1 XING PENG

Xing Peng was a 17-year old Chinese student, who had spent the better half of his life being bullied in his school. Which, according to Xing Peng himself, was a much better place to be in than at his home.

His father was always drunk in the evening and at times would lash out at his mother and vent it out on her in the bed.

Xing Peng also had an elder brother, Xing Shan who was a true bully in the most real sense. Compared to those bullies that he met in school, this guy was a true professional at the job.

This was also the major reason why Xing Peng didn't want to be at home.

Xing Shan was already 25 years old and the right-hand man of a Chinese Mafia boss. Their mafia gang was a branch gang of one of the top 5 mafia gangs in China.

This was another reason why he was always unbridled.

But this couldn't really be blamed on his brother since he was "nurtured" by his father, so almost everything could be reproached onto his father.

Although he was a drunk old man now, during his younger days, he was a true mafia boss of a major gang. During those times, he was dashing and had heroic bad charms which became women's weakness and made their legs go numb in front of his demeanor.

His mother was no different, she was a trending model during that time and fell victim to his father's bad charm and later on, they got married.

Although she knew he was no-good, she was head over heels for him.

Although this might seem like a great happy life for a bad person such as his father, that was not the case.

Being in a mafia gang, there were definitely going to be clashes with other gangs. In one such clash, his father, who was dashing and had these appealing bad charms back then, was completely crushed. His attractive face was no longer attractive as he fell prey to an acid attack and suffered brutal tortures on his body by that enemy gang.

Since then, he spent most of his time gambling away and drinking and at times "nurturing" his elder brother in the ways of the mafia.

In the end, all of this led to increasing the burden on Xing Peng's mother, Ai Yu, and since she had already quit being a model after her marriage and knew that the modeling-industry would not accept a married woman, she had no choice but to use whatever money she had saved up by modeling to set up a small restaurant, so that she could manage the family.

Xing Peng deeply cared for his mother, his father and brother were good-for-nothings who didn't assist his mother at all. The small restaurant she had set up and everything from cleaning to cooking depended on his mother.

Xing Peng knew that since he couldn't do anything to help his mother other than cleaning dishes, he decided to focus on his studies so that one day he could get a good job in the society and provide for his mother and take her away from his wretched family.

But reality was harsh, his academic grades weren't really up to the mark. With all the bullying in school and at home, Xing Peng couldn't study peacefully, which led to a constant decline in his grades.

At times he felt his life was bleak and perhaps he was bound to suffer throughout his life, he also had suicidal thoughts.

But this all stopped when his only friend in school, Li Chong introduced him to some Chinese novels.

This easily captured Xing Peng's interest, especially those reincarnation-type novels where the protagonist was reborn or reincarnated into a new world, away from all his previous life's difficulties and beginning everything anew.

Although Xing Peng knew this was all fictitious and only a story which was not possible in reality, but being bullied and having great difficulties in his life made him have a hidden desire to run away from all his difficulties and start everything anew.

But he couldn't run away. His mother worked hard and saved up money just for his education, plus, if he ran away then what about his mother? She knew that her elder son was completely spoilt by her husband and hence, she had placed all her remaining hopes onto Xing Peng so that one day he could get a normal job and lead a common, happy life.

Although her life was filled with difficulties, Ai Yu didn't want Xing Peng to live a life full of difficulties as well.

She had tried many times to get her oldest son educated as well, but he simply refused and she also got lashed at by her husband who was overprotective when it came to Xing Shan, as he hoped that Xing Shan would one day become a mafia boss and perhaps take revenge on his behalf on the enemy gang that had ruined him and his men.

But this feeling didn't extend to his youngest son, Xing Peng. This was because Xing Peng, who was born with a thin and weak-body could never make it big in the mafia world. Being fierce and looking fierce was a crucial thing or even his own subordinates won't respect him! Furthermore, Xing Peng would sometimes speak up for his mother, which only served to make him loathe Xing Peng more and look down on him.

It has already been quite a few months since Xing Peng began reading Chinese novels, which his friend had introduced to him. His friend, Li Chong, was a true reading maniac when it came to Chinese novels and because of this, he didn't fit in well with his other classmates, this led to him becoming friends with Xing Peng who had the same problem. The only difference was that the latter often got bullied, while the former was just completely ignored.

Xing Peng's grades were barely average, which could be considered as an amazing feat in itself, given that he never really got much time to study due to his "busy" life. But after he started reading those Chinese novels, his grades dropped down. This was a given since, instead of studying, he found himself reading novels whenever possible.

As for Li Chong, although he was a true Chinese novel-reading maniac when it came to his academics, his grades were average and this was purely due to his academic talent. Otherwise if he was dedicated to studying he would have already become the top scorer of his class.

Xing Peng knew this, but he also knew he was not like his friend who had such academic talent.

But those Chinese novels were good and he didn't want to stop reading them anytime soon but thinking about his situation, thinking about the difficulties of his mother, he temporarily put them down.

But by then it was already too late as he was in a much more difficult situation than before, because his exams were just around the corner.