Classmate Li Zhuangsheng doesn’t want to be reborn

Li Xiuyu quickly finished his bath, changed his clothes, and returned to Li Zhuangsheng's study.

"Are you really planning to sleep here from now on?"

Li Xiuyu didn't even put her down jacket back on; she went straight into Li Zhuangsheng's bed.

"This is great!" Li Zhuangsheng was very satisfied with the study.

"Hmph, whatever you want, you big jerk!" Li Xiuyu punched Li Zhuangsheng angrily. "The master bedroom is for Hu Mengdie, the second bedroom is for Hu Mengke, and in our house, I'll sleep in the guest room and you can sleep in the study!"

"It'll only be for a short period of time!" Li Zhuangsheng said with a dry laugh to reassure him.

"Hmph!" Li Xiuyu snorted. "When do you plan to make things clear with her?"

“I feel like she’s quite hostile towards me right now…” Li Zhuangsheng scratched his head. “Let’s wait a couple of days. Let her see that I don’t have any bad intentions first, then we can communicate better.”

"You really don't want to be a bad person."

Li Xiuyu raised her head; she understood Li Zhuangsheng's thoughts. He didn't want Hu Mengdie to think he was a bad person, nor did he want to be misunderstood.

"Nonsense, I'm not a bad person, okay!" Li Zhuangsheng glared at Li Xiuyu.

I thought to myself, I'm getting a divorce anyway, and I've already given myself freedom. If people still think I'm the villain, wouldn't I really become a victim of injustice?
"By the way, I don't think she dislikes you. You should get along well with her these next few days, and it would be best if you could become good friends. That way, we can talk more easily," Li Zhuangsheng added.

"Fine, since I owe you... Sigh, I'm just destined to be a busybody!" Li Xiuyu sighed to himself.

Li Zhuangsheng stretched and opened the author assistant on his computer: "Is this what I use to write novels?"

Li Xiuyu blinked, a smirk playing on his lips: "Hmm, are you going to write a novel?"

"Well, it's my career after all!" Li Zhuangsheng said with great interest.

He had written novels since he was a child, in notebooks, but he never persisted. However, his passion to "become a writer" never faded. Now that he had this opportunity, it was perfect: "to establish a heart for heaven and earth, to establish a destiny for the people, to continue the lost learning of the past sages, and to usher in an era of peace for all generations!"
Watch out, kid ten years from now, see how I use literature to convey the Way!
Li Zhuangsheng took a deep breath and began typing.

Before we knew it, three hours had passed.

Li Xiuyu yawned while scrolling through his phone: "How much have you written?"

Li Zhuangsheng glanced at the word count: "Over seven hundred words, not bad, right?"

"Oh, good luck." Li Xiuyu said indifferently.

Li Zhuangsheng coughed lightly: "Um, how many words could I write in an hour before?"

"If it's fast, it'll be around two thousand words."

Li Zhuangsheng's face fell. "Damn, so fast?"

"Oh, by the way, each chapter of the novel needs to be over two thousand words, and at least two chapters a day are required to pass the test," Li Xiuyu added.

"what?"

Li Zhuangsheng screamed in agony.

Four thousand words a day, how long would that take!
"The problem is that this is supposed to be a sequel..." Li Zhuangsheng muttered, trying to save face, "I don't know what the plot will be like later, I'm not familiar with it..."

"It's okay, take your time writing. Anyway, when I asked for leave for you, I didn't say when I would resume updating." Li Xiuyu waved his hand.

"...I can't take it anymore, two thousand words a day is the limit for humans!" After forcing himself to type for a while longer, Li Zhuangsheng finally sighed to the heavens, "Unless I undergo a mutation, I can only update one more chapter!"

Suddenly, Li Zhuangsheng's phone rang.

Li Zhuangsheng glanced at it and realized it was actually his "father-in-law".

The label reads "Dad".

Upon receiving the call, Li Zhuangsheng's face immediately fell.

"What's wrong?" Li Xiuyu asked with a smile. "Did he invite you to his house for dinner tonight?"

"Congratulations, you guessed it right!"

Li Zhuangsheng had a bitter face.

He had already made up his mind that he would negotiate with Hu Mengdie in a couple of days and then find an opportunity to confess to both of their families.

But he also knew that the biggest obstacle to their divorce was their parents, who didn't seem to want them to get divorced.

Li Zhuangsheng's thinking is still stuck in 13. Divorce is a very stressful thing. He remembers that the older generation often said, "Harmony in the family brings prosperity in everything." If there is a conflict in a family, they would advise reconciliation rather than separation.

"So, are you planning to go?" Li Xiuyu asked knowingly.

"Can I not go?" Li Zhuangsheng scratched his head in distress.

Unless he turns against them right now, he has no option to refuse. But in all his years, he has never actually turned against anyone.

"Go ahead and go. Your father-in-law and mother-in-law both like you. Just treat it as a meal."

"How could you talk about going to your father-in-law's house for dinner so casually!" Li Zhuangsheng was furious.

Moreover, he felt guilty at that moment.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Li Xiuyu asked.

"Is that alright?" Li Zhuangsheng's face lit up with joy.

"Look at you, so pathetic. I'll just consider it an act of kindness on my part!" Li Xiuyu said, raising an eyebrow.

"Thank you, thank you, Lord Li Xiuyu!" Li Zhuangsheng bowed repeatedly and nodded vigorously.

Li Xiuyu got up and got dressed, and Li Zhuangsheng also turned off the computer.

The house was quiet. Li Zhuangsheng went to the bathroom and thought he heard a baby crying.

So he went to the second bedroom and gently knocked on the door.

Hu Mengke opened the door; she was breastfeeding Xuanxuan, revealing a glimpse of her dazzling white skin.

Li Zhuangsheng instinctively turned his face away.

"Brother-in-law." Hu Mengke smiled slightly.

"Um, um... Are you going home for dinner tonight?" Li Zhuangsheng turned his back slightly.

Hu Mengke smiled slightly: "Xuanxuan needs someone to take care of her, and it would be too much trouble to go back and forth, so I won't go back."

"Oh, oh..." Li Zhuangsheng swallowed hard. His heart pounded as he thought back to how he'd been snatching food from a baby's chest just a few days ago. He managed to say, "Then your sister..."

"She went out, it seems she went to see a friend..." Hu Mengke said.

"Oh, oh." Li Zhuangsheng was eager to escape and nodded haphazardly.

Hu Mengke smiled slightly: "She originally wanted me to go with her, but since Xuanxuan has no one to take care of her, she told me to wait until she comes back."

"oh oh……"

"Brother-in-law, be careful on the road," Hu Mengke said with a smile.

"Uh-huh."

Li Zhuangsheng quickly walked away. Now, whenever he saw Hu Mengke, he would be reminded of that night's affair. This made him feel extremely ashamed and reminisced, and it was precisely this reminiscence that made him even more ashamed.

Li Xiuyu suggested that he could date Hu Mengke, but Li Zhuangsheng had no intention of developing that relationship. Leaving aside the fact that she was currently his sister-in-law, his moral compass wouldn't allow him to do so.

Any relationship that isn't aimed at marriage is just playing around!
Li Xiuyu's talk of dating was just a euphemism for him to find a *friend*! But after taking a few steps, Li Zhuangsheng remembered something, turned back, and stammered, "Since no one's home tonight, what are you going to eat?"

Hu Mengke smiled sweetly: "Thank you for your concern, brother-in-law. You don't need to worry about me. I can order takeout, and they will deliver it to my door!"

"Oh, okay..." Li Zhuangsheng felt a little relieved and was about to leave when he remembered something. "Um, um... is there anything else I can do?"

"Well..." Hu Mengke lowered her eyes and gently patted Xuanxuan, "Not for now."

……

"Jiang Qing..."

On the street, Hu Mengdie looked at Xie Jiangqing with tears in her eyes. It had been a few days since she last saw him, but he had already matured so much.

The girl's youthful innocence had faded, and she had become a mature woman.

She had a lot to say, but when she saw the maturity on the other person's face, she hesitated.

"How are you now? Have you still not regained your memory?" Xie Jiangqing asked with a complicated expression.

“No…” Hu Mengdie shook her head.

"Sigh, let's go find a place to sit for a while." Xie Jiangqing sighed. "It's a bit cold outside."

Hu Mengdie nodded and followed behind him. The two walked into a restaurant and found a secluded spot to sit down.

Xie Jiangqing looked Hu Mengdie up and down; she seemed perfectly normal.

"Li Zhuangsheng, like you, also suffered from amnesia?" Xie Jiangqing's voice was enigmatic.

Hu Mengdie pursed her lips: "Yes, the last memories are all from the same day, or even the same point in time."

Xie Jiangqing's eyes widened in surprise: "You two, you're not joking with us, are you?"

This form of amnesia is too bizarre.

"Jiang Qing, why don't you believe me?" Hu Mengdie said anxiously, "Who would joke about something like this!"

“It’s not that I don’t believe it… but this kind of thing is really too strange… your situation doesn’t seem like amnesia, it’s more like you’ve traveled through time.”

"Crossing?"

“Yes, from that point in time in 2013, we suddenly traveled to the future.” Xie Jiangqing smiled.

Hu Mengdie bit her lip, unsure if the other person was joking: "Time travel shouldn't exist, right..."

"I was just joking. Who knows if such mystical things exist in this world?" Xie Jiangqing waved her hand and smiled. "But you two are quite destined for each other. Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly, and after waking up, he didn't know if it was a dream or reality. You know, your names..."

"Alright, let's stop talking about him." Hu Mengdie's expression was somewhat unpleasant.

For her, Zhuangzi's dream of becoming a butterfly was like a nightmare.

"What's wrong..." Xie Jiangqing was taken aback. "You don't like him?"

Mentioning this incident, Hu Mengdie immediately flew into a rage and couldn't help but scream, "I don't even know him! Who is he? How did I end up marrying him? Why does everyone want me to be his wife?!"

Xie Jiangqing stared blankly at Hu Mengdie's outburst, her gaze becoming increasingly unfathomable.

In fact, during their phone conversations over the past few days, she had vaguely understood Hu Mengdie's attitude towards Li Zhuangsheng.

However, it's difficult to explain these things without being face-to-face, and Xie Jiangqing didn't want to affect Hu Mengdie's mood during treatment, so she didn't go into details.

“Mengdie, marrying him was your own decision, it was your own choice, no one forced you.” Xie Jiangqing took a deep breath. “You married him because you love him. I can guarantee that.”

"I don't know, but I don't remember anything! I don't remember anything at all! All I feel right now is pain!" Hu Mengdie clutched her head. "I really don't love him! I really don't love him at all! I really don't want to be with someone I don't know at all! I was only 16 years old, why is it that more than 10 years have passed in a flash, and now I have to be given a husband I don't even like! What do they want me to do? Spend my whole life with someone like this! Why is my life such a mess!"

"Mengdie, don't get agitated!" Xie Jiangqing quickly stepped forward to comfort her.

Unless they encounter similar circumstances, people can never truly understand each other. But even so, Xie Jiangqing could still feel Hu Mengdie's confusion and pain at this moment.

At the same time, she realized that perhaps Hu Mengdie didn't dislike Li Zhuangsheng that much. He was her outlet for venting her frustrations about this unfortunate situation.

After all, Hu Mengdie couldn't blame anyone.

Hu Mengdie couldn't help but burst into tears, and Xie Jiangqing hugged her sympathetically.

After a long time, Hu Mengdie's crying gradually stopped.

Xie Jiangqing sighed and took out a tissue to wipe Hu Mengdie's face: "So what are your plans for the future?"

"I...I want a divorce!" Hu Mengdie stopped crying and said fiercely.

"...Are you in love with Qi Haoyu right now?" Xie Jiangqing was silent for a moment before slowly asking.

Hu Mengdie was stunned for a moment, not reacting immediately.

Of course she knew Qi Haoyu; he was one of her many suitors, and also the most persistent one.

Hu Mengdie remembered that the other person was tall and handsome, not unpleasant, and she even had a little bit of liking for him.

She only had a slight liking for him and hadn't considered accepting his confession. Perhaps because of her family's upbringing, she felt that high school students shouldn't be dating... However, she had imagined that if he could pursue her until she graduated high school, she might be able to say yes.

"You don't still like Qi Haoyu, do you...?"

Seeing Hu Mengdie in a daze, Xie Jiangqing immediately grabbed her hand.

“I…” Hu Mengdie’s cheeks flushed slightly.

What does Xie Jiangqing mean by this? Why did she say "still"? Did I like Qi Haoyu in high school?
"I, I, I don't know!" Hu Mengdie turned her face away. "Why do you ask that?"

"There's something I haven't told you because I was worried it would make you uncomfortable." Xie Jiangqing took a deep breath. "Actually, you dated Qi Haoyu in high school."

Hu Mengdie was taken aback.

"What? When did this happen?" Hu Mengdie stammered.

"Shortly after the start of the second semester of my junior year."

"I...I talked to Qi Haoyu..."

Hu Mengdie murmured.

This was indeed a bit unexpected; she thought she wouldn't date in high school... but it wasn't particularly surprising either, at least she wasn't averse to it.

Xie Jiangqing pursed her lips and continued, "That incident caused a huge uproar. Your parents disagreed and even went to the school, asking me to persuade you to break up with him."

"And then?" Hu Mengdie quickly asked.

"Your parents, the school, and I couldn't stop you... Maybe it's my fault too, since I was always supporting and encouraging you..."

"My parents...couldn't they stop us?"

Hu Mengdie's eyes brightened slightly.

"Yes, I was surprised too. I thought you would give up halfway through. You usually listen to your parents so much... But you really should have listened to them that time."

Hu Mengdie seemed not to have heard Xie Jiangqing's words; her eyes flickered, and it was unclear what she was thinking.

(End of this chapter)