Returning to Infancy with my Nemesis - Chapter 82

Tang Mian rushed to finish all the homework tonight. Fu Jiacao couldn’t keep up with his speed and also had to bring some back with him.

Tang Mian didn’t suspect anything when he saw this.

It’s quite normal between couples…

Mu Zichen, who was secretly observing their interaction, rolled his eyes where they couldn’t see.

Fu Jiacao couldn’t help but laugh. He packed the last book into his canvas bag, then took out a candy from his pocket, unwrapped it, and stuffed it into Mu Zichen’s mouth.

Mu Zichen’s eyes instantly curved up in delight.

Wei Haifan suddenly skipped the last self-study session today and slipped away during the evening. Finally, he didn’t cross paths with him at the end of school. Tang Minghuai came to pick him up tonight, and Shen Siwan sat in the front passenger seat.

As soon as they got into the car and closed the door, a white figure rushed from Shen Siwan’s arms to the back seat and climbed onto Tang Mian’s lap. It was a cotton candy.

Every time his mom came to pick him up, she would bring the cat. Maybe she thought he was too tired after a day of classes and could use a brief healing session with the cat in the car.

Indeed, it was healing.

Tang Mian smiled and hugged the cat.

The other one quickly reached out as well, touched the cat’s head, and the red rope on his hand caught the cat’s attention. It lifted its paw and touched it but didn’t extend its claws.

Fu Shizhao grabbed the cat’s paw, leaned on Tang Mian’s shoulder, and played with the cat. Fu Shizhao was going to sleep at Tang Mian’s house tonight, and Shen Siwan specially made soup for them as a night snack.

During the weekend, Shen Siwan wanted Fu Shizhao to come over and taste her newly learned cooking skills. Unfortunately, Fu Shizhao suddenly had a stomachache, so they had to postpone it.

Unexpectedly, when she sent a message last night to ask about Fu Shizhao’s health, he replied that he was fine and eagerly wanted to taste her cooking.

This child has always been sweet-talking since childhood and good at acting cute. She couldn’t resist him, so she made soup tonight, which they could enjoy in the evening and have as part of breakfast tomorrow.

Back home, Shen Siwan opened the lid of the soup pot, scooped out a few bowls of soup, and Fu Shizhao and Tang Mian each took a bowl upstairs.

Fu Shizhao also had an exam today. After the exam, the teacher occupied another class period to explain the following major questions. The time for self-study was squeezed to only one period that they could manage freely. Tonight, they would have to stay up late to finish their homework.

The soup was still a bit hot, and Fu Shizhao suggested, “Brother, why don’t you go take a shower first? After you finish, I’ll take mine, and let the soup cool down for a while.”

Tang Mian nodded and went to the bathroom with his pajamas.

Just as Tang Mian was about to step out of the room, Fu Shizhao suddenly spoke, “Ge, can I use your phone for a while?”

“Sure.”

Tang Mian’s steps didn’t pause at all as he closed the door.

There was nothing secretive in his phone; anything secretive had a password that only he knew.

With Tang Mian gone, the room was left with only Fu Shizhao. He lowered his eyes slightly and skillfully unlocked the phone with his fingerprint.

Yes, Tang Mian’s phone had his fingerprint stored; he could easily access any app on the phone, and Tang Mian wouldn’t mind.

Fu Shizhao’s good mood vanished instantly upon seeing a friend request from Wei Haifan.

However, intentionally urging Tang Mian to take a shower and use his phone was also for this purpose.

After accepting the friend request, Fu Shizhao didn’t directly open the conversation with him but instead opened their group chat of four and intentionally typed a message, sending it to the group.

?Tang Mian?At which page did you finish the physics exercises? @Mu Zichen.

When Tang Mian came back after showering and changing into pajamas, Fu Shizhao was diligently doing his homework.

He had only drunk a small portion of the soup from the bowl, presumably because it was still a bit hot.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, Fu Shizhao paused his pen and looked at Tang Mian slowly approaching him. He said, “Auntie’s soup is delicious, Brother, try it quickly.”

Tang Mian bent down, scooped a spoonful of soup from his bowl, blew on it, tasted it, and his eyes lit up.

“Delicious, I’ll compliment Mom later when I go downstairs.”

After serving the soup, Mom and Dad went to the small garden with a camera. Many flowers bloomed in spring, some of which looked best at night and required “waiting” to be photographed.

However, they needed to study and do homework, so they brought the soup upstairs.

Tang Mian was doing fine; he just needed to review his books. But Fu Shizhao had a lot of homework to catch up on.

“Let’s go now,” Fu Shizhao suggested, “The soup is still a bit hot.”

“I’ll go downstairs and check. You go take a shower first. There’s still a lot of homework tonight,” Tang Mian said as he walked briskly to the wardrobe and handed Fu Shizhao his pajamas.

“Sure, give her compliments from me too,” Fu Shizhao replied.

When Fu Shizhao quickly returned from the shower, Tang Mian hadn’t come back yet. Fu Shizhao casually glanced at Tang Mian’s phone on the table.

After Wei Haifan replied with a voice message saying “Okay,” he didn’t send any more messages. Fu Shizhao locked the phone screen and continued doing his homework. Soon, he heard footsteps approaching slowly from outside. The door opened and closed.

Tang Mian had returned.

“Ge,” Fu Shizhao spoke up this time, “I almost forgot… When I was taking a shower, I remembered the classmate from last night’s group chat who added you as a friend. I approved it for you. He sent you a lot of messages. I told him you were in the shower. Take a look.”

Tang Mian sat down next to him, looking puzzled, and picked up his phone from the table. Fu Shizhao leaned in as well.

Tang Mian habitually glanced at the messages in the top four-person group chat, seeing Mu Zichen’s venting and ranting about staying up late to finish homework tonight.

Then, Tang Mian smiled and exited the group, switching to the chat with Wei Haifan. He quickly scrolled through all the messages Wei Haifan had sent, naturally seeing Fu Shizhao’s voice message reply as well.

Staring at the 39-second voice message, Tang Mian couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and lightly tapped on it.

Fu Shizhao’s familiar voice immediately sounded from the phone—”Ge is taking a shower right now, so he can’t reply to your message right now.”

After the voice message ended, the room fell silent again. Fu Shizhao couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Sending this voice message carried heavy personal emotions. It was normal for Tang Mian to find it weird considering his usual behaviour.

But he had already left many clues in this matter.

He directly investigated Wei Haifan, warned Wei Haifan’s current girlfriend, secretly told Mu Zichen and Fu Jiacao about it, but kept it from Tang Mian.

When the truth eventually surfaced and Tang Mian discovered all these pieces of information, he would surely uncover his “secrets.”

A little indulgence now wouldn’t hurt.

Tang Mian did find it a bit odd that Fu Shizhao sent that voice message.

It wasn’t so much about the content of the message being strange, but rather the act of sending a voice message was odd—he could have just typed it out.

While it was true that Fu Shizhao sometimes sent voice messages when chatting with him, it seemed strange for Fu Shizhao to send such a message to a stranger like Wei Haifan in this situation.

But Tang Mian didn’t know how to approach him about it, as asking about it would also seem odd. Perhaps Fu Shizhao just couldn’t be bothered to type at that moment. Suppressing his small doubts, Tang Mian replied to Wei Haifan’s message.

?Tang Mian?Got it. Is the kitten okay?

The response came quickly.

?Wei Haifan?Yes, one of them fell asleep.

Immediately, several photos of the kittens were sent over.

Tang Mian clicked on the photos and looked at them.

“Did he take those three kittens home?” Fu Shizhao naturally recognized the three kittens they had fed that night.

“Yes, he took all the kittens home,” Tang Mian scrolled through the photos.

Fu Shizhao thought for a moment.

He guessed that Wei Haifan in this life might also have some feelings for Tang Mian, but he didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

He had wondered why Wei Haifan suddenly wanted Tang Mian’s contact information… Turns out, he had already prepared the kittens and was waiting for Tang Mian.

It must be said that Wei Haifan had decent emotional intelligence. He knew how to quickly gain someone’s favor and was willing to put effort into the people and things he was interested in.

Like the strawberries last night, and the kittens tonight. Yet he was clearly still in a relationship with someone else.

Disgusting.

How repulsive.

After looking at all the kitten photos, Tang Mian replied with, “So adorable.”

Wei Haifan still responded instantly, asking Tang Mian some questions about raising kittens, probably after seeing the photos of cotton candy that Tang Mian posted on his Moments.

—Almost all of Tang Mian’s Moments were filled with photos of Snowball and Cotton Candy.

When Fu Shizhao hesitated for a moment before accepting his friend request, he chose not to disable Wei Haifan’s access to Tang Mian’s Moments. He wasn’t afraid of him seeing anything.

Tang Mian answered Wei Haifan’s questions about raising kittens while drinking his soup. Fu Shizhao also brought his own bowl of soup to watch.

Wei Haifan didn’t bring up any topics other than the kittens again—such as the private matter about joining the army that was mentioned earlier, probably because Fu Shizhao was by Tang Mian’s side and he didn’t want to be seen.

After chatting for a while and finishing the soup, Tang Mian hastily ended the conversation under the pretext of needing to study.

Wei Haifan also sent Tang Mian a cute emoji of a kitten wearing pajamas saying good night and didn’t continue the conversation.

After turning off his phone, Tang Mian’s gaze fell on Fu Shizhao, who had been watching him chat. He urged, “You should get back to your homework soon. Don’t you still have a lot to do tonight?”

Tang Mian didn’t mind, as he had finished his homework; he just needed to review his books. Playing with his phone for a while longer wouldn’t matter.

But Fu Shizhao was different.

On the way home from school, Mu Zichen had been complaining about how the evening exam took up three periods of self-study, and now they had to stay up late to finish their homework. Fu Shizhao had glanced at the group chat just now and had seen the conversation between himself and Mu Zichen about homework.

In fact, chatting with Wei Haifan was quite comfortable. Otherwise, in the previous life, he wouldn’t have become friends with him.

It wouldn’t have mattered to chat about kittens a little longer—he enjoyed talking about pets, especially sharing experiences about raising them.

But Tang Mian knew how torturous it could be for someone to entertain themselves while he was struggling to finish his assignments, so he decisively ended the conversation with Wei Haifan.

After Tang Mian finished chatting with Wei Haifan, Fu Shizhao obediently sat up straight.

Although he knew that Tang Mian had ended the conversation with Wei Haifan, he still couldn’t help but act cute, saying, “Gege, stay with me.”

Tang Mian nodded, pushed his phone away, and opened the book he had brought back, bowing his head to quietly recite.

Every evening this week, Fu Shizhao had found excuses to stay overnight at Tang Mian’s house or invited Tang Mian to stay at his house.

If he went to Tang Mian’s place, Tang Mian wouldn’t avoid him while playing with his phone; he could watch if he wanted to—this was his privilege in this life, he could keep an eye on things.

He kept an eye on whether Wei Haifan had sent anything unpleasant to Tang Mian after school and could squash any budding issues directly, using it as an opportunity to sow discord.

If Tang Mian went to his place, he could only play with his phone or tablet and wouldn’t log into his personal account, so he wouldn’t receive messages from Wei Haifan.

The excuse for Tuesday night was that he had heard some scary stories from Mu Zichen during the day and was a bit afraid, so he didn’t dare to sleep alone at night.

The excuse for Wednesday night was that his grandma had sent some fresh strawberries and other fruits by air freight, which should have arrived tonight.

The excuse for Thursday night was that Snowball accidentally scratched its paw while playing outside and was restricted in its movements lately, looking miserable. It happened to be an opportunity to bring Tang Mian along to see it.

During this time, Fu Jiacao diligently observed every move of Wei Haifan and secretly passed notes to them.

For example, Wei Haifan would come to Tang Mian’s seat during breaks, sometimes bringing snacks or small toys, and chat with Tang Mian and the surrounding classmates.

Like, during PE class, Wei Haifan specifically bought an extra bottle of water, but Tang Mian refused it. Tang Mian didn’t really like the bottled water sold outside; he preferred something with flavor.

In the next PE class, Wei Haifan bought Tang Mian a bottle of strawberry-flavored drink as a thank you for helping him with the kitten questions, and Tang Mian didn’t refuse this time.

For example, when Wei Haifan saw the drawings in Tang Mian’s sketchbook, he praised them for a long time and asked Tang Mian to draw the three kittens he had at home. Tang Mian didn’t refuse, and Wei Haifan took the opportunity to buy Tang Mian a lot of snacks.

Wei Haifan hadn’t done anything too out of line; he had simply been gradually building a closer relationship with Tang Mian, like warming up a frog in slowly heated water.

If it weren’t for Fu Shizhao, they probably wouldn’t have felt that anything was amiss. After all, it just seemed like normal interaction between ordinary classmates and friends.

But they had known each other for so many years.

Back in middle school, that little punk Ye Yun pursued Tang Mian boldly and straightforwardly, and Fu Shizhao had always found him annoying but hadn’t been so wary of him.

This Wei Haifan… Although everything seemed normal, they were still more inclined to trust Fu Shizhao’s judgment.

But Fu Jiacao couldn’t help but feel a bit worried, and Mu Zichen shared the same concern. They worried that if Fu Shizhao didn’t make a move soon, Tang Mian might be swept away.

Fu Shizhao, however, remained calm and relaxed, saying, “Well, hasn’t he broken up with his current partner yet!”

A wakeup call for those lost in dreams.

That’s true… If Wei Haifan really had ulterior motives, when the truth came out, it would only make Tang Mian feel more disgusted and repulsed.

At least for now, there wasn’t too much to worry about.

But the fear was that he might suddenly break up with his current partner one day. However… Fu Shizhao actually hoped they would break up soon, to avoid repeating the tragedy of his previous life.

After all, getting pregnant and having an abortion was a serious matter for a high school student, and it could even affect their whole life.

In the last life, Fu Shizhao found out about this, and although he wanted everyone, including Tang Mian, to see Wei Haifan’s true face, he didn’t dare to expose it, also to protect that girl.

But Mu Zichen was still a bit anxious and asked, “When are you going to make your move? We’re going to be sophomores soon. You’re not in a hurry at all.”

Fu Shizhao just smiled and said, “I have a plan.” Being a sophomore soon was nothing.

He had been secretly in love for two lifetimes already.

And he knew very well that Tang Mian couldn’t possibly have any feelings for Wei Haifan. It was impossible in the last life, and even more so in this life.

Otherwise, in the last life, Wei Haifan wouldn’t have said some nasty things about Tang Mian to his group of friends. Unable to obtain, he grew impatient and frustrated.

Time passed calmly until Saturday.

According to the original plan, after lunch on Saturday, Fu Shizhao would accompany Tang Mian to the art studio to draw and do homework.

But during lunch, Fu Shizhao suddenly suggested, “Do you want to go to the archery range this afternoon?”

Mu Zichen’s mouth was still full of food, but he immediately agreed, “Let’s go, let’s go.”

Fu Jiacao naturally understood Fu Shizhao’s intention—to prevent that guy Wei Haifan from disturbing them in the art studio. He nodded and said, “That’s perfect. We’ve had so many tests this week; it’s time to relax a bit.”

Tang Mian naturally had no objections.

Saturday afternoon was the best time for outings, unlike Sundays when they had to worry about evening self-study sessions, making time tight. Even if they played late on Saturday night, it didn’t matter; they could sleep in the next morning.

After lunch, the four of them left school and headed straight to the archery range.

Meanwhile, Wei Haifan was on the phone with Zhan Wanqi.

“Where are you? I didn’t see you when I went to your classroom,” Zhan Wanqi asked.

“Sorry… I’m dealing with something,” Wei Haifan frowned.

He was waiting for lunch at a noodle shop on a street outside the school.

He knew Tang Mian would go to the art studio to draw on Saturdays, and coincidentally, he had a friend who studied art, so he came out for lunch with him. It worked out well because he could go to the studio with him in the afternoon.

He had forgotten about Zhan Wanqi…

With exams all week and using his mood as an excuse, he hadn’t really been in touch with Zhan Wanqi. He subconsciously didn’t want to take this call, but he eventually answered it.

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment.

Zhan Wanqi: “What’s wrong with you this week? You haven’t been yourself. Is it because of too much pressure from your family?”

Wei Haifan had been going home to rest at night recently instead of staying in the school dormitories. He mentioned that his family wanted him to join the military, but he didn’t want to.

He also said his family didn’t care about him and never asked for his opinion. His recent state of mind hadn’t been good either; he hadn’t been coming downstairs to see her during the day.

Her classmate had been advising her not to go upstairs to see Wei Haifan, saying that they were cracking down on school relationships, and it would be troublesome if they were caught.

Her family was indeed a bit old-fashioned, and if they found out, they would definitely criticize her for a long time. She could only be careful. Plus, with exams in all subjects this week, everyone was busy studying and didn’t have much free time, so she hadn’t gone upstairs to see Wei Haifan much.

Ever since Wei Haifan expressed his desire to take their relationship to the next level, she had been in a dilemma. She talked to her only close friend about this matter.

Her friend’s attitude changed quickly, starting to disapprove of her relationship with Wei Haifan, thinking his thoughts were too extreme, and advising her to protect herself.

Seeing her friend’s continuous criticism of Wei Haifan, she could only lie and say that she had rejected him, and Wei Haifan hadn’t mentioned it again.

Zhan Wanqi’s friend continued to nag her incessantly every day.

She didn’t dare to text her friend back with a lot of details about Wei Haifan’s junior high school days.

She could tell that Wei Haifan was very good at charming people and making them happy, so his romantic history must be quite rich. But such matters were typically about reaping what others had sown.

They had been together for so long without ever arguing or being unhappy. Wei Haifan had only brought her happiness, and she really liked him.

She didn’t care about Wei Haifan’s past. So she blocked the unfamiliar number that had sent her messages.

She speculated that the unfamiliar number might be Wei Haifan’s ex-girlfriend trying to meddle in his current relationship. She felt that what happened between her and Wei Haifan didn’t need interference from others.

Today, Saturday, they were supposed to go out on a date together, but she waited for Wei Haifan in the classroom for a long time and didn’t see him. Unable to wait any longer, she went upstairs and found that Wei Haifan’s classroom had long been empty, with no one inside.

So she called him.

“I… I don’t know what to say,” Wei Haifan pretended to hesitate, “I’m feeling a bit negative right now, I don’t want to spread unhappiness to you. I want to be alone for a while. Would you mind going home first, Wanqi? I’ll come pick you up near your home tonight, we’ll go eat something delicious, and then we can talk, okay?”

Wei Haifan had always been outgoing and cheerful, and this was the first time she had seen him look so vulnerable. Zhan Wanqi bit her lip, softened her heart, and said, “Okay, you take care of yourself. If anything happens, just call me, okay?”

“Okay.”

After hanging up the phone, Wei Haifan let out a sigh of relief. He had finally managed to get through it.

Returning to his seat, the food was already served, and his friend sitting across from him was already eating. Seeing him return, his friend smiled and asked, “Who were you on the phone with for so long?”

“Dealing with a little matter,” Wei Haifan picked up his chopsticks, in a good mood to finish this lunch, and then he could go to the art studio to see Tang Mian’s drawings.

But when Wei Haifan followed his friend to the art studio, he didn’t see Tang Mian inside. Maybe she hadn’t finished lunch yet, Wei Haifan thought.

His friend had already prepared the painting materials and was painting, so he didn’t have the energy to worry about Wei Haifan who followed behind.

Wei Haifan sat quietly in the art studio, playing with his phone at first.

He wanted to send a message to Tang Mian to ask.

But after opening the chat box, he didn’t send a single word.

He intended to pretend it was an accidental encounter, and sending a message would give it away. Absentmindedly, Wei Haifan scrolled through Tang Mian’s moments.

It was full of cats and dogs.

The cats were the ones Tang Mian kept at home, and the dogs seemed to belong to his brother, who was a top student in the science class.

Wei Haifan kept pondering for over half an hour, and his buttocks became numb from sitting.

Wei Haifan couldn’t bear it anymore, so he got up and went outside, finding a corner to smoke a cigarette.

He had inquired and learned that Tang Mian would come to the art studio to paint every Saturday afternoon this semester. Sometimes she would paint for the whole afternoon, and sometimes even continue into the evening, never skipping a week.

He had learned this from a girl in the class who secretly admired Tang Mian’s brother.

Today… it couldn’t be such a coincidence, could it? His luck couldn’t be that bad. Wei Haifan squatted outside for a long time, and cigarette butts littered the ground.

If the school leaders saw this, he would definitely be severely criticized during the morning assembly.

Time passed slowly, and the sun had descended considerably in the west, painting the sky with a hint of color.

Restless, Wei Haifan took out his phone from his pocket and reflexively clicked on Tang Mian’s profile picture, only to find that there were two new pictures in his moments.

Wei Haifan hurriedly opened his moments.

[T/N: moments is probably like a whatsapp status.]

?Someone Cheating, Criticized Severely?

One picture showed her top student brother with a paper on his face, and the other was a group photo of four people, all with bright smiles, seemingly taken at the archery range.

Completely empty-handed in the art studio, Wei Haifan angrily took a drag of his cigarette.

I’m sorry for the late chapters!!