Reborn in his school days, saving the school beauty Bai Qingxia [Please bookmark this new novel!]
"What did you say? The only vote I got in the election for sports representative wasn't from Hu Caiwei?"
"But it was clearly her handwriting."
Figures milled about inside the café.
Lu Yuanqiu, thirty-two years old and dressed in a suit and polished shoes, stared at the man across from him in surprise and voiced his confusion.
The man opposite him was Gao Qiang, one of his high school classmates.
Gao Qiang took a small sip of coffee and replied, "No. Hu Caiwei and I went to the same university. She told me herself."
Lu Yuanqiu thought for a moment, then gave a self-mocking smile and picked up his coffee. "If it wasn't her, who was it?"
Memories of those days flooded his mind.
In his second year of high school, Lu Yuanqiu had worked up the courage to run for sports representative, but he had five competitors.
Though he was now worth hundreds of millions, back then, everyone had considered him the bottom of the class.
During lessons, he was either one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" stationed in the classroom corners or one of the "Left and Right Guardians" beside the teacher's podium.
Back then, Lu Yuanqiu hadn't just been a poor student. Everyone had considered him a troublemaker, and his classmates wanted nothing to do with him.
But sports really had been his strong suit, something he took pride in.
He had watched all fifty-two classmates cast their votes for the other five boys, without receiving a single one himself.
Standing on the platform, Lu Yuanqiu had put on a flippant air and a carefree smile, but inside, he had been utterly crushed.
What teenager was truly as carefree as they seemed? Most were sensitive deep down, and Lu Yuanqiu had been no exception, especially in a situation like that.
Then the final slip of paper had been pulled from the box.
Lu Yuanqiu had seen his name written on it in sharp yet elegant handwriting...
It was his name!
In that instant, his fake smile had become genuine. Though he hadn't won the election, that vote had given him tremendous encouragement.
Even fifteen years later, Lu Yuanqiu was still grateful for that slip of paper. Whenever he faced adversity, he would remember the encouragement he had felt at that moment.
As one stand-up comedian had said:
No matter the circumstances, as long as you dare to be yourself, someone will always love you.
But Lu Yuanqiu had always thought the person who "loved" him was Hu Caiwei.
Before that, he had pursued Hu Caiwei with some lingering doubts. Afterward, he had become all the more devoted.
Gao Qiang paused, then said, "Yuanqiu, do you remember a girl in our class whose handwriting looked a lot like Hu Caiwei's? Even the teachers often mixed them up."
"Her name was Bai Qingxia."
At that instant, Lu Yuanqiu looked up.
His mind rang as though it had suffered a heavy blow.
It was her?!
The girl whose life had ended forever fifteen years ago?
"Yuanqiu? What's wrong?"
"Yuanqiu?"
Lu Yuanqiu could feel Gao Qiang shaking his arm, but everything before his eyes was already spinning.
Then a blinding white light filled his vision. When he opened his eyes again, he was in a bedroom that felt both familiar and unfamiliar.
Sitting on the bed, Lu Yuanqiu stared blankly at the poster of Jay in a red hoodie on the opposite wall.
He looked at the basketball and guitar beside his bed.
An unbelievable possibility struck him, and he hurriedly looked at the calendar hanging on the wall.
Fifteen years ago...
He had actually returned to fifteen years ago!
Wait... August thirtieth?
August thirtieth, fifteen years ago!
Once it sank in, Lu Yuanqiu scrambled out of bed to put on his shoes. A slightly wild grin spread across his face, and his hands shook so badly with excitement that it took him two attempts to tie his shoelaces into bows.
He would never forget this day.
Today was the day before his final year of high school began. That afternoon, he had gone to watch over his family's supermarket, only to see his classmate Bai Qingxia stealing items from the shelves on the security feed.
Since he barely knew Bai Qingxia and had never even spoken to her, Lu Yuanqiu had deliberately turned a blind eye to spare her the embarrassment.
But the next day, he had heard in class that she had died in a traffic accident.
She had been crushed beneath a large truck, her body horribly mangled beyond recognition.
The accident had happened not long after she left the supermarket.
Lu Yuanqiu remembered being stunned for a long, long time after hearing the news.
If he hadn't turned a blind eye that day and had stopped her instead, he might have embarrassed her, but at least he could have saved her life.
He couldn't remember the exact time of the accident, but it had definitely happened after three in the afternoon. It was only two now. There was still time.
Lu Yuanqiu rushed out of his bedroom. He had someone to save!
He was going to drag the girl who had secretly voted for him all those years ago out of hell!
He entered the living room.
His fourteen-year-old, short-haired sister was sitting on a chair, picking at her pale bare foot.
His mother had just come out of the kitchen and was untying her apron. Her hair was still entirely black.
"Oh, Qiu, your dad's gone to pick up stock. He wants you to hurry over and watch the supermarket."
"I know!"
Lu Yuanqiu rushed forward excitedly and gave his mother a huge hug.
The still-attractive woman blinked, taken completely by surprise.
Seeing the scornful look his sister gave him, Lu Yuanqiu pointed at her and declared with an absurdly smug grin, "Don't worry. I'll hug you when I get back tonight."
His sister, Lu Yidong, jumped off the stool in disgust and backed away, waving her slender arms. "Lu Yuanqiu, what's gotten into you in broad daylight? Touch me and you're dead!"
Mother and daughter exchanged bewildered looks as Lu Yuanqiu dashed out the door.
"How strange. Didn't your brother always think working the register was embarrassing?"
"He's got a screw loose!"
The short-haired young girl folded her arms and spoke with embarrassed irritation.
Standing on the pedals of his bicycle, Lu Yuanqiu recalled everything about high school.
In his memory, Bai Qingxia had been an excellent student in both character and academics. Every semester, when seats were assigned, she sat in the front row, so the view Lu Yuanqiu knew best was her back.
But Bai Qingxia had also been strange.
She was cold and unapproachable, never smiled, and often studied until late before going to the cafeteria. He had never seen her with any friends, either.
She was always alone and spoke little, wearing her school uniform year-round and keeping herself tightly covered.
So even though she was several notches prettier than his dream girl, Hu Caiwei, Lu Yuanqiu had never imagined anything happening between them.
Hu Caiwei had been a goddess
he could actually reach.
But Bai Qingxia existed only in beautiful fantasies.
During their school years, when a girl was beautiful enough and aloof enough, many boys wouldn't dare approach her, or even meet her eyes.
Yet Bai Qingxia, who had never interacted with him, had quietly cast his only vote in the election for sports representative last semester?
Lu Yuanqiu couldn't understand it.
Everyone had voted at the same time. She couldn't have seen that he had no votes, felt sorry for him, and then written down his name.
That meant Bai Qingxia had chosen him from among the six candidates right from the start-and she had been his only supporter in the class.
This girl seemed to be hiding many secrets.
Sadly, in his previous life, she had taken those secrets with her as she lay forever in a cold pool of blood.
Lu Yuanqiu took a deep breath and pedaled faster, finally reaching the supermarket.
He sat down at the register and watched the customers coming and going with a serious expression.
Half an hour later, a girl in a school uniform walked in with a backpack.
Lu Yuanqiu glanced up at her without drawing attention to himself.
She had fair, delicate skin, an exquisite profile half-hidden by dark hair, large, dewy eyes, and long, curled lashes.
Beneath her naturally hanging ponytail, glimpses of her snow-white neck showed. The contours of her nose and face looked as though the goddess Nüwa had carefully designed them with a measuring ruler.
Without a trace of makeup, her beauty was entirely natural.
With that face and her blue-and-white school uniform, she could have been the unforgettable girl of countless people's youth.
Though Lu Yuanqiu had met plenty of beauties in the circles of wealth and fame by his thirties, none had ever left him as awestruck as his first encounter with Bai Qingxia in high school.
She was the kind of girl who looked pure and delicately radiant at a glance.
After that glance, Lu Yuanqiu turned his attention to the security feed.
With her backpack on, Bai Qingxia walked slowly, but headed purposefully toward the food section.
She picked up a bread roll and carefully checked its price. After agonizing over it for a while, she put it back.
She circled the shelves, then returned to the same bread roll.
Looking back to check her surroundings, she lowered her head. After a long hesitation, she finally made up her mind.
She moved her backpack in front of her, unzipped it, and slipped the bread inside.
Only after putting three rolls into it did Bai Qingxia zip her backpack shut.
By then, Lu Yuanqiu had already used his phone to record evidence from the security feed.
Seeing that Bai Qingxia was about to leave, Lu Yuanqiu stood up.
He knew it was time for him to step in.