“Jiangcheng is great after all! So many beauties!”
At the exit of the Jiangcheng High-Speed Railway Station plaza, a young man with a well-proportioned build and handsome features dragged two suitcases while scanning the square, searching through the crowd for one beauty after another.
His gaze was nostalgic yet affectionate.
But he only lingered on each beauty for a few seconds before eagerly moving on to the next one, and only the exceptionally gorgeous ones could make him pause longer.
“Meeting is fate, and seeing each other counts as having dated. Farewell, my ex-girlfriends!”
Chen Luo said reluctantly.
Then he withdrew his gaze.
He looked toward a four-eyed guy jogging over to him… his college roommate who had slept in the bunk above him, Xu Anping, a novel author who loved reading H-manga.
He was also Chen Luo’s best bro.
And Chen Luo was his number-one die-hard fan and loyal reader.
“Brother Luo, you finally decided to come back!”
Xu Anping roared excitedly.
He walked closer and immediately gave Chen Luo a heavy hug. After all, they had not seen each other for two and a half years, and Xu Anping really had missed his good brother Chen Luo.
“One hug is enough!”
Chen Luo said in a low voice, noticing the strange looks from the people around them.
“Let’s go!”
“To give you a proper welcome, I’m letting you try my personal masseuse for a night!”
Xu Anping said generously after letting go of Chen Luo.
“Nope. I quit.”
Chen Luo shook his head lightly.
“Quit?”
Xu Anping stared blankly at Chen Luo. He had thought that after teaching in a mountain village for two and a half years, Chen Luo would come back to Jiangcheng ready to make a big splash.
Instead, he came back and said he quit?
“Yes.”
Chen Luo nodded and said with the air of someone who had already seen through everything: “Love rises with the wind; when the wind stops, longing remains unresolved.”
“All-nighter tonight.”
Xu Anping replied with a grin.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Chen Luo wore the expression of someone with ‘an unspeakable difficulty’ and said, “I’ve really… retired from that life.”
“What’s going on?”
Xu Anping paused and asked, “Could it be that after two and a half years of teaching, your little buddy has been out of action for so long that it doesn’t work anymore?”
“The chicken-soup trick doesn’t work on me.”
Chen Luo replied with a calm smile.
Seeing this, Xu Anping was truly stunned. He studied Chen Luo with those sleazy eyes of his, as if he were meeting him for the first time.
“Something’s not right!”
“Ten points out of ten, no, twelve points out of ten, something’s really not right!”
Xu Anping muttered in confusion.
The old Chen Luo had been a textbook scumbag. Within a month of starting university, he had won over the campus belle and instantly become the enemy of every guy on campus.
Then, in the first semester of sophomore year, he broke up with the campus belle.
And less than two months later, he secretly got together with their beautiful counselor. Back then, every weekend the counselor would give Chen Luo extra care, and Xu Anping was insanely jealous whenever Chen Luo stayed out all night.
By senior year, this guy had even hooked up with a film queen during his internship. The night Xu Anping heard about it, he barely slept.
After all, while his own failure was depressing enough, his brother’s success was even more soul-crushing.
After getting together with the film queen, Chen Luo broke up with the counselor and became the film queen’s boy toy.
Then, right after graduation, he moved into a huge villa overnight. He had really landed himself a sugar mama.
And then what happened?
Less than half a year later, Chen Luo suddenly left Jiangcheng. Before leaving, he told Xu Anping he was going away to lay low for a while, and if anyone asked about his whereabouts, just say he didn’t know.
At the time, Xu Anping was completely baffled. But later, someone really did come looking for clues and offered him one million for information.
Honestly, he had been tempted.
After all, writing novels only brought him a few thousand yuan a month.
But unfortunately, Xu Anping really did not know where Chen Luo had hidden himself.
“I get it now!”
“Does this have something to do with that incident two years ago?”
As he thought back to what had happened two and a half years earlier, he suddenly connected the dots.
“It’s all in the past.”
Chen Luo answered casually.
Xu Anping had guessed right.
His sudden turn toward being an honest man was indeed related to an accident that had happened two and a half years earlier. At the time, he was dating the film queen.
Things were going fine.
Then a senior came to him, saying her family was pressuring her to get married and asking him to help by pretending to be her boyfriend.
That senior was very beautiful.
Chen Luo could not bear to refuse.
Even just holding hands and putting an arm around her waist would have been a great deal.
But who would have thought.
After tricking him into going home, that senior actually made the fake act real. Afterward, she sent the entire process to the film queen, apparently hoping to use it to make the film queen break up with Chen Luo.
Then she could step in and take over.
What a master strategist, entering the game with her own body and beating heaven by half a move! Even a seasoned player like him had ended up capsizing in a ditch!
But something unexpected happened.
After seeing the footage, the film queen was furious. That very night, she lured Chen Luo to a hotel outside the city, locked him in a room, and drenched everything in gasoline.
She intended to burn him alive.
At the edge of life and death.
Chen Luo gathered his courage, climbed over the balcony, and jumped down to the balcony below. He barely escaped with his life, then took a train out of Jiangcheng that same night.
That night.
Chen Luo made a solemn vow never to mess with women again.
…
“Then let’s go.”
“I’ll take you back to Linjiang Courtyard.”
Xu Anping did not press Chen Luo any further. He pulled his suitcase and walked out of the plaza, put the luggage in the trunk, and drove off with Chen Luo.
After more than an hour on the road.
Xu Anping drove to Linjiang Courtyard. The moment he saw this courtyard by the river, he was shocked by how luxurious and imposing it was, with landscaping and even a grassy lawn in the yard.
“Brother Luo, this place is only 500 a month?”
Xu Anping blurted out in shock.
“Yeah!”
Chen Luo wore the expression of someone who had picked up a huge bargain. “A good deal, right? I paid three years’ rent in one shot. I used up every bit of salary I earned from teaching!”
This Linjiang Courtyard he had rented.
One bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom, plus a super-luxurious balcony. You probably could not find a second place like it anywhere in Jiangcheng, even if you searched every corner.
“How do all the good things always end up in your hands?!”
Xu Anping complained bitterly.
“Because I’m handsome!”
Chen Luo got out of the car, picked up one suitcase, and walked into the courtyard toward the second floor. Xu Anping grabbed the other suitcase and followed him slowly upstairs.
When they reached the upper floor.
It was just a super-wide balcony that felt like a little courtyard.
And at that moment.
The next-door neighbor, a beauty, was lying on a chair in the shade of the balcony, reading a fashion magazine. She wore a white shirt on top and black short shorts with white trim on the bottom.
Her jade-like legs were exposed.
As were her bare, jade-like feet.
Chen Luo and Xu Anping both looked over almost at the same time.
“Nice legs!”
Xu Anping said.
“Wait.”
“Why do I feel like I’ve seen her before?”
Chen Luo stared at those jade-like feet and legs and froze on the spot. An inexplicable sense of familiarity rose in his heart. Why did this beauty look so much like his first love?
At that moment.
Gu Qing, who had been lying in the chair reading the magazine, also noticed their gazes. She put the magazine down and turned to look at them.
Then.
A flash of shock shot through Chen Luo’s pupils. The beauty before him really was his first love… the campus belle from his college days, Gu Qing.
“Long time no see, Gu Qing.”
Chen Luo forced out a bitter smile and greeted her.
After he spoke.
Gu Qing, still lying in the chair, also wore a shocked expression.
After staring blankly for several seconds.
She finally asked in a very surprised tone, “You live here too, Chen Luo?”