"Yo, pauper, your boss is calling..."

The shrill sound of the mobile ringtone echoed in the small, dimly lit room, over and over again.

Roused from sleep by the incessant noise, Lu Fan groggily reached under the pillow to fetch his phone.

Director Zheng?

Who’s this chap?

Who in the right mind would disturb someone's peace in the middle of the night like this?

Just as he pressed the end call button, the phone fell from his slackened grip, and he shut his eyes again.

"Hey, poor soul, your boss is on the line again..."

Again, the ringtone exploded next to his ear. Out of sheer annoyance, Lu Fan picked up the call.

The voice on the other end asked, "Lu, how are your preparations going?"

Lu Fan was lost, "Preparations for what?"

The person on the other end immediately turned frantic, "I was afraid you'd forget so I'm calling you to remind you. We start recording our show tomorrow. You must report to the program team at nine o'clock in the morning, and you absolutely cannot be late. Otherwise, the program team will treat it as a violation of the contract. I have to inform others too, got to go now."

To Lu Fan, this was as cryptic as a prophecy – what program team, what recording, what was all this about?

The man's loud voice had completely shattered his sleepiness.

He needs to clarify who this person is, what contract he had signed, and ensure he does not breach it.

"What the, where am I?"

When Lu Fan sat up, he found himself in a narrow, dimly lit room, strikingly similar to the cheap rentals he used to inhabit in his college days.

Why the hell would he be in such a place - he owned a one-bedroom apartment in the heart of the magical city.

Wait, had he been kidnapped?

Lu Fan felt a pang of panic. He immediately reached for his phone hoping to alert the authorities, but then he froze.

How on earth, did his Huawei MATA60 change into an iPhone 12?

Why would robbers change his phone?

And that's not even the bizarre part. If he had been kidnapped, why on earth would the kidnapper leave a mode of communication tool with him?

Could it be that he had time-traveled?

Startled by this thought, Lu Fan instantly checked the date on his phone.

July 18, 2020!

No way!

Who's pulling this prank on him?

Lu Fan felt dizzy. He opened his phone book. His family members' phone numbers were the same, but there were some familiar strangers. Some of his friends' numbers weren't there.

He opened his QQ and WeChat. There were more acquaintances in his QQ, and fewer work groups in WeChat.

The date was two years ago, the cell phone was from two years ago, and the contacts were just as they had been two years ago.

“Slap!”

Lu Fan smacked his thigh, grimacing from the pain.

Feeling the pain was proof that he wasn't dreaming.

He began to craft a search around the room, but found no surveillance.

He tried calling "Director Zheng" once again, but the line was busy.

There was still one method he could use to confirm whether he was reliving his past.

He wandered down through his residential area, stopping by a small corner shop to buy a pack of cigarettes.

After returning, he sat down in a chair, quietly lighting up a cigarette.

It was certain, he had truly been brought back to his past two years ago.

Initially, Lu Fan was dumbfounded, swiftly followed by absolute elation.

In his past life, all of his painstaking efforts only lead to a struggle at the bottom, but now he was given a second chance, everything could start anew.

However, his excitement quickly faded into melancholy.

In his memory, the next couple of years didn't provide any remarkable opportunities. He neither bought lottery tickets nor watched any sports, so won't become rich overnight was out of the question.

He carefully racked his mind for the life trajectories of his parents, relatives, friends, and classmates. All of them seem to have undergone no major changes.

After deeply pondering, the only person who could potentially bring about changes for him seemed to be this “Director Zheng.”