Meng Ting had long been an outcast. She and Shu Lan hadn’t spoken in ages, and Shu Papa knew they would never reconcile.
After washing up, Meng Ting returned to her room to sleep. The summer night was dry, and without air conditioning, she opened the window. After reviewing vocabulary for a while, she went to bed.
A gentle breeze wafted in from outside. Meng Ting hadn’t dreamed in a long time, but tonight she did.
She dreamed of her past life, not long after being named the school beauty. It was a Friday, and she was the last to leave the classroom after finishing her duties.
The leaves of the phoenix trees rustled in the wind. Another girl who had been cleaning with her nudged her arm. “Meng Ting, look outside. He’s been watching you. Do you know him?”
Meng Ting turned her head. Outside their classroom corridor stood a silver-haired youth.
It was November then. He wore black diamond earrings and a leather jacket. His lip bore a faint bruise, clearly from a recent fight. He was not a student of Seventh High.
Meng Ting didn’t recognize him. Their eyes met, and he curved his lips into a slight smile.
Meng Ting turned away, rising on her toes to clean the edges of the blackboard. She softly replied to the girl, “I don’t know him.”
The following week, while waiting for the bus under the elm tree, she saw him again.
This time, he wasn’t alone.
As he exited the neighboring vocational school, a group of boys trailed behind him.
The winter air was biting. He lazily twirled his car keys around his index finger.
One of the boys asked, “Ren Ge, where are we playing today?”
Jiang Ren, his other hand in his pocket, replied nonchalantly, “Wherever.”
Soon after, he drove out of the underground parking lot in a silver luxury car.
Almost all the students at the bus stop turned to look.
“Wow, that’s Jiang Ren!”
“The one who hit a teacher when he first arrived?”
“Shen Yuqing’s boyfriend?”
“Yeah, that’s him!”
Meng Ting glanced up. It was the first time she’d heard his name from others. She looked on briefly, like any onlooker, then averted her gaze.
Autumn elm leaves fell at her feet.
She stood quietly with her light blue backpack, waiting for the bus.
He Junming, driving past, casually glanced at the bus stop. “Wow, that girl is stunning.”
Jiang Ren turned to look, immediately spotting Meng Ting under the elm tree.
He Junming’s eyes lit up. “I’m going to introduce myself.”
Jiang Ren said flatly, “You’re not allowed.”
“Why not, Ren Ge?”
The boys all looked over. Someone realized, “Isn’t that Meng Ting, the school beauty from Seventh High?”
Jiang Ren was silent for a while, then dropped a bombshell: “Because I like her.”
He Junming was stunned for a long time. “No way, when did you ever meet her?”
Last week, when he went to Seventh High to deal with the aftermath of a fight.
In the twilight, she was wiping the balcony, her long lashes lowered in concentration.
He had paid compensation and should have left, but suddenly found himself unable to move.
Then, as if bewitched, he watched her do her duties for a long time.
The group of boys all thought Jiang Ren was joking.
However, that night, he broke up with Shen Yuqing. She cried her heart out, while others whispered and joked.
Shen Yuqing made a scene, even trying to hit him. Jiang Ren gripped her wrist, his tone cold: “Don’t act like it’s the end of the world. I never even touched you.”
News of their breakup spread like wildfire the next day, but outsiders were unaware of the reason and left to speculate.
Meng Ting’s third encounter with him was during road construction. Unable to take the bus, she rode a bicycle borrowed from Shu Papa. The silver-haired youth stopped her with a smile.
The autumn wind was cool. Recalling the rumors about him, she felt uneasy.
She didn’t even know him.
The surroundings were quiet.
She was afraid of such troublemakers.
The bruise on his lip had faded. He rested his hand on her bicycle’s handlebar. With a slightly roguish smile, he said, “Hey, want to be my girlfriend?”
Meng Ting thought she had misheard.
She widened her eyes, looking at him as if she’d seen a ghost.
He said, “I’m not joking. Are you in or not?”
She shook her head, her lips pale.
“Do you know who I am?”
Meng Ting nodded slightly.
He seemed quite famous, having hit a teacher upon arrival. The whole Seventh High knew about him. The only son of the Jiang family was cast out for some unknown transgression.
His name seemed to be Jiang Ren.
He was somewhat surprised that she knew of him. “Give me a reason.”
She tiptoed, pushing the bicycle back a few steps.
Her delicate lips moved slightly: “I don’t like you.”
Those few words were faint. She hadn’t even looked at him properly throughout. Meng Ting rode away on her bicycle.
Jiang Ren watched her retreating figure for a long time, then cursed softly under his breath.
She had seen him three times, and not once had she formed a good impression.
Fighting, poorly behaved.
Dating early, unfaithful.
Before her eye injury, Meng Ting was used to confessions. In her eyes, Jiang Ren was just a suitor worse than the average person.
Later, he often watched her from afar.
When she waited for the bus home when their school climbed Wangu Mountain. On rainy days when she forgot her umbrella, an extra one would appear in front of the classroom. Around the umbrella, there were faint ashes from cigarettes.
Meng Ting didn’t touch it. She took off her school uniform, covered her head with it, and ran through the puddles.
The rain wet her bangs.
The youth cornered her at the bus stop.
He was irritated: “Why didn’t you use it? Look down on me?”
Meng Ting found it perplexing. Water droplets slid down her eyelashes. Fearing infection in her eyes, she closed them and gently wiped away the drops. “It’s not that.”
That year, she was particularly frank. She said, “Stop following me. I won’t date you.”
His eyes were pitch black: “What’s wrong with me? Tell me, I’ll change.”
Meng Ting didn’t take him seriously.
He wanted a new toy, and she didn’t want to be his new toy. It was that simple.
Meng Ting never really thought he was serious.
Her most vivid memory was of him chasing after the bus she was on, running for a long time, his gaze obstinate.
It was drizzling outside, raindrops covering the glass, blurring her vision. She didn’t look back at him.
The bus finally left his figure far behind.
On the last day of summer vacation in her second year of high school, Shu Lan held her hand shyly and said, “Sister, I’ll tell you a secret.”
Shu Lan said, “I like a boy in our grade. His name is Jiang Ren.”
Meng Ting frowned: “He’s not good.”
Shu Lan asked her, “Do you think so?”
Meng Ting nodded.
Shu Lan pleaded, “Then sister, please don’t talk to him, okay?” Meng Ting nodded. That year, Shu Lan was the most important person in her heart.
And Jiang Ren was nothing but a troublemaker from the vocational school.
She kept her word.
Later in her life, she had no more interactions with Jiang Ren.
Meng Ting focused on getting into a good university, but in her third year of high school, a big fire broke out at home. It was during naptime, and Shu Lan was trapped inside. Meng Ting rushed back to save her without hesitation. In the end, she was burned by the fire, while Shu Lan escaped unharmed.
When she later woke up in the hospital and slowly recovered, Jiang Ren had already returned to B City.
Meng Ting received many flowers and fruits from visitors who came to see her.
Among them were several boys who had once openly or secretly admired her.
Teenage emotions are the most tender and simple. She no longer had her pretty face, but still smiled bravely, thanking them.
She never saw Jiang Ren again, until her death.
So Meng Ting never thought he was serious.
He had made a harmless joke, and she hadn’t been fooled. Some loved her flower-like, delicate face, but no one liked a face with half of it horrifically burned.
In the years that followed, she forgot about him. She only heard that he had inherited the enormous Junyang Group, but had become a murderer.
Until she lived again, and Jiang Ren reappeared in her life.
Passionate as fire, obsessive, and domineering.
This dream was so long, encompassing all her memories of Jiang Ren. When daylight came and Meng Ting woke up, she was still a bit dazed.
Her previous life had been too brief. Jiang Ren had been like a dragonfly skimming the water, light and fleeting, without any weight. She didn’t know why she had dreamed of him.
It wasn’t fully light yet. Meng Ting hugged her knees and zoned out for a while.
She felt her heart was strange. Meng Ting felt its beating. For some reason, she always felt that in her previous life, she had never really known Jiang Ren.
She vaguely realized that Jiang Ren might not have been joking.
His gaze when he looked at her was passionate. When she casually glanced back, he would involuntarily smile. He prepared an umbrella for her, then anxiously waited at the bus stop. He hoped she would use his umbrella, yet exploded when she came in the rain.
Later, he chased her for an entire street, shouting in anger and unwillingness.
Through the bus window and the light rain, she hadn’t heard anything.
Meng Ting suddenly wanted to know what he had said then. Why did he leave H City, and later, when he had money and power and everything, why did he become a murderer?
She patted her cheeks, trying to wake herself up. None of that could happen again. She could only guess, never knowing the truth.
Meng Ting got dressed and went downstairs to buy breakfast. On Monday, she went to school, and it was also the day to tutor Jiang Ren.
He wasn’t suited for studying.
When he handed in his homework, Meng Ting was dumbfounded in classroom 101.
She looked over each question in front of him. Out of more than ten questions, she finally gave him two small red checks. She didn’t use crosses; the untouched parts were all wrong.
Jiang Ren: “…”
Meng Ting wasn’t angry. She helped him find the reasons, pointing at the second question: “We did a similar one together, do you remember?”
Jiang Ren remembered nothing.
Meng Ting explained it to him again.
He frowned, listening attentively.
However, due to his poor foundation, many parts were unclear. Meng Ting even went back to fill in his middle school knowledge gaps. Even Jiang Ren himself didn’t know how much he didn’t understand.
As a result, when the evening self-study ended, it started raining.
Meng Ting looked out the window, strangely reminded of that dream. The cigarette ashes next to that umbrella, and him chasing her in the rain, shouting himself hoarse.
Summer was rainy, and the weather changed in an instant.
Cheers could be faintly heard from the teaching building: “It’s raining!”
Jiang Ren looked at the rain outside, his thoughts stirring.
“Did you bring an umbrella?”
Meng Ting hadn’t. It had been sunny during the day; who would have thought it would suddenly pour at night?
Accompanied by thunder and lightning.
Usually in such situations, the school would let day students go home early. That’s why they were so happy. Jiang Ren asked, “Then how will you get back?”
Meng Ting said, “I’ll wait for the rain to lighten up. The bus stop isn’t far.”
But when the dismissal bell rang, the night sky was still lit up by flashes of lightning, and the rain hadn’t lessened.
Meng Ting was truly troubled now.
It was summer, and unlike autumn, she didn’t have an outer garment. She felt that last night’s dream was so unlucky. It was like a crow’s dream.
Jiang Ren’s phone buzzed. He took it out and looked.
He Junming had sent a message: [Ren Ge, are you at Seventh High? Want me to bring your car over?]
They weren’t at school, but out having fun.
Jiang Ren’s fingers flew: [Don’t bother]
After the lights in the teaching building gradually went out, he said to Meng Ting, “Let’s go, little teacher. School’s out.”
Meng Ting knew waiting any longer wasn’t an option. Shu Yang couldn’t find her, and Shu Papa was likely still at work.
She had no choice but to follow Jiang Ren out of classroom 101.
Jiang Ren locked the door, then looked at her and started taking off his T-shirt.
Meng Ting vaguely guessed what he was up to and felt her scalp tingle: “What are you doing!”
He clicked his tongue: “Taking you home, of course.”
He only had this one piece of clothing.
Jiang Ren’s movements were swift. With the T-shirt off, the young man’s muscular physique was revealed. His arm lines were powerful and beautiful, and he had six-pack abs.
His waistline narrowed down, yet looked full of strength.
Jiang Ren put the shirt over her head: “Alright, let’s go.”
Meng Ting’s face turned red: “I don’t want this. Can’t you put your clothes back on?” She tried to pull the shirt off her head.
He held it down, not allowing her to remove it, very domineering: “What, you’re disgusted? I haven’t smoked in a long time, and I change my clothes every day. It’s clean.”
Meng Ting said, “No, I’m not disgusted.” The shirt had his scent, not fragrant, but full of pheromones.
Why did she have to cover herself with his shirt and run with him in the rain? It was so silly. The shirt could only cover her hair; her body would still get wet.
He was taller than her. When she looked up, she saw his sturdy chest.
Wasn’t he embarrassed?
Meng Ting tried to reason with him: “This is useless. The rain is too heavy; we’ll still get wet.”
He pressed down on her fidgeting hands: “Damn it, can’t you just listen?”
He covered her little head with the shirt, leaving only her eyes visible. Meng Ting thought you were the crazy one.
He growled, “I said it works, so it works.” Then he pulled her along as they ran.
Meng Ting was furious. After just a few steps, the shirt indeed got wet, clinging to her waistline. Lightning illuminated the sky. Meng Ting wanted to beat this idiot: “I told you it wouldn’t work, but you wouldn’t listen. Let me go.”
Jiang Ren wouldn’t let go. Rainwater flowed down from his shoulders.
His grip on her palm was scorching hot.
He still remembered how he had quit smoking because of a jacket that smelled of cigarettes.
Around them was only the sound of raindrops, yet he felt utterly elated.
He had done it.
He didn’t want to smoke anymore.
The clean, smoke-free T-shirt on her body was the result of his enduring cravings and irritation. Quitting smoking wasn’t easy, just like his illness, but at this moment, he believed he could slowly get better.
As soon as she got close, Meng Ting kept struggling. Her voice was laced with frustration. “Don’t pull me! I can walk by myself.” Annoyed, she added, “If you don’t let go, you’ll be doing thirty math problems next week.”
Jiang Ren burst out laughing. Thirty math problems? Damn.
He turned around, and suddenly his bare chest was right in front of her. He was standing so close that her ears turned bright red. Quickly, she tugged her clothes down and covered her eyes.
“You think I want to go to college, Meng Ting?”
Isn’t that the case?
In the darkness, the air was filled with his scent.
“I don’t like school. I don’t like tutoring. I don’t like studying. And I don’t want to go to college.”
She blinked, confused. She had been well-behaved her whole life, so it was hard for her to understand why he disliked everything. If he didn’t like it, why was he still studying?
He tugged the clothes covering her head, revealing her shy, watery eyes under the night sky. With a smile in his eyes, he teased, “Those questions you assigned, I don’t know how to do any of them.”
She was a bit lost. If he didn’t know how to do them, why did he always seem so focused? His homework was always filled out. She had even thought before that he was pitiful—how could someone be so slow to learn? No matter how much she taught, he never seemed to get it.
Jiang Ren chuckled, “Do you know why I spend hours scribbling nonsense every day?”
Meng Ting’s heart pounded.
Raindrops wet her eyelashes, and he gently wiped them away. “Because by finishing it, I get to see you again next time.”