Chapter 20

In high school, Su Xinghui and Xue Qin had a thing—to be precise, Xue Qin liked Su Xinghui. Her grades were average, and for a time, she sat at the same desk as Su Xinghui. She often asked Su Xinghui for help with problems, and Su Xinghui would explain them to her tirelessly. For a while, they were very close, and everyone thought they were a couple, but in reality, Su Xinghui didn't have many feelings for Xue Qin. When Xue Qin took the college entrance exam, she failed. Her father was the Deputy Director of the Personnel Bureau, so she got a job at the Tax Bureau, while Su Xinghui went to Jiangcheng for university. After that, the two drifted further and further apart.

If it were his past life, Su Xinghui would certainly have felt some discomfort seeing Xue Qin in this situation. But after his rebirth, although there were still some ripples in his heart, he was able to hide his emotions well.

After Xue Qin arrived, more and more people came. Before long, nearly thirty classmates had arrived. These classmates had now entered society; some worked in various government offices, some taught in schools, and some were workers in factories. Of course, there were also those like Xu Xiaoguang who worked in their family's company. Four years after graduating from high school, everyone's circumstances were different. Some were proud and successful, while others were frustrated. Those working as factory workers were huddled in the corner, wearing humble smiles.

Seeing that in just four years, those classmates who once seemed inseparable now had such a large gap—or rather, a barrier—Su Xinghui felt very emotional.

Actually, some classmates had already faded from Su Xinghui's memory; after all, the year he was reborn was more than twenty years ago. He took advantage of today's class reunion to get to know these classmates again.

Zhang Cheng asked the waiter to bring up the two tables of food he had ordered in advance and asked for two cases of beer. White liquor wasn't needed; Zhang Cheng had brought four bottles of Moutai, and Xu Xiaoguang had brought four bottles of Wuliangye. With these eight bottles, it should be enough, as there were only fourteen male classmates, and some were drinking beer.

After a few drinks, the atmosphere at the table suddenly became lively. Even if four years of time had created a gap in status, at this moment, everyone had only one identity: classmates of the Class 4, Grade 3, 1988 batch.

Since the reason for today's class reunion was to welcome Su Xinghui back, many people toasted him. Fortunately, the wine glasses at the People's Hotel were relatively small, about three *qian*. In this era, the habit of drinking from large glasses, which would become popular more than a decade later, hadn't caught on yet, which kept Su Xinghui from drinking too much all at once.

After drinking a few glasses, Su Xinghui quickly took a bite of food. At this moment, Xue Qin poured herself a glass of Moutai. She stood up and stared at Su Xinghui. "Su Xinghui, I'll toast you too."

Su Xinghui gave a bitter smile and stood up. "I'll drink this glass with you, but don't drink white liquor. Just drink some beverage."

Xue Qin stared fixedly at Su Xinghui. "It's okay, I'm fine with a little liquor."

Su Xinghui had no choice but to drink a glass with Xue Qin. After finishing it, Xue Qin poured herself another. "Let's have another one."

Su Xinghui had no choice but to drink another with her. Unexpectedly, Xue Qin filled her glass for the third time, wanting to drink yet another.

Seeing that Xue Qin's emotions seemed somewhat unstable, Su Xinghui gave a look to Luo Xiaomei, who was sitting next to her. Luo Xiaomei pulled Xue Qin's sleeve. "Xue Qin, stop drinking."

Xue Qin said, "I'll stop after this one."

Looking at Xue Qin's stubborn eyes, Su Xinghui had no choice but to pour another glass and drink with her. Luo Xiaomei quickly pulled Xue Qin down to sit. Xue Qin didn't insist on drinking with Su Xinghui anymore. Only then did Su Xinghui feel relieved; it was a class reunion, and he didn't want things to turn unpleasant over this.

In his past life, he had stayed at Meng Hu Ling for a few years and didn't have much contact with Xue Qin. Xue Qin had married under her family's arrangements, so nothing like this had happened between them again. He hadn't expected that after his rebirth, such a class reunion would stir up some sorrow in Xue Qin.

Actually, Su Xinghui had a clear conscience. When he was in school, he had always been open and aboveboard with Xue Qin and didn't have any other intentions toward her. That was purely Xue Qin's one-sided intention, and he didn't owe her anything.

However, deep down, Su Xinghui was somewhat amazed by Xue Qin's transformation. Back in high school, Xue Qin hadn't been this pretty. Back then, she was thin and small, her hair slightly yellowish, tied into two small braids. Her features hadn't fully developed, and she always looked a bit timid. Her grades weren't outstanding, her personality was introverted, and she didn't talk much. It was normal that Su Xinghui didn't have feelings for her. But seeing her today, Xue Qin was like a different person. When he first saw her today, Su Xinghui had to search his memory hard before he recognized her.

A thought flashed through Su Xinghui's mind: If Xue Qin had looked like this in high school...

This little episode with Xue Qin made the atmosphere at the table slightly dull, but thanks to the efforts of Zhang Cheng, Xu Xiaoguang, and others, the atmosphere became lively again. Several girls started drinking. The eight bottles of white liquor were finished, and after the two cases of beer were finished, they called for another case, stopping only when Su Xinghui called a halt. However, Xu Xiaoguang shouted, "Let's go, I'm treating everyone to karaoke! No one is allowed to skip! I'll be mad at anyone who doesn't go!"

Seeing that Xu Xiaoguang was a bit drunk, Su Xinghui had originally intended not to go, but Zhang Cheng and the others cheered, saying they wanted to go, so he couldn't dampen everyone's spirits and had to agree.

Some classmates had drunk too much and wanted to go home to rest, some didn't want to go to karaoke, and some girls couldn't stay out too late. In the end, only thirteen people went to karaoke, including Su Xinghui's best friends, Wu Yuansheng, Luo Xiaomei, Xue Qin, and a few other girls.

In the early nineties, karaoke had just begun to emerge in Shangjun County. There were only a few in the entire county. Xu Xiaoguang took everyone to a karaoke hall he frequented, which was also the highest-end one at the moment. It had a quite Western-sounding name: the Dream Paris Karaoke Hall. To say it was high-end couldn't compare to later karaoke halls; it had a touch of vulgarity, but in this era, that was all there was.

The landlady of the karaoke hall knew Xu Xiaoguang. As soon as she saw him bring so many people, her eyes narrowed with a smile. She quickly wiggled her large hips toward Xu Xiaoguang. "Boss Xu is bringing friends to sing!"

Xu Xiaoguang snapped his fingers generously. "That's right, arrange the largest private room and bring lots of beer, beverages, snacks, and fruit platters."

The landlady's mouth couldn't close. She agreed repeatedly, ordered the waiters to prepare drinks and snacks, and personally led Xu Xiaoguang and the others to a large private room. She diligently turned on the air conditioning and said to Xu Xiaoguang, "Have fun, Boss Xu!" before leaving. With girls present, she naturally wouldn't stay there to be an eyesore.

Drinks and snacks were soon brought up. Xu Xiaoguang said, "Everyone, eat well, drink well, and have fun!"

In this era, there was no such thing as computer song selection. If you wanted to sing, you had to take a song list, select your songs, and go to the bar to order them, which was very troublesome. So everyone had to write the names of the songs they wanted to sing on a piece of paper and take them to the bar together so they could play them in order. Otherwise, ordering one by one would be troublesome for the person ordering and hard for the person singing to wait.

Su Xinghui had good handwriting, so everyone let him be the scribe. They reported the songs they wanted to him. When it was Xue Qin's turn to order, she looked at Su Xinghui with burning eyes and said, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow!"

Su Xinghui just pretended not to understand Xue Qin's meaning. He wrote *Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow* on the paper, but he felt a bitter smile in his heart: they had never loved each other, so how could one talk about "still"?

Xue Qin asked Su Xinghui, "What song are you singing?"

Su Xinghui wasn't bad at singing, but he really couldn't just pick any song at this time. If he let Xue Qin misunderstand, it wouldn't be good. He thought for a moment and wrote *My Future is Not a Dream* on the paper. Xue Qin leaned over to look at the song title Su Xinghui had written. Seeing it was this song, a look of disappointment couldn't help but appear on her face.

The first round of the song list was written and sent to the bar. Because there were many people, it took an hour for everyone to sing one song, but everyone drank beer and beverages and ate snacks and fruit, so they weren't bored.

Xue Qin had been somewhat dejected. After singing that song, she waited for Su Xinghui to finish his, then said she wanted to go home. No matter how they persuaded her, she wouldn't stay. Seeing she was determined to leave, everyone understood her mood. But it was already nearly nine o'clock, and it was impossible to let her go back alone. The task of sending her back could only fall to Su Xinghui.

Su Xinghui followed Xue Qin out silently. The whole way was silent as they walked toward the Personnel Bureau dormitory.

Halfway there, Xue Qin asked, "Why were you assigned to Meng Hu Ling? Do you want to be transferred back? If you want to, I'll have my dad find someone to talk to."

Su Xinghui shook his head. "Thank you, but I don't want to come back for the time being."

"Are you always this calm?"

Su Xinghui could only remain silent.

"I'm here!" Xue Qin walked quickly up the stairs to her home. Su Xinghui could see her shoulders seemed to be trembling. He stood silently downstairs for about half an hour until he saw the light turn on in Xue Qin's window. Only then did he sigh, turn around, and head home. ===== CHAPTER 22 =====