In a modestly sized fruit shop, Yi Anguo sat behind a table at the entrance, holding a small round mirror. He stared at the reflection of his young, handsome self, lost in thought.
He never could have imagined that he would be reborn so inexplicably, returning to twenty years in the past when he was still running this fruit shop.
An electronic scale rested on the table—it served as both the weighing station and the cash register. Business wasn't great. The daily revenue was only around six or seven hundred yuan. On holidays, when sales were at their best, it might reach thirteen or fourteen hundred yuan, but on windy and rainy days, it could plummet to just two or three hundred. Over an entire month, the total revenue was just a little over twenty thousand yuan. After paying for shop rent and living expenses, the family of three manning this little store would be left with just under three thousand yuan.
The shop was located at a crossroad in a small industrial area. The area had about half a dozen factories, but only two or three were of any significant size. Including the smaller ones, the total workforce was only around two or three thousand people. It was 2003, and the average factory worker's salary was just over eight hundred yuan a month. After deducting rent, utilities, and daily expenses, there wasn't much left over. For a couple with a three-year-old child, running a fruit shop and saving two to three thousand yuan a month was actually quite decent—certainly better than working in a factory.
But his wife wasn't satisfied. She always complained that running a fruit shop was exhausting, offered no freedom, and didn't make enough money. A few days ago, she had left with a man she met while playing mahjong, leaving Yi Anguo to care for their three-year-old daughter alone. They had met and gotten together without ever legally registering their marriage; Yi Anguo had simply held a small wedding banquet in his hometown to formalize things.
That day was not only his wedding celebration but also his father's seventieth birthday. A year later, their daughter was born. To make it easier to take care of her, Yi Anguo quit his factory job and opened this fruit shop. Last October, his father passed away from illness, and the medical expenses had used up most of their money. When he returned from handling the funeral arrangements, another fruit shop had already opened up nearby. With the new competition, his once-decent business took a sharp downturn.
Poverty breeds strife in a marriage. As the shop's business worsened, it became even harder to make money. The streets outside were desolate day and night, with barely any foot traffic, and the impact on his business was easy to imagine. His wife finally couldn't bear it anymore and ran off with a wealthier man.
For his daughter's sake, Yi Anguo never remarried. He struggled to raise her all the way until she got into college. After she graduated and found a job, he never expected that he would be reborn twenty years in the past. And of all times, he had to return to this most difficult period of his life.
His wife had run off, his lease was about to expire, and the sub-landlord, who ran the lottery shop next door, wanted the space back and refused to renew. He had already negotiated the transfer terms—a 10,000-yuan fee—and was in the process of clearing out his stock, preparing to leave.
I don't have the capital to open another fruit shop. The only option is to go work in a factory and send my daughter back to my hometown, asking my elder sister to care for her. But now that I've been reborn, do I have to walk that same old path again? In my previous life, I missed out on her entire childhood, turning her into a 'left-behind child' and leaving me with so many regrets. Even after she grew up, I tried my best to make up for my absence, but our relationship was never as close as a normal father and daughter's. If I don't want to repeat my past, how am I supposed to make a living while raising my daughter by myself?
"Daddy!" his daughter, Yi Xinyi, called out as she ran in from outside. Her face was bright with a smile, seemingly unaware that her mother had abandoned her.
"Xin Yi!" Yi Anguo put down the mirror and smiled at her.
She was such a beautiful and adorable child. Sensible, obedient, and so attached to her father. He remembered one time when he had gone back to his hometown to visit her. When it was time to leave, she had cried inconsolably, clutching his hand and refusing to let go.
Yi Anguo lovingly reached out, picked up his daughter, and sat her on his lap.
"Daddy! Look what I have!" she chirped, laying a used scratch-off lottery ticket on the table. "There are so many animals! Look, this is a rabbit! And this is a cow!" She pointed excitedly at the zodiac symbols on the ticket.
She had probably picked it up off the floor of the lottery shop next door. Yi Anguo played along, nodding and pointing at other animals, asking her what they were. But then he noticed something: one of the squares on the ticket hadn't been completely scratched off. Using his fingernail, Yi Anguo scraped away the remaining covering.
He uncovered the image of a rooster. Below it were the numbers: 1,000,000 yuan.
Yi Anguo carefully read the rules on the ticket and was stunned. It was a winning ticket for one million yuan! These scratch-offs cost 20 yuan each, with a grand prize of one million.
The person who bought this ticket was incredibly unlucky. They had left one spot unscratched, missing out on a one-million-yuan fortune. They had lost the chance to win a million yuan and change their life. If his daughter hadn't randomly picked it up to play with, and if he hadn't happened to notice it, no one would have ever realized this ticket was worth a million yuan. It would have eventually been thrown into a trash can like any other piece of garbage.
Thinking back, Yi Anguo couldn't recall if his daughter had found this specific ticket in his past life. She did, however, frequently pick up discarded scratch-offs from the ground to play with.
The next morning, after breakfast, the father-daughter duo took a bus to the Dongguan City Lottery Distribution Center. After taxes, the one-million-yuan prize came out to 800,000 yuan in hand.
But with this 800,000 yuan, he now had his first pot of gold. It could solve a lot of problems. At the very least, he wouldn't have to send his daughter back to his hometown to be looked after by his sister.
If I wanted to continue running a fruit shop, there was a good opportunity available. But it's hard work, and not very convenient while raising a child. If not a shop, what else can I do? A factory job is out of the question; it's impossible to take care of a child while working in one. A job won't work, and running a business is also out... so what am I supposed to do? 800,000 yuan is a lot, but I can't just sit here and let it dwindle to nothing. I was an ordinary person before my rebirth, and I'm still an ordinary person now. My only advantage is having memories of the next twenty years.
For instance, I know how terrifying housing prices will become. I know which stocks will soar by hundreds, even thousands, of times. I could buy them early and guarantee a fortune later. But to do that, I need capital. While 800,000 yuan is a significant sum, the first priority is to buy a house for us, transfer our household registration here, and ensure my daughter gets a better education. Everything costs money. Stock investments, though profitable, take a very, very long time to mature, and I can't afford to wait. As for buying property and waiting for it to appreciate? Even less feasible. Housing prices aren't high right now, but 800,000 yuan still won't buy very many properties.