Chapter 2: Catching Early Romance
“What’s wrong, Xia Xia?”
Liu Anan felt that Wen Xia was acting strange today, but she thought it was because Wen Xia had been scolded by the teacher and was feeling down.
“It’s nothing. You guys go ahead and watch. If you don’t hurry, the handsome guy will leave and you won’t be able to see him.”
Wen Xia smiled and gently pushed the two of them, signaling for them to go back and watch the handsome guy.
Jiang Yan and Liu Anan exchanged a glance but didn’t leave.
The handsome guy was nice to look at, but friends were more important.
Jiang Yan grinned and hooked her arm through Wen Xia’s. “Oh well, I’m not going to look. I’ve seen all the handsome guys at No.2 Middle School.”
“Exactly,” Liu Anan added, linking her arm with Wen Xia’s other side. “We’ve already seen all the good-looking ones at No.2 Middle School.”
The two girls seemed determined to stay with her. Wen Xia felt a little embarrassed. She blinked her pretty apricot eyes and drew out her words. “But… I want to see.”
Taking advantage of their distraction, she pulled her hand free and ran off.
“Good one, Xia Xia! How dare you trick us!” Jiang Yan stomped her foot and quickly chased after her, with Liu Anan following closely behind.
The three of them began “playfully” chasing each other downstairs.
“Okay, okay, I was wrong! I was wrong! Hahaha… Please be gentle!” Wen Xia was most afraid of being tickled. In the past, Qin Mo loved using this to threaten her.
“Next time, let’s see if you dare do it again,” Jiang Yan’s round face flushed slightly, and she laughed as she tickled Wen Xia a couple more times.
Wen Xia immediately raised her hands in surrender. “I won’t do it again, I won’t!”
The three of them playfully made their way to the classroom door, when suddenly a low, husky voice called out, “Wen Xia.”
Wen Xia looked up, and immediately froze.
Jiang Yan and Liu Anan also looked over, holding each other’s hands, their faces full of excitement.
Oh my God, a handsome guy—what a handsome guy!
They quickly turned their gaze back to Wen Xia, both pairs of big eyes filled with curiosity.
Jiang Yan nudged Wen Xia’s shoulder, barely able to contain her excitement. “Xia Xia, who is he? He’s so handsome.”
Wen Xia snapped out of her daze and pushed Jiang Yan and Liu Anan into the classroom. “You two go ahead. I need to handle something.”
Standing beside the young man, Wen Xia seemed small in comparison.
She spoke with a tone of uncertainty. “Qin Mo?”
The young man had his hand resting on the balcony, his body slightly bent. His black sports pants made his legs appear long. “Luckily, it’s my wife.”
When Qin Mo woke up and realized he was back in high school, his first thought was that it was just a dream. But everything felt so real, he couldn’t deny it.
To confirm whether this was a dream or if he had truly been reborn, he took a leave of absence and came to No.2 Middle School.
While waiting for Wen Xia, he couldn’t help but wonder: What if she didn’t recognize him? What would he do?
Hmm, this time, he would have to pursue her.
Wen Xia was now certain—she and Qin Mo had both been reborn back to high school. She whispered, “Husband, this feels so unbelievable.”
Qin Mo also found the situation absurd, but it was happening right before his eyes, and he had no choice but to believe it.
Looking at his wife’s face, so full of youth and baby fat, her skin so flawless that he couldn’t see any pores, he couldn’t resist reaching out to pinch her cheek.
He lowered his voice slightly. “Wife, you looked so beautiful when you were seventeen.”
He and Wen Xia had first met after the college entrance exams, so he had never seen her in high school.
“Don’t pinch me. This is school,” Wen Xia said, removing his hand from her cheek.
As soon as the homeroom teacher of Class 8, Cao Jun, came up the stairs, he saw the scene and scolded, “Wen Xia, what are you doing?”
Wen Xia turned her head and flinched, quickly letting go of Qin Mo’s hand.
Oh no, they caught us having an early romance.
This was the worst time to get caught—at the beginning of the school year, when early romance was strictly prohibited. The whole school would issue a public reprimand.
She didn’t want to come back and immediately have to write a self-criticism. Her good intentions to focus on studying would go down the drain.
Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. “Mr. Cao, this is my cousin. He’s here to talk to me about something.”
Cao Jun gave them a piercing, skeptical look, clearly not believing her. After all, this was the time of life when students’ emotions were blossoming.
He put on a serious face and looked at Qin Mo. “What grade are you in? Which class? What’s your name?”
Three rapid-fire questions.
Qin Mo, now in his late twenties and a lawyer for several years, had long since learned to keep his calm in any situation. He didn’t panic at all. He simply pulled out his student ID and handed it to Cao Jun.
“Hello, Mr. Cao. I’m Wen Xia’s cousin. I’m a student at Jia No.1 Middle School. This is my student ID.”
Cao Jun took the student ID and glanced at it. The boy in the photo had short, neat hair—clean and sharp.
He looked up at Qin Mo, then back down at the ID. Jia No.1 Middle School Rocket Class, Qin Mo.
He clicked his tongue, “Are you Qin Mo? The top student in Jia No.1 Middle School?”
“Yes,” Qin Mo nodded.
Cao Jun’s expression softened a lot. He glanced at Wen Xia and sighed, as if feeling both exasperated and regretful. “Wen Xia, you should learn well from your cousin.”
This was the difference between a good student and a bad student. If Qin Mo had been a bad student, Cao Jun wouldn’t have believed a word Wen Xia said, no matter how much she tried to explain.
“I understand, Teacher Cao,” Wen Xia responded obediently.
Cao Jun nodded and turned to leave.
Wen Xia let out a sigh of relief, and Qin Mo looked at her with amusement. “What were you afraid of?”
“The school has strict rules about early romance. If you’re caught, they’ll announce it to the whole school,” Wen Xia explained.
“Ah, well, now I’m relieved.”
Qin Mo knew he couldn’t delay any longer, as he still had class in the afternoon. “When you’re back, focus on studying. I’ll pick you up after school on Friday.”
He then handed her two hundred yuan. “Buy whatever you want, don’t hold back.”
Wen Xia came from a single-parent family. Her parents had divorced, and she lived with her dad. Their financial situation was fairly good, though not as much as Qin Mo’s family.
Wen Xia fumbled through her pocket and pulled out a little over a hundred yuan. “I have money, it’s enough.”
“Take it, be a good girl,” Qin Mo insisted, pushing the money into her hand. “I’m leaving now. And remember, no interacting with other boys at school, okay?”
Wen Xia nodded. “You can’t be messing around either.”
Qin Mo was handsome, came from a good family, and had excellent grades. Just the first thing alone was enough to make high school girls swoon.
When Qin Mo had agreed to be her boyfriend, there had been a time when she feared he might break up with her.
“Okay,” Qin Mo said.
Once he left, Wen Xia entered the classroom. She immediately shook off her previous gloom and decided to focus on her studies from now on.
Just as she was about to take out her book to study, Jiang Yan poked her from behind, her voice full of excitement. “Wen Xia, who was that? He’s so handsome!”
Liu Anan also looked at her, her face full of excitement.
Hearing others praise her husband’s handsomeness, Wen Xia proudly said, “That’s my cousin.”
She added with a teasing tone, “Don’t even think about it, he’s taken.”
“Is he dating someone? Oh my gosh, I wonder what his girlfriend looks like? She must be really pretty,” Liu Anan said, sounding a little disappointed, but quickly diving into gossip.
Wen Xia thought about it for a moment, then held back from revealing that it was her. If she said so, it would make things awkward when she met Qin Mo later.
She lowered her head and smiled, saying, “She’s really beautiful, even a little prettier than me.”
In the future, Wen Xia would be even more beautiful than she was now.
“If she’s even prettier than you, she must be a super beauty,” Liu Anan commented, eyeing Wen Xia. With her standard oval face, large almond-shaped eyes, a delicate nose, and lips with a nice cupid’s bow, Wen Xia was certainly beautiful.
Her skin was especially flawless, incredibly fair with hardly any pores. Among a group of students dealing with acne, she stood out as particularly striking.
Wen Xia was the “class flower” of Class 8, and she was known as the most beautiful girl in the entire grade.
After class, there were often groups of boys who liked to come by just to see her.
“Anyway, she’s really pretty,” Wen Xia said with shameless pride.
