The year Lin Wan turned thirty-two, she'd been unemployed for three months. Wearing a rain-soaked uniform, she was delivering food in a downpour when, trying to avoid a late-delivery penalty of five yuan, she crashed, scooter and all, into a truck. As her consciousness faded, she was full of regrets: she'd grown distant from her family to please a vain friend, wasted her youth settling for a marriage, and couldn't even scrape together enough money for her mother's medical bills... When she opened her eyes again, she was lying in the wooden bed at her childhood home. Her mother called her to come eat the warm egg custard and get ready for school. She had returned to the age of twelve, to the point before any of the tragedies had happened. This time, she cuts ties with a false friend and stays close to the classmate who truly cares for her. She supports her father when he heads south to start a business, no longer letting him remain trapped in a factory on the verge of bankruptcy. She resists the temptation of young love and throws herself into her studies. As an adult, she avoids the scumbag she married in her previous life and chooses a gentle, dependable partner instead. She gets into her dream university and builds the “perfect life” she once longed for. But on her thirtieth birthday, she looks at her silent husband, her never-ending workload, and her parents' growing conflicts, and suddenly breaks down in the middle of the night. She once thought that avoiding every pitfall would bring happiness, but discovered that the other road has hills that never end, too. By chance, she comes across a former classmate's social media post. The ex-husband she once dismissed as “going nowhere” has built a warm and happy life. The family she had grown distant from, meanwhile, are closer and more devoted to each other along a different timeline. Only then does she understand: the present we try so hard to escape may be the past someone else longs for; the fantasy that starting over will make everything perfect is nothing more than an escape from reality. What matters most isn't “what if things had gone differently,” but holding on to the ordinary life before us and cherishing every imperfect yet genuine moment.
