Chapter 77: Extra – IF Route – Back to Xia Wansheng’s High School Days – Part 1
A normal morning. A sudden chill pierced through Yu Congyan. His first reaction was, did the central air conditioning break?
He opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling, so low he could almost touch it?!
Yu Congyan abruptly sat up and realized this wasn’t the Yu family villa. This looked like a bunk bed in an ordinary high school dorm room.
The jarring school bell blared from the loudspeaker, signaling the start of another dreary day for the students.
He must be dreaming.
He rolled over, trying to return to reality, only to hear the bed frame creak beneath him.
This dream felt too real.
As he hesitated, his roommate in the next bed knocked on the metal frame, “Yu Ge, hurry up and get up, Old Ban’s class is first today, we’re doomed if we’re late!”
Yu Congyan could only try to adapt, getting up and washing his face in a daze, then, looking at his reflection, realized something was wrong.
Why did he look exactly like his high school self? Was he reliving his eighteen-year-old life?
Seeing him still standing by the sink, lost in thought, his roommate yawned and patted his shoulder, “Yu Ge, what are you spacing out for? Did you memorize yourself into a stupor?”
Yu Congyan shook his head and stepped aside, unable to process the limited information and understand what was happening.
He sat back down on his bed, the textbooks in his bag suggesting he was a science student.
Before he could think further, his roommates urged him to hurry to class and memorize their notes, lest they be late.
Yu Congyan, looking at the four-bed dorm room currently occupied by only three people, asked cautiously, “Shouldn’t we wait?”
He didn’t know what the other roommate was like.
The other two exchanged glances, their expressions turning strange.
Their Yu Ge’s target had almost been snatched away by Xia Wansheng. As loyal brothers, they naturally had to step in, gathering a few friends and, using Yu Congyan’s name, teaching him a lesson.
“Yu Ge, didn’t you know Xia Wansheng is still in the infirmary? We don’t even know if he’ll make it… hey, what are you doing?!”
One of them, assuming he was joking, reached out to pat his shoulder, only to have his arm twisted, yelping in pain.
“Why is Xia Wansheng in the infirmary?!” Yu Congyan didn’t loosen his grip, his heart pounding with unease.
Xia Wansheng, after their marriage, hadn’t deliberately avoided mentioning his school days, just casually saying he had been struggling financially, but he had managed.
He had intended to ask someone who knew the situation for details, and now the opportunity presented itself.
“Yu Ge, didn’t you hate him? How dare he try to steal the school beauty from you? We just taught him a lesson, so he wouldn’t bother you anymore… ow!”
The roommate didn’t react quickly enough and found his head making intimate contact with the floor.
What was happening?!
“Who told you to act on your own?!” Yu Congyan, filled with anxiety and panic, quickly subdued them, adding a few extra kicks for good measure, then rushed towards the infirmary to find Xia Wansheng.
“Yu Ge, we were just doing it for you…” The roommate tried to explain, but Yu Congyan’s icy glare silenced him.
“You better pray Xia Wansheng is alright,” Yu Congyan stepped over him, dropping a chilling warning, “Tell them to stay away from Xia Wansheng.”
He slammed the door shut and ran towards the infirmary.
It was winter, the wind biting cold, the frigid air filling his lungs, he felt chilled to the bone.
He quickly reached the infirmary. The door was slightly ajar. He knocked, but there was no response, so he pushed it open anxiously.
The school doctor seemed to be away. He saw a curtained-off area and assumed it was Xia Wansheng’s bed.
He had to check on him.
Even if this was a dream, he couldn’t just stand by and watch him being bullied.
He lifted the curtain and saw a slender back, almost dropping the curtain in surprise.
Xia Wansheng was changing his clothes. Hearing the sound, he instinctively clutched his shirt to his chest.
He turned to see Yu Congyan, the one who had caused him trouble before, and nervously stepped back.
“I told you…I didn’t try to steal anyone from you, you can ask yourself, I didn’t write that love letter!” Xia Wansheng insisted.
He just wanted to live a peaceful life, he didn’t want to be involved with these school bullies.
He had been beaten up because of that incident, he hadn’t expected Yu Congyan to add insult to injury.
If he could, he would pretend nothing had happened for the sake of his peaceful life.
But if Yu Congyan continued to bother him, he wouldn’t hesitate to send his entire gang to juvenile detention.
Preoccupied with those thoughts, he hadn’t noticed what Yu Congyan had just said.
Yu Congyan didn’t notice anything amiss at first glance, but then he saw the bruises, the marks on Xia Wansheng’s back, more like he had been beaten up.
“Sorry, it’s my fault.” He had just pieced together the story from his roommate’s words, realizing Xia Wansheng was completely innocent, his concern genuine.
“???” Xia Wansheng was puzzled.
This guy, after sending his lackeys to beat him up, was now pretending to be concerned?
There must be a trick.
Xia Wansheng asked cautiously, “Didn’t you know about this?”
Seeing the genuine concern and worry in his eyes, he realized this wasn’t so simple.
Yu Congyan nodded, then, despite the difficulty, tried to explain his current situation.
It involved transmigration, rebirth, time travel, and a system. Even he felt his story sounded absurd.
Xia Wansheng thought believing this would be a betrayal of his materialistic beliefs, he was more inclined to think this guy had some kind of memory distortion after waking up.
“Then…what’s our relationship?” He decided to get straight to the point, to gauge the extent of his memory loss.
Yu Congyan nodded, his words shocking, “Of course I remember, we’re married…mm!”
Xia Wansheng quickly covered his mouth.
He was stunned. Married? What kind of dream was this?
Even swapping love and hate wouldn’t lead to such an explosive development.
The school doctor returned at that moment, calling out from the doorway, “Student, you can leave if you’ve recovered, you can still make it to afternoon classes!”
He walked closer, about to lift the curtain and check on Xia Wansheng.
“I’ll be out as soon as I’m dressed!” Xia Wansheng quickly replied, “I’ll be back in the dorm soon.”
If anyone saw him and Yu Congyan in the same enclosed space, disheveled, the rumors would spread like wildfire throughout the school.
He tried to push Yu Congyan into a corner while answering, hoping he wouldn’t be discovered.
“Okay.” The school doctor, hearing his energetic response, was reassured and went to attend to other matters.
Footsteps faded away.
Xia Wansheng breathed a sigh of relief, then remembered he had a bigger problem to deal with, he turned to the person beside him and whispered, “Do you remember the love letter?”
That inexplicable letter was the cause of his current predicament.
Yu Congyan shook his head, he didn’t remember.
Good, the school bully had knocked his brains out, a truly tragic story.
Xia Wansheng was so happy he wanted to set off fireworks.
“I’ll take you to the hospital for a checkup later,” he said, thinking this was a good excuse to leave school. He feigned indifference, his mind racing.
“Why the hospital…” Yu Congyan stopped mid-sentence, noticing his unusual expression, “A checkup would be good.”
He was also curious about what Xia Wansheng was planning.
Seeing him nod, seemingly convinced, Xia Wansheng quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Although things hadn’t gone as planned, it seemed the evidence he had wouldn’t be needed for now.
He would wait and see.
As he was about to leave, Yu Congyan grabbed his left hand.
He seemed oblivious to the implications, a familiar, instinctive gesture. Seeing Xia Wansheng stop, he asked, “Why aren’t you moving? We have to go back to the dorm and pack.”
The unfamiliar yet warm and dry touch of his palm, Xia Wansheng tried to pull away but couldn’t, Yu Congyan’s grip firm.
Xia Wansheng: !!! Let go!
They were in their final year of high school, if the disciplinary head saw them like this, they would be labeled as a “typical couple”!
