One day, Zhou Xia sees her late mother, Song Meimei, knock on the door of the neighbor next door.
Zhou Xia clearly remembers that on this day, Song Meimei jumped into the river.
And while her older brother, Zhou Song, was out looking for Song Meimei, he got into a car accident. The head injury left him mentally unstable.
Zhou Xia was born about a year later.
From the day she was born, her father, Zhou Guoqiang, drilled one idea into her: "I had you so you could take care of your brother for the rest of your life."
For years afterward, Zhou Xia was tormented by her father's preference for boys over girls.
When she was twenty-four, her father tried to force her to marry a wealthy, powerful, abusive divorcé.
Zhou Xia would rather die than agree, and one night, she jumped into the river too.
Returned to the time when her parents were young, looking twenty-four again, Zhou Xia is ready to live wildly for once. Her first goal is to stop Song Meimei from getting pregnant, so Zhou Xia will never have to live a life of misery.
Just as she is planning an exciting future, she suddenly discovers a talking ledger of merit in front of her.
"Successfully saved Zhou Xia. Merit bonus: 5."
"Caught Zhou Guoqiang's mistress. Merit bonus: 2."
"Put an end to school bullying. Merit bonus: 6."
"Confiscated Li Peiqian's popsicle. Merit penalty: 10."
The next day, Zhou Xia buys a bag of popsicles and blocks the eight-year-old Li Peiqian at the school gate.
She stuffs a popsicle into Li Peiqian's mouth. "Can we call this an apology?"
Li Peiqian looks at Zhou Xia with pitch-black eyes. His thin shoulders tremble twice, then he cries again.
"You knew you were wrong but did it anyway. Merit penalty: 2."
Zhou Xia stuffs a popsicle into her own mouth. This little show-off is such a pain.
Only later does Zhou Xia learn that the little show-off will become a major force in the business world.
Li Peiqian never imagined that the chubby little girl in the apartment block would take him to eat delicacies he'd never tried before, or help him beat up the nasty kids who bullied him.
She would even shove his six-foot-tall father to the ground, then hand him a stick and say, "Li Peiqian, if you don't fight back, you're really going to die!"
In his previous life, Li Peiqian's greatest regret was that after his father broke his leg, he became so ashamed of being confined to a wheelchair that he drifted out of Zhou Xia's life too soon.
~
A few things to know before reading:
A no-brainer wish-fulfillment story. The male and female leads aren't perfect.
Theme: Everyone should treasure the present.
