For most boys, during their school days, there’s always that one girl who leaves an indelible mark on their youth—a perfect embodiment of a goddess. Even ten or twenty years later, recalling her charm, it doesn’t fade in the slightest.
Even if, in the years that follow, they meet prettier or more accomplished women, none can replicate that pure, youthful flutter of the heart from their teenage days.
Likewise, for most girls, there’s a boy like that in their school years.
He’s lofty, untouchable, someone to admire from afar but never to approach. If a class has thirty girls, at least twenty-nine secretly crush on him, and the one who doesn’t is only because she’s not into boys at all.
In Wen Ying’s school days, only one boy held such a status: Xie Qian.
Back in school, Xie Qian was adored by everyone—from junior high girls to senior high school sisters. His fame wasn’t confined to their school, it spread across other schools in Rongcheng. His admirers even set up a Tieba forum for him… In her past life, Wen Ying never dared speak to Xie Qian in real life, instead lurking in his Tieba forum. Perhaps because she felt so stifled at school, hanging out in his online fan space was her only outlet. On the internet, no one knew it was her posting anyway.
And somehow, she accidentally became a junior moderator of Xie Qian’s Tieba.
That lasted until her third year of university, when she started gaining popularity in real life and no longer needed the internet to find validation, gradually losing her obsession with Xie Qian.
She had to let go, Xie Qian was studying in the US by then, and with no fresh updates, it was too hard for his domestic fans to keep up the devotion.
As for how magnetic Xie Qian’s charm was, Wen Ying remembered the summer of her second year of high school. Eastern TV launched a talent show called *Come On, Good Boy!* Unlike other shows that judged singing or dancing, this one was shamelessly about looks, kickstarting the trend of male beauty consumption in China.
A few contestants from that show later became the entertainment industry’s poster boys for good looks.
But at Wen Ying’s school, after watching two episodes, the girls lost interest, saying those contestants didn’t hold a candle to Xie Qian.
The TV boys were all styled up—wearing outfits prepared by the show, sporting trendy haircuts, even wearing makeup—yet they couldn’t compare to Xie Qian in his plain school uniform. What was there to watch?
During holidays, the worst part for the schoolgirls wasn’t homework or extra classes—it was not being able to see Xie Qian.
Wen Ying remembered it vividly, in the summer of 2006, *Come On, Good Boy!* sparked a frenzy for male beauty, and Xie Qian’s fangirls were more eager than ever for school to start so they could see him again.
But everyone was let down, in September 2006, when the new semester began, Xie Qian didn’t show up.
He’d transferred schools.
For the entire senior year, Wen Ying and the others heard nothing about him.
It wasn’t until after the college entrance exams that Wen Ying learned from another Tieba moderator that Xie Qian had gone to study in the US—at Yale, the school where Chinese immigrant parents famously grew vegetables.
Wen Ying even suspected her later curiosity about Yale’s veggie-growing news stemmed from her initial impression of the place being tied to Xie Qian!
Her last memory of Xie Qian from her past life also came from that moderator.
She recalled it was July 2019, when she logged into her old school-days QQ account by chance and saw the moderator’s message.
“Xie Qian’s in trouble!”
Those five words sent a chill through her, leaving her frozen for ages.
She hadn’t actively followed Xie Qian’s news for years and rarely thought of him, after all, she wasn’t anything to him—their only connection was a brief one-and-a-half-year stint as classmates in high school.
Yes, Wen Ying and Xie Qian had only been classmates for a year and a half, he’d transferred into their class in the second semester of their first year.
After her rebirth, Wen Ying had thought of He Zhen, picturing him now in the UK chasing senior girls, her heart still twinging with jealousy.
But she hadn’t thought of Xie Qian yet.
Because he wouldn’t transfer into their class until the second semester of their first year—meaning she wouldn’t see him for at least another six months.
She never expected that today, at Teacher Lin’s house, she’d see Xie Qian ahead of schedule!
She couldn’t possibly mistake him, there was only one Xie Qian, even after more than a decade, Wen Ying could still recognise him at a glance.
“Xiao Ying, Xiao Ying!”
Chen Li called her several times with no response, feeling awkward in front of Teacher Lin.
Teacher Lin’s attention wasn’t on Wen Ying or Chen Li either, after a couple of polite words, he led Xie Qian into the villa.
Xie Qian had a cold personality, Teacher Lin wouldn’t bother introducing him to unimportant people.
Chen Li dragged a dazed Wen Ying home, half-laughing, half-sympathetic.
In her thirty years, with two kids, Chen Li had never seen a boy as striking as that one, so it was no wonder sixteen-year-old Wen Ying couldn’t snap out of it.
Chen Li just worried Teacher Lin might misunderstand Wen Ying.
Wen Ying really had zoned out, but not because she was struck by Xie Qian’s looks, rather, the name “Xie Qian” carried all the memories of her past life’s youth. Seeing him brought back the frenzy he’d once caused, a person like Xie Qian drew attention wherever he went, even his final curtain call was so dramatic… In 2019, at thirty-one, Wen Ying had just started making strides in her career when Xie Qian’s life froze forever that July. She didn’t even qualify to attend his funeral.
After his death, his long-dormant Tieba was disbanded by the moderators, Wen Ying dreamt of him a few times, fleeting and unreal, making her wonder if “Xie Qian” was just a figment of her imagination, a perfect boy who’d never actually appeared in her bleak youth.
Until today, until just now, when she nearly bumped into him.
The Xie Qian from her memories, identical.
Sixteen-year-old Xie Qian.
Alive and breathing Xie Qian.
Oh my God, Xie Qian was still alive!
When Wen Ying came to, she saw Chen Li looking at her with concern, she touched her face and realised it was covered in tears.
Chen Li was alarmed.
“Xiao Ying, don’t scare me, what’s wrong, I’ll drive you to the hospital!”
Wen Ying burst into a tearful laugh, “Auntie, I’m fine, I’m just so happy, I thought of something joyful and cried from it.”
Chen Li didn’t buy it.
Happy about starting tutoring and crying over it?
She wasn’t some deprived kid returning to school, was it really that dramatic?
Was Wen Ying’s outburst because of that boy they’d just seen at Teacher Lin’s door? Though he didn’t seem like someone ordinary folks could approach, Chen Li’s mind ran wild with scenarios, casually asking Wen Ying:
“Xiao Ying, you and that, uh, that really good-looking boy just now, do you know him?”
Wen Ying blinked innocently, shaking her head, “No, Auntie, do you know him?”
