"I'm sorry, Lu Ming, I don't want this either. If we continue to be together, my father..." The long-haired girl let go of the hand she had held for ten years, turned around without hesitation, and walked away into the distance until she disappeared.
"An Xin~"
The young man named Lu Ming murmured as he opened another can of beer. Several months had passed, yet every time he recalled the moment of their breakup, he felt an unbearable pain in his heart. After all, ten years of love!
In fact, he had always known that this moment would come sooner or later. He had just held onto his fantasies, but reality had ultimately burst that bubble.
He was an orphan who grew up struggling on the streets and in an orphanage. After graduating from middle school, he became a film projectionist through self-study, while she, after ten years of hard work, became a renowned music producer. The gap between them widened—one lost in movies, the other shining bright and earning a fortune. Breaking up was only natural, wasn't it?
Growing up in the cold and lonely world, he had lost his only ray of light. Now, he could only numb himself with alcohol.
After another can of beer, Lu Ming suddenly felt difficulty breathing, his body weakening. He immediately recalled the alcohol allergy he hadn't suffered from in years—the last time it happened, it almost took his life!
Was this the end? His eyelids grew too heavy to lift. His heart filled with regret. I am part of the entertainment industry, even if only on the fringe. Why didn't I work harder? If I had become a dazzling superstar, would things have turned out differently?
…
A baby's crisp cry rang out. Lu Ming opened his eyes to a shocking realization—he had become a baby, an abandoned infant lying alone at the entrance of an orphanage!
Had he been reborn? Back to the moment he was abandoned? Did this mean he could start over and change everything?
As soon as this thought arose, dizziness overwhelmed him. He quickly realized that a baby's brain couldn't support too much thinking—he was suffocating.
Damn it! Am I going to die right after being reborn? Before losing consciousness, he saw an elderly white woman picking him up.
Some higher power had played a strange joke on him. Although he was once again an abandoned child born in 1980, this time, he wasn't in an ancient Eastern country but at the North Hollywood Norston Orphanage in Los Angeles.
According to the engraved script on the necklace around his neck, he now had a new name—Ryan Jenkins!
A little white boy? This was the reality Lu Ming—no, Ryan—had to accept.
Life in the orphanage was cold and dull. Yet, there was always a fire burning in Ryan's heart, pushing him to learn everything he could. Thanks to his extraordinary linguistic talent and the careful guidance of the elderly headmistress, he was able to fluently speak, read, and write English by the age of four.
Staying in the orphanage wasn't a long-term solution, but he didn't know what else to do. He immersed himself in studying and reading, going through the orphanage's library books multiple times without realizing it.
That year, the orphanage organized children over four years old to participate in Hollywood's Halloween parade to attract more donations. It was then that Ryan realized the legendary Hollywood was just south of the orphanage.
The moment he stepped onto the Walk of Fame, flashes of classic movies and English songs from his past life flooded his mind, as vivid as if they were engraved in his memory.
The parade made him more determined. Over time, Ryan noticed that his body was far stronger than his peers, his thoughts exceptionally clear, his sensitivity to music and rhythm extraordinary, and his ability to construct images and words outstanding.
He wasn't sure if he had any talent for acting, but from the moment he opened his eyes in this new life, he had been acting—first as a baby, then as a child, and soon he would act as a teenager and an adult. Though some found him peculiar, no one ever doubted him. Acting had become his instinct.
Did the heavens hear my dying wish from my past life and send me to Hollywood? Ryan finally understood the burning desire in his heart—to become a dazzling superstar!
Well, that works too. Maybe I'll even get to meet my favorite stars from my past life and become friends with them.
Even though Ryan knew Hollywood was a cutthroat industry rather than a dream factory, he still set an ambitious goal for himself. If he had been given another chance at life, he had to make his past dreams come true.
With this goal, Ryan became even more diligent. He learned painting and music from volunteer art students and studied Mandarin and Cantonese from Chinese staff members—after all, he needed an excuse for speaking Chinese.
He devoured all things related to the arts and practiced translating his mental images into words. After two years of continuous effort, he developed his own style.
The elderly headmistress, Katie, had long noticed Ryan, considering him the brightest child in the orphanage. Strangely, though, no one wanted to adopt him—they found his personality too reserved and odd.
Ryan found it ironic. Among those who adopted orphans, there were many millionaires, and he had fantasized about becoming one of the privileged few. But perhaps fate had been sealed at the moment of his rebirth. By the time he turned six, he was still living in the orphanage.
Katie, his only reader, might have been drawn to him because she was Jewish and Ryan had some Jewish-like features. At first, she was surprised by his intelligence, but eventually, she got used to the presence of a genius child.
She collected all of Ryan's practice writings and selected the best science fiction stories to send to a magazine editor friend. Surprisingly, they were published.
When Ryan saw the magazine that Katie handed him, he knew his years of effort hadn't been in vain. His future had begun!
Aside from his routine exercises and studies, Ryan focused entirely on writing—or rather, adapting. He began transforming famous children's movies into novellas and short stories.
Though adapting movies into literature required careful handling to avoid future troubles, it wasn't too difficult for him. With Katie's help, stories like Home Alone and Toy Story were successfully published, earning Ryan his first royalties and a bank account in his name.
But Ryan wasn't satisfied. He needed a heavy-hitting breakthrough work, something to open Hollywood's doors if the future proved difficult. He set his sights on an iconic piece—Jurassic Park!
Having never read the original novel, he relied on the movie's plot for adaptation. To suit his age and identity, he made the protagonist a young boy instead of Dr. Grant. After researching dinosaurs and cloning technology to cover his tracks, he spent four months revising and refining the story.
With Katie's extensive social connections, the novel was published in the late autumn of 1986. It spent months quietly circulating before unexpectedly entering the top ten of the national bestseller list, bringing Ryan a substantial sum in royalties.
However, Katie retired due to health issues, and her replacement was a woman named Macy, a greedy and cruel black woman. From the moment she took over, life in the orphanage deteriorated rapidly. Hunger became a daily struggle, and abuse was commonplace. Worse yet, she began exploiting adoption loopholes, turning orphans into commodities.
After discovering Ryan's growing wealth, she saw him as her golden ticket. But she underestimated Ryan—his soul belonged to a grown man far smarter than she.
Realizing he had no real means of resistance, Ryan bided his time. The moment he saw an opening, he escaped.
As the morning light touched his face, Ryan trembled slightly. He understood now just how precious freedom was to humankind.