Xu Tingsheng saw Qiao Ying again at the entrance to the C District at sunset. She stood there in a beige overcoat, carrying a few books. As she leaned against the wall, her long hair that streamed down to her waist was dyed a faint red beneath the light of the setting sun.

  Everyone seems to meet such a person in their life. The two of you are destined not to have a happy ending, but the relationship between you just repeatedly lingers, unable to properly end.

  Qiao Ying was that person of Xu Tingsheng’s previous life.

  The two had fallen in love at first sight in November of their first year of university. They had broken up in their second year of university, gotten back together in their third year and broken up yet once more in their fourth year. The month before graduation, harbouring the mood of a ‘final commemoration’, the two had spent their last days in university together.

  This was a strange state of affairs that seemed even ‘masochistic’ somewhat. While the two of them were just so afraid of the pain suffered amidst their interactions and the torture that it was bringing them, they just seemed unable to go their separate ways for good.

  Even now, Xu Tingsheng still remembered Qiao Ying’s call to him on the night before her wedding.

  “I’ll be marrying someone else tomorrow.”


  “Yeah.”


  “Look, we tried so long and hard, but it all still didn’t work out in the end.”


  “Actually, we already knew that it would turn out like this a long time ago.”


  “Yeah, we knew it long ago. It’s just that we couldn’t be satisfied with just that back then.”


  “It’s all good now.”


  “Yeah.”


  There was a red mole at the back of Qiao Ying’s waist. This was a woman whom Xu Tingsheng had originally thought would eventually become Sanmao or Eileen Chang in the end. However, at the end of the day, she had given the myriad emotions and ceaseless wrangling of an artistic chick to Xu Tingsheng, yet had been able to live a peaceful life with another man, standing by him and educating their children in the end.

  Thus, whose fault was it actually that they had ‘missed their chance’?

  After having gotten married, Qiao Ying had only contacted Xu Tingsheng once before, sending a poem over to him via text messaging.

  “I’m really thinking of you,

  When you fall asleep on the train,

  When I’m in my wedding dress with a big smile on my face.

  I’m really thinking of you,

  When I pass by that boulevard of the past,

  When you walk the Bridge of Final Remembrance in the future.”


  (What do you think is the title of this poem?)

  Xu Tingsheng replied, “Isn’t it ‘I’m really thinking of you’? Otherwise, I can’t guess.

  Qiao Ying replied: I want you to die.

  Xu Tingsheng replied: I’m all good and well. Why would I walk the Bridge of Final Remembrance?”


  Qiao Ying no longer replied. This was the final scene of their lengthy, never-ending wrangling.

  She was the person Xu Tingsheng wanted to see the most on this trip here, yet also the person whom he didn’t want to see the most.

  Xu Tingsheng sat down on the pavement on the opposite side of the road, lighting a cigarette.

  Qiao Ying seemed to be waiting for someone as she just continued standing there.

  “She’s actually learnt to wait for people,” Xu Tingsheng could not help but smile wryly.

  When they had been dating in his previous life, he had always been the one waiting for her. Once, she had wanted to eat ice cream, so he had bought some and waited for her in front of her dormitory building.

  After the first ice cream had melted, she still hadn’t come. Xu Tingsheng bought another. The second one melted, and she still hadn’t come. Xu Tingsheng bought a third. She finally came. Xu Tingsheng had waited till she had walked in front of him before throwing the third ice cream cone into the trash can right before her very eyes.

  That was the first time these two wilful people had broken up.

  Qiao Ying had already stood there for more than twenty minutes, with Xu Tingsheng initially believing that she was waiting for a guy. In the end, it was a girl who came. He had known her as Qiao Ying’s bosom friend in his past life. Thus, Xu Tingsheng recognised her.

  After meeting up, the two of them crossed the road over to the pavement on which Xu Tingsheng was sitting, next passing right by him.

  “That guy seems like he’s been watching you all this time,” The girl told Qiao Ying.

  “I discovered this long ago. Still, it’s a pity, but he isn’t my type,” Qiao Ying replied.

  Hearing this conversation, Xu Tingsheng thought, “.……Wasn’t it love at first sight in our previous life? You liar, you’re afflicted from reading too many plotlines. When you lied to me, you probably fooled even yourself along with it as well.”


  This was the scary thing about artistic chicks. They turned their lives into a drama, possessing the ability to fool even themselves. Here, the endless wrangling of love and hatred that had elapsed between them had merely been because she suddenly thought of new plotlines again.

  Thus, all the scenes within his memories had merely been the dramatic events that the female lead wanted to see play out. Happiness and bliss playing out today, breaking up tearfully playing out tomorrow, maybe tossing and turning trying to forget but just being unable to the day after……

  Thus, their story in this life was just like this. Following their first encounter, they simply casually brushed past each other, going their separate ways.

  “To hell with your love at first sight.”


  “I’ll call your boyfriend later on. Only I know that there’s a red mole on the back of your waist. Let’s see you go fighting around tragically with him,” Xu Tingsheng hatefully thought.

  But then, he felt happy again: Actually, isn’t this great?……

  Xu Tingsheng went to Room 408 after dinner. Just having sat down for a bit, he was then dragged over to the internet cafe beneath Block 4 of the campus.

  In this era, universities were still far from seeing everyone owning a personal computer. Additionally, the school rules here forbade Year One students from bringing over computers. In the entire Room 408, there was actually only one computer, belonging to Zhang Fengping who had smuggled it in.

  Xu Tingsheng actually really wished to remain in their dorm for a bit longer, look at it for a bit more. However, he was helpless against the warm enthusiasm of his old pals, only able to take a quick look around before silently saying goodbye to the bunk bed which should originally have been his.

  Reaching the internet cafe, his former roommates took out a borrowed campus card and passed it to him.

  “Over here, we need to use this thing for everything on campus,” Wang Yu told him.

  “I know,” Xu Tingsheng said.

  “Come, let’s first get warmed up.”


  Yu Yue created an fy_iceorld room, setting a password. It was 4v4.

  The first round began. Xu Tingsheng randomly picked up a gun from somewhere before rushing into the right passageway.

  “Bang.”


  A sniper shot resounded, and Xu Tingsheng instantly died. Looking at the ID of his killer, Xu Tingsheng discovered that it was actually Zhang Fengping. Xu Tingsheng was at a loss: It can’t be, right? Zhang Fengping’s shooting is trash.

  “Lucky shot. I just blindly shot one at the wall,” Zhang Fengping frankly admitted.

  It was indeed so.

  At the start of the second round, Xu Tingsheng picked up an AK-47 and rushed out. After that, he virtually didn’t switch his weapon at all, because he just hadn’t died. His battle achievements thereby stacked up to a glorious 1:18.

  Those of Room 408 all exchanged glances: This……they had found a shooting god!

  Getting excited, they clamoured, “Are those people from Economics on yet? Get in, get them good.”


  “Freaking cool, bro. We’ll be depending on you later,” Yu Yue patted Xu Tingsheng’s shoulder.

  “Actually, you were already stronger than this in Year Four,” Xu Tingsheng smiled.

  Actually, considering their proficiency at the same developmental phase, Yu Yue had always been the best at CS of them all. Meanwhile, Xu Tingsheng was merely just around average.

  In this era, few students had actually gone into internet cafes and played games in their junior high days before. Even if they had, it was only occasionally. Under most circumstances, It was in university years that they truly began to have sufficient time, energy as well as conditions to come into frequent contact with games.

  Thus, the reason Xu Tingsheng currently appeared like a ‘descended divinity’ was merely that all of them had actually just been playing CS for a short while. Meanwhile, he already had the peak skills from his fourth year of university……it was just that, and he actually also had to thank Zhang Fengping for having constantly dragged him out to play, even footing the costs for him.

  “Entered, password’s 1.”


  Hearing this, with practised motions, Xu Tingsheng entered Dust, also dubbed the national map.

  The people from Economics that Room 408 was going up against had actually also been their rivals in Xu Tingsheng’s previous life. They had somehow ended up on bad terms for no good reason, laughing mockingly at the other whenever they won and cursing when they lost. This had gone on for their entire first year of university.

  The reason for this having stopped in their second year was that many of their members from both sides had become addicted to Fantasy Westward Journey instead.

  Room 408’s most famous story regarding Fantasy Westward Journey had occurred with Zhong Ming. When he was in Year Two, he had had his first time with his girlfriend. Afterwards, he had very earnestly and solemnly thought that that hadn’t been as fun as Fantasy Westward Journey.

  Thus, he had rejected all his girlfriend’s future proposals without question, regardless of whether she had hinted it to him or asked him outright. Hugging his computer, he just refused to go get a room no matter what, all the way till they broke up.

  This was a classic ‘destined to be solitary’ story that had played out with countless game addicts before. It was also only when Wang Yu had been in his third year of university that he had realised that, actually, many people’s first time was just like that as well……

  Sadly, it had been too late for regret then.