Chapter 2: Why Talk About Love After Rebirth?

In June 2007, at Jinling University, the scorching sun blazed like fire. Students with an air of scholarly refinement walked past in pairs and groups under the green shade, the flavor of the ancient cultural city intoxicating to behold.

There were major-specific classes in the afternoon; in this relatively innocent era, it was still rare for university students to skip or cut class.

The female students dressed relatively conservatively as well, basically all wearing identical summer skirts or jeans, unlike later times when people would dress in winter as if it were summer.

Along the way, Zhao Gaoyang and Cheng Huaiyu walked with their arms around each other's shoulders, one after another plotting out major life plans for Xu Heng.

The three of them were in the Chinese Language and Literature major of the Literature Department, while the remaining person in their dorm was a student of Advertising. Because the number of boys in Advertising was odd, and their Chinese Language and Literature group also happened to be odd, one was moved into their dorm.

Some public courses for the two majors were taken together, while their respective major-specific courses were completely separate, so for the afternoon class, only the three of them were together.

This year, they were twenty years old.

Xu Heng was also twenty, but his mental age was already that of a thirty-six-year-old greasy middle-aged man.

Life having regressed sixteen years left Xu Heng extremely uncomfortable. He was currently still in the transitional phase of having been reborn from 2023 to 2007, so when others spoke, he simply listened or nodded a couple of times, offering little response.

"I told you before, that Ying Ziyun doesn't look like the type who can have a long-term relationship with you. I learned a bit of fortune-telling when I was a kid, and I'm very accurate when it comes to reading people," Zhao Gaoyang boasted to himself.

Xu Heng didn't speak, walking forward in silence.

Zhao Gaoyang and Cheng Huaiyu looked at each other, both assuming he was wounded by love and harboring someone in his heart.

In fact, that was not the case; at this moment, Xu Heng wasn't thinking about Ying Ziyun's affairs at all.

Before he was reborn, Xu Heng still held a trace of regret and nostalgia for his first love.

Because Ying Ziyun was not only his first love, but also a high school classmate who had given him the fantasy of a "white moonlight."

This had to start from their high school days. At the time, the two were studying at the same high school. Ying Ziyun was the school beauty, famous in every class across the campus. Not only were her grades good, but she was also exceptionally beautiful; in that relatively innocent era, it was a complete dimensionality-shattering strike.

It is no exaggeration to say that in their small school, at least half the boys had had fantasies about Ying Ziyun, and Xu Heng was no exception.

However, the high school version of Xu Heng was a nobody, good for nothing except for his decent grades.

Everyone might have known that there was often such a person who ranked first, second, or third in the whole school, or seen his photo on the campus honor wall after each joint examination, but no one would ever remember him.

And because Ying Ziyun was beautiful, even if her grades weren't as good as his, she was basically known by every class in the school.

In the eyes of the Xu Heng of that time, Ying Ziyun was simply a fairy, an existence that was visible but unattainable.

It was a pity that high school ended and the two of them hadn't even managed to say a single word to each other.

On the day the college entrance exam ended, Xu Heng had secretly made up his mind to confess to her, but it also came to nothing... because he didn't even have Ying Ziyun's contact information.

Originally, the two of them should have spent their respective lives without any intersection, if not for what happened later...

In the later story, Xu Heng performed slightly below expectations on the college entrance exam. He, who had been pinned with high hopes of getting into Qingjing, only managed to get into the "Double First-Class" Jinling University.

It wasn't to say that Jinling University wasn't good—after all, it was in the top ten in the country—but compared to Qingjing, those schools that sounded prestigious the moment you mentioned them, it was certainly still a bit inferior.

With his parents' sighs and the disappointment of his teachers and school, carrying the regrets of his youth, eighteen-year-old Xu Heng stepped onto the university campus.

Fate always loves to tease the mediocre; here, he once again met his high school "white moonlight."

There had never been such a close distance.

The gentle, water-like girl sat there, quiet and still, a smile always hanging on her face, like a lotus flower just emerged from the water, both elegant and bright.

This was during a dorm mixer after school started. Xu Heng looked at her, his throat so dry he couldn't speak, and it took him a long time of stuttering before he managed to ask one sentence.

"You... are you... Ying Ziyun?"

"Yeah? What's wrong? Do you know me?"

"I'm also from Tongdu No. 1 High School."

After Ying Ziyun learned his name was Xu Heng, she couldn't help but take a few extra looks at him. Perhaps she didn't remember what Xu Heng looked like, but she did have an impression of the name; after all, he was often singled out by teachers for praise.

The first meeting between the two was plain and unremarkable, even bordering on a bit awkward.

Yet, these two people who had nothing to do with each other became a couple at lightning speed in just two weeks, and broke up less than a year later.

Ying Ziyun said that she had initially dated him only out of curiosity, and when that curiosity disappeared as they gradually grew familiar, the relationship between the two also came to an end.

At that time, Xu Heng didn't want to break up. He used all his strength to try and win Ying Ziyun back, but Ying Ziyun believed they had no future.

Xu Heng had the mindset of a commoner from a small city, wanting only to return to his hometown after graduation and live a stable life, while Ying Ziyun yearned for a wider world; she studied French and was determined to go to France to study abroad.

To this day, Xu Heng still remembers that on the day they broke up, Ying Ziyun asked him, "Are you willing to accompany me to France to study abroad?"

How could Xu Heng go to study in France? He had no interest in France, and after graduating high school, he had even less interest in studying. He was only interested in Ying Ziyun, and besides, his parents wouldn't support him going to France.

He didn't answer her, and so silence was met with silence.

Ying Ziyun ignored him further, and the two just broke up like that.

A romance that came in a hurry and went in a hurry, but that didn't mean the entanglement between the two ended there.

During his four years of university, he had dated Ying Ziyun for one year, but then spent another three years tirelessly acting as a "lickspittle" for her... well, there wasn't a "lickspittle culture" yet, but by the standards of later generations, the twenty-year-old Xu Heng was definitely a big lickspittle.

Breaking up with a girl and still licking after her, licking for three whole years!

Even though Ying Ziyun had coldly told him "we aren't suitable" countless times, he still rushed up without hesitation and smiled, "Ziyun, won't you give me another chance?"

Thinking about it now, the version of himself back then was truly a bit naive and embarrassing. He had lost all his dignity as a man and still hadn't chased Ying Ziyun. She received an admission letter for a postgraduate program at a famous French university right after graduating, and later, in her thirties, found her ideal partner, a world of difference from him, a civil servant in a small city.

Thinking of this, Xu Heng shook his head and chuckled softly.

At this current point in time, he and Ying Ziyun had just broken up less than a month ago, and he was still sending flowers and breakfast to Ying Ziyun every day, hoping to get back together.

But since he had lived a life again, he naturally wouldn't squander his prime youth on a woman who was impossible.

Why talk about love after being reborn? Once reborn, you must definitely make money!

In the midsummer of 2007, Pony hadn't yet found his way to success, Old Ma was still worrying about the future, the Huaxia stock market was trending upward, and housing prices weren't yet that outrageous.

In the next ten years, from 3G to 4G to 5G, the world was changing every moment. Grasping those opportunities meant one could ride the wind and soar.

It just so happened that Xu Heng had those things in his head that could make money in the future.

Having had enough of a mediocre life in his past life, having had enough of a life of accomplishing nothing, he now only wanted to make money, make money, and make money!

As for Ying Ziyun... who is that? I really don't know her!