Chapter 2 Be an Obedient Toad

"Ding-a-ling, students, please line up in an orderly fashion to leave school..."

The air was redolent with the scent of gardenias, marking the season.

Xu Musen felt his surroundings bustling. Waves of youthful and immature voices were continuously causing an uproar.

His body still seemed to be in pain, his head buzzing like a big, broken clock, as a sliver of light struggled to creep into his vision.

Amid his daze, a delicate and slender silhouette appeared before him. She seemed to be only seventeen or eighteen years old.

She was dressed in the blue-and-white school uniform, her feet in a pair of pink canvas shoes. The slightly bloated uniform could not hide her outstanding figure, and her lightly rolled-up sleeves revealed wrists as white as jade while her high ponytail added to her youthful vitality.

A classic oval face with lips that were tender and lustrous, a proudly arched nose, and a pair of charming phoenix eyes which bore a captivating allure.

Xu Musen was taken aback. Why did this girl look so much like Yao Mingyue?

Could it be that even if he descended into hell, he could not escape her clutches?

"Xu Musen, I have told you, I don't want to be in a relationship right now; in fact, I've always seen you as my brother," she said.

A voice that was familiar yet somewhat naive rang in his ears, and the person in front of him became clearer and clearer, to the point where he could even smell a faint girlish fragrance emanating from her.

Yao Mingyue?

Xu Musen was momentarily bewildered.

And the uniform she was wearing... it seemed to be from their high school days.

Although sometimes she would get in the mood and put on some uniforms for a bit of novelty, the Yao Mingyue before him seemed a bit too young.

"Yao Mingyue... weren't you hit by a car?"

Xu Musen's mind was still somewhat muddled as he blurted out without thinking.

Suddenly, a look of astonishment flashed across the girl's phoenix eyes, which then turned into a hint of shame and anger.

A burst of laughter erupted around them.

"Holy crap! That's the first time I've seen someone curse the person they confessed to for getting hit by a car!"

"Haha... Did he get too traumatized? Xu Musen, you're ruthless!"

The jeering noises around him finally snapped Xu Musen back to full consciousness. He wasn't staring at a hospital ceiling but at the school building, and around him were boys and girls in school uniforms, not yet free of their youthful naivety.

"Struggle for a hundred days, work hard for the last three months, and enjoy the next thirty years of your life!"

"Score one more point, beat a thousand people!"

"As long as you don't die from studying, keep studying like mad!"

Banner after banner full of the typical senior year exhortations appeared before his eyes.

Xu Musen was completely stunned.

Had he... been reborn?

Or was it just a dying hallucination?

"Xu Musen, aren't you going too far!" The girl with short hair who stood next to Yao Mingyue also spoke indignantly, "Is it because Ming Yue turned down your confession that you curse her like that?"

Xu Musen looked at the people before him, the high school version of Yao Mingyue and her best friend.

A confession? He looked down to see a rose in his hands.

Memories of the past rushed back to him.

As a student, Xu Musen had been insanely infatuated with Yao Mingyue.

Moreover, this wasn't his first time confessing his love for her. In fact, for about every week in the past couple of months, Xu Musen had made surprising confessions.

But each time, Yao Mingyue had rejected him in front of everyone.

Yet in private, she had said they could start getting to know each other slowly.

In her own words at the time, she didn't want her family to know about their puppy love, as academic achievements were most important.

She drew the long bow all the way to their university days.

It was only much later that Xu Musen realized that Yao Mingyue, the little tsundere, just wanted him to confess to her over and over again in public so that no other girls would approach him.

And guys would gradually distance themselves from him due to jealousy.

The so-called brother-sister excuse, although they were childhood sweethearts, was just Yao Mingyue's worry that moving too fast would lead her to be taken for granted once she was in a relationship.

After all, it's the unattainable that's the most attractive.

She knew from a young age that controlling a man's heart meant giving him a little sweetness each time he was close to giving up, to gradually and completely master him.

This drawn-out push and pull left Xu Musen with fewer and fewer people by his side, and he even began to doubt himself. Eventually, she could justifiably, even as if descending like a savior, dominate his entire life...

This was a little spoiled brat excellent at making grand strategical moves.

These maneuvers were simply a dimensionality reduction strike against a 17- or 18-year-old boy in the throes of love.

If she were to write a book, she could probably get half the boys in the world hooked.

"Xu Musen, I'm going to tell you again, I don't want to date before college. Let's talk about these things when we get into the same university, okay? For now, we can still be like brother and sister…"

Yao Mingyue looked at Xu Musen who was lost in thought, earnestly rejecting him with her words, but deep down, she actually felt a bit proud, deftly offering another glimmer of hope.

"No need."

But before she could finish speaking, Xu Musen interrupted her for the first time.

"What do you mean?" Yao Mingyue was stunned.

"I mean, I agree with you. From now on, I won't pursue you beyond my capabilities, and there's even less need for this brother and sister act."

Xu Musen closed his eyes slightly, and the pain in his body had gradually faded away. However, the indignities of freeloading in his previous life were still clear in his mind.

Reborn into this life, he was definitely not going to make the same mistakes.

It was the perfect opportunity to cut ties with her.

However, Xu Musen's seemingly careless words had instantly silenced the onlookers around them, all of whom were looking at each other in bewildered confusion.

How could the story take such an unexpected turn?

Panic appeared in Yao Mingyue's eyes for the first time, but then she clenched her pearly white teeth, looking at Xu Musen with some irritation.

"Xu Musen, can you stop messing around! What do you mean by today? What do you mean you won't anymore..."

Xu Musen found it very annoying. Though the choices in his previous life were his own, he couldn't blame anyone else.

But he didn't want to live that kind of life for even one more second.

He looked at Yao Mingyue's radiant and peerless face, stood a little taller, and cleared his throat.

"Hey hey, everyone look here, I've got something to announce!"

His voice, which would sound every week at the school gate, rang out. But this time, Xu Musen had a smile on his face.

"Thank you all for your support every week. The thing I've been hearing most is that a toad wants to eat swan meat.

I agree with that. Compared to Yao, I'm indeed an overambitious toad."

Xu Musen's self-deprecation sounded more like a lament for his tragic life in the past.

Yao Mingyue and her closest girlfriend were both staring at him, spellbound.

Everyone felt that Xu Musen had suddenly become different.

"So, this time I choose to be an obedient toad.

I, Xu Musen, hereby officially declare that I will not pursue Yao anymore!"

Xu Musen's words were undoubtedly like a bombshell thrown into the sea of people!

Many knew that the two were childhood sweethearts, and that Xu Musen had liked Yao Mingyue since childhood. Even after being rejected countless times, he never got discouraged.

But today, for the first time, he said such a thing.

In Yao Mingyue's phoenix eyes, disbelief shimmered, and she bit her lip until it was white, completely unaware.

Xu Musen's gaze then turned back to her. Seeing her dazed expression, he felt somewhat elated and smiled at her.

"I also believe that Student Yao Mingyue is so outstanding that she certainly won't take this little thing to heart.

From now on, everyone please monitor, I will definitely keep my distance from Yao Mingyue, and anyone who dares to cross the line is nothing but a dog eating its vomit!"

After finishing his last sentence, Xu Musen did not care about Yao Mingyue, who was as cold as an iceberg at this moment, and left the crowd with a swagger.

Walking against everyone's stares, Xu Musen no longer cared about social death.

A man's face can shine as brightly, just like the diplomacy between nations.

You either fill your economic wallet, or you improve the strength and range of your big guns! Talking otherwise is useless!

The tragedy of his past life was because of money!

Without money, that's why he chose to live off his wife's family; because of no money, he owed Yao Mingyue so many favors; because of no money, he had such a stifled life…

So, money had become Xu Musen's obsession.

Having already reborn, why fuss about love? Lick the feet of a rich woman?

With money, what can't you buy?

Xu Musen turned his back on the crowd, exhaling deeply into the sky.

In this life, I'd rather entertain the whole world than let a rich woman entertain me again!