"Holy crap! Reborn?"
"I actually returned to 1991."
Lin Fan lay on the bed and opened his eyes with difficulty, seeing an oil lamp lit on the windowsill not far from him.
The light was as small as a bean, dim and yellow, yet it illuminated two rooms. Lying there, Lin Fan could only see that the oil lamp was placed on a windowsill between the two rooms.
As if aware of someone's gaze, the lamp swayed gently and flared up for a moment, momentarily brightening the entire room before returning to its dim state.
Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared. The sound of torrential rain pouring onto the roof was terrifying. Inside, there was the pitter-patter of rainwater leaking from the ceiling into puddles.
He could confirm it was 1991 so quickly because this day was etched deeply in Lin Fan's memory.
In his previous life, on this very night, their house collapsed during the heavy rainstorm, and he was the only one in the family who survived.
"This time, I cannot let such a tragedy happen again!" Lin Fan forced himself up, trying to sit.
"Jingjing! Is your brother awake yet?" A middle-aged woman's voice, filled with immense sorrow, came from outside.
This voice was so familiar!
"Mom's voice!" Hearing this voice, Lin Fan's throat instantly tightened with emotion.
His younger sister hadn't woken up; she was still slumped by the bedside, her head resting on one of Lin Fan's legs as she slept.
"Mom! I'm awake!" Suppressing the pain throughout his body, Lin Fan tried to make his voice sound more relaxed.
*Bang!* The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground came from outside.
In the outer room, Wang Shufang had been carrying a wooden basin used to catch rainwater, intending to pour it out.
Startled by the unexpected voice, the wooden basin in her hands suddenly dropped to the floor.
Rainwater spilled across the floor, making the ground—which was already wet from the leaking roof—even more slippery.
But she didn't care about any of that. Her son had come home on break during the busy farming season to harvest wheat, but he had fallen from the Hillside this evening.
He had been unconscious. The rain started just then, and Wang Shufang, who had been walking behind him, had cried until her world turned dark.
She had found Lin Fan lying motionless on the ground at the foot of the hill. He was still breathing, but the thunder, torrential rain, and Wang Shufang's cries failed to wake him.
Wang Shufang had carried Lin Fan home on her back all by herself, laid him on the bed, and told Lin Jingjing to watch over her brother.
She then made two more trips to carry back the wheat bundles left at the foot of the hill. Meanwhile, Lin Jingjing had to look after her brother while placing basins, jars, and bowls under every leak in the house.
She had to prevent the house from being flooded by the heavy rain inside and out.
There were only three people left in the Lin family. The head of the household, Lin Tianci, had also died two years ago on that same Hillside after slipping and falling off a cliff on a rainy day.
With her son falling at the same spot today, Wang Shufang felt both hatred and fear toward that cliff.
Lin Fan hadn't woken up since being carried back. Lin Family Gully was twenty kilometers from the town, and in such heavy rain, it was impossible to get anyone out.
Not to mention the steep and slippery mountain roads, the pitch-black darkness, or the lightning and thunder—the roaring flash floods in the valley alone were enough to block anyone trying to leave the mountains.
Wang Shufang could only leave Lin Fan in the room and resign herself to fate.
Her heart was like the weather outside—gloomy and devoid of light.
Suddenly hearing her son respond from the room, she forgot everything else.
She rushed into the room in a few quick strides and saw her son lying on the bed, looking straight at her.
She had a feeling that even in the dim light, her son's eyes shone with the light of wisdom.
Once those eyes opened, her world instantly brightened. The lightning and thunder outside, the gloom, and the dripping water inside all turned into beautiful background music.
Wang Shufang rushed over and gently stroked Lin Fan's face. "Faner! Does it hurt anywhere?"
This time, her voice was no longer sorrowful, filled only with immense motherly love and uncontrollable joy.
"It doesn't hurt!" Looking at his mother's face, so thin and dark that it was just skin and bones, Lin Fan's eyes welled up.
Having witnessed countless deceptions in society, Lin Fan could no longer hold back his tears upon hearing his mother's voice, and large drops began to fall.
This was his mother, his mother from May 1991. It was also the most vivid image of her he could remember.