. Shu Ning lowered his head and didn’t listen to a word. Today…is the day that his eldest aunt came to the school. Why wasn’t he reborn before his grandmother pa.s.sed away? He really wanted to see her again. His heart felt heavy and he couldn’t breathe.
Shu Ning smirked. Eldest aunt! Since I’ve come back, I won’t let you steal grandmother’s a.s.sets again and secretly throw her corpse deep into the mountains like trash. We should settle some old scores!
Right at that moment, a student came in, “Shu Ning, the teacher asked you to go to the office. Your eldest aunt came!”
Hermit’s Notes: Am doing this without a editor, please inform me of any mistakes!