I am a Big Player
Chapter 186 - 184, Life is Like a Knife (Second Update)_1

Chapter 186: 184, Life is Like a Knife (Second Update)_1

All those seated were young people in the prime of their lives, so youthful that it made seasoned veterans, already immersed in society, green with envy. Once upon a time, they too had been carefree.

Yet ten years later, no matter who it was, it would be hard to imagine what they would become, where they would go, who they would be with, whether they would still be happy, or if they would have found happiness.

Ren He watched everyone at the dining table laughing cheerfully; he smiled along. He had once fantasized about returning to this era where sitting together only required sharing a meal and a chat. Perhaps, beneath the surface, there would be a faint trace of affection—the person opposite him was the one he had liked in middle school, but it would be hard to see them again in high school.

Maybe the next time they would meet would be after high school graduation? Or perhaps never again...

Times like these were always so joyful yet carried a hint of sadness.

After Ren He had traveled to this time, he hadn’t even had the chance to get to know these classmates anew, but sometimes he wondered if there was even a need to make their acquaintance.

He was just enjoying the present moment, with the dishes spinning at the center of the table for everyone to share. Ren He and Xu Nuo were both food lovers, so while everyone else talked, the two of them kept eating non-stop, truly the odd ones out at the table.

So much so that Ren He was completely oblivious to the fact that the atmosphere in the room had started to get a little bit strange.

When Ren He went to use the restroom in the middle of the meal, Duan Xiaolou also happened to go. Duan Xiaolou’s best friend said she would accompany her, which led to the person beside her pulling her arm and whispering with a laugh, "Why be the third wheel?"

The voice was low, but in such a small private room, everyone could hear it. It seemed that the other person deliberately wanted Ren He and Duan Xiaolou to hear, to stir things up.

At that moment, the classmates suddenly began to laugh and egg them on, as if after a long suppression, the proverbial thin sheet of paper had been pierced through, and like the floodgates of a dam opening, all the jokes poured out.

Ren He and Duan Xiaolou were somewhat stunned; clearly, neither of them was prepared for these old stories to be dredged up in the bright lights of the hotel.

While Duan Xiaolou and Ren He still stepped out of the private room, leaving the teasing laughter behind them, Ren He, seeing the slightly awkward expression on Duan Xiaolou’s face, chuckled and said, "Don’t take it to heart. I didn’t expect it either."

"Hmm," the two of them walked side by side to the restroom, an awkward silence spreading between them. Suddenly, Duan Xiaolou asked, "You..."

Duan Xiaolou hesitated; in fact, she just wanted to confirm some of her own suspicions with the other person. But when the words reached her lips, she didn’t want to ask anymore—the thoughts of a girl are as hard to fathom as a needle at the bottom of the ocean.

Ren He was curious, "What’s up?"

"Is it exciting when you do extreme sports?" Duan Xiaolou changed the subject.

"It’s exciting, but excitement isn’t everything about extreme sports," Ren He recalled just one week ago when he had navigated through 30 hairpin turns, he laughed and said, "People always watch extreme sports and say, ’No wonder there are so few people abroad.’ It looks as though they don’t care about their lives, as if Chinese people can’t do it like them. But that’s not true. Extreme sports are really about a passion for life."

"Passion for life?" Duan Xiaolou really didn’t understand. Those who had never truly participated couldn’t comprehend how something seemingly akin to seeking death could be called a passion.

"Yeah... You might not get it. There are so many people living busily in society slowly losing their sense of novelty towards life, always feeling nothing is interesting. It seems like they can live safely and unremarkably until the ends of their lives without making any changes. But when one day they jump down from a bungee platform or reach the summit of a snowy mountain, they discover how much they love life," Ren He said with a smile, "Consider it a cry against a mundane life, the power from within one’s heart."

A mundane life? Duan Xiaolou was taken aback. Did her vision of a calm, tranquil life count? She was unsure.

However, with Ren He’s words, and the little tug of restless desires in her heart over time, she suddenly felt the urge to try out the legendary extreme sports, to carve out a different life for herself.

She suddenly asked, "Which university did you put down as your choice?"

"My own school, but there might be some changes," Ren He shrugged. Originally, he thought he would spend his high school life peacefully at No. 13 High, but Su Ruqin’s big move had disrupted all his plans.

"Your own school?" Duan Xiaolou was somewhat surprised. The person standing before her was Luo City’s top scorer in the middle school entrance exam, after all. It wasn’t that No. 13 High was so bad, just that there were too many better schools in the city!

"What about you?" Ren He smiled. "Luo First High?"

It should be Luo First High. In Luo City, the destination for good students after graduating from middle school was Luo First High, the best school in the whole city.

"I’m going to study in Australia. It’s arranged by my family. It just so happens my cousin is there too, Huangfu Zhuri," said Duan Xiaolou with a smile.

The other person was actually going abroad for high school. Ren He wasn’t very clear about the teaching level in Australia, but he remembered that many of his classmates went there in his previous life.

The distance within a city had been stretched to the other side of the ocean, and it felt as if their lives were about to be torn apart. Perhaps they wouldn’t even make phone calls anymore. Only during the New Year would the other person cross the ocean to return to China, and then they would meet like at today’s class reunion, before hurriedly parting ways again.

Ren He smiled, "I wish you good luck. Be careful in everything overseas, it’s not as safe and friendly as some people claim. Of course, there are good and bad people everywhere, which is normal."

The girl he secretly liked was going abroad, which Ren He found rather amusing. If she really were the girl he had a crush on, it might be an even more interesting experience for his reincarnated self. However, that wasn’t the case. He was no longer the original Ren He; that Ren He had dissipated with time, perhaps having exchanged lives and gone to his world.

So Ren He didn’t feel sentimental, only the calm acceptance that all gatherings must come to an end.

"Thank you," Duan Xiaolou suddenly laughed, radiant like the girl we have all dreamt of in our dreams. She was beautiful and graceful, embodying all the lovely adjectives. You might have had a crush on her or not, but in the end, they will vanish from your life, or become a ’friend’ with whom you don’t even share a phone call.

And all we can do is to keep striding forward with our heads held high.

"You’ll be a sea turtle soon," Ren He joked. "The big class leader is moving too fast; we old classmates can only desperately chase after you!"

Duan Xiaolou walked calmly into the restroom and stared at the shining clean mirror, not knowing why she felt a bit down. She once had girlish fantasies that when she announced she was going abroad, the other person would say something more significant.

But nothing came.

Yet Ren He’s last sentence was wrong. Duan Xiaolou sighed. It wasn’t that her steps were too fast; she understood very clearly that it was Ren He’s pace that was too fast,

So fast it was dizzying, so fast it caught her off guard, so fast that Duan Xiaolou could only look up with admiration.

It wasn’t Ren He who needed to catch up with someone else’s pace; Duan Xiaolou felt she needed to start catching up with Ren He’s pace.

...

As usual, grab a bite to eat then continue.