Chapter 44: The ever crossing paths of life

Xu Tingsheng delayed till the final hour of the deadline before handing in his aspiration form. There were not many who were as late as him. Ye Yingjing was amongst them.

Having handed in her aspiration form, while exiting the room, Ye Yingjing saw Xu Tingsheng. She greeted him, going over to wait for him by the doorway. While they had previously said ‘see you tomorrow’, they had not met each other on the day of the aspirations seminar.

When Xu Tingsheng and Chen Yulun had had their standoff before thousands of people, she and her mother had been in the midst of a conversation with her teacher in her office. In the seminar afterwards, she had not seen Xu Tingsheng as well.

It was still fine for Ye Yingjing, but Mrs Ye had been very disappointed.

Leaving from the handing in of his aspiration form, Xu Tingsheng found Ye Yingjing and Mrs Ye standing by the corridor.

“Xu Tingsheng,” Ye Yingjing shouted, “I’ve not seen you around, where did you fill in? ...This is my mom.”

“Hi, auntie...I filled in a Qingbei to test my luck, then chose a few other schools to cover my bases. I estimate that I’ll only be able to go those schools covering my bases,” Xu Tingsheng said, smiling.

Ye Yingjing thought that this made sense. If one had the chance to, who wouldn’t want to try for Qingbei, however much the risk?

Mrs Ye’s reaction was much greater as she asked, “Why didn’t you choose Jianhai University? Our family’s Yingjing chose Jianhai University, you know...what a pity.”

“A pity?” Xu Tingsheng was a little unable to wrap his head around it.

Ye Yingjing shot her mother a glare before saying to Xu Tingsheng, “Looks like there’s no chance of us being classmates anymore. It’s indeed rather a pity.”

Mrs Ye nodded vigorously. She virtually couldn’t be any more satisfied with this child. His exploits her daughter had told her of aside, he was also the top scholar, also having helped her to vent her frustrations as well in having directly offed Chen Yulun by more than 30 marks. She had heard that Chen Yulun had even run off to rip his banner… Mrs Ye had nearly leapt up in joy upon hearing this, really wanting too much to call Chen Yulun’s household for ‘revenge’. It was a pity that she had been stopped by her husband and daughter.

Also, he was handsome, he looked gentle, and his family ran a big mall as well…

Xu Tingsheng felt a bit flustered by Mrs Ye’s staring. This was the gaze of a woman looking at her prospective son-in-law, and how could he have seen this before?

He wiped his sweat, saying, “It’s indeed rather a pity.”

“Exactly. Will it be too late if you change it now?” Mrs Ye asked.

“Changing...my aspirations?”

“Right, change it and go to the same school as our Yingjing.”

Xu Tingsheng was stunned. Asking me straight out to change my aspirations, isn’t this a little too domineering? Just from Ye Yingjing’s personality and behaviour alone, though, he wouldn’t have thought that she had such a powerful mother.

Ye Yingjing hurriedly pulled her mother behind her, saying panickedly, “Xu Tingsheng, you don’t have to take my mom seriously. She’s just joking.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Can we be friends then?”

Ye Yingjing extended her hand, straightforward and direct.

“Of course.”

Xu Tingsheng extended his hand as well.

“Right, you should communicate more in the future. It’s fine even if you are in different schools,” Mrs Ye said from beside them.

If some appear to each other at the correct time, it might perhaps culminate in a deep, intense relationship or an unquenchable, unrequited love. Yet, if the timing is wrong, it might just be a greeting, a turning away.

Once, if at some particular moment, you had said one additional sentence, just happened to turn around for some reason, it may have been that that person was standing there, thereby leading to that person’s profession of love. But you didn’t.

That is life.

That person might still be there, as your friend, or a mere acquaintance, or someone you’ve never even spoken with before. Actually, ripples may have arisen between you at some point in time before. If you had extended your hand at that moment, the story of your life might have been different. And having let that moment go past without, such was merely just how it was.

In terms of personality, Ye Yingjing was actually a very suitable woman, magnanimous and tolerant, unflustered in the face of difficulties. Such girls were actually very rare. She had a breadth of mind not possessed by many girls; she was able to provide a sense of security. This was an even rarer thing for women.

The ‘lonely’ Xu Tingsheng actually lacked a sense of security. The ‘power’ of rebirth could not wipe away his loneliness and fear, and his precognitive powers entailed pressure as well. This kind of person was just what he needed.

It was simply logical that if Xu Tingsheng had come to this world without that stubbornness over Xiang Ning, he might eventually have gotten into some sort of relationship with Ye Yingjing. Afterwards, it was highly possible that they would love each other deeply, blissfully.

That little bit of tacit understanding between them in his interaction lesson was like meeting a kindred soul who truly resonated with your heart amidst tall mountains and flowing rivers, one’s whose intelligence could always clash with yours, birthing sparks, never failing to liven up your spirits.

In terms of admiration, due to Xu Tingsheng’s experience as well as psychological state, he actually admired Ye Yingjing even more than he did Yao Jing and Wu Yuewei.

Yao Jing was a youth’s curiousness.

Wu Yuewei, having moved him and caused him guilt, had perhaps once even caused his heart to flutter.

Ye Yingjing was the one most suitable for him, also being the one he admired the most.

However, Xiang Ning, was life.

This was life. Ye Yingjing extended her hand, and Xu Tingsheng did as well. Still, this might forever be the most intimate contact between them, and their story might not hold any continuation, this being like that sudden flutter of your heart on that street in your youth.

Even you yourself might already have forgotten it.

Girls like Ye Yingjing would always find happiness, whereas Xu Tingsheng didn’t know, didn’t know where he might end up.

“You’ve filled in specialisation flexibility, right?” Xu Tingsheng reminded her.

“Yeah, I did,” Ye Yingjing said, “What will you be doing in the holidays? Will you be busy?”

“I guess so. My family’s setting up a mall, and I’ve got to help out as well.”

“That one with the ‘wait for me’, right?”

“It’s already been changed. Now, it’s ‘Guess?’”

“Well then...bye.”

“Bye.”

“Right, that song you sung- ‘We are all good kids’. I couldn’t find it.”

……

Because of this final question of Ye Yingjing’s, Xu Tingsheng realised something. It seemed like that <We Are All Good Kids> had to appear soon. Otherwise, if it appeared in some singer’s original album in the future, Xu Tingsheng might come to face suspicion.

Therefore, other than messing around and helping out in the mall, another major theme prevailed in Xu Tingsheng’s upcoming time as well. He learnt the guitar from Fu Cheng while also looking for a way to record and publish this song, however it might be a little rough at the edges.

With regard to Fu Cheng, Xu Tingsheng admitted to him that the song was an original work by the one who had played the guitar on the rooftop that night. As for who he (or she) was and why this song would not be published by its original owner, Xu Tingsheng resolutely refused to reveal it, just saying that these were the wishes of that person.

Having played the guitar for a few years, Fu Cheng knew some similar people on the internet. Of course, they were also the kind of people that just messed blindly around.

On the last two days of June, Xu Tingsheng made a trip to the nearby Wenshui City along with Fu Cheng, meeting up in an abandoned warehouse with some band-playing friends, or, more accurately, online friends of Fu Cheng’s.

Specialising in heavy metal, this band expressed great disdain towards the soft and fluffy <We Are All Good Kids>. Fortunately, they still agreed to help record it in the end.

After a few simple rehearsals, the band found a crude recording studio and roughly recorded this <We Are All Good Kids> with Fu Cheng as the lead singer, helping to take this small matter off Xu Tingsheng’s heart.

I’ll not be doing this again. Having been bothered greatly by this matter, Xu Tingsheng decided that he would never do this deed of plagiarising songs again. It wasn’t profitable, and was plenty troublesome as well.

Very quickly, this slipshod ‘internet song’ that was accompanied by jarring background noise, wrong drumbeats and scattered accompaniment stealthily appeared on a few websites for original songs.

Perhaps the only thing that was worthy of note was Fu Cheng’s voice that was rather good as well as his slick playing of the guitar.

This song spread on a small scale. Xu Tingsheng did not see any occurrence like it abruptly shooting to fame overnight, shocking the visuals of many all around.

TL Note:

Apparently, the author felt greatly emotional in writing the first half of this chapter. He actually wanted to delete some stuff afterwards but just couldn't bear to...

More importantly, even with Xu Tingsheng's rebirth, fate is elusive. Many things are uncertain, and perhaps many things will change. Assumptions? Beliefs? Only time will tell.