As Nie Yan got closer to the pharmacy, while crossing the street, his foot somehow got hooked—as if guided by ghosts—and he stumbled, crashing heavily to the ground.
Extreme joy begets sorrow.
Hiss, it hurts. Nie Yan's hand went numb from the fall, and his knee was scraped and bleeding.
He forced himself into a sitting position. His knee was a bloody mess.
At that moment, a pink Riley hovercar passed by on the roadside and screeched to a halt not far from Nie Yan. In a small city like Ningjiang, a high-end vehicle like a Riley hovercar was an extremely rare sight. This limited-edition car, worth ninety million, wasn't something an ordinary family could afford.
A girl in a white dress opened the car door, stepped out, and hurriedly ran this way.
“Hey, classmate, are you okay？” A clear, pleasant voice filled with concern rang out in Nie Yan’s ears.
When Nie Yan heard this voice, familiar down to his very soul, his heart jolted. He looked up—who else would it be but Xie Yao？
Xie Yao was still as beautiful as ever, in a white dress adorned with pink lace trim, with bright, gleaming eyes and a ponytail tied behind her back. Her cheeks still showed a trace of youthful immaturity, yet they brimmed with vitality and energy.
Nie Yan was dazed, recalling that class reunion six years after graduation. Back then, Xie Yao was a successful career woman, dressed in a sharp business suit, sexy and charming.
Time is such a wondrous thing—it turned a beautiful, innocent girl into a sexy, charming young woman, and today, it had transformed her back again.
Meeting once more after a lifetime apart—perhaps this was fate. Fate rewound like a cassette tape, returning the two of them to the starting point. A melodious tune slowly began to play, every note so wonderful and pleasing to the ear.
Nie Yan still remembered that his first encounter with Xie Yao had been under an identical situation. His eyes grew a little moist. Xie Yao, it’s been so long since I last saw you. Are you doing okay？ In this life, I’m never letting you go far away again.
“Ah, your knee is scraped and bleeding a lot.” Xie Yao exclaimed in surprise. Remembering that there were some bandages in the medical kit in her car, she ran over there.
Nie Yan watched Xie Yao get back into the car. Back in senior year, his favorite thing to do was to chase Xie Yao's graceful figure with his eyes. She had a slender frame, and beneath her white dress, half of her calves were exposed, white as fine jade porcelain. To be honest, Nie Yan wasn't bad-looking. After his father's success, his family's financial status wasn't worse than Xie Yao's either. But in front of Xie Yao, he just couldn't muster up the courage.
The mindset from high school was truly strange and elusive. Looking at it from an adult's perspective, back then he was really childish.
Xie Yao picked up the bandage, walked over to Nie Yan, and rinsed his wound with disinfectant. Her movements were very careful. Her slender fingers picked off the tiny bits of gravel from the wound one by one.
“Why are you crying? A big guy like you, crying over such a small injury—that's not a good look, you know.” Xie Yao teased with a smile, massaging the bruise on Nie Yan's knee with her thumb.
When she smiled, shallow dimples appeared at the corners of her mouth, and there was an indescribable brightness to her.
“When I fell, some sand got into my eyes,” Nie Yan said, his cheeks burning a little as he made up a lame excuse. The reason he was tearing up wasn't because of his injury. Xie Yao's appearance felt like someone had poured boiling hot water over his heart—his emotions were in turmoil, a mixture of bitterness and happiness, wanting to spill out.
Xie Yao focused on treating the wound on Nie Yan's knee.
Nie Yan lifted his head and looked at Xie Yao's profile. Her skin was flawless white jade, so delicate it seemed like you could squeeze water from it. A strand of black hair hung down, and there were exquisite ear studs on her earlobes.
Back when he shared a desk with Xie Yao, he always liked to secretly glance at her from the corner of his eye during class—no matter how much he looked, it was never enough.
Xie Yao was the undisputed class flower of their class; other classes also had very pretty girls, but Nie Yan stubbornly insisted that Xie Yao was the most beautiful one in the entire school.
After meeting here, Nie Yan couldn't forget Xie Yao. Later, when he entered high school, he was surprised to find that the two of them were in the same class, and even sat at the same desk. He believed this was fate. It wasn't until ten years later that he understood that even two people with a strong destiny could miss each other if they didn't cherish it well. By the time he fully realized this, it was already too late.
"How dare you come here alone？ Ningjiang is a very chaotic place with a lot of gangs." Nie Yan said with concern. This was an area where gangs were entrenched; for someone as beautiful as Xie Yao to come here alone was very dangerous.
"Don't underestimate me. I'm a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo. By the time I'm 21, I'll be able to advance to fourth degree. If you don't believe me, I'll show you." Xie Yao struck a standard starting pose, then suddenly stopped, a blush rising on her face as she stammered, "Maybe not... I'm wearing a skirt today. But I really am very strong." Xie Yao was innocent, completely guileless.
Nie Yan smiled knowingly. After chatting with Xie Yao for a bit, that familiar feeling came back. The young girl in front of him was indeed Xie Yao—pure, cute, lively, and cheerful. Yet after that gathering after college graduation, that liveliness and innocence could no longer be found. So it turned out that sadness, after being tempered by time, could change a person so decisively.
Xie Yao sized up Nie Yan. Nie Yan looked a few years younger than her, about the same height, only around 1.7 meters. His clothes were a bit dirty, probably from falling just now. His appearance wasn't exactly handsome, but it was passable. For some reason, though, Nie Yan gave her an indescribable sense of familiarity and warmth, and without realizing it, she found herself speaking a bit more.
“What school do you go to？ The way you look, you must be in middle school, right？” Xie Yao thought Nie Yan seemed a bit silly, silly in an endearing way—running without even looking at the ground. A lot of boys are that clueless in middle school, but they mature a lot by high school.
Though Nie Yan was only eighteen now, he had the mind of a twenty-eight-year-old. Meeting Xie Yao again, he was no longer the clueless little boy he used to be. In his heart, he had the calm and composure tempered by years.
“Who says I’m in middle school? If it weren’t for the one-child policy, I’d be old enough to have a kid who can run errands for soy sauce.” Nie Yan joked, believing people shouldn’t be so rigid and dull.
“Old enough to have a kid running errands? Keep bragging.” Nie Yan’s words made Xie Yao laugh, chuckling nonstop.
“I’m eighteen.” Nie Yan said.
“You’re eighteen？ I can’t tell. Same age as me.” Xie Yao said in surprise.
Due to poor nutrition, Nie Yan still looked a bit small, standing only about 1.65 meters tall. It was only after his junior year of high school, when his living conditions improved, that he shot up to 1.8 meters. Right now, he still had a childish look and really did seem like a middle schooler, which frustrated him somewhat.
After all, he had the soul of a twenty-eight-year-old, yet he was being mistaken for a middle schooler. But with this baby face, there was nothing he could do. “That’s because my face looks young.”
“Just admit you’re young,” Xie Yao chuckled. She found Nie Yan rather amusing. The boys in her class either acted timid and tongue-tied around her or were full of thuggish arrogance—both annoying.
After chatting for a while, Nie Yan became much more at ease in front of Xie Yao, occasionally saying something witty that made her giggle.
Nie Yan looked at Xie Yao with her radiant smile and thought back to that time—it was when he had just graduated from high school. They had been deskmates for a year, and he had always thought there could never be anything between them—they were from two different worlds. He had quietly liked Xie Yao, almost always saying yes to her requests, but never dared to hope that she would remember him. He never expected that at graduation, she would unexpectedly give him that gift. Maybe, in Xie Yao's heart, he had left some shadow after all.
That was a photo of her when she was twelve years old. Back then, she had been a chubby little girl. Only the closest of friends would give away a photo like that.
After graduation, Nie Yan still couldn't forget Xie Yao, and they kept in touch from time to time.
Now reborn, Nie Yan no longer wanted to let her slip by.
Meeting again, Nie Yan felt a little dazed—across past and present lives, he and Xie Yao shared an unbreakable fate.
Her clear eyes secretly studied Nie Yan's face. Although he wasn't especially handsome and looked rather ordinary at first glance, there was an indescribable steadiness to his still-youthful features, perhaps tied to his personality.
“My name is Nie Yan—” he said, meeting Xie Yao's gaze. “—Nie as in the character for ‘ear,’ Yan as in ‘speech.’”
Xie Yao's pretty face flushed red as she averted his gaze.
“My name is Xie Yao,” she said.
Nie Yan's gaze drifted down to Xie Yao's lips. They were a light pink color, soft and alluring. Back in high school, he would never have dared to stare at Xie Yao's face like this—he could only steal glances at her beautiful features from a corner.
“My dad is still waiting for me, so I need to head back. It was nice talking today. Remember, the bandages have to stay on until tomorrow—you absolutely must not take them off early.” Xie Yao reminded him anxiously and stood up.
Nie Yan moved his knee; it could still move, just a flesh wound.
"I'm fine, I can walk now. You should go back. Thank you for today," Nie Yan said. Though he wanted to talk more with Xie Yao, he still calmly walked aside. He would be attending the city's elite school from now on, so there would be plenty of chances to spend time with Xie Yao.
"Then I'll be going."
"Bye." Nie Yan smiled faintly, strolled away, and headed toward the nearest pharmacy. In his heart, he couldn't help but feel a bit sad—after such a brief meeting, they were parting again.
Xie Yao sat in the hovercar and started the engine.
Nie Yan looked back and saw that Xie Yao's hovercar had already left. In his previous life, the encounter hadn't been this smooth. Back then, he couldn't even utter a word in front of Xie Yao. She had bandaged him up and then left. But that one casual encounter had left an indelible impression on his heart, so much so that he had been unable to forget her for so many years.
Rebirth is really nice; everything can start anew. Nie Yan thought of the future years when everything he had might be taken away by Cao Xu, and a strong sense of urgency arose in his heart. He needed to become stronger to protect everything he possessed.
When he thought of Cao Xu, Nie Yan's heart gradually turned cold. It was a bone-deep hatred, so deep that in his previous life, he hadn't hesitated to put a bullet into that man's head.
All he could do now was enter Faith as quickly as possible and establish a foothold there. Faith was different from other games; it was the second world of humanity, a game that had changed the entire world. Nie Yan could get everything he wanted within Faith.
He bought some cold medicine at the pharmacy and took it. His body immediately felt much more comfortable, and his fever went down. The medicine these days was still pretty effective.
After leaving the pharmacy, Nie Yan headed toward a nearby department store. He needed to buy a game helmet.
The department store was filled with a dazzling array of items—countless appliances, mostly smart products, and some things Nie Yan couldn't even name. The store operated on a self-service system; you just swiped your card to get whatever you wanted.
Nie Yan wandered around for a while before finally finding the counter selling game helmets. Helmets of various colors and styles were lined up on the walls, a sight too many to take in—three models, thousands of styles.
The lowest price was 1,300 credit points, while the highest was over 1.2 million credit points.
The higher the price, the better the specs—you get what you pay for. For now, Nie Yan could only afford the lowest-tier one.
It was said that besides the game helmets, there were also limited-edition game pods that had to be ordered, with prices reaching over 60 million credit points.
For now, Nie Yan could only dream of those.
Nie Yan swiped his card at the payment terminal and picked up a light blue helmet, then linked it to his identity. Once identity-linked, the helmet could only be used by Nie Yan himself.
Faith had only been open for seven days, and the highest-level player was just level five. He still had plenty of time to catch up.
A reincarnator should take down all opponents with an unstoppable force—that's the kind of momentum. When I reach the summit, I will see all mountains at a glance.