Story Structure — 5 Plot Phases
A Wedding Gone Wrong
An unemployed musician declares his love for the bride while drunk, provoking his wife's public anger. His breakdown in the venue bathroom precedes his abrupt return to adolescence.
Key Events
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Wedding Declaration — An unemployed amateur musician drunkenly declares love to the bride, upsetting his wife.
Location: Wedding venue
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Public Marital Humiliation — His wife publicly criticizes him as a poor provider and husband.
Location: Wedding hall
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Bathroom Breakdown — After a chaotic pursuit through the hall, he locks himself in and passes out in self-hatred.
Location: Wedding venue bathroom
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Return to the Classroom — He wakes in his teenage body and initially believes the experience is a dream.
Location: Middle-school classroom, 1997
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Classroom Rebellion — Believing he is dreaming, he attacks his condescending teacher and sets the classroom on fire.
Location: Middle-school classroom
A Second Chance in 1997
Awake in his teenage body, he mistakes the situation for a dream and acts recklessly. After waking in hospital, he accepts that he is truly back in 1997 and uses his adult memories to pursue a different life.
Key Events
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Jump and Hospital Awakening — He kisses his high-school crush, jumps from a window, then wakes in hospital and realizes he is still in 1997.
Location: Classroom and hospital
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A Future of Borrowed Songs — He uses memories of unwritten songs from his former life to pursue fame and romance.
Location: 1997 and later music settings
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Pop Stardom — Over the following years, he becomes a pop megastar by claiming songs remembered from his original timeline.
Location: China
Fame and Its Cost
He turns remembered songs into a successful music career and marries the woman he once desired. His growing awareness of the life his former wife endured complicates the success he had pursued.
Key Events
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Olympic Duet — He performs a duet with Sarah Brightman at the Olympic opening ceremony.
Location: 2008 Beijing Olympic opening ceremony
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Marriage and Success — He achieves fame and marries the woman he once pursued.
Location: China
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The Other Life Revealed — He learns that his former wife defended him after he left and later married a kindly classmate.
Location: A small apartment and surrounding community
The Fall from Stardom
His supply of remembered songs dwindles, and his own work fails to impress. Retirement, reckless spending, a discovered affair, and a failed bargain leave him facing a terminal illness.
Key Events
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The Songs Run Out — As the remembered songs are exhausted, his own compositions are criticized as lacking talent.
Location: Music industry settings
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Retirement and Decline — He announces retirement and wastes his money on drugs and women.
Location: Unspecified
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Affair and Failed Bargain — After discovering his wife's affair, he offers her husband everything he owns in exchange for her and is punched unconscious.
Location: Unspecified
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Hospital Diagnosis — He wakes in hospital and learns that he is dying from AIDS.
Location: Hospital
A Love Recognized
In hospital, the woman he had left sings the song that was always her favorite and his only genuinely original composition. He returns to the wedding, embraces his wife, and re-enters their life with renewed devotion.
Key Events
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The Final Love Song — His former wife sings his favorite song, which had been her favorite all along and was the only song he truly wrote himself.
Location: Hospital room
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Return to the Wedding — At the moment of death, he wakes back at the wedding and recognizes who he truly loves.
Location: Wedding venue bathroom
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Embrace and Arrest — He embraces his wife and continues to do so as they are arrested; afterward, he resumes their life with renewed devotion.
Location: Wedding hall and local police station
