Yu thought he was dead.
Otherwise, why would the first thing he saw be that old, creaky ceiling fan from his childhood?
The fan squeaked as it spun slowly above him, the exact sound he remembered from every lazy summer afternoon in his tiny room.
He shot upright in bed. His body felt… lighter.
He looked down at his hands—Wait, what?
His skin was smooth. His arms thin. He looked like a teenage boy.
He scrambled toward the mirror.
A young face stared back at him—clean, sharp, still full of life. Eighteen years old, no doubt about it.
Yu staggered back and nearly fell.
"This... this can't be real…"
He dropped onto the bed again, his brain crashing like a frozen computer.
Wasn't I just in 2025, betrayed by my own people, kicked out of the company I built, and nearly hit by a truck?
How the hell did I wake up in 2000?!
He pinched himself—hard.
"Ow!"
Not a dream.
Not an illusion.
He was really back.
And then—he laughed.
Loudly. Like a lunatic.
His neighbors probably thought he'd won the lottery.
And honestly? This was even better than winning the lottery.
This was the year 2000.
Throwing on an old T-shirt, Yu bolted out the door and stood on the sidewalk, breathing in the hot, dusty morning air of his childhood city.
Scooters buzzed by. A corner store blasted retro pop music. Nokia phone ads plastered the walls. Vendors flipped pancakes and sold soy milk by the cup.
He grinned like a fool.
"Damn… it's all real."
That internet café down the block? Still there. "Black Eagle Cyber Café"—50 cents an hour!
Back in the day, he used to skip breakfast just to afford two hours of gaming.
Last life, he clawed his way to the top—only to be betrayed, ruined, and discarded like trash.
But this life?
He had the future in his head—and the whole world to conquer.
As he was about to swing into the cyber café for a quick nostalgia trip, something on the wall caught his eye.
A poster.
[City Youth Talent Contest – Now Accepting Sign-ups!]Winner: ¥10,000 + Record Deal with StarSounds Media
"Whoa. This is... her debut stage, isn't it?"
Yu's expression shifted.
He remembered now.
Jiang Meixuan.
The girl with the voice of an angel—and a career doomed from the start.
She won this exact contest, got signed by a second-rate company, was exploited until she burned out, and disappeared from the scene before turning twenty-five.
But Yu remembered that voice.
He'd seen her perform once. She made the entire room go silent.
She shone like a star—then vanished.
Not this time.
He wouldn't let talent like that go to waste again.
Entertainment? He knew the tricks.Internet? He knew the trends.Money? He'd have plenty soon.
This time, he wouldn't just watch from the sidelines—he'd be the man behind the curtain.
He ran back home, grabbed a notebook, and scribbled down everything he remembered:
✅ Baidu just launched✅ Tencent still raising early funding✅ Alibaba? Basically unknown✅ TikTok? Not for 16 more years✅ YouTube, WeChat, Taobao, Netflix—still unborn✅ Livestreams, influencers, e-commerce—nonexistent
This was a goldmine.
A time-stamped cheat sheet of the future.
If he played his cards right, he could dominate tech and entertainment—invest in the right startups, groom future idols, create viral platforms before the world even knew what "going viral" meant.
Startup king meets pop culture overlord.
That night, Yu sat at his creaky old desk and looked out the window at a sky full of familiar stars.
As a child, he used to curse at those stars.Now, he smiled.
"Thanks for the second shot."
"I'm not here to save the world. I'm not here to forgive anyone."
"I just want to win. Big."
His eyes gleamed. A smirk tugged at his lips.
"Let's reboot."