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 much better place to be in than at his home.

His father was always drunk during the evenings and would at times 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 was the right-hand man of a Chinese mafia boss and 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 and did what he liked.

But this couldn't really be blamed on his brother, as he was "nurtured" by his father so almost everything could once again be blamed back to 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 the 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 and in one such clash, his father, who was dashing and had attractive bad charms back then was completely crushed and his attractive face was no longer attractive as he fell prey to an acid attack and had suffered brutal attacks on his body due to 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 lead to more of a burden for xing peng's mother, Ai Yu and since she had already quit being a model after her marriage and knowing that the modelling-industry would not accept a married woman, she had no choice but to use whatever money she had saved up by modelling to set up a small restaurant, so that she could manage the family.

Xing Peng only cared for his mother deeply, his father and brother were good-for-nothings who didn't assist his mother at all. That small restaurant that 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 up the 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.

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Although it seemed all well and good in his thoughts, his academic grades were really not up to the mark. With all the bullying in school and at home, Xing Peng really couldn't study in peace and this lead to a constant fall in his grades.

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

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

And 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 false and only a story and was not possible in reality, but being bullied and having great difficulties in his life had lead to a hidden desire for him 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 what about his mother then? She knew that her elder son was completely spoilt by her husband and hence, she had placed all her remaining hopes onto him so that one day he could lead a normal life, get a normal job and lead a happy life.

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

She had tried many times to get her elder son schooled as well, but he simply refused and she also got lashed at by her husband who was very protective over Xing Shan as he hoped Xing Shan would one day become a mafia boss and perhaps take revenge on his behalf on that enemy gang that had ruined him and his gang.

But he didn't feel the same way for his youngest son, Xing Peng as Xing Peng was born with a thin and weak body and always tried to speak up for his mother, so he didn't like him at all even though he was his son.

It had already been many months since Xing Peng got involved in reading Chinese novels, which his friend had introduced him to. His friend, Li Chong was a true-reading maniac when it came to Chinese novels and because of it, he didn't really fit well with his other classmates leading to him becoming friends with Xing Peng who also didn't fit well with the class. Just the difference was that the latter was bullied continuously while the former was ignored completely.

Xing Peng's grades were already no-good due to him never getting enough time to actually study due to his bullied-life, but after he started reading the Chinese novels which his friend had introduced him to, his grades dropped to the lowest as Xing Peng found himself deeply engrossed in those novels.

As for Li Chong, although he was a true Chinese-novel reading maniac but 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 already.

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

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

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