FIMA Ch1: Rebirth [Arc1]

In early November, the Beginning of Winter had just arrived.

The Jiangnan region was incredibly sensitive to the changing of the solar terms. The chilly early winter breeze swept through the golden tips of the branches and leaves, bringing a faint, brushing chill to the face.

Inside the classroom of Class 1, Grade 12 at Beichuan High School, students were slumped over their respective desks in various awkward postures, taking their midday nap.

Suddenly, the quiet was broken. A whistling sound pierced the air, accompanied by the swift blur of a ball flying past.

Bang!

A violent crash and collision came from the neighboring desk. Gu Siyuan, whose upper half was resting on his desk, felt a massive jolt. He immediately narrowed his eyes in displeasure.

At the exact same time, a clear, sharp gasp of “Ah!” rang out beside his ear. The person at the neighboring desk had clearly taken a much heavier hit, and that figure fell uncontrollably toward him.

Without time to think, Gu Siyuan reflexively raised a hand to block them.

Had his legs not been firmly planted, the dual force of this sudden weight and inertia would have likely knocked him completely off his chair.

But also because his legs were so steady, his dear desk-mate ended up landing directly onto his lap through a freak combination of factors.

Such a succession of commotions—especially this bizarre scene right now—drew everyone’s gazes.

Then, one after another, roaring laughter erupted in the classroom. All the fatigue and sleepiness seemed to be instantly chased away.

Gu Siyuan, however, was in no mood to care about any of this. He silently stared at the small mirror perched atop a tall stack of books on his desk-mate’s desk to his front-right. Reflected in it was a face both familiar and foreign.

It was his eighteen-year-old self.

He had been born in a remote, deeply secluded mountain village. His parents had died early, and he had relied entirely on a work-study lifestyle and various scholarships just to get the chance to enter university.

However, although his first twenty years were incredibly difficult, compared to others, he at least had a good brain. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees consecutively at university, staying far ahead of his peers the entire way.

After graduating, he first stayed at the university to teach, then founded a tech company and set up a private laboratory. Going from having absolutely nothing to achieving massive success, coupled with passing away at a young age during the most brilliant years of a man’s life—his colorful journey could well have been written into a biography.

And now, just as that system had said, had he truly been reborn back into his past life? And was everything in his past life actually just a story in a book?

The corners of Gu Siyuan’s lips curled into a slight arc, revealing neither joy nor anger.

According to what the system said, the protagonists of the story were Shen Ting and Lu Jiayang from their class. The two were childhood-friend Alphas who had known each other since they were four and had been in the same school and class ever since.

However, as they grew older, during a wet dream one time, Shen Ting vaguely saw that the face pinned beneath him was actually his good brother, Lu Jiayang. He was instantly jolted awake in pure shock.

From then on, what he thought was an ironclad brotherhood began to slowly deteriorate; he started harboring an unusual possessiveness over Lu Jiayang.

But in truth, this feeling wasn’t one-sided. Lu Jiayang had also long realized his own unusual feelings for Shen Ting.

However, both of them were Alphas, and both their families were prominent and respectable. An Alpha-Alpha romance was no simple matter. Therefore, Lu Jiayang repressed these feelings at the bottom of his heart; his self-esteem and pride wouldn’t allow him to be the first to speak up.

After moving up to high school:

Lu Jiayang was good-looking, had excellent grades, and possessed a gentle personality. Such an Alpha was rare, so quite a few Beta and Omega classmates naturally gathered around him to discuss their studies.

But Shen Ting, as the protagonist top, naturally possessed an extraordinary possessiveness and an overbearing personality. He was extremely jealous and angry about this.

Thus, harboring the same awkward and contrary intentions, he intentionally started getting close to the Omegas in the class as well.

And the cannon fodder male supporting character, Xie Qingxiao—who was precisely the desk-mate currently sitting in his lap—unexpectedly crashed into the lives of the two protagonists right at that time, eventually becoming the catalyst for them to realize their true feelings.

Xie Qingxiao was an Omega. In this Beichuan Private High School filled with second-generation rich kids, his family background could only be considered average, but his looks were ethereally beautiful and unparalleled, and his academic performance was extremely outstanding.

Not only that, ever since he enrolled in his freshman year, he had been pursued by numerous Alphas in the school but remained completely unmoved, stating only that he just wanted to study hard during high school. Thus, he was jokingly praised by some as an “Untouchable Flower”, making him quite a famous figure in Beichuan Private High School.

But this seemingly beautiful and unworldly Xie Qingxiao actually harbored a very favorable impression of the protagonist top, Shen Ting, because of a past incident.

Although Shen Ting easily became muddle-headed when dealing with Lu Jiayang, he was an absolutely brilliant person at any other time. Naturally, he could detect Xie Qingxiao’s fondness for him.

The two of them were equally outstanding in appearance and temperament. Standing together, they truly looked like a perfect match, so much so that people around them often teased them about it. To all of this, Shen Ting never offered a single denial.

Of course, Shen Ting’s original intention in doing this was simply to anger Lu Jiayang a little bit, hoping to make him turn back and reconcile.

But Lu Jiayang was sensitive and stubborn by nature; he was absolutely not the type to easily admit defeat or bow his head. The relationship between the two became increasingly tense until finally, a massive argument broke out, kicking off a cold war.

Calming down from this actually made Shen Ting recognize his own heart even more clearly, realizing he couldn’t lose Lu Jiayang.

He decided to swallow his pride and admit his mistake.

So, during the Qixi Valentine’s Day this year, Shen Ting meticulously prepared a gift, intending to give it to Lu Jiayang and formally express his feelings at the same time.

But on that very day, by a twist of fate, he stumbled upon a scene of an Omega confessing to Lu Jiayang. Shen Ting’s eyes instantly turned red with anger. He charged up and viciously demanded an explanation from Lu Jiayang.

Right at this time, Xie Qingxiao, entrusted by a teacher, happened to come looking for Shen Ting for an errand.

Lu Jiayang was already angry that Shen Ting was disrespecting him in front of outsiders. Seeing Xie Qingxiao at this moment added fuel to the fire. Shen Ting himself was still entangled in an ambiguous relationship with Xie Qingxiao, so what right did he have to control him?

Immediately, Lu Jiayang spoke without thinking, saying things like, “Shen Ting, you aren’t being very kind. You already have a beauty by your side, how can you come and ruin your brother’s romantic prospects now,” and so on.

As for this speech, Shen Ting’s anger could easily be imagined.

The next moment, he grabbed Xie Qingxiao’s hand in public, and then re-gifted the meticulously prepared present to Xie Qingxiao.

Thus, because of this behavior on Valentine’s Day, everyone—including Xie Qingxiao himself—tacitly assumed the two had started dating.

Especially since then, every time Shen Ting was angered by Lu Jiayang, he would intentionally act a bit closer and more ambiguous with Xie Qingxiao. As a result, Xie Qingxiao fell even deeper, unable to extricate himself from this hot-and-cold treatment.

Meanwhile, Lu Jiayang, amidst his heartache, would jokingly call Xie Qingxiao “sister-in-law” and tease them about their great relationship.

So much so that in the end, when Xie Qingxiao discovered Shen Ting and Lu Jiayang’s true relationship and realized he was nothing more than a tool used by Shen Ting to provoke Lu Jiayang, his entire personality changed drastically. He became fully hostile towards Lu Jiayang and resorted to any means necessary.

Ultimately, under Shen Ting’s disgust and targeted attacks, he lost everything.

Not only was he expelled from school, but right after coming of age, he was half-sold, half-married off by his money-grubbing father and stepmother to a nouveau riche Alpha in his fifties who had severe domestic violence tendencies.

“Current Mission: Change Xie Qingxiao’s tragic fate and allow him to attain happiness.
Success Reward: One lottery draw opportunity.
Failure Penalty: Cannot obtain the reward.”

The familiar, cold mechanical voice stated word by word.

According to the timeline given by the system, it was currently early November. It had been nearly two months since Xie Qingxiao and Shen Ting established their “romantic relationship” after the Qixi Valentine’s Day.

Although all of this had already circled through Gu Siyuan’s mind, in reality, only a fleeting moment had passed.

He narrowed his eyes, glanced at the slender figure on his lap, then tilted his head to look at the culprit—the basketball bouncing lightly on the floor—and said expressionlessly:

“Who did it…”

Support me on Ko-fi