Who Would Fall in Love After Being Reborn?

TL: Etude

The following day, in the afternoon, Jiang Qin returned from the Polytechnic University. Without even stopping by his dormitory, he headed straight for the teaching building.

The campus beauty contest there was gradually getting on track and didn’t need his close supervision anymore. All it took was a group of enthusiastic otakus waving flags and cheering, like arrows released from their bows or bullets fired from their barrels, flying towards their predetermined target for a while.

However, studying was a more challenging task; it required his personal attention.

After all, you can’t just leave your brain on the desk and expect it to learn on its own.

The human brain, it seems, is still not quite mature.

Fortunately, the first year didn’t involve too many specialized courses. Instead, there were more general education classes, which is why Jiang Qin dared to skip classes, skirting on the edge of the rules.

The first class in the afternoon was Microeconomics, a combined class for both the third and fourth sections.

The classroom was noisy before the lesson began.

Groups of students chatted in twos and threes, gossiping about who confessed to whom, which celebrity was holding a concert, or commenting on how white a girl’s legs looked, dismissing it as just leggings.

This was typical college life, where students discussed mundane matters and only paid attention to those around them, unlike Jiang Qin, whose life was hectic, busier than even the university president.

At this moment, amidst the crowd, there was a girl who seemed out of place.

She wore a white hoodie and sat near the window, her eyes bright and calm, quietly indifferent to the outside world, flipping through her textbook in a seemingly absent-minded manner.

Sunlight streamed in from the window, casting a patch on her desk and another on the floor.

Many boys around her chatted about their own topics, yet their glances often fell on her, stealing a look before quickly looking away, feeling a secret satisfaction.

Jiang Qin entered from the back door of the classroom and quietly sat behind her. From his angle, slightly tilting his head to the right, he could see her smooth, jade-like face and delicate, curly eyelashes.

To others, her cool demeanor was perceived differently by him – as a kind of naive and silly cuteness.

“Look, Jiang Qin is back.”

“They really broke up, not sitting together anymore. The rumors are true!”

“How could he dare to do that to Feng Nanshu, who’s so pretty!”

“Men are like that. No matter how beautiful a girl is, they’ll get tired of her one day!”

Jiang Qin frowned slightly, thinking to himself that even when he was not around, there were absurd rumors about him everywhere.

It felt like a web author who usually worked from home and decided to go out one day, only to be surrounded by neighbors asking if he was the rumored freeloader.

It was annoying. He was actually working hard to support his family! (lmao Author talking about himself here)

Meanwhile, Feng Nanshu seemed to catch her name in the chatter. She looked up attentively for a moment, then, realizing her name was no longer being mentioned, quietly lowered her head back to her book.

“Feng Nanshu, I bet you were just thinking about Jiang Qin. How about a dinner bet?!”

Gao Wenhui snapped Feng Nanshu’s book shut, her gaze intense as she stared at the beautiful face. Lately, she enjoyed this game, because with the male protagonist absent, they needed something else to tease about for a balanced diet.

“I wasn’t. I was reading.”

Feng Nanshu sat upright, her cherry-red lips moving as she denied harboring thoughts of him.

“Then tell me what was on the page you were just reading. Just a sentence will do. If you do, I’ll believe you.”

Gao Wenhui narrowed her eyes, her piercing gaze as if seeing through everything.

“…”

Feng Nanshu paused, realizing she couldn’t recall, then grudgingly pulled her book back and started flipping through it.

In the activities undertaken by the person Jiang Qin, all actions are aimed at achieving the greatest benefit at the least Jiang Qin cost.

Feng Nanshu appeared somewhat bewildered, a trace of confusion flickering in her eyes.

Why was Jiang Qin’s name written all over this book?

“Wenhui, I’ll treat you to dinner later,” Feng Nanshu offered.

“No, unless you admit you’re thinking about him, even if I jump from here, I won’t eat your dinner,” Gao Wenhui retorted.

Overhearing their conversation, Jiang Qin couldn’t help but reach out and gently pat Feng Nanshu’s shoulder.

Feng Nanshu, with a puzzled look in her eyes, turned around. Upon seeing Jiang Qin, she seemed momentarily startled. Her beautiful eyes blinked lightly, and then the corners of her mouth gradually lifted, brightening her gaze like the clear skies after a rain.

“Jiang Qin, let’s go for a walk.”

“After class.”

Feng Nanshu pursed her lips, a hint of stubbornness flashing in her eyes: “I haven’t gone out with you for a walk in days.”

Jiang Qin patted the empty seat beside him, his eyes showing a tenderness he himself hadn’t noticed.

At this moment, Gao Wenhui, lying on her desk, was gazing blankly at the blackboard, thinking of another way to probe into Feng Nanshu’s stormy inner world hidden beneath her calm exterior. But when she turned back, they were gone.

Huh?

She looked around and suddenly noticed that Jiang Qin had arrived.

Feng Nanshu, true to her naive nature, immediately followed him and sat in the back row with him.

“Jiang Qin, you still remember to come back, huh? Do you know Feng Nanshu has been soulless these past few days?” Gao Wenhui, always ready to stand up for others, commented.

Jiang Qin turned to Feng Nanshu: “Little rich lady, where did your soul go?”

“It went for a stroll,” Feng Nanshu responded, half-jokingly.

“With whom?”

Feng Nanshu lifted her gaze: “With a boy who climbs trees like a bear.”

“?????”

“Exactly, that’s what I want to see, sweet and sour. Hey, handsome guy in the back, let’s swap places. I want a direct confrontation.”

Gao Wenhui, excitedly banging on the desk, stood up and swapped seats with Cao Guangyu, who was sitting behind Jiang Qin.

Cao had arrived after Jiang Qin, so Jiang Qin was unaware of his presence behind him.

Moreover, Cao Guangyu originally didn’t want to change seats, but hearing the word ‘handsome’ made it hard for him to refuse. He came over quietly, pulling at his collar, looking very low-key, without the arrogance typical of the unremarkable Young Master Cao.

Jiang Qin was puzzled by his silence and even more so by his low profile.

Being called handsome and still keeping quiet?

Typically, he would have loudly responded, “What did you call me? I didn’t hear it, say it again, louder!”

“Old Cao, why didn’t you say something when you arrived?”

“Hello, Old Jiang,” Cao Guangyu replied perfunctorily. “You haven’t been back to the dorm for so long, everyone thought you were dead.”

Jiang Qin spat in his direction, his attention then turning to Cao’s hand pulling at his collar: “What’s with your neck? Why are you covering it? Did a zombie bite you?”

“It’s nothing, just a stiff neck. I put a plaster on it.”

Jiang Qin didn’t believe a word, knowing that a plaster didn’t need to be hidden under a collar: “Show me, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“You promise?” Cao Guangyu hesitated.

“I promise.”

Cao Guangyu fell silent for a moment, then lowered his collar, revealing several similarly sized red patches on the left side of his neck.

These patches were distinctive, mostly narrow at the ends and wider in the middle, resembling lip marks.

Jiang Qin held his breath: “You got a girlfriend?”

“Um…” Cao Guangyu showed the shyness unique to an innocent boy.

“Damn, I’ve only been gone a few days, and you’ve rocketed ahead so fast?”

“It’s just how it happened, some things can’t be controlled. Don’t tell anyone, Old Jiang. Ren Ziqiang and Old Zhou still don’t know,” Cao Guangyu said nonchalantly.

Jiang Qin couldn’t understand, knowing too well what kind of person Cao was.

If Cao had a girlfriend, he would certainly be boasting about it everywhere: “Look, I’ve got a girlfriend now, do you?”

But Cao Guangyu’s unusual reticence seemed suspicious, as if he had something he dared not reveal.

Jiang Qin considered the possibility that Cao had faked the marks himself to show off but was now feeling guilty and hesitant to flaunt it.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell them, but you have to keep it to yourself too,” Jiang Qin reassured him.

Meanwhile, Feng Nanshu, who had been somewhat clueless all this while, suddenly looked alarmed: “Jiang Qin, how did this happen?”

Jiang Qin coughed and joked: “It’s a disease that affects people who constantly think about love. Some people are reserved, so it appears later, but for some fierce ones, it happens on the first day.”

What nonsense!

Gao Wenhui, listening from behind, was baffled by Jiang Qin’s outrageous explanation. Though she wanted to object, she couldn’t find a flaw in his logic. Indeed, some showed signs late while others were swift, nothing technically incorrect there.

After a while, Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao also arrived in the classroom, always timing their entrance to the minute, as if coming a minute early would be a loss.

“Old Jiang? You’re back?”

Upon seeing Jiang Qin, the two greeted him warmly and then sat next to Cao Guangyu, bombarding him with questions about the quality of beauties at University of Science and Technology.

Jiang Qin responded without a hint of emotion but realized something.

Cao had come to class alone, indicating he hadn’t left the dorm with Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao. This meant he must have just come from a date and directly headed to the classroom.

So, the kiss marks on his neck weren’t self-inflicted but genuinely acquired.

Damn, the first one in the dorm to break free from singlehood was Cao Guangyu.

But it was strange; why wasn’t he showing off?

“Old Cao, what’s with your neck?” Zhou Chao also noticed the mark.

Cao Guangyu coughed: “You have to promise not to tell anyone.”

“No problem, we won’t tell a soul.”

Cao hesitated for a moment before lowering his collar again.

Jiang Qin laughed, thinking, “That’s the real Cao Guangyu, never one to hide his light under a bushel. He just changed his tactics!”

Seeing the envious looks from Zhou Chao and Ren Ziqiang, a hint of pride flashed in Cao’s eyes before he modestly covered his neck again.

This was probably a case of ‘you’re influenced by the company you keep.’

Jiang Qin knew Cao had indeed learned a thing or two about showing off from him.

“Which department is your girlfriend from? Bring her out for us to meet!” they urged.

Cao Guangyu pondered: “Let’s have dinner together in a couple of days, and you all can meet her then.”

“As if you need to tell us, now that you’re together, you must treat us to a meal,” Zhou Chao said, his enthusiasm for free meals evident.

Meanwhile, Feng Nanshu quietly observed the kiss marks on Cao Guangyu’s neck, then glanced at Jiang Qin’s neck, her expression becoming thoughtful. (oh dam)

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