Classmate Li Zhuangsheng doesn’t want to be reborn

"I……"

Li Zhuangsheng lowered his head and touched it, pondered for a moment, then spoke again, and then pondered again.

"Let me sort this out... I think I understand now. You mean that before I lost my memory, I wanted a divorce... because I saw that video, and I wanted a divorce... and you wanted to persuade me not to get a divorce... is that what you mean?"

Zhang Qixiang smoked silently, leaning against the bridge railing and gazing at the reservoir. The reservoir was vast, its surface rippling calmly under the starlight, with a few distant lights flashing silently on the water's surface.

He suddenly remembered a line from his high school textbook: "Sea travelers speak of Yingzhou, its misty waves making it hard to find." Damn it, he had absolutely no interest in these poems in high school, so why did he suddenly think of this now? Had he been spending too much time with Li Zhuangsheng?
“Actually, I’ve been online recently and have come to understand some things I didn’t understand before,” Li Zhuangsheng said. “Marriage and love are two different things. I didn’t understand this before. I thought that when love comes, marriage will naturally follow, and that’s a given. All idol dramas and anime set marriage as the ultimate goal of love, the final ending. I had never thought about what they would be like after marriage before; I only had a vague concept in my mind.”

"It turns out that marriage and love can be completely unrelated."

"What are you talking about?" Zhang Qixiang couldn't help but look at him.

“Now I understand, you and I must have a very, very good relationship, which is why you told me all this.” Li Zhuangsheng took a deep breath, scratched his head, and chuckled dryly. “Actually, I think, although this is just my subjective opinion… I think my future self, or rather, my self before amnesia, isn’t unaware of the principles you’re talking about. I don’t think I’m the kind of person who would get a divorce on a whim. He knows, or rather, even I know, that pain will be healed by time. When I was little, my dad beat me with a belt, and I thought I would hate him for the rest of my life, but actually, I only hated him for a few days. So, nothing is insurmountable; I know this kind of big truth. He shouldn’t be less capable than a high school student, right? So I think, if he gets a divorce… it’s like me getting a divorce; it shouldn’t be for my own sake.”

Zhang Qixiang listened silently.

"He knows he might gradually stop caring, but how can I put it? From my perspective... even if I didn't care for 23 hours a day, I would definitely think about it unintentionally. At that time, I might say hurtful things to Hu Mengdie or make her uncomfortable. So I think the reason is what you said: Hu Mengdie can easily find someone better, someone who doesn't mind her past. That's why he wants a divorce, because he knows the pain is temporary, that Hu Mengdie will get over it, that she will marry someone else and form a happy family with that person. So, he doesn't want to tie Hu Mengdie to his side and make her suffer because of him."

Zhang Qixiang was stunned and remained silent until a cool breeze entered his ears, making his eardrums rattle.

He finally lowered his head in despair.

"Heh...hehehe..." Zhang Qixiang laughed, his face full of self-mockery, "I knew it, it's really too hard to make you be a little selfish."

“I’m not saying I’m not selfish…” Li Zhuangsheng seemed a little embarrassed by the assessment. “I just think that Hu Mengdie is actually quite innocent.”

“I heard you had a fever yesterday because Hu Mengdie made you sleep on the floor,” Zhang Qixiang said. “I was planning to come see you yesterday, but your sister told me.”

"Why is Li Xiuyu spreading such nonsense everywhere..."

"She'd love for everyone to know that Hu Mengdie treats you badly!" Zhang Qixiang laughed. "Come on, I'll take you home."

Li Zhuangsheng nodded, got into the car, and remained silent on the way home.

"So what are you thinking now? Do you still want a divorce?"

“Yes, that’s perfect. I was planning to get a divorce anyway, so I don’t have to worry about disrupting my life.” Li Zhuangsheng said with a faint smile.

"Damn it, I'll get married and you'll get a divorce..."

"It's alright, I wish you a long and happy marriage. I'm just an exception," Li Zhuangsheng said with a smile. "By the way, what does your wife look like? Let me see."

“You two had dinner together before!” Zhang Qixiang said, handing over his phone.

"Oh, she's quite pretty!" Li Zhuangsheng blinked. "But she looks familiar. Could she be from our school?"

"She's not from our school; she went to the county high school."

"I feel like I've seen this somewhere before."

"You've never even seen her! She's four years younger than us!"

Zhang Qixiang got his phone back.

"Oh...that's quite young, you're like an old cow eating young grass!" Li Zhuangsheng laughed.

But then he suddenly remembered that Hu Mengke was five years younger than him, making him the one who was dating a much younger woman... even though he felt like a high school student.

Zhang Qixiang escorted Li Zhuangsheng back to his apartment building. Just as Li Zhuangsheng was about to leave, Zhang Qixiang reminded him, "Lamb chops!"

"Oh, oh." Li Zhuangsheng picked up the lamb chops.

"Are you really going to get a divorce?" Zhang Qixiang asked again.

"Yeah... And besides, putting aside what happened before she lost her memory, right now, she probably likes Qi Haoyu. You should know that she dated Qi Haoyu!"

Zhang Qixiang remained silent. After a long while, he lowered his head and chuckled softly.

"Alright, go ahead." Zhang Qixiang grinned again. "Hey, by the way, since you're getting a divorce anyway, why not shamelessly have a farewell fling? Otherwise, you little virgin will never meet a woman this beautiful in your entire life!"

"Get out of here, you're just a bad influence on the kids!" Li Zhuangsheng lightly punched him, then opened the door and got out of the car.

"You really don't blame her?" Zhang Qixiang asked finally.

“Why blame her? She doesn’t even like me,” Li Zhuangsheng said.

……

Li Zhuangsheng gently opened the door and quickly walked to Hu Mengke's bedroom, knocking on the door.

"Brother-in-law, you can come in directly next time without knocking!" Hu Mengke greeted Li Zhuangsheng with a smile.

Li Zhuangsheng entered the room and saw that Hu Mengdie was also there.

“You’re here too…” he said subconsciously. He had originally wanted Hu Mengke to hand over the lamb chops to Hu Mengdie.

"Yes, I want to talk to Mengke." Hu Mengdie nodded, unaware of Li Zhuangsheng's slip of the tongue, her expression somewhat strange. "You've come back from dinner with your friends?"

“Yeah, Zhang Qixiang and I went out to eat,” Li Zhuangsheng said. “Li Xiuyu said he and I are best friends, although I don’t really remember, haha, but he’s really a nice guy and quite caring… Oh, and he also grilled eight lamb chops, two for each of you, so I’ll share them with you two…”

Li Zhuangsheng, head down, untied the plastic bag: "Their lamb is quite delicious, it's just a little cold... You can microwave it!"

"Okay, thank you, brother-in-law!" Hu Mengke accepted it with a smile.

"Then, you two continue your conversation, I won't disturb you." Li Zhuangsheng glanced at Hu Mengdie, then turned and left.

Hu Mengke followed behind him and saw him to the door: "Goodbye, brother-in-law, get some rest!"

She reached out and gently touched Li Zhuangsheng's crotch, then kissed his lips. Li Zhuangsheng was startled and quickly looked into the room, only to find that he couldn't see Hu Mengdie there, before he relaxed.

"You should all go to sleep early too!" Li Zhuangsheng said, and left the room.

Hu Mengke licked her lips, smiled, and went back into the house.

After leaving Hu Mengke's place, Li Zhuangsheng went straight into Li Xiuyu's room.

Li Xiuyu was watching a TV series out of boredom when his gaze was instantly drawn to the plastic bag in the other person's hand.

"Zhang Qixiang asked you to bring it?"

“Yes, he is indeed a very nice person.” Li Zhuangsheng sat down on the edge of Li Xiuyu’s bed.

“I wouldn’t say he’s a complete scumbag.” Li Xiuyu waved for the other person to bring over the lamb chops. “He’s not exactly a good person either. Hmph, luckily you’re untainted by his corruption.” “He said he’s getting married and asked me to take you… Hey, what are you doing?” Li Zhuangsheng exclaimed in surprise.

There were four lamb chops left, and Li Xiuyu took a small bite out of each one.

"Isn't this for me to eat?" Li Xiuyu blinked.

"Two for each person, okay?" Li Zhuangsheng lowered his head speechlessly.

"They gave it to you?"

"Give it."

"So they give it to outsiders first, and then it's my turn!"

"We can't just let them eat our leftovers..." Li Zhuangsheng explained, scratching his head.

Besides, Hu Mengke isn't exactly an outsider, they've already been close enough to each other.

"Look at you, always thinking of others." Li Xiuyu handed two sticks to Li Zhuangsheng. "Here, this is a reward from your master!"

"Never mind, if you like lamb chops, then eat more." Li Zhuangsheng only took one of them. "I ate a big meal for dinner, so I can't eat too much."

Li Xiuyu then devoured three cigarettes by herself, oil sizzling from the corners of her mouth. Li Zhuangsheng pulled out a tissue to wipe her mouth.

"What did Zhang Qixiang want with you today?" Li Xiuyu glanced at Li Zhuangsheng.

“It’s just a meal. He told me he’s getting engaged this month and getting married the month after, and he wants me to take you and Hu Mengdie out for a meal so I can be his best man.” Li Zhuangsheng thought for a moment. He still confessed, “But he advised me not to get a divorce. I think he’s really thinking of me, but it’s a bit selfish, and I don’t feel good about it.”

"How did he persuade you... ah, never mind, how could that scumbag persuade you? I could guess with my eyes closed." Li Xiuyu clicked his tongue. "Is he getting married? Looks like he won't have to ruin young girls anymore."

Does he frequently prey on young girls?

"He's a total jerk. To put it simply, his life is all about dating, breaking up, dating again, and breaking up again..."

"You can't really call him a scumbag."

"What if I told you that many of his relationships overlapped in timeline?"

"Holy crap, this is terrible?"

“What you told me is probably right. Don’t let him lead you astray!” Li Xiuyu said.

"Don't worry, don't worry, we will choose the good and follow it, and correct the bad!" Li Zhuangsheng patted his chest and assured him.

……

After spending some time in Li Xiuyu's bedroom, Li Zhuangsheng returned to his study. As it was getting late, he wanted to watch some anime.

Perhaps because there have been so many anime series in the past decade, Li Zhuangsheng watched almost the entire series at double speed.

Actually, this era isn't all convenient. Due to the advent of major copyright laws, Li Zhuangsheng found that the anime software he used to watch was no longer usable, and many of the ways he used to find resources were no longer available.

However, just when he was feeling utterly hopeless, Li Xiuyu's words opened a new world for him. He found his old web bookmarks from before he lost his memory, as well as several terabytes of instructional videos that he had hidden away.

He never imagined that in this era, even a random movie would be several gigabytes in size, while he was still living in the 100-megabyte era of ten years ago.

Times are indeed progressing!

"Heh..." Li Zhuangsheng yawned, his hand occasionally pressing the fast forward button.

Rito Yuuki's fall was so ridiculous, although it always felt fake... And isn't Lala supposed to be the female lead in To Love-Ru? Why does she seem to have so little screen time now... On the contrary, Momo, the sister-in-law, seems more like the female lead.

"Brother-in-law..." Suddenly someone breathed in Li Zhuangsheng's ear.

Li Zhuangsheng was startled and, looking at the gruesome scenes of prostitution on the video, frantically searched for the exit button.

"Brother-in-law, what are you doing all by yourself?"

Hu Mengke put her arm around Li Zhuangsheng's shoulder, her voice laced with teasing.

"I...I wasn't doing anything..." Cold sweat poured down Li Zhuangsheng's forehead. "This...this is just an animated film!"

"To Love-Ru, so you like watching this kind of stuff?" Hu Mengke glanced at the screen.

"You know about To Love-Ru?" Li Zhuangsheng asked in surprise.

This kind of animation, you probably don't know about it if you're not into anime, right?

"I know, I've seen a bit of it, this animation is really erotic!" Hu Mengke said with a smile.

She hadn't actually seen it; she just knew about it. But if she said she knew about it, she and Li Zhuangsheng would have something in common to talk about, right?
"Cough cough..."

Li Zhuangsheng was extremely embarrassed, but the fact that the other person was also a fan of anime and manga made him feel a little relieved. Since the other person was a fan of anime and manga, they should be able to understand at least a little bit, right?
"Brother-in-law," Hu Mengke whispered in Li Zhuangsheng's ear, "Xuanxuan just fell asleep."

"you……"

Li Zhuangsheng turned to look at Hu Mengke, whose eyes were misty.

……

"Hoo... Brother-in-law, I love you..." Hu Mengke breathed softly, her bare arms wrapped around Li Zhuangsheng's neck, and kissed him on the lips, her eyes full of a satisfied smile.

"Hmm...do you still feel pain?"

Li Zhuangsheng also kissed Hu Mengke. Once you've done it before, you're more comfortable with it, and he no longer pretends to be reserved like he did the first time.

"A little bit, your pinching my butt hurts a bit... but it felt really good at the time." Hu Mengke rubbed her nose against Li Zhuangsheng's and turned to get dressed.

"Okay, I'll be more careful next time!"

"No need, it's actually quite enjoyable to be a little wild these days!" Hu Mengke quickly put on her pajamas. "Then I'll head back now! Goodnight, brother-in-law!"

"Okay, goodnight." Li Zhuangsheng waved. "Mengke."

Hu Mengke smiled sweetly and quietly closed the door.

Li Zhuangsheng lay on the bed, yawned, and soon fell asleep.

Oh, right, I was planning to talk to Hu Mengdie about the divorce as soon as possible... but I got busy and forgot again today. In a daze, Li Zhuangsheng suddenly remembered the important matter.

Tomorrow, I absolutely must have a serious talk with Hu Mengdie. The sooner they clear things up, the sooner he and Hu Mengke won't have to keep acting secretly anymore. (End of Chapter)