Lu Man walked up to his younger sister's bedroom door and gave it a light tap.
"Xiaoshuang, time to get up."
"Mhm... Xiaoman, come in, the door's unlocked."
His sister, Lu Xiaoshuang, was two years younger than him, practically making them peers. Growing up as siblings close in age meant an older brother who had doted on his sister since childhood, right alongside the fistfights they had been getting into since childhood.
Case in point: Lu Man had zero expectation that his sister would ever call him "older brother"; she just called him "Xiaoman, Xiaoman" with complete disregard for seniority.
He spotted Lu Xiaoshuang still lying in bed, rubbing her eyes. Her chin-length short hair was a chaotic, fluffy mess—the kind of nest that would make passing birds want to move right in.
"Mhm~ Mom came into my room at six o'clock this morning to find some clothes," Lu Xiaoshuang mumbled unconsciously, letting out a soft whine. "She even deliberately shook me awake, then said since it's Saturday, I could sleep in a bit more... Ugh... You tell me, how am I supposed to get any sleep after she wakes me up?"
Lu Man couldn't help laughing. He sat down on the edge of the bed and pinched her earlobe. "Isn't Mom always like that? Get up already, I almost set her off just now."
Lu Xiaoshuang yawned, tugged at the lace of her pajamas, and then held both hands out toward Lu Man.
Lu Man looked puzzled. "What are you doing?"
"Pull me up."
Lu Man paused for two seconds, then chuckled and took his sister's hand.
"One—two—"
"One, two."
"Up!" "Up!"
Dragging her up like pulling out a weed, Lu Xiaoshuang waved a hand. "Alright, you've served your purpose. You're dismissed, go kneel outside."
How long had it been since he last saw his sister like this?
Lu Man just kept looking at her with a gentle smile.
The innocent young sister before him had no idea that in the world before his rebirth, Lu Man would witness her, sixteen years later, choose to break ties with her family, get a US green card, and never return to China.
And her older brother would be reduced to a mere relative—a relative who only surfaced with a greeting once during the Spring Festival.
Lu Xiaoshuang tilted her head, sensing that her brother had something on his mind. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Lu Man shook his head, smoothed down her messy hair, and asked probingly, "Do you notice any little changes about me?"
Hearing this, Lu Xiaoshuang let out an exaggerated sigh. "Big brother, you live at school, and I live at school, and our schedules for coming home don't even match up. We only see each other every two or three months—when do you *not* look different?"
Lu Man drifted off for a moment, struck by how distant his connection with his family had actually been during his middle school student days.
"Besides, when is the change *not* huge?"
Lu Xiaoshuang started counting on her fingers. "Either you're bursting with confidence, showing off that you managed to win back Jiashuo sister, or you're all weepy, crying with snot and tears about how Jiashuo sister dumped you again... Well, which one is it this time? Breakup or makeup?"
"Stop, stop, stop, don't say another word."
He muttered to himself that whatever stupid things the 2006 Lu Man had done had nothing to do with the 2022 version of him.
After teasing and joking with his sister a bit longer, Lu Man felt a deep sense of peace.
Once Lu Xiaoshuang pushed him out of the room to close the door and change her clothes, Lu Man went over to the sink to wash up, staring quietly at himself in the mirror, lost in thought.
Time-travel rebirth was a lot like writing a long, flowing essay, only to accidentally lose it right near the end and have to start over from scratch.
You feel depressed, powerless, and a profound sense of loss because you already poured your heart into writing it, and with just a conclusion missing, you are suddenly forced back to square one. That reluctance to repeat it all makes for a very subtle, complicated mood.
However, if someone tells you this is a graded, decisive essay, and you happen to have a few regrets, it gives you the exact opportunity to make amends for the past.
He remembered that before his rebirth, Gu Lingyi was very fond of reading rebirth-era web novels. When Lu Man asked her why this genre was so popular—with some authors making millions a year in royalties—Gu Lingyi thought for a moment and replied:
"Probably because a lot of readers have their own regrets and things they wish they could do over."
Seeing a carefree, smiling sixteen-year-old Lu Xiaoshuang and overlapping it with the memory of her desolate departure at the airport before his rebirth, Lu Man shook off his initial disorientation and settled his mind.
Even if it was all a dream, he wanted to experience this long-lost family warmth here and now; and if it wasn't a dream, he had to work even harder to make up for every single regret from before his rebirth.
This was 2006. The seemingly barren internet was about to offer a thousandfold reward to the pioneers who came to mine it, with countless creative ideas and opportunities set to explode and surge forward exponentially.
And following the phrase "Greeting another dawn, opening my arms to wait for you" two years later, industry and trade would buck the trend with vigorous, substantial growth. Though people still carried heavy burdens, they all believed in a simple truth: with hard work came happiness, and life would only get better.
This was an era of vibrant vitality and a hundred contending forces.
And Lu Man's rebirth carried sixteen years of hard-won experience and foresight.
Whether it was his career path or his romantic path, Lu Man had the confidence to shout out those four words in his heart:
The advantage is mine!
"Xiaoman! I'm going out to buy pen nibs and ink, do you want to come?" Lu Xiaoshuang's voice called from the doorway.
Lu Man snapped out of his thoughts and smiled back at his sister. "Perfect, I need to go top up my phone balance."
He still had his depleted mobile data on his mind. There was no such thing as instant one-click online recharging back then; he had to make a trip to the service center.
"Then you can buy mine for me too. I need Hero blue-black ink. I'm not going!"
A classic sibling move.
"Come on, let's go out for a stroll, think of it as a walk." Lu Man grabbed the lazybones and dragged her out the door with him.
The siblings stepped outside into weather that was just right, bright and clear with a sunny sky.
Life in a small town moved at a slow pace. Around the residential complex, there was no rush of commuter traffic—just an unhurried, grounded atmosphere of everyday life.
The central plaza was draped with quilts bearing double-happiness characters. The elderly were heading back home after finishing their morning exercises, either rolling two steel spheres in one hand or carrying transistor radios. A housewife carrying groceries passed a bowl of kimchi soup, casually pinching off a few small pieces of steamed bun to drop inside, while a big orange cat curled its paws atop some fitness equipment, even letting out a couple of meows as a thank-you.
Neighbors, whether they knew each other or not, had the habit of greeting one another. Lu Man and his sister nodded and exchanged hellos all the way until they reached the convenience outlet at the north gate of the complex.
After topping up his balance and buying stationery, Lu Man figured it would be best to find an internet cafe. He desperately needed to adapt to the current era as much as possible.
At the simplest level, he needed to check if Jay Chou's songs had only reached "Black Sweater" or "Fearless". If he accidentally hummed a few bars of "Far Away", which wouldn't come out for another few months, or "Orchid Pavilion" and "Blue and White Porcelain", which wouldn't be released for a year or two, he would never be able to explain himself...
Just as he was pondering this, Lu Xiaoshuang tugged on his hand. "Xiaoman, look. Is that Lingyi sister or Jiashuo sister?"
"Huh?" Lu Man looked up. Right across the street, in front of the pharmacy entrance, stood a familiar, graceful figure.
The girl had shoulder-length hair, and her exquisite, striking features radiated youthful energy. She wore a pristine white stand-collar chiffon shirt with a light butterfly bow tied at the collar, paired with a beige fabric skirt—dressed with refined charm.
A sudden surge of excitement washed over Lu Man. This was likely his very first encounter with Gu Lingyi since his rebirth. But the awkward part was...
"I can't tell," Lu Man said helplessly.
Lu Xiaoshuang immediately shot him a look of utter disdain. "Even though Jiashuo sister is always picking fights with you to break up, she's still your first love. You can't even tell the twin sisters apart?"
"They're different from ordinary twins," Lu Man said, feeling a headache coming on just talking about it. "It's easy enough to tell them apart when they're standing next to each other, but singly, it's too hard to recognize them."
Ordinary twins are biologically divided into two types: fraternal and identical. Fraternal twins are like normal brothers and sisters—their facial features have a vague resemblance, but they don't look overly alike.
Identical twins share virtually identical DNA, making them look like the exact same person.
Even with identical twins, there are often minor differences in details, such as slightly different eye sizes or slightly distinct voices.
Yet Gu Lingyi and Gu Jiashuo happened to be the type with the absolute minimal differences.
Back in childhood, even their own father, Gu Yan, would occasionally mistake one for the other.
Lu Xiaoshuang offered a suggestion. "Shall I go over and ask if she's the older sister or the younger sister first, and then you can walk over?"
"Is your brother really that stupid in your eyes?" Lu Man rubbed his chin in thought. "Though it's not like there's no way to tell them apart."
"What?"
"The younger sister has a mole on her left shoulder, right near her chest," Lu Man said with a completely straight face.
Before his rebirth, Lu Man had verified that the older sister, Gu Lingyi, did not have one in that spot.
You could say it was an anti-counterfeit birthmark.
"..." Lu Xiaoshuang raised her foot and stomped right on Lu Man's shoe. "Go die!"
Lu Man dodged, waved a hand, and said, "Just kidding, I have other ways."
He fished out his phone, opened Mobile QQ, and switched to the chat window with Gu Jiashuo.
Scanning the history, most of it consisted of Lu Man proactively sending a few lines of text, while Gu Jiashuo replied once every hour or two, or sometimes even a day or two later.
The most recent messages were:
[Lu Man] 17:14:55: I was wrong, I'm begging you, let's get back together. (Cry) (Cry)
[Jiashuo] 20:25:07: No.
[Lu Man] 20:25:11: All I want is a definite answer!
[Jiashuo] 09:59:32: Definitely no.
Lu Man: ......
The eighteen-year-old version of himself really had it rough.
Lu Man sent a message asking what she was doing.
To his surprise, Gu Jiashuo replied instantly this time: Just finished breakfast. What are you doing?
He raised his eyes to look at the girl across the street. She was standing there hesitating, peering through the pharmacy glass at the shelves inside, without her phone anywhere in sight.
Lu Man casually replied: Breathing.
Jiashuo: ?????
He directly exited Mobile QQ and flipped his phone shut. Lu Man grabbed Lu Xiaoshuang's hand. "Come on, let's go see your Lingyi sister!"