Rebirth: Not Being a Waste - Chapter 4

It feels like millions of years have passed—or perhaps just the blink of an eye. When Zhang Shu regains consciousness, he finds himself holding something in his hand.

Across from him, a familiar figure smiles and reaches out.

Zhang Shu blinks, struggling to comprehend the situation. The person before him looks familiar—much younger than he remembers.

“Little Mujin?” he rasps, his voice hoarse. Is this a dream?

“Brother Dashu?” Li Mujin looks at him in confusion. They have just been sitting on the grass, chatting. Brother Dashu had said he would give him something, but after finishing his weaving, he suddenly fell into a daze.

“Little Mujin, how did you become so young?” Zhang Shu asks, bewildered. Just moments ago, he saw an aged Mujin, yet now he is staring at the youthful Mujin from his memories.

“Brother Dashu, what’s wrong? Don’t scare me! Are you sick?” Li Mujin reaches out and places a worried hand on his forehead, checking for a fever.

The touch is soft, with faint calluses—unlike Wu Liniang’s delicate hands—but it gives Zhang Shu an unfamiliar sense of warmth and stability.

He covers the smaller hand with his own, holding it tightly.

Li Mujin’s face flushes. He glances around, exhaling in relief when he confirms they are alone on the small hillside, away from prying eyes.

Brother Dashu has never been this bold before. He has directly taken his hand. But Mujin doesn’t pull away. Instead, he turns his head, pretending to admire the scenery.

Zhang Shu holds onto the slightly sweaty hand, his mind gradually clearing. He looks around and recognizes the hill behind their village. The crooked tree they planted together still stands, though in his past life, he was forced to cut it down by that woman.

What is happening? Has he never died? Has everything just been a dream? Or has he died and somehow been reborn?

But why isn’t he reincarnated? If he is destined to repeat the past, he would rather have stayed dead.

“Brother Dashu… have you… held on long enough?” Even the usually cheerful and open Li Mujin can’t help but feel shy in front of the one he loves. Zhang Shu has been holding his hand for quite a while.

Zhang Shu hesitates before releasing his grip, placing Mujin’s hand back on his lap as if returning it to its rightful owner. Then, he simply stares at him.

Feeling unsettled under his gaze, Li Mujin scrambles to his feet. “Brother Dashu… my mother asked me to gather pig grass, and I haven’t done it yet… I should go back!” He hurriedly turns and runs down the hill, flustered.

Zhang Shu watches his retreating figure and feels an unfamiliar warmth in his chest. It has been so long since he has seen Little Mujin like this.

Leaning back on the grass, he plucks a long blade of horsetail grass and holds it between his lips, imitating the carefree troublemakers in the village.

During his time as a ghost, he grew much more carefree. After all, the entire mountain belonged to him then—whether he wanted to lie down, sit, or stand, it didn’t matter.

But what has happened to him now? Is this truly a resurrection? If he has to relive everything, he refuses to be the same weak Zhang Shu. If only he had been reborn in Master Wang’s body, he could have openly married Little Mujin instead of being forced to wed Wu Liniang.

Wait—no!

Zhang Shu suddenly sits up. He is alive again—so why would he still marry Wu Liniang?

From what he just saw, Little Mujin is only sixteen or seventeen, which means he himself is probably only eighteen or nineteen.

Mujin’s family hasn’t fallen into ruin yet, and he hasn’t been forced into marriage. If Zhang Shu can prevent Li Mujin’s father and brother from going into the mountains, they won’t be crushed by falling rocks and severely injured. That way, he and Mujin will be seen as an equal match instead of a burden!

Excitement surges through Zhang Shu, and he lets out a howl, mimicking the wolves in the deep forest. His strange behavior stands out on the small hillside.

“What the hell are you howling for? Are you mourning the dead?” A fierce voice interrupts him.

A boy around his age approaches, his beady eyes menacing. Zhang Shu instinctively shivers. It’s Wang Changfa—the village bully.

People say his family are descendants of bandits. He even has a relative who was imprisoned.

“So it’s you,” Wang Changfa sneers. His expression darkens with malice.

Zhang Shu’s family is well-off, and his personality is softer than a lamb’s—he never resists when bullied, not even daring to tattle. What a waste of height and size.

Zhang Shu stares at him in silence. In his past life, Wang Changfa remained a thug until old age, only to be thrown into jail by his own wife after poisoning someone over a stolen chicken.

Wang Changfa, annoyed by Zhang Shu’s lack of response, kicks his leg. “I asked you a question! You dare ignore me? Bold of you!”

Instinctively, Zhang Shu curls up, shielding his head with his arms. The biggest fear from his childhood wraps around him again.

Wang Changfa sneers. As usual, Zhang Shu cowers and trembles without resistance. He is even weaker than a sheep.

With a smirk, Wang Changfa increases the force of his kicks, treating Zhang Shu like a ball in a game of Cuju.

Zhang Shu wants to endure it, just as he always has. Wang Changfa won’t kill him—he is used to this.

But then his eyes land on the spot where Little Mujin had been sitting earlier. He can still see Mujin’s bright, smiling face.

Mujin has never looked down on him. Whenever he is bullied, Mujin stands up for him. His father and brother are both hunters—people like Wang Changfa fear them the most.

If he continues living like the coward he has been before, how can he ever be worthy of Little Mujin?

Zhang Shu clenches his fists. He wants to be Mujin’s sheltering tree, not the weak one being protected.

A surge of strength explodes from within him. Without thinking, he grabs Wang Changfa’s kicking foot and yanks it backward.

Caught off guard, Wang Changfa loses his balance and tumbles to the ground.

Zhang Shu stares at his own hands in disbelief.

Is resisting really this easy?

Suddenly, he bursts into laughter and sprints down the hill. In that moment, he feels no different from the heroes in the stories.

Wang Changfa scrambles to his feet, furious. He had wanted to beat Zhang Shu until he begged for mercy, but instead, the coward flipped him over and is now running away, laughing wildly.

“That bastard got lucky!” Wang Changfa spits on the ground.

He dusts himself off and strolls back down the hill, feigning nonchalance.

If word gets out that Wang Changfa, the village’s feared boss, was bested by Zhang Shu of all people, he would be the laughingstock of the entire village.