Chapter 5
Chapter 5
After my fight with Lu Jingnian, Song Shuyao unexpectedly came looking for me again of her own accord.
That night, as soon as evening self-study ended, I received a QQ message from her.
“Yuanyuan, what’s going on with you? Don’t you really like Lu Jingnian? How did you end up fighting with him like that?”
“Lu Jingnian told you?”
There was a pause on the other end of the phone. Then another message came through almost immediately.
“What? Why would Lu Jingnian tell me? I’m not even close to him. I heard it from other classmates. What exactly happened? Don’t you like him?”
I had known Lu Jingnian before Song Shuyao did. Back then, we were in the same competition study group.
He was good-looking, polite, and most importantly, one time when I got out of school too late and ran into some bad people on my way home, Lu Jingnian had appeared just in time and driven them away.
He had even walked me all the way home.
Later, after Song Shuyao had been in several relationships, she asked me if I wanted to give it a try too.
She said that a life without dating in high school was incomplete.
That this was the most youthful, most innocent time of our lives, and only someone you fell for at this age counted as someone you truly liked.
Everyone you met later in life would be mixed up with weighing pros and cons and all the calculations between adults.
At the time, I thought there was something strange about what she said.
But I couldn’t immediately find the right words to refute her.
I only stayed silent, though Lu Jingnian’s figure flashed through my mind.
Song Shuyao and I had known each other since we were little, so she immediately pressed me, asking if I had someone I liked.
I said I didn’t know if it counted as liking him. It was just that this person had helped me, and he seemed pretty nice.
She said that meant I liked him, and told me I had to seize the chance.
Otherwise, if I missed it, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
Song Shuyao dropped out during the first semester of our second year. She had no idea how busy and exhausting the rest of high school became for us.
That tiny bit of feeling had long since been forgotten in some dusty corner.
In fact, it wasn’t until after she died, when Lu Jingnian appeared in front of me again, that I belatedly, as if waking from a dream, recalled that encounter I had once considered rather beautiful.
In the end, that hazy flicker of affection became the death warrant that sealed my fate.
Thinking of all this, I looked at the QQ chat and deliberately avoided answering her question, changing the subject instead. “Yaoyao, how’s your illness?”
“Let’s not talk about that right now. I’m asking you about Lu Jingnian.”
“There isn’t anything between me and him! We’re just classmates, and we’re in the same competition study group. I was only angry because he put his hands on me that day.”
“Then do you still like him now?”
I deliberately ignored that message, turned off my phone, and went to sleep.
The National High School Physics Competition was coming up soon.
In my previous life, Lu Jingnian hadn’t taken the college entrance exam. He had been directly recommended to Tsinghua through this competition.
What should I do? How could I let him have such an easy time in this life?
If I couldn’t destroy his life step by step, what was even the point of me being alive?
On QQ, Song Shuyao kept messaging me tirelessly.
I returned to my old earnest, well-meaning tone and advised her, “Yaoyao, what on earth are you thinking about all day? None of these things matter. Feelings in our student years are like grains of sand you can’t hold on to. One gust of wind, and they’re gone. For us, the most important things are obviously getting into a good school and our future. Romance is nothing more than seasoning in life!”
She didn’t get an abortion. Lu Jingnian hid her away.
My mom and Lu Jingnian’s mom were coworkers, and I often heard his mother complain that Lu Jingnian’s spending had been getting higher and higher lately. Maybe it was because the competition was approaching and he was under a lot of pressure.
“Yuanyuan, you’re too utilitarian. There are things in this world more important than school, reputation, and success. Unfortunately, you’ll never understand.”
I was just studying and taking exams like a normal person, and somehow that made me utilitarian.
She really knew how to slap labels on people!
“What could it be? What else matters right now besides studying? That’s the most important thing for Lu Jingnian and me. Nothing else matters.”
“Fine, then. Bookworm. You’ll understand one day.”
Song Shuyao tried very hard to make me understand.
And so, afterward, Lu Jingnian skipped class more and more often.
There were even two tutoring sessions taught by famous teachers the school had specially invited, and he still dared to make up excuses to ditch them.
To make Lu Jingnian lose this chance at guaranteed admission, Song Shuyao and I worked hard together.
Now that I had been reborn, I also had a side quest: getting rich.
At first, I tried to convince my mom to buy stocks, but she only thought I had studied myself crazy.
Time waited for no one.
My mom and dad had divorced early, and I was basically raised by my mother alone.
I had an education fund in a separate card. Taking a risky shortcut, I waited until she fell asleep, moved the money, and deleted the text alerts in advance.
Fortunately, because I had lived an extra lifetime, I knew the card’s password. My mother had told me after my college entrance exam.
After that, I went to an internet cafe and opened a stock account.
Before the physics competition, I had already multiplied that money several times over.
I transferred the principal back to the card, then used the profits to sponsor a girl at our school who was about to give up on the college entrance exam: Li Yan.
Her grades were no worse than Lu Jingnian’s.
It was only because her father had fallen seriously ill, and she still had younger siblings at home, that she had no choice but to give up on the exam and shoulder the burden of supporting her family.
When I offered to sponsor her, she looked stunned.
I casually made up an excuse, saying a coworker from my mother’s workplace wanted to help her.
She was so moved she burst into tears.
Lately, Lu Jingnian either didn’t come to class at all, or fell asleep as soon as he did.
After all, taking care of an emotionally unstable pregnant woman wasn’t exactly easy.
On the day of the competition, he almost arrived late. I stood on the third-floor balcony and looked down, just in time to see Song Shuyao chasing after him with both hands protecting her belly.
As if she had spotted me, she quickly hid behind a nearby tree.
I pretended not to see her and kept chatting with Li Yan, happily entering the exam room.
A few days later, the results came out.
I didn’t place. That was normal.
In my previous life, I had studied medicine and biology all the way through my master’s and PhD.
This time, I had only come to gain some experience. More importantly, I wanted to make sure Li Yan and another boy made it safely to the exam room.
In my last life, Xie Chen from the neighboring school got into a car accident on the day of the exam.
In this life, I got to know him in the competition class ahead of time and dragged him down a different route.
I took endless delight in adding more rivals for Lu Jingnian.
Just as I expected.
Li Yan took first place. Second place was still a boy who had been on the list in my last life.
As for third place, it went to Xie Chen.
Lu Jingnian had completely lost this opportunity.
On the day the results came out, the teacher comforted him. “Jingnian, it’s all right. There’s still the college entrance exam. I believe in your ability. You’ll definitely get in. You just need to adjust your condition. Have you been sick lately?”
Lu Jingnian lowered his head and fell silent for a moment, then gathered his courage and said, “It’s all right, teacher. Taking the college entrance exam is the same for me.”
I sat nearby reading, doing my best to restrain the urge to look over. I was afraid the hatred in my eyes would no longer stay hidden.
“Lu Jingnian, what a beautiful dream. If I were going to let you take the college entrance exam smoothly, what would be the point of living this life over again? If you don’t fall to rock bottom, if you don’t go to hell, how am I supposed to go on living? This is only the beginning. I will never give you another chance to turn things around.”