"It's okay to be tired. How can you have a perfect figure if you're not tired? Let's rest for two minutes, relax our muscles, and then move on to the next round."
After the class, the female student wiped her sweat with a towel and winked at Li Ling: "Coach, can I ask you a personal question? Do you have a girlfriend?"
"No."
The female student's eyes lit up. "Coach, let's grab a coffee sometime!"
"Hehe, I have time," Li Ling replied dismissively.
Almost every female student extended a similar invitation to Li Ling, but Li Ling had no intention of engaging in in-depth conversations with them at the moment and politely declined. Fortunately, no one deliberately pestered him, and there was plenty of time in the future.
Li Ling lived a very structured life, running in the morning, training in freestyle fighting in the late morning, and giving personal lessons in the afternoon and evening. He managed to earn money and exercise at the same time. Before he knew it, half a month had passed. Then, Li Ling suddenly received a system message—
"I've waited three years for this opportunity. I'm not trying to prove that I'm better than anyone else, but to prove that I will take back what I've lost with my own hands!"
A classic and familiar line echoed in Li Ling's mind.
"In the movie 'A Better Tomorrow,' Ma asks you to help him change his and Sung Chi-ho's fate."
"Would you like to receive this?"
“A Better Tomorrow?” Li Ling murmured.
At that moment, several images flashed through my mind: a toothpick in his mouth, a trench coat, a dollar bill lit a cigarette, a bloody battle at Fenglin Pavilion...
After returning to his rented apartment, Li Ling plugged his phone into the charger and turned on his computer to search online and rewatch the movie "A Better Tomorrow".
Actually, there are three "A Better Tomorrow" movies in total. However, according to Mark Gor's wish, the era and background of this "A Better Tomorrow" movie are the same as the first movie released in 1986. Therefore, Li Ling focused on watching the first movie and also learned about the other two movies.
When he watches "A Better Tomorrow" again, he doesn't just appreciate it; he looks at every detail carefully and tries to understand the plot deeply. He even writes down some important moments in a notebook and memorizes them.
This movie contains betrayal, guns, and gang warfare, filled with bloodshed and cruelty. Therefore, Li Ling concludes that this world is still quite dangerous.
After taking notes of everything useful, Li Ling watched the movie again, then pulled the covers over her head and went straight to sleep.
Don't make decisions at night or in a moment of impulse. Think things through carefully before you speak. This can help you avoid many mistakes. You can deal with things tomorrow.
For the next two weeks, besides his regular workouts and private lessons, Li Ling spent the rest of his time at the library collecting information, for which he bought a yearly pass for the city library.
In the library, he consulted a lot of materials, mainly the overall appearance of Hong Kong at the beginning of the film in 1986 and related events. Li Ling did a lot of research on these.
Although I don't know what my identity will be in that world, I should be prepared and this information will definitely come in handy.
Because of his photographic memory, Li Ling memorized a lot of things. During this time, Li Ling borrowed 20,000 yuan from Cheng Hu and enrolled in a Cantonese crash course. Two weeks later, he had mastered Cantonese to the point where he could have daily conversations.
At this point, Li Ling felt he was ready and prepared to begin his journey through time.
While I wouldn't say I was fully prepared, this was the best I could do.
"Open the system panel."
A screen of light appeared before him, and Li Ling stretched out his finger and clicked on the mission button, "Accept mission".
Swish~~
A shooting star streaked across the sky, and Li Ling's figure disappeared from the room.
...
"What's going on?"
When Li Ling opened his eyes, he found himself floating in the vast ocean.
Looking around, there wasn't a soul in sight; he was all alone, adrift in the sea. He had a tire-made swimming ring around his waist to keep him afloat.
"Holy crap, is this time travel going to be this bad?!"
Li Ling felt the constantly rising and falling seawater, and waves of hunger surged through his stomach, making him groan in frustration. Looking at the endless horizon, he wondered if he was going to starve to death at sea or drown.
"System, do you have to be so ruthless!" Li Ling gave the system the universally acknowledged middle finger.
“✺◟(∗❛ัᴗ❛ั∗)◞✺”
The system's silent mockery.
At that moment, a message entered Li Ling's mind, letting him know his identity in this world.
His name is Li Ling. It is 1983 now. His hometown is a village in Nanjun, Guangdong Province. His parents passed away early and he has no relatives. He is a typical lonely man.
Because the village was so poor, many villagers smuggled themselves to Hong Kong Island, where it was said to be a land of gold, and many who went there made a fortune.
Looking at the rice jar in his home, so clean it could starve a rat, Li Ling in this world also had the idea of smuggling himself to Hong Kong.
At this time, there were essentially two methods of smuggling: one was by smuggling boat. Because of the demand, there were also people who provided boats for smugglers. However, this method required money. Did Li Ling have money? Certainly not!
He was so poor that he only had the clothes on his body, and he didn't even have a pair of underwear.
One word—disappointing!
Actually, Li Ling does have one valuable possession: a gold necklace around his neck. It's a family heirloom in this world, and he's reluctant to sell it for money.
Then the only option left is the second one: swim across.
Therefore, Li Ling began to study swimming diligently every day. After half a month, he felt that he had practiced enough, so one dark and windy night, he secretly sneaked into the village chief's house and removed the tires from the village chief's newly bought third-hand motorcycle.
The next morning, after gathering the food he had saved up, he used the car tires as swimming rings and swam towards Hong Kong Island.
And so, Li Ling floated on the water for a whole day. The long period of floating made his consciousness become blurred, and he eventually fainted from exhaustion.