Dragon Raja: Reboot

"Now we can begin the orientation."

Chu Zihang withdrew his gaze from the amusement park and said seriously, "According to school rules, the orientation training must be conducted in a place where there are no irrelevant people and no one can eavesdrop. This environment meets the above conditions."

"It does fit... but senior, we're currently... on a Ferris wheel." Xia Mi turned her head to Chu Zihang and said cautiously.

A wisp of long, soft hair swayed back and forth in front of Chu Zihang, constantly obscuring Xia Mi's bright eyes.

Chu Zihang frowned slightly, wondering to himself, "Is this the ahoge (cowlick) my junior brother was talking about?"

"Yes, the Ferris wheel meets the above conditions. We are 50 meters above the ground and will hover here for 10 minutes. During this time, no one can disturb us. That's why I brought you to ride the Ferris wheel."

Xia Mi covered her face and said, "I was thinking that the first stop you took me to the amusement park was the Ferris wheel, which was so romantic. I thought you had finally realized my good looks."

Chu Zihang's usually expressionless face twitched slightly.

"A Ferris wheel...is something wrong with it?" he asked cautiously.

Xia Mi leaned forward, staring intently into his eyes, studying them seriously for a long time, as if trying to determine if he was pretending to be stupid.

Chu Zihang wanted to back away, but he held on, gritting his teeth, which made his cheeks stiff and tense.

Xia Mi sighed and said, "Senior, do you know what the three most popular dating spots are?"

"I don't know," Chu Zihang answered very decisively.

He really didn't know.

He had no common sense about the word "dating," and he learned about women by studying works on women's psychology in his spare time.

His junior once asked him if he had ever thought about what kind of girl he would like.

But in fact, he never thought he would fall in love with a girl.

"It's a movie theater, an aquarium, and a Ferris wheel."

Xia Mi counted on her smooth, jade-like fingers, her perfect little face full of seriousness.

Teacher Xia Mi officially begins the lesson!

"The movie theater is dark, and girls will naturally feel dependent on boys. I especially recommend horror movies, so that boys can naturally hold girls' hands."

"Visiting an aquarium shows that you are well-mannered and love animals, and girls like boys who are kind-hearted."

"Finally! And of the three sacred sites, the most suitable place for a confession is the Ferris wheel!"

"No one will bother you on the Ferris wheel, and the girl can't escape. While she's gazing at the amusement park outside, lost in thought, you'd better take out the flowers you've prepared, kneel down, and confess your feelings. You have a full ten minutes to use, and for a eloquent boy, ten minutes is enough to move even a sea turtle to tears!"

Teacher Xia Mi's earnest teachings left Chu Zihang at a loss.

Why try to move the sea turtle?

He subconsciously imitated his junior's use of vulgar language to cover up his embarrassment and awkwardness.

"That's not the point..." Xia Mi looked embarrassed. "The point is, the Ferris wheel is a romantic place, and you can't talk about unpleasant topics here."

"Is orientation a topic you dislike?" Chu Zihang wasn't sure.

He originally thought Xia Mi would be very willing to learn about the academy's affairs. They had discussed the "Jade Record" yesterday, a topic that Chu Zihang really enjoyed, and he thought Xia Mi would like it too.

"It depends on what you're comparing it to."

Chu Zihang felt slightly relieved, at least it wasn't his least favorite topic.

"Compared to throwing a dead spider at a girl and laughing out loud, the orientation wasn't so bad," Xia Mi continued.

Chu Zihang's face looked as if he had just swallowed that dead spider.

"This is actually my first time at an amusement park..."

Xia Mi gazed at the roller coaster track in the distance and said softly.

In the distance, accompanied by screams, the dragon-like car rumbled and spiraled upwards, as if trying to defy gravity.

"Actually, I really want to come to the amusement park," Xia Mi murmured, gripping the window railing.

Shadows were cast on her clean, soft face; her eyes were deep, hidden in the shadows and unclear.

"wrong……"

Chu Zihang suddenly shouted in a low voice.

"Ah, senior brother, what's wrong?" Xia Mi turned around and stared blankly at her senior brother, the strand of soft hair on her forehead twitching slightly, as if she had been startled.

Chu Zihang took a deep breath, lowered his head, and gripped his hair tightly with both hands.

The pain that had occurred before surged back like a tidal wave, carrying with it fragmented memories.

Masafumi Tomiyama, the instructor of "Introduction to Brain Science," once said that human memory is very unreliable.

The brain is like a broken hard drive that can be easily demagnetized, and the past is like a painting on the sand.

As time passed, the sand was blown away by the wind, eventually turning into a vast expanse that could no longer be distinguished, and memories also became blurred.

Therefore, Chu Zihang has a fixed routine every night: replaying the events of that night six years ago in his mind like a movie, in order to ensure that he has not forgotten anything.

But at this moment, in the corner of Chu Zihang's broken hard drive, past images defied common sense, surfacing wildly and irrationally, like a herd of wild horses trampling across the wilderness, the images becoming clearer and more distinct amidst the pain.

Those memories that had been forgotten at some point suddenly surged forth at this moment.

He looked down, staring blankly at his toes, his mind filled with disbelief.

He seemed to remember something lost, something incredibly important.

……

……

He was on the basketball team in high school.

His teammate, who plays guard, poked him in the waist and whispered gossipingly like a junior, "Look, look! That girl is looking at you!"

He turned around and saw a bright and lovely girl wearing a short skirt and a high ponytail.

The girl wore makeup with glittery sequins on her eyelids, so dazzling in the sunlight that it was impossible to look directly at her.

Later, to thank the cheerleaders for supporting their game, Chu Zihang specially invited the girl to see a movie, and then he lost contact with her.

He only vaguely remembered that when he met the girl again later, she always looked resentful, but only now did he vaguely guess what she was thinking.

He also invited the head of the Shilan High School dance troupe to visit the aquarium because of his extracurricular paper. He told her how male seahorses raise their babies in their pouches, which made the girl giggle and laugh heartily.

They watched side by side as the staff darted among the fish, staying close to the clumsy sea turtle as if they were inseparable.

Furthermore, he had never invited any classmates to his home; his junior classmate was the first to set foot in his house.

But he was invited to a girl's house!

It was an old house, with huge sycamore trees outside the window that blocked out the sky. Cicadas chirped loudly in the summer. He sat at the table writing furiously. He turned around by chance and saw the girl dancing silently behind him, like a swan.

In that fleeting glimpse, he averted his gaze as if struck by lightning, calmed his agitated heart, and threw himself back into his studies, with a black swan dancing solo behind him.

……

These faded images surfaced from the deep sea and reappeared in his mind.

The picture quality is as clear as if it were a live broadcast.

He could even recall the specific plot of that musical film: the huge screening room contained only the two of them, and the light and shadow shifted on their faces…

And there's that silly little sea turtle in the aquarium...

A cool breeze wafted through the old house under the tree, pencils scratched on paper, and a girl wore a black bodysuit…

But he couldn't remember the girl's face at all!

Damn it!

He remembered everything, even the detail of the light and shadow shifting on their faces! He remembered the plot of the movie perfectly, but he just couldn't recall the girl's face!

He thought and thought, clutching his head, racking his brains, but he still couldn't remember. That damned sense of powerlessness almost suffocated him!

He thought he had erased the word "powerlessness" from his life dictionary, but when the moment came, he realized that nothing had changed.

He seems to have...

It's lost.

……

"Really not? Senior, think about it again! Like a cheerleader captain, a dance troupe leader, or something?"

……

His junior brother's relentless questioning echoed in his mind like thunder.

Chu Zihang was suddenly filled with fear, his eyes were filled with confusion, and tears streamed down his face.

For the first time, he felt his life was so unfamiliar.

Because he really lost a girl he grew up with...

Until the cold fingertips gently touched his face.

He slowly raised his head, his gaze vacant.

A single, transparent teardrop dangled between the girl's fingers. She brought it to her lips and tasted it, her beautiful eyelashes trembling slightly.

She muttered under her breath, "They really are tears. I thought you were secretly using eye drops to deceive this innocent girl, senior brother..."

The faint, familiar scent of spring, like that of gardenias, once again lingers around my nose.

The long-forgotten aura returned, and he finally remembered the owner of this aura.

The blurry faces became clear, overlapped, and finally formed the girl sitting opposite him.

Chu Zihang was stunned.

He finally found the old photograph from many years ago on the old floppy disk—

The girl stood under the huge sycamore tree, with hundreds of tiny beams of light piercing through the gaps, their flickering spots swirling on her skirt.

She turned to look at me, her eyes full of smiles.

"It's...you!"

Chu Zihang's voice was hoarse like never before.

At this very moment.

The girl, just like she did back then, pointed to her lips and smiled radiantly as she sat in front of him.

It turns out that in those forgotten years, the boy and girl had already visited two sacred sites together.

And now, in this most sacred holy place...

The foolish boy finally found the girl he had lost.