Chapter 62: The mysterious Rebirth

Fu Cheng returned more than an hour later. Having first sent Song Ni back earlier, Huang Yaming and Xu Tingsheng were sitting smoking by the roadside as they waited for him.

“How was it?” Huang Yaming asked Fu Cheng.

“Ms Fang initially said that the song was pretty good. Still, the coaxing of a ‘Fairy Tale’ would only work on young girls, not her.”

“What happened after that?”

“After that, what more was there that could I do? I apologised, then sent her back.”

Huang Yaming directly grabbed Xu Tingsheng and left, saying to him, “Let’s go. We shouldn’t hang out with this fool anymore; I’m worried that that disease of his might be contagious.”

Fu Cheng chased after them, exclaiming, “Don’t! If it were you, what would you have done?”

Huang Yaming coughed before answering, “I would have replied ‘You are my young girl. I’ll be coaxing you, coaxing you for the rest of your life.’”

Fu Cheng clearly wasn’t on the same level as Huang Yaming in picking up girls. Whereas Huang Yaming could put his skills to bear in this matter, he could only act with his foolishness in this regard.

After chasing foolishly after them for a while, Fu Cheng suddenly asked, “Still, at the end of it, she told me to ‘Come back and tell me again when you’re in your fourth year and about to graduate’. What might that mean?”

Huang Yaming and Xu Tingsheng abruptly halted in their tracks, turned and threw a foot at him, “Heck, isn’t it already half accomplished like this?”

“Half accomplished?”

“She was saying that she’ll wait for you, you fool.”

Fu Cheng was stunned for a while as he paused to consider this with that completely pebble-stuffed brain of his. Finally, he understood. Fang Yunyao’s meaning had indeed been thus-she would wait for him.

......

Xu Tingsheng managed to return to his dorm room before the lights were turned off.

His roommates collectively chastised him for missing out on their group activity yet again before beginning to describe to him the nosebleed-inducing synchronised dancing of the female upperclassmen. Of course, also mentioned was the domineering confession by that Rebirth group.

Some of them hummed a few lines of based off their memories, and Xu Tingsheng found that the resemblance was indeed there. With how catchy and easy to remember it was, it was really no wonder that it had become a crazy popular hit song.

Xu Tingsheng remembered how this song had once filled the streets of the entire country both big and small, having been popular amongst everyone regardless of their gender and age. It had even virtually performed a clean sweep of all the charts and awards of the Chinese music industry in 2005 and 2006.

Xu Tingsheng didn’t actually like that much, with it really having been much too popular in his previous life. As most people saw it, if a song became too popular, it would correspondingly also become like the saliva splattering from one’s mouth. One would inevitably get tired of listening to it over and over again just so many times. Also, this song was a little too soft and weak in its mood.

Even though it had indeed once moved many people.

While Xu Tingsheng was not classy to the point of listening to classics or heavy metal, he still preferred songs which were deeper and more meaningful or more free and unrestrained.

In having chosen this song at the time, it was because it had fit in very well with the mood of the situation. The repeated pleading for the other party to believe as well as the fairy tale as a metaphor had truly corresponded with the situation perfectly.

The story between Fu Cheng and Fang Yunyao had itself already been unrealistic from the start. For it to be able to develop and blossom, it was a must for both of them, especially Fang Yunyao, to believe in fairy tales.

Xu Tingsheng had helped Fu Cheng like this not simply because they were best friends. If he had not known of that future tale, he would definitely not have helped him. The precondition for his assistance had been his foreknowledge that this was true, unreserved, unrequited love on Fu Cheng’s part. Meanwhile, Fang Yunyao would also be able to break free of her original fate as a result, thereby gaining happiness.

The ultimate mood of this song had, due to Fu Cheng’s emotions at the time, become more sincere as well as emotional. With that in mind, its popularity might thereby be affected as a result. Still, Xu Tingsheng had never aspired to it becoming popular in the first place.

After listening to the chatter of his roommates for a while, Xu Tingsheng began packing up his belongings. It would be the October 1st public holiday in two day’s time, and Fang Yunyao’s course would just have ended then as well. During supper earlier, the five had agreed to meet up and return to Libei together on that day. They would first take a green train to Jiannan City before boarding a bus back to Libei.

During this process, Xu Tingsheng discovered a rather disgusting thing. That little singlet in his cupboard that Apple had left behind was missing. After some consideration, he decided that he would neither ask about it nor investigate the matter. He knew that what he found out would only make him feel even more disgusted.

Xu Tingsheng had a general idea of who amongst his roommates seemed like they might be the sort to do this kind of thing.

Currently, his roommates had already shifted the conversation topic over to Old Wai. Apparently, earlier tonight, Old Wai had left their group as well.

Old Wai had gone on a date with Li Linlin.

This matter was rather an unexpected one. Just a few days earlier, Li Linlin had still been grinding her teeth at Old Wai’s actions, complaining about him to the instructors time and time again as he had repeatedly been pulled out and punished to stand for long periods.

“Actually, it wasn’t really a date. I just helped her to save a seat, and afterwards, we watched the party together,” Old Wai chuckled happily.

“Then, when those female upperclassmen were doing synchronised dancing and I began watching a little more intently, she pinched me right on the thigh. Look, it’s all blue and black.”

As Old Wai flashed his leg hair, who would be interested in looking? They just wanted to know how these developments between the two had come to be. Old Wai now gave a general account of it. Just yesterday, the day before military training had ended, he had been called out by Li Linlin yet again and punished to stand in formation.

Returning to the training field after lunch, Li Linlin had handed him two slices of dry bread, saying, “Sorry that you’ve had to go so many days without lunch.”

Whilst devouring it ravenously, Old Wai had indistinctly mumbled, “It’s fine, I’m not afraid of that. What I’m afraid of is...it’s that after military training has ended, I’ll no longer have a reason to provoke you.”

𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

“Provoke me?” Li Linlin said, “I’m not good to provoke at all. Kids like me who come from poor places can’t be reasoned with at all; if you provoke us, we’ll never let it go. My grip is strong too. For someone who just sits around all day doing nothing like you, if you provoke me, I’ll be able to wring out blood in a single pinch.”

Today’s events had proven her words true.

Still, Old Wai could only rejoice.

In 03 Chinese, not considering those who had already come with girlfriends from the start, Old Wai had now kicked things off and won glory for Room 602.

Faced with the clamouring of his roommates for him to give them a treat, Old Wai very earnestly refused, “Linlin comes from an extremely poor county, and her family has it pretty hard as well. She has to work hard to earn her own living expenses as well as part of her school fees. I think that I’ll be more thrifty in the future. While I might not be able to help her much, I can at least help her with the problem of her meals. I won’t be eating with you guys in the future; I’ll be eating together with Linlin.”

“Also, I plan on quitting smoking.” Old Wai said.

Xu Tingsheng kind of saw Old Wai in a different light now. Hopefully, this was not just a moment’s fervour.

He thought for a bit before proposing on his own accord, “Since I’m gonna have to treat you guys once, let me treat Old Wai’s portion along with mine as well. Have you guys decided on the place?”

“We decided long ago. How about tomorrow?” Tan Yao asked.

“Alright,” Xu Tingsheng said, “Old Wai, can you invite Li Linlin over? No matter what, she can also be considered the first ‘wife’ of our room now. If she is uncomfortable coming alone, ask her to call along a couple of female classmates as well.”

Old Wai said, “You don’t have to worry about that. Do you think the people they’ve invited are few? A bunch of female upperclassmen, a bunch of classmates...at least two tables worth.”

......

Classes began the next day. Because the 1st October public holiday was right around the corner, the teachers didn’t spend much time delving into the contents proper. They generally just did some basic introductions regarding themselves and their topics of expertise, also chatting casually with the students.

As for the conversations between the students, many of them still lingered on the topic of the previous night’s welcoming party.

They lingered on the topic of the mysterious Rebirth.

There were girls in the class who could already sing to an extraordinarily high level of precision.

Everyone was heatedly guessing the identities of these two people. Also, who exactly had that main singer been confessing to?

Xu Tingsheng didn’t know if someone had been similarly inspired or if his comment the previous night had spread, but other than being acclaimed as Rebirth, their band had also gained another moniker: Musical Zorros who don’t fear the heat.

One Zorro focused earnestly on the ongoing lesson before him whilst carefully considering his future path. The post-rebirth Xu Tingsheng had begun feeling a little lost. He had finished his university entrance examinations, his father also having embarked on a career of his own. As for Xiang Ning, there was nothing good that he could think of for now.

Then, what should he be doing next? Just focusing diligently on studying? ...Was this really something that a re-birthee like him should be doing?

Going into venture capital and building up WeChat or 360 Security, investing in Tencent or Baidu, securing authorisation over World of Warcraft?...Xu Tingsheng thought of a whole bunch of things that he could do, but sadly, none of these were within his means.

The other Zorro, Fu Cheng, found Xu Tingsheng during a break between lessons, asking him, “We...we seem to have become crazy popular. Are we still going on with the band?”