Classmate, Stop Acting Like a Good Boy [Rebirth] - Chapter 2

When he opened his eyes again, Cheng Shixu sat up groggily. He found himself lying in his bed at home, but he didn’t pay much mind to it. His head was filled with a sense of wrongness. Wasn’t he on his way to find Lu Jian? There had been a car accident on the road.

How was he at home?

Could it be that he had simply passed out, and Lu Jian had sent him home? Shijian Building was very close to his house; standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows of the CEO’s office, one could clearly see his balcony.

At the time, he had felt a small surge of joy, thinking they were truly destined for one another.

“Mom? Lu Jian?” Cheng Shixu got out of bed and stepped into his slippers, rubbing his eyes as he walked out of the room. He was suddenly jolted awake by the sight of the wooden tables and chairs in the living room.

His parents both loved wooden furniture, but he found it incredibly uncomfortable. It took a lot of persistent persuading on his part before they finally agreed to replace the set after he graduated from university.

“You’re awake? Go brush your teeth and wash your face; get ready for lunch.” Cheng’s father poked his head out from the kitchen, spatula in hand.

Seeing how young his father looked, Cheng Shixu suddenly dashed back into his room like a madman. Cheng’s father watched his son screaming in his room with a look of confusion. He pulled out his phone to call his wife. “Hey, Xiue, buy some talismans on your way back. Your son looks like he’s been possessed by a ghost.”

Cheng Xiue scolded him through the phone: “Why are you cursing my son! You’re sleeping on the sofa tonight!”

“Wait, no, no. I’m joking.” Cheng’s father immediately backed down. He turned off the stove and, clutching his spatula, walked cautiously to his son’s bedroom door. “Who’s in there! No matter what you’re trying to do, get out of my son’s body! You, you, you, if you’ve got the guts, come at me! Why pick on a kid!”

As he roared, the bedroom instantly went silent.

With hair like a bird’s nest and a face full of excitement, Cheng Shixu threw open the door and gave his father a big hug. “Dad, I told you to stop watching those Lam Ching-ying movies! You’ve gone delusional!” In that short amount of time, he had already realized what happened and accepted it.

Just like in those melodramatic short dramas, he had been reborn. He was sixteen again. This felt like a reward for being well-behaved for several years; transforming from a man in his thirties back into a sixteen-year-old boy made him feel like his youth had returned.

Seeing him talk like this, Cheng’s father felt relieved. “You brat, you nearly scared me to death. What were you screaming about in your room?”

Cheng Shixu pushed him back toward the kitchen. “Nothing, nothing. Go finish cooking. Otherwise, when Mom gets back from collecting rent and doesn’t see her Coca-Cola chicken wings, she’ll definitely snap at you.”

Hearing this, Cheng’s father let out an “Aie!” and immediately ran back into the kitchen.

“Are you sure you want to go to Experimental High School?” Cheng Xiue didn’t quite approve. That school was over twenty kilometers away; he would likely have to board there, which was very inconvenient.

Cheng Shixu sprawled out on the long wooden bench. “I want to go.” He had heard Lu Jian mention that he was the top scorer of the college entrance exam at Experimental High School.

He wanted to find Lu Jian early and pick up where they left off.

“Why do you have to go there?”

Cheng Shixu froze. He couldn’t exactly say, “Because your son’s future husband is there.” During the five years he had been with Lu Jian, he always regretted not meeting him sooner. They hadn’t met until he was thirty; now that he was sixteen, wouldn’t he be able to stay with Lu Jian for much longer?

“Mom,” Cheng Shixu leaned on his mother’s arm. “My grades are good anyway, it’s the same no matter where I study. I have a good friend there and I want to be with him.” In his past life, although he was a bit of a rebel, his academic performance was actually quite good, ranking in the top three of his grade and getting into a key university.

Since her son was so persistent, Cheng Xiue didn’t object further. She had always trusted her son; although he loved to play around, his grades were solid, and he hadn’t caused much worry growing up. Besides, even if he didn’t study well, it didn’t matter. The rent from the family’s commercial shops was enough to live comfortably for a lifetime. Soon, she finished the transfer procedures for him.

When he finally sat in the very last seat of Class 3-3 at Experimental High School, Cheng Shixu stared at the desk full of test papers before snapping back to reality. The sky was falling; he had actually been reborn into his senior year of high school! The twelfth grade!

In his past life, he had gone to bed later than a dog and woken up earlier than a rooster during senior year. The excitement of being reborn vanished instantly in the face of this massive pile of test papers. He could only be thankful that he had studied hard in his past life; if he worked at it, he could keep up. However, he had forgotten every single question from the college entrance exam. He was the type to forget everything once the test was over. Since he felt it was done, he only looked at his score and never reviewed the material again.

Besides, in his past life, he graduated at twenty-one and died at thirty-five. Fourteen years had passed in between. No matter how great his memory was, he couldn’t remember what was on the exam. Why did it have to be senior year? Why couldn’t it be freshman year of college!

“Hey, are you okay?”

His desk-mate was a round-faced boy. Wearing the blue-and-white school uniform, he looked fair and soft with round, curious eyes. He pushed a milk candy over and asked cautiously.

Cheng Shixu took the candy and whispered, “Thanks. My name is Cheng Shixu, but my friends call me A-Xu. What about you?” He pulled a box of imported chocolates from his drawer. “This is for you.”

His desk-mate’s eyes lit up at the sight of the chocolate. “My name is Ning Shen, everyone calls me Shenshen. Wow, I’ve wanted this brand of chocolate for a long time. I’ve never tried it before.”

It was currently break time, and many students around them were buried in their test papers. Cheng Shixu asked Ning Shen curiously why he wasn’t doing his. Ning Shen said he had already finished them all. Only then did Cheng Shixu awkwardly glance at Ning Shen’s desk, which was covered in papers filled with dense handwriting.

“Do you know Lu Jian?” Today was his first day at the school, and since he didn’t know anyone, he could only ask the person closest to him.

Hearing the name, Ning Shen’s round face wrinkled as he shook his head. “I don’t know him.”

Huh? Wasn’t Lu Jian the top scorer at Experimental High School? They were the same age and should be in the same year. If he was the top scorer, he must usually perform well. Logically, most students should know the top-ranking students in their grade.

Teachers would usually have those names on the tips of their tongues.

How could he not know him?

Suddenly, the student in the front seat turned around and asked, “Which Lu Jian?”

“The ‘Lu’ as in road, and ‘Jian’ as in middle.”

The front student asked, “A tall guy, right?”

Cheng Shixu thought to himself that the thirty-something Lu Jian was 190 cm tall, so even at sixteen, he shouldn’t be too short. He nodded.

Seeing him nod, the front student continued, “I know him. I’ll take you to find him after class.” His tone was a bit strange, sounding slightly excited.

Ning Shen loved a good spectacle. “I want to go too, I want to go too!”

Cheng Shixu, happy to have information, slapped the front student’s shoulder with a grin. “Thanks, buddy. What’s your name? I’m Cheng Shixu.”

“Yu Monian,” Yu Monian said, his eyes lingering on the designer watch on Cheng Shixu’s wrist.

As soon as the bell rang, most students headed to the cafeteria. Thinking that dragging two classmates along might interfere with their lunch, Cheng Shixu treated them to a meal outside the school.

His family collected rent, and his mother loved to dress him up, so everything he wore and used was a luxury brand. He had no financial pressure and was always generous. He found a clean-looking restaurant for them to eat.

During the meal, he asked Yu Monian about Lu Jian, but Yu Monian remained mysterious, saying he’d know once he saw him. Cheng Shixu could only wait.

His heart was full of excitement at the prospect of seeing a young Lu Jian. In his past life, when he had asked Lu Jian for photos of his youth, Lu Jian said he didn’t have any. So after being reborn, he was truly happy to see the teenage Lu Jian. He was surely a “little old-timer.”

He wondered if Lu Jian was still in his classroom doing papers right now. Which class was he in?

How should he tell Lu Jian that they would be together in the future?

After finishing the meal, Cheng Shixu noticed Yu Monian was walking in the wrong direction and pulled him back. “Wait a minute, where are you going? Aren’t we going back to school?”

Next to Experimental High School was a vocational technical school. It belonged to the same overall institution, and the uniforms were the same.

Yu Monian said, “It’s right there. He should be at school right now.”

A question mark slowly formed over Cheng Shixu’s head. “That’s wrong. The Lu Jian I’m looking for isn’t the same person you’re talking about. He’s from our school.” He wasn’t angry; many people shared the same name, and his classmate meant well. He would just ask someone else.

Yu Monian looked at him suspiciously. “Hmm? Are you sure you don’t want to go take a look?”

“I’m not going.” Other Lu Jians had nothing to do with him; he didn’t want to waste the effort.

Ning Shen also tried to persuade him to take a look, wondering what if it was the person he was looking for. Cheng Shixu had little patience for others. “I’m not going, I’m going back to do my papers.”

Perhaps Lu Jian suddenly overperformed during the actual college entrance exam? Maybe his usual grades were just average?

It wasn’t impossible. He would search class by class; he’d find him eventually. He wouldn’t bother with irrelevant people.

They didn’t try to persuade him further. Ning Shen foolishly followed behind him licking a popsicle, while Yu Monian seemed very intent on going to the vocational school to find someone, pausing for quite a while before finally moving.

Just then, voices came from behind.

“Brother Lu, dammit, that kid got away! Should we go wait for him again tonight?”

“Yeah. A bunch of trash; we need to show them who is boss.”

Two students with pink-dyed hair had their backpacks slung low, cigarettes dangling from their mouths. The student caught between them had slightly long hair, styled in what looked like a fresh foil perm. His facial features were sharper and tougher than the others. With his hands in his pockets and a cigarette in his mouth, he looked aggressive. “We wait. I don’t believe it. Someone actually dares to skip out on my bill!”

The familiar voice successfully made Cheng Shixu stop in his tracks.

He turned around in pleasant surprise, but was startled when he saw the mop of dyed hair.

Yu Monian nudged his arm. “The one in the middle is Lu Jian.” Without getting Cheng Shixu’s consent, he took the liberty of shouting loudly, “Lu Jian! Someone’s looking for you here!”

The three of them looked over simultaneously. Lu Jian knitted his brows; he didn’t recognize them.

“Brother Lu? Looking for you?”

“I do not know them.”

Ning Shen was still licking his popsicle. When Cheng Shixu was pulled over by Yu Monian, he followed quickly. “Is it him?”

Cheng Shixu was still in a state of shock. It wasn’t until Lu Jian asked irritably, “What is it?” that he snapped out of it. “You, you, you are Lu Jian?!”

Although there were differences from the way he looked at thirty-five, the structure of his features was identical. He looked a bit more youthful now, but it didn’t stop him from overlaying this face with the face of his “old-timer.”

Lu Jian nodded. “What is the matter? Spit it out.”

Cheng Shixu directly reached out to pull him. “My name is Cheng Shixu. Come with me.”

Lu Jian shook him off. “Do not get all touchy-feely. If you have something to say, say it here. These are all my brothers.”

Cheng Shixu stubbornly pulled him to the side. The other four people were not far away, watching them. He said, “I do not know why you have this hairstyle right now. But you need to change your hair color; it’s best if you shave it into a buzz cut. Otherwise, the school will expel you.” When he met Lu Jian, Lu Jian had a buzz cut, and he looked very handsome. He had never grown it out.

“Are you sick? I am in vocational school, who is going to care?” Lu Jian didn’t want to waste words with him. “If you are sick, go get treated. You think you are qualified to boss me around?”

Vocational school?

Lu Jian had never spoken to him in such a tone before. Cheng Shixu’s eyes suddenly turned red. “You are yelling at me?” Lu Jian used to hate seeing him make that expression; every time he did, Lu Jian would let him have his way with everything.

Now, Lu Jian turned away in annoyance, wanting to leave. “Mental case.”

“Lu Jian! You do not even want your husband anymore?”

Lu Jian’s pupils shook. He turned his head with a stiff neck, looking at him as if he were an idiot. What on earth? What did he just hear!

Cheng Shixu took a large step toward him. “Although I do not know why you are like this right now, we will date in the future. We are boyfriends.”

Truly sick.

Lu Jian really wanted to slap him. “Get lost! I am straight!”

Seeing him like this, Cheng Shixu’s expression also soured. Something must have gone wrong, but he was certain that this Lu Jian was his Lu Jian, even if he differed from his memory. “I am sorry, I was too hasty. But why are you in vocational school?”

Lu Jian clenched his fists, his face darkening. “What business is it of yours? Do I know you? You want to control everything? You want to control your father’s business too?” After saying that, he turned and left.

Cheng Shixu had never been cursed at like that, and he felt aggrieved. “But you are Lu Jian.”

After the person left, Ning Shen ran over to pull him. “A-Xu? Is it him? Why did it look like you were arguing?”

Cheng Shixu shook his head despondently. “It is him.” But Lu Jian did not use vulgarities, did not refer to himself as “your father” every other sentence, and did not constantly want to ruin someone. The most gentle and refined person in the world was his Lu Jian. He could not even compare. How could he be like this?

He was very discouraged and did not notice Yu Monian standing to the side, staring thoughtfully at the retreating backs of Lu Jian and his crew.