Rebirth: My Childhood Sweetheart Came into My Arms

Jing's mother looked very serious, which made Bei Yao a little nervous.

"What is it? Just tell me, and I'll do my best to help."

"It's like this," Jing's mother said, placing her hands on the table and glancing at Jing Ran, who was engrossed in his meal. "My son, Jing, used to love running and won many awards. I originally wanted him to apply to a sports school, but then there was a competition..."

"Mom!" Jingran stopped chewing, frowning slightly. "Why are you bringing this up again?"

He had a long cold war with his mother when he quit the track and field team. The reason was that his mother thought he wouldn't be able to get into university with his bad grades, and if he gave up the sports school, he would have no future.

But Jingran doesn't think that way.

He believed that things would work themselves out, and boasted that if he had nowhere else to turn, he could go to the main road to pick up trash. This made Jing's mother's blood pressure spike, and she almost shoved him into the toilet and flushed him away.

"What do you mean by bringing this up again?" Jing's mother retorted. "Has this matter been resolved?"

Jing Ran: "..."

"With grades like that, forget about getting into college, you'll have trouble even graduating. And you even gave up something you're good at... What, are you really planning to go pick up trash in the future?"

"I'll just pick them up," Jingran muttered under her breath, seemingly unafraid of death. "I'm strong, I'll definitely pick them up faster than those old men and women..."

"Hurry up, hurry up, hurry my ass!" Jing's mother poked his forehead hard. "They're professional scavengers, they get up before dawn. What about you? You sleep until the afternoon, you're lucky if someone doesn't pick you up like trash!"

Jing Ran: "..."

Talking back to my mom was definitely not a wise move.

Jing's mother gave him a thorough scolding, but after her anger subsided, she finally looked at Bei Yao again. Her previously fierce expression suddenly became incredibly gentle, like a Sichuan opera face-changing act.

"Yaoyao, let me continue. Let's ignore him..."

"Ah, okay."

Jing's mother hopes that Bei Yao can persuade Jing Ran to return to the track and field team.

This matter is neither particularly difficult nor particularly simple; the key is the approach and finding the "knot" in Jingran's heart.

Bei Yao knew that Jing Ran didn't really hate running, but just couldn't get over that hurdle. If the problem could be addressed, it should have a good effect.

Bei Yao: "Don't worry, Auntie, I'll talk to Xiao Jing."

Jing's mother: "Sigh, our Yaoyao is so obedient and sensible..."

The two quickly reached an agreement without consulting Jingran.

Seeing this, Jingran stopped struggling and switched to a "dead pig doesn't care about boiling water" mode, continuing to eat with her head down.

……

That evening, Jing's mother found a set of pajamas for Bei Yao and let him sleep in Jing Ran's room.

"Xiao Jing's bed is big enough for the two of you to sleep in. You can toss and turn as much as you want without falling off..."

"The room also has a private bathroom, so you can use the toilet and take a shower at any time..."

Jing's mother enthusiastically introduced the property, just like a salesperson at a real estate agency. On the surface, she was introducing the rooms, but in reality, she was encouraging the two children to further develop their relationship.

In her eyes, Jingran was a slow-moving product, and customers were likely to change their minds. To avoid the tragedy of returns, she had to start taking action now to make customers feel emotionally attached to the product and become dependent on it.

Jingran twitched her lips and asked, "Don't we have a guest room? He can sleep in the guest room; the bed there isn't small..."

"The guest rooms are for guests. Yao Yao isn't a guest, so why is she sleeping in the guest room?" Jing's mother raised an eyebrow, took a step back from the room, and said, "Goodnight, my darlings, sweet dreams!"

After Jing's mother left, Jing Ran finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He dimmed the room lights and was about to ask Bei Yao if he wanted to take a shower when he saw him very naturally take off his shirt, revealing his alluring body.

"Gulp..." Jingran swallowed hard, unable to resist.

Bei Yao: "I want to take a shower."

"Oh!" Jingran responded, led him into the bathroom, explained which was shampoo and which was shower gel, and prepared a bath towel for him.

"I have a bathtub here, you can take a bath if you want, but it will take a little while to fill the tub."

"I'm not going to soak anymore, it's too much trouble. Let's talk about it when we can soak together someday."

"Dream on..."

Jingran closed the bathroom door and returned to bed.

With the sound of rushing water, Bei Yao's broad chest and hormone-filled pectoral muscles reappeared before his eyes, and his cheeks couldn't help but feel slightly hot.

He originally thought that guys with such great figures only existed in magazines, until he met Bei Yao and realized that he was short-sighted.

There are far more wonderful things in this world than he imagined.

And Bei Yao is one of them.

……

When Bei Yao came out of the bathroom wrapped in a bath towel, he saw Jing Ran sitting at her desk doing her homework.

This amazing scene truly surprised Bei Yao.

"Honey, what are you doing?"

"Do your homework," Jingran replied in a muffled voice.

Bei Yao walked over, rested one hand on the table, and sure enough, saw Jing Ran writing furiously on the composition paper.

"Am I hallucinating? You're doing homework on a Saturday night?"

"What's so strange about doing homework on Saturday?" Jingran muttered, reaching out her left hand to push Beiyao. "Hey, move aside, you're blocking my light."

Bei Yao obediently went around to the back.

He knew Jingran too well. This guy would never start writing until the very last minute, and his most frequent complaints were things like, "I haven't done my homework yet," or "I need to get to school early tomorrow to copy someone else's homework."

"This isn't like you. Didn't you always go for the race against time?"

"The past is the past, the present is the present. Now that Ayu is starting to study hard, I can't fall too far behind, can I?" Jingran put down her pen, shaking her aching wrists. "Most importantly, if I can get into a university, I won't have to go to a sports school..."

After Jing Ran finished speaking, Bei Yao fell silent.

After a long pause, he turned Jingran's chair around ninety degrees and asked him seriously, "Are you sure you won't regret giving up track and field?"

"..." Jing Ran pursed her lips, subconsciously avoiding Bei Yao's gaze.

Regret?

Maybe, a little bit...

After all, the feeling of racing on the track is so exhilarating and so free.

The sweat shed on the field, the cheers of the audience—everything about it was so captivating to Jingran.

...except for that anxiety that lingers in my heart like a dark cloud.

Bei Yao squatted down in front of Jing Ran, placed his hands on either side of the chair, and pulled him into his arms, saying, "Let me tell you a story."

Jing Ran looked up, a hint of curiosity flashing in her eyes.

"In my first year of high school, our basketball team represented No. 8 Middle School in the city league. We fought our way through to the finals, but made a serious mistake in the last game to compete for the championship."

"I accidentally passed the ball to the opponent at match point, which caused No. 8 Middle School to miss the championship and only get the runner-up."

"After the game, everyone took a group photo. I was standing in the middle with the trophy, but I couldn't smile at all. I even thought that I should just quit the basketball team because I had done something so embarrassing. That is, until the captain at the time found me and said eight words to me."

Jingran: "I know what he said to you!"

Bei Yao: "Hmm?"

Jing Ran: "Aren't you a piece of trash? Get out of the team! Exactly eight words!"

Bei Yao: "..."

"Alright, alright, go on, I won't interrupt you." It was rare for Jingran to hear Beiyao tell his story, and she was quite interested. Her eyes, which had been dull just moments before, suddenly lit up.

Bei Yao paused for a moment, then continued:

You've definitely heard these eight incredibly corny words: "If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight."

"At that time, Lan Yuan and Liu Wen were still in the third year of junior high school. The high school team was basically carried by Gu Wang and me. It is no exaggeration to say that at least 80% of the people who went to watch the finals, whether they were alumni of No. 8 Middle School or students from other schools, were there to watch the two of us. Therefore, after the mistake, I felt more guilty and saddened than anyone else."

"Later, the captain asked me, 'Have you ever thought about why everyone has such high expectations for you?' I shamelessly replied, 'Maybe it's because I play basketball well and I'm handsome.'"

The captain nodded and said, "That's right, it's because you play basketball well and are handsome."

Jing Ran: "Wow, your captain is such a smooth talker!"

Bei Yao: "You interrupted me again."

Jingran: "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..."

"What really changed my mind was what the captain said later."

"He said to Beiyao, each of our lives is a canvas, filled with various colors and patterns. Sometimes our hands shake and we draw the pattern crooked or fill in the wrong colors, but the painting is still the same painting. The scenery you have drawn on it stroke by stroke over the years is still there. It should not be completely negated because of one mistake."

"After all, aren't those days and nights of hard work, those real and beautiful moments, the most valuable things?"

Jingran lowered her head, her hands clasped together.

"Honey, the reason I'm telling you all this today is to tell you not to put so much pressure on yourself. People have high hopes for you because your paintings are already excellent enough. Occasional failures won't change anything. You are still you, a lightning-fast little lightning bolt. People who love you will never blame you, and people who don't love you don't deserve a place in your life."

"Of course, the final choice is yours, after all, it's your life, your destiny. But I can assure you that I will support you no matter which path you choose."

After Bei Yao finished speaking, Jing Ran couldn't help but feel a lump in her throat.

Since he left the track and field team, many people have asked him why, but no one has been willing to seriously offer him advice from his perspective.

Those people would only use phrases like "Is it really that big of a deal?", "It's no big deal", and "You're too fragile" to inflict secondary harm on him.

Bei Yao was the first person to speak to his heart.

Jingran lowered her head, recalling the carefree days she spent in the track and field team, and before she knew it, tears were streaming down her face.

Bei Yao was startled by his appearance and quickly asked, "Why are you crying? Did I say something wrong?"

Jingran ignored him and cried harder and harder. Finally, she couldn't hold back anymore and threw herself into Beiyao's arms, sobbing, "I've gained more than ten pounds and I can hardly run anymore, but the chicken legs are so delicious, how can I bear to give them up? Waaaaah..."