Chapter 2: Just Goodbye

  Su Can found himself unable to tell the people around him about his experience just now. Could it be that after eleven years, he was walking nostalgically on this street, feeling a sense of loss and longing for the past, when the timeline merged with his 1998 self, and the thoughts or soul-like thing from back then suddenly crossed over into his current body? Or rather, he had been reborn in such a unique way into his own body!

  Just now I was still in the winter of 2009, Xia Hai City is located in the inland western basin, belonging to the temperate continental climate, with distinct seasons and a large temperature difference between day and night. Now it looks like around six o'clock after school, in the winter of 2009, the cold front passed through, and the sky darkened early. At that time, I could already see the bright moon and sparse stars, matching my mood at the time, no matter how I looked, I felt depressed.

  It was the summer of '98, and 6 o'clock seemed to signal the start of a new day for these junior high school students who had just been dismissed from school. In inland western regions, it usually didn't get dark until around 8 o'clock in the summer, but by then it would be more like a twilight with a veil of sunset glow. At this moment, the sun hung at an angle of about 35 degrees above the horizon, casting a warm golden light over everything. The buildings were all bathed in a cozy warmth, and they were all familiar to him, though some no longer existed now. Yet, as he gazed at them with his brown eyes, they seemed especially real and intimate.

  Looking at these girls in front of the grocery store, they seem somehow familiar no matter how I look at them.

  Those overly young and slightly familiar memories gradually turned over in his mind, and the people in front of him were his classmates from the beginning of 2009, also one of the most prominent groups of girls in the class.

  At that moment, when the crowd snickered at someone calling him "top student", two girls glanced at him with a hint of disdain in their eyes before quickly shifting their gaze to some stationery products nearby. The two girls were named Cheng Yun and Cheng Lan, twin sisters who were the most popular girls in their grade, not only because of their beautiful appearance but also because they looked almost identical, making it difficult for people to tell them apart. They had many suitors, including some boys from the high school department.

  Eleven years later, I have little contact with my junior high school classmates. All I've heard is that two of the most popular girls back then are now living ordinary and mundane lives - one working at a telecommunications office and the other married to an IT industry white-collar worker.

  And another girl, Tang Yu, who didn't have a mocking expression like the others, was the class monitor at that time, and still is now. She ranked first or second in grades, with a beautiful appearance, but she was always cold to people, and as the class monitor responsible for checking homework every day, this made many people in the class respect her, although secretly she had become the perfect little lover in the dreams of adolescent boys.

  Of course, forgot to introduce in the end, Su Can's grades are at the level of mid-to-lower stream dragging oil bottles in the whole class, and even in the whole school. In the current Xia Hai Third Middle School, such a level is basically not on the stage in the whole city.

  Although only sixteen years old, Tang Yu was already elegant and refined, making it hard for people to look directly at her. Su Can seemed to have remembered something important, but the impact and amount of information he had received so far were too great, his heart still racing rapidly, and for a moment, he couldn't recall what it was.

  Tang Yu didn't want to join in the teasing of Su Can with the people around her, and there were reasons for this. Firstly, she was usually in a high position in class and didn't bother with the mocking of those around her. Secondly, although Su Can was a relatively low-key person in class, his performance in all aspects was quite average, and his slightly disheveled and soft hair, as well as his appearance, were exactly the type that girls liked. For Tang Yu, this was also something she couldn't help but feel, and over the three years of junior high school, she had developed some good feelings towards this unremarkable Su Can, at least not feeling disgusted by him.

  In addition, she just thought that the high school entrance examination is approaching, and all students in the city will face a watershed test. With her grades, she will definitely go to the First Middle School of the city, which is also a provincial key middle school, compared with Xia Hai City Third Middle School in front of her, it's like heaven and earth.

  Su Can, who was always at the bottom of his class, had his life swept away by the first turning point.

  At sixteen years old, Tang Wei rarely had a sense of life's impermanence and yet still managed to mock others.

  Of course, Tang Wei did not know that in the future world of explosive information development, the pressure on employment would be severe, and academic qualifications would gradually become secondary, while work experience would become the focus of employers.

  What surprised her the most was that Su Can, who was in front of her, was staring at her with a gaze. To be honest, Tang Yu was used to being treated differently by her classmates due to her identity and stunning looks. In that era, when boys were just entering puberty, they didn't dare to look directly into her eyes without feeling uneasy. Some people couldn't even bear to meet her gaze and would immediately turn away, while others would blush with shame. Tang Yu, who was accustomed to people avoiding her gaze, felt a bit at a loss for the first time facing someone who stared back at her calmly.

  Especially the owner of such a gaze, surprisingly came from Su Can, who usually lacked confidence in class.

  Looking back, Su Can couldn't help but admit that at that time he had a few hints of secret love for Tang Yu.

  But this is all nonsense. In the class, as long as it was a boy, who dared to guarantee that they didn't have any improper thoughts about Tang Wei? However, everyone knew the difference between flying birds and swimming fish, especially during the middle school entrance examination. Tang Wei undoubtedly entered the city's top high school with excellent grades. It is said that even the head teacher was extremely regretful that such an excellent student left their class and school. Moreover, all the top students in this generation flocked to the first high school in the city, while the third middle school became a cradle for cultivating talents for others. At that time, many veteran teachers were disheartened, and later, the third middle school declined with each passing year. The high school department was particularly dismal, and soon it fell to the level of a third-rate school in the city's education circle.

  Su Che, who returned from zero nine to the present, although with a 16-year-old appearance, has added eleven years of thinking, not to mention that in these eleven years, it is an era of information explosion, and all the information and knowledge in the world can be searched on search engines, even some military secrets that have been sealed for many years.

  With such experiences, Su Can, who is already an adult in terms of mental age, never had the possibility of being shy in front of Xiao Tang Wei.

  Tang Yu's heart was actually in a different situation, Su Can's gaze was calm and tranquil, like a deep pool of water, without any greenness or naivety. The faint light on his brown pupils made him unexpectedly handsome, which made Tang Yu feel an unusual feeling inside, with a slightly sour taste. Her heart suddenly beat faster, but she turned her head to the side, her face flushing red for the first time.

  Cheng Yun and Cheng Lan, the twin sisters with eyes higher than their foreheads, had a stronger ability to observe words and expressions. Seeing Tang Yu's transformation, they couldn't help but add several points of surprise when looking at Su Can.

  "Hey, Xiao Wei! I didn't expect to run into you here! As soon as school let out, you took off and I thought I wouldn't be able to catch up with you. This problem is giving me some trouble, and I was just thinking of asking for your help to figure it out properly. Otherwise, I'll treat you to a drink - there's a new Taiwanese bubble tea place that just opened up nearby, and the flavor is really good!"

  A man with short hair and a Li Ning bag slung over his shoulder, exuding an air of nonchalance, appeared at the entrance of the small shop, looking at Tang Yu with a surprised expression.