Rebirth 08: A Happy Life Begins in Elementary School

Huang Keyun is a good woman.

The parting wishes truly touched Li Zhao's heart.

As for those unspoken emotions, there's no need to elaborate further.

Even Huang Keyun herself took the opportunity of dinner to quietly express her acceptance of the situation, so why should Li Zhao care anymore?

Back home, it's time for the familiar solitude again.

Li Zhao slowly walked into the room and lay down on the not-so-comfortable wooden bed.

What should love really be like?

It seems that in the eyes of Chinese people, "love" has a standard answer.

The answer is to fall in love when it's time, find someone compatible, date for a few years, then get married, support each other through life, have a child, and raise him/her...

Then the child continued the cycle.

But no one ever tells you how to do it.

Dating before college is considered puppy love, but feelings can blossom at any time. People you meet during adolescence may go their separate ways before college, and it's hard to build a foundation for a relationship after you start working...

Thus, blind dates came about.

Li Zhao looked down on blind dates. He would meet a few times, assess each other's conditions, and if they hit it off, he would entrust his future for decades to them.

People can act and deceive.

What if you listen to your heart?

In a lifetime, one can only meet a very limited number of people, and have even fewer opportunities to develop deep friendships with them.

Among these limited candidates, the one who can resonate with you on a soul level should logically be the best choice.

Unfortunately, this resonance sometimes stems precisely from differences in identity, knowledge, and mindset, and these differences can become insurmountable barriers.

For example, Huang Keyun's relationship with Li Zhao.

Li Zhao recalled his high school Chinese teacher from his previous life. He was gentle, refined, and humorous, and frequently published articles on his personal WeChat public account, which occasionally appeared in newspapers. There was a girl in his class who especially loved his writing. She could keenly grasp the teacher's intentions and would often go to him after class to discuss his articles.

They even share the same favorite authors and works, so it's as if they've known each other for a long time.

The teacher's knowledge was certainly far greater than that of the girl, but the girl possessed the sensitivity and focus unique to students. No one else could understand her so well.

Back then, rumors circulated in the class that some girls liked the Chinese teacher, and when they graduated, one of the girls actually wrote a long letter to him.

The result? It could only end without any progress.

The teacher gave a very official, correct, and ruthless response. After a period of pain, the girl went to university in another province.

Because they are twelve years apart, and because teachers and students would be gossiped about if they were together.

Therefore, Li Zhao could completely understand why Huang Keyun had developed special feelings for him.

However, they completely reject the idea of ​​Huang Keyun actually bringing this matter to the forefront.

Fortunately, Huang Keyun managed to control herself very well.

After learning about this story, Li Zhao felt sorry for the Chinese teacher and the girl.

Now, he suddenly wanted to ask himself a question.

Why is it a pity?

Is it because...true friends are hard to find?

If there is another person who is on the same wavelength as you, isn't that the best choice for love?

A name involuntarily came to mind—He Shuyao.

Throughout Li Zhaoyi's entire elementary, middle, and high school years, this was the only person who could resonate with him.

"Damn, it would be so great to be reborn in high school," Li Zhao muttered to himself. "But in high school, achieving financial freedom won't be so easy..."

Li Zhao's mind began to wander, and he got up and sat down at his desk.

I want to read, but I can't concentrate; I want to write an editorial, but I can't get started.

Why not... write a novel?

At that time, youth romance novels were still very popular. In his previous life, he had read many of them and once dreamed of publishing a book that would be displayed on every desk in every school.

Then write it.

There's a saying, isn't there? The romance stories written by Xiao Chunan are the sweetest.

So what kind of expectations would someone who was reborn after a broken love in their past life, ready to experience adolescence again, write?

Li Zhao himself was also very curious.

Thinking about it this way, I suddenly felt excited.

It's a pity there are no computers. Writing tens of thousands of words by hand in this day and age would be too stupid. It's not like I've been reborn in 1977 to become a plagiarist.

How about writing a story outline or something?

For example, what would happen if Li Zhao and He Shuyao in a parallel world developed into a romantic relationship?

Unfortunately, this was the only girl he had any real, in-depth contact with during junior and senior high school.

She was a good-looking, academically excellent woman who was on the same wavelength as him.

It's quite suitable for adaptation.

Just do it.

That's why this bottle of wine called "Youth" is so potent!

In order to write the novel, Li Zhao kept recalling, and some somewhat unfamiliar scenes and emotions kept coming back to him. At first, he was excited to find inspiration and wrote as smoothly as mercury.

But as I wrote, my emotions surged quite intensely.

Looking back on those days from his current perspective, he has to admit one fact.

During adolescence, I forcibly shielded myself from the outside world, thinking I had built a safe fortress around myself, but in reality, I had just become a hedgehog.

What they perceive as being unconventional is essentially a form of escapism.

It's not that he doesn't want to build memorable friendships with his peers, but that he genuinely doesn't know how.

His decision to give up New Taipei First High School and go to Experimental High School had a far more profound impact on him than he had imagined.

An unyielding pride and an unavoidable sense of inferiority.

Coupled with his poor athletic performance, he gradually stopped participating in group activities and naturally found it difficult to integrate into the group.

It was such a dull and boring adolescence.

If it weren't for He Shuyao by his side, his youth would have been completely devoid of any brilliance.

Suffering is the breeding ground for literature.

Li Zhao believes that only someone like him, whose youth is full of regrets, can write about the youth that countless people yearn for. Those who have a dazzling youth... probably don't have much motivation to write.

Making up for regrets is an eternal theme in literature of reminiscence.

Including Li Zhao, who has now been reborn.

Even as he went to bed that night, Li Zhao's mind was still filled with lingering emotions.

For him during his adolescence, "focusing on studying" was just a shell, used to shield himself from all his unpleasant emotions while blocking out all positive emotional feedback.

Moreover, this mindset of his continued afterward.

Fortunately, there is still a chance for rebirth.

A thought suddenly popped into Li Zhao's head—if he weren't reborn, could he live a good life?

Of course, we can talk about theory only.

He still has a job, and it's thriving. After the divorce, since the child isn't close to him, he should just get rid of him. As for how his parents treated him, he should just give them some alimony and then cut ties.

It's simply a new life that begins at age 36.

He's rich; if he just changes his mindset, he can live a carefree life.

However, the phrase "change your mindset" is incredibly inhumane.

If Li Zhao could so easily harden his heart, why would he have succumbed to his parents' pressure in his early years? And why would he have been immersed in a false world of tenderness?

Li Zhao's upbringing destined him to be unable to suddenly become a carefree person after experiencing continuous setbacks.

He keeps saying he'll get a divorce, but isn't the life Li Zhao is wasting a life? How is he supposed to rebuild his views on love?

He thought that severing ties would be the best course of action. Given his parents' behavior, if Li Zhao actually dared to sever ties, he would turn the situation around and put himself in a disadvantageous position.

If these family matters escalate, his work will inevitably be affected.

Lost in thought, Li Zhao thought he was going to lose sleep again because of these thoughts. He turned over and accidentally kicked the bed board, making a tooth-grinding noise in the middle of the night.

This reminded Li Zhao of something very important.

In his elementary school days, he lived in a narrow wooden bed.

He was reborn and is experiencing a completely different life.

Just like the outline of his own youth novel, the male protagonist Li Ziyang and the female protagonist He Qianxia will not miss each other.

[Rebirth is wonderful. Happiness +2, Total 30]

[You can redeem a reward using 30 Happiness Points: a high-performance laptop]