Chapter 2: Pain and Pleasure Intertwined

Qi Yue slipped out of the explosive, sultry Victoria’s Secret lingerie and changed into a conservative black bra and panties, fully covering her body. She then shed her white loungewear, replacing it with the same blue school uniform as Lin Yu. Unlike Lin Yu’s, though, Qi Yue’s sleeves and pant legs had been cut off, making the cuffs appear loose and natural, and the pants no longer looked baggy as typical sportswear does. Her enticing long legs added to the charm; the uniform on her made her look spirited and a bit heroic.

After changing, Qi Yue found a black leather tie and pulled her hair into a ponytail. Her cheeks flushed red, she sat on the bed, waiting for Lin Yu, who showed no sign of movement. Her demeanor was a far cry from the usual carefree, boisterous self.

In truth, this wasn’t the hotel Lin Yu imagined. It was Qi Yue’s home—a stylishly decorated European-style apartment, a gift from her mother for her eighteenth birthday. Her mother ran a company abroad and had no time to return and be with her.

Yesterday had been Qi Yue’s eighteenth birthday. Since everyone in the class knew she liked Lin Yu, they conspired to get him drunk, undress him, and lay him on her luxurious Simmons bed.

Afterwards, Qi Yue waited anxiously for most of the night, but Lin Yu remained motionless. She finally understood he had drunk himself unconscious and slept as if dead, so she too lay down and drifted off.

She hadn’t expected that, come dawn, the wolfish side of him would emerge…

Sitting at the edge of the bed, gently tracing her lips where that brute had kissed her, Qi Yue felt both shy and a sweet thrill.

Meanwhile, Lin Yu, who hid in the bathroom and refused to come out, was caught in a whirlwind of anxiety. If Qi Yue’s home hadn’t been on the twelfth floor, he might have jumped out the window to escape.

Staring at the not-so-chiseled face in the mirror, Lin Yu felt he was just an idiot—no matter the angle, he looked foolish.

He thought, he should have figured from Qi Yue’s behavior that he had returned to ten years ago, otherwise he wouldn’t… he wouldn’t have pushed her down.

Recalling the words he’d blurted out, “If you’re Qi Yue, then stop resisting,” even his usually thick-skinned face flushed. The sensation of embarrassment and a pounding heart was foreign to him, long absent.

At that moment, Lin Yu remembered the time he had tried to introduce Qi Yue to Wang Yan as a girlfriend. Qi Yue, crying, said to him: “Lin Yu, remember this. You always say that in my world, aside from flamboyance, there’s nothing but showing off. But I’ll tell you, in Qi Yue’s world, besides flamboyance and showing off, there’s also you. Only, at this moment, that you is dead. My heart is dead too.”

Only then did Lin Yu truly understand Qi Yue’s feelings, why she always liked to mingle with everyone—it was all because of him. He understood his own heart as well, grasped what heartbreak and regret felt like.

But after that, Qi Yue and Wang Yan got together, while Lin Yu began hanging out with Dai Peng, always chasing after girls, becoming more and more wayward. He never settled down, never started a family, worrying his parents endlessly, even at twenty-eight.

Now, Lin Yu’s heart was full of contradictions.

On one hand, discovering he had been absurdly reborn into his student days, he was stunned, as if in a dream, but overall felt exhilarated and joyful. After all, flowers may bloom again, but youth never returns. The chance to relive those hormone-fueled school days was a miraculous blessing.

On the other hand, Qi Yue before him was an unsolvable riddle.

To become a couple with her? It felt unnatural, uncomfortable, somehow wrong. Not to become a couple? Yet he had already pushed her down, groped her, and stolen her first kiss…

Besides, since high school, Wang Yan had told Lin Yu daily that he liked Qi Yue and asked him to play matchmaker. Lin Yu had readily agreed.

But thinking about it, Lin Yu shook his head inwardly. Since fate had given him another chance, this time, no matter what, he wouldn’t hand Qi Yue over.

What is the hardest thing to hold on to in this world? The answer is time.

Unnoticed, it was already half past one in the afternoon—an hour had passed since Lin Yu hid in the bathroom. He was still hesitating, unable to decide what to do.

Qi Yue, waiting on the bed until her patience wore thin, couldn’t help but walk to the bathroom door and press her ear against it. Hearing coughs from inside, she knew he hadn’t tried anything drastic.

She thought, “Turns out Lin Yu is even shyer than I am.”

Clearing her throat, she called out, “Lin Yu, hurry up and come out—what’s with all this fuss? If we don’t leave now, we’ll miss the roll call after school and the teachers will summon our parents. Aren’t you afraid your dad will kick you? How about this: worst comes to worst, I’ll just pretend I got bitten by a dog. What do you say? Let’s just act like nothing happened this morning.”

But after she called, there was no response from inside. The bathroom was eerily quiet, frighteningly so. Qi Yue began to panic, knocking repeatedly on the white wooden door, but still no reaction.

Worried Lin Yu might try to climb down from the twelfth floor out of embarrassment, she ran to the balcony to check. Seeing the bathroom’s vent window still closed, she finally felt reassured.

In truth, Lin Yu wasn’t agonizing anymore.

After Qi Yue spoke, he wanted to come out, but as he reached for the door, a sudden, intense pain struck his head—as if a thousand steel needles pierced his skull, nearly unbearable. The agony almost made him pass out.

With only a sliver of clarity left in his mind, it was barely enough to keep him upright.

After enduring three hellish minutes, Lin Yu lay on the ground, drenched in cold sweat, as if he’d just stepped out of the shower.

Yet the pain persisted, relentless.

Five minutes, ten minutes…

He could barely control himself, wanting to scream, but feared alarming Qi Yue, so he gritted his teeth, veins bulging, his face twisted in torment.

Fifteen minutes, twenty minutes…

The intense pain numbed him, muddling his consciousness, and he was on the verge of fainting. He even felt that if he lost consciousness now, he might never wake.

In a stroke of luck, just as he was about to give in, the torment vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.

Lin Yu, covered in cold sweat, gradually regained his senses, his thoughts clearing.

But now, he noticed something new in his mind.

It was something mysterious, leaving Lin Yu feeling as if his brain had short-circuited for a moment.