Reborn in 08, Public Enemy of Competitors

"Could it be Du Manqing?"

"How...how did you know!"

Li Hao's face stiffened. This secret had been buried in his heart for many years, and he only shared it with his roommates when the dormitory lights were turned off.

"I guessed it, aren't you from Wenzhou?"

Shen Mo seemed to see through everything at a glance.

"Yes, yes, we're not only from the same hometown, but also high school classmates."

Li Hao adjusted his glasses. Du Manqing was the dream of everyone at Wenzhou High School.

This was no exception for him either.

Du Manqing was his most beautiful unrequited love, the only white moonlight in his heart, and the longing he felt when he first fell in love.

Unfortunately, although we were classmates, our chats on QQ were limited to greetings like "Hello, are you there?"

"Wait, you don't mean you want me to be your wingman, to connect you with... Du Manqing through Liu Xin, do you?"

Shen Mo wasn't a novice; he saw right through Shen Mo's scheming nature. A man's life revolves around two things: making money and pursuing women.

By hooking up with a rich young woman like Du Manqing, it's like achieving everything in one step.

"How did you know?!"

Li Hao was shocked.

"Your abacus beads are practically hitting my face."

Shen Mo rolled his eyes.

"Shen Mo, Brother Mo, please help me."

Li Hao said excitedly, "If I really succeed, you will be like a brother to me. I will never forget your kindness in this lifetime."

Shen Mo touched his nose. "I'm not the sun. I don't need you to repay my debt of gratitude for a lifetime."

Yuan Hua couldn't help but interrupt, "Hey, Mouse, you might have miscalculated."

Li Hao looked puzzled: "Why?"

Lu Wenbin answered on his behalf: "Our Brother Mo broke up with Liu Xin a long time ago."

Li Hao was surprised. "You broke up? Shen Mo, didn't you manage to win Liu Xin over?"

"I give up. I don't want to be a simp. Damn it, I don't know what some people's hearts are made of."

Shen Mo said earnestly, "It really does get harder the more you lick it."

"But in the end, won't it just soften?"

Li Hao's offhand answer drew agreement from Yuan Hua, Qin Feng, and others.

You guys are dogs!

Shen Mo's lips twitched slightly. "Your thinking is flawed! Very flawed! Aren't you afraid of getting heartbroken?"

Li Hao pressed further, "What's wrong? Have you been hurt by love?"

Shen Mo curled his lip: "Why the hell do you seem to be gloating?"

"No, no, absolutely not."

Li Hao quickly waved his hand, but the smile on his lips betrayed him, "I just realized that we're actually in the same boat."

"The use of 'also' is quite subtle." Shen Mo narrowed his eyes. "You and Du Manqing have a story?"

"I want to have a story with her, but it hasn't started yet."

Because of Shen Mo's foreshadowing, Li Hao didn't deliberately hide anything and simply recounted his long-standing crush on Du Manqing.

How to go to great lengths to be assigned to the same duty group as her, how to cheer her on at the sports meet...

On graduation day, Du Manqing sent herself a "Happy Graduation" message on QQ, which made her happy all summer long.

After finishing his story, he wore a smug smile, feeling that he and Shen Mo were the same kind of people, both devoted lovers who were persistent in their pursuit of love.

Although he couldn't quite explain what he was proud of, he just felt proud.

"this one?"

Shen Mo's eyes held a hint of disdain. "Isn't this just a classic case of unrequited love and a pure, warm-hearted guy?"

Lu Wenbin asked curiously, "Brother Mo, what is a 'warm man'?"

After Shen Mo explained, Yuan Hua, Lu Wenbin, Qin Feng, and the others looked at Li Hao with a different expression.

Li Hao stretched his neck and retorted, "What's wrong with being a 'warm guy'? I like to burn myself out to warm others."

"Did you know that 'warm men' come after dogs?"

Shen Mo smacked his lips. "You're even teaming up with me, my buddy? I'm not Boiling Sheep."

"that is!"

Yuan Hua chimed in, "You think you're worthy to be brothers with our Brother Mo? I'm ashamed of you."

"How did I embarrass myself?"

Li Hao's face turned bright red.

"Although Brother Mo broke up with Liu Xin, he's been chatting with your goddess Du Manqing a lot lately."

Lu Wenbin also chimed in, "What about you? You were in the same class as Du Manqing for three years. She's probably almost forgotten who you are by now."

"What?!"

Li Hao's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"And Du Manqing has arranged to meet Brother Mo this afternoon."

Qin Feng said, "Many senior and junior female students have taken the initiative to add Brother Mo's QQ. What do you have? You're still nothing."

He truly deserves to be my adopted son!

Shen Mo chuckled inwardly, but put on a pained expression. "Rat, I look down on you a little."

Li Hao covered his head, "You...you and Du Manqing...could it be that you two..."

Shen Mo waved his hand, "Don't overthink it. Even dating dogs don't date."

"Really, you said it yourself!"

Li Hao excitedly grabbed his hand, "That's good, that's good, I still have a chance, I still have a chance."

Just because I don't talk about it doesn't mean you have a chance!

If someone's urine is yellow, brew them a pot of yellow urine to soothe their brain!

Shen Mo glared at him irritably, regretting that he hadn't prepared a deck of cards so he could have drawn two Joker cards at this moment.

Li Hao, you've lost your ID card and a copy!

........................

At lunchtime, the cafeteria was bustling with people.

Du Manqing, Huang Jiajia, Liu Xin, and others sat in a corner, picked up the noodles in the tomato and egg noodles, and gently blew on them.

"Teacher Zhou is really something. Other teachers highlight the key points for the end of the semester, but he insists that the whole book is important."

Liu Xin shoveled a couple of mouthfuls of rice into her mouth, muttering to herself.

"Teacher Zhou's is alright, just memorize it. The difficult part is designing independently!"

Huang Jiajia couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. "To design a complete clothing line, you'd need at least three to five outfits, right?"

Ye Xiao was extremely distressed. "Yes, each set must have a color rendering, a floor plan, and also a design concept, creative explanation, market positioning, and target audience. All in all, it needs to be at least 500 words! Ugh! What a headache!"

"Honey, help!"

Huang Jiajia took Du Manqing's arm and looked at her expectantly.

"I can help, but ultimately it depends on you yourselves."

Du Manqing was amused by her expression.

"Woman, I want to treat you to dinner."

"This is an order, not a discussion!"

Huang Jiajia pinched her throat and said in a super cool voice.

Liu Xin smiled and glanced at the stack of design drawings on the table.

"Manqing, you and Jiajia have been acting all secretive lately, what exactly are you doing?"

"I'm going to an entrepreneurship exchange meeting this afternoon."

Du Manqing ate her noodles in small bites.

Liu Xin blinked. "That sounds interesting. Can I join?"

"Actually, it's not interesting at all. I think you'd better not go."

Huang Jiajia suddenly started coughing violently.

Liu Xin frowned: "Really?"

Huang Jiajia didn't answer directly, but instead asked, "Let me ask you first, are you still waiting for Shen Mo to apologize to you?"

Liu Xin's smile visibly froze for a moment.

"Yes, for your sake, I'm willing to give him another chance."

"But he's really ungrateful. I waited for so long, and not only did he not appreciate it, he didn't even apologize."

"He hasn't unblocked me on QQ yet, is he doing this on purpose?"

Do you think he's deliberately ignoring you?

Du Manqing narrowed her eyes.

"Was it not intentional, or what?"

Liu Xin said resentfully, "He used to pester me to chat every day. Sometimes when I was in a bad mood, I would just call him annoying, but he still did it. Now he's acting so cold. Isn't that on purpose? Isn't he just trying to get my attention?"

Huang Jiajia leaned closer: "Liu Xin, tell me honestly, have you fallen for Shen Mo?"

"Like him? No way! I'm so angry with him!"

Liu Xin gripped her chopsticks tightly and poked at the bowl twice.

Huang Jiajia said, "But have you noticed that you keep mentioning Shen Mo now? You weren't like this before."

Liu Xin opened her mouth, wanting to refute, but found herself unable to speak.

I've been getting increasingly frustrated lately. I keep staring at my phone during class, fantasizing that Shen Mo will send her a message saying "I was wrong".

The thought of it makes me angry. "That's because he went too far, he's so ungrateful!"

"If his apology isn't sincere and doesn't satisfy me, I will absolutely, absolutely, absolutely never forgive him!"

"If Shen Mo gets together with someone else, will you be sad?"

Du Manqing suddenly asked a question.

"What business is it of mine of his being with other people?"

Liu Xin gave a cold laugh: "But that makes sense. He can't win me over, so he'll eventually lose heart. Settling for someone else is a good option."

"..."

Huang Jiajia glanced at Du Manqing, then looked at Liu Xin.

Liu Xin asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, let's eat."

Du Manqing continued eating her noodles, her voice calm as if nothing had happened.

Liu Xin took another bite of rice, but found that she had no appetite at all when Shen Mo was mentioned.

His gaze fell on the stack of design drawings beside Du Manqing, and he suddenly seemed to have thought of something.

"Wait a minute, I find you guys acting really strange. Weren't you just talking about an entrepreneurship exchange meeting? How did you suddenly switch to talking about Shen Mo?"

"Because the main speaker at the entrepreneurship exchange meeting was Shen Mo."

Du Manqing cast a meaningful glance at her.

The chopsticks slipped from Liu Xin's hand and fell onto the table with a thud.

"What? Silence? Impossible, I don't believe it."

"If you don't believe me, then come with us this afternoon."

Du Manqing took out a tissue from her bag and wiped her mouth.

Liu Xin was momentarily distracted, and as a result, she didn't hear a single word of the afternoon class; her mind was filled with silence.

When the bell rang, I followed Du Manqing and the others in a daze, through the tree-lined path, to the work-study and entrepreneurship center.

A roll-up banner stood at the entrance, with blue lettering on a white background that read: "Even pigs can fly when the wind is blowing; the next gust of wind will blow towards e-commerce."

When Liu Xin saw "Speaker Shen Mo," her pupils dilated slightly.

impossible!

Absolutely impossible!

It really is silence! How could it be silence!