Flynn Carter and Lana Foster exchanged glances, both wearing an expression that said, “Is this kid out of his mind?” Then Flynn Carter patted him on the head, “Really nothing’s wrong? Fine, you don’t have to say if you don’t want to. As long as you’re not being bullied, that’s what matters. You’re old enough now, you should have a sense of things and know your limits. Let’s eat!”

He changed into slippers and sat back at the table. The three of them ate a meal that wasn’t exactly lavish, even making do with leftovers from lunch, with just one extra dish of stir-fried green peppers and pork.

For once, Flynn Carter picked up several pieces of food and put them in Ryan Carter’s bowl. Seeing Ryan Carter looking dazed, he kept a straight face, “The high school entrance exam is coming up soon. You need to get your nutrition up during this period…”

Lana Foster immediately added, “I’ll go to Binhe Road tomorrow and buy a chicken. How about I stew chicken for you tomorrow… half stewed, half cold dressed. You love mom’s cold chicken the most. I’ll make a special chili oil tonight, fry up some peanuts, with scallions, ginger, and garlic…”

Flynn Carter said, “Let’s open up the cuttlefish that Old Song gave us too. Cuttlefish stewed with chicken, that’s also his favorite…”

Watching his parents, who seemed much younger, chatting at the dinner table, Ryan Carter felt his eyes grow hot, but also found it a little funny. It seemed that his earlier hug had really startled them.

…

After enjoying a home-cooked meal he hadn’t had in what felt like ages, as if he’d traveled through time, Ryan Carter truly realized that he himself had become younger, inside and out. It was a kind of primal energy, as if the power of time and space was stored within his body, containing an energy even more vast than a nuclear bomb.

Needless to say, Ryan Carter knew what it meant to be someone reborn, but looking ahead, it seemed there were obstacles everywhere. There were too many lessons and histories laid out before him. In ancient times there was Wang Mang, Wang Anshi; in more recent times, even those internet companies that would later take the world by storm—weren’t there pioneers before them? There were. Before OICQ there was ICQ, before the iPad there was DynaBook, before Facebook there was Classmates.com. They just weren’t born at the right time—maybe just a year or two off. It’s like surfing: if you miss the board by a split second, you’ll be trampled by those who come after. Timing and momentum are crucial, but if you don’t have the ability to ride the wave, you’ll be crushed, or if luck isn’t on your side, you’ll be knocked over by a rogue wave from nowhere.

So sometimes, being ahead of your time isn’t always a good thing. You might still have to tread carefully, especially since this is a parallel world that’s similar to his previous life in many ways, but also very different. Taboos, all kinds of obstacles, and whether the trends of his past life still apply here—all of this would have to be figured out in time. But once the time comes, he must seize the moment, ride the spring wind and wild fire, set sail to cross the seas, reach for the moon in the sky, meet the storms and clouds, and descend to help the common people…

Catching himself drifting off, Ryan Carter pulled his thoughts back on track.

After dinner, Ryan Carter watched the entire national news broadcast in front of the TV, then switched to other news channels. At first, Flynn Carter and Lana Foster didn’t find it odd. Even though it was still a regular school period and Ryan Carter’s TV time was usually restricted, if he wanted to watch something as formal as the news, they wouldn’t stop him.

But later, seeing Ryan Carter flipping through channel after channel, watching news content, made Flynn Carter and Lana Foster exchange glances again. They knew that Ryan Carter had never been a model student at school—not to mention winning competitions, even things like penmanship or art sympathy awards, he had always managed to avoid. As for those days as a class leader with stripes on his shoulders, that was a distant memory. So the things that happened to those outstanding students they’d always heard about would definitely never happen to him.

But right now, Ryan Carter was watching those very things—social and international news that were worlds apart from the entertainment of hit dramas and cartoons. And the level of focus Ryan Carter showed made them feel a bit awed. He seemed to be in a world of his own, and they felt it was best not to disturb him.

After watching, Ryan Carter returned to his room, took out a pile of outdated newspapers and information sources, and only after midnight did he let out a long breath.

This world, for the most part, was the same as his previous one… What had disappeared or changed were not just the people he once knew, but also the events.

In February, a great figure of the Republic had just passed away, and his ashes were scattered at sea.

In March, a famous writer also died. Ryan Carter found some of his works—they were pretty good, specializing in “scar literature,” but he had never seen them before.

The China Internet Network Information Center (HXNIC) was about to be established. Six years after the world’s first website went online in 1991, this country was about to enter the internet era. It was the budding spring and autumn of a hundred flowers blooming, but many things had also vanished.

The legendary DOS version of “The Legend of Sword and Fairy,” which should have appeared by now, was gone—it had never existed. “Dune II” and “Fallout” were currently the hottest single-player games.

In some business fields that would later become famous, he couldn’t find many familiar names. He didn’t know if it was the wrong time and they hadn’t appeared yet, or if they had simply vanished as well, or maybe in this world, some things simply could never be born.

As for the stock market and the like, that was even more unfathomable.

Heaven had left him some things, and taken others away.