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

Mei Fang led Xia Yuan secretly out of the residential area and went to a sports lottery shop at the entrance of the community. As soon as the shop owner saw the children coming in, he scolded them.

“Go away, what are kids doing in a place like this!? Get out!”

Seeing the fierce and evil-looking owner of the sports lottery shop, Xia Yuan instinctively hid behind Mei Fang, tightly grabbing onto his back. Mei Fang, on the other hand, appeared calm and composed.

“Hello, uncle. I’m helping my dad buy sports lottery tickets.”

“Helping your dad, huh…”

The regulations and management in the small county town were very lax in the early 2000s, and adults liked to send children to run errands, such as buying cigarettes and lottery tickets. They would also give them a small fee for running errands.

Anyway, if they really won the lottery, such a young child wouldn’t be able to claim the prize on their own.

So the boss asked, “Then hurry up and buy… What are you buying?”

“My dad wants to buy the Top 4 lottery ticket. Is it still available?”

“You’re in luck. Today is the last day for the Top 4 tickets. Did your dad tell you which teams to choose?”

“He told me! I remember.”

In 2002, there were many types of sports lottery games, and the simplest and most straightforward ones were the 16-team knockout stage matches, the quarterfinals, and the semifinals predictions.

The 16-team prediction was actually a combination of guessing the results of all matches in the knockout stage within 90 minutes. If all the guesses were correct, the first prize could be won, with a jackpot of up to 2 million.

However, the probability of winning this prize was 1/3 to the power of 16, which was already a number infinitely close to 0 according to probability theory.

The quarterfinals prediction only required guessing the teams that would advance to the Top 8. That year, only the first prize was set, with a total betting amount of 125 million. However, no one in the country won the prize because there were many dark horses, and one team had only a 1% support rate.

Note that the quarterfinals prediction selected the Top 8 teams from 32 teams instead of 8 teams out of 16. If one guess was wrong, no prize could be won, and the probability of winning was also quite low.

For Mei Fang, the only teams he could guess and still remembered were the Top 4 teams in 2002.

“Champion, Brazil… Runner-up, Germany… Third place, Turkey… Fourth place, South Korea? Are you sure your dad chose these four teams? Don’t make a mistake, once the ticket is printed, it can’t be changed.”

Mei Fang nodded at the shop owner, “My dad said it’s these four, and I remember it clearly!”

“Then don’t regret it. How many tickets do you want? It’s 2 yuan per ticket.”

“5 tickets, all the same.”

“Here you go.”

Mei Fang took the purchased lottery tickets from the shop owner, and Xia Yuan had been pulling on his clothes the whole time. “Um… Can we go now?”

“Yes, we can go now. Let’s go.”

Mei Fang was satisfied as he obtained the password to his newfound wealth after being reborn, but Xia Yuan seemed unhappy.

“Mei Fang, you’re so bad. You borrowed money from me just to buy this thing. You even lied to that uncle earlier, saying you were running errands for your dad…”

“I didn’t lie. I was really running errands for my dad,” Mei Fang stuck out his tongue.

“Then why doesn’t your dad give you money?”

“My dad doesn’t have money. It’s all with my mom. I’ll pay you back later.”

“How can adults not have money? I don’t believe it.”

Xia Yuan pouted, looking displeased. Mei Fang felt a little guilty for deceiving her.

“Alright, alright. We’re done with our business. Now we can go on an adventure together!”

“The adventure you’re talking about, isn’t it the one just now?” Xia Yuan tilted her head in confusion.

“That was just a side errand,” Mei Fang wiped his nose. “From now on, we’re embarking on a real adventure.”

Upon hearing Mei Fang’s words, Xia Yuan’s previously furrowed brows relaxed, and her pouting lips slightly curved upwards. “W-where are we going?”

“Follow me.”

Mei Fang led Xia Yuan around the streets, thinking that this child probably hadn’t wandered the streets alone before. They could just take a stroll and return to the neighborhood.

Although these were streets Mei Fang often walked with his parents, Xia Yuan was filled with curiosity about everything around her.

Children of this age have many things they want to try, but their parents always stop them, citing safety concerns.

The cats in the pet shop window, the old stone bridge over the river, the bustling streets and markets.

The more crowded the place, the tighter Xia Yuan held onto Mei Fang’s clothes. She walked slower, almost tearing his clothes.

“Why are you pulling so hard?”

Xia Yuan hesitated and explained, “If you suddenly disappear, I’ll get lost…”

Mei Fang thought for a moment. “Then hold my hand instead of pulling my clothes.”

“Okay!”

Xia Yuan tightly held Mei Fang’s hand, and the warmth transmitted through their palms instantly made her feel much more at ease.

At the end of the bustling market, there was a vendor selling cotton candy. Xia Yuan stopped here and eagerly watched the vendor make cotton candy. The surrounding children formed a circle, and a sign read “1 yuan per stick.”

“Do you want to eat this?”

Xia Yuan nodded. “But my mom never buys it for me.”

“You can’t buy this, you can’t buy that. You live such a tiring life… With so much money in your wallet, what can you actually buy?”

“Stationery and stickers and things like that…”

Mei Fang sighed and said, “It’s a pity that I don’t have money. If I had money, I would definitely treat you to cotton candy.”

“Well… how about this, I have money, I can lend it to you first, and then you can buy it for me.”

“…”

Mei Fang looked at the silly girl as she took out two coins from her bag and handed them to herself, with a hopeful look on her face.

“Uncle, I want cotton candy.”

Mei Fang handed the bought cotton candy to Xia Yuan and said, “Here, I’m treating you.”

“Thank you… but the cotton candy is so big, I can’t finish it by myself. Let’s eat it together?”

“I don’t need it, you can eat it yourself.”

Xia Yuan took a bite of the cotton candy and was immediately amazed by its melting texture.

“It melts as soon as you lick it, it’s amazing, it tastes so good!”

“As long as you like it…”

Although she was from a wealthy family, Xia Yuan was still a little girl who hadn’t seen much of the world.

Xia Yuan focused all her attention on eating the cotton candy, while her other hand was held by Mei Fang. As expected, her face became covered in cotton candy and she looked like a little cat with a sticky face.

Afterwards, Xia Yuan kept crying and worrying about being discovered by her mother. It wasn’t until Mei Fang took her back to the washbasin in the neighborhood and washed her face that she finally calmed down.

As the sun set and the smoke from cooking filled the air, the smell of home-cooked meals could be smelled in every household in the community.

Xia Yuan and Mei Fang sat on a bench in the neighborhood, resting. Xia Yuan was wiping her face with a handkerchief, while Mei Fang basked in the sunset.

The temperature in June was just right, and the sound of street vendors selling snacks and speaking in the dialect outside the community gradually approached. It felt like a different world, and Mei Fang instinctively closed his eyes, enjoying the tranquility of the moment.

It had been a long time since he had experienced such a leisurely time…

When Mei Fang opened his eyes, he found Xia Yuan staring at him with curiosity, resting her cheek on her hand.

“Mei Fang, what are you thinking about?”

Mei Fang was straightforward, “I’m thinking about how to make a lot of money in the future.”

Xia Yuan pouted, “Your dream is so boring!”

“What about you? What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“Well…” Xia Yuan pondered for a while and answered, “In the future, I want to be an elementary school teacher like my mom.”

“So your mom is a teacher? Why do you want to do this…”

Based on Mei Fang’s understanding of Xia Yuan, he thought the little angelic girl would say something about wanting to be a selfless gardener who burns herself to light up others.

However, Xia Yuan’s answer surprised Mei Fang.

“Because teachers have a lot of holidays, like Saturdays, Sundays, summer vacation, winter vacation, Mid-Autumn Festival, New Year’s Day, and they get off work early. My mom is like that, so relaxed!”

Hmm… I have to say, children’s thoughts are really pure.

Mei Fang gently tapped Xia Yuan’s head.

“Why did you hit me…”

Although she looked aggrieved, Xia Yuan didn’t actually cry.

“You said you wanted to be a teacher, but you’re just thinking about having fun.”

“Just wait, I haven’t finished yet…” Xia Yuan enthusiastically talked about her future plans, “And, if I become a teacher, I can spend my whole life with the children. We can go on outings together, I’ll only assign a little bit of homework, and also…”

Mei Fang had never thought that one day he would listen to a child talking about her life ideals like this.

Strangely, he didn’t feel impatient at all.

The two children chatted like this, with Xia Yuan doing most of the talking and Mei Fang occasionally interjecting. As they chatted, Xia Yuan gradually became tired and her speech became slurred.

When Mei Fang was about to ask her if she wanted to go home, Xia Yuan fell asleep on Mei Fang’s shoulder, exhausted.

…

Mei Fang didn’t rush to wake her up, but maintained this posture for some time.

Enjoying the pleasant evening breeze of early summer, Mei Fang pondered.

Perhaps in a distant past life, Xia Yuan had also experienced such a pure time with him, but that time had been completely forgotten under the passage of time.

But regardless of whether it was a real past or not, it was still happening in the present.

And he, in the present, would definitely cherish it.

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