The sun shines brightly outside the window, and the weather is fine and sunny.

Liang Liang had just woken up from her sleep and lay on the kang (a heated brick bed) with her head facing inward, staring blankly at the room that felt both strange and somewhat familiar.

The walls, painted with paint, were a bit mottled, and decorated with New Year pictures of "abundance year after year" and "golden rooster crowing at dawn".

This puzzled him. What year is it that people still put up New Year pictures?

At the westernmost edge of the kang (heated brick bed), against the west wall, there was a pair of wooden boxes placed side by side.

The surfaces of these two boxes have many engravings, indicating that they are from many years ago.

Seeing the pair of trunks made Liang Liang a little uneasy. He was very familiar with these trunks. The wooden trunks were made by a carpenter who came to his house and took three days to complete. He was about six or seven years old at the time.

Something doesn't feel right about this situation!

The old-fashioned wardrobe and the pair of trunks under the north wall are also products from the same era.

But these two pieces of furniture, which were the main pieces of furniture in his house at the time, were used for chopping wood and burning firewood in 2000. How did they reappear in front of him?

Am I still dreaming?

Liang Liang reached out and pinched herself hard.

It hurts!

This is not a dream.

Liang Liang's heart skipped a beat. Had she gone back to the past?

He suddenly sat up on the kang (a heated brick bed), slipped on his slippers, and went to the outer room.

His parents weren't in the house; he was all alone.

He went to his mother's dressing table and looked into the mirror embedded in the wall.

A young man with a clean-shaven lip and a serious expression appeared in the mirror; he seemed vaguely familiar.

Liang Liang was stunned. The young man in the mirror was himself when he was young. Back then, he was in his prime and didn't even have a beard.

I can confirm that I have truly been reborn.

Liang Liang turned her head to look at the door frame, where the calendar was hung.

The date on the calendar is clearly visible: April 28, 1993.

In an instant, Liang Liang's heart was in turmoil.

He was a greasy middle-aged man when he lay down to sleep last night in May 2018.

But now it's spring of 1993, and he's back to being a seventeen-year-old youth.

He drank a whole ladle of water in front of the water vat, trying to calm his mind, and then sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) in his room, lost in thought.

He couldn't accept this reality for a while.

While it's gratifying to be young again, he's not mentally prepared to face the world all over again.

A dozen minutes later, Liang Liang's chaotic mood improved somewhat.

Since we've been reborn, dwelling on the past doesn't seem like a wise move. Looking to the future is what we should be thinking about right now. We need to figure out what we should do and not waste this chance to be reborn.

He speculated in stocks, dabbled in the internet industry, ran a courier service, an e-commerce business, and made mobile phones, becoming a billionaire and reaching the pinnacle of life...

Liang Liang went through all these things in his mind, and combined them with his experience from his previous life to do some analysis. His final conclusion was that it was like trying to make a shoe sole with a watermelon rind; he was simply not cut out for it.

In his previous life, he was just a music enthusiast, the bassist and lead singer of a small band in a small northern city.

In his previous life, he had little contact with these fields and had virtually no information stored in his head. Asking him to play with those high-tech gadgets was like asking an elementary school graduate to take the college entrance exam—it was impossible.

All he can do is what he's familiar with, which is to continue playing music, since music is the only area he's truly familiar with.

Just as he was thinking this, someone rushed into his house with the sound of wind, interrupting his thoughts.

"Liang Liang! A circus performance is coming to our village! A circus performance is coming to our village!"

The person who came running in, panting, was Sui Fulu, Liang Liang's neighbor. The two had grown up together and were very close.

Liang Liang carefully examined Sui Fulu, who had also become younger once again.

This guy is just like he was when he was young, all chubby and energetic.

Sui Fulu was a straightforward person who couldn't keep anything to himself. He said whatever he thought without any beating around the bush.

This may also be the reason why he and Liang Liang always had a good relationship in his previous life.

"What kind of circus performance is this? Where will it be held?"

"They've already set up a greenhouse in the brigade's courtyard, and there are several pretty girls inside." Sui Fulu said excitedly, his face beaming with adrenaline.

What does it matter to you if there are pretty girls? Besides, do you even have the money to buy a ticket to get in? What's there to be so excited about!

"I'm leaving now! Go tell the others to come find me tonight." With that, Sui Fulu hurried off.

A makeshift operation.

Amateur troupes almost disappeared in Northeast China in the 1980s, but suddenly reappeared in the 1990s. After the turn of the millennium, they began to decline again, and although they eventually continued to exist, they could only be seen at weddings and funerals.

In rural northern China, these itinerant performers who travel from village to village to make a living are collectively known as "horse racers."

Although it's called a circus, it's not purely a horse race. Circus mainly focuses on acrobatics, but some performances also feature singing and dancing.

Liang Liang wasn't interested in pure circus acts; he was only interested in singing and dancing.

However, the news brought by Sui Fulu did give him a wake-up call.

How about forming your own farmers' band?

This thought naturally popped into Liang Liang's mind.

His biggest advantage right now is that he has a certain level of musical skill. He can play guitar, bass, and drums. Most importantly, he has a lot of classic songs from the next twenty years in his head and knows most of the popular songs from now until 2018. He just needs to recall these songs and perform them.

These songs were all very popular in the Chinese music scene at the time, and any one of them could have been the title track of an album.

First, form a band to make a living. You can start by performing at various venues like a circus act, and then move on to more advanced roles once you've made a name for yourself.

With this foundation, he felt that he, who had not made a name for himself in this field in his previous life, would definitely succeed in this one.

Once he makes a name for himself, money and beautiful women will naturally follow. Who knows, he might even become a godfather, wearing his hat on a variety show and gesticulating wildly, earning millions in appearance fees per episode...

Never again will I be like in my previous life, struggling to find food, until my wife couldn't take it anymore and left.

It's said that people's IQ drops to zero when they're daydreaming, and Liang Liang is probably in that state right now.

Yes! That's decided! A tall building starts from the ground up, so let's start by forming a farmers' band!

Having set his life goals, Liang Liang arrived at his own courtyard full of high spirits.

Just then, a cool breeze swept over him, stimulating his brain and instantly making him much more awake.

Oh dear! It seems I've oversimplified reality.

The plan is good, but where to get the money to form a band is a real problem.

People aren't a problem; even if they're not available in the countryside, you can find them in the city. But what about musical instruments?

In 1993, an electric guitar and bass would cost between six and ten thousand, a drum set would cost over ten thousand, plus a keyboard and speakers...

Forget about high-end items with this set; even the ordinary, mass-produced ones will cost at least 40,000 to 50,000 yuan.

Forty or fifty thousand? He simply couldn't get that kind of money at this point.

The steward wants it?

That's absolutely impossible.

At this point, he knew very well how much money his family had; if he remembered correctly, they should have five thousand yuan.

This amount of money is not enough, and even if it were, don't expect me to give it to him. It's for him to get married, although five thousand yuan wasn't enough to get married in 1993.

Liang Liang sighed.

If I want to form a band, I have to rely on myself. The first thing I need to solve is the problem of money.

Despite the difficulties, the band must be formed, and the timeframe will be no later than the end of the year.

Forming a band in just over six months is a daunting task.

In the yard, the father was digging a hole with a pickaxe, the mother was making a clock with a small basin, and behind them a small yellow dog was sniffing around.

At this moment, both parents had a full head of black hair, and their smiles were radiant in the sunlight.

It was a very common rural scene, but Liang Liang's eyes suddenly welled up with tears.

He was the eldest of three siblings. In his previous life, his parents worried about them their whole lives and never enjoyed any happiness.

Before their rebirth, they were still alive, but already very old.

In this life, once I've made a name for myself, I'll make sure they never have to toil like this again, and I'll make sure they live a happy life.

The little yellow dog, with its keen sense of smell, spotted its young owner coming out of the house and immediately ran to Liang Liang's feet, wagging its tail.

Liang Liang reached out and petted the little yellow dog twice, then went to her parents and took the small pot containing the seeds from her mother.

"Mom! I'll do it!"

"Don't order too many seeds, just put two seeds in each hole," the mother instructed before going back inside.

Liang Liang followed behind his father, scattering vegetable seeds into the pit, chatting about everyday things as they worked.

"Dad! I've been staying at home for almost a year since I graduated. I'm thinking of going out and doing something. What do you think?"

Liang Liang failed to get into high school after graduating from middle school last summer, and has been staying at home for almost a year now.

Liang Bentang stopped picking his pickaxe: "So where do you want to go?"

"I don't have a specific place yet, whether it's a factory or a construction site, it's fine. I'm already seventeen, and it's not good to just stay at home all the time. If I go out, I can at least earn some money back."

Liang Bentang was very happy. His son's idea made him feel gratified. He had finally grown up and knew how to share the burden of the family.

“But you’re only seventeen, especially since you just graduated from school. You have no social experience. I think it would be better if you waited until you turned eighteen before going out.”

My father's words were not without reason.

"Dad! I'll have to go out sooner or later, so it doesn't matter if it's a year or six months. If I have the chance, I'll go out and see the world."

Liang Bentang paused for a moment and said, "Alright! If you really have nowhere to go, you can work in a bricklayer's team for two years. A laborer can still earn six or seven yuan a day these days."

In 1993, the national infrastructure construction had not yet started, and there were far fewer infrastructure companies that sprang up like mushrooms after rain starting in 1997. However, there were many bricklayers working in the private sector who built houses.

People with rural household registration who don't do business mostly work in these bricklaying teams; factories don't hire people with rural household registration.

"Okay! If there's really no other way out, I'll consider going to the bricklayer's class." Liang Liang agreed verbally, but he didn't really think about becoming a bricklayer at all.

He never intended to become a bricklayer.

The father and son finished planting the seeds while talking.

“I have no other work, so I’ll go down and take a look. Sui Fulu said a circus has come to our brigade.”

Liang Bentang nodded without saying anything.