Chapter 18 - A Time in Their Youth
In their last life, Lin Qian’s relationship with Lin YaZhi hadn’t been very harmonious. Back then, Lin Qian tried to stay away from his house, and weekends were often spent in the city library.
Now, as he stepped inside that same library, the place still felt very familiar to him, even though he hadn’t been here in over a decade.
It was different now though. In his last life, he had come to this place to escape his problems. Now, Lin Qian felt like he was ‘facing’ these troubles.
Luckily, he doesn’t have to face such things alone anymore.
“Finish these problems by today.” Lin Qian stood behind Zheng PingQing, his arms on his shoulders as he set him a small goal.
As he was being pushed, Zheng PingQing sighed. “Do you think this is how dates go?”
Lin Qian replied: “It’s how dates between senior high school students should go.”
Zheng PingQing: ….Having an overly ambitious boyfriend is so troublesome.
Fortunately, while Zheng PingQing didn’t like studying, his brain was first-cla.s.s. Especially with him being much younger, his concentration level now couldn’t be compared to that in his thirties.
Zheng PingQing did the problems quickly, and if he encountered a problem he couldn’t solve, he simply needed to ask Lin Qian to explain.
Of course, he sometimes pretended to be confused just so he could hara.s.s Lin Qian.
But he failed to rein in his flirting, and carelessly asked about the same type of question twice, immediately causing Lin Qian to cotton onto his schemes.
Lin Qian clutched at his hair. “…this question is just like the one you asked half an hour ago!”
Zheng PingQing replied arrogantly, as if in the right: “So you won’t help me?”
What can Lin Qian say? Of course he has to indulge him, ah. “…I’ll explain.”
But Zheng PingQing wasn’t just arrogant; he also wanted to be praised for his deeds. “Look, I asked you questions and didn’t embarra.s.s you, isn’t this atmosphere quite intimate right now?”
Lin Qian: “Yes, it is.”
I’m agreeing on the surface, yes, yes, yes, but I know that he actually just wants to take advantage of me.jpg
Lin Qian’s explanations were very detailed and profound. Their heads were close together, and probably due to habit, Zheng PingQing rubbed Lin Qian’s nearby fingers. Eventually, Lin Qian caught the offending hand and drew a piglet on the palm.
But this proved to be disadvantageous for Lin Qian because Zheng PingQing insisted that the piglet should have a partner, meaning Lin Qian had to draw another piglet on his own palm.
Zheng PingQing was really milking this 17-year-old scenario dry.
I’ve finished the problem.
Zheng PingQing handed Lin Qian a note with these words.
Lin Qian looked at him funny, then flipped the note and quickly wrote a sentence. Afterward, he handed the note back to Zheng PingQing: I’ll be finishing soon, give me five minutes.
Zheng PingQing held his cheek in one hand and quietly enjoyed his boyfriend’s side profile.
The library had good lighting and a quiet atmosphere. An occasional voice or step could be heard as people pa.s.sed by, but they were all in hushed tones. This atmosphere made the scholarly Lin Qian look even more beautiful and elegant….
Sadly, this intimate scene lasted for only a few more minutes.
Zheng PingQing had been thinking about where to eat lunch when suddenly, two young girls came over. The one with long curly hair timidly knocked on their table and whispered: “Cla.s.smate, sorry to bother you.”
Lin Qian looked up towards her, suspicion in his eyes.
The girl’s face turned slightly red, and she held out her open notebook towards Lin Qian. “I saw that you’ve been doing similar questions to the ones in my book. There were some questions I couldn’t do, could you please help me understandk2026;”
Lin Qian glanced at the notebook she handed over. Coincidentally, it really did contain the same questions that he had been doing. Her attempt on coming onto him was also coincidentally, quite similar to Zheng PingQing’s hara.s.sments. Very moving.
Of course, certain tricks were only effective when done by a specific person.
Lin Qian apologetically smiled and said: “Sorry, I can’t.”
The girl: “…”
The girl who came with her couldn’t help but look towards Lin Qian’s notebook on the table. “Didn’t you just finish?”
Lin Qian: “….” It’s no fun when people insist on exposing your lies.
Lin Qian’s face didn’t change as he replied: “I just copied the answers.”
Zheng PingQing couldn’t help but chuckle. He then immediately coughed to cover up his laugh.
The girl with long curly hair looked embarra.s.sed, and her heart was beginning to retreat, but her friend couldn’t read the atmosphere very well and seriously asked Lin Qian: “Didn’t you just teach your friend there?”
Lin Qian answered her in a similarly serious tone: “It was because he managed to ask the right questions.”
The girl replied: “Oh, so coincidental.”
The girl with the long curly hair couldn’t stand it anymore and said: “Sorry to bother you.” She then hurriedly took her friend and left.
Lin Qian waited for the two girls to leave before turning towards Zheng PingQing: “I strongly refused.”
Zheng PingQing couldn’t suppress the smile that bloomed from his face, but he still pretended to be indifferent. “I finally feel the love.”
After saying this, Zheng PingQing couldn’t help but be smug, saying: “She didn’t have my flirting skills.”
Lin Qian: “Oh?”
At Lin Qian’s tone, Zheng PingQing immediately corrected his att.i.tude. “Thank you Mr.Lin, for giving me this opportunity.”
Lin Qian sniffed, then began to pack his things.
As Zheng PingQing did the same, he became worried about the youths in their country. “Teenagers nowadays are too good, ah. Instead of studying in the library, their thoughts are full of love-related things. How can they get into good universities?”
Lin Qian couldn’t help but give him an obvious look.
Zheng PingQing’s righteous words had no sense of self-awareness at all.
Lin Qian rubbed his forehead and sighed. “Let me take you somewhere.”
Lin Qian brought him to the topmost floor of the library, where the shelves contained all sorts of unfamiliar and obscure books. There were far fewer people walking around here compared to the rest of the library.
“A long time ago-you know when-I used to stay here a lot.” Lin Qian brought Zheng PingQing around the scattered shelves, and started talking about his discoveries as a teenager. “I once found some books on a shelf that didn’t belong on this floor. At first, I thought it was just misplaced. But when I checked the label, I found that they really were supposed to be there- It just didn’t get relabelled when they rearranged the shelves.”
Zheng PingQing was browsing through a shelf filled with bibliographies. Some were yellow-sealed and professionally archived, while some were covered in dust. It seems like the librarians didn’t come up here often.
His curiosity piqued, Zheng PingQing tried to look for the books Lin Qian mentioned.
“It’s these ones.” Lin Qian pointed.
Zheng PingQing followed Lin Qian’s fingers, and there really were several books with different styled covers. They had very distinct bindings that were quite different from the rest of the books on the shelf. They were tucked away just below his line of sight.
He looked at the t.i.tles and found that they were just typical popular fiction books and were nothing special.
《I and the Earth》
《Like Father, Like Son》
《You Look Delicious》
Lin Qian smiled at Zheng PingQing. “I was young and stupid back then. I didn’t understand the feelings of an adult, and foolishly went to a librarian and told them about this oversight.”
Zheng PingQing glanced at Lin Qian from the corner of his eye and asked: “What did the staff say?”
Lin Qian: “It was a previous director that personally put the books here. Before he left, he specially asked the staff not to move them.”
Zheng PingQing concluded: “The director’s just doing whatever he wanted, ha.”
Lin Qian softly laughed, then continued: “I found this spot years ago, but couldn’t really appreciate what it meant, nor could I share this discovery with anyone. I laughed at the director for doing such silly things.”
Lin Qian then looked at Zheng PingQing, stars in his eyes. “But yesterday, I suddenly remembered this place and wanted to show it to you.”
“So that’s why you decided on the library?” Zheng PingQing lifted a hand and touched the spines of the books, as if he was touching the lonely and lifeless memory of a young Lin Qian.
Lian Qian had been walking alone, the scenery pa.s.sing him by becoming meaningless.
But now things went back to the beginning. Lin Qian was standing in this spot once again, but this time he had someone to accompany him in this little discovery. That once pale memory suddenly turned colorful.
“Oh, no.” Lin Qian shrugged. “I chose the library so that we could study.”
But Zheng PingQing couldn’t just act as if nothing had happened. His hand lifted and touched the top of Lin Qian’s head, gently ran down to his neck, then wrapped around his shoulders.
They had known each other for far too long, and both knew the other intimately. So much so, that they still recognized each other’s souls even after they were reborn.
They didn’t need to adapt their thoughts to suit the other.
As he stood in this small piece of Lin Qian’s memory, sharing this moment that Lin Qian had experienced more than ten years ago, Zheng PingQing suddenly realized that the regret he used to feel was being covered up, one by one.
At last, he was standing next to the 17-year-old Lin Qian, instead of standing against him.
“Do they have security cameras here?” Zheng PingQing suddenly asked this random question.
Lin Qian pointed at the ceiling, towards the upper left.
With a ‘hmm’, Zheng PingQing shrugged. “Well, no camera could stop me anyway!”
He casually pulled out a random book from the shelf and opened it. Then he used it to block their faces as he kissed Lin Qian on the lips.
The yellowed pages caressed Lin Qian’s cheek, and his lips were warmed by Zheng PingQing.
When Zheng PingQing retreated, Lin Qian helplessly said: “Using a book to cover up is useless ah, the security camera will record us regardless. It’ll be obvious to anyone who saw what we were doing behind the book.”
The IQ of a man in love is…..emmmm
Zheng PingQing: “…..”
But Zheng PingQing was fearless and unstoppable. This time, he simply didn’t bother covering up and just kissed him again, causing Lin Qian to squeak.
Lin Qian’s thoughts scattered.
“Wait for me a little.” Zheng PingQing suddenly remembered something and let go. He asked Lin Qian to stay and wait for him, then ran away.
Lin Qian unwittingly smiled, then leaned against the bookshelf next to him. He looked down at the out-of-place books.
He remembered a young Lin Qian, standing alone amongst the bookshelves. He had immediately noticed the books, but their significance was meaningless to the him back then. He had laughed at the silly director and subconsciously looked around, but there was no one to share it with.
Now time had somehow gone against the current, and those years had returned.
He had finally understood the director’s slightly dull attempt on romance.
And he shared this small discovery with Zheng PingQing.
I like you.
That was what he wanted to say to Zheng PingQing.
“I’m back.” Zheng PingQing’s soft voice interrupted his musings.
Lin Qian looked up. Zheng PingQing had his hand raised, a book on his palm.
“I think the director didn’t think things through. He should’ve added another book in his random collection.” Zheng PingQing inserted the book in the end, after ‘You Look Delicious’.
Lin Qian looked at the t.i.tle of the book——《Too Many Economic Failures》
Lin Qian: “…”
Lin Qian gave him a confused look. “Don’t you think your book’s a little out of place, even amongst these books?”
“It’s just a temporary fix. After all, I only left for less than a minute.” Zheng PingQing waved his hand, “Blame it on the director’s lack of foresight.”
“You’re right.” Lin Qian glanced at the newest addition. Then he reached out and fiercely rubbed the top of Zheng PingQing’s head. “When the director confessed, he probably didn’t expect the other party to reply in kind.”
“The director was too insecure.” Zheng PingQing lamented, and he couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for that director who failed to express himself properly.
Lin Qian nodded. “He isn’t as smart as you.”
《I and the Earth》
《Like Father, Like Son》
《You Look Delicious》
《Too Many Economic Failures》
Zheng PingQing stood next to the 17-year-old Lin Qian, creating a new memory with him, and they laughed at the unconfident director together.
So pure I wanna die.
After nothing but hilarity, this sudden rush of feels made me…well, get feels.
Don’t worry guys, we’ll be back to smacking our faces in the next chapter. The idiots will be back