Chapter 0005: A Cliché Plot

Some people like to regard the early 1990s as the final stretch of what was once a pure era. Because as material life became increasingly abundant, people's thoughts gradually ceased to be simple; everyone placed greater emphasis on interests, caring more about what they could gain than what they needed to give.

Zhao Fusheng, who had long ceased to be innocent through the vicissitudes of time, returned against the current. What he longed for was to resettle his youth, which he had missed for a lifetime.

But before that, he had many problems to solve.

For instance, an incident that occurred after his father bought out his seniority, and Fan Baobao, who sat across from him eating but stared at him with her eyes.

It had to be said that Fan Baobao at this time was much prettier than she would be after becoming a star. Although her aura was strong then and she was called Empress, Zhao Fusheng still felt that the current Fan Baobao looked more pleasing to the eye.

"What are you looking at? Eat your meal!"

Seeing that despicable Zhao Fusheng was staring straight at her, Fan Baobao said irritably.

Actually, from the bottom of her heart, Fan Baobao's impression of Zhao Fusheng was passable. The two had grown up together, and their families had a good relationship. When they were young, Fan Baobao even acknowledged Zhao's mother as her godmother.

But as Zhao Fusheng went through middle school and high school, he became increasingly ordinary, completely diverging from the image of a magnificent boyfriend that Fan Baobao had envisioned. Gradually, she gave up that idea.

Every girl longs for her beloved to be a heroic figure; at the very least, if he can't step on multicolored clouds, he should at least have some outstanding qualities.

But unfortunately, Zhao Fusheng was just an ordinary, utterly ordinary youth.

So, in Fan Baobao's view, Zhao Fusheng was merely a childhood playmate.

But now, because of her father's gambling addiction, he had become her fiancé, whom she could not refuse. This shattered Fan Baobao's twenty-year worldview in an instant. If it weren't for the fact that Zhao's parents were so good to her, and that she couldn't bear to leave her sickly mother and young sister, she would have really wanted to walk away.

"Ah, eat, eat." Zhao Fusheng smiled helplessly and lowered his head to eat.

Seeing the two like this, Zhao's parents and Li Yuan exchanged glances and smiled silently.

In their eyes, this was how a young couple looked when shy. Little did they know that one was full of resentment, while the other was absent-minded.

Zhao Fusheng was undoubtedly the latter, because he was trying hard to recall what had happened after his father bought out his seniority.

From the moment he confirmed that he had been reborn into this strange yet familiar world, Zhao Fusheng began to think about what he could do and what he wanted to do.

While his parents were cooking, he found his address book and his middle school and high school graduation photos. To his surprise, some names that were familiar in his previous life had become symbols that only existed in his memory. This made him realize even more that now, although he seemed to hold a handful of trump cards, he actually had to be extremely cautious.

It is said that a golden scale is not a thing of the pond; once it meets wind and clouds, it transforms into a dragon. For Zhao Fusheng, what he needed to do now was to quietly accumulate his strength, hoping that one day he could seize the opportunity to soar straight up, like a roc spreading its wings.

"Fusheng, Fusheng..." His mother's voice came from beside him, interrupting Zhao Fusheng's thoughts.

"What is it, Mom?"

"Take Baobao out for a walk." Zhao's mother said to her son with a smile.

Zhao Fusheng originally wanted to refuse, but Fan Baobao smiled sweetly and nodded to Zhao's mother: "Thank you, Godmother."

"This child, why speak like outsiders in the family." Zhao's mother smiled and winked at Li Yuan.

Helplessly, Zhao Fusheng was pulled out of the door by Fan Baobao.

Since it was summer, there were quite a few people in the neighborhood. The two awkwardly greeted the neighbors and came to a pavilion in the community.

Seeing that no one else was around, Fan Baobao looked at Zhao Fusheng: "Thank you for today..."

Zhao Fusheng interrupted her before she could finish: "You're welcome. Also, I won't marry you."

What a joke; as a reborn person, why would he marry this she-devil?

That's right, in Zhao Fusheng's eyes, Fan Baobao was a she-devil. Being friends was fine, but as a girlfriend, Zhao Fusheng could even imagine himself being tormented to the point of ecstasy by her.

And Fan Baobao, at the moment Zhao Fusheng said those words, widened her eyes.

She had thought of countless excuses and reasons, but never expected that before she could express her own thoughts, Zhao Fusheng, as if avoiding the plague, directly said he wouldn't marry her.

Yes, at that very moment, Zhao Fusheng looked as if marrying her was like marrying a prehistoric monster.

Fan Baobao felt like she was falling apart; if this were a comic strip, there would definitely be three black lines on her forehead, and black smoke would be rising from the top of her head.

"You, you, do you know what you're saying?" Fan Baobao pointed at Zhao Fusheng.

"Of course, this money is a loan from our family to you. You can pay it back after you graduate and start earning," Zhao Fusheng shrugged, looking indifferent.

In his mind, by the time Fan Baobao graduated and achieved success, he would have already used the advantage of his rebirth to accumulate more wealth.

Fan Baobao frowned slightly. Although Zhao Fusheng's plan was quite different from what she had originally thought, overall, it was quite satisfactory to her.

Of course, the fact that he regarded her as a demon or monster still made Fan Baobao a little unhappy. Why would a girl as beautiful as me be looked down upon by you?

Women are sometimes so strange: they can look down on others, thinking the other is a toad lusting after swan meat. But if someone actually ignores them, they become unhappy, feeling their beauty has been overlooked.

"What about in front of the elders?" Fan Baobao glanced at Zhao Fusheng and asked.

In her heart, she was also considering what she should do if what Zhao Fusheng said was true.

"Simple, just pretend," Zhao Fusheng waved his hand, looking impatient.

"Pretend?" Fan Baobao was surprised.

"Obviously. If you say we have no relationship, not to mention what my parents would think, do you think Aunt Li wouldn't start crying right in front of you?" Zhao Fusheng looked at Fan Baobao, letting her clearly feel his contempt.

Fan Baobao took a deep breath, restraining herself from hitting the annoying guy in front of her, but she had to admit that what Zhao Fusheng said made a lot of sense.

Now, Li Yuan's mental and physical state were both very poor. If she stubbornly said she had no relationship with Zhao Fusheng, not only would Uncle Zhao and Aunt Zhao not necessarily help her family, but her mother would also be unable to bear it.

Thinking of this, Fan Baobao gritted her teeth and said, "Fine, until I graduate and earn money, I'll be your girlfriend."

After a pause, she quickly added, "Fake, only real in front of the elders."

Zhao Fusheng nodded. "Deal."

Having said that, he looked at Fan Baobao. "Also, you're not allowed to come find me at school, nor tell anyone outside that you're my girlfriend. And from now on, you're not allowed to bully me or lay a hand on me."

This was a psychological shadow left from his childhood. Fan Baobao sometimes acted like a madwoman, often hitting and kicking him without the slightest restraint or awareness of being a girl.

Fan Baobao snorted. "Don't worry, that's exactly what I wanted to say to you. Besides, do you really think I enjoy being rough? At school, everyone sees me as a goddess."

She wasn't bragging. Except toward Zhao Fusheng, Fan Baobao was always the epitome of quiet gentleness. But somehow, every time she saw this guy, she couldn't help but get angry.

The two had settled their terms and were about to head back when Zhao Fusheng, looking at a figure ahead, suddenly stopped and furrowed his brow.

"What's wrong?" Fan Baobao, following behind Zhao Fusheng, nearly bumped into him.

"A swindler." The expression on Zhao Fusheng's face turned grim, his eyes fixed on that person as he watched him enter the building where his own home was.

At this moment, he finally remembered what happened after his father bought out his seniority.

In his previous life, his father received fifty thousand yuan from buying out his seniority, was persuaded to invest in stocks, and not only lost it all but also squandered the family's meager savings—more than eighty thousand yuan in total.

And the person who had persuaded his father was the man who had just walked past—his father's longtime colleague, Jiang He.

In fact, from Zhao Fusheng's later perspective, Jiang He's behavior was really naive. He first claimed to have insider information that a certain stock would soar, persuading his father to entrust him with the family's savings to buy stocks. Then, after his father handed over the money, he used it to invest in stocks for himself.

Of course, the stocks Jiang He bought were the ones he had already been trapped in, so naturally there was no possibility of a significant rise.

But legally speaking, this money was not borrowed by Jiang He from the Zhao family; rather, it was an investment he made together with Zhao Aiguo. Therefore, after the matter was exposed, Jiang He did not suffer any legal punishment; instead, he managed to extricate himself unscathed.

There were more than a dozen old colleagues who, like the Zhao family, had been deceived by him.

Zhao Fusheng remembered very clearly that because of this incident, his father had aged a great deal and even fell seriously ill.

Watching Jiang He's retreating figure, a cold glint flashed in Zhao Fusheng's eyes. Some mistakes only needed to be made once. In the past, he had been powerless, but now, what he had to do was to cut down this Uncle Jiang.