Childhood Friend Gwen

A winter morning.

Goose-feather snowflakes drifted down from the sky, scattering across every corner of the metropolis. Though dawn had only just broken, Washington, as a world-class international city, had already come alive. Students and office workers could be seen passing through the streets that had just been cleared of snow.

Beep beep!

A local police car slowly pulled over at the roadside of a residential neighborhood. The door opened, and a cute blonde girl hopped out of the back seat with a backpack in hand.

"Gwen, slow down. Your water bottle."

Officer George, dressed in his formal police uniform, opened the driver's door and hurried after her. Holding her thermos for her, the burly man's voice softened with indulgence as he looked at his beloved daughter. "Are you sure you don't need me to take you to school? The roads are slippery, and it's still snowing."

Gwen took the thermos and put it into her backpack, refusing crisply, "No need. I brought rain gear, and I'm wearing non-slip boots."

"But—"

Officer George wanted to say more, but Gwen's eyes suddenly lit up. Joy and excitement colored her cheeks as she bounced like a rabbit and waved her arms vigorously toward someone. "Xi Nian, over here! Over here!"

I knew it.

Officer George sighed inwardly and turned around. Sure enough, a familiar teenage figure had appeared at the street corner.

Hearing someone call his name, Xi Nian looked up and immediately smiled and nodded when he saw them. "Gwen, Uncle George, good morning! What a coincidence to run into you again!"

Xi Nian was quite familiar with them.

Gwen, full name Gwen Stacy, was a girl his age who lived in a nearby neighborhood.

Xi Nian and Gwen had attended the same daycare since they were children. They had gone through elementary school and middle school together, and now attended the same high school. They could be considered childhood friends with a deep bond. As for her father, he was a local police officer with some reputation and authority, responsible for public security in this part of the city. His full name was George Stacy.

"Yeah, what a coincidence." Gwen's eyes curved into crescents, overflowing with irrepressible delight.

The snow around them was white and glittering, but Officer George's face was a little dark.

A coincidence? My ass!

She had obviously timed it perfectly and deliberately come here to stage this chance encounter for that brat.

Of course.

Officer George had no intention of exposing his beloved daughter's girlish feelings. Besides, he had investigated Xi Nian's family background ten years ago. He truly was a pitiful yet kind child.

"Ah! Xi Nian, why aren't you wearing a hat or carrying an umbrella?"

Gwen spoke in surprise, quickly stepping close in front of Xi Nian. Before he could reply, her hands were already brushing the frost and snow from his hair and eyebrows.

"I was in a hurry when I left and forgot." Xi Nian smiled indifferently, temporarily setting aside the chaos in his mind.

"You still need to keep warm. What if you catch a cold?" Gwen puffed out her cheeks in mild anger, only making her seem even more playful and adorable.

Without thinking much of it, she took off her fluffy hat and put it on Xi Nian's head. Then she breathed warm air into her hands and pressed them against his slightly cold face. To others, that already counted as an extremely intimate gesture, but for the two of them, who had grown up together, it was so commonplace that it carried no special meaning.

"It's cold outside. I'll drive you two to school," Officer George said, unable to bear watching any longer.

Gwen did not answer. Instead, she looked up at Xi Nian.

"The school isn't that far, so I was going to..."

Xi Nian had originally wanted to refuse, but when he felt Officer George's sharp gaze, he changed his mind and nodded. "Then thank you, Uncle George."

Seeing this, Gwen smiled as well. "Then we'll trouble you to give us a ride, Dad."

"You're welcome."

Officer George held his head high and puffed out his chest. For his daughter's sake, he had clearly accepted his fate as a tool!

Not long afterward, the police car started up, entered the main road, and headed toward the high school.

Inside the warmly heated car.

Gwen and Xi Nian sat together in the back seat. After getting in, Xi Nian watched the winter streetscape rush past outside the window, his expression and gaze occasionally turning absent and dazed.

Suddenly, a warm, soft hand clasped his. Xi Nian turned and saw the girl's face full of concern.

Gwen asked him, "Xi Nian, how are you feeling today? Are you unwell? Why do you look like you have something weighing on your mind?"

"I..." Xi Nian did not know how to begin.

What had been troubling him ever since he left home was naturally the photograph that had been slipped into his house. Though he had opened the door afterward to check, the mysterious person who had delivered it was already nowhere to be found, leaving behind only a heap of strange mysteries.

Was that photograph really taken during World War I? And who was the woman in armor who looked exactly like his aunt?

His aunt's mother? No. World War I had been nearly a century ago. Going by generations, she would have to be old enough to be even his grandmother's mother.

If he asked Gwen's father for help, he should be able to find the person who had secretly slipped in the photograph, right?

After hesitating, Xi Nian still said, "I'm fine. I just got a little chilled."

"Then you won't be cold like this, right?" Gwen wrapped both hands around Xi Nian's left arm instead. At that distance, they could clearly feel each other's body heat.

Officer George, who was driving, only glanced at the rearview mirror once before nearly losing his mind.

Watching his own tender, fair cabbage voluntarily offer itself to a pig, even if that pig was handsome and had grown up under his watch, was probably something no father in the world could tolerate!

Wait.

As an experienced man, a thought suddenly occurred to Officer George. Looking at the young pair through the rearview mirror, anyone with eyes could see what his daughter meant, but this brat seemed not to have that kind of intention!

Mm, that made being a father feel even worse.

The police car stopped on the road outside the high school. When Gwen and Xi Nian got out, they immediately drew the attention of many students.

Only then did Xi Nian take an extra look.

Today, Gwen wore a new beige down jacket over a fitted handmade sweater. Her long legs were tightly wrapped in white jeans, and she wore a pair of black knee-high boots that made her seem even taller. Her sixteen-year-old body overflowed with youthful energy, and combined with her brilliant, dashing short blonde hair and delicate little face, she was simply—absolutely stunning!

Since they had played together since childhood, Xi Nian had long been used to it.

Only when he saw the envy, jealousy, and resentment in the other students' reactions did he suddenly realize that Gwen seemed to be quite popular at school.

"Gwen, you should let go of my hand," Xi Nian said.

"No. It's warmer this way."

Gwen huffed and hugged him even tighter, causing Xi Nian's right arm to sink completely into a patch of softness.

Compared to the ultimate softness of cotton candy, there was also an indescribable resilience?

Naturally, Xi Nian himself had no such thought.

But the students nearby had red eyes as they roared inwardly, Damn it, let go of her! Ahhhhh!!!

"If you don't let go, their stares are going to kill me." Xi Nian gave a bitter smile. If looks could kill, he would have died countless times already.

"You dared to threaten a knife-wielding criminal barehanded in elementary school, and you're afraid now?" Gwen covered her mouth and let out a silver-bell laugh. At last, she released Xi Nian's arm, though her little face reddened considerably a beat later.

"Stop bringing up my embarrassing past." Xi Nian's lips twitched. Back then, he had been somewhat chuunibyou, having recently watched a historical documentary about Captain America. He had always thought he possessed the talent and ability to become a superhero.

If the police had not arrived in time back then, he would probably have already been reincarnated for the third time.

Having spent sixteen years as an ordinary person, Xi Nian, a reincarnator without any system cheat, had completely come to terms with reality.

Where were there so many gifted superheroes? With five or six billion people around the world today, the only ones who had truly stepped onto the stage of the era as superheroes were Captain America, Iron Man, Batman, and Superman!

And Superman was an alien from Krypton.

"It's not that I'm afraid of trouble."

Xi Nian ignored the angry students and walked into the relatively warmer hallway of the school building. Looking at the girl beside him, he teased, "I don't mind, of course. I just think—it's not very good for you. Aren't you pretty popular? I heard you're about to be elected the No. 1 around here."

"Where did you hear that?!" Gwen could not help spitting in annoyance.

But at that moment.

Gwen suddenly realized that being childhood friends was not always a good thing.

Once a relationship had been fixed in place for too long, it became difficult to gradually change it.

As Xi Nian and Gwen walked through the hallway of the school building, a bespectacled girl seated in the back corner of a tenth-grade classroom stared blankly out the window. Her gaze subtly followed Xi Nian as he moved along the corridor.

"Kara, what are you looking at?"

A female classmate leaned over the desk and asked curiously.

"Nothing." Kara Danvers hurriedly withdrew her gaze.

"Really?" The classmate was skeptical. She followed the direction Kara had been looking, but all she could see was a clean white wall.

The thick wall blocked the outdoor corridor, making it impossible to see anything passing by outside.