"Hey Eric, steak at table nine."
"Oh, okay." Eric agreed, and awkwardly brought two steaks to a couple by the window. After finishing the work, he returned to the original position again, leaning against the counter and continuing to be in a daze.
The time was July 13, 1988, the third day of Rebirth, at an Italian restaurant in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. Eric turned his head and looked at the faint figure reflected in the glass window not far away. He was about 1.8 meters tall, with a sharp-edged face, a tall nose bridge, and short golden curly hair. This was himself now.
A few days ago, Eric was still in Shanghai on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in 2014, working as an advertising director. At the age of 24, he graduated from the director department of a well-known film and television academy in China. He aspired to become a famous international director. After ten years of hard work, he finally understood that the reality is too cruel. With his solid professional skills, he still became a well-known director in Shanghai An advertising director is well-known after all, isn't he? I got married at the age of 35, and my son was born a year later. I finally settled down and exchanged my ideal package for milk powder money. A few years later, at a class reunion, he was drunk by a group of long-lost classmates, and then fell asleep in the memories of the past. :
Like the beginning of all horror or non-thriller stories, when you wake up, everything is different. He finds himself 25 years back in time as a high school student named Eric Williams, who just graduated high school this year, and…
"Eric, are you okay?" A chubby hand rested on Eric's shoulder and patted it lightly. Eric turns to see restaurateur Jeff Jones.
"Sorry, Jeff, I've lost my mind again."
"It's okay," Jeff rubbed his hands, as if thinking about how to phrase it, and continued, "I'm sorry about what happened to Ralph, but life has to go on, doesn't it? Take it easy, Eric. "
Ralph Williams, Eric's father, is an excellent Italian chef and has worked at the restaurant for many years. Although his cooking skills are great, Ralph has a very nasty hobby-drinking. According to the memory left by the original owner of the body, Ralph's hobby may be related to the mother Eric has never met. In the words of later generations, this is also a man with a story. The thing is very simple. A month ago, Ralph died of acute alcohol poisoning due to excessive drinking.
"Thank you, Jeff. If it weren't for your help, I really don't know what to do." Eric said that after Ralph's death, Eric's life fell into chaos. Originally, Eric had already applied to the University of California, but Ralph's death made Eric's hope of going to university vanish. Even a public university needs about 20,000 dollars in tuition a year, not counting other expenses. As Ralph's boss and friend, after Jeff discussed with Eric, Eric began to work as a waiter in the restaurant. After all, as Jeff said, life has to go on.
"Ralph has worked here for so many years. This is what I should do. But I can only do so much. The rest can only be done by yourself."
Eric nodded gratefully, watching Jeff turn and leave, thinking of what he said just now, and fell into deep thought. Somewhere, since a certain unscrupulous god sent him to Hollywood more than 20 years ago, if he had been working as an unknown waiter in a restaurant, he would definitely be pissed to death.
After just understanding his situation three days ago, Eric was also excited for a while, but after the excitement, he was confused. In his previous life, as a high-achieving student of the film and television academy, he failed to realize his ideals, and finally bowed his head to reality. What's more, now that he has neither a diploma nor a background, even if he goes to a film company to apply for the lowest position, he may not be successful.
After a busy day, Eric drove away from the Italian restaurant. The car was a Ford sedan left by Eric's cheap dad. After Ralph's death, Eric wanted to sell the car to subsidize the family, but after receiving the job as a waiter, he stayed. After all, the United States is a country on wheels. Without cars, many things are impossible. inconvenient.
When passing by a movie theater, Eric saw the poster of "First Blood 3" pasted at the entrance of the theater. Against the background of snow mountains and helicopters, Stallone, who was in his golden age, was wearing a tank top and showed off a suit that could make female movie fans Screaming muscles. By coincidence, Eric parked the car in a parking lot not far away and asked about it. Just as a show was about to start, Eric bought a ticket and walked into the cinema.
Because it was not prime time, there were only about thirty or forty people in the two hundred-seat screening hall, so Eric found his seat and sat down.
Soon the auditorium was plunged into darkness, and after the opening credits, the plot of the movie officially began. Colonel Tovin invited Rambo, who lived in seclusion in Thailand, to go to Afghanistan to perform a mission together, but Rambo refused him. After Colonel Torvin is trapped, Rambo arms again to save his friend...
In his previous life, Eric had watched all of Stallone's movies, and most of them more than once. The reason why he bought a ticket to enter the venue was because Eric remembered Stallone's experience, and at the same time he remembered his former self. During the ten years of hard work, whenever he wanted to give up, he would use some more inspirational stories to motivate himself, including Stallone's legendary acting career.
The plot of the movie continued, Eric took back his flying thoughts and focused on enjoying the movie. Gradually, Eric, who had been relaxing and leaning against the back of the chair, straightened up. Because he discovered one thing, because he had seen this movie before, whenever the plot advances, Eric will subconsciously think about what will happen next, and then he discovers miraculously, with his thinking , The following movie images will be clearly displayed in his mind, that is to say, he actually remembers every shot, every line, and even every soundtrack of the whole movie.
Gradually, Eric became excited, then closed his eyes, randomly picked a piece of Cameron's "Titanic" and began to recall, the result is still the same, he can recall every minute and every second of this movie . I picked a few movies I had seen again, and it was still the same. Thinking about it, Eric tried to recall some movies that he had only heard of but not seen, but the miracle didn't happen. It seemed that he only remembered the things he had seen, but that was enough.
When he was just reborn, Eric also thought about taking some of the films of later generations as his own. However, he was a professional director in his previous life. Of course, he knew how difficult this matter was. He could only write some similar scripts. But now, after discovering that all the memories of his previous life are clearly contained in his mind, Eric knows what this means. As long as he has the conditions, he can almost perfectly reproduce the classic movies he watched in his previous life.
Because of the excitement, Eric's cheeks became hot in the dark, and his fingers were slightly numb. In the end, Eric finally couldn't bear it anymore, and slapped heavily on the armrest of the seat, blurting out: "Damn!"
The pain in the palm brought Eric back to reality. Seeing the dissatisfied eyes cast by the surrounding audience, Eric smiled embarrassingly. The 100-minute movie passed quickly, and Rambo successfully rescued his friend, waved his sleeves again, and hid his merit and fame.
But Eric, who was sitting in the dark, obviously didn't notice this, but was thinking about many things in a whirl. In his previous life, he didn't have such a good memory. Like ordinary people, he had to read an article many times before he could recite it, and he had to listen to a song many times before he could sing it. Apparently, this is some unscrupulous... oh no, a great fortune gifted to him by the lovely god.
Walking out of the movie theater with great ambitions to reach the pinnacle of his life, Eric drove home in a hurry. He knew that with such a huge amount of resources in his mind, if he failed like in his previous life, he would really be better off choking himself to death with a basin of tap water.