Reborn not to be a beast of burden, I set the rules.

She looked down at the signed agreement in her hand, then looked up at Ye Ming.

Ye Ming lowered his head and continued flipping through his notebook, as if he hadn't said those words before.

Xu Wei stared at his profile for a few seconds, and the little grievance she had just felt suddenly vanished.

Li Yue could see it clearly from the side; the girl's eyes had changed.

She was sulking just a moment ago, but now...tsk, interesting.

Zhang Yuan also secretly raised his eyes and glanced at Xu Wei.

Then he quickly looked away and continued staring at the screen.

He thought to himself: Ye Ming is quite the smooth talker.

Ye Ming pushed the notebook over.

"Rebirth Simulator," he pointed to the title, "is a game where the core gameplay revolves around attribute allocation and random event triggering."

Xu Wei leaned closer and carefully looked at the densely packed entries.

Ye Ming scrolled down, explaining as he went: "At the start, you can choose your talent, and allocate your four attributes: intelligence, physical strength, luck, and appearance."

Then you enter your life journey, where an event is triggered each year, and the outcome of the event is affected by attributes and existing tags.

College entrance exam, falling in love, working, starting a business, buying a house, investing in stocks... anything is possible.

Finally, a life summary is generated, a rating is given, and it can be shared on Renren and QQ Space.

As Xu Wei listened, her eyes gradually brightened.

"This...this is what it means to start life all over again, isn't it?"

She looked up at Ye Ming. "I've read some rebirth novels where the female protagonist is killed by a scumbag and then reborn, changing her fate and taking revenge. Are you making people live a second life in a game?"

Ye Ming nodded: "Yes."

Xu Wei lowered her head again and continued looking at the event entries.

I lost my ID card the day before the college entrance exam.

Give up your seat to an elderly person on the bus

"A chance encounter with an old classmate I hadn't seen for years"

I won 500 yuan in the lottery but spent 1,000 yuan.

……

As she looked at it, she suddenly smiled.

"Many of these events are quite true." She pointed to one of them, "This 'graduation breakup' story is so heartbreaking."

Ye Ming didn't say anything.

Xu Wei continued scrolling down. She then came across the introduction to the card system.

"There are cards too?" Her eyes lit up even more. "How do you draw them? How are the rarity levels determined? Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary—is this some kind of video game?"

Ye Ming gave a brief explanation.

Xu Wei listened more and more attentively, and the anger on her face had long since vanished without a trace.

Instead, she wore an expression that Li Yue couldn't quite describe.

It's like admiration, but it's also like something else entirely.

After a while, Xu Wei raised her head and looked at Ye Ming.

Her eyes were bright, a different kind of light than the bright one she had just had.

"Ye Ming," she suddenly spoke, her tone completely different from before, less teasing and playful, more serious, "This thing is really quite interesting."

Ye Ming looked up at him.

"I'm not just being polite," Xu Wei said, meeting his gaze. "I genuinely think... you're really amazing."

She paused, as if organizing her thoughts.

"You spend all your time in the computer lab writing this stuff. I didn't really understand it before. It's just a webpage word game, is it really that important?"

"But after seeing it today, I realized that what you made is different from those casual dabbling projects."

"It...it really makes you think about what life would be like if you could start over."

After she finished speaking, she stared at Ye Ming, her eyes still so bright.

This girl is really good at praising people; she made me feel embarrassed.

Wait, are you trying to set me up again?

Ye Ming paused for a second, then lowered his head and continued flipping through his notebook.

His tone was so calm, as if nothing had happened: "There are still a few events I haven't finished writing. We'll talk about them after I've finished them."

But Li Yue saw it clearly from the side: the moment Ye Ming lowered his head, his chin tucked in slightly.

The arc was so fast it was almost invisible, but it definitely existed.

He probably didn't even realize it himself.

Xu Wei saw it too.

She paused for a moment, then suddenly realized something.

She originally came to "catch" him, to make him act like a good guy and go shopping with her.

It's here...

But how did it turn out like this?

She stared at Ye Ming's profile, watching his focused expression, and a strange feeling suddenly welled up inside her.

This person has very ordinary features; you wouldn't notice them in a crowd.

But the way he looked when he was writing with his head down, the way he was explaining things so earnestly, and the way he pretended not to care after she praised him...

How can it be so... captivating?

She had never realized before that serious men could be so attractive.

Xu Wei's heart skipped a beat. Something was wrong.

She quickly looked away, cleared her throat, and resumed her previous self-righteous tone:

"Alright, alright, you're right. Can we go now? Come with me to headquarters to get the stamp, and we can go shopping while we're at it."

Ye Ming closed his laptop, rubbed his sore wrists; his knuckles were stiff from typing in the event database all morning.

"Didn't I just say I can't get away for the time being..."

"You've been busy all day," Xu Wei interrupted him, "and you've almost finished your progress today—"

She turned to look at Li Yue and Zhang Yuan: "Is that right?"

Li Yue smiled and nodded: "Yes, Ye Ming, you go ahead."

Zhang Yuan also hummed in response, without looking up, but the meaning was conveyed.

He thought to himself: Let's get out of here, don't get in the way.

Ye Ming was silent for two seconds, then he stood up and put the notebook into his bag.

"Let's go."

Xu Wei's eyes lit up, and she turned to walk out.

As she reached the door, she suddenly turned back and waved to Li Yue and Zhang Yuan: "Thank you, seniors!"

She turned and waved, her long hair whipping around in an arc, the wavy ends swaying in the sunlight.

Li Yue nodded with a smile.

Zhang Yuan grunted in response, without looking up.

The door closed, and the footsteps faded into the distance.

The server room was silent for two seconds, then Li Yue burst out laughing. She looked at Zhang Yuan and said, "That expression you made just now—"

Zhang Yuan typed on the keyboard expressionlessly: "What expression?"

"Your ears are all red," Li Yue laughed uncontrollably. "Were you stunned by his good looks?"

Zhang Yuan ignored her and continued coding.

Li Yue turned back to stare at the screen.

He recalled the figure at the door just now, and the way the girl looked at Ye Ming.

I couldn't help but shake my head. I just don't understand the things young people do.

But this melon is really delicious.

The two had just reached the east gate when Ye Ming stopped in his tracks.

There was a person standing at the door.

Ye Lin was carrying several bags and looking around.

In his left hand was a bulging plastic bag, from which green scallion leaves peeked out.

In his right hand was an insulated bag, still steaming.

She also had a box of Crispy Shark snacks stuffed in the side pocket of her backpack.

Upon seeing Ye Ming, her eyes lit up, and she was about to wave when her gaze fell on Xu Wei beside him.

Xu Wei's outfit today certainly stood out in the crowd.

Ye Lin could tell at a glance that the girl had dressed up carefully.

Ye Lin paused for a moment, then smiled.

"Sister?" Ye Ming walked over quickly. "Why did you really come?"

"I brought you some things." Ye Lin handed him a thermal bag. "Mom fried some beef strips, they're still warm. There are also scallions and soybean paste, remember to eat them before they go bad."

She then took out the box of Crispy Shark from the side pocket of her backpack and stuffed it into Ye Ming's hand: "You kept talking about this during summer vacation, so I bought it for you when I saw it in the supermarket."

Ye Ming glanced down at it.

Familiar packaging, familiar colors.

During the summer vacation, he had just finished repeating his senior year and was admitted to Dongda University.

Spending every day lounging on the sofa, munching on shark fin while playing video games—that was the summer of my 19th year.

But for him, that summer was seventeen years ago.

Seventeen years have passed.

He's no longer 19 years old.

But the packaging is still the same as before.

He gripped the box of Crispy Shark soda, his knuckles tightening slightly.

Xu Wei watched from the side and felt that his expression was a little strange, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why.

Ye Lin didn't notice that she had already looked at Xu Wei.

"Who is this?"

Xu Wei stood half a step behind Ye Ming, her ears slightly red, a stark contrast to her arrogant demeanor in the computer room just now.

Ye Ming snapped out of his daze and stepped aside to introduce, "Xu Wei, our class's Youth League Secretary."

Xu Wei greeted softly, "Hello, sister."

Ye Lin's smile deepened.

She rummaged through the bag and pulled out two food containers, then took out a few crispy shark skewers, and handed them to Xu Wei: "It's our first meeting, take these and eat. These are beef jerky, homemade. And this..."

She pointed to the box in Ye Ming's hand: "He loved eating this back in high school. He talked about it every day during summer vacation. You should try it."

Xu Wei quickly waved her hand, "No need, no need..."

"Take it." Ye Lin pressed the item into her hand and glanced at Ye Ming again. Her eyes conveyed an "I understand" meaning.

Ye Ming opened his mouth, wanting to explain something, but then felt that explaining anything would be useless.

Explaining it would only make things more complicated.

Ye Lin waved her hand: "Alright, you guys go ahead with your work. I have an appointment with my classmates, I need to go see them."

She turned and left, her steps light and quick.

He took a few steps, then looked back again.

The two were still standing there, with Xu Wei looking down at the food container and the Crispy Shark snack in her hand.

Ye Ming stood beside her, lost in thought.

Ye Lin smiled, turned around, and walked away.

Ye Ming watched his sister's figure disappear into the crowd.

He glanced down at the Crispy Shark in his hand again.

Seventeen years have passed. It still has the same packaging.

And he finally stood in the sunlight of 2009.

In this lifetime, I must let my sister continue to smile like this.

Xu Wei stood next to him and secretly glanced at him.

She didn't know what he was thinking, but she knew that he hadn't explained when his sister misunderstood him earlier.

Why not explain?

She didn't ask.

The wind blew through the sycamore leaves, shaking off a few yellow leaves that landed at their feet.

Xu Wei looked down at the things in her hands and suddenly realized, "Are we taking these shopping?"

Ye Ming also came to his senses and glanced at the bags he was carrying: beef strips, green onions, soybean paste, and the box of Crispy Shark.

"Put it back first," he said.

The two walked back to the seventh dormitory building in Taoyuan. Ye Ming asked Xu Wei to wait a moment and then quickly went upstairs.

Xu Wei stood at the entrance of the dormitory building, watching his figure disappear into the corridor.

After a while, Ye Ming came downstairs, his hands were empty, but his backpack was still there.

"Let's go," he said.

Xu Wei nodded.

The two walked side by side toward the school bus stop.

The sunlight slanted in from the west, casting long shadows.