Rebirth: My Childhood Sweetheart Came into My Arms

Jiang Chengyu's hands hovered in mid-air for a long while before slowly covering He Ziyu's back.

This hug was different from the one on the day he returned to school. He Ziyu's emotions were not as excited; instead, they were filled with restrained affection.

Feeling the little head rubbing against his chest, Jiang Chengyu felt as if a kitten had crawled into his body, tickling his heart.

He prides himself on being a person with strong self-control.

But at this moment, faced with He Ziyu's teasing, he unexpectedly lost control, his hands unconsciously tightening, and tightening even more.

I wish I could meld him into my very bones.

"Ugh..." He Ziyu gasped for breath, his words coming out in broken sentences, "Brother Yu, I can't breathe..."

Jiang Chengyu was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, a hint of helplessness flashing in his dark and unfathomable eyes.

Immediately afterwards, he released He Ziyu.

"I'm sorry, Ayu, did I hurt you?"

He Ziyu's breathing became slightly erratic.

He looked at Jiang Chengyu's cat-like face, shook his head, and then raised the corners of his mouth: "That's fair now."

Jiang Chengyu: "What?"

"Your clothes," He Ziyu said, pointing to Jiang Chengyu's filthy school uniform, her face beaming with smiles, "now our clothes are just as dirty."

When the storage bottle fell, most of the colored powder inside splashed onto He Ziyu. Although Jiang Chengyu was not spared either, he was in a better situation than He Ziyu.

So He Ziyu hugged him to get the color powder on his clothes?

Jiang Cheng belatedly looked at his chest, which had been rubbed raw by He Ziyu, and his feelings became somewhat complicated.

He thought He Ziyu hugged him because...

"Let's tidy this up first," He Ziyu interrupted his rambling thoughts, picking up the broom standing against the wall. "Otherwise, with us looking like this, the ladies from the Ministry of Health will catch us red-handed."

After saying that, he remembered something and teased, "That girl just said you're handsome and very gentle, and seemed quite interested in you."

He Ziyu's original intention was just to tease Jiang Chengyu, but somehow his words ended up sounding a bit sour.

Jiang Chengyu was silent for a moment, then said, "They said that because they don't understand me."

He treats strangers with basic courtesy, but many people mistake this for gentleness. In fact, he only shows his true gentleness to those he cares about most.

For example, He Ziyu.

"I'll clean up here," Jiang Chengyu said, snatching the broom from He Ziyu's hand. "You go wait over there."

Feeling a little guilty that his hands were suddenly empty, He Ziyu said, "Then I'll go wet the mop..."

"No need," Jiang Chengyu called out to him, repeating gently, "Go wait over there, be good."

He Ziyu originally wanted to try again, but upon hearing the last two words, he immediately seemed to have a switch flipped and obediently squatted down to the side.

Jiang Chengyu was finally relieved.

He had known He Ziyu for so long and knew that he never did housework. Even when it was his turn to do chores in class, he would bribe his classmates to do them for him.

I remember once during a school-wide cleaning, the teacher assigned He Ziyu to mop the floor. However, after He Ziyu finished throwing the mop in, he forgot to wring out the water, and water dripped all over the corridor and even into the classroom. The students stepped on it one after another, creating a muddy mess. The homeroom teacher almost fainted when he saw it.

Jiang Chengyu was reluctant to let He Ziyu go through all that hardship, but also... still felt lingering fear.

He was afraid that He Ziyu's good intentions would backfire and that if he ruined the storage room, neither of them would be able to go back to class.

At this moment, He Ziyu was unaware that he had been "disliked". He squatted down and drew circles on the ground with his fingertips, while stealing glances at Jiang Chengyu and silently indulging in a crush.

The boy had broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs. Even in a school uniform with no design sense, his innate charm was undeniable.

Ironically, this kind of boy is also a gentle and refined academic achiever...

No wonder so many girls at No. 8 Middle School were drooling over Jiang Chengyu.

Thinking of this, He Ziyu felt both jealous and proud. He secretly thanked Heaven for giving him a second chance and letting him understand who was truly worth cherishing.

In this life, this outstanding man belongs to him.

It can only belong to him.

……

Jiang Chengyu worked very efficiently, and the messy floor was quickly cleaned up and made spotless.

He Ziyu wasn't idle during this time either; he kept secretly taking pictures of Jiang Chengyu with his phone, filming him sweeping and mopping the floor, and wiping his sweat...

As He Ziyu was taking pictures, he thought, "It would be so great to bring a man like this home. He can satisfy my aesthetic needs and do housework. Why didn't I realize this sooner?"

Jiang Chengyu put the tools back in their place, and when he turned around, he found He Ziyu staring at him blankly with a silly smile on his face.

She's a bit simple-minded, but... kind of cute.

"Ayu, let's go."

"oh."

He Ziyu got up and followed Jiang Chengyu to the restroom.

On the way, he remembered that the WeChat issue hadn't been resolved yet, and not wanting to tease Jiang Chengyu any longer, he decided to take the initiative and confess.

"Actually, I added Beiyao on WeChat because of Xiaojing."

"Xiao Jing?"

He Ziyu nodded. "Didn't you notice he's interested in Xiao Jing?"

Jiang Chengyu, "..." He really didn't realize it.

While eating in the cafeteria, he was so preoccupied with He Ziyu's request for WeChat that he had no time to care about anyone else.

Catching the bewilderment in Jiang Chengyu's eyes, He Ziyu couldn't help but feel a little sorry for his innocence... Of course, it's not that innocence is bad, but just thinking about how the blank-slate-like Yu-ge was about to be covered in scribbles by this "old hand" made him feel quite sorry for him.

"Look, at lunchtime, there were plenty of empty seats next to him, but he insisted on squeezing in with Xiao Jing and even gave him a chicken leg," He Ziyu stated, presenting the facts and reasoning. "And he even calls Jing Ran 'Little Lightning,' such a cheesy nickname that I'm embarrassed to use it myself, but he seems to enjoy it."

"so……"

"So I added him on WeChat to check things out."

Although Bei Yao seemed to be a decent person, and there were no bad rumors about him at No. 8 Middle School, He Ziyu was still worried that his judgment might be flawed.

What's more, Jingran always claims to be a straight man, yet he's always flirting with the girls in his class. If he really is straight, it might leave him with some psychological trauma.

He Ziyu has always been hypocritical when it comes to protecting his friends.

In his past life, when he was pursuing Lan Yuan, he didn't actually find out whether Lan Yuan was straight or gay. He just assumed that they were "compatible" based on his own judgment. Although it turned out that his judgment was correct, now that he thinks about it, his behavior of taking the initiative without verification was indeed inappropriate.

So this time, when he sensed the signal Bei Yao was sending to Jing Ran, his first reaction was to protect Jing Ran and prevent him from getting hurt.

After hearing He Ziyu's explanation, Jiang Chengyu felt relieved, but there was still a part of her heart that felt a little awkward.

"But you just said he's handsome." Jiang Chengyu said this in a low voice, perhaps feeling that it was a bit pretentious, and then subconsciously quickened his pace.

"I was just teasing you!" He Ziyu quickly chimed in, explaining with a half-smile, "He is handsome, but definitely not as handsome as you. You are the most handsome in my eyes."

Jiang Chengyu maintained his pace, but a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth revealed his relief. "But he's physically stronger than me."

"What does his physical fitness have to do with me? I'm not with him..." Before he could finish speaking, He Ziyu suddenly stopped, glancing at Jiang Chengyu out of the corner of his eye and seeing that his expression hadn't changed much, and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Anyway... we should still worry about Xiao Jing. With his small arms and legs, apart from being able to run fast, he's no match for Bei Yao at all. If he gets beaten up by Bei Yao one day, he probably won't be able to get back."

"What kind of beating are you referring to?" Jiang Chengyu glanced at him intently. "The kind in bed?"

The sudden car bumped into He Ziyu, causing him to stumble. He opened his eyes wide, somewhat doubting whether the words he had just heard came from Jiang Chengyu's mouth.

Looking at Jiang Chengyu again, he calmly walked into the bathroom in front of him as if nothing had happened.

……

There is no hot water in the restrooms of No. 8 Middle School.

Fortunately, September was still the tail end of summer, and the two of them didn't feel uncomfortable after washing their hair with cold water; on the contrary, they felt quite cool.

He Ziyu and Jiang Chengyu returned to the playground and childishly flicked the water droplets from their hair at each other, completely forgetting about buying popsicles.

On the other side, Jingran waited anxiously under the blazing sun.

Those two said they were going to buy popsicles, but they've been gone for ages and still haven't come back. In that time, he could have run back and forth by himself.

"It's so slow, so incredibly slow..." Jingran muttered, squatting on the ground, utterly dejected.

While waiting, he wanted to run away several times, but Bei Yao, for some unknown reason, wouldn't let him go and even extended the "helping to grab chicken legs" time from one day to a week.

Jingran is a pragmatic person, and he thought the deal was worthwhile, so he agreed.

"Do you think they might have bought too much and are too heavy to carry, that's why they're so slow?"

"Maybe?"

Bei Yao stood beside Jing Ran, shielding him from most of the sunlight with his body, while looking into the distance.

He was actually a little curious as to why the two of them took so long. Even if they were flirting and teasing each other on the way, it shouldn't have taken this long, right?

Just as Bei Yao's imagination ran wild, Jiang Chengyu and He Ziyu finally appeared before him.

Bei Yao patted Jing Ran on the shoulder, "You're here."

Upon hearing this, Jing Ran quickly helped Bei Yao stand up by supporting his arm.

His legs were numb from squatting for so long, but the thought of the big cow made him feel light and cheerful.

But then, in the next second...

Jingran saw two people walking towards her. Their school uniforms were bright red, and their hands were empty, carrying nothing.

Such a bizarre scene, combined with Jingran's strange thought process, instantly gave rise to a terrifying conjecture—

Could these two have been robbed on their way to buy popsicles, had their food stolen, and been seriously injured?