Back Then, I Adored You

“Young Master! Young Master! Is there anyone out there? Quick!”

Gu Yusheng could vaguely hear the sound of Nanny Zhang running away. His head felt like it was splitting and he couldn’t help but dig his nails into his scalp.

After a while, he heard footsteps rushing toward him, and his surroundings quickly became noisier.

“What’s wrong with Young Master?”

“Should we notify Old Master?”

“Chunxia, give Dr. Xia a call first before you notify Old Master…”

“Dr. Xia isn’t answering the call. What should we do?”

“Well, call the ambulance…”

The sounds slowly became more distant until eventually they faded completely. Darkness enveloped Gu Yusheng’s vision, and he plunged into unconsciousness. In this deep sleep, Gu Yusheng had a long dream.

Upon waking up, he realized that it had not been a dream but rather the best part of his life that he had forgotten.

The first time Gu Yusheng had heard the name “Qin Zhi’ai” was from Wu Hao’s desk mate.

At that time, Wu Hao had been chasing after Xu Wennuan and, every study hall period, he would always come sit down by Gu Yusheng’s desk mate to plan out how to woo Xu Wennuan.

On that day, during the heat of their discussion, their loud voices had woken Gu Yusheng from his nap. Without even looking up, he had grabbed a textbook and slapped both of them hard on their backs.

Wu Hao and the desk mate had lowered their voices, but Gu Yusheng couldn’t get back to sleep; still tired, he had remained slumped on his desk just resting.

After Wu Hao and the desk mate had finished discussing how to surprise Xu Wennuan, Wu Hao had begun encouraging his desk mate to find a girlfriend, suggesting, “Nuannuan’s close friend is especially pretty. Do you want to meet her?”

As Wu Hao said this, he had shifted his body and his chair had bumped into Gu Yusheng’s chair, causing him to open his eyes to peek at him.

Coincidentally, Wu Hao had turned his gaze and caught Gu Yusheng looking at him. Wu Hao had taken their eyes meeting to mean Gu Yusheng was interested in the girl he’d mentioned, so he’d turned around, climbed onto the desk and, as if presenting a grand treasure prize, said, “Brother Sheng, I’m serious. This girl is unusually pretty. She was voted as Campus Belle within a month into her first school term here. Her name is… Qin Zhi’ai!”

Hmph… It’s not my concern whether she is the campus belle or not! But if she is the campus belle, then I’m the campus hunk!

With a look of slight disdain, he had given Wu Hao a good whack on the head before shifting to a new position and continuing to rest with his eyes closed.

The second time he’d heard the words “Qin Zhi’ai” was from a boy in his neighboring class with whom he was on friendly terms.

They had been playing basketball together after class, and as they had sat on a horizontal bar to drink some water after their game, the boy had said, “Brother Sheng, I met a girl who made my heart race!”

Having no interest in romance, Gu Yusheng had not even batted an eyelid upon hearing this.

The boy had been known as interested in acting so, not at all bothered by Gu Yusheng’s silence, he continued to easily express his heartfelt feelings. “Brother Sheng, do you understand that feeling? One look at her and I won’t forget it for a million years. She is the sole reason for my existence in this world.”

Gu Yusheng had remained silent as the boy continued to lyrically speak his feelings as if he’d written a poem. Eventually he had said, “Her name is Qin Zhi’ai. Isn’t that a lovely name, Brother Sheng?”

Why would I care? How does it even concern me whether or not her name is lovely?

Tossing the water bottle straight into the trash can with great precision, Gu Yusheng had jumped down from the horizontal bar, grabbed his bag, and left.