Youth is wasted on the young, who trade a mature beauty for a fleeting girl! Li Zhiyan, strung along like a fool by the campus belle, had been reborn with a pathetic system. He found himself back in the year 2010, on the exact day of his graduation party when he was about to hold a bouquet of flowers and confess his love to campus belle Yu Sisi, only to be publicly rejected and turned into a laughingstock for years to come. Glancing at 41-year-old Aunt Gu Guanzhou standing nearby—mature, intellectual, elegant, kind, considerate of others' feelings, and entirely uncompetitive—Li Zhiyan decisively grabbed his bouquet and publicly confessed his love to the alluring auntie. "Aunt Gu, actually, I've liked you for a very long time." [Male lead 18, female lead 40+.]
Chapter 536: Milk Tea Shop
Ding Baijie's proactive gesture sent a wonderful sensation rippling through Li Zhiyan's heart.
Ding Baijie had always been an immensely traditional woman, a fact Li Zhiyan perceived with absolute clarity.
In the past, she had never even worn high heels or stockings.
Those things were items he had bought for her himself; it was only through his persistent efforts that Ding Baijie had transformed into this glamorous and sexy version of herself.
And now, as Ding Baijie took the initiative to kiss him, compared to her former...
Liu Fei feigned a look of gratitude as he spoke, though inwardly he was somewhat excited, knowing his objective had finally been achieved.
One had to realize that the True Qi protective barrier condensed by Liu Fei could even withstand the beast flames of the Crimson Flame Demonic Dragon, let alone these divine artifacts originating from Seven-Star Battle Kings.
Of course, this was merely Qianyuan's wishful thinking; the millennia of accumulated grievances between the human and demon races were not so easily dissolved. Nor was Qianyuan quite that naive, but without trying, he simply could not resign himself to failure.
Just as Li Yalin's mind was filled with doubt and confusion, he looked over toward Cotton Candy, only to find her speaking involuntarily, an expression of disdain flashing across her face.
Boss Cao offered some words of comfort, though inwardly he thought to himself that it was impossible for students from the Earth Department to possess the ability to refine elixirs; chances were, the five students before him were simply here to cause trouble.
Yet the strange beast was no honey badger, but rather an SSS-class Zerg beast that had just defeated a honey badger.
They wanted to be big kids, to act like big brothers, and therefore they could not treat them this way. They had to set a good example for Xinxin, and besides, when Xinxin grew up, they wanted to take her out to play everywhere—climbing mountains and crossing rivers, capable of anything.
Carrying the tiger as he walked over, the crowd felt the oppressive murderous intent and involuntarily took a few steps back. It was not that they were cowards, but rather that the pressure emanating from the opponent was simply too overwhelming.
"This humble one is Dao Yi, a disciple of the Sword and Saber Alliance. Greetings, Senior Brother Zhao." Under the piercing gazes of Zhao Jing and the others, Dao Yi ultimately had no choice but to speak up.
"A turbulent era?" Huo Ruyan was half-skeptical, having no clear understanding of this so-called turbulent era.
"You set the fire just to block ghosts?" Ao Hu covered for Ling Chen; as long as Ling Chen nodded, he wouldn't yet feel that his judgment had been completely mistaken.
Due to irregular market management in Shenzhen during the early years, yin-yang contracts ran rampant, and sales models based on pocketing the price difference were common across all real estate agencies. It wasn't just Taihua Real Estate that dared to operate this way.
When you truly have no idea what to wear, just put these on; these few shades are universally versatile and can handle pretty much any theme of banquet.
Jiang Yan understood every word, but instead of replying immediately, he feigned difficulty, managed to mumble the opening line, and promptly forgot everything that followed.
Shen Congfei frowned, as the timing was a bit too tight—it would take roughly five minutes.
Jiang Yan awoke from his dreams, and the moment he sat up in bed, Shadow happened to be phasing back through the wall at that very second.
The grand hall was permeated with the heavy scent of traditional Chinese medicine, its painted beams and carved rafters looking utterly desolate due to the master's severe illness. On the bed, Lin Yuan was pale as a sheet, breathing as faintly as gossamer, completely unconscious.
The two men beside him froze at those words, glanced at Li Qing and Gongsun Xin, and stepped back.
To think he had been played back and forth by everyone, only to end up sinking into such a quagmire, unable to extract himself or break free no matter what.
Moreover, there was a high probability that because of that so-called Chen Feifan, he had ended up implicating his entire faction.
Hair, skin tone, lip color, clothing—these were details he had already clearly registered earlier. His gaze gradually drifted downward, landing on the shopping bag she was carrying.
Xuan Yu was momentarily stunned. Although he worried about Gupan in his heart, since she had put it that way, he had no choice but to leave. Furthermore, staying behind might only add to Gupan's troubles, so he decided to follow her instructions and leave for the time being.
Chi Zhiheng nodded inwardly and, without a single pause, finished writing the prescription and handed it to Chi Zhuoguan for inspection! Then he seated himself in a chair, quietly awaiting word.
An eight-horse carriage thundered into the city under the loud cries of the driver, showing no signs of slowing down whatsoever, terrifying the surrounding pedestrians into scrambling out of the way while hurling fierce curses.
001: The Winds Stir in 2010
"Li Zhiyan, Su Mengchen has committed suicide. I heard she was suffering from severe depression, and her mother followed her as well."
"For ten years, she has been waiting for you."
"When she couldn't hold on anymore, she..."
Hearing his classmate's words, inside the rented room, the wine glass slipped from Li Zhiyan's hand and shattered into pieces on the floor.
The news struck like a bolt from the blue, pain spreading rapidly through his heart.
That foolish girl had taken her own life.
"Li Zhiyan..."
"Li Zhiyan..."
The voice from the phone could no longer reach Li Zhiyan.
The only person in this world who had been genuinely good to him was now dead as well; what meaning did this world hold for him anymore?
His consciousness was steadily fragmenting, and memories of his life flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern.
At thirty-two years old, he had still achieved nothing in this society.
His grandparents had passed away long ago, and he had never even seen his father's face since childhood.
As for his mother, she had died in an accident when he was nineteen.
Misfortune, it seemed, always loved singling out the wretched.
Now he was left entirely alone, struggling bitterly to survive in this society.
Even when he fell ill, he could only endure it alone in the hospital.
Every time he saw others being cared for and cherished, an uncontrollable surge of envy welled up inside Li Zhiyan.
Average in height and with utterly ordinary looks, he was a nobody.
It seemed that for all these years, no one had ever truly cared for him.
Except for Su Mengchen, the limping girl with twin ponytails whom he had met after graduation.
Su Mengchen was truly very pretty, but due to deep-seated insecurity, she was unwilling to interact or communicate with others.
Wherever she went, she kept her head lowered, despising how ugly she thought her limping walk was.
On a few accidental occasions, he had managed to crack open her closed heart.
He became her boyfriend—that was Li Zhiyan's first romantic relationship in life, even though they were pointed at and whispered about wherever they went.
Yet Li Zhiyan, born merely as one of the masses, felt immensely fortunate and happy to have found such a beauty.
Su Mengchen had genuinely poured all her heart and soul into him.
And then there was her mother, the glamorous Aunt Shen Rongfei—a woman whose figure bore a striking resemblance to Zeng Li, with a bust reaching D-plus. Although he had only met her a few times, she had truly been very kind to him as well.
Back then, he often thought that if only he could marry Su Mengchen and just live out their lives like that, it would be enough.
However, as the pressures of life constantly closed in...
After losing his job, he was driven out by his landlord. It was only then that he truly understood that in this society, nothing could be accomplished without money. Feelings of inferiority and depression assaulted him relentlessly.
Li Zhiyan simply hadn't the heart to drag Su Mengchen down with him.
On a rainy night, Li Zhiyan asked her to break up.
Su Mengchen had been very calm at the time, which had allowed Li Zhiyan to let go of some of his worries.
Having battered his way through society for several years, Li Zhiyan had managed to scrape together some money.
Yet wanting to buy a house and a car in Wancheng was, without a doubt, utterly impossible.
Clinging to the money he had earned, Li Zhiyan drifted through the world of transient pleasures.
When he had money, those women were overwhelmingly passionate and attentive.
When he had no money, their attitudes took a complete, extreme opposite turn.
A whore has no heart, an actress no loyalty.
The words of the ancestors were indeed timeless truths.
And the several girlfriends he had experienced had all been relentlessly practical.
Because he couldn't afford a house, every single one of them broke up with him.
After struggling through several setbacks, Li Zhiyan gave up completely.
At thirty-two years old, Li Zhiyan had resigned himself to growing old alone.
As an ordinary person, wanting to get married and turn one's life around in this society was simply as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
Following yet another night of heavy drinking...
Li Zhiyan received the devastating news of Su Mengchen and Shen Rongfei's suicides.
His consciousness faded away piece by piece, his heart filled to the brim with agony.
Was this the end of everything...?
If there is an afterlife, I want to be a second-generation tycoon, a super-rich man!
That way, I can forget the troubles of this world and never miss out on the person I love.
...
When Li Zhiyan opened his eyes once more, he found the red roses in his hand.
Atop them rested a card, inscribed with the cringeworthy, toe-curling love poetry he had written himself.
"Yu Sisi."
Li Zhiyan tried to keep reading, but the embarrassment made the words stick in his throat.
"An illusion?"
He pinched his own flesh hard, and a wave of pain washed over him.
It jolted Li Zhiyan fully awake. Looking at the familiar school surroundings around him, he pulled out the VIVO smartphone residing in his pocket.
Li Zhiyan checked the date.
"July 21, 2010!"
"2010!"
The voice of his best friend, Li Shiyu, standing beside him dragged Li Zhiyan's thoughts entirely back to the year 2010!
"Brother Yan! You've got some real nerve! Daring to publicly confess to Yu Sisi!"
Awkward memories flooded his mind. During his adolescence, there had been two particularly mortifying things.
One was how he constantly went around boasting he would become a millionaire.
The other was Yu Sisi, the goddess who had spanned his entire youth.
He had pursued her for a full two years, yet she only accepted his gifts and his kind treatment while refusing to accept his confession.
Clearly from a well-off family, she never refused a single gift he bought by draining his living expenses.
And she possessed a professional repertoire of practiced lines:
"Me accepting your gifts does not equal me agreeing to be with you."
Furthermore, she encouraged him to keep trying and pursuing her, promising that as long as he was sincere enough, she would consider making him her boyfriend in the future.
Having been rejected repeatedly, his courage had flared up today.
He had directly announced in the class chat that he would confess to his goddess at today's class reunion.
And subsequently, his public confession had been ruthlessly rejected by Yu Sisi.
To make matters worse, he had been mocked to his face by Liu Yaolong, a rich kid in the class who was also pursuing Yu Sisi.
For many years afterward, this incident had become fodder for gossip and a standing joke among his classmates.
He could never forget himself playing the fool at that eighteen-year-old class reunion.
"That's a pretty nice bouquet you've got there."
"I'm sure the campus belle will love it."
As they spoke, the two of them had already arrived in front of the hotel.
Seeing the flowers in Li Zhiyan's hands, Yu Sisi lifted her chin proudly.
At eighteen, one is at the very peak of vanity.
Even though she looked down on an ordinary guy like Li Zhiyan, having someone hold a bouquet of flowers and publicly confess to her was something that validated her charm.
Looking at Yu Sisi before him, Li Zhiyan felt absolutely nothing.
Instead, his attention was completely drawn to Yu Sisi's mother, Gu Wanzhou.
To give birth to a campus belle like Yu Sisi, Gu Wanzhou's looks were naturally exceptional, enhanced further by the seasoning of time.
Today she was wearing a black buttoned-down shirt, paired with a black hip-hugging skirt, flesh-toned stockings, and a pair of high heels.
The mature allure of a woman was released to its absolute fullest.
Only a mature woman could pull off such an outfit so effortlessly.
There was a special, lingering charm to her.
Perhaps because he had reached the right age now...
Li Zhiyan felt as though he was increasingly able to appreciate the beauty of mature women.
And the longer he looked, the more Li Zhiyan felt that Yu Sisi's mother resembled the Madam from K2, making his hormones race at an accelerated pace.
A mentor's wife was undeniably gorgeous too!
Mature women possessed a unique attraction to young men, didn't they?
At that moment, a voice rang out.
"System activation successful."
"Random quest issued."
"Yu Sisi will humiliate you during the upcoming confession."
"Please confess to Yu Sisi's mother, Gu Wanzhou."
"Quest reward: 50,000 yuan in cash."
This voice left Li Zhiyan stunned.
A system?
002: Publicly Confessing to the Campus Belle's Mother
Li Zhiyan had never imagined he would be reborn, nor did he know what an ordinary person could do upon starting over.
When it came to the stock market, he was completely clueless and hadn't even ever opened an account.
Go into business? He didn't even have the initial capital.
Buy the lottery? Leaving aside whether winning the lottery depended on the numbers or sheer luck...
He simply had no clue what the winning lottery numbers even were.
Yet to his surprise, he had actually brought a system back with him—even if this system looked thoroughly pathetic.
It didn't even start him off with a Tomson Riviera apartment or a Lamborghini Veneno.
Still, it counted as a cheat code, and 50,000 yuan was quite a lot; it could improve his mother's life.
The thought that his mother was still alive, and that his grandparents were in good health...
Filled Li Zhiyan's heart with a profound warmth.
At the hotel entrance, the classmates had already gathered.
Li Zhiyan spotted a few trend-chasing male classmates with dyed hair in various shades.
There were reds, greens, and purples.
Memories of his youth began launching a frantic assault on Li Zhiyan.
Nearby female classmates looked at Yu Sisi with eyes full of envy; only truly pretty girls could experience such a high-profile confession during their teenage years.
Gu Wanzhou looked at Li Zhiyan with keen interest. This boy was going to confess to her daughter?
It seemed quite romantic. She had interacted with Li Zhiyan before and found him to be an exceptional young man; she had even chatted with him about her daughter's hobbies and interests.
Aside from feeling the boy was a bit introverted and liked to talk about his dream of becoming a millionaire, she liked everything else about him.
In short, her impression of him was very favorable.
Never did she expect that today he would actually dare to confess to her daughter in front of so many people.
After Li Zhiyan walked up to his classmates clutching the bouquet of flowers...
The surrounding classmates immediately started hooting and egging him on.
"Go for it, Li Zhiyan!"
"Hurry up and confess!"
Several classmates even pulled out their phones to start recording video. Li Zhiyan knew that for years to come, this footage would be circulated back and forth in the class group chat.
It had made him a laughingstock for many years.
And after entering university, Yu Sisi had even shown this video to all her roommates one by one, always viewing it as a manifestation of her irresistible charm.
Li Shiyu was also cheering Li Zhiyan on from the sidelines.
He felt that although Li Zhiyan and Yu Sisi weren't in the same league, such a grandiose public confession today might just work a miracle!
Little did he know that what Li Zhiyan was about to do next would become the ultimate punchline for the entire class.
"Li Zhiyan, you're not actually going to confess to Yu Sisi, are you? Come on, I believe you can do it!"
Hearing the voice of class monitor Liu Yaolong, Li Zhiyan felt as though he was looking at the last eunuch of the Qing dynasty.
Back in 2010, the species known as the internet troll hadn't yet become as rampant as it would by 2024.
Yet the class monitor had clearly evolved ahead of schedule.
Yesterday, the news that he was going to publicly confess at the class reunion had already spread like wildfire through the class.
The two people Li Zhiyan detested most in his class were Liu Yaolong, the monitor who constantly made him clean up using his petty authority, and Liu Zifeng, the rich kid.
He had deep conflicts and physical fights with both of them.
Especially Liu Zifeng, who had relied on his family's wealth to rally a mob to beat him up. Fortunately, Li Shiyu had his back; the two of them had gritted their teeth through the beating and relentlessly pounded Liu Zifeng into the dirt, keeping themselves from getting the short end of the stick!
At that moment, Liu Zifeng looked at Li Zhiyan with a playful smirk.
At this point in time, his relationship with Yu Sisi was already quite close.
Because Liu Zifeng's mother and Gu Wanzhou were best friends...
He held an innate, unbeatable advantage in pursuing Yu Sisi.
After his own confession was rejected, Liu Zifeng had mocked him mercilessly, calling a toad trying to eat swan meat.
Going through that ordeal back then had truly crushed his spirit for quite a long time.
Yet, even though Liu Zifeng was relatively handsome and wealthy, he ultimately failed to successfully capture Yu Sisi.
Because of Yu Sisi's affluent background, Liu Zifeng's wealth still fell short of meeting her extremely gold-digging standards.
In college, she would end up hooking up with a wealthy second-generation heir whose family was in real estate and whose assets exceeded a hundred million.
Judging by his stance, he clearly knew Yu Sisi was going to reject Li Zhiyan and was planning to pile on the mockery.
At eighteen, people truly were brainless...
Liu Zifeng pulled out his phone, switched on the camera, and watched Li Zhiyan with casual detachment. This toad truly had no idea of the immensity of heaven and earth.
With neither height nor looks to speak of, he was a pure nobody—and he actually wanted to confess to Yu Sisi?
He really had no concept of his own worth.
Last night, he had already chatted privately with Yu Sisi, and she had made it clear she thought nothing of Li Zhiyan. However, since she wanted a romantic confession, she had asked him to record it on video.
As for Li Zhiyan this clown, he was definitely going to get rejected on the spot!
Later on, he would have to ruthlessly hurl a few nasty insults at this loser who dared to chase the same woman he was.
What level do you even think you're playing at?
Under the gaze of everyone present...
Li Zhiyan walked right up to Yu Sisi. Even the homeroom teacher and the mentor's wife stepped aside to clear a path for him, intending to watch the confession play out.
Now that graduation had passed, they no longer bothered meddling in such romantic matters.
Stopping right in front of Yu Sisi...
Li Zhiyan paused.
Yu Sisi wore an expression of haughty arrogance, looking like a princess. In her eyes, Li Zhiyan was completely wrapped around her finger.
The man still went around dreaming of becoming a millionaire—how laughable!
Based on what you are, you expect to become a millionaire?
"I'm sorry, Li Zhiyan, but I just don't think we're in the same league..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the words froze on her lips.
Li Zhiyan, having already casually concealed the card, bypassed her entirely and walked straight up to Gu Wanzhou.
Then, he extended the bouquet toward her.