Chapter 5: First Love as Brilliant as Summer Flowers

The setting sun hung by its last sliver of edge above the city's buildings.

Fan Xi exhaled hot air, her forehead covered in sweat; she looked at Xu Heng and said with some surprise, "I didn't expect you to be so capable!"

"Basic operation." Xu Heng put down the colored chalk.

In his past life, he worked in the propaganda department, either designing logos or providing plans for community wall murals.

Putting together a class bulletin board for university was child's play to him.

Fan Xi felt as if Xu Heng had become a different person; the previous few times she asked him to do the bulletin board, he had been reluctant, the overall quality of the boards was low, and he would always rush off to be lovey-dovey with his girlfriend after sloppily finishing the job, which was why their Class 3 had never been rated an excellent class.

This time, Xu Heng was actually attentive to class activities, and she only had to help out throughout the process without having to put in any real effort.

Nowadays, class meetings were still linked to comprehensive scores, and as the Class Monitor, Fan Xi certainly wanted her classmates to have higher grade point averages.

"Xu Heng, you go ahead; I'll finish perfecting the meeting content. Don't keep your girlfriend waiting."

Xu Heng's attentiveness improved Fan Xi's impression of him significantly; previously, she had always addressed him as "Arts Committee Member," which felt exceptionally distant.

"Girlfriend?" Xu Heng shook his head: "I'm single, no girlfriend."

Fan Xi frowned slightly: "You know, that girl who used to come looking for you often..."

"Oh, Ying Ziyun? We broke up, it's been a month."

Fan Xi was stunned; she really didn't know about this "inside story."

This was normal; university was not like high school, where anything could spread from the first row to the last in under three seconds, whereas things in university basically only circulated between dormitories.

Like the breakup between Xu Heng and Ying Ziyun, only Ying Ziyun's dorm and Xu Heng's dorm knew about it.

"I'm sorry." Thinking she had poked at a sore spot, Fan Xi's expression carried a hint of apology, "I didn't mean to bring it up."

Xu Heng didn't care, waving his hand: "It's fine, out with the old, in with the new."

Fan Xi pursed her lips, secretly guessing that Xu Heng must still be heartbroken over the breakup to say such things; which couple could get over a breakup in just one month?

Especially since university wasn't as harsh as society, everyone loved each other to death, and it wasn't as if there weren't cases of suicide for love.

If Xu Heng knew what she was thinking, he would definitely laugh out loud.

In fact, he was telling the truth; over a dozen years could always make a person forget many things, and now he probably only had a lingering, indescribable regret for Ying Ziyun, with all other feelings basically gone.

"How about I treat you to a meal?" Class Monitor Fan asked in a low voice.

Hearing this, Xu Heng, who had been planning to return to his dorm early to type, thought for a moment and felt his "grand ambition" wasn't urgent, so he simply agreed to Fan Xi.

And the meal she offered was actually just in the school cafeteria; they didn't even leave the school gate.

Zhao Gaoyang had mentioned Fan Xi's family in the dorm before; it seemed not very good—born in the countryside, her father died early, and she was raised by her mother doing farm work. He heard she often did part-time jobs in small shops on campus, and her living expenses were earned by herself, so naturally, she didn't have much pocket money to treat Xu Heng at a small restaurant.

Xu Heng didn't care about this; although he was just a civil servant in a small city, he often accompanied leaders on business trips and had been to all sorts of hotels. In fact, apart from better ingredients and more experienced chefs, there was no difference from home. Instead, he hadn't been to the Jinling University cafeteria for over a decade, and he actually felt a bit nostalgic.

He had the auntie serve him tomato scrambled eggs and shredded pork with green peppers, plus a portion of rice, totaling less than five yuan. It made one sigh that the prices in this era were still quite affordable, unlike later generations where people exposed online that school cafeterias counted tomato scrambled eggs as a meat dish, charging five yuan a portion—so exaggerated.

"Um... Xu Heng, thank you for your help today." Fan Xi ate with her head down.

"Just a small favor, and I am a class committee member too." Xu Heng ate two bites of the tomato scrambled eggs; it was still the taste of the cafeteria.

Fan Xi looked up, her bright, lively eyes staring straight at him: "You never had any sense of collective honor before, and you often complained that being a class committee member was a hassle."

"Cough~"

Xu Heng choked; he really wanted to say he still didn't have any sense of collective honor, but it wouldn't be good to say that, so he could only smile awkwardly.

He helped Fan Xi purely because he found her quite cute; of course, it wasn't love at first sight, just the fondness of a man approaching forty for a girl in her early twenties.

In his past life, Xu Heng had no impression of Fan Xi, but after being reborn, he discovered this girl had a personality that was soft on the outside but firm on the inside—weak in appearance, but strong-willed at heart.

Such a girl was attentive to everything, willing to help others, and unwilling to owe anyone anything, which made Xu Heng, accustomed to backstabbing and flattery, feel very comfortable chatting with her, as if he had inexplicably gained a sensible and considerate younger sister.

"Regardless, I still have to thank you. If I had done the bulletin board alone today, it would have taken at least two or three hours, and by then the cafeteria would be closed and I'd only be able to eat instant noodles."

"You could order takeout~" Xu Heng said casually.

Fan Xi frowned, seemingly not understanding what he meant: "What is takeout?"

"You don't even know takeout..."

His voice stopped abruptly; Xu Heng immediately realized he had said the wrong thing.

Today in 2007, the takeout industry hadn't risen yet—no, to be precise, it hadn't even appeared!

Takeout should have started appearing in 2008, and it wasn't until the popularization of smartphones later that it truly became an indispensable part of Huaxia people's lives.

He had subconsciously thought it was 2023 just now. Seeing Class Monitor Fan still waiting for him to explain the term, Xu Heng could only say simply that takeout was a transaction where you pay someone to run an errand for you to an outside restaurant to get the food you want and bring it to you, plus a delivery fee and the purchase cost.

"That's too much trouble." Fan Xi shook her head.

This was still the era of button phones, so something like "takeout" sounded very complicated, but later, after the iPhone 4 came out and online payment became popular, the advantages of this industry would be infinitely magnified.

Class Monitor Fan was not a reborn person, so naturally, she couldn't see the business opportunity within.

Xu Heng, with his future knowledge, pondered whether he could also go into the takeout market to get a piece of the pie, or be bolder and go into the smartphone market to compete with Lei Bus and Boss Ren.

However, there were still three years until the iPhone 4 came out; it wouldn't be too late to enter the mobile phone industry after he accumulated some capital. The most important thing now was to earn the first pot of gold that could stir up the stock market.

After eating, Xu Heng helped Fan Xi take the tray to the washing sink; their dorms weren't far apart, so they walked back together on the way.

It was nearly seven o'clock in the evening, and students attending night classes were passing through Far East Avenue with books tucked under their arms or carrying small bags, heading toward Yifu Building.

While listening to Fan Xi talk about class matters—saying that class building activities were starting next semester, that other freshman classes had already finished theirs while theirs hadn't, and that final exams were coming up, telling him as a committee member to go to the study hall more often to review with classmates—

Xu Heng didn't care about any of this and just nodded in agreement, his mind full of questions about how his first novel could make money quickly.

Chatting like this, they arrived downstairs at the women's dorm, and Fan Xi said goodbye to him and parted ways.

Xu Heng watched her return to her dorm and turned to leave, but saw a long-haired girl holding a plastic basin standing gracefully behind him.

She was wearing a thin white pajama top, her hair, damp with moisture, fluttering in the summer night breeze. The skin exposed on her neck was white with a rosy tint, as translucent as mutton-fat jade smeared with rouge. With willow-leaf eyebrows and almond eyes, there wasn't much expression on her face, even appearing a bit indifferent.

The moment he saw her, Xu Heng froze; he hadn't expected that his first meeting with Ying Ziyun after his rebirth would happen in this way.

There are some people who will always leave a deep impression on you.

Even though Xu Heng thought he wouldn't have many ripples in his heart when he saw her again, the surging emotions told him that he wasn't as calm as he appeared on the surface.

In the midsummer of this year, first love was as brilliant as summer flowers.