Chapter 0248: Look Forward

Those who care about you, you cough once, and they think you have a cold. Those who don't care about you, you die, and they think you're asleep.

When it comes to feelings, sometimes there's no reasoning with them.

The cold wind blowing through the street corner at night, the cold beer finished on the table, the person you can't hold sitting across from you, yet in the end they still have to leave. Because time is the best span in this world, making pain pale, making the persistent choose to leave, and then after going through the vicissitudes of life and people coming and going, you will understand that everything is fate, and nothing is up to you.

Zhao Fusheng and the others finished their meal and didn't return to the dormitory. They planned to go see Wang Zhen. Wang Zhen had been in good shape lately. Besides eating and sleeping every day, he was glued to the virtual community server. The others understood his mindset, so they went to keep him company from time to time.

After eating in District 2, they crossed an intersection and passed through District 4 to reach the house Wang Zhen rented, which was now the place called MyHome Studio.

As the largest district of Ninghai Normal University, District 4 itself was once called Ninghai Normal College. It had a library, teaching buildings, dormitories, and excellent greenery. Unfortunately, it was November now. If it were August or September, you could see couples cuddling and showing off their love everywhere.

The girls' dormitory of the School of Media was also here. Tan Kaixuan used to come often back then, after all, his heart was all about Hu Xia at that time.

"Speaking of which, I was really stupid before," Tan Kaixuan said with a smile. "Back then, I would wait for an hour downstairs at the dormitory, feeling happy and pleased."

"Normal. People in love usually have low IQs," Zhao Fusheng shrugged.

Girls are interesting. They can make you wait half an hour or an hour downstairs at the dormitory, claiming that if you're unwilling to wait, you lack patience and don't love them. But when it's their turn, if a boyfriend is late for a date, they'll say he doesn't respect time, lacks a sense of contract, and so on.

Zhao Fusheng remembered a woman named Mi Meng in later generations, who always promoted so-called gender equality in her public account, like women shouldn't be hard on themselves. But upon closer thought, it was all a bunch of illogical reasoning.

Slogans like 'If a woman doesn't spend, who will earn money for her to spend?' were really laughable.

Gender equality is right, but a sincere relationship should be about mutual tolerance, not letting the other person tolerate you while you use your female identity to be willful and unreasonable.

Either willingly be a little woman, or be a strong woman.

Wanting to be a bitch and still set up a chastity arch—Zhao Fusheng could only say that such a woman deserved to be single for life.

"Hey, why are you talking about me?" Tan Kaixuan wasn't stupid; he could feel Zhao Fusheng was mocking him.

Zhao Fusheng shrugged: "I'm talking about you because you did wrong. Now it seems, Hu Xia needed an obedient boyfriend, not specifically you, understand?"

Tan Kaixuan was silent. Zhao Fusheng's words were direct but hit the nail on the head.

Perhaps it wasn't just Hu Xia. Most people who fall in love in college really just need someone by their side.

That person isn't necessarily that boyfriend or girlfriend; they can be replaced anytime.

That's why we see couples sweet today and breaking up tomorrow. It's not that they don't love anymore; it's that they didn't love deeply enough.

"Alright, he's already like this. It's useless to keep scolding him. This guy only remembers eating, not the beating," Wen Yu said with a smile.

"Yeah, I've let it go now. Stop lecturing me."

Tan Kaixuan also glared at Zhao Fusheng and pouted: "You talk about me like you're an expert. What about you and Mu Qingqing?"

Zhao Fusheng gave him a look: "What's between us? It's all your fabrication. From start to finish, there's nothing between us."

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Fusheng said: "I have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, yeah, we know. You have a girlfriend, the Qingzui girl, right? Your neighbor..." Tan Kaixuan and Wen Yu laughed, not believing Zhao Fusheng at all.

What a joke, she's a celebrity, how could she possibly have anything to do with you, Zhao Fusheng.

In Tan Kaixuan and the others' view, Zhao Fusheng had probably seen that Qingzui girl when filming an ad before, and became infatuated with her, insisting she was his girlfriend.

Seeing their expressions, Zhao Fusheng couldn't be bothered to explain. These guys, when he told the truth, no one believed him.

As the three were chatting and laughing, they saw Hu Xia and her boyfriend approaching from not far ahead.

The university was such a small place; sometimes, the more you didn't want to see someone, the more you'd run into them.

Ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend meeting, like Mars hitting Earth?

What a joke, did they really think it was like a scene from a novel? The two sides meet, exchange verbal barbs, then each calls for backup, and finally have a brawl.

That's all nonsense. If such a plot existed, it would only mean the author was an idiot who never went to college or had a relationship.

In reality, Hu Xia saw Zhao Fusheng and the others, and Tan Kaixuan saw Hu Xia too, but their eyes didn't even meet; they simply passed each other by.

Hu Xia's boyfriend, on the other hand, glanced at Zhao Fusheng and Tan Kaixuan but said nothing.

"So that's Hu Xia's boyfriend?" Wen Yu, seeing the guy for the first time, asked Tan Kaixuan and Zhao Fusheng.

Tan Kaixuan kept quiet, but Zhao Fusheng nodded: "That's him. He should be a new member of the poetry club."

"Heh, Hu Xia's taste... well, it's quite unique." Wen Yu paused for a moment, then smiled and patted Tan Kaixuan on the shoulder: "A girl like that, staying far away from you can't be a bad thing."

Tan Kaixuan was silent for a while, then said gloomily: "Missing me is her loss."

"No argument there."

Zhao Fusheng burst out laughing. To be honest, he really liked Tan Kaixuan's current state. At this moment, Tan Kaixuan had no trace of dejection; his sights were always set on the future.

It's a terrible thing when a person loses their vitality.

Zhao Fusheng remembered clearly that in his previous life, every time they met, Tan Kaixuan would drink until he threw up, then collapse unconscious on the table or in the restroom.

Back then, Tan Kaixuan had probably already foreseen his own end. He often said to Zhao Fusheng: "I'm like a blindfolded man now, being pushed forward. Sometimes I want to open my eyes and see the world before me, but even after exhausting all my strength, it's all in vain."

Zhao Fusheng didn't understand what he meant at the time. It wasn't until later that he realized that sometimes, once you're in the game, you truly have no control.

Once you reach a certain position, many things are no longer decided by you alone.

With complex interwoven interests and intertwined capital games, many things often hinge on a single thought, determining whether countless people lose everything or jump off buildings.

In this world, it's not just swords and bullets that can kill; mouths and pens can too, even more sharply, killing without a trace.

So college-age young people are actually the happiest, because at that age, people can indulge in fantasies, dream desperately, even imagine themselves as tycoons whose every word is law—drunk, resting on a beauty's lap, awake, wielding power over the world.

But after leaving school, the price of entering society is having your edges and passion worn away, becoming the mature, steady, perceptive, and sensible young person in others' eyes.

Nine-to-five, submissive, busy all day, worried about work, anxious about life, until finally, in middle age, worse off than a dog.

Fortunately, Tan Kaixuan now was still so confident, like a rising sun, eager to shine his own light.

And Zhao Fusheng hoped he could stay that way. His own life in this world was already different, and Zhao Fusheng naturally wished that the friends around him could also have a different future.