Classmate Li Zhuangsheng doesn’t want to be reborn

"Well then, you go back to class first. I'm going to the dance studio. I also need to go to the playground to practice my physical fitness later." Hu Mengdie smiled and gently patted Li Zhuangsheng's back downstairs in the teaching building.

"Mmm...that shoe..."

"Take it. If you keep dawdling and overthinking, I'm not going to talk to you anymore!" Hu Mengdie pouted, then showed a playful expression and handed her hair tie to Li Zhuangsheng. "But if you really want to repay me, wear this on your wrist and don't take it off for a week."

"Why...why do I have to wear this..."

Li Zhuangsheng recognized the rubber band, his face showing confusion. He didn't know what it meant, but he also felt a faint sense of ambiguity.

"For no reason, don't you want to?"

"It's not that I don't want to..."

Li Zhuangsheng casually put the rubber band on his wrist, feeling that it was a wristband he had bought before.

"Alright then, we're even!" Hu Mengdie smiled and turned to leave. "Bye-bye!"

Li Zhuangsheng waved goodbye to Hu Mengdie blankly, a slight sweetness in his heart.

Hu Mengdie smiled broadly. For a girl, putting her hair tie on a boy symbolizes a kind of "ownership".

Li Zhuangsheng is hers, and no one can take him away. Zhu Zhixue is overestimating herself and is not worth fearing. What could a little girl like her possibly know about Li Zhuangsheng? Although this afternoon somewhat disrupted Hu Mengdie's schedule, from a certain perspective, Zhu Zhixue should have given up hope after witnessing this scene!
Although she wasn't officially together with Li Zhuangsheng yet, teasing him every day was quite fun. Besides, she could clearly feel Li Zhuangsheng's affection for her; with just a little more effort... Hu Mengdie stretched, thinking how wonderful youth was, with so much time to spare.

……

"Hey, you've been dating Hu Mengdie?"

When Li Zhuangsheng returned to the classroom, Zhang Qixiang immediately went up to him and made faces at him.

"No, why do you say that?" Li Zhuangsheng denied it outright.

"Stop pretending, someone saw you shopping at the China World Trade Center this afternoon!" Zhang Qixiang's face was full of envy, jealousy, and hatred, and his smile was twisted.

"That was just... asking me to help her pick out a gift for her father..." Li Zhuangsheng subconsciously brought up the excuse that Hu Mengdie had made up in front of Zhu Zhixue.

"There are so many boys in the whole school, why did she choose you and not someone else?" Zhang Qixiang gritted his teeth. "Don't pretend with me, you two even ate together, right? And went to school together!"

Li Zhuangsheng couldn't help but grin, his vanity greatly satisfied. He thought that the two of them were being somewhat ambiguous, at least in other people's eyes.

There's really no other explanation, is there? Although Hu Mengdie said she didn't like me... why did she always try to talk to me? Why did she come to see me every noon? Why did she personally teach me radio calisthenics? Why did she ask me out on dates? Why did she buy me shoes and even put them on for me herself? And there were so many overly intimate and ambiguous details.

Was she implying that I should pursue her?

Actually, she might not dislike me. Maybe she just said that because she was shy.

"No, no, we're really just friends right now!" Li Zhuangsheng shook his head repeatedly, but couldn't stop laughing.

"Wow, you..." Seeing Li Zhuangsheng's expression, Zhang Qixiang couldn't help but understand. He was so jealous that he pounded his chest and stamped his feet, his face contorted with jealousy. But after a short while, he suddenly came to his senses and exclaimed, "You talked to Hu Mengdie, then Zhu..."

Before he could finish speaking, he didn't know what to say next.

"Hold on?" Li Zhuangsheng tilted his head.

"No, it's nothing..." Zhang Qixiang said sheepishly, his expression complicated. "I know, sigh, it seems you really don't know... sigh, damn it! Hmm, then I have a chance too..."

Li Zhuangsheng was even more confused: "What are you talking about?"

"Li Zhuangsheng!" A cold voice rang out at the classroom door. "Xiuyu, what brings you here?" Li Zhuangsheng swaggered up and went out.

Although the siblings had a good relationship, Li Xiuyu rarely spoke to him at school.

"What's going on between you and Hu Mengdie?"

Li Xiuyu frowned, looked Li Zhuangsheng up and down, and suddenly noticed the new shoes on Li Zhuangsheng's feet.

"What's going on... Damn, does news travel that fast?" Li Zhuangsheng slapped his forehead in exasperation, finally understanding what the troubles of happiness were.

Li Xiuyu, you look down on me, don't you? Just you wait and see, maybe in a while you'll be calling Hu Mengdie "sister-in-law"!
"Let's find a secluded place to talk..."

Li Zhuangsheng coughed lightly and pulled Li Xiuyu downstairs. The two strolled around the campus, and Li Zhuangsheng roughly recounted his various interactions with Hu Mengdie to Li Xiuyu.

"What do you think she means by this?" Li Zhuangsheng coughed lightly, half boasting and half seeking confirmation, "Could she actually be interested in me?"

"So many things happened to you without my knowledge."

Li Xiuyu wore a half-smile, his teeth clenched.

"Because I didn't feel there was much to say before, we usually just bump into each other around lunchtime and chat for a bit..."

Li Xiuyu glanced coldly at Li Zhuangsheng: "So you think she likes you?"

Li Zhuangsheng blushed slightly and said shyly, "I didn't say that, it's just, uh..."

Li Xiuyu's eyes flickered, and she lowered her gaze: "I had a friend who made a bet with someone, saying that she could make a certain boy in our class fall in love with her."

Li Zhuangsheng was taken aback: "What do you mean?"

"I was just bored and looking for some fun to do." Li Xiuyu shrugged. "During that time, she was really nice to that guy, but after he actually fell for her and confessed to her, she dumped him."

"Ah, this is too..."

Li Zhuangsheng felt a chill run down his spine, as if someone had suddenly poured a bucket of ice water on him in the sweltering summer heat. Under the extreme contrast of hot and cold, he even lost consciousness for a moment.

“You, you mean…” he stammered.

“I didn’t say Hu Mengdie is definitely like that. But Hu Mengdie hasn’t said she likes you, right? According to what you said, she even denied it. Could this be foreshadowing something, like if you really go after her, she’ll have something to say to reject you… Besides, why would she like you? Don’t you think it’s very sudden? You two didn’t know each other before, and you had no interaction whatsoever. Why would she take the initiative to come to you? Our family has neither money nor power…”

"Yes, yes..."

Li Zhuangsheng's face flushed red and then turned pale.

Upon careful consideration, he still couldn't figure out why Hu Mengdie would suddenly approach him.
Hu Mengdie has not offered any explanation to this day; she appeared out of nowhere without any prior cause or effect.

The possibility that Zhu Zhixue likes him is much higher than that of Hu Mengdie. At least they are classmates, and it's not impossible that she might develop feelings for him over time and become blind to his true feelings.

Something's fishy going on. Besides, Hu Mengdie's flirting skills are just too good... Where did she learn them from?
Reality isn't an anime; they're both high school students. Did she really have no prior experience? How could she be so adept at it?
Giving him shoes as a gift... seems a bit too mature, doesn't it?

He had occasionally heard that Hu Mengdie seemed to be quite good at "playing"... Although he had previously thought that this was just people who were jealous of Hu Mengdie slandering her, after all, there was no shortage of gossipy women in the liberal arts class. But thinking about Hu Mengdie's various behaviors, reason told Li Zhuangsheng that this was indeed not how an inexperienced and innocent young girl should behave.

Although he was naive and somewhat immature, he wasn't stupid. (End of Chapter)