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

Mei Fang recently had the feeling of constantly meeting new homeroom teachers.

His new homeroom teacher, Dong Zhongying, was an English teacher, a middle-aged man, with a full beard and a bald spot on his head. He was also quite tall.

Even though he always had a smiling expression, he still left a very intimidating first impression.

When introducing himself, he also exhibited qualities that set him apart from the teachers at Jiangcheng NOHS.

“The students who can study at our school are all top talents who have read a wide range of books.”

“So, those who are familiar with the Three Kingdoms should know that the Dong Zhuo of the Three Kingdoms is also known as Zhongying. Therefore, I, Teacher Dong, also have a nickname. Let’s see if anyone can guess it.”

Immediately, a student raised their hand and responded, “Demon King!”

“Those who say Demon King must have played too much Dynasty Warriors or Legends of the Three Kingdoms. But that’s not it. Throughout the years, the students actually call me by this nickname——”

Dong Zhongying wrote his nickname in English on the blackboard.

“Tyrant.”

“T-y-r-a-n-t, Tyrant.”

“Tyrant!”

“Does anyone know how to translate this word?”

Another student raised their hand, “Baojun^[1]?”

Upon hearing the student’s response, everyone had an uneasy expression on their faces, except for Dong Zhongying, who maintained his smiling appearance.

“Yes, but not entirely.”

Dong Zhongying continued to explain, “The basic definition of this word is indeed the same as baojun, specifically referring to an autocratic ruler, a cruel and oppressive ruler, and also any superior, leader, boss, or class teacher who makes you feel unpleasant can be called a tyrant.”

“But there’s another layer of meaning why my students in previous years called me ‘tyrant’.”

“Tyrant can sometimes be used together with ‘local’ to refer to a local wealthy and powerful person. I, Teacher Dong, am one such person in Jiangcheng, a local tyrant of Jiangcheng!”

“If any of you run out of money on your meal card or can’t afford to eat, feel free to come find me, I guarantee that I will feed you until you’re full. It doesn’t matter how many times you want to mooch off me!”

Dong Zhongying’s humorous words made everyone burst into laughter, especially Xiang Bingbing who was sitting behind Mei Fang. She wasn’t particularly loud, but she kept pounding on the desk.

Mei Fang was worried her desk would fall apart and felt distressed for her.

“For example, many of you may have the iPhone called ‘local tyrant’s gold'^[2] in your hands. We generally translate it as ‘gold for the wealthy,’ and it’s the same principle.”

“Of course, mentioning this is actually a reminder for you all to keep your phones properly. On the first day, I definitely won’t confiscate them, but…”

Dong Zhongying continued to smile but suddenly his tone became serious.

“If anyone violates the school rules and class regulations by playing with their phones in class, I won’t hesitate to smash it on the spot—did you hear that, Wan Chaoxiong?”

With Dong Zhongying’s reminder, Wan Chaoxiong hurriedly hid his iPhone in his pocket and stood up.

“I-I got it!”

“I’m worried that you might still not fully understand. So I’d like you to stand with me for a little longer.”

Dong Zhongying continued speaking to the class.

“Of course, because I am a local tyrant in Jiangcheng, if you feel unhappy about me smashing your phone, you can ask me for compensation. I definitely have money.”

“As long as you bring your parents along, I guarantee to compensate you with a brand new imported phone.”

“After all, among all of you here, I doubt anyone can confidently say that they bought their iPhone 4 with their own hard-earned money and not their parents’ blood and sweat, right?”

Indeed, he was an impressive new homeroom teacher who had his own unique approach to handling matters, which Mei Fang found acceptable.

After the homeroom teacher’s self-introduction, there was no traditional round of self-introductions for the whole class. Dong Zhongying said he wanted to wait until everyone was more familiar before doing introductions.

Next, Dong Zhongying arranged a self-study session, with the main content being studying the Student Handbook.

The Jiangcheng NOHS’s Student Handbook was nearly fifty pages long, detailing the school’s rules, regulations, and welfare privileges. It was like an encyclopedia for walking around the school.

Mei Fang earnestly studied the content of the Student Handbook while suddenly starting to miss Xia Yuan’s hugs and Youxi’s clinginess.

They didn’t need Ah Fang’s energy every day, and these past few days, the two were busy sticking together, even going to the city center to buy clothes without letting him come along.

Although Mei Fang understood their thoughts, he still felt a bit lonely…

So yesterday, Mei Fang had to make use of the end of the summer vacation to urge Zhang Ming to finish his work.

Mei Fang noticed that there was now a 30-minute break between the two evening self-study sessions, which would allow him to invite the two girls to come down for a walk together.

Through Mei Fang’s research on the Tieba forum, he found out that Jiangcheng NOHS’s huge playground had the same special functions as any other high school’s playground.

Once it was nighttime, it would become a place for students to jog at night, as well as a place for couples to be intimate. The dim lighting was enough to cover up any inspections of school-level rules.

Of course, when they were together, there was no need to always think about replenishing energy, but it was still nice to take a walk together.

But before that…

As soon as the bell rang, Mei Fang darted out of the classroom, preparing to go upstairs to see Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi. As a result, he coincidentally ran into them at the staircase.

“Where are you two going?”

“You still have to ask?”

Xia Yuan asked with her hands on her hips, “How about you, where are you going?”

“Same as you.”

Mei Fang smiled faintly. “Want to chat with me? Xiang Bingbing and I are in the same class now.”

Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi both paused for a moment. “Why are you two always in the same class? You didn’t become deskmates again, did you?”

“No, this time it’s front and back row.”

“Being in the front and back rows is also quite dangerous.”

This time, it was Lin Youxi who spoke up. After all, the front and back rows used to be her and Mei Fang’s exclusive line of communication.

But I thought you two didn’t mind it before…

“Oh, by the way, Ah Fang, let me tell you, there’s another girl in our class who came from Baimei County like us, and she’s quite pretty!”

“Why are you specifically mentioning her appearance? I’m not interested just because someone is good-looking.”

Mei Fang gave Xia Yuan a disdainful look, then paused for a moment and said, “Then she probably didn’t come from our Experimental Middle School, right?”

“She’s from Jinmei Middle School. We’re not familiar with her, but she went to the same Grain Kindergarten as us, just in the neighboring class.”

“It’s hard to remember things from kindergarten…”

“But she said she remembers when you wiped your butt in kindergarten, she watched it with everyone after class.”

“Why does everyone remember that incident!”

Mei Fang clenched his fist.

The three of them chatted and laughed as they walked to Mei Fang’s classroom. Xia Yuan found Xiang Bingbing to say hello, while Lin Youxi stayed by Mei Fang’s side and chatted.

“Is your first class also about studying the Student Handbook?”

“Yes, what’s the matter?”

Lin Youxi leaned on Mei Fang’s shoulder. “There’s now a 30-minute break between the first and second evening self-study sessions.”

“We can also come out together and take a walk. It’s a good opportunity to go to the playground.”

“What a coincidence! I was thinking the same thing. The school schedule is so packed now, we don’t have time to discuss our future development plans…”

“No… I’m not talking about discussing work during that time.”

Lin Youxi reminded him, “I mean replenishing energy. Don’t you think it’s hard for us to do that at home?”

Mei Fang was surprised by her words. Lin Youxi seemed to be becoming more and more assertive every day. How could he handle this escalating attack? He quickly waved his hand and said, “Th-that’s not quite appropriate, right? If we go out for a walk, we should definitely all go together, how can we leave Yuan Yuan behind…”

“You misunderstood. How could it be just the two of us?”

Lin Youxi smiled slightly, “Of course, we’ll include Yuan Yuan.”

“The three of us?”

Lin Youxi nodded, “I talked to Yuan Yuan, it’s a bit inconvenient to replenish energy at home, and it’s too late outside. The school is the safest place.”

“Are you slacking off after you two became deskmates…”

At first, Lin Youxi was still interested, but when she saw that Mei Fang kept trying to dissuade her, she suddenly became expressionless.

“Are you unwilling? If you’re unwilling, then forget it.”

“It’s not that.”

Mei Fang saw Lin Youxi’s hand move and knew she was about to pinch him.

So he quickly expressed his position, “Mutual encouragement between childhood sweethearts, I also need it myself!”

“It’s good that you understand it. Additionally, the first 10 minutes are for Yuan Yuan, and the next 10 minutes are for me. It takes a few minutes to walk back and forth to the playground, and with the time for chatting together, it adds up to 10 minutes. That way, it’s exactly 30 minutes.”

Wow, you’re calculating it down to the minute…

At this moment, Xia Yuan also returned and joined the conversation with the two. She seemed a little embarrassed, lightly patting Lin Youxi’s shoulder and softly asking her:

“Have you two talked about the plan for tonight?”

Lin Youxi nodded.

The plan had been Xia Yuan’s idea to begin with, but she didn’t want to appear too cunning, so she pretended to be consulting with Lin Youxi when she proposed it:

“It’s not about taking our relationship further. After all, replenishing energy with each other is something we’ve always done as childhood sweethearts. In short, it’s just dividing the time alone with Ah Fang equally between us. If you also want to cuddle and replenish energy with Ah Fang, I think he’d be willing…”

“Okay.”

Lin Youxi agreed without hesitation.

“That’s great! We’ll talk later… But, I wonder if Ah Fang is willing…” Xia Yuan said.

“After all, at that time…it’s said that the playground was full of couples kissing. Ah Fang has a conservative and traditional attitude towards love. Will he think our motives are impure?”

“If you feel embarrassed, I’ll talk to Ah Fang at that time.”

“Great, Youxi, you’re really reliable!”

…

And so, things developed to the current situation.

After a short meet-up with his two childhood sweethearts, Mei Fang began his first day of classes for the new semester.

According to the official schedule, the first day’s classes were focused on music, physical education, politics, and history. They were all presented as the main subjects.

Most of the students from the county had never experienced such a serious atmosphere of studying liberal arts in their local middle schools, making it seem quite novel. The classroom atmosphere was relatively active, but the academic pressure was not too high.

The last class on Mondays was a special experiential class, and today they had a lesson on tea ceremony.

Mei Fang originally thought this class would be similar to the tea ceremony class he took in university in his previous life, where only the teachers and selected students participated. However, it turned out to be quite popular, and everyone had the opportunity to experience all 13 steps of the tea ceremony and taste the tea prepared by a professional teacher.

Unrepentant Wan Chaoxiong secretly took out his phone to record a video, while Xiang Bingbing thoroughly enjoyed herself and drank several cups of tea in a row, which shocked the teacher.

After the new semester began, some booths and facilities for clubs started appearing on the road to the school’s morning assembly square. Mei Fang, who had attended Baimei No.1 High School before, knew that these were for recruiting new members for clubs.

In his previous life’s high school, Mei Fang had the idea of starting a club. He enthusiastically persuaded his deskmate to sign up together and established a gaming culture club.

But after receiving a form and announcing the establishment of the club, it didn’t go any further.

The school neither provided support facilities nor allocated extra time for club activities, so it can be said that they were purely going through the motions to get by the inspections from higher-ups.

Mei Fang still remembered the disappointment he felt when his passionate aspirations were let down. He was sad for quite a while back then.

He was engrossed in admiring the various student clubs at Jiangcheng NOHS when someone suddenly covered his eyes from behind.

“You actually came all the way here! We had a hard time looking for you. Why didn’t you just wait for us downstairs in the tea ceremony room?”

It was the pouting voice of Xia Yuan.

“Ah… I thought we wouldn’t eat together since we’re so far apart. I thought I made it clear.”

“Because it’s the first day of school, that’s why we should eat together. Didn’t I say I met a friend from Baimei County and wanted to introduce her to you?”

“You’re bringing a friend into our circle again. Aren’t you afraid that Youxi will feel uncomfortable?”

“As long as it doesn’t affect our time together in class, after school, and on weekends, Youxi won’t say anything! Besides, she’s not just my friend, Youxi gets along well with her too. Look!”

Xia Yuan nudged Mei Fang’s head and pointed towards the end of the road, where Lin Youxi was chatting with a girl with short hair with a smile.

Her hairstyle could be described as a bob cut with bangs, but her ears were exposed outside the hair.

Walking beside the tall Lin Youxi, she appeared petite, giving off a feeling of an older sister with her younger sister.

When Xia Yuan saw them, she wrapped her arms around Mei Fang’s neck and waved vigorously at the two of them. Upon seeing Xia Yuan, Lin Youxi led the girl towards them.

“Ah Fang, Ah Fang, let me introduce you. This is the fellow Baimeian I mentioned to you earlier.”

“Oh… meeting a fellow Baimeian here is quite rare! Hello, hello. Ah… speaking our hometown dialect feels so warm.”

The girl approached and waved her hand to greet Mei Fang with a smile. “By the way, my name is Liu Xiaoyu, and you must be Mei Fang, right?”

“…”

“Ah Fang? Are you okay? Why haven’t responded… What are you spacing out for?”

At Xia Yuan’s call, Mei Fang gradually snapped out of his thoughts. He gave Liu Xiaoyu a simple smile and raised his hand in greeting.

“I was just lost in thought for a moment. I’m sorry… Hello.”

…

After Mei Fang spoke those words, he didn’t continue with the usual follow-up conversation. This deliberate coldness made Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi feel a bit awkward.

“Well… let’s go to the cafeteria and have lunch together while we chat, alright?”

Lin Youxi nodded. “Sure.”

Meanwhile, Liu Xiaoyu had been pondering something since she saw Mei Fang.

As they walked, she suddenly stopped midway, calling out to Mei Fang, who had been keeping his distance from her and sticking close to Xia Yuan.

“By the way, Mei Fang, haven’t we met somewhere before? Suddenly, you look familiar… Ah, I’m not talking about the butt-wiping incident in kindergarten.”

Mei Fang stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Liu Xiaoyu, and Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi also noticed the change in Mei Fang’s expression almost at the same time.

It was the first time they had seen him reveal such a flustered and confused expression in the ten years they had known him.

Translator's Notes:

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