Lin Jianjun stood atop a business empire, yet every night regret gnawed at him.
During the rural relocation campaign of the 1980s, he missed the years when his wife and children needed him most. One senseless conflict cost him his unborn daughter and left his wife, Su Mei, in permanently failing health. Later, he worked himself to the bone to make money, hoping to make up for what he had done, only to discover that money couldn't bring back the dead or thaw the ice between his family members. His parents grew old with worry. His two elder brothers resented him for his past misdeeds. His younger sister married into a poor family early to help support him. And Su Mei always looked at him with a distance that never softened.
As he lay dying, his greatest wish was to return to the past and treat everyone well.
When he opened his eyes again, he had been reborn in late summer 1983, just one day before his wife would be bullied and their unborn daughter would die.
Cicadas shrilled outside. His wife, Su Mei, was busy in the kitchen with an apron tied around her waist. Their one-year-old son, Xiao Wei, toddled toward him, and the baby girl in Su Mei's belly gave a gentle kick.
This time, Lin Jianjun clenched his fists.
Wang Pangzi's malicious gossip? He'd shut it down! His eldest brother's unreasonable tantrums? He'd give him a piece of his mind! The daily grind of food and household expenses? He'd shoulder it!
He would not only protect his wife and children and save the little life that had yet to see the world, but also spend the years ahead mending every fracture, bit by bit. He'd give Su Mei a stable home, let Xiao Wei and his daughter grow up surrounded by love, stay by his parents as they grew old, and help his siblings build good lives of their own.
He would repay every regret from his past life twice over in this one. This time, he would
