Returning to the Shamate Era to Seduce the Top Student - Chapter 1

Night fell, and not a single trace of evening breeze could squeeze into the crowded commercial street.

The oppressive dark clouds overhead stirred restlessly. The residual fury of the heat had yet to dissipate, stagnating in the air and making it so stuffy people could hardly breathe.

Yin Xu, carrying the restless heat of a summer night, pushed open the glass doors of the cake shop. A burst of refreshing air-conditioned wind immediately rushed to meet him, so comfortable that he let out a sigh in the depths of his heart.

He took off his helmet to let his nearly stifled head breathe.

Beads of sweat at his temples had long since soaked his sideburns, and the somewhat coarsely made delivery uniform stuck to the skin on his back, itching unbearably.

Yin Xu didn’t have time to care. He simply took out his phone with practiced ease, leaning against the front counter to call out: “Boss, pickup!”

The clerk had just finished packing for the previous customer. She walked over, glanced at the order info on his phone, then headed back to the kitchen for a few seconds before returning to tell him:

“This cake is still being made. You’ll have to wait a bit.”

“How long?”

“Soon, about ten minutes.”

Understanding the situation, Yin Xu simply sat down in a corner of the shop’s lounge area by the window and began to wait listlessly.

The shop was filled with the cloyingly sweet and enticing aroma of pastries, making him feel increasingly famished.

Yin Xu pulled a half-eaten seaweed rice ball from his pocket and took a bite.

He had bought this at a roadside convenience store an hour ago for dinner. By now, it was stone-cold and emitted a scent that wasn’t exactly wonderful.

Yin Xu frowned, pretending his taste buds were malfunctioning, and finished it in two or three bites.

The remaining few minutes were just enough to play two rounds of a game.

Yin Xu lowered his head, focused on controlling his game character to slaughter his opponent.

At this point, both sides’ health bars were at the bottom. He was just one move away from—

“Buzz—”

Accompanied by a sudden vibration, an incoming call from an unknown number popped up at the top of the phone screen, abruptly covering more than half of the battle screen.

Most likely a telemarketing or scam call.

In the instant that thought crossed his mind, his opponent seized the opening and used an ultimate move to blast Yin Xu’s character to death.

“Tch.”

Without waiting for the “Game Over” animation to finish, Yin Xu impatiently swiped to answer, prepared to argue three hundred rounds with the stinky salesman who had delivered himself to his door.

“Hello, who is this?”

“It’s me, Pan Zheshuai!”

The person on the other end introduced himself loudly, his voice carrying a few hints of unreasonable drunkenness.

“Old Yin, what time is it? Where are you?”

Hearing the incredibly familiar tone from the other end, Yin Xu froze for a moment and pulled the phone away to check the number.

Fine, he forgot to change the contact name.

But when he saved this number a few months ago, he truly hadn’t expected an old classmate he hadn’t contacted in nearly ten years to actually call one day.

“Oh, Old Pan. Something up?”

Pan Zheshuai was clearly choked up by this question, reminding him quite speechlessly:

“What do you think, Young Master Yin? You couldn’t have forgotten that today is our high school class reunion, could you? It’s the tenth anniversary of graduation! You actually stood us up!”

Yin Xu was stunned. Looking at the date displayed on his phone, September 10, 2023, he suddenly remembered this was indeed a thing.

It had actually been ten years since graduation…

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and casually offered an excuse that seemed entirely insincere:

“Uh, sorry about that. I’ve been busy lately and forgot.”

“Yin Xu, you bastard! As a legendary figure of Luhe No. 3 High School, if you aren’t here, this reunion has no soul! Do you know how many girls came tonight just for you?”

“Get lost, stop making fun of me.” Yin Xu gave a dry laugh, not daring to say much more for a moment.

Awkwardness was a certainty, but more than that was a guilty conscience.

Because if he were to be honest, it wasn’t that Yin Xu forgot about the reunion; he had intentionally ignored it.

The reason was simple: he didn’t want to go. He felt it was embarrassing.

In Yin Xu’s view, a class reunion was ostensibly a place for old acquaintances to connect and reminisce about the past, but in reality, it had long since mutated into a social gala for comparing current statuses.

Unfortunately, over these years, he had mixed quite poorly—one could even describe it as absolutely disastrous. He had zero capital to use for comparison.

So when he accidentally ran into Pan Zheshuai a few months ago and heard him mention this year’s reunion, insisting he make time to attend, Yin Xu had agreed readily on the surface, but in his heart, he thought:

“Only a ghost would go.”

It’s not like at the reunion, when others say they are now executives at some big tech company, Yin Xu could slap the table and say: “Ha! I’m familiar with your company—I deliver food there every day!”

It wasn’t that the profession of a delivery guy was particularly shameful, but rather that this identity felt somewhat out of place on Yin Xu.

Everyone used to say Yin Xu was born with a lucky star.

His father was the wealthiest entrepreneur in Luhe City, and his mother was a young lady from a prestigious family. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Even if he just sat around waiting to die, the Yin family fortune was enough for him to live off for three lifetimes.

Yin Xu had thus spent over a decade as a salted fish young master, the notorious ‘Little Overlord’ known to everyone at Luhe No. 3 High School.

But since his senior year, when his father was imprisoned for a crime and committed suicide in prison shortly after, Yin Xu’s originally comfortable and glamorous life ceased to exist overnight.

The “Young Master Yin” and “Legendary Figure” in Pan Zheshuai’s mouth hadn’t had a cent’s worth of connection to the current him for a long time.

He was now just a miserable, destitute worker.

“I’m really not joking, so many people were asking about you today!”

Pan Zheshuai’s voice over the phone pulled Yin Xu’s drifting thoughts back:

“Old Yin, your transfer back then was so sudden that no one had time to say goodbye properly. You stopped using that Q/Q number as soon as you said you would, and all these years we haven’t even had a way to contact you. Plus, you don’t even seem to come back to Luhe for New Year’s. It’s like you fucking evaporated from the earth!”

“If it weren’t for you coming back to sweep the graves this Qingming Festival and me bumping into you at the florist, were you planning on never contacting us brothers for the rest of your life?”

Yin Xu fell into a guilty silence for three seconds.

That was exactly what he had planned.

Having ended up in such a ghostly state, it was best to remain strangers until death.

“What are you talking about?”

He gave a light cough, moving the topic along unobtrusively.

“Are you guys finished eating?”

“Pretty much done, I came out to get some air.”

As Pan Zheshuai spoke, he lit a cigarette.

“I have to say, you really have a lot of ‘face.’ When I teased in our class group chat that you were coming to the reunion this year, it immediately lured out a bunch of lurkers. Several old classmates who hadn’t shown up in years came this year.”

“Like Xiao Tian—do you still remember Tian Yumeng? Our old class Chinese rep. The one who liked you in high school. She messaged me privately several times asking if you were actually coming. I reckon the girl still has lingering feelings for you. And—”

Pan Zheshuai listed off several more names in a row, to which Yin Xu shamefully replied: “…I don’t remember.”

“Tch, figures. Anyway, you used to receive eight hundred love letters a day. It’s normal that you don’t remember so many people.”

Pan Zheshuai had probably truly drunk too much. Already a bit of a chatterbox, he was now rambling incessantly, wishing he could summarize and report the current situations of all their old classmates to Yin Xu.

“We were just complaining earlier, saying it was really bad luck to be in the same school as a handsome guy like you. Back then, half the girls in school had a crush on you, and the other half had a crush on that ‘dull gourd’ Shen Que. You two basically monopolized the Luhe No. 3 High School ‘puppy love’ market. How the hell were we supposed to survive!”

“Shen Que?”

“Yeah, you should at least remember him, right? The guy who used to rank first in the grade every single time.”

Yin Xu thought for a moment: “Oh, I seem to have a bit of an impression. He ranked first, and I also ranked first—last place, that is.”

“Right, right, right. You two had the most stable grades in the whole school.”

Pan Zheshuai was amused by these words.

“Doing well in studies really makes a difference. Look at how well he’s doing now—CEO of a listed tech company! He’s not even in the same class as us anymore!”

Yin Xu casually followed up: “Is that so? Which company?”

“Xingque! The company that put out a bunch of blockbuster games. A few of my friends play their game ‘X-Shadow’ every single day!”

“Ho—”

—ly shit?

Yin Xu was so surprised he nearly bit his own tongue.

A game as badass as ‘X-Shadow’ was actually made by Shen Que’s company?

He was just playing it five minutes ago with a vengeance…

While Yin Xu was secretly marveling, he heard Pan Zheshuai continue:

“By the way, I was really surprised that Shen Que came today. This is the first time he’s ever attended our reunion. After so many years, he doesn’t seem to have changed much—still as handsome as ever, it’s annoying. He doesn’t talk to anyone after arriving, just keeps staring at the door. Even while eating, he had a cold face. If I didn’t know better, I’d think someone in high school owed him several hundred million and forgot to pay it back.”

“If it weren’t because today is his birthday and everyone insisted he stay to eat cake before leaving, he probably wouldn’t have wanted to stay for even a minute longer.”

“You guys all remember his birthday?” Yin Xu was surprised.

“Hah, isn’t today Teachers’ Day? We also invited our homeroom teacher, Old Tang. She was the one who told us.”

Pan Zheshuai explained.

“I’m seriously impressed. Shen Que really is Old Tang’s favorite student. Otherwise, who the fuck would remember after ten years that this guy’s birthday and Teachers’ Day are on the same day—”

“A108! Hey, the cake you’re waiting for is ready!”

The sudden shout from the clerk gave Yin Xu a start. He quickly turned his head and responded, “Okay, okay! Coming!”

Pan Zheshuai followed up by asking over the phone, “Old Yin, who are you talking to?”

“No one, you heard wrong. I have things to do, so I won’t talk more. Hanging up now.”

Yin Xu hurriedly hung up the phone, fearing Pan Zheshuai would discover something was amiss.

He settled his thoughts, went to the front counter to pick up the 10-plus inch cake, and was about to leave when the clerk called him back: “Hey! You forgot the card!”

“Oh, right.”

Yin Xu hurried back to take the birthday card handed over by the clerk, and accidentally caught a glimpse of the content written on it:

“To:

Student Shen Que, Happy 28th Birthday! May you have a bright future!

Respectfully, from all students of Class 7, Class of 2013, Luhe No. 3 High School.”

In that instant, it was as if a bolt of lightning had struck Yin Xu’s forehead, leaving his brain completely blank and buzzing.

Shen Que.

The famous number one in the grade from Luhe No. 3 High School.

A minute ago, this name had appeared in his casual chat with Pan Zheshuai, and now it was resting quietly on the birthday card in his hand.

All the fragmented pieces of information connected instantly, making Yin Xu realize that things had taken a terrible turn:

He was going to deliver a birthday cake to this old classmate at their tenth-anniversary class reunion in the capacity of a delivery guy.

“To hell with this.”

As Yin Xu rode his small electric scooter toward the order destination following the navigation’s instructions, his mind was a mess.

What was even worse was that the dark clouds overhead finally couldn’t hold the rainwater anymore. The sky suddenly seemed to crack open into countless fissures, and with a booming sound of thunder, a torrential rain poured down, frightening the pedestrians on the street into immediately fleeing to the eaves of various shops for shelter.

Damn, why did it have to be at this time?

While Yin Xu raced down the road in a pathetic state against the wind and rain, he cursed the heavens for being so uncooperative.

If he had to go see his old classmates like a drowned rat, he would rather just die.

Whether it was because the wind was too cold or the rain was too chilling, Yin Xu felt his body trembling uncontrollably. His knuckles gripping the handlebars turned slightly white, and his stomach was churning, with waves of twitching pain.

Rainwater hit his face continuously, and Yin Xu’s senses gradually grew numb.

Red and green lights flickered interchangeably in the curtain of rain; he could hardly distinguish them. Suddenly, a sharp honking sound reached his ears!

“Beep—!!!”

He instinctively turned to look, and in the extreme white light crashing toward him, he closed his eyes…

Was he… killed in a car accident?

He didn’t know if it was lucky or unlucky.

It is said that in the few seconds before death, a person experiences a revolving lantern.

Yin Xu waited obediently for a moment, but saw nothing. There was only a peaceful, pure white before his eyes.

It was like an answer key that just said “Omitted.”

He thought indignantly:

“Damn, even the transition animation for these last few seconds is omitted for me. This stingy God really knows how to save on the production budget for my life.”

But on second thought, there was nothing worth looking back on in this shitty life of his.

It was better to drink the Soup of Forgetfulness and be reincarnated early.

In any case, he wasn’t married, had no partner, and no savings—nothing to worry about.

It was just a pity for the little cat he kept at home. It would become a stray without a master again…

Buzz—

His drifting thoughts came to an abrupt halt, his brain like an old television that had suddenly stopped playing.

A series of calls, sounding both far and near, gradually reached his ears, as if covered by a blurred sound filter, making them seem not quite real:

“Boss Yin!”

“Old Yin!”

“Yin Xu!”

Yin Xu heard his name and wanted to answer but couldn’t make a sound.

He only felt his forehead throbbing with pain, his eyelids too heavy to lift, his throat parched, and his face burning as if it were being toasted by something.

Where was this?

He couldn’t be receiving punishment from evil ghosts in hell right now, could he?

“Shit! What do we do if he won’t wake up?” someone was saying.

“It shouldn’t be that bad, right? It was just a broken soda can hitting his head and making him faint—it was even empty. When did Old Yin become so unable to take a hit?”

Another person said.

“There’s no other way. It looks like we can only perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation! Song Xingyun, hurry up!”

“No, no, no, I don’t dare! Boss Yin will definitely slaughter me when he wakes up!”

“You coward!” the person scolded. “Tch, things have come to this. For the sake of my brother, I can only sacrifice the first kiss of my life!”

At the critical moment, Yin Xu finally struggled to open his eyes.

And then he saw a human face getting closer and closer. Without a word, Yin Xu was so scared that he threw a punch with all his might.

“Ow, holy shit!”

The person he hit sat on the ground clutching his nose, complaining indignantly: “Yin Xu, is this how you treat your savior?”

Yin Xu lay on the ground, his consciousness gradually becoming clear.

The rough cement ground beneath him made his back hurt, and the bright sun overhead made it difficult to open his eyes.

He could only squint, trying to distinguish the appearance of the person in front of him.

This youth, who looked about sixteen or seventeen, was sporting a hedgehog head styled with who-knows-how-much hair gel. A few strands of colored hair were flashily dyed at his forehead—green, blue, and red mixed together, as if a Tony had accidentally knocked over a palette and smeared it on. It was very visually impactful.

Seeing Yin Xu staring at him in a daze, this person sensed something was wrong and leaned in to ask, “Old Yin, do you still recognize who I am?”

Yin Xu: “…Pan Zheshuai?”

Pan Zheshuai was overjoyed, but before he could respond, he heard Yin Xu’s lips move again: “You look so damn ugly in death.”

Pan Zheshuai: “…”

“Get lost. I’m only seventeen, death is a long way off. Don’t you curse me!”

As Pan Zheshuai spoke, he raised his hand and very proudly smoothed his hedgehog hair that pointed straight toward the sky.

“Besides, even if I, Pan the Great Handsome, were dead, I’d be the handsomest ghost in the entire universe.”

“Barf.”

On the side, Song Xingyun made an exaggerated gesture of covering his mouth to show disgust.

“I think you’d clearly be the thickest-skinned ghost. Right, Boss Yin?”

Yin Xu didn’t respond.

He fell into deep shock as he looked at the two people in front of him, who were both incredibly familiar and yet strange.

Pan Zheshuai and Song Xingyun.

His two closest brothers from his high school days were currently wearing the never-changing sports uniform of Luhe No. 3 High School and sporting the Family of Love hairstyles that were full of the era’s vibe. They appeared before him like a magic trick, looking exactly like the green youths in his memory.

At this moment, Yin Xu didn’t even have the heart to mock the pair’s bizarre looks. He only felt that everything before him was exceptionally wrong and unreal.

A subtle realization was quietly surging into his heart. He looked at the two of them and confirmed, “What year… is it now?”

Pan Zheshuai adjusted his hair and replied, not understanding why he was asked: “2011.”

“September 1st,” Song Xingyun added.

Hearing this, Yin Xu suddenly sat up and, without a word, gave Pan Zheshuai’s cheek a hard pinch.

“Ahhh, it hurts, hurts, hurts, hurts!”

Pan Zheshuai let out a pathetic scream.

“Holy shit, this feeling…”

Yin Xu’s mood was complicated for a moment.

This wasn’t a dream, he had really been reborn!