Never Meeting Again In Our Next Life

Chapter 16: Pretence

In the past, if Song Yan wanted to talk to Xia Lin, all he had to do was to kick his stool with his toe, and Xia Lin would lean back.

But now, no matter how many times Song Yan kicked him, Xia Lin would always sit still, not responding to Song Yan’s appeals at all, so much so that Song Yan spent the whole class staring at Xia Lin as if he wanted to make a hole in his back.

After the first class ended, the class teacher brought a beautiful boy into the classroom and introduced him to everyone, saying that this was a student who had just transferred over this semester and had to return to his home country to take the college entrance examination because of certain college entrance examination policies.

Song Yan, who was sitting in the last row, originally didn’t pay much attention to the transfer student, but when the other student stepped up to the podium to introduce himself, he was first stunned for a moment, then frantically kicked Xia Lin’s stool: “Xia Lin, look, look, it’s him, the boy I met on the day of the concert is him.

Xia Lin was so fed up with the kicking that he turned around and yelled at him, “Kick again and I’ll break your legs!”

Song Yan didn’t think anything of it, he kept waving at Yu Luotong but never managed to get his attention.

Because of Yu Luotong’s small size, the class teacher placed him at the first table closest to the podium, separating him from Song Yan by almost the whole length of the classroom.

So in the second period, Song Yan finally stopped trying to harass Xia Lin and instead, with one hand on his cheek, stared at Yu Luotong’s back with rapt attention.

When class was over, Song Yan ran off to talk to Yu Luotong.

Xia Lin could not hear what they were saying, but he could basically guess that their conversation would not be too different from what had happened in their previous life – Song Yan would ask Yu Luotong for his mobile phone number and relive that unforgettable concert, while Yu Luotong would complain to Song Yan that the concert tickets had cost him all his savings from his part-time job, and that he would have to live frugally for a while.

Xia Lin thought with envy that Yu Luotong and Song Yan were truly like-minded. Although there was a gap between the rich and the poor, they were on an equal footing when it came to their hobbies and interests. As long as they stood together, they had endless things to talk about – unlike himself, who had to hide his true self and cater to Song Yan in order to create the illusion that they could talk about everything.

It was ridiculous that in his last life he could not see through such an illusion, clinging to his obsession with Song Yan, yet blaming the latter for being heartless and uncaring. However, now that he thinks about it, he is not the one who is being cheap.

Thinking of this, Xia Lin slowly covered his eyes.

Since his rebirth, he had been admonishing himself to stay away from Song Yan while subconsciously expecting something from him, and this expectation had finally turned to nothing after seeing with his own eyes once again Song Yan’s love-at-first-sight-like obsession with Yu Luotong.

He thought that it was time to let go of his persistence, although such a process was long and painful, and it was as painful as plucking out his heart, but only by letting go completely could he truly gain a new life.

“Xia Lin!” Song Yan’s excited voice came into his ears, dragging him back to reality from his meditation on self-salvation.

He raised his head and saw that Song Yan had come to his seat at some point, while a curious-looking Yu Luotong followed behind him.

Song Yan seemed to want to introduce him to Yu Luotong, but the moment he saw Xia Lin tilt his face up, he was stunned for a moment and asked, “What’s wrong with you, your eyes are so red?”

“It’s nothing,” Xia Lin blinked, forcing down the sour tears, “It’s probably because I slept late yesterday and my eyes are a little irritated.”

Song Yan sighed, “How many times have I told you, don’t work so hard, if you damage your eyes, who will you find to compensate?”

He soon remembered the presence of Yu Luotong and turned his head to say, “This is my buddy Xia Lin. Xia Lin, this is Yu Luotong.”

Yu Luotong smiled at Xia Lin, showing his cute little tiger teeth, “Xia Lin, I’ve always been curious about you.”

“Always?” Xia Lin was puzzled, in this life he and Yu Luotong should be meeting for the first time, right?

Yu Luotong said, “The last time I went to the concert, Song Yan sat next to me and was a bit depressed, I talked to him and he said that his best friend didn’t come, so he lost his mood for the concert.”

Song Yan picked up the conversation, “No, he didn’t go even though I bought him a ticket, so that really hurt. Luckily, I met Luotong later, which made me feel better.”

Seeing these two people singing in unison, Xia Lin was a bit teary-eyed.

In his previous life, he had never given up on Song Yan, but Song Yan never gave him a second glance; now that he had only missed a concert, he had become the centre of Song Yan and Yu Luotong’s conversation, which was a bit ridiculous when one thought about it.