1: Chapter 1: After being reborn, I entered a top university.

Autumn, 2004, Beijing.

Inside the study of a small villa in the Yanjing University faculty housing compound.

An old man and a young man were drinking tea and playing Go, occasionally exchanging conversation.

"Sun Ning, are you unhappy working at the ministry?"

"No, everyone has been very kind to me."

Sun Ning hurriedly explained, his tone then becoming a bit more solemn.

"Teacher, you know that I come from the countryside; that land raised me."

"I want to return there and contribute what little knowledge I have learned."

Sun Ning said this with a mix of truth and pretense.

Contributing to his hometown was true.

Wanting to work locally was also true.

However, all of this also stemmed from Sun Ning's own selfish motives.

Sun Ning, born in 1979, had just turned 25 this year.

He was a master's graduate from the School of Economics at Yanjing University.

Last year, for special reasons, his teacher had pulled him into an internship at the Development and Reform Commission.

This year, due to his contributions, he had passed his internship period early.

After successfully becoming a full-time employee, he became a glorious Deputy Section Chief.

At 25, he had already achieved what took him one or two decades in his previous life.

No one could have imagined that this 25-year-old young man possessed a soul from the future.

In his previous life, while Sun Ning was conducting field research in various villages on the enforcement of the ban on burning straw, he suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage.

After being rushed to the hospital, he could not be saved and died in the line of duty at the age of 45.

Just like that, Sun Ning returned to the time when he graduated from junior high school.

Not long after he graduated from junior high school.

On a night after the rain.

He was digging for cicada nymphs in the village woods when he was bitten by an unknown insect.

At the time, he didn't think much of it and went home to sleep.

That night, he fell into a coma with an unrelenting high fever.

When he woke up again, it was three days later in the hospital.

After waking up, Sun Ning discovered that his memory had become exceptionally good.

His physical attributes had also improved geometrically.

At first, he was a bit scared and insisted that his father take him for a full physical examination.

Only after finding no issues did he finally feel at ease.

In his previous life, he was born in a province with a highly competitive college entrance examination.

Since he wasn't particularly smart, he only managed to get into a second-tier university in his home province.

He dated a girlfriend at school.

Originally, according to Sun Ning's plan, he would find a job in the provincial capital, Zhongzhou, after graduation.

However, his girlfriend insisted on returning to her hometown to take the civil service exam and demanded that Sun Ning take the exam to return with her.

The reason was that her father, who was a bureau chief in the county, insisted she return to work there.

He even bluntly stated that a girl working nearby could have someone to look after her.

At the time, being somewhat of a literary youth, he firmly decided to apply for the civil service in Gongfan County along with his girlfriend for the sake of love.

Sun Ning was admitted to the Policy Research Office of the County Government, while his girlfriend was admitted to the Propaganda Department.

Just as Sun Ning was imagining his future at the County Government.

He was inexplicably seconded to work at the Administration for Industry and Commerce in Mishui Township, the poorest township in Gongfan County.

It was ostensibly called "gaining experience."

Just like that, the two of them ended up in a long-distance relationship.

About half a year later, Sun Ning was dumped.

He did not go to the county seat to try and salvage his so-called love.

In fact.

Not long after he was transferred to Mishui Township, the two still had some passion.

Later, whenever he wanted to go to the county seat to see her, he was often told that she was too busy with work and had no time to go out.

By this time, he had already realized something was wrong.

Gradually, they met less often, and their calls became fewer.

Later, a text message arrived with just three words.

"Let's break up."

Just like that, his first love, which he had treasured, ended without any fanfare.

After breaking up, he went to the County Party Committee Propaganda Department to inquire.

He discovered that she had gotten engaged to the son of the Deputy County Magistrate in charge of investment promotion.

From that moment on, the seeds of power began to take root and sprout in Sun Ning's heart.

However, after his one-year probationary period, his personnel file was transferred directly to Mishui Township.

He went from being a cadre at the County Government to a glorious township cadre.

His path to promotion thus stagnated at the township level.

Afterward, no matter how hard he worked, he remained an ordinary township cadre.

It wasn't until he was 36 that he was promoted from an ordinary cadre at the Administration for Industry and Commerce to the Director of the Administration for Industry and Commerce.

He knew it was because her ex-girlfriend's father had completely retired from the CPPCC two years prior.

The stumbling block that had hindered his progress was gone.

With no one to block him, Sun Ning relied on his hard work, taking it one step at a time.

He was promoted from the Director of the Mishui Township Administration for Industry and Commerce to the Director of the Finance Office, which was a deputy section-level position.

Then, he was promoted to the deputy section-level position of Township Party Committee Member and Organization Committee Member, a role with real power.

At the age of 45, he was transferred from his position as Organization Committee Member to Township Party Committee Member and Deputy Township Head.

Sun Ning came from the countryside and relied entirely on his own desperate efforts to reach this position.

His family was proud of him, and his father often praised him for his success.

However, he could feel that his political career had reached its end.

No matter how he was transferred, he would still be spinning around at the deputy section level.

Perhaps because he realized that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't break through.

His spirit suddenly relaxed.

Or perhaps it was because he had pushed himself too hard, causing his health to deteriorate day by day.

He died in the line of duty when he was nearly 46.

Therefore, the tragic experiences of his previous life were something he could never forget.

Whenever the night was deep and quiet, he would look up at the sky alone and scream silently at the heavens.

"Why do you deny me just because I came from the countryside?"

"Why should a high-spirited, good young man like me be at your mercy?"

In this life, with the addition of his enhanced memory, Sun Ning studied hard.

Finally, with excellent grades, he was admitted to Yanjing University.

It was a great coincidence that at that time, Elder Shang, feeling restless, decided to take on an undergraduate class.

Relying on his more than twenty years of extra experience, combined with a sharp brain, Sun Ning successfully stood out among a group of top students.

Naturally, Sun Ning became the only undergraduate disciple of Elder Shang.

The kind of disciple who could inherit his mantle.

It was just that Elder Shang didn't like those minor formalities, so there was no kowtowing to formally acknowledge the master.

Hearing his favorite disciple persist, Elder Shang decided not to try to persuade him otherwise.

"Your talent is wasted."

"Last year, I took you to the Development and Reform Commission to study the topic of the Great Western Development."

"I didn't expect you to pull off such a feat; the ministry leaders all looked at you with newfound respect."

"Sun Ning, with your bright future..."

Just as Elder Shang was lamenting that Sun Ning had wasted this year of accumulation.

An abrupt sound of a door opening came.

"Old man, who is here?"

"I could hear your sighing from outside the door."

Following the voice, a woman and a man walked in.

The woman was very beautiful.

It wasn't the kind of bewitching beauty that made everyone fall for her.

Instead, it was an intellectual beauty.

Her whole being exuded an aura of scholarly refinement, mixed with a glow of approachability.

She was tall and curvaceous.

She wore simple, form-fitting jeans, with her hips wrapped tightly and looking plump.

The loose white T-shirt on her upper body was stretched so tight it looked like a tank top.

Before the woman's body had even entered the room, her head was already poking in.

"Ah, you stinky little brother, you didn't even tell your big sister when you came. Have you forgotten about me?"

As she spoke, she ran toward Sun Ning in a few quick steps.

She wrapped her hands around Sun Ning's arm and shook it for a while.

The beautiful woman holding Sun Ning was Elder Shang's youngest daughter, named Shang Rou, who was 31 years old.

At first, just because she finally had a junior fellow apprentice who was younger than her, she often teased him with words.

And Sun Ning would also occasionally retort.

Over time, the two became very familiar with each other, and a subtle, ambiguous feeling developed between them.