Only After I Was Reborn Did I Realize That I Had Childhood Sweethearts

After a round, Mei Fang was brought back by Xia Yuan with an exhausted expression, while Lin Youxi waited nearby.

“Ah Fang… you’ve really worked hard,” Xia Yuan said, extending her hand that Mei Fang had squeezed until it turned red. “I feel like crying.”

“… In that case, let Ah Fang rest for a while,” Lin Youxi shook her head. “I’ll ride alone.”

“How can that be… if Ah Fang can’t do it, I’ll ride again with you,” Xia Yuan said, about to accompany Lin Youxi on the Dauling Dragon roller coaster ride when Mei Fang stepped forward again.

“If I said I can ride it twice, then I’ll ride twice. How can I break my promise?”

If Mei Fang didn’t keep his promise, Youxi would definitely be sad.

You’re a grown man, Mei Fang.

Isn’t riding a roller coaster twice a piece of cake?

Lin Youxi then pulled Mei Fang onto the ride, while Xia Yuan went straight down to find her father waiting below.

“N-No, not at all… I’m telling you, it’s really fun, this roller coaster… the bumpy sensation, just like riding on wood, it feels so real, I’m telling you——”

Lin Youxi interrupted Mei Fang, holding his hand.

“Your hand is full of sweat.”

“It was from Yuan Yuan’s sweaty hand, don’t think too much…”

Lin Youxi placed Mei Fang’s hand on her lap, gazing at him with a tender smile. “You can rely on me more, just like you relied on Yuan Yuan earlier.”

“Uh…”

Oh no! My heart is suddenly beating fast. What should I do?

Youxi’s hands and legs are both so cold, perfect for cooling down.

Although she doesn’t openly compete with Yuan Yuan, whenever we have a chance to be alone, her attacking power is not weak.

Mei Fang was about to say something when the roller coaster slowly started again.

Hoo…

Well, I’m just pretending to be afraid.

Mei Fang wanted to stay calm and composed.

This is for keeping the balance!

If I can’t handle even this, I shouldn’t have any other extravagant hopes in the future, right?

Mei Fang tightly held Lin Youxi’s hand, and Lin Youxi pursed her lips, smiling slightly, then slowly closed her eyes, savoring the subtle happiness.

The Dauling Dragon reached its highest point.

“Woahhhhh!”

Mei Fang’s image was disheveled by the strong wind.

After riding the roller coaster with Lin Youxi and meeting with Xia Yuan and Xia Xun, he couldn’t hold it back anymore and found a trash bin to vomit continuously.

“Ah Fang is really afraid of roller coasters…”

Lin Youxi felt sorry seeing Mei Fang like this. “Let’s not force him to ride anymore in the future.”

“Mhm… Ah Fang is quite pitiful,” Xia Yuan also felt sorry. “It’s all my fault for demanding too much, and Ah Fang is so eager to prove himself. Riding twice was too much.”

Xia Yuan continued, “But Ah Fang still needs to overcome his fears and continue to grow. He needs to conquer his fears to move forward.”

“I agree with that,” Lin Youxi agreed, nodding her head. “But today was indeed too much for him.”

It seemed like both of them felt sorry for Mei Fang, yet at the same time, they didn’t.

Xia Xun had been following the three to play on various amusement rides along the way. Some of the rides had made him feel dizzy just by looking at them. However, Mei Fang had been able to accompany his daughter and Lin Youxi to ride them, even going as far as riding twice. Xia Xun couldn’t help but admire Mei Fang’s bravery.

It’s really not easy for this kid…

After leaving Happy Valley, the group quickly had a simple meal at McDonald’s and hurriedly drove back to Baimei County, their hometown.

The three youngsters fell asleep together in the back seat of the car.

Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi leaned on Mei Fang’s shoulder, while Mei Fang slept with his mouth open, drooling.

“…”

Watching the harmonious scene of the three in the rearview mirror, Xia Xun once again recalled the scene when the three of them graduated from kindergarten and rode in Xia Xun’s car together to celebrate Xia Yuan’s 6th birthday. He felt quite content.

The children have really grown up…

…

Less than a week after the special county student exam, the results were out——

Mei Fang and Lin Youxi both got A+ in all three subjects, securing their admission without a doubt. Xia Yuan got an A+ in English and Chinese, but only an A in math. However, her actual score was far above the required line, so she passed with ease as well.

On the day they found out about their admission, Xia Yuan, filled with excitement, gave Mei Fang a super energy hug on the spot even in front of her father. But Mei Fang cleverly pulled Lin Youxi into the hug as well, turning it into a super energy group hug among the three. This way, it felt more like a team hug rather than a special hug between a boy and a girl.

Being accepted by Jiangcheng NOHS meant that they didn’t need to participate in the high school entrance exam. However, Mei Fang, Lin Youxi, and Xia Yuan were all approached by their teachers, who hoped they would still take the exam. After all, their scores would directly affect the school’s honor roll and their teachers’ resumes, so the three didn’t refuse. They also wanted to make the most of their remaining time in middle school.

As for the school, since the three no longer had the pressure of high school entrance exams, they specifically exempted them from evening self-study and weekend extra classes. This gave Mei Fang more time to supplement his game development experience.

In the spring of 2011, the game development engine Unity3D officially updated its version to support the Android environment. It could now directly package and generate APK files. Since the beginning of the year, Mei Fang had started working on the development of two small text-based games, using his past life’s Life Restart Simulator^[1] and Reigns^[2] as reference templates.

Life Restart Simulator was a well-known web-based game from his previous life. Although it was called a game, it didn’t have much difficulty in terms of gameplay. It mainly involved clicking to make choices and weave one’s own story.

In the beginning, players would be asked to allocate attribute points and receive random initial talents. Then, players would continuously encounter various events and make choices. Based on the players’ own attributes, different outcomes would occur. Each playthrough would even accumulate leftover points from the previous life, and the goal was to strive to live longer and live better.

For this game, Mei Fang didn’t have any particular changes to make. He wrote the game design himself, wrote the code himself, and didn’t need any artwork. A wireframe diagram was enough. This game was aimed at gaining a good reputation domestically, so Mei Fang entrusted the task of writing the story to Xia Yuan.

Xia Yuan was happy to be involved in game development and put her heart and soul into filling in content for Mei Fang. Since there was a large amount of text, she also asked Lin Youxi’s friend, Yue Xinyi, for help. Yue Xinyi was a Chinese class representative, familiar with novels, and good at writing with a vivid imagination. Mei Fang felt that Yue Xinyi’s writing had more storytelling qualities.

Reigns, essentially, was also a game of selecting choices. In the game, players would play as various kings throughout history and maintain the balance of public opinion, religion, economy, and military by making policy decisions and trying to extend their reign as long as possible. It had the added fun of touchscreen controls, allowing players to swipe left or right to make decisions.

This game would involve the creation of some art cards and could be made into a series, but it wouldn’t be too large in scale.

Last year, Mei Fang bought a new drawing tablet. He then lent it to his deskmate Guo Yun, saying it was his old one. He also asked her for help to make the art cards. However, he emphasized to Guo Yun not to let it interfere with her studies, as she still had to take the high school entrance exam and wasn’t as free as he was.

But Guo Yun treated Mei Fang’s request as a fun way to pass the time. She spent two weeks of her free time completing all the art cards, and the quality of the final product was good, with a distinctive and unified style. Indie games mostly focused more on gameplay, so the art was sufficient.

Mei Fang didn’t spend a single penny on the people mentioned above. They were all providing their services for the game without compensation, as they didn’t expect to earn money from it. Mei Fang also didn’t dare to pay them, as it would be not good if it caused a big fuss.

As for the situations of some of his other middle school friends:

Zhang Ming actually passed the entrance exam for Baimei No. 1 High School’s science experimental class, which was something the Zhang Ming from Mei Fang’s previous life couldn’t achieve.

Mei Fang felt that this change had something to do with Lu Xueqing, who was in the same group as him, as she also made it into the science experimental class.

However, they had already left their current class in the second semester of their third year, so Mei Fang hadn’t had a chance to properly ask them about it.

If this was truly a result of his persuading him to be the group leader, then it really was a wonderful butterfly effect.

Also, during this time, Peng Xue didn’t have much interaction with Mei Fang. Mei Fang only happened to hear from Xia Yuan that her cousin, who played folk music, was staying at her house because Peng Xue also wanted to learn how to play guitar and some other instruments. Mei Fang asked Xia Yuan to remind Peng Xue to focus more on the high school entrance exam and play those things during the summer vacation.

In addition to advancing in game development, Mei Fang asked Lin Youxi to learn the PhoneGap^[3] and develop the C Site’s mobile app together with the part-time employees they recruited privately.

This framework heavily utilized JavaScript^[4], which Lin Youxi could easily master. Mei Fang controlled the overall project planning and schedule, and the development progress proceeded in an organized manner according to a timetable.

The flower fields of May quietly faded away, while the luxuriant flowers of June reached their midpoint. After a brief period of struggling and preparation, the high school entrance exam was now just a small matter in the eyes of Mei You Yuan trio.

Their middle school lives thus came to an end.

***

Thank you Potatobread for the dono! I appreciate your support. Because of that, I’ll post 3 chapters today (the other 2 will be posted about an hour or two later).

Translator's Notes:

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