Let Me Go, My Childhood Sweetheart [Rebirth] - Chapter 8

“Weiran, be my girlfriend.”

Looking at Ye Yuan kneeling on one knee with a face full of feigned devotion, Chu Weiran felt her stomach churn. She hated Ye Yuan, a hatred that had begun in her past life. Even though the current Ye Yuan looked much younger and fresher than he did back then, he disgusted her even more now.

From discovering his messy entanglement with Qin Zhaomu to eventually planning their wedding, no one knew how vile Ye Yuan truly was better than she did. That included Qin Zhaomu.

The wedding had been Ye Yuan’s idea; he claimed he wanted to make Qin Zhaomu lose everything and be utterly disgraced. Qin Zhaomu only knew that Chu Weiran loved Jin Yi, but no one knew just how obsessive and manic that love really was. To ensure Jin Yi witnessed Qin Zhaomu’s ugliest moment, Chu Weiran had promised Ye Yuan shares in Chu Realty.

And Ye Yuan was even more repulsive. That knife? Ye Yuan had been the one to hand it to her at the last second.

“Weiran?”

Ye Yuan had been kneeling for a long time, only to find Chu Weiran staring at him with a look of pure loathing and impatience. Panic began to set in. Could she possibly know about him and Qin Zhaomu?

“Weiran… please… be my girlfriend!” Ye Yuan thrust the flowers forward, doubling down on his act of devotion.

Girlfriend? Since Ye Yuan craved it so much, she would indulge his fantasy of having a “girlfriend.”

There was quite a crowd watching. Chu Weiran put a lot of effort into scanning the onlookers until she found Qin Zhaomu. The current Qin Zhaomu looked just like she did in their past life: innocent and kind on the surface. The moment Chu Weiran’s eyes landed on her, Qin Zhaomu instantly hid her spark of jealousy.

When their eyes met, Qin Zhaomu adopted a pitiful expression, looking as if she were the victim and Chu Weiran was the woman stealing her man. Pitiful yet hateful. The man she loved so deeply had been using her all along.

Chu Weiran didn’t deign to look at her for long. She turned her gaze back to Ye Yuan. Still disgusting. But what was she to do? She had to take full responsibility for the foolish things she had done in her youth.

How could she have been so stupid? She had arranged for someone to confess to her in public just to attract Jin Yi’s attention. In the end, Jin Yi hadn’t spared her a single glance.

Chu Weiran didn’t want to look at Ye Yuan or Qin Zhaomu. Keeping her head low, she pointed toward Qin Zhaomu and said, “Isn’t your girlfriend standing right over there? Are you trying to two-time us?”

Ye Yuan’s face turned deathly pale. He spun his head around stiffly toward Qin Zhaomu. His gaze, which had been full of love for Chu Weiran, turned dark and icy toward Qin Zhaomu. He gave a forced laugh and turned back. “Weiran, let me explain. She and I are just from the same hometown. I look out for her occasionally; it’s not what you think.”

Ye Yuan spoke loudly, as if desperate for everyone present to hear him.

A few people who knew them whispered, “I have seen Qin Zhaomu looking for Ye Yuan a few times.”

“Ye Yuan is handsome and a good student. Maybe it’s just unrequited love on Qin Zhaomu’s part.”

Hearing these voices, Ye Yuan’s complexion improved slightly. Qin Zhaomu, however, looked even paler than Ye Yuan had moments ago. She bit her lip hard, her eyes brimming with tears.

Chu Weiran almost felt embarrassed for her. She hadn’t expected the Qin Zhaomu of this era to be so thin-skinned. Where was the woman who had shrieked at her, “I’ll give Xiao Yi back to you if you give Ye Yuan back to me”?

If Jin Yi had seen Qin Zhaomu like this in their past life, would things have ended differently? She truly regretted not making Jin Yi come along just now.

Seeing that people were speaking up for him, Ye Yuan’s confidence surged. “Weiran, can I stand up first?”

Ye Yuan wasn’t one for physical hardship; kneeling for so long had made his legs go numb. Chu Weiran glanced at him and said impatiently, “Do whatever you want.”

He could do as he pleased; it had absolutely nothing to do with her.

“Then… you’ve said yes?” Ye Yuan’s voice was excited. What kind of twisted logic led him to believe that letting him stand up meant she was accepting him?

“Then you’d better keep kneeling. It is impossible for me to ever be with you.”

Dull. Boring. Chu Weiran turned to leave, but then she saw someone rush out from the crowd. It was Jin Yi.

This was the third time she had seen Jin Yi today. Every encounter left Chu Weiran startled and pleasantly surprised. In the cafeteria, she hadn’t been able to resist getting closer to Jin Yi, only to hear her discussing her with Qu Yin. If it had been anyone else, Chu Weiran would have ignored it. But this was Jin Yi; how could she pretend not to hear?

Even if the topic was a bit… embarrassing.

She had pushed past her shyness to speak to her, only for Jin Yi to ask her not to go. One moment, her consciousness had been in Jin Yi’s arms; the next, she was in a university classroom. It was hard to process. She had genuinely thought she was dreaming.

Until she ran into Jin Yi again just now. Hearing Jin Yi speak, she still hadn’t believed it. Only the sharp pain she felt in her thigh confirmed it. She really had been reborn. And in this life, Jin Yi seemed a little different.

Jin Yi burst from the crowd. The first thought that hit her when she saw Chu Weiran was: Why is she wearing such a short skirt to meet this scumbag? It was much shorter than the lace dress she had seen in the cafeteria; her legs were completely exposed.

Chu Weiran couldn’t do this! She could dress like that for anyone, but not for Ye Yuan.

Jin Yi’s gaze shifted to the kneeling Ye Yuan. Frantic, she ran forward and grabbed Chu Weiran’s arm, pulling her away from him.

“Ye Yuan is not a good person,” she said in a clear voice. “Don’t be with him.”

The onlookers stared at Jin Yi in shock. Ye Yuan’s face flushed red and then turned white. You couldn’t just “steal” someone like this, could you?

“Classmate, you…”

The moment Ye Yuan spoke, Jin Yi’s eyes snapped toward him, filled with intense loathing. “Shut up!”

Then she turned back to Chu Weiran, urgent and pleading. “Trust me!”

To Jin Yi’s surprise, Chu Weiran didn’t seem to care. She gave a faint, elegant smile and asked, “Classmate, whether he is a good person or not, what does that have to do with you?”

“You…” Jin Yi was speechless, caught off guard. Chu Weiran seemed to find the situation hilarious; her smile grew wider and wider.

What Jin Yi didn’t know was that Chu Weiran was smiling because of Jin Yi’s obvious concern for her. It made her so happy she felt like she could fly. She no longer regretted the foolish things she had done in her youth.

Though it was all a bit bizarre, Jin Yi’s reaction made her ecstatic. Something she could never have obtained no matter how much she begged in her past life was being handed to her so easily in this one.

Jin Yi was looking at her. Jin Yi didn’t like her being with someone else.

It never crossed Chu Weiran’s mind that Jin Yi might have been reborn; she simply felt that, after a past life of unrequited love, the heavens were finally letting her Xiao Yi look at her.

If there weren’t so many people around, and if she wasn’t afraid of scaring Xiao Yi, she would have thrown herself into Jin Yi’s arms long ago. Jin Yi’s embrace was always so warm.

She wasn’t the only happy one. Ye Yuan, who had initially thought he was rejected, was also delighted. He believed he still had a chance. He thought Chu Weiran’s words were merely a test for him, triggered by Qin Zhaomu’s presence.

While the two women were distracted, he stole a glance at Qin Zhaomu in the crowd, signaling with his eyes for her to disappear. Qin Zhaomu looked aggrieved when he looked at her, but when he turned back to Chu Weiran, the jealousy in her eyes was impossible to hide.

“Classmate, this is between me and Chu Weiran. You should—”

“Shut up!”

“Shut up!”

Jin Yi and Chu Weiran spoke in perfect unison.

Ye Yuan froze, stunned by the dual reprimand. He wanted to say more, but seeing the dark expression on Chu Weiran’s face, he didn’t dare speak again.

And just like that, the farce ended.

After locking eyes with Jin Yi for a long moment, Chu Weiran said nothing. She grabbed Jing Miaomiao and left. The rest of the crowd eventually dispersed as well.

After being dragged away, Jing Miaomiao felt that something was off. Once they were alone, she finally asked, “Is there something… going on between you and that junior from earlier?”

Chu Weiran had been wearing a faint smile, but she pulled her expression back when Jing Miaomiao asked. She shook her head. “Nothing’s going on.”

Jing Miaomiao was her only friend in her past life. She didn’t intend to lie to her, she just hadn’t figured out how to explain it yet. In her past life, it wasn’t until Jin Yi and Qin Zhaomu got together that a drunken Chu Weiran finally poured her heart out to Jing Miaomiao.

She had loved Jin Yi her entire life. It was just that when they were young, she didn’t know how to express that love. Jin Yi became more and more distant, and Chu Weiran became more and more difficult. She didn’t dare speak or act, terrified that Jin Yi would hate her even more.

Jing Miaomiao watched Chu Weiran’s face change like a theatrical mask, shifting from joy to sadness in an instant. Worried, she asked, “Really?”

“Really.”

Jing Miaomiao pursed her lips, clearly unconvinced, but she didn’t push further. She knew that if Chu Weiran wanted to tell her, she would.

“Hurry up, I’m so sleepy.”

The “maidservant” Jing Miaomiao trotted along behind the “young mistress” Chu Weiran, looking a bit slighted. If she didn’t hang around Chu Weiran every day, wouldn’t she be a radiant beauty in her own right? Now she was completely overshadowed by Chu Weiran and even had to serve her.

“Hey! Mistress Chu, why don’t you find a partner to serve you instead?!”

“Pfft, how have you served me? All I did was ask you to run with me!”

Jing Miaomiao’s stamina couldn’t keep up. She panted from behind, “You’re wearing a skirt and still running so fast… so annoying!”

“Because… I need to go back and get my beauty sleep.”

She had to rely on her looks now more than ever.

…

Most of the crowd had left. Qu Yin walked up to Jin Yi and said with a grin, “You were so brave! I’m impressed. I firmly believe you can win Chu Weiran over!”

Being snapped at by Chu Weiran in public had already put Jin Yi in a bad mood, and Qu Yin’s comment only made it worse. Her tone was sharp. “Win her over? Why would I do that? If you hadn’t kept stopping me today, would I have even chased her all the way here?”

Qu Yin felt a bit sheepish. “I didn’t realize you were that serious…”

She couldn’t be blamed entirely. Jin Yi had never mentioned Chu Weiran to her before. She had spent the whole day making jokes, and while Jin Yi hadn’t bothered to argue, who knew she would actually follow through this far?

“Well, I’ll help you from now on! I won’t let Ye Yuan get his way!”

At the mention of Ye Yuan, Jin Yi immediately recalled those disgusting photos of him and Qin Zhaomu. Luckily she hadn’t seen Qin Zhaomu just now, or she might have actually vomited.

Jin Yi was lost in thought and didn’t notice someone standing behind her. When a hand landed on her shoulder, she jumped in fright and spun around.

She found herself face-to-face with a Ye Yuan who was a few years younger than the one in the photos. She immediately gagged.

“Blegh… retch…”

“What is wrong with you?”

With tears in the corners of her eyes, Jin Yi reached out and grabbed Qu Yin, pulling her in front of herself like a shield.

Qu Yin had intended to pat Jin Yi’s back, but being yanked over, she ended up nose-to-nose with Ye Yuan. It had to be said: the psychological damage of vomiting just by looking at your “love rival” was incredibly powerful.

Jin Yi hated it. She blamed herself for thinking about those messy photos. The moment she saw Ye Yuan’s face, her mind automatically reconstructed his actions with Qin Zhaomu.

Jin Yi realized she had been wrong. It wasn’t just seeing Qin Zhaomu that made her sick; seeing Ye Yuan made her sick too, because Ye Yuan reminded her of Qin Zhaomu.

And then she started retching again. She couldn’t control the reaction even if she wanted to.

Ye Yuan had been standing a bit further back and hadn’t heard what they said. He had only come over to demand why Jin Yi was slandering him, but before he could even ask, she saw his face and threw up.