His ex-girlfriend, Zhang Ningzhi

"You can bite it open?" Zhang Ningzhi looked like an innocent, curious child.

"Yeah, it's easy. You just do this." Jiang Nian pinched up a corner of the milk carton and deftly bit a hole in it. "See? Open."

Li Hua thought, Great, great, great. You got it open, and I'm fucking dying over here.

He felt like the older brother in "My Classmate's Little Sister," who sat at his desk with his head down, doing homework for two hours and pretending not to notice anything.

Brooo, stop flirting. This NPC can't take much more.

Class finally ended, and the boys into boys went wild again. They were either piling several people onto one seat to merge their layers or hugging each other from behind to practice the Heimlich impregnation maneuver.

"How d'you shay it? Wangzai milk gummies~"

"Come on, baby!"

"Yes~"

Olympiad Class Three was brimming with talent and had a strong academic atmosphere. Human-to-human transmission was underway, and bottom energy filled the air.

"Hey, what the fuck!" Li Hua was still in his seat when Ma Guojun led a group charging over. They grabbed his arms and legs and hoisted him up like a pig about to be slaughtered for the New Year.

"Jiang Nian! Ah! Save me! Save me!"

"Stay out of it, Jiang Nian. We're here to deal with him today!" Ma Guojun adjusted his glasses.

Looking awkward, Jiang Nian rose from his seat. "He's my brother, after all. Just standing by and watching would be a little disloyal."

"I'll take his left leg. I wouldn't trust anyone else with it."

Fuck you. My heart finally stopped hanging in suspense-it just died!

The long recess allowed only three short minutes of free time before the warning bell for group running sounded. School administration required every senior to head downstairs and participate.

Li Hua got crotch-rammed against a post twice in those three minutes and was utterly drained. But by sacrificing himself, he quickly brought Jiang Nian into this particular group of boys in Olympiad Class Three.

Jiang Nian had noticed that Li Hua was the popular, socially savvy sort. A guy like that could strike up a conversation with a stray dog and had plenty of friends both inside and outside the class.

As for Zhang Ningzhi, Yao Beibei dragged her off to the restroom for a duo queue as soon as class ended. Girls' little circles were harder to break into, so Yao Beibei was trying to help her through restroom diplomacy.

None of these young classmates meant any harm. They were all helping the newcomers fit in, each in their own way.

Yu Tongjie, on the other hand, presented a stark contrast.

Ever since moving up to this class, Yu Tongjie had eagerly answered questions in lessons, his voice drowning everyone else out. He didn't nap during breaks either, just hunched silently over his desk working on problems.

Nothing gets through to this guy. Kid, you're invincible.

Fortunately, this was teenage life in China. His classmates merely thought he was a little strange. They might gossip about him in their free time, but they wouldn't actually start bullying him.

"Let's go. Time to run."

Jiang Nian and Li Hua walked past the first row of desks with their arms around each other's shoulders. Jiang Nian glanced at Yu Tongjie, who was holding an English vocabulary book and preparing to head downstairs alone for the run.

What a hardworking young man.

Aside from being a piece of shit, he almost counts as a person.

"What, you know Captain Pretentious?" Li Hua asked. "He's the biggest poser in class, acting like some fucking anime protagonist. Even the Zero Class kids don't show off as much as he does."

Jiang Nian shook his head. "Not really."

He wasn't someone who repaid malice with kindness, but he didn't demand revenge for every little slight either. If someone merely bad-mouthed him behind his back, he generally dismissed it as a dog barking and let it go.

School was one giant parcel depot, full of little pieces of shit and big pieces of shit. There was no clearing them all out.

The group run was uneventful, except that some people were practically dying.

The hefty Ma Guojun ran beside Jiang Nian in the same row, but vanished after two laps. Jiang Nian turned around and found that the bastard had blended seamlessly into the class behind them.

Hold on. Who the fuck are you, buddy?

Under the neighboring class's sports representative's gaze, Ma Guojun adjusted his glasses as he bounced along, then gave an awkward smile.

"I'm from the next class. Just let me slip it in."

Holy shit, what a creepy thing to say. Thank god their sports rep was a guy. But less than thirty seconds later, the hefty Ma Guojun sped back to Jiang Nian's side, looking horrified.

"What happened?" Jiang Nian asked.

"Fuck, I just said, 'Let me slip it in,' and that white-socked jock fucking blushed." Ma Guojun's two fat legs pumped furiously. He didn't dare fall behind again on the last lap.

Jiang Nian didn't know whether group running improved physical fitness. But he did know that the hefty Ma Guojun's moral character deteriorated in inverse proportion to the number of laps he ran.

For every extra lap, he randomly nominated another school administrator's mother for the King of Hell's hit list.

As soon as the run ended, Yu Tongjie's eyes instinctively swept over the girls in their class. His gaze settled on two of them, neither of whom was Zhang Ningzhi.

He was very disappointed in Zhang Ningzhi now, because she had defended Jiang Nian.

Still, he couldn't help seeing her as he scanned the group. Her cheeks were flushed, and she instinctively turned her head, seemingly searching for someone in their class too.

Jiang Nian was tall and stood on the outer edge, chatting with the foul-mouthed Ma Guojun. When he turned his head, he suddenly caught Zhang Ningzhi looking at him and gave her another couple of glances.

Caught red-handed, the girl instantly blushed and shrank back like a tender willow shoot.

Hey, I saw that.

Pretending nothing happened won't work.

Jiang Nian was about to laugh when a sudden ding sounded in his mind.

[At thirty-eight, while sorting through your belongings, you opened an unremarkable box and awakened memories long buried.

Her neat ponytail, her innocent face-photo after photo and carefully prepared gifts were now covered in dust.

Your gaze lingered on a food carrier. Ten years ago, you accidentally broke your leg. On a night of heavy snowfall, she traveled a thousand miles to see you, bringing that food carrier with her.

You realized you hadn't been a complete failure. At least once, you had won all the love a sweet girl had to give.

Mission: Reestablish contact with your ex-girlfriend Zhang Ningzhi, whom you lost touch with years ago. Reward: 300 RMB.]

Jiang Nian stared at the panel that had appeared before him, reading its lines with some bewilderment. Hold on, man. How does my future self in another timeline have an ex-girlfriend?

An ex-wife was already impressive enough. An ex-girlfriend too?

The classes on the field were being dismissed in batches, and voices clamored all around him.

Jiang Nian sank into thought. By rights, he would have stayed in a Parallel Class throughout high school. Zhang Ningzhi had the ability to move up to an Olympiad Class, so their paths shouldn't have crossed in either high school or university.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Ten years ago would mean twenty-eight.

Wasn't that the year my other self started going on blind dates? Jiang Nian couldn't quite remember.

After all, he hadn't experienced any of it himself. He had only seen it mentioned on the panel.

Two years later, he was already coughing up money for the bride price. Why rush into marriage? With such a good girlfriend, how did she become an ex? And he was forced into blind dates that very same year.

This life simulator... Oh, wait, life-review game was seriously messed up.

For Jiang Nian, it could be treated as a game. Yet the information it revealed did feel a little like a glimpse of the future, even if many things would change.

Unable to figure it out, he simply stopped thinking about it.

I'll do the mission first.

For his thirty-eight-year-old self in that other timeline, completing this mission would clearly mean taking a loss. He might have to spend a fortune asking around or tracking down Zhang Ningzhi's whereabouts.

But as things stood-

(End of chapter)