Translator: Dreamscribe
『“What is the name of that high mountain in the west?”
The woman answered the officer's question.
“That place is Wuzhang Plains, where the autumn wind blows.”
At the woman’s reply, the military officer quietly raised his fan to cover his expression.
“I see... Wuzhang Plains....”』
I stared at the TV screen as if I could step into it.
Kongming: Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
It was a drama that aired two episodes daily at 7 p.m. from Monday to Friday on Chunghwa TV, and it was a masterpiece of a Three Kingdoms drama, perfect from historical accuracy to direction.
And today was finally the day when Kongming: Romance of the Three Kingdoms would conclude its grand journey, reaching Episode 120.
The climax scene where Zhuge Liang breathes his last among the crowd, facing the chilly autumn wind at Wuzhang Plains.
-Under the peach tree, they swore brotherhood~♬
As the OST of Kongming: Romance of the Three Kingdoms began to play, now familiar enough to hum along without subtitles, I couldn’t help but sing along.
"This is what a drama should be! This is life!"
Unable to resist, I shouted in admiration at the tragically beautiful scene.
Soon, the TV screen began a rapid montage of scenes, from the first meeting of the Liu-Guan-Zhang Brotherhood under the peach tree to the ending.
As I watched the scenes filled with memories, tears welled up in my eyes without me realizing.
“Should I kill that wench or kill her?”
“Hold it in, honey.”
Just as I was immersed in the lingering emotions of the two-month journey, a chilling voice from behind made me cautiously turn around.
There stood my mom, her face twisted with rage, and my dad trying desperately to hold her back.
“I have to watch that bullshit every day, how could I not end up with sick from anger!”
At my mom’s voice, full of murderous intent, I finally realized the gravity of the situation and quietly tried to retreat into my room.
Smack.
“Aagh!”
“Today’s your funeral! You think I went through labor just to raise you for this?! Get over here! Where do you think you’re going?!”
Unfortunately, Kim Sukja, a textbook example of a Korean middle-aged woman, had a palm imbued with inner strength far beyond what I could avoid.
The mom slap, which only stopped when my pale back turned red like the evening sky.
“Huff....”
The reason for its extraordinary power must have been because it was a critical hit that used up all of her qi and stamina.
Mom, now out of breath from the exertion of beating me.
Thanks to that opening, I barely managed to escape from her grasp.
“It's sad, Mom.”
“What?”
“To think you’ve grown this weak... If it were the old days, you would’ve half-killed me already.”
At my words, Mom’s face turned red like my back, and she tried to reach out to me again, but I had already shut and locked the door.
From outside came the thumping noise and something akin to the roar of an angry beast, but I no longer had time to play with Mom.
“Let’s go!”
I pressed the computer’s power button and turned on the headset.
It was time to protect the Rift now.
***
Living life again is, surprisingly, a very boring task.
Think about it, what would it be like for someone who lived in 2025, soaked in the dopamine rush of advanced modern conveniences, to go back to the early 2000s?
Everything would feel boring and dull.
It’s not like I was slacking off from the beginning.
-Bitcoin!! No, wait, first I’ll invest in stocks and grow my money...
When I realized I had regressed with memories of my past life intact, I knew better than anyone that this was an incredible opportunity.
Even I, who had no real interest in financial investments before, was overly excited just imagining how much money I could make using the major events that even I knew about.
Even when I was nursing on Mom’s breast, crying “waah waah”, I was thinking about when Bitcoin would skyrocket.
But I fatally overlooked the fact that time is poison to humans.
‘This child is a genius, ma’am! She understand things we didn’t even teach her, and she learn on her own. There’s nothing left for us to teach!’
The peak of my current life was kindergarten.
Among the little kids still crying out for their moms, I blossomed gloriously.
‘Hello my name is Lee Si-on. Nice to meet you.’
‘Wow! Si-on’s English is freaking amazing!’
Never had I felt more grateful for the Korean public education system than at that moment.
Back in kindergarten, I was invincible. I was a god.
The teacher was so impressed, she even persuaded my parents that I should be sent to the Education Center for Gifted.
Thanks to that, my excited parents enrolled me in the Education Center for Gifted, and perhaps because I had already been through college once before, I passed the entrance exam in one shot.
But from that point on, I had to taste the bitterness of life once again.
‘That’s strange. Si-on, are you maybe pretending because you don’t want to study?’
Exactly one year into the gifted program, I fell behind.
I came to realize that even if I lived life twice, I couldn’t compete with true geniuses.
Of course, I can’t deny that I grew a bit lazy, relying too much on the knowledge from my past life.
‘First, I'll get into Seoul National University, then use the money I made from stocks and Bitcoin to...’
All I did was dream big, like space exploration to Mars, without actually studying, so in hindsight, it was probably a fair outcome.
After I quietly dropped out of the Education Center for Gifted, I went on to live an ordinary student life.
Fortunately, my parents didn’t put too much weight on the whole “gifted” thing. They were a bit disappointed, but never really scolded me.
At least, not until college entrance exam season.
College entrance exam scores: 3, 8, 5, 5, 5
‘Mom, Dad. They say the average score for Koreans on the college exam is Grade 5. So maybe it’s not as bad as it looks?’
Apparently, that wasn’t the case.
I was nearly killed by my furious mom, but thanks to Dad’s help, I barely survived.
Even for me, scoring average Grade 5 on the college entrance exam was a massive shock.
‘How could I do worse than in my previous life?’
It’s not like I was a top student in my past life either, but I had managed to get into a university in Seoul, at least. So, scoring far lower this time was beyond comprehension.
But when I looked back carefully on my life this time around, the result felt inevitable.
During school classes, I already knew the material, so I figured there was no point in listening, and I just slept.
I never went to cram school, thinking it was unnecessary.
That’s right.
I hadn’t studied even once in 19 years.
And if you asked whether I’d done anything productive in that time, I’d only be able to tilt my head in confusion.
All I’d done during those years was immerse myself in dramas, games, comics, and martial arts novels.
I hadn’t enjoyed those in my previous life, but having returned to the past, there was nothing else to do, so I couldn’t help but get hooked.
It was a life that made me newly appreciate the greatness of K-dramas and K-games.
If someone had watched my life through a hidden camera, they would’ve wondered if I was really human or just a zoo panda watching TV and playing games.
But the undeniable fact is that, as a trade-off for that lazy lifestyle, my life satisfaction was incredibly high.
“Mrs. Sukja... One day, you’re going to regret this.”
Because I was enjoying life so much, I was kicked out of the house by my angry mom, but I had no regrets.
My mom was only thinking in the short term.
Good university, good job?
Sure, those are important things in a typical life. But isn’t that the key? In a typical life?
I, on the other hand, was about to board the Bitcoin train ahead of everyone else and chat casually with Chairman Lee Jae-ryong, and discuss business with Alon Muscat.
Would a mere college really matter?
It’s not like I wasted all my time on dramas and games for no reason.
Just like how the hidden dragon named Zhuge Liang, waiting silently beneath the lake, rose to the sky when Liu Bei, his dragon pearl, came to him.
I, too, was simply a hidden dragon waiting for the dragon pearl called Bitcoin.
It was just too grand a plan for Mrs. Sukja’s shallow foresight to recognize.
If she had known I was planning to film the real-life version of ‘The Youngest Son of a Chaebol Family’, she wouldn’t have kicked me out, she should’ve served me a meal of kimchi stew, rolled omelet, and Spam instead.
“Ugh... it’s cold. Should’ve grabbed my padded jacket when I got thrown out.”
Having fled in a rush to save my life, I was now barefoot in slippers and wearing pajamas, and my whole body was starting to shiver.
If I stayed out like this, I might end up on the 9 o'clock news before the age of Bitcoin even arrived, under a title like: “High School Student Freezes to Death in Cold Snap. Depressed Over College Exam Scores?”
I couldn’t go back home until my mom’s fury cooled off, so I had to find a place to stay for the time being.
Ddiriring.
“Hello?”
“Auntie! It’s Si-on.”
“What? Si-on? What’s going on, you’re actually calling me first?”
I considered going to a friend’s place, but that risked the news leaking to Kim Sukja, the neighborhood’s gossip queen, so I chose my youngest aunt instead.
Technically, calling her an aunt was a stretch, she was the youngest child born from a final burst of energy by my grandfather at the age of 50, so there was only a ten-year gap between us.
Thanks to that, we communicated well, and she had a bit of an MZ vibe, so she was the one relative I could talk to comfortably. I called her without hesitation to ask for a place to crash.
After hearing my situation, she said,
“Aigoo, I knew this was going to happen to you.”
“Huh?”
“Your mom was already grinding her teeth talking about you. She said she wanted to let you play for a while now that the exam was over, but seeing the way you live made it impossible to hold in her anger.”
Was it that bad?
I thought back on my daily routine.
Since taking the college exam, I’d been waking up around 1 p.m., rubbing my eyes and rummaging through the fridge to take care of breakfast, lunch, and dinner all at once.
Then, to help wake myself up, I’d download old sitcoms and binge-watch them on my computer until 7 p.m., at which point I’d move to the living room to watch Kongming: Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
After finishing that, I’d go back to my room to guard the Rift until about 6 a.m., when I finally fell asleep.
I’d been doing this for about two months.
“Maybe Mrs. Sukja is more tolerant than I thought?”
“What? Anyway, I’m busy preparing a program right now, so just let yourself in. You know the door code, right?”
“Yes, my lord.”
"What nonsense are you talking about again? See you tonight.”
My youngest aunt hung up coolly.
It was a chic attitude befitting a successful career woman who worked as a director at a broadcasting station.
Now that I had the homeowner’s permission, I had to make it to her place before I froze to death.
Her place was too far to walk to, so I needed to take a bus or taxi. The problem was money.
I checked my wallet and found one green bill and one ocher bill.
It looked like I barely had enough for a taxi ride.
“Anyway, Auntie will order food for me, so maybe I don’t need money right now?”
Taking the bus would be the thrifty choice, but my clothes were shabby, and it was too cold, my heart was leaning more and more toward a taxi.
Looking at my poor student’s wallet, I let out a sigh.
I needed to buy Bitcoin in bulk while it was on bargain sale, but I had no capital. That was a huge problem.
‘Should I get a part-time job?’
Now that I was done with my student duties and declared I wouldn’t go to college, if I worked hard for a few years, I could probably save enough capital.
“Taxi!”
Waving my hand toward an empty taxi in the distance, I shook off my thoughts.
The taxi stopped after spotting my desperate wave, and I quickly opened the back door and climbed in.
“Sangam-dong, please.”
“Sangam? But kid, what’s with your outfit?”
“There was a situation.”
The taxi driver looked puzzled to see a student in pajamas and slippers in the middle of winter and started talking.
“If a pretty girl like you walks around like this and catches a cold, your parents must be worried sick.”
He went on to vent about his own daughter, who was around my age, saying she dressed too lightly to look fashionable and it drove him crazy with worry.
‘Pretty girl....’
Even after 19 years, it’s not something I’m used to hearing.
That’s right.
I am not only a regressor who came back to the past, but I also returned as a female after living as a male.