Raising Birds and a Son with a Tycoon - Chapter 1

Du Xiaomian felt that she might have been reborn.

She had just gotten divorced and went on a vacation to clear her mind, but during her trip she encountered an accident. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself lying on the small bed in her university dorm.

She had gone back from 2026 to 2007.

The current Du Xiaomian was only 22 years old, her face was still soft and plump, brimming with youth. Her love life was smooth: her first boyfriend hadn’t dumped her yet for being “burdened with family problems,” and she hadn’t been cheated on by her future husband for refusing to have children.

Her life had returned to square one. 

Today was the second day of her “rebirth,” and she was at the train station, planning to take the 9 p.m. train home.

Her phone rang. The caller ID was “Warm Sunshine.” It took Du Xiaomian a while to remember that this embarrassingly cheesy contact name belonged to her first love—Xu Yang.

For the past two days, she’d been busy trying to accept the reality of her “rebirth,” then rushing to buy a ticket home. She had temporarily forgotten that the current her still had a boyfriend. 

She hadn’t been dumped yet.

With a backpack on, Du Xiaomian walked to a ventilated corner of the corridor. She lit a cigarette before answering the call. “Hello.”

Smoking was a bad habit she brought back from 2026, one she couldn’t stop. In the previous life, she didn’t smoke this young. 

Xu Yang asked, “Are you on the train yet?”

Du Xiaomian leaned lazily against the wall, her fingers holding the cigarette tapping idly against her leg. She tried hard to recall: Xu Yang was a year older, currently interning in another province, and her original plan was to take advantage of the New Year’s holiday to visit him.

She exhaled a cloud of smoke, her eyes narrowed due to it, then she casually said “Not yet. But don’t wait for me. I’m going home today—I’m not going to your place.”

Xu Yang asked in confusion. “You’re not going? Did something happen? Didn’t we already agree on this?”

“No reason. I just don’t feel like going anymore,” Du Xiaomian said. “Oh, and by the way, let’s break up. Don’t contact me anymore.”

Xu Yang instantly panicked. “Break up? Why? Xiaomian, what did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything.” Du Xiaomian let out a faintly sarcastic smile—at least, not yet.

She even tried to give him a decent excuse so neither of them would lose face, and even patiently comforted him. “You’re great, but you work too far away. Long-distance relationships never end well, so let’s just forget about it.”

Xu Yang grew more anxious. “But you were clearly so happy when I got the offer! You even said once you graduated, you’d come find me and we’d work hard together. That was the promise you made. I don’t accept this reason, Du Xiaomian!”

Du Xiaomian found it even more amusing—the kind of helpless amusement a middle-aged aunt would feel when dealing with a stubborn kid. “So what can you do if you don’t accept it? Do you plan to cling on me shamelessly? It’s better to part peacefully.”

“Did you fall for someone else? Did you change your mind?” Xu Yang sounded aggrieved.

Du Xiaomian: “I didn’t fall for anyone else, I just don’t like you anymore.”

In her previous life, they had not been in contact for nearly twenty years. To her, Xu Yang was no different from a completely unrelated stranger. The fact that she could still hold her temper, treat him as a lover, formally bring up about breaking up, and even consider his feelings, was already a huge favor.

Moreover, the breakup Xu Yang gave her in her previous life was very harsh, causing the naïve and innocent Du Xiaomian to suffer for a long time.

It was no exaggeration to say that Xu Yang taught her the first lesson about the cruelty and reality of society’s rules.

“That’s it, I’m hanging up.”

Du Xiaomian didn’t want to drag this out, but Xu Yang shouted in agitation:

“Don’t hang up! Du Xiaomian, you’re not allowed to hang up until you make this clear! If you haven’t fallen for anyone else, then why do you want to break up?”

His voice was sharp to the ear, making Du Xiaomian’s head throb. Her patience was running out. She lowered her voice and said, “If we don’t break up now, you’ll still break up with me sooner or later. Why waste both our time?”

Xu Yang was bewildered. “Me, breaking up with you? How could that be! Absolutely impossible!”

Impossible? Absolutely?

Du Xiaomian took a puff of her cigarette with a smile and thought: Still too young. When he’s lived as long as she had, he’d understand—there’s no such thing as “absolutely” in this world.

People change, hearts change. The sweet promises once sworn with such conviction might look like jokes in hindsight.

Xu Yang spoke again, “You know how much I like you. How could I ever bear to break up with you?”

So what if he liked her?

The moment he saw her family in her previous life, his first instinct had been to run as far away as possible.

Du Xiaomian’s expression cooled, and her heart hardened. She asked, “Do you even know about my family? And you still dare say you like me?”

Xu Yang said, “What does that have to do with us being together?”

“There are six people in my family,” Du Xiaomian said. “My dad, my mom, and my three younger siblings. The second child is nine years younger than me and just started middle school. The third and fourth are fraternal twins, only three years old this year—almost twenty years younger than me. Do you know what that means?”

“W-What… what does it mean?” Xu Yang stuttered, thrown off by the question.

Du Xiaomian used the exact words Xu Yang had used to break up with her in her previous life, word by word:

“It means that if you stay with me, you’ll have to start supporting two kids even before we get married. My parents are getting older, their health is declining, my siblings are still young, and I’m the eldest. I can’t ignore them. From food, clothing, housing, and daily expenses to school and education, I have to shoulder responsibility.

And on top of that, we would still have to buy a house, pay the mortgage, and raise our own child one day. The burden is too heavy—far beyond what two ordinary working class workers like us can handle. There is no bright future for us.”