Chapter 3: Ashes of Kindness
In his past life, when the factory's gates were shut for good and the machines fell silent, the true faces of those around him were revealed.
Not strangers. Not enemies.
Family.
His uncles—men his father had helped during desperate times—suddenly vanished. The ones who used to sit at their dinner table during festivals, drinking freely and calling his father "big brother," were now nowhere to be found. Their phones rang endlessly, their doors remained closed.
"He should've been smarter," one uncle even said to a neighbor. "You can't just assemble motorcycles forever and expect to survive."
The worst part? He had once believed these people would stand by them, just as his father had stood by them. When they were jobless, sick, or out of money, his father helped without hesitation.
Kindness, it seemed, was only remembered when convenient.
The boy who once held his head high as the "factory owner's son" became the outcast overnight. Even at school, where none of his family's problems should've mattered, the whispers followed him.
"Bankrupt."
"His dad was just pretending to be rich."
"He'll drop out soon, no point talking to him."
Their words stung, but he learned to stop caring. Hypocrisy didn't need confrontation—it revealed itself in time.
Everyone turned on him… except for one.
Li Wei.
They'd grown up in the same dusty alley, shared snacks, fought side by side during schoolyard scuffles, and built rickety go-karts out of scrap wood behind the old shed. Li Wei never had much, but he had loyalty—and that counted for more than any borrowed money or polite smile.
When the others mocked him, Li Wei stared them down. When he sat alone at lunch, Li Wei dropped his metal lunch box beside him and said nothing—because nothing needed to be said.
In that dark period, Li Wei was the only flame that hadn't gone out.
Now, reborn in 1980, standing in the past with a second chance and a system awakening inside him, the MC remembered it all.
He would not forget.
This time, he would build his empire from steel and circuits.
This time, he would protect his father and the factory with ruthless precision.
This time, he would repay debts—both of kindness and betrayal.
Li Wei would stand beside him again, not just as a friend, but as a brother-in-arms.
The others? They would kneel when the day came