Rebirth: Once Again With You

A small smile escaped Li Chunhua's face when she saw Shao Jingfei was back to his usual self again. Because of a moment of sympathy, she just promised to visit his cafe/house again without thinking. Hopefully, she wouldn't be attacked by cats again.

"Haha, that's a good laugh." Shao Jingfei calmed down after a while. "I still haven't answered your question yet, have I?"

Li Chunhua's expression turned serious. "What do you think of it?"

"I think you are gradually becoming better. However, your sister probably wants to fix your fixation on her. You love her too much, even more than you love yourself, and that's not very healthy."

"I see, so I should receive treatment after all?"

"It's up to you. Caiyi won't feel glad either if you do it because she told you so. If you want to get better, that desire should come from yourself."

"But how can I….when I don't even understand what is wrong with myself?"

"You can learn bit by bit… by receiving that treatment, you know? The whole point of receiving professional help is not to make them heal you, but to receive their guidance, for you to heal yourself."

"To heal myself…." Li Chunhua echoed his words and felt that sentence sounded foreign to her ears.

For as long as she could remember, receiving treatment meant she would have to stay in hospital and be asked to drink a whole different medicine. Sometimes she would get an injection, a meticulously lengthy medical examination, and many else.

She was skeptical whether this psychological treatment would help at all because despite all her 'treatment' so far, although her condition didn't get worse, it never got better, either.

"Hmm, I can see your distrust overflowing from your face." Shao Jingfei scrutinized his face. "I can understand that skepticism, but there's no harm in trying it first, right? Maybe after your condition gets better, Caiyi will open up her heart to you again."

"Really?" Li Chunhua immediately perked up.

"Yeah, if you show her your will to cure yourself, she should be very proud of you."

Li Chunhua thought what he said was reasonable. So far, she had made no mistake so long as she listened to his advice, so she probably could trust his judgment too on this matter.

"Thanks, Jingfei. I'll try to talk to my sister after this."

"Sure thing. Do your best, my disciple. Whenever you need my help, just contact me, and I'll be there to help you. Man, I'm such a good master!" Shao Jingfei grinned smugly.

Li Chunhua rolled her eyes. "Now that my business is done here, I will return first. See ya!"

"Ah, hey!"

Li Chunhua ignored his call and walked away briskly. She felt enlightened and couldn't wait to break the news to Li Caiyi.

***

Meanwhile, Meng Renshu slumped on his table dejectedly as soon as he returned to his classroom. Li Junjie, who was sitting behind him and reading a book, stared at him in puzzlement.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked Meng Renshu, who replied with a deep sigh.

"Junjie, do you know that being rejected really hurts? But you still have to smile so she wouldn't feel bad about it?"

"I never got rejected before, and I'm not interested in finding out either."

"Wow, what a ruthless answer. At least pretend to be sympathetic to your poor friend's sake." Meng Renshu chuckled before changing his sitting position so he could talk face to face with Li Junjie. "What are you reading there?"

"Xiaoyi's work," Li Junjie replied shortly, and Meng Renshu flinched slightly.

"Haven't you already finished reading it?" Meng Renshu stared at the copy of Li Caiyi's manuscript in his friend's hand and wheezed, "Geez, look at how shabby your copy becomes. How many times have you read it?"

"Several times. It's not a bad read to kill time."

"Hmm," Meng Renshu hummed meaningfully. "Aren't you very proud of your sister?"

"Yes, indeed. This isn't something you can achieve just by reading many books. Either she is talented, or she has been secretly working hard alone all this time."

"Tsk, you admitted so openly. You should have tried to deny it a bit there, or you are no fun."

"You ask a question, and I give you an answer. What does being funny have anything to do with it?"

Meng Renshu raised his arms with a defeated look. "You beat my jokes with logic there. I sometimes wonder how we could be friends."

"You are the one who kept approaching me first and self-proclaiming yourself as my friend."

"Haha, you are right. I remember you were so rigid and square that no one dared to talk to you back then. Because you always shoot people's attempts to get closer to you with your blunt words." Meng Renshu had a nostalgic expression on his face.

"How many years have passed since then? 10 years? No, 12 years?"

"It's 13 years, 11 months, and 24 days." Li Junjie replied while still fixing his eyes on the manuscript in his hand.

"Wow, your memory is powerful, as always. You even counted it down to the days. I'm touched."

"It's because we only became closer on my 5th birthday. It's easy to count once you have a point you can use to calculate. Weirdly, you keep forgetting about this, though."

Meng Renshu scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Haha, please don't put a mortal like me on the same level as an immortal like you. But now that you mentioned it, your birthday is just around the corner. The only thing I have the upper hand against you is my age, and even that is only a month older. We will be the same age in a week, and it wouldn't be an advantage anymore."

"Why do you even want to compete in age? If you want to beat me, there are many other ways to do it."

"Oh? Is this your roundabout way of telling me what my good point is? Go ahead, tell me." Meng Renshu urged in excitement.

"You are very thick-skinned, and with your good physique, you can easily pass as a model. You should try auditioning for that."

Meng Renshu: "...."

He didn't know what he expected. To think he actually thought that Li Junjie would give him sincere praise for once, his head must have been kicked by a donkey. The most annoying part was, he couldn't even tell if Li Junjie was being serious or not, so he couldn't get angry!

​ "That's why you shouldn't give up so easily. A rejection doesn't mean the end of the world, and that girl won't be the last female on the earth, either." Li Junjie said flatly that one could easily mistake it as a sarcastic remark if they didn't know him very well. However, Meng Renshu knew that this was his friend's way of showing concern.

"Thanks. Yes, I feel depressed, but I never said anything about giving up." Meng Renshu chuckled before propping his chin with his hand. "Aren't you curious which cheeky girl just rejected me?"

"Is it Xiaoyi again?"

"Haha, bingo. I guess even someone as slow as you noticed it too, huh?"

"Not really. With how many times she had rejected you already, it would be weird if another random girl suddenly appeared in the equation."

"Well, that is….true, I guess. Most people wouldn't put it that way to a person who just got rejected." Meng Renshu looked at the copy of the manuscript in Li Junjie's hand, and a question popped out in his mind.

"Don't you feel anything when you know I'm currently pursuing your sister?"

Li Junjie flipped the page before answering. "It has nothing to do with me."

"If Shuchun suddenly said a guy was pursuing her, I would thoroughly investigate that guy to the smallest details. Do you trust me that much?"

"Xiaoyi knew what's best for her. I don't have the right to intervene."

"That's true, but it's still a bit too cold, don't you think?"

Li Junjie's eyelashes quivered a little. "It's better to put the minimum care into everything, so you wouldn't feel burdened by unnecessary emotions. Now, if you are not depressed anymore, I want you to leave me to read in peace."

Meng Renshu harrumphed. "Fine, spoilsport!"

He was about to turn his body forward again but decided to say something after contemplating. "But, you know, Junjie. I'm sure Xiaoyi will feel happy if you show your concern to her. Those twins adore and admire you, after all."

"Why are you talking about something that happened long ago? I'm going to ignore you starting from here, don't disturb me."

Meng Renshu sighed, feeling defeated faced against his friend's apathy.