Rebirth: My Childhood Sweetheart Came into My Arms

"Ugh..." With a muffled groan, Liu Wen collapsed to the ground in pain.

Lan Yuan walked over expressionlessly, raised his foot, and stomped hard on his back!

Liu Wen immediately screamed in pain, his face turning as red as a tomato.

"Lan Yuan! Are you fucking crazy?!"

"Yes, I'm sick." Lan Yuan's voice was icy. "I'm sick because I believe you're willing to be friends with me again, and I believe that what you said to me at the stadium was true."

Liu Wen coughed twice, panting heavily, and retorted, "I...I don't understand what you're saying!"

Lan Yuan asked directly:

"Did you record everything I said to you from the bottom of my heart that day? Not only did you record it, but you also turned around and gave it to He Ziyu?"

Liu Wen: "..."

Lan Yuan: "Don't ask me how I know it was you who stabbed me in the back, because I only said those words to you."

Liu Wen was silent for a few seconds after hearing this, and then laughed mockingly.

Lan Yuan frowned. "What are you laughing at?"

Liu Wen didn't answer, he just kept laughing, and soon he was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face.

This inexplicable behavior infuriated Lan Yuan. He removed his foot from Liu Wen's back, landed back on the ground, and squatted down in front of Liu Wen, staring intently at his swollen face.

After an unknown amount of time, Liu Wen finally stopped mocking and looked at Lan Yuan.

"I laugh at you for being so arrogant for so long, only to end up with no friends at all."

"..." Lan Yuan, whose sore spot had been hit, clenched his back teeth, his face beyond "ugly".

Liu Wen pushed himself up from the ground and sat down, staring intently at Lan Yuan.

"Yes, I helped He Ziyu, but wasn't that because you've never treated me like a human being?"

"Back when you were at the height of your fame, I followed you around like a shadow every day, calling you 'Brother Yuan' all the time, and doing whatever you said. But what have you done to me?"

"On the day I returned to school in the first year of high school, Jiang Chengyu threatened me by pinning me to the ground because I said a few words in your defense. What were you doing at that time?"

Lan Yuan's lips twitched slightly, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

"Can't remember? I'll help you recall."

"You were just standing there watching, casually saying 'Are you ever going to stop?' and watching me loudly apologize to the two people who humiliated me without any reaction..."

"After they left, you didn't show any concern. Instead, you urged me to get up quickly, saying I was embarrassing myself?"

"Lan Yuan, let me ask you this: back then, did you already consider me a friend?"

Liu Wen's pressing questioning left Lan Yuan speechless for a moment.

"So I know very well that all these years you've treated me like a lackey, someone you can summon and dismiss at will, someone you need when you need me, and someone you can kick aside when you don't."

"It wasn't until He Ziyu ruined your reputation that I focused on helping you break free from your shadow."

"You said He Ziyu is in trouble now, shouldn't I help him out?"

Lan Yuan took a deep breath, his voice trembling: "But when you found me that day, I genuinely wanted to make peace with you..."

"Of course I know you're sincere," Liu Wen chuckled, "but you don't genuinely want to make peace with me; you just genuinely need a dumping ground for your negative emotions."

"In other words, if it had been someone else who found you that day, instead of me, you would have done the same thing."

He had long seen through Lan Yuan.

In his eyes, only those who can bring him profit are considered friends, regardless of what that profit is, as long as it benefits him in some way.

"I've said everything I needed to say," Liu Wen said, standing up with the help of a chair next to him. "I was your lackey for so long before, so this time I'm just venting my anger. That way, we're even."

Lan Yuan stood up, a cold smile playing on his lips.

"I admit, it's unfortunate that I haven't made a single friend by now. But Liu Wen, how much better off are you? Look at the people behind you, which one of them dares to stand up for you?"

"Don't be fooled by their current obsequiousness towards you. If something really happens to you one day, your fate will be no different from mine."

Upon hearing this, Liu Wen's brows furrowed instantly.

"Lan Yuan, stop trying to sow discord. They're not like you!"

"Whether it's the same or not isn't up to me to decide," Lan Yuan said in a low voice, Liu Wen's reflection shimmering in his pupils. "Time will tell."

After saying that, he turned and walked out of the private room.

Liu Wen stood there, stunned, his mind a little dazed. It was a long time before he heard someone ask, "Brother Wen, are you alright? Drink some water, calm down..."

Indifferent concern, hypocritical greetings.

It was just like how he used to treat Lan Yuan.

For some unknown reason, Liu Wen angrily knocked the water glass handed to him away and staggered out.

Looking at the other people in the private room, they looked at each other, completely bewildered.

After a brief silence, the boy who handed him the water asked, "He just ran off like that? Who's going to pay the bill later?"

"Yes, who's going to pay the bill?"

"That bastard must have realized he didn't bring any money, so he asked Lan Yuan to put on a show and skipped out on the bill."

"No way? Didn't he treat us to a meal yesterday...?"

"Yesterday is yesterday, today is today. You can't believe a word Liu Wen says, who always talks nonsense."

A group of people who were smiling and welcoming Liu Wen just minutes before immediately changed their tune and started cursing him.

However, Liu Wen, who fled in disarray, never got the chance to hear their "heartfelt words."

……

The Lan Group declared bankruptcy not long after it ran into cash flow problems.

The Lan family was left destitute and heavily in debt overnight. They could no longer stay in Yuecheng, so they bought high-speed rail tickets and fled the city.

For the next two days, everyone at No. 8 Middle School was talking about this.

"I heard that the Lan family must have offended someone to fall from grace so quickly. All the companies that could have helped chose to turn a blind eye. When the company declared bankruptcy, Mrs. Lan was still raising funds everywhere. She fainted when she heard the news."

"I heard Lan Yuan was in a sorry state when he left?"

"you do not say……"

"I was in the same class as him. We were all in class when Lan Yuan was suddenly called out and never came back."

"Later, the teacher took away his schoolbag, stationery and everything else, and that seat became empty. The people next to him thought it was bad luck and asked the teacher to change their seats, making the class very chaotic."

"Well, it's good that he's gone. Ever since he was beaten up by He Ziyu in his first year of high school and those scandals broke out, I've always disliked him. This time, God has done a good deed for the people."

"I wonder if he'll have the money to continue his nose repair after his family went bankrupt?"

……

During lunch break, He Ziyu and Jiang Chengyu were doing their homework in a coffee shop, while several girls with their backs to them were talking about Lan Yuan.

He Ziyu stirred the coffee in his cup, feeling a mix of emotions.

He originally thought that personally eliminating the people who had hurt him in his past life would be a very satisfying thing, but for some reason, when those people disappeared one by one, he did not feel the satisfaction he had expected.

Yes, there was only a faint sense of relief.

Good and evil will eventually be rewarded.

They simply received the settlement of the game of life ahead of time.

As a reborn individual, he may not have truly reversed the fates of those people; he merely used some minor tricks to help them speed up the game's progress.

So ultimately, it's not him who has the ability, but rather the natural order of things in this world.

People's good and bad deeds will eventually be rewarded in the cycle of life after life.

No one can escape it, no one can get away from it.

"Brother Yu, I'm almost finished with my coffee." He Ziyu poked Jiang Chengyu's hand with the pen handle. "Can you buy me another one?"

Jiang Chengyu stopped writing and looked up.

"No, the caffeine in coffee will make you excited, and drinking too much will cause insomnia at night."

"Then... then another hot chocolate, please!"

"Aren't you afraid of gaining weight from drinking hot chocolate?"

"I'm not afraid. Anyway, it's getting colder and colder. Gaining some weight will help keep me warm."

Unable to argue with He Ziyu's twisted logic, Jiang Chengyu got up to buy him hot chocolate.

During this period, we didn't eat together during lunch break.

After Bei Yao entered his senior year, he almost always went overtime, sometimes by more than half an hour. Helpless, Jing Ran could only buy snacks in advance and sit at the door of Bei Yao's classroom with a small stool to wait.

Once, when the wait was too long, Jingran fell asleep hugging a cup of instant noodles. She even dreamed about all kinds of fried chicken, hamburgers, and ice cream. When she woke up, her face was covered in drool, and Beiyao laughed at her for several days.

Jiang Nanqiao and Han Zhiruo both made new friends in their respective classes, and over time, the six-person group stopped sticking together every day.

Jiang Chengyu once asked He Ziyu if such a change would make him feel uncomfortable.

He Ziyu remembers that he replied to Jiang Chengyu with a long, seemingly profound message on WeChat.

He said that each of us comes into this world alone, and on our journey we may meet all kinds of people and appreciate all kinds of scenery.

But no matter how exciting the process is, when you get off the bus, you're still alone.

Once this is understood, the process of coming together and parting ways becomes an essential lesson in this journey.

After reading it, Jiang Chengyu only replied with three words: "Old man."

He Ziyu sent him a funny face emoji.

Isn't he just an old man?

An old man who has lived two lives.

After a while, the owner brought over the hot chocolate.

"I've seen you two coming here quite often lately. Do you think my coffee is pretty good?" The owner was a middle-aged man who seemed easy to talk to. "This black tea latte is free for you. I might be closing down this shop in a few days."

Jiang Chengyu: "Why shut it down for no reason?"

The owner sighed, "The Education Bureau came to inspect a few days ago and said that students should not consume excessive amounts of caffeine. After thinking about it, I realized that I really couldn't control the amount of caffeine the children consumed, so I agreed to close down as soon as possible."

"It's such a waste to close it down," He Ziyu said. "Boss, have you ever thought about opening the shop outside? Like those vacant storefronts near our No. 8 Middle School?"