Chapter 9: The Night Road

Cheng Ming went through the back door, Lin Jingyi went through the front door, and the two of them took different stairways to go downstairs.

The school at night is very stingy, a large playground, only a few small dim lights, the name of the open source of expenditure.

There were also people playing basketball on the playground on a big night.

On the journey from the playground to the bicycle shed, Cheng Ming and Lin Jingyi were also separated by a long distance, and finally met at the carport ‘by chance’.

Lin Jingyi took the lead in pushing her bicycle out of the school gate, followed by Cheng Ming, the two of them separated by a little bit of iffy gap, looked like acquaintances, and a little bit like fellow passers-by?

Lin Jingyi made a point of heading into the dark and dirty alley between the two buildings.

“It’s dangerous for a girl to walk such a dark night road, let’s take the main road.”

Isn’t it just going home from school together?

Is it necessary to make it look like an underground organization meeting and a young couple cheating on each other?

Every now and then, punks who robbed students of their pocket money would lurk in the darkness.

“Aren’t you here? If I’m in danger, you’ll definitely protect me, right?” Lin Jingyi said with glittering eyes.

“No, I’ll drag you away with me.”

“So true to your style.”

Lin Jingyi smiled cheekily, she didn’t think that the kind of man who stood up and fought for a woman was cool, rather it was stupid.

The chains of the bicycles creaked, and every now and then a wild cat darted past your feet, accompanied by a scream and a watchful eye for drops of water from your wet clothes falling on your head.

“Little Ming, how many years has it been since we went home from school together?” Lin Jingyi asked with glittering eyes, she seemed a little excited and her pace was light.

“Three years, right?”

During their elementary school years, Cheng Ming, Lin Jingyi and Cheng Li all went to the same elementary school, lived in the same silo and went to and from school together.

Lin Jingyi said grudgingly, “Yes, it’s been three years, three whole years, obviously all in the same class, and you haven’t taken the initiative to look for me to talk.”

“But you didn’t take the initiative to talk to me either!” Cheng Ming retorted.

“I’m a girl, you’re a boy, can’t you take the initiative?”

“This is not good ……”

“Xiao Ming, you’re giving off a strange vibe today, is there something on your mind?” Lin Jingyi asked with a pinch of salt, a girl’s intuition was unexpectedly accurate at certain times.

Cheng Ming said truthfully, “A little bit.”

“Can you talk to me about it? It’s not something I can necessarily help with, but it’s going to break my body if I keep holding it in.”

Since this matter of rebirth was really too unbelievable, Cheng Ming did not know how to tell about it.

You can’t tell Lin Jingyi that you’ll go on a blind date with me in fifteen years and plan to get a license from me, and that your father will be deep in a corruption case in two years, right?

As a reborn, there are secrets that are meant to rot in the stomach, and one has to endure a unique sense of loneliness, which is meant to protect oneself as well as family and close friends.

“Xiao Ming, are you because you’re about to take the midterm and your family’s game console was confiscated by your aunt and uncle? That’s why you’re devastated?” Lin Jingyi began to speculate.

“Of course not.”

“So you have another girl you like …… like …… like? Planning to confess before graduation and agonizing over it.”

Lin Jingyi suddenly stuttered and couldn’t even speak properly.

“This one is even less likely.”

Lin Jingyi said with a sigh of relief, “That’s true, it’s completely impossible to imagine Xiao Ming in love.”

“Is it that much of a stretch?”

Noisy, agitated voices approached, a sentence mixed with Mandarin, foul language and localization, dense mosquitoes circled under the light bulbs, light came out of a wooden window**, and an old grandfather sat on a step ladder smoking a home-rolled cigarette.

There was a dark Internet cafe in this alley, which, in addition to four very broken computers, had a King of Fighters arcade, an Alloy Slugs arcade, and a Bubble Bobble.

And this old grandpa is the owner of this dark Internet cafe.

Although it is very close to the school, from time to time there will be teachers and parents come over to catch students. But the business of this black Internet cafe is very good, the secret is that the owner will be at the door lookout, as soon as they see a furious parents and teachers over, they will notify the students inside to evacuate.

Not only can you evacuate through the front door, but you can also climb to the roof of the building to get out of the way first, or walk to the next building to get out.

Cheng Ming and Wang Hao were also almost caught by the director of instruction, Lian Zhangyuan, once, and ended up running to the roof of the building to play cards.

The door of the black internet cafe was open, and Cheng Ming saw Wang Hao sitting inside playing cs at a glance.

But he was focused on the game and didn’t notice Cheng Ming outside.

Lin Jingyi muttered in a small voice, “You boys just like to play, every day you’re either playing games, playing ball, playing cards, playing marbles ……”

There will be yo-yos, race cars, and so on afterward, Cheng Ming spat in his mind.

Lin Jingyi suddenly stopped, and their bicycles collided.

“What?”

“Ming look at them!”

Cheng Ming looked in the direction of Lin Jingyi’s finger, two students wearing their school uniforms were kissing passionately, forgetting to touch each other’s bodies, unclothed.

Lin Jingyi blocked Cheng Ming’s view with her body and said, “Xiao Ming you’re not allowed to look, you’ll turn bad.”

Just this, not even taking off his pants, what’s there to see, Cheng Ming shook his head and said, “Alright, let’s go, I don’t want to see others making out.”

“I don’t need you to tell me.”

Lin Jingyi spat “shameless” and mounted her bicycle, intending to quickly drive out of the alley, but she crashed into a chicken coop and a dog cage one after another, causing a bunch of noise from the chickens and dogs.

The residents thought they were burglars, and the young couple didn’t dare continue to make out unscrupulously.

Cheng Ming shrugged his shoulders helplessly and followed Lin Jingyi.

Coming to the fork in the road, Lin Jingyi waved her hand and said goodbye, “I’ll go this way then, see you tomorrow, bye ……”

“Do you want me to take you back?”

This was not Cheng Ming’s polite words, although he was in a hurry to go home and had promised his sister that he would go home early, he could not let Lin Jingyi go back alone.

“No, I’m not a kid, and you seem to be in a hurry to get home. If there’s anything you need my help with, be sure to tell me, after all, we’re childhood friends! That’s all for now then.”

Lin Jingyi left without looking back.

Obviously, in his previous life, he hadn’t spoken so much with Lin Jingyi in his junior year, much less had he ever gone home together in company.

Cheng Ming didn’t seem to have done anything special to change the relationship between the two.

Everything didn’t go according to the development of his previous life, which was good news and bad news for Cheng Ming.

The good news is that he can make a difference without even doing anything.

Not to mention the fact that he uses his best efforts to do something.

The bad news was that the more things he changed, the more the big gears of history rolled in an unknown direction, deviating from the history Cheng Ming knew. Once he entered other world lines, his clairvoyance to foretell the future might not work so well.

The butterfly effect of not knowing is more of a chain reaction of not knowing what will happen.

But it had to go on, and the unknown future is more interesting isn’t it?