Forced Me to Regress, Huh?

Wang Anquan was startled upon hearing this, feeling that these words held a certain depth.

“Reading a book again might give you new insights, but the ending doesn’t change.” He silently committed this phrase to memory, deciding that once he arrived at college, he would recite it at the right moment to impress others.

Moreover, when Brother Zhu said it, he wasn’t even looking at me but out the window. It made him look even more fucking deep.

After all, ever since Cheng Zhu became successful at a young age, even the rich second-generation heirs and self-made entrepreneurs around him all agreed—no one could outdo him when it came to showing off. How could Wang Anquan, who was still just a student, handle him?

However, the words carried a lot of weight. Wang Anquan thought that Cheng Zhu might be a bit disillusioned, and it seemed like he was dead set on breaking up, determined to lock in the ending.

He only sighed. “Actually, Rongrong told me that Li Xinyue just has a bit of a princess complex, but she still cares a lot about you.”

This made Cheng Zhu instantly turn his head and size up Wang Anquan with a frown. “Is it because Chen Rongrong and Li Xinyue are best friends that you don’t want me to break up with her? That way, it’ll be easier for you to get close to Chen Rongrong.”

Although this was indeed part of Wang Anquan’s true thoughts, he still pretended to be indignant and retorted loudly, “No way! Brother Zhu, you’ve got a dirty mind!”

“It’s best if it isn’t,” Cheng Zhu replied calmly.

His impression of Chen Rongrong was somewhat vague. Although some of his memories had resurfaced after his regression, he only remembered that she was the first female classmate to get married. It seemed she had become pregnant before graduating from university and then pressured the man into marriage, threatening to cause a scandal if he didn’t.

After that, he didn’t have much contact with her and didn’t hold many memories of her.

He only knew that after her marriage, she seemed to have borrowed money from Wang Anquan, but he hadn’t bothered to look into it further because he had been too busy at the time.

Thinking about it now, Cheng Zhu felt that regression was quite marvelous.

He had returned to his youth, but his mentality remained that of his later years.

Originally, he should have had two or three years of a relatively innocent and pure phase.

After starting college, he had broken up with Li Xinyue and suffered from heartbreak.

But during this time, a female classmate showed a lot of concern for him, often initiating conversations with him and comforting him.

Although this classmate wasn’t as attractive as Li Xinyue, she spoke gently and, more importantly, had long legs.

Cheng Zhu fell in love again, only to experience the feeling of suffocating in the river of love once more. The outcome was terrible, and he didn’t even want to think back on it.

Afterwards, he underwent some changes.

He didn’t let this experience scare him away from dating, nor did he start spouting phrases like ‘locking my heart away’ or ‘cutting off feelings before getting too attached’.

His mindset simply shifted, but life went on.

He would date when he wanted and break up when the time came.

The key was not to trap himself and not be so afraid that he couldn’t move forward.

There’s a voice in every major navigation app that tells you when you take a wrong turn: Please turn around at a safe location and re-route your path.

It’s no big deal!

Perhaps it was precisely because of this that his friends thought he was the most carefree among them.

* * *

The bus was moving through Hangzhou. Cheng Zhu looked out the window and felt everything was familiar yet unfamiliar.

The housing prices in Hangzhou now aren’t as outrageous as they were later.

As if to mock him, the bus even passed a residential complex where he would purchase property later, but it hadn’t been demolished yet.

Damn it. I bought the place, didn’t even finish renovating it, and hadn’t moved in yet, but I was forced to regress! Cheng Zhu was fuming.

This made him set a goal in his mind—buy properties while prices were still low to make up for it.

It’s 2014 now. Even though it’s only a few years back, there are plenty of ways to make money. Cheng Zhu’s mind began to race.

Just as he was figuring out how to make money, his phone buzzed. It was a WeChat message from Li Xinyue.

“We’re really over this time.”

The usual routine. Cheng Zhu laughed.

Some people were like that. They clearly wanted the other party to win them back, but they liked to say harsh things to force the other party to make a move. It was like saying, “If you don’t give in, you’ll lose your chance.”

Wang Anquan, ever nosy, leaned over to take a look.

They were just students, not bound by many rules or taboos. In college dormitories, there would even be people acting as strategists, watching over messages while advising on how to reply.

Then he saw Cheng Zhu swiftly type his reply. “Okay.”

Wang Anquan’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Immediately, the ‘Typing…’ notification showed up at the top of the chat and then disappeared. It showed the contact name ‘Yueyue’, only to turn back to ‘Typing…’ again.

After several back-and-forths like this, the other side finally replied, “Let’s delete each other.”

Without hesitation, Cheng Zhu deleted Li Xinyue from his contacts.

The entire process was smooth and decisive. In fact, he had even considered blocking her before deleting her. This way, she couldn’t send a friend request again.

Watching all this unfold, Wang Anquan had a certain feeling in his heart. Why do I feel Brother Zhu is way too skilled at this?

Dumbfounded, he blurted out, “Did you really just delete her?”

“What else?” Cheng Zhu replied matter-of-factly. I’ve already given her what she asked for. What else does she want?

Wang Anquan said, “Brother Zhu, Li Xinyue must be fuming right now, huh?”

Cheng Zhu smiled nonchalantly. “Honestly, treating her this way is already letting her off easy.”

“Huh?” Wang Anquan was confused.

Cheng Zhu continued, “With Li Xinyue’s personality, once she goes to college, she’ll most likely break up with me and then jump into someone else’s arms.”

“Huh?” Wang Anquan was even more bewildered.

But that’s only after she starts college and we’re in a long-distance relationship. Think about it. If I wanted, I could have easily kept the relationship going through the summer.

That way, he’d have a small mouth to kiss and a slender waist to hug every day.

With a long summer ahead, given his current level of experience, it wouldn’t take much to get her to fall completely into his hands, unlocking every stage of intimacy along the way.

Then he could just wait for the long-distance relationship to do its work.

It was all about making the most of the limited resources and time.

With a fickle and unfaithful girl like Li Xinyue, Cheng Zhu honestly wouldn’t even feel the slightest bit of guilt.

Of course, Wang Anquan couldn’t possibly understand all of this, and Cheng Zhu didn’t intend to get him to.

A certain piece of wisdom suddenly came to his mind.

It was a famous saying from a guy that many netizens called Grandmaster.

Although he didn’t plan to put this famous saying into practice with Li Xinyue, after thinking about it, he decided to note it down, feeling it might still have some reference value.

Cheng Zhu opened the notes app on his phone and started typing.

Watching from the side, Wang Anquan thought that the first half was pretty normal, even a bit old-fashioned.

But when he saw the second half, he was dumbfounded. It shook the naive heart of a young student like him.

The famous saying Cheng Zhu typed from Grandmaster was:

“Don’t let down good girls, don’t waste bad girls.”

===

Also, you may notice some lines are present tense even though they’re not thoughts/dialogue. I thought about making them past tense, but it sounded kinda awkward like that, so I changed them to present tense. Also, the author is not really clear about what is character thoughts or not, but I’ve tried my best to make it obvious.