Cheng Zhu could now confirm that he had fucking regressed.
He really couldn't understand why, out of all those people who wanted to regress, he was the one who didn't want to, yet he was the one chosen.
This daddy still had over six million yuan in just that one card that he hadn't gotten around to spending!
If it were him right after graduating high school, he probably wouldn't be as shameless as now, directly confronting this wall-digging Class Monitor Li.
But his current self had, after all, come from many years in the future.
By then, he had long been in a state of having passed through countless flowers without a single leaf sticking to him. Naturally, he looked down on Li Rui, this so-called romantic warm guy.
Why did the meme "warm guys rank behind dogs" become popular again recently?
TL: Warm guys are nice guys, dogs are simps.
Wasn't it because someone on Douyin left a comment in a girl's risqué video section saying: "Stop doing this, you deserve to be loved."
And she directly replied: "Warm guys rank behind dogs."
Idiots like Li Rui who shower someone else's girlfriend with care, consideration, and meticulous attention—the legendary highest-level treatment they get is: letting you stand at the door to hear the sounds, or using the condoms you bought tonight, giving you at least some sense of participation.
TL: Cuckolded
Cheng Zhu's mindset was excellent. He even felt he wasn't cursing at Li Rui, but rather that he was a living Buddha enlightening him, giving him a wake-up call.
Moreover, he genuinely disliked Li Rui from the bottom of his heart.
When everyone had just graduated from college, Li Rui was doing the best, landing a cushy government job through family connections, and even spoke with a bit of bureaucratic tone.
At that time, Cheng Zhu hadn't made it yet, still in the stage of scrambling and searching for opportunities, and had been on the receiving end of Li Rui's passive-aggressive remarks plenty of times.
At the root of it all, Li Rui just couldn't accept that his childhood goddess had gotten together with Cheng Zhu.
But at later class reunions, Li Rui stopped coming, or rather, he couldn't come anymore.
Because of certain matters, he had secured another kind of iron rice bowl—he went to eat prison food.
At this moment, Li Rui's entire face turned beet red, his fingers trembling with anger.
But oddly enough, when he looked at the gaze Cheng Zhu directed at him, he actually felt a bit intimidated.
Cheng Zhu figured this was probably because he himself was young and accomplished, successful in his career, already accustomed to being in a position of power. The aura he emanated was completely different from an ordinary high school graduate—he completely regarded the other party as a child.
But in Li Rui's eyes, he actually felt that Cheng Zhu, for some reason, was really fucking street right now, like some kind of gangster!
Cheng Zhu naturally had slightly high brow bones, with the corners of his eyebrows naturally tilting slightly upward. His entire face had sharp features with a touch of roguish handsomeness.
Combined with his tall build, it was easy to create a misunderstanding based on appearance, making people think he was the school bully type.
Since starting middle school, if two groups of boys had a conflict and he went to back up one side, even if he was clearly just there to boost morale, once a fight broke out, the other side would follow the principle of capturing the leader first and definitely target him specifically, beating him to death.
During his school days, he never got to experience being a big brother, but he took plenty of beatings that a big brother should have taken.
But you know what, this type of guy was actually pretty popular during student days and never lacked for girls who liked him.
At this moment, Li Xinyue felt that Li Rui and Cheng Zhu were completely incomparable.
But she still held firm to her original stance, looking angry as she said: "Then that's that. I won't care about you anymore!"
After speaking, she huffily walked away, prompting Li Rui and Chen Rongrong to immediately follow with quick steps.
Wang Anquan stood beside Cheng Zhu and asked: "Zhuge, really not going to chase after her?"
"Chase after her for what? The next one will be better behaved." Cheng Zhu didn't have that thought at all.
Admittedly, first loves are always unforgettable.
But Li Xinyue was the type of girl who taught Cheng Zhu a life lesson.
Clearly she was the one who pursued Cheng Zhu, and she was always very clingy, acting like she was extremely invested in the relationship. She'd even told Cheng Zhu multiple times that when they went to different universities, you can't cheat on me!
But what was the reality?
There really are girls like this in the world—their emotions are blazing hot, reckless when they're invested, but they won't only be invested in you alone.
Just one month into university, Cheng Zhu experienced a wave of the legendary cold violence treatment.
Only after they broke up did he learn that Li Xinyue had fallen for an upperclassman at the freshman welcome party.
During the cold violence period, Cheng Zhu repeatedly tried to warm up to her cold treatment. Right after the breakup, he also did his utmost to win her back.
In the end, all he got was: "Stop texting me, stop calling me, please just leave me alone."
In that moment, Cheng Zhu was stunned, remembering how during summer vacation she had leaned against his chest, carefully yet passionately and expectantly saying: "After we start university, you won't leave me, right?"
Later on, Cheng Zhu heard that Li Xinyue's life hadn't been going very well.
The reason was simple—that upperclassman boyfriend of hers during university was a super-rich second generation.
Some locks, once opened by a golden key and touched with a bit of gold dust, think they're golden locks themselves.
That upperclassman knew during university that he ultimately wouldn't marry his girlfriends, so he specifically dated pretty ones—nothing else mattered.
But when it came time to actually discuss marriage, suddenly he required someone of matching social status.
In the end, Li Xinyue was left perpetually reaching too high and settling too low.
Many years later at a small high school reunion, Cheng Zhu, who had already become successful in his career and hadn't settled down, didn't even know Li Xinyue would be there.
After that meal, Li Xinyue took the initiative to ask him to drive her home. Wearing a small blazer paired with black stockings, she "passed out drunk" as soon as she got in the car.
Cheng Zhu directly messaged his company's star streamer Yiyi, having this high-level player come to his place to properly "take care of" Li Xinyue.
In the end, it made her flee in embarrassment.
"Truth be told, it was me who was too innocent back then, low-level, poor at identifying trash." Cheng Zhu thought to himself.
"Li Xinyue always had people like Li Rui surrounding her. Maybe she didn't do it intentionally, but she definitely had her own fish pond."
"You could already see the signs."
"Plus, people like her who are blazing hot when pursuing someone but dramatic as hell after getting together—based on my later experience, some women like this are extremely prone to changing their hearts."
Wang Anquan looked at his best friend, always feeling like something about him was different, but couldn't quite put his finger on it.
However, for a student like him, Cheng Zhu's carefree attitude right now was really fucking cool. He felt like Cheng Zhu had out-flexed him.
Cheng Zhu looked at the darker-skinned Wang Anquan with his acne and couldn't help but pat his shoulder, saying earnestly: "If I remember correctly, you seem to like Li Xinyue's best friend Chen Rongrong?"
Chen Rongrong wasn't as pretty as Li Xinyue, but she was good at dressing up, had a bit of a cutesy voice, and was very good at getting along with boys.
Hearing Cheng Zhu's words, Wang Anquan lowered his head slightly: "Zhuge, look at me—my grades aren't good, my family situation is ordinary. Rongrong doesn't even think much of that guy Wang Kai, so there's no way she'd like me."
"I'm very gratified that you have this self-awareness." Cheng Zhu pursed his lips and nodded repeatedly, expressing his approval.
"Zhuge, can't you comfort me a bit?" Wang Anquan was speechless.
Cheng Zhu looked at him and said seriously: "Actually, you can have bad grades, you can not make money, you can even be not good-looking."
"You can be mediocre, you can lack ambition, you can even be not smart."
As Wang Anquan listened, he felt the comforting words were surely coming next.
Cheng Zhu continued: "But, I can't!"
As soon as the words fell, Wang Anquan first froze, then got so angry he wanted to duel with him.
You know what though, Wang Anquan was actually pretty solid, built like a water buffalo with tremendous strength. Cheng Zhu took off running.
He ran while laughing.
What he just said really was from his heart—you can be ordinary, but I can't, because this bro still needs to help you soar.
In the future when I have a bowl of rice to eat, you'll have a bowl to wash—that's my promise to you, bro.
In their chase, the two eventually got on the bus heading home.
On the bus, Wang Anquan still couldn't hold back and asked again: "Zhuge, are you really going to break up like this and not get back together with Li Xinyue?"
Li Xinyue was the type of drama queen who liked to throw around breakup threats, bringing up breaking up at every turn, but once you gave in she'd agree to get back together.
"Of course. Anquan, let me tell you, you can never be a simp in the future. Some people's hearts are made of sponge tissue—the more you lick, the harder they fucking get." Cheng Zhu said earnestly.
It was 2014 now, and the term "simp" probably wasn't very popular yet, but Wang Anquan could roughly understand the meaning.
He chimed in: "But in the end, won't it get soft?"
This immediately made Cheng Zhu feel that his little bro's thinking was very dangerous. Not only did he want to be a simp, he wanted to persevere, attempting to simp all the way to the late game. Wouldn't he just get a face full of love's shrapnel?