My girlfriend was reborn.

Chapter 14 Love with the Scent of Bitter Almonds
"When you heard about rebirth before, you didn't really believe in it or care about your own future, but now you're curious about your friend's future. That's a bit too kind of you."

Cheng Shuangjiang rested her chin on her left hand, sizing up the young man beside her.

"Just curious."

Zhou Heming just felt that if the future of the three of them was really as Cheng Shuangjiang said, then it would be a very regrettable thing, or rather, a very, very regrettable thing.

"Yes, because when we reunited, your relationship had already become distant, so my knowledge of that part is limited, and I know even less about what happened seventeen years ago."

Cheng Shuangjiang turned her gaze to the water glass on the table and said, half in reminiscence.

"First of all, Qiao Jinchen likes Xu Youyou, and Xu Youyou also likes Qiao Jinchen. You should have realized that by now."

Should I have noticed?

Zhou Heming wasn't quite sure, so he decided to try to recall it again.

"When did it start? I had a feeling there was something going on between them, but I didn't expect it to be so direct."

Okay, he figured he must have missed several chapters.

"According to you, it should be the first year of high school, and the turning point is when he stood up for Xu Youyou."

Cheng Shuangjiang tapped the tabletop twice with her left hand.

"So, they've liked each other for over two years, but they're still not together? What kind of plot is this, a mutual unrequited love story?"

Zhou Heming found it unbelievable.

“There are even longer unrequited love stories than this.”

The girl chuckled lightly, as if mocking herself, and then spoke.

"But the two of them didn't get together, and even deliberately avoided each other in the future."

"You'll later reminisce that when you visited Qiao Jinchen's home, his parents still remembered Xu Youyou and asked how the girl with glasses was doing and whether you were still in contact."

"When I chatted with Xu Youyou's parents, they also remembered that their daughter always talked about a messy and naughty boy, but whenever she mentioned him, she always had a smile on her face."

The scariest thing about friendship isn't breaking up, but that we've stopped contacting each other, yet my mother still remembers your name.

"What exactly happened? Did they break up after dating?"

Zhou Heming became increasingly curious about the "future".

Cheng Shuangjiang shook her head.

"They were never together."

"?"

A question mark appeared above Zhou Heming's head.

At this age, liking someone can overcome everything, especially mutual liking. Xu Youyou is academically excellent, and Qiao Jinchen comes from a wealthy family. He really couldn't understand why the two of them couldn't be together, or even continue their friendship from high school.

"why?"

"Because, listening to what you, at thirty-five, have to say makes Qiao Jinchen feel inferior."

Cheng Shuangjiang said softly.

"He has an inferiority complex? Although this guy is indeed a bit stubborn and can't even speak properly when he sees pretty girls, he's perfectly normal in front of Xu Youyou! Besides, his family is so rich, how could he have an inferiority complex?"

Zhou Heming still clearly remembers that back in the first year of high school, Qiao Jinchen mocked those gossiping students by saying, "No matter how hard you guys work, you probably won't earn as much as my family can afford a house in your lifetime," which made those students break down on the spot.

"Because he felt that his grades were not good enough for Xu Youyou."

The girl carefully considered her words, glanced at Zhou Heming's expression, and then continued speaking.

"Everyone feels inferior when in love."

"."

It has to be said that Zhou Heming felt a bit of empathy for him.

It's not that he's insecure, but rather that he often feels insecure when facing outstanding girls around him.

Eighteen-year-old Zhou Heming and the reborn Cheng Shuangjiang still have unequal feelings for each other, and the scales of love tip infinitely towards the young girl.

"What about Xu Youyou? My sister Youyou always speaks her mind, so why doesn't she dare to say anything?"

“Because, ‘she felt that no matter how hard she worked her whole life, she couldn’t earn enough to buy a house for Qiao Jinchen’s family,’ that’s what you, in the future, told me.”

"."

Zhou Heming suppressed the urge to swear in front of the top student in his grade.

Who would have thought that a bullet fired by Qiao Jinchen two years ago would now hit Xu Youyou right between the eyebrows?

He muttered again. "...Actually, Qiao Jinchen stood up for Xu Youyou back then because someone spread rumors that Xu Youyou was only tutoring Qiao Jinchen because she was after his family's money."

What a bad fate.

Zhou Heming felt a sense of powerlessness against fate.

Eighteen-year-old Qiao Jinchen felt inferior in front of the girl he liked because of his poor grades. To him, even though his family had hundreds of millions of assets, he was the poorest person in the world in front of that girl.

Eighteen-year-old Xu Youyou felt inferior because Qiao Jinchen's family was too rich. She hoped to stand on equal footing with the boy she liked, but the reality was that she could never reach that position in her entire life.

can.

If Qiao Jinchen didn't come from such a family, and Xu Youyou didn't have such achievements, the two of them wouldn't have met and fallen in love.

Fate forms a closed loop here.

Of course, given time, their growing experience may gradually erase their youthful inferiority complex, and one day they will untangle their knots and understand each other's feelings.

But that's no longer the kind of infatuation I had when I was eighteen.

"Qiao Jinchen should receive a call from home on Wednesday night, and then be absent from work on Thursday. Because his grades have not improved, they sent him to study abroad. In my timeline, he stayed abroad for ten years, then hastily married a girl from a similar social class, divorced her two years later, and returned to Jiangcheng to manage the family company."

"Xu Youyou earned her doctorate, worked in another city after graduation, and remained single until she was thirty-five years old."

"Even though you've hinted at these things, for them, the best times are over, and they can't face the beauty of the past now."

The future that Cheng Shuangjiang told Zhou Heming was so bleak that it was almost excessive; it was a bad future that would make him feel regretful just by listening to the narration.

"Sent abroad? And what about me, hmm, what did I do in that timeline?"

Zhou Heming couldn't help but become curious.

"You did nothing."

She gently twirled the ends of her hair with her left hand and answered with a pursed lip.

"At that time, you didn't think it was a bad thing for Qiao Jinchen to go abroad, and you wouldn't actively get involved in other people's relationships. You also didn't know that some people might have seen each other for the last time without realizing it."

Zhou Heming felt somewhat disappointed.

That was indeed his personality in the past.

Eighteen-year-old Zhou Heming thought his friend was just going abroad for further studies and that they would reunite and rekindle their friendship a few years later. Little did he know that the monster called reality had already devoured that future.

It was precisely because they thought it was just an ordinary thing at the time that so many people wanted to buy osmanthus flowers and share wine.

"Later, you said that the ill-fated relationship between the two of them was like a love with the smell of bitter almonds."

Bitter almonds?

"It's a description from 'One Hundred Years of Solitude,' oh, you probably haven't read that book yet."

Cheng Shuangjiang gave a slight smile.

"At thirty-five, I'm really a bit of a pretentious intellectual. Thanks for your patience."

Zhou Heming gave a sarcastic laugh, his tone slightly sour.

Are you jealous of yourself?

The girl looked at him with great interest, as if she had discovered a new continent.

"No."

"Your expression is so cute right now~"

"..."

Zhou Heming turned his face away, not wanting the girl beside him to see his predicament.

After a moment of silence, until the cat stepped on the electric scooter downstairs, emitting a sharp alarm, Zhou Heming turned his gaze to the water glass, and an idea came to mind.

"You just said that in the other timeline, I didn't do anything, right?"

He didn't believe in rebirth, but he believed that if he gave it his all this time, the future of the three of them would be shaped by the flapping of a butterfly's wings, leading to a completely different ending.

"Could you tell me in detail about Qiao Jinchen and Xu Youyou in your 'future'?"

"what are you up to?"

Cheng Shuangjiang tilted her head and asked.

"I want to write a screenplay."

The boy gripped the pen tightly, his expression resolute and earnest.

*
Thank you everyone for your monthly tickets and recommendation votes!
By the way, if you want to tip, you can tip the character directly and earn Star Points for free!
(End of this chapter)