Returning to Infancy with my Nemesis - Chapter 62

The time in the third year of junior high school passed quickly, almost spent under the pressure of the high school entrance examination.

With the last stroke of the pen in the final exam, Tang Mian finally breathed a sigh of relief. He listened to the cicadas chirping outside the window, checked the questions on the exam paper, and waited for the bell to ring, pack up his things, and go to the school gate to wait for Fu Shizhao and the others.

Everything had been fine since the incident on the day of the math competition. They didn’t encounter any major setbacks and smoothly made it to graduation.

But if there was a small setback… there was indeed one. After the high school entrance examination, that little punk found Tang Mian again. It was during the time when they were going to the school to fill out their college preferences.

But now, he couldn’t be called a little punk anymore, as he had already dyed his hair black. Calling him little black hair would sound a bit strange.

Tang Mian still remembered his name, Ye Yun.

His group of followers used to call him Ye Ge or Yun Ge, especially when Tang Mian passed by, they would shout it out with extra enthusiasm. It was hard for Tang Mian to forget.

Tang Mian was ready to reject him as usual.

“Hey, don’t be in a hurry to reject me!” Ye Yun said.

Tang Mian was curious to hear what else he had to say.

“I got into a regular high school.” Ye Yun couldn’t hide his joy in his eyes.

“Very good.” Tang Mian paused for a moment, using words of praise that were rarely used on him.

He hadn’t paid much attention to Ye Yun’s actions, so he naturally didn’t know much about his academic performance over the past year. But getting a score that met the requirements for a regular high school was really great for him.

Upon hearing this, Ye Yun became even happier. “My dad said he can use his connections to get me into a prestigious high school. I will work hard to surpass your younger brother. This is for you, don’t give it back to me.”

After Ye Yun handed something to Tang Mian, he quickly ran away. It was a small gift box.

Fu Shizhao, who had been eavesdropping nearby, walked over with a dark face, pretending to be nonchalant. His gaze fell on the small gift in Tang Mian’s hand, as if he could burn it to ashes with his intense heat.

“Ge, what is this?” Fu Shizhao asked knowingly.

“I don’t know, it’s from Ye Yun. Let’s open it and see,” Tang Mian didn’t immediately throw away the gift like before. He was curious about what Ye Yun, who had transformed himself for a year, would give him.

In the past, he had given him things that were liked by young girls, and even once gave him a very peculiar and retro crystal ball, which he ruthlessly rubbed on the ground, suppressing Tang Mian’s artistic aesthetic.

Under the scorching gaze of Fu Shizhao, Tang Mian opened the gift box with his beautiful fingers. It was a white cat doll, resembling a marshmallow.

Clearly, Ye Yun had done his homework and it was indeed a gift that Tang Mian would like.

As expected, Tang Mian didn’t say anything, but smiled lightly and put the cat doll into his pocket. Fu Shizhao’s eyes became obscure and unclear.

Not long after, Fu Shizhao took Snowball to Tang Mian’s house and accurately found the cat doll. He touched the head of his own big dog and, when Tang Mian wasn’t paying attention, handed the doll to Snowball.

The innocent Samoyed thought it was a new toy from its owner and immediately carried the doll to play with Cotton Candy.

Tang Mian always indulged his cat and dog. Seeing Fu Shizhao pretending to take the cat doll from Snowball’s mouth and playfully scolding it, Tang Mian quickly stepped forward to stop him and generously gave the doll to Snowball.

In an instant, the previously somewhat aggrieved Samoyed became happy, wagging its tail while carrying the cat doll.

Fu Shizhao stood behind Tang Mian with a smile, planning to open a can of food for the dog who had done a great job.

The summer vacation in the third year of junior high school was not easy.

Like Tang Sheng before him, Tang Mian also joined the summer tutoring program and had to attend classes every day.

Except for the time when his older brother and sister-in-law took them on a trip, Tang Mian spent most of his summer vacation with Fu Shizhao in the tutoring class.

The knowledge points in junior high school were relatively simple, and Tang Mian’s grades were still passable as he half-played and half-studied. He didn’t feel much pressure to get into a prestigious high school.

But he knew very well that high school was a completely different level from junior high school. The difficulty of the courses in high school was much higher, and he had to start working hard.

Although he planned to study art, he also knew that the academic subjects were equally important.

In his previous life, his weak point was mathematics, but in this life… with Fu Shizhao, the math genius, by his side, Tang Mian wasn’t worried at all. He had confidence in Fu Shizhao’s ability to teach him math.

In their first year of high school, the four of them were still in the same class.

Fu Jiacao’s grades were slightly lower than theirs, but he worked hard, studying day and night in the third year of junior high school. With the help of a few top students and the support of his friends, he successfully entered the prestigious high school.

As Fu Jiacao grew up, he still had a tendency to shed tears. Perhaps his tear ducts were more developed, but his character was no longer as timid as when they first met in elementary school. He had become resilient like a blade of grass growing in a crack.

In junior high school, there was a time when Tang Mian got into a conflict with someone from the neighboring class during a physical education class. That person had a rather explosive temper.

That person was so impulsive, ready to resort to violence. Fu Shizhao was about to step in and protect Tang Mian, but then he saw a slightly shorter figure rushing out and knocking that person down. After the collision, it was him who started crying, leaving Mu Zichen dumbfounded.

Fu Shizhao completely changed his impression of him from the previous life.

The pressure in the first year of high school wasn’t too great, but in the prestigious high school, they still had classes on Saturday mornings before the weekend break. Their weekends were always shortened.

Every Saturday after school, Fu Shizhao and a few others would go to the playground to play basketball.

The school held a basketball tournament every autumn, and even non-senior students could participate. Although the few classmates who loved basketball had only recently met and often got each other’s names wrong, they quickly formed a team to prepare for the basketball tournament the following month.

Tang Mian would always sit with Fu Jiacao, waiting for them to finish playing basketball so they could have lunch together.

Because Fu Jiacao had studied too hard in junior high school and his eyesight had become a bit nearsighted, he wore glasses. Coupled with his not-so-tall height, even shorter than Tang Mian, he wasn’t very interested in basketball.

During the waiting process, Tang Mian would often practice sketching in his sketchbook, while Fu Jiacao would wear headphones and memorize vocabulary.

Tang Mian loved sketching.

He enjoyed capturing moments like a camera with his own pen.

Most of the people in Tang Mian’s sketches didn’t have faces; he just wanted to practice capturing human body movements. But if you observed closely, you would notice that most of his sketches were of Fu Shizhao.

Fu Shizhao was sixteen years old in the first year of high school and had already reached a height of 1.8 meters. Tang Mian, on the other hand, was still at 1.73 meters. Tang Mian drank milk every day and had recently grown another centimeter taller.

Tang Mian tried to console himself in his mind – it’s okay, he’s only sixteen. Maybe when he’s eighteen, he’ll be even taller than the 1.84 meters in the previous life.

Although he couldn’t surpass Fu Shizhao, it wasn’t embarrassing. As he continued to sketch, Tang Mian would often inexplicably think of the Fu Shizhao from his previous life.

The school’s basketball court was right next to the cafeteria. In the previous life, whenever Tang Mian passed by, he would often see the figure of Fu Shizhao on the court, gradually overlapping with the Fu Shizhao of this life, as if they were the same person.

But there was a difference…

“Ge, water.” During halftime, Fu Shizhao jogged over to him. Tang Mian quickly closed his sketchbook and handed him the bottle of mineral water beside him.

Fu Shizhao unscrewed the cap, took a big sip, and handed it back to him with a smile before running off.

Tang Mian placed the bottle of mineral water back on the grass beside him.

The difference was that in this life, Fu Shizhao’s gaze would occasionally fall on him.

In the previous life, it never happened. But Tang Mian couldn’t help but occasionally think of the “unfaithful” Fu Shizhao from the previous life.

Accidents always happen unexpectedly.

During a game of shooting and grabbing the ball, someone accidentally slapped the basketball with force, and it flew straight towards Tang Mian.

The force behind the basketball was not small. If it hit Tang Mian, his hearing aid in his right ear would probably fly out due to inertia, and he would be left with a burning wound on his body.

Fu Shizhao quickly used his body to block, but his center of gravity was unstable, and he fell to the ground, putting pressure on his right arm.

His right arm was broken again.

It startled Tang Mian.

In the third year of junior high school, Fu Shizhao had an accident with his right arm. It had only been a short year, and another accident occurred.

They went to the hospital, got a cast, and now he couldn’t play basketball anymore, and… couldn’t eat properly either.

Tang Mian once again took on the role of a close caregiver.

Every day at noon, Tang Mian would feed Fu Shizhao.

Mu Zichen had already grown into the same unreliable appearance as in the previous life. Seeing Tang Mian feeding Fu Shizhao, he also jokingly asked Fu Jiacao to feed him with a playful smile. Fu Jiacao’s ears turned red.

Tang Mian would often roll his eyes at him and continue stuffing food into Fu Shizhao’s mouth.

Going back home in the evening was the most troublesome. The hot weather of late summer was still high, and they needed to take a shower and change clothes every day, or else there would be an odor on their bodies.

Especially on the first day after playing basketball, they were covered in sweat. It was definitely necessary to take a shower.

In the third year of junior high school, it was Fu Yu who helped Fu Shizhao take a shower. Now that they were in high school and one year older, maybe it was the child’s sense of shame, Fu Shizhao suddenly didn’t want Fu Yu to help him anymore. Instead, he looked at Tang Mian with longing eyes.

“Ge, can you help me?”

Familiar peers indeed made one feel more at ease.

Tang Mian pursed his lips.

Fu Shizhao was injured because he helped him block the basketball, so it was only right for Tang Mian to take care of him.

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T/N: This is irrelevant but this chapter has exactly 2000 words.