After Being Reborn, I’m No Longer a Fool to Be Used—So Why Are You So Anxious, Campus Belle? - Chapter 1:

Chapter 1: For the Sake of Meat Buns

“Smack!”

A harsh slap landed on the back of his hand. The sharp sting snapped through Jiang Lin’s nerves, leaving him momentarily stunned, unable to process what had just happened.

This…

At his hospital bedside, Tang Yue stood hand in hand with Gu Xingzhi, their fingers intertwined, their eyes filled with tenderness.

Tang Yue still carried that same aloof air.

Cold. Distant. Looking down on everyone as if they were beneath her.

“Jiang Lin, you’ve already wasted my entire life. If you hadn’t clung to me back then and ruined my reputation, using your father’s power as village chief to force me into marriage, I would have been living happily with Xingzhi long ago. You’ve delayed us for so many years. But at least you raised the two children for Xingzhi, and you even handed over all your property to them. Consider it your compensation to our family of four. Now… I forgive you.”

Jiang Lin suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

The machines beside him shrieked with a piercing alarm.

“The… two… children… are… Gu Xingzhi’s?”

“Yes! From the very beginning, those two children were Xingzhi’s. How could I possibly bear children for you?”

She looked at him with naked disdain, her lips curling slightly. “Take a look at yourself. You didn’t even finish high school. What makes you worthy of me, Tang Yue, bearing your children? Every time I was with you, I felt so disgusted I wanted to vomit. Now, I can finally be with the man I truly love.”

Tang Yue leaned into Gu Xingzhi’s arm, her voice softening with affection. “Xingzhi, we can finally be together.”

“Beep…”

The line on the monitor flattened into a straight line.

Jiang Lin’s eyes remained wide open as his head fell back onto the pillow. Even in death, they refused to close.

He touched his chest instinctively. That suffocating moment of sudden death still lingered vividly in his memory, sending a chill through him.

Wasn’t he already dead?

Then what was this?

“Jiang Lin, are you done yet? I’ve already told you, I don’t need your money. I can afford my own meals! Let me make this clear, even if you’re the village chief’s son, you can’t force me to accept your favors. I will never like you. We will never be together!”

Jiang Lin abruptly lifted his head.

Only then did he realize that the person standing in front of him was Tang Yue.

Young. Radiant. Her face still full of youthful softness, her hair tied in a simple ponytail. The sleeves and elbows of her pink floral shirt were patched in several places, yet she still carried herself with that same disdainful expression, glaring at him as if he were something filthy.

That same superiority overlapped perfectly with the memory of the woman beside his deathbed.

Jiang Lin slowly lowered his gaze.

In his hand… he was holding meal tickets.

He glanced around.

The surroundings were unmistakable… County No. 1 High School.

His high school.

All around him, classmates watched as if enjoying a show, their eyes filled with mockery. Every face was familiar, yet so much younger.

Tang Yue held a lunchbox in her hand. Inside was a serving of meat dish with sliced pork, along with two plain steamed buns.

Behind her stood Old Wei, the canteen cook, looking at Jiang Lin with a mix of disappointment and sympathy, as if lamenting his lack of self-respect.

This was clearly his third year of high school.

Could it be…

Could such a miracle really exist?

Had he returned to when he was 18?

The scene was painfully familiar.

He, Tang Yue, and several other students from the same village all attended this high school. He and Tang Yue were in the same class.

Tang Yue’s family was one of the poorest in the village, while his father was the village chief and his mother the head of the women’s committee. His family lived comfortably.

In order to please Tang Yue, to keep the girl he loved from feeling inferior, he had pushed devotion to its extreme.

Every time they ate in the canteen, he paid for her meals.

Yet every time she saw him, she treated him with cold disdain. She would publicly mock his attempts to pay for her, acting as if she despised it, yet in the end, she would reluctantly accept the food he bought.

In everyone’s eyes, Jiang Lin was nothing more than a fool to be taken advantage of.

Even after being rejected countless times, he still loved Tang Yue as if she were his first love.

Now, looking at her again… still as beautiful as ever.

But in Jiang Lin’s eyes, there was only a trace of coldness.

So the heavens had given him another chance… sending him back to the years when he had been nothing but a shameless lapdog.

This time, Tang Yue, get ready to face the storm.

Tang Yue stared at Jiang Lin with contempt.

This was her usual tactic. She wanted everyone to see that she, Tang Yue, was not someone who would casually accept anyone’s favor.

Every time, she made Jiang Lin lose face in front of everyone, forcing him to lower his head and beg her repeatedly before she would finally accept his “kindness.”

After all, she was Tang Yue… the famous campus belle of County No. 1 High School.

“Jiang Lin, can’t you have a little backbone? You’re a grown man, yet you keep chasing after someone who clearly doesn’t want you, always rushing to pay for her meals.”

“Are you even a man?”

“You’ve completely disgraced us men.”

“Seriously, just give it up. Tang Yue is the campus belle. How could she ever look at someone like you?”

“Take a good look at yourself. Do you think you’re worthy of her?”

“Everyone knows Gu Xingzhi and Tang Yue are a perfect match. You’re just a toad lusting after a swan. Why are you even trying to interfere?”

Mockery and ridicule flooded in from all directions.

Jiang Lin listened without the slightest reaction.

After all, he had lived to seventy. Words like these… they couldn’t shake him anymore.

Tang Yue kept her cold gaze fixed on him, silently counting in her head, savoring the feeling of standing above him, waiting for the moment he would once again lower himself and beg.

So what if he was the village chief’s son?

Wasn’t he still beneath her feet?

She enjoyed this feeling… being admired, being elevated above others.

But this time, Jiang Lin remained silent.

Just like before, yet completely different.

He tightened his grip on the meal tickets and pulled his hand back.

Then he stepped forward, walking straight past Tang Yue to her side.

Tang Yue’s lips curled upward in satisfaction. Of course… Jiang Lin was still the same shameless fool. No matter how many times she humiliated him, he would still cling to her without regret.

With a cold laugh, she said, “Jiang Lin, I’ve already told you, I don’t need your money. Integrity cannot be bent by force, nor tempted by wealth. Don’t think your filthy money can move my heart. I will never like you.”

At that moment, Jiang Lin’s calm, indifferent voice rang out, “Old Wei, give me one meat dish. Do you have meat buns today? If so, add eight meat buns.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Tang Yue unconsciously swallowed.

A flicker of delight rose in her heart.

Although Jiang Lin hadn’t begged her, those eight meat buns… were clearly her favorite.

The school canteen only made meat buns once a week, and even then, in limited quantity. Old Wei’s cooking was exceptional… his meat buns were truly unmatched.

But at 0.5 yuan each, most students couldn’t afford them.

Only Jiang Lin, with a village chief for a father, could afford to buy them regularly… the only fool in the school willing to spend so much.

As usual, he would buy eight buns and give six to her.

Thinking of this, Tang Yue decided that, for the sake of the meat buns today, she wouldn’t make things difficult for Jiang Lin anymore.