Age of Legends

Chapter 339 If Youth Has Regrets

curiosity kills the cat.

Human curiosity is a driving force of evolution. Driven by curiosity, we played with fire and eventually mastered it; driven by curiosity about other continents, we rounded the Cape of Good Hope and opened up new maps. Sometimes Zhang Chen thinks back to his past feelings for Zhuang Yanyue, which were also driven by curiosity. She was fiery and energetic, moving through Yude like a butterfly flitting among flowers, yet never getting tangled in the leaves. This succubus-like quality did indeed pique Zhang Chen's curiosity back then; in fact, many boys at Yude probably felt the same way.

So it all started with curiosity. So when this little devil suddenly turned to him one day and handed him a love letter, Zhang Chen's shock at that moment, interspersed with his previous curiosity, became a strong attraction to him.

Zhang Chen also seemed to recall for a moment the past interactions between the two of them that he had buried, almost to the point of protective forgetting.

On the way home that day, she seemed to suddenly say, "Don't you like me? If so, why don't you hold my hand?" Then she added, "Why don't you kiss me?"

So, the young Zhang Chen's heart was pounding like a drum. Finally, he steeled himself and mustered up the courage to approach her, only to be suddenly stopped by her raising her hand. Her red lips parted slightly, revealing a seductive smile that bewitched the world. What she said next made him freeze in place. He must have been filled with shame and indignation at the time, to the point that he had protectively forgotten the scene.

That sentence is——

"Ha, you actually believed it?"

……

At that time, Zhang Chen did not understand why so many people lost their composure and became dejected when facing Zhuang Yanyue, so he was curious about it.

It wasn't until after that day that Zhang Chen truly experienced its power.

At this moment, Zhang Chen clearly felt that Zhuang Yanyue's curiosity towards him was no less than the curiosity he had felt towards her back then.

The world turns a new page; let's start afresh.

Zhang Chen did not intend to retaliate against Zhuang Yanyue for a past that did not exist.

Since the events of their previous life had not yet occurred, and they were not in their current state, Zhang Chen still believed that avoiding Zhuang Yanyue and maintaining a distance was the best way to get along with her.

But it was obvious that it was hard to avoid. Even the things he revealed on the phone were analyzed by her, and she came up with a standard answer that made him feel slightly ashamed, which made her even more curious about him.

However, this also led to a consequence: ever since she became curious about Zhang Chen, no innocent boy at Yude High School has suffered such a fate, and thus, there were no more countless heartbroken Yude students who followed. Zhang Chen didn't know if he had secretly accumulated good karma.

Honestly, it would be a good deed to just restrain a witch like Zhuang Yanyue. Is she Pandora's box?
Therefore, Zhang Chen dared not tell her anything more about himself. If she knew that he was involved in the current QQ redesign and that he was the one who wrote the hit TV series "Seven Days' Promise" on the provincial TV station, Zhang Chen doubted whether she could really guess that he had been reborn.

So Zhang Chen tried to avoid her, dodging and evading the issue, and denying everything. He tried to keep a low profile in front of her as much as possible.

"By the way, actually my dad wanted me to go abroad for my last year, go around in circles, and then come back." Zhuang Yanyue seemed to have figured this out during Zhang Chen's three consecutive denials and evasions, so she changed the subject in time.

"Going abroad..."

It seems so. In her previous life, Zhuang Yanyue stopped attending classes in the second semester of her senior year, and news spread that she had gone abroad. In this life, Zhang Chen thought that his butterfly effect had influenced her path. It's probably because Zhuang Yanyue's grades improved, so she didn't take that path.

“Going abroad is a good thing, why don’t you go?” Zhang Chen said.

Zhuang Yanyue looked over with her big eyes, "Do you want me to go abroad?" This was a difficult question to answer. Zhang Chen said, "Going abroad to get some experience and then coming back would be good."

These days, going abroad for a trip and coming back is still a very desirable thing.

“That’s what my dad said too. He said that even if you go to a mediocre university and get a degree, you’ll be looked up to when you come back. It’s especially suitable for someone like me whose grades are mediocre.”

"Actually, I was tempted to some extent. If I just agreed to go out, it would be so much easier. I wouldn't have to get up every morning to memorize vocabulary or do math problems until my head was throbbing. The questions I asked you on the phone weren't because I wanted to ask you for help all the time. It was because I really couldn't solve them. I felt like I was too stupid to call you. I was also afraid of bothering you."

"So actually, going abroad eliminates these worries and makes things much easier. Some universities and majors are fine as long as you pay the tuition, and you don't have to study so rigidly. It might even be more suitable for me. Because I don't like to learn by rote and solve problems according to standard answers. After completing the foundation course, I can find my own learning methods and strive for undergraduate and master's degrees, finding a path that suits me."

"I'm also trying to convince myself to compromise. Actually, going abroad now would allow me to see a bigger world and a wider horizon sooner, which has always been my pursuit."

Zhang Chen thought that this seemed to be true. Zhuang Yanyue's unruly and abnormal behavior in high school was actually a way for her to fight against the boring and monotonous high school life and to create some ripples and fun in her life.

She seems to be the kind of girl who likes to unleash her true nature, enjoys freedom and being unrestrained. For her, going abroad would indeed be more suitable.

"But I've decided not to go. Do you know why I don't go abroad?"

She didn't really expect him to answer. As Zhang Chen's thoughts faltered slightly, she continued, "Sometimes I think that our lives will have all sorts of regrets, and undeniably, high school will have them too."

She looked up, and her eyes were already filled with the lights and starlight of the city outside and the sky above.

"It could be the height record I've never been able to clear in the high jump, it could be a test I didn't perform well on, or it could be... something I ultimately couldn't muster the courage to say."

Zhang Chen really wanted to say, "Give me a break! You still have something you haven't said even after mustering up the courage to say it."
I trust others, but you, Zhuang Yanyue.

You little devil, do you think I'd believe you? Don't pretend to be innocent with me!
But Zhang Chen didn't interrupt and stood there quietly.

So she continued, her voice melodious and strangely magnetic: "If youth is bound to have regrets, then for me, the biggest regret is definitely not not being able to see the so-called wider world."

She took a deep breath, as if gathering her last bit of strength, and looked over, speaking softly yet so gently that every word seemed to echo clearly in Zhang Chen's ears and head.

"It's not that I couldn't wear this ugly school uniform with you and get through these last chaotic days together. I wasn't in the same school, on the same battlefield, fighting with all my might for the same life-determining college entrance exam."

The gilded halo, the respect others give—those things, perhaps, can be earned again in the future.

But, in the summer of my eighteenth year, on a creaking afternoon in the classroom, there was also...

That person who might witness each other's passing.

She felt she would regret missing out for a very, very long time.

(End of this chapter)