Chapter 3
It was snowing heavily outside the window. Fang Zhao was alone in the single dormitory. He turned off the lights and stared blankly in the dark.
After graduation, hiding in the dark was what she did most often.
In the darkness, the passage of time seemed to slow down a little. The clock on the wall made a ticking sound, as if reminding her that the days were still moving forward and could not stop.
What's the point of stopping? There's nothing to look forward to waiting for me ahead anyway.
The days seemed to have turned into a dry well, lifeless.
When we were young, we said goodbye to someone too easily, thinking it was no big deal. But later on, we gradually understood what it meant to lose.
Although life has to go on without anyone, sometimes when you lose someone, you have already lost yourself, along with all the happiness you had when that person existed.
Fang Zhao shook his head, feeling a bit tipsy. He had to go to work the next day and couldn't bear the smell of alcohol, so he simply finished his drink and went straight to bed.
Suddenly, in the dark night, a flash of light appeared above the wine glass.
Fang Zhao rubbed his eyes, thinking he was truly drunk. Why did the light grow brighter the more he rubbed it, until it finally became a little blue-haired boy waving at him?
"Hello!"
Seeing Fang Zhao's puzzled expression, the little water god simply spoke.
"You're not mistaken, it's me."
"You, who?"
Fang Zhao fanned his wine glass with his hand as if to shoo away a fly. "Is this wine poisonous? Why am I hallucinating?"
"It's not an illusion. I am a god, a god! Do you understand?"
"God?" Fang Zhao patted his head. "I don't believe it unless you can give me a hundred dollars."
"Heh." The little water god laughed in anger. "Sure enough, Fang Huainan was right. You are just a little money-grubber."
"Fang Huainan?" Fang Zhao was stunned when he heard the name. "Where is he?"
"No, you lied to me. He won't come to me. I've been waiting for him for so long, but he never took the initiative to come to me."
Fang Zhao raised a bitter smile.
"He's not coming to me, you little liar."
Fang Zhao sat up, ready to put away his wine glass and go to sleep. His insomnia had been getting worse recently, and this slightly tipsy state was perfect for sleep.
Seeing her like this, the little river god simply pointed his finger and a stack of red banknotes appeared in front of Fang Zhao.
"Money!" Fang Zhao rushed over. With so much money, it seemed that the skirt he had set his eyes on a while ago might be worth buying.
Fang Zhao held a stack of money, wishing he could put his whole face on it. The little river god looked at him with disdain and shook his head repeatedly.
"Do you like money that much?"
"Are you kidding me? This is money? This is my life!"
The Little River God looked at Fang Zhao and was about to make a sarcastic remark when he suddenly thought of something. A smile appeared on the corner of his mouth and he changed the subject, "Since you like money so much, I have a good way to make money."
"What method?"
When Fang Zhao heard that he could make money, his eyes lit up.
"Are you so short of money?"
"You don't understand." Fang Zhao sighed and sat on the floor. "I came from a tiny village to a first-tier city to work on my own. You think it's easy? They're all going for the high salary, so they can at least support themselves, right? What about me? Ever since I graduated, my parents forced me to take this so-called 'iron rice bowl,' and I haven't even made more than 3,000 yuan. 3,000 yuan, do you know what that means? Rent, utilities, food, drink, toilet paper, which one doesn't cost money? I can barely even support myself."
Fang Zhao was almost crying as he spoke. Even with this, his parents still thought he was living a life of luxury. This job was really useless except for its appearance.
"If I had known this would happen, I would never have listened to my parents and studied in this school or major."
"If you could go back to the past, would you be willing to go back?"
The little river god looked at Fang Zhao mysteriously.
"Go back to the past?" Fang Zhao thought about it seriously, then shook his head. "Forget it. High school life is too tiring. Besides, you know my mom's temper. She's a typical NPD. It's good to be away from her."
"What if I say there's a salary?"
"salary?"
Fang Zhao's eyes lit up again, "What do you mean?"
"Puchi." A light laugh suddenly came from somewhere. Fang Zhao looked at the place where the sound came from, but there was nothing. He turned to look at the little boy.
"Cough cough." The little boy coughed twice and looked at the void warningly.
"Well, we in the Immortal Realm are planning to conduct an experiment. If a mortal were to go back ten years, without changing their overall life trajectory, would their life choices ten years later have the same outcome?"
"What's the meaning?"
"That is, I can let you go back ten years, which is—" The Little River God counted on his fingers for a long time, "that is, when you were in your third year of high school, but your overall life trajectory will remain unchanged, for example, your college entrance examination scores, and your career choices after graduation. You must make sure that you appear in this room at this time ten years from now, overlapping with your current life. Then, you will still be you, but the knowledge and life experiences you have gained in the past ten years will be your own. And also—"
"Including what?"
"This includes the relationships you've had with those around you over the past decade. For example, if you had a difficult relationship with someone in college, but you go back and improve the relationship, that relationship can be preserved."
"Oh." In other words, to others, his return to the past would only last a moment, and wouldn't change anything in the present. But he himself had indeed improved, which sounded pretty good. Fang Zhao blinked, "What do you mean by salary?"
"Because this experiment was initiated by our immortal world, in order to motivate the mortals to participate, we will give you a monthly salary of 10,000 yuan as compensation. In addition, we can also agree to one condition of yours."
"Ten thousand yuan?" Fang Zhao's eyes were almost sparkling with stars. This was really an astronomical figure for her, not to mention the salary level ten years ago. As a high school student, a monthly allowance of ten thousand yuan was simply the wealth of a rich family.
"Cough," the little river god saw that Fang Zhao had begun to daydream, so he coughed quickly to bring her back to her senses.
"You said you could agree to one condition for me?"
Fang Zhao excitedly pulled the sleeve of the little river god. The little river god pulled a few times, but seeing that he couldn't pull it free, he simply nodded.
"Then can you treat this house as mine, um, like a space where I can enter at any time? And if I run out of daily necessities here, can you help me replenish them? You know, I lived on campus in high school and college, and the living conditions were really, really terrible. I'm used to such a comfortable environment. It's really like 'going from frugality to luxury is easy, but going from luxury to frugality is hard.'"
"That's easy to say, but this is the only condition I have."
"Okay, okay."
Fang Zhao loosened the River God's sleeve. The River God pulled his hand free, drew a few times in the air, and a contract suddenly appeared in front of Fang Zhao.
"Sign it, and our agreement will take effect immediately. It's for ten years, and there's no going back on it."
Fang Zhao only felt a flash of white light, and when he opened his eyes again, he had changed places.
"Come on, everyone, start changing seats."
After Fang Zhao adjusted to the surrounding light, he saw Baozi standing on the podium, directing everyone to move the desks.
Baozi's real name is Bao Jing, and she's called "Baozi" because she really does look like one. Not counting her 150-plus pound figure, her round face, paired with her student-style bangs, makes her look plump from head to toe.
Fang Zhao looked at the blackboard and, sure enough, Wen Bo's name appeared next to his own. What a damn fate.
After moving the books on the floor onto the table, Fang Zhao resigned himself to dragging the desk to the designated location.
On the left was Wen Bo, behind him was Cui Xiaoqian, and behind Wen Bo was Bao Jing. Yes, Bao Jing liked Wen Bo, and I liked Wen Bo too, so Bao Jing had been targeting me throughout my senior year of high school. After all, she was my 'rival in love'.
Sighing, Fang Zhao began to tidy up his desk. The desks in high school were all small, one square meter square, in a maroon color. You know what, I really miss them.
After the seats were moved, it was time for dinner. The classroom had cleared out in groups of two or three, leaving only a few "good students" who loved learning still working hard.
Fang Zhao wasn't very hungry, and he needed to digest what had just happened, so he simply sat in a chair and stared blankly.
The Little River God taught him how to enter the space and specifically reminded him not to let others discover his differences to prevent unnecessary trouble. He would neatly deposit his monthly salary into the piggy bank in his room on the 15th of every month.
This job is really good. Compared to the current 9-to-5 job, at least I don't have to worry about KPIs, I don't have to serve the boss, and I don't have to deal with stupid colleagues who always have communication problems. More importantly, the salary is high, more than tripled in an instant. High school life is low, so I won't spend more than a few thousand. If I save a little, maybe I can even save a little money for myself.
Fang Zhao couldn't help but smile when he thought of this. He turned his head and saw a dark figure outside the window.
I actually forgot that in these ten years, there was also him, An Huainan.
Yes, back then, An Huainan would wait for her at the classroom door every time he failed an exam. An Huainan's science scores were truly poor, especially physics, where he once scored in the single digits. Before the freshman year of high school, he consistently ranked below 100th, a significant blow to someone so proud of him. So after every exam, Fang Zhao would always see An Huainan at the classroom door.
Fang Zhao walked out. Even though I hadn't seen him for many years, my heart still couldn't help but beat fast when I saw his back.
Standing next to An Huainan, Fang Zhao didn't say anything. Just like many years ago, the two of them stood side by side quietly, neither of them willing to break the window paper.
"Didn't do well on the exam again?"
"Hmm?" An Huainan looked at her with some confusion, "What exam?"
Fang Zhao realized that he was already in the third year of high school, and An Huainan's half-length portrait had long been hanging at the top of the ranking list. He was now the "pride of the whole village". He scored more than 50 points higher than the second place in every exam. He was a sure-shot candidate for Beijing University.
"Oh, it's okay." Fang Zhao's face flushed. He had imagined meeting him many times, but he never expected to see him ten years ago in the same place as ten years ago. "It's okay, it's okay."
"Walk?"
Fang Zhao nodded with a red face, and followed An Huainan with his head down.
When they had just broken up, Fang Zhao was so upset that he applied for several accounts and took turns to harass An Huainan. However, after a while, each account was discovered by An Huainan.
Then I sent a message asking An Huainan if he wanted to get back together, and he replied with just one word: No.
Thinking about myself at that time, it was really embarrassing.
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