Life Reset：Starting Over Again

Aaron leaned against the car, smoking.

The sky had turned dark, and a flicker of flame illuminated half of his face.

After smoking half of it, he glanced at his watch, flicked the cigarette butt into the half-open car window, took out a nearly empty mineral water bottle, and threw the cigarette butt along with the remaining ash into it. He then reached into his pocket, took out a piece of gum, chewed it hastily, and spat the residue into a tissue.

He initially intended to throw the garbage into the bin, but as he turned, the person he was waiting for arrived.

The person, looking somewhat weary, walked out from the gate of an office building. His first glance fell on the brand new car parked by the roadside, then he noticed Aaron.

His expression became somewhat complex. "…Eric."

In this world, Aaron was known as Eric.

As he caught sight of that face, Aaron was momentarily stunned, forgetting to approach proactively.

The person stood still, expecting "Eric" to come to him. However, when he noticed that "Eric" had no intention of moving, he furrowed his brow in confusion.

In Aaron 's mind, a prompt with a half-human, half-mechanical voice sounded, maintaining a professional tone. "Mr. Aaron, your target is calling you."

Ignoring the decrease in favorability from 72 to 70, Aaron regained his composure and commented, "Not bad-looking."

Then he stood up straight, sighed self-deprecatingly, "It's been too long since I've been single. Even a turtle looks good."

The system: "…"

Aaron then pretended to have difficulty seeing clearly in the night, squinted his eyes before finally recognizing the person. His initially somewhat bewildered eyes lit up with joy when he saw the familiar face, and the dimples on his cheeks were so sweet that one might want to laugh with him, "Brain!"

The system: "…" A second into the act, not bad.

The turtle that Aaron wanted to conquer was named Brain.

Brain was four years older than Eric. He was clean, with cuffs neatly arranged; a refreshing temperament, hair and nails well-groomed, emitting a faint woody fragrance. He possessed the rare ruggedness and stability of a young man, with the contours of his chest subtly visible under the white shirt, not exaggerated but enough to make hearts beat faster.

As Aaron approached the target, he briefly reviewed the information about the world he had received.

This world was Aaron's first task after entering the system world. According to the system, to help the task performer adapt more quickly, the first task for each performer after binding with the system was set in a world highly similar to the one they originally lived in, with a simple difficulty level.

In simple terms, it was a beginner's tutorial.

The beginner's tutorial indicated that Brain, the target of Eric's conquest, was a university student who came from a southwestern mountain ditch, supported by the efforts of his entire family. He majored in software engineering. From not knowing how to turn on a computer to successfully being recommended for graduate studies, his nearly seven years of studying away from home had smoothed away the rustic atmosphere of Brain. At first glance, he looked like a young person who grew up in the city.

As for Eric, in a nutshell, he came from a wealthy family.

As for how much money, Eric never cared. That was something his elder brother should worry about.

Eric had loved music since childhood, the kind of love that would dive in and drown without care. He did have talent – he could easily pick up any instrument and had a great voice. He could sing, compose, play – he excelled in all of them.

Eric met Brain by chance while he was playing with his high school classmates after enrolling in the music academy. At that time, Brain had just entered his senior year, looking at his best. He had a refreshing and rugged charm that captivated Eric, who followed him relentlessly.

At first, Brain found it amusing, but gradually, he was moved by this young master, who seemed fragile on the surface but was easily held in his grasp like a rabbit by the ears.

The two went from acquaintances to confirming their relationship, falling deeply in love over three years.

One day, Eric got drunk and in a moment of impulse revealed to his family the fact that he is gay.

Eric's father and mother couldn't accept the fact that their son, who used to chase after girls when he was young, fell in love with a man, especially after investigating Brain's background. Eric 's father and mother expressed strong opposition.

Eric's parents weren't discriminatory toward Brain, who had worked hard to get to where he was. They had come from the countryside, self-made, and understood the difficulties of striving for success.

However, the truth is Brian's family would never accept a man instead of a woman. Their hopeless love affair was destined to have no good results.

But love makes people blind.

Eric , after waking up from being drunk, couldn't listen to his parents' well-intentioned advice, instead resisting and fearing that his parents would make things difficult for Brain.

Eric's parents weren't that low-class to have trouble with a child who had worked hard to get to where he was. However, Eric 's actions hurt his parents deeply.

For Brain, Eric moved out of his home, living with Brain.

For the sake of convenience, Brain rented a place far from the city center, requiring more than twenty bus stops to reach. There were only a few takeout options, but the advantage was the quietness and lower vegetable prices.

Eric learned to cook for Brain, and he did it well. Brain praised him a couple of times, and Eric would make lunch for him every day and deliver it to the company.

Friends scolded Eric , saying, "Eric, are you crazy? You chose such kind of life for the sake of a poor guy?"

Eric would smile and say, "He treats me well. We agreed to have hot pot tomorrow."

Eric was indeed a romantic idealist. Every little ideal was recorded full of hope on post-it notes on his desk, like writing poetry one by one.

"Write songs tomorrow morning; cook lunch at noon; come back to write songs in the afternoon; go for a walk with Brain in the evening; buy two cups of soy milk, and add sugar for Brain; turn on the air conditioner half the night and sleep under a quilt."

He never recorded bad things because he thought he was living really well.

Big brother's secret aid was also rejected. The only time Eric accepted his big brother's kindness was when he accepted the gift of a new car his brother had just bought. Because he always felt dizzy on public transportation. Every time he crossed half the city to deliver meals to Brain, he dared not eat breakfast, fearing he would feel nauseous.

However, Brain didn't appreciate this gesture, stating that it felt like charity from his older brother. He wanted to make Eric remember the good old days and hoped to use this as an opportunity to bring him back home. Eric thought about it and, understanding the reasoning, obediently returned the car.

This act of taking and returning hurt Eric's older brother's feelings.

Later on, the frequency of the older brother's greetings via text messages changed from daily to weekly, and then to bi-weekly.

In the midst of Eric 's sadness, he thought that perhaps his parents and older brother just wanted him to live well. If he followed Brain and lived a better life, maybe they would accept Brain.

Brain had become a systems analyst during his undergraduate years and secured a job at a software company after graduation. According to him, he was highly regarded by the manager. As for Eric , his career was progressing smoothly.

In the past, Eric never had to consider making a living; he focused on playing music. The experimental music he wrote had no market value, but his parents managed to use connections to package and sell them, mainly for self-entertainment within a small circle.

Now, Eric had to think about his livelihood. The record market had been shrinking significantly over the years, and it couldn't accommodate Eric 's passion for experimental music.

In this regard, Eric didn't have a problem putting aside his pride. He liked to write all kinds of songs—classical, pop, punk rock, you name it. However, he was a bit picky in terms of quality, a characteristic typical of an artist.

He spent three months meticulously recording three original pop-style demos and sent them to several record companies.

For these companies, receiving countless demos every day was routine. Eric had prepared himself for the possibility of being ignored. However, to his surprise, he quickly received a response: a small company had accepted his submissions, offering five thousand dollars for each song.

This small company expressed admiration for Eric 's songwriting talent and proposed to sign him as an artist. Excited, Eric didn't hesitate to sign the contract.

Eric was so thrilled that, even before the money arrived, he immediately planned out the expenses of fifteen thousand dollars, and each plan included Brain .

If time could go back, Eric would curse his overly excited self at that moment.

The efficiency of the small company's production was low, and the final results were not entirely satisfying. However, Eric watched his three songs—"Autumn Thoughts," "Language of the Heart," and "Love You"—rise in rankings on music software, each ascent accompanied by screenshots sent to Brain .

It continued until he came across a comment: "Doesn't anyone else think 'Autumn Thoughts' sounds a lot like Tang Goddess's revised version of 'Yearning'?"

Soon, someone replied: "Not just 'Autumn Thoughts,' 'Language of the Heart' also sounds like Tang Huan's new song, right?"

... Tang Huan?

Eric quickly closed the app.

He stared blankly at his phone's dark screen for a long time, sweat breaking out all over him as if there were ants exploding at every joint.

He shook his hand and reopened the app. The beautiful face of the newly popular singer Tang Huan appeared in the app's splash screen, smiling at Eric .

That day, Tang Huan's millions of fans and the mixed forces of fans and water armies flooded Eric 's Ins account.

"Plagiarizing dog! May your whole family die for plagiarism!"

"Catching a sheep for some wool, why are you so cheap?"

"For details on the plagiarism incident and the situation of the music scores, check my Weibo. Link tcn..."

"Casually dug into Eric 's previous works, curiosity made me click in, survival instinct made me click out."

"Haha, singing such bizarre stuff, imitating ghost calls, and people still praise it. Fans are really praising stinky feet."

... Impressive, even the song titles and Tang Goddess's new album cover were not let go. A complete set of plagiarism?

Eric didn't have the time to pay attention to those negative comments.

Wearing headphones, he frantically replayed Tang Huan's new song, his eyes bloodshot, and cold sweat pouring out.

... It was indeed the same.

Just some adjustments in the details. Without a professional music judgment, as long as one had ears and a decent sense of music, it was evident that it was a copied piece.

... But who copied whom?

Eric could vouch for his innocence. He hadn't even listened to many of Tang Huan's songs before today because he remembered a music critic's harsh evaluation of Tang Huan. Although it was spoken rudely, it seemed fitting:

"Tang Huan is good at saliva love songs. Saliva love songs refer to songs that sound like they have saliva in them, and the singer sounds like they're holding saliva while singing."

Tang Huan's smiling face rotated in front of Eric , and on the electronic cover of that new album, there was a sentence: "The love queen turns around magnificently, singing out your inner language."

... Impressive, even the song titles and Tang Goddess's new album cover were not let go. A complete set of plagiarism?

Eric vividly remembered that he had chosen the title "Language of the Heart" himself, a message he wanted to convey to Brain . It was that restrained yet burgeoning forbidden love. Tang Huan, however, sang it as a sweet, girlish secret.

Eric only felt insulted like never before.

The biggest blow he had experienced before was the failure of his coming out. He had never known what it felt like to be discredited and pointed at by thousands.

Amidst the deafening noise in his ears, all Eric could think of was Brain .

He dialed Brain 's number, and as soon as he heard the man's voice, Eric 's tightly strung emotions burst. He could only cry out with a choked voice, "Brain, Brain, come back." Like a child who had been greatly wronged.

In terms of dealing with people, Eric was indeed like a child, having been sheltered too well by his family.

So, when he held onto Brain , crying about his songs being stolen and being scolded by people pointing fingers at his spine, Eric couldn't notice the fleeting panic in Brain 's eyes.

But Eric had never imagined that this was just the beginning of his nightmare.

And now, the steel-toothed white rabbit Eric , played by Aaron, stood in front of Brain .

The former smiled and looked up at the latter, her eyes shining.

Brain , on the other hand, looked at the car, furrowing his brow. "Did you buy this car?"

Eric turned to glance at the car, boasting in a childish tone, "Isn't it beautiful?"

Brain asked, "How much did it cost?"

Eric 's eyes narrowed. "Guess."

Up to this point, these dialogues have all happened as per the memories of the original owner, without the slightest change.

Brain frowned, and Aaron's favorability bar in Brain 's mind dropped by another two points.

Brain suppressed his anger and decided to reason with this little master who seemed oblivious to the value of money. "Eric, you and I are supposed to be together for a long time. I appreciate your efforts and sincerity in standing up to your family for me. However, you've lived a privileged life since childhood and may not understand the importance of frugality. If you continue to spend recklessly like this..."

This argument seemed logical and reasonable. According to the original script, the original owner should have lowered his head in embarrassment, admitted that he was just joking earlier, and that the car was given to him by his brother Kris.

Aaron timely revealed a look of grievance. "This was given to me by my brother. I get dizzy on public transportation."

Brain gently touched Aaron's hair. "Eric, you've grown up. You can't rely on your brother for everything. He has his own life, and so do you. If he keeps interfering in your life, pampering you like this, it will only make you more dependent on the golden cage. Don't you think so?"

Aaron remained silent, looking at him.

Brain was confident.

In the past, Eric had a friend who strongly opposed them being together. After educating Eric like this, he distanced himself from that friend.

... Eric didn't understand anything; it was better for him to listen to himself; otherwise, he might be led by others.

At this moment, Aaron spoke up.

His voice was melodious, soft, just like every time he spoke sweet nothings to him before. So much so that Brain didn't understand at first. "... it's a gift from my brother, did it cost you money?"