Chapter 1: The Orphanage of North Hollywood

  "Sorry, Lu Ming, I didn't want it to be like this either. If we continue to be together, my dad..." The long-haired girl let go of the hand that had been held for ten years and walked away without looking back, eventually disappearing from sight.

  An Xin

  The young man who called Lu Ming opened another can of beer in a low voice, and it had been several months since then. Every time he thought of the scene when they broke up, his heart still couldn't stop the sharp pain, after all, ten years of feelings!

  He actually knew that this scene would happen sooner or later, but he had always held onto his illusions, only to have reality burst the bubble of those fantasies.

  He was an orphan who grew up on the streets and in welfare institutions, after graduating from junior high school, he became a film projectionist through self-study. She, after ten years of struggle, became a well-known music producer. The gap between them grew wider and wider, one indulging in movies all day long, the other renowned and making a fortune every day, wasn't their breakup inevitable?

  A person who grew up in coldness and loneliness lost their only dawn and can only numb their nerves with alcohol.

  Another mouthful of beer, Lu Ming suddenly felt short of breath and his whole body was weak. He couldn't help but think of the alcohol allergy that hadn't acted up in years! The last time it did, it almost took his life!

  Is it going to end like this? His eyelids couldn't be lifted anymore, only filled with regret in his heart. I'm also a marginal figure in the entertainment industry, why didn't I know how to work hard? If I could become a dazzling superstar, would all of this still happen?

  ……

  "Wow!"

  The baby's crisp cry sounded, and Lu Ming opened his eyes to find the devastating fact that he had become a baby, an abandoned infant lying alone at the gate of an orphanage!

  Could it be... could I have been reborn? Returned to when I was abandoned? Then wouldn't I be able to start anew, from the very beginning?

  As soon as this thought emerged in his mind, he felt a dizziness and immediately realized that something was wrong. The baby's brain could not support him thinking about too many things, now hypoxia.

  Damn it! Am I going to die right after being reborn? Before he lost consciousness, he saw a white-haired old lady pick him up.

  Some higher power was playing a joke on him, making him an abandoned child for the second time in 1980, but this time it was at the Norston Orphanage in North Hollywood, Los Angeles.

  According to the cursive English on the pendant around his neck, he had a new name - Ryan Jenkins!

  I've become a little devil? This is a reality that Lu Ming or Ryan must accept.

  The life in the orphanage was cold and dull, but Ryan had a driving force in his heart that motivated him to learn all the knowledge he could get in touch with. Thanks to his extraordinary language talent and the careful guidance of the old principal, at the age of four, he could already speak, listen, read and write English fluently.

  Staying in the welfare institution was not a long-term plan, but he didn't know what to do, so he could only immerse himself in learning and reading as much as possible. Unbeknownst to him, the books in the library had been flipped through several times.

  That year, the orphanage organized children over four years old to participate in Hollywood's Halloween parade to get more sponsorship, and it was then that Ryan discovered that the famous Hollywood was just south of the orphanage.

  At the moment she stepped onto the Starlight Avenue, those classic movies she had seen in her past life and those English songs she had listened to immediately flashed into Rynn's mind, as clear as if they were carved into her memory.

  The march made him incredibly clear-headed, and as time passed, Ryan found that his body was far stronger than those of his peers, with an exceptionally clear mind, especially sensitive to music and rhythm, and possessing extraordinary abilities in constructing images and text.

  Although he didn't know if he had any talent for acting, from the moment he opened his eyes, he was performing, first as an infant, then as a child, and in the future, he would perform as a teenager and young adult. Even though some people thought he was a bit strange, no one ever suspected him, and performance had become second nature to him.

  Is it heaven that heard the wish of my previous life, and wants me to roll in Hollywood? Ryan understood what was in his heart - becoming a dazzling superstar!

  It's also good this way, maybe I can even see with my own eyes a few of my favorite stars from past lives and become friends with them.

  Although Ryan knew that Hollywood was a realistic arena for fame and fortune, rather than a dreamland for fantasies, he still set himself an unattainable goal. Since he had been reborn, he might as well fulfill some of his past life's wild ambitions.

  With a goal in mind, Ryan became more proactive in learning. He learned painting and music with art college students who were doing volunteer work, and learned Mandarin and Cantonese from Chinese colleagues - always finding an excuse to practice his Chinese.

  In short, he studied everything related to art and tried to depict the images in his mind with words, repeating this exercise for two years, gradually forming his own style and characteristics.

  Principal Katie had long noticed Ryan and thought he was the smartest kid in the orphanage, but strangely, no one wanted to adopt him, all of whom disliked his introverted and eccentric personality.

  Ryan also has some feelings, there are no shortage of millionaires or even billionaires among the adoptive parents, he also fantasizes about becoming a rich dad in the future, but some things seem to have been destined from the moment of rebirth, until the age of six, he still lives here.

  Katie Dean was Ryan's only reader, possibly because she herself was Jewish and Ryan had some Jewish characteristics, she just showed a few surprises at the beginning, and gradually got used to the existence of a child prodigy.

  She collected all of Ryan's practice works, picked out a few outstanding science fictions and mailed them to an old friend at the magazine company. To her surprise, they were actually published.

  When Ryan saw the magazine handed over by the old principal, he understood that his hard work for several years had not been in vain. For the future, let's start then!

  Apart from regular physical exercise and study time, Ryan devoted himself to writing, or rather, plagiarism. He began to adapt some famous children's movies into novellas or short stories.

  And the film is a different medium, turning the movie into text that can occupy creativity without causing negative impact on the future requires some effort, but it didn't cause him too much trouble. With the help of Principal Katie, including "Home Alone" and "Toy Story", he successfully published several short stories and earned a manuscript fee. The old principal even applied for a bank account for Ryan.

  These did not satisfy Ryan, he needed a heavyweight door-opener that could knock open the doors of Hollywood in unfavorable circumstances in the future, and he set his sights on a work with a huge impact - "Jurassic Park"!

  He had never seen the original "Jurassic Park", and could only adapt based on the content of the film. In order to conform to his six-year-old age and identity, he put the first protagonist in a little boy's body, rather than Dr. Grant.

  Although there were movies to refer to, in order to cover up, Ryan asked Principal Katie for help and collected a lot of information about dinosaurs and cloning, nearly 250,000 words, which took almost four months to complete after repeated revisions.

  Whether it was starting to write or finally publishing, the old dean helped a lot. This Jewish woman had an astonishing social connection.

  By early winter 1986, after several months of moderate sales, it entered the top ten on The New York Times bestseller list, bringing Ryan a large advance in royalties.

  At the same time, Principal Katie retired due to health reasons and was succeeded by a black woman named Mercy. Ryan noticed that her eyes were filled with disgust and greed when she looked at the orphans.

  After the obese director took office, the living standard of the welfare institution plummeted, and not being able to eat enough gradually became a normal state. Beating, scolding and humiliation also became daily routines. Moreover, she utilized the loopholes in the foster care system and colluded with some intermediaries to start a "foster care" business, turning the orphans into human commodities.

  After reading a reply from the Alien Body magazine, the black dean stared at Ryan, especially using the guardian's authority to check his account, and was directly dizzy by one string of zeros.

  Such a large sum of money actually belongs to a child, what else can it be for her if not a godsend?

  Things didn't turn out to be as simple as she thought, however. Before leaving, Principal Katy had realized that this money might bring trouble and specially entrusted an old friend to find a reliable lawyer for Ryan. It was almost impossible to get the money without alarming the lawyer, and the best way was to gain Ryan's absolute trust and support.

  Unfortunately, she didn't understand that in Ryan's body, there was a soul with an intelligence level only slightly lower than hers. Her attempts to curry favor, bribe and deceive him seemed as ridiculous as a clown in a circus to him. However, Ryan's age and his physical body, which did not match his wisdom, also determined that he had no actual ability to resist.

  Going hungry, being scolded, cursed and even beaten might make other children fearful, but Ryan was never afraid. In his past life as a child, he had experienced even more severe trials, and had endured even harder things.

  The Dean of Black Pig Academy directly locked him in a remote room and had two black workers take turns to monitor him, as long as he did not surrender, he would never be free.

  Time slipped into 1987, Ryan welcomed his second seventh birthday, his sky was already shrouded in dark clouds, he began to look for opportunities, waiting and being manipulated was not the fate he wanted, although he had left the orphanage only a handful of times in seven years, he still wanted to break out of this prison, only the vast sky outside could bear his soaring wings.

  Under his persistent efforts, the door that locked up the sky was finally dismantled by him. Taking advantage of the opportunity when the black worker went to the toilet, he escaped from the welfare institution.

  When the morning light fell from the sky and entered his eyes, Ryan's body trembled slightly, and he understood how precious freedom was to humans.