অধ্যায় ১৪৯: অতীতে ফিরে যাওয়া (২)

পর-দিন主管又 holding the design draft that Chen Tian had promised to finish, walked up to Chen Tian's desk, looking quite dissatisfied. "What is wrong with you? Didn't I explain the outline very clearly to you yesterday, telling you which direction to change? Why does what you made still look like a piece of shit?"

"Smack." This thick stack of design proposals was ruthlessly thrown directly into the trash can by the supervisor right in front of Chen Tian. "I'll give you one more week. If you still can't do this design well, then you can pack your bags and get lost. Our company doesn't need slackers!"

Clearly, the supervisor was truly furious because he felt that Chen Tian didn't take this job seriously at all, offering nothing but perfunctory attitudes. After the supervisor's outburst, this time, except for his good brother A Long who came over and patted him on the shoulder, no one else paid any more attention to Chen Tian, who had become the target of public criticism.

Because in this fiercely competitive society, no one would waste time comforting a loser, simply because they didn't want to become the second loser. For such a simple reason, since the supervisor was threatening to fire Chen Tian, who would still comfort him? After all, this wasn't the first time.

When everyone else had gotten off work, Chen Tian was once again modifying the design proposal alone in solitude. Looking at the extremely complex calculation formulas one after another on the screen, Chen Tian felt his head splitting, on the verge of a breakdown. Meanwhile, his good friend A Long had gone to watch a movie with his girlfriend yet again.

Friends are friends after all, and A Long couldn't take care of Chen Tian for the rest of his life. Chen Tian couldn't help but smile bitterly. "It seems it's time to leave here and find a job again." Chen Tian understood very well himself that he didn't like this major at all, and detested this type of work even more. Facing the computer every day and endless calculation formulas was simply boring to the extreme.

At 9:30 in the night, walking alone and desolately onto the main street, the thought that he might very well be fired made his unwilling heart extremely restless. Why did this supervisor target only him? Why didn't he say anything to others? Clearly, he just couldn't stand him. Forget it, if this place won't keep me, there are places that will.

Chen Tian was still looking for faults in others, constantly cursing this damned supervisor, still engaging in Ah Q-style self-deception. Although deep down he knew this was the wrong mindset, he could always find reasons to deceive himself. He simply didn't love this major and completely loathed his current life.

At this moment, a thought inexplicably surfaced in Chen Tian's mind once again. If he could go back to the past, go back to the self-indulgent middle school days and retrieve what was lost, perhaps everything could become different? Thinking of this, Chen Tian couldn't help but smile bitterly once again; he was becoming more and more impractical, escaping his own failure, escaping this cruel society.

Returning home, he took a shower and went to sleep just like usual. Looking at the dilapidated little apartment he rented, his heart sank to the bottom once again. Coming to this unfamiliar city, struggling alone, he never dared to tell his parents; how miserably he was living was something only he truly understood in his heart.

His inner regret flared up once again. He always thought a lot, but he also understood very well in his heart that it was precisely this kind of hesitation and overthinking that was the real reason hindering his progress.

In a daze, he fell into a deep sleep once again. As the night gradually grew deeper, a red light overflowed from his body once more, and that long-lost blood-colored skeleton appeared again. In a daze, Chen Tian was instantly startled. "What kind of thing are you! Why are you appearing in my room!"

"Someone who can let you go back to the past!" A soul-stirring voice resonated through Chen Tian's soul once again. The blood-colored skeleton instantly waved its hand, revealing immense spatial kinetic energy. In just an instant, he felt a dizzying sensation, not just himself, but even the entire room began to distort.

He couldn't help but start screaming, and then in an instant, he plunged into endless unconsciousness once again...

"Ah!" Accompanied by a scream, Chen Tian instantly bolted up from the bed, his entire body soaked in sweat. He genuinely felt that the nightmare he had just experienced was simply too terrifying. He instinctively wiped the sweat from his forehead, recalling that massive blood-colored skeleton he had seen in the blur of yesterday, which had actually started speaking.

"Someone who can let you go back to the past." He unconsciously muttered these words, every single detail deeply engraved in Chen Tian's mind. Clearly, Chen Tian himself couldn't distinguish whether this was a dream or reality—clear yet hazy.

Sigh, forget it, what was he still agonizing over? Who knows what time it is, better hurry up and go to work. Subconsciously, he reached out to look for his phone to check the time, but in the blink of an eye, he actually discovered that the color and style of his quilt had changed!

The superman pattern on it gave Chen Tian an extremely familiar feeling! Could it be?! Chen Tian instantly discovered something was amiss, because this was the exact quilt he used to sleep under during middle school! He immediately reacted and glanced around his surroundings.

This place was long no longer the dilapidated apartment he rented; this was his old room at home, with the exact same furnishings, the same old Peacock-brand television, the same old-style writing desk—everything made Chen Tian feel incomparably familiar!

"How is this possible! No way, I must still be dreaming!" Chen Tian pinched his cheek again, and a sharp pain instantly swept through his brain. Moreover, he also felt that his mind was surprisingly clear, with no feeling of dreaming at all.

"Thump thump thump!" Continuous, urgent knocking suddenly came from outside the bedroom door. "Chen Tian! What time is it, you should get up! If you don't get up again, you're going to be late!" How could Chen Tian not know this voice? It was his mother's voice!

"Impossible, I must be dreaming!" Clearly, Chen Tian was still unwilling to believe that he had actually returned to the past. Subconsciously, he slowly crawled out of bed and looked into the mirror in his room. That youthful and slightly handsome face was revealed before him.

He instinctively touched his cheek. At this moment, Chen Tian's heart was undoubtedly filled with immense joy, but he still hesitated to believe that this was reality—meaning he had finally returned to his middle school year just as he wished. "No way, right?" Although Chen Tian said this, his expression betrayed involuntary joy.

He was truly happy. Smiling, he finished washing up, rushed straight downstairs, and saw his mother preparing breakfast. Filled with joy, he drank the century egg and lean pork porridge on the table. A familiar taste instantly washed over his heart. Come to think of it, he hadn't tasted this familiar flavor in many years.

Leisurely enjoying this rebirth breakfast that held profound significance for him, he saw that his bicycle, which had long since turned into scrap metal, had somehow become brand new again. Perhaps everything really could start over. Thinking of that unfamiliar yet familiar her, he hurriedly got on his bike and rode straight to that middle school.

It had to be said, the cold wind and low temperature of his hometown in the morning were terrifying; he could no longer endure such low temperatures, but he still persevered all the way to the school—that campus that felt both familiar and unfamiliar. He hurriedly rushed upstairs, unable to wait any longer to see what Wang Jia, the girl he had secretly loved in his heart for many years, looked like.

When he reached the corner of the stairs, those non-conformist bullies from their class back then were standing in the corner smoking desolately, obviously with nothing better to do, occasionally shaking their legs and thinking they were incomparably handsome. Back then, even Chen Tian thought they were immensely cool and dashing.

Yet viewed through today's perspective, those three guys were complete and utter fools. Fools in the eyes of others, though they remained oblivious and thought they were extremely badass. "Hey! Chen Tian! Where are you rushing off to like this? There's still half an hour before class starts, right now it's just morning reading."

One of the guys named Ah Fei quickly flicked away his cigarette butt and called out to Chen Tian. Chen Tian himself understood that campus bullying would forever remain a major, uneradicated topic in schools. "I'm going to class." Unexpectedly, Chen Tian just stopped, gave a brief reply, and completely ignored them, heading straight for the classroom.

"This kid has rebelled, daring to use that tone to speak with me!" Obviously, Ah Fei was extremely displeased with Chen Tian's tone, and he had originally intended to "play" with Chen Tian for a bit. He hadn't expected Chen Tian to show such an indifferent attitude, which somewhat annoyed him.

Someone who usually submitted to you suddenly changed their tone of voice; no one would feel happy about that, especially in that hormone-exploding era. Ah Fei hurriedly waved his hand to signal, and the two delinquent classmates behind him followed him toward Chen Tian's classroom.

At this moment, Chen Tian rushed excitedly into the classroom. The scene before his eyes filled him with deep nostalgia, especially the few good friends he made in middle school back then, who were still in contact to this day—good brothers of over 10 years. "Chen Tian, did you do the homework? Hurry up and let me copy it." Without waiting for a reply, his good friend Pang Lin walked over and asked him for the homework.

According to Chen Tian's previous impressions, during this era of second-year middle school, it seemed only he bothered to do any homework, while the other two rarely did. Consequently, their academic performance could be considered even worse than his, and in the end, it seemed they couldn't even pass the high school entrance exams.

Before Chen Tian could react, Pang Lin had already opened his school bag, took out the homework directly, walked over to his seat, and began copying. Clearly, this was the exact reason why his grades were poor.

In the blink of an eye, a graceful figure walked over. Chen Tian caught her unique fragrance. Although so many years had passed, Chen Tian still found this scent unforgettable. That's right, it had to be Wang Jia! That heart-palpitating feeling surged into his heart once again; he knew that this time he could no longer miss her!

"Wang Jia, you're here." Chen Tian blurted out these words without thinking. Wang Jia looked slightly puzzled. "Chen Tian, I've been here for a long time. I don't even know what you're thinking about. Hurry up and hand in your homework."

"Oh." Only then did Chen Tian snap back to reality. As a top student in the class, Wang Jia always arrived at the classroom early. He instinctively pointed at his two brothers, Pang Lin and Wang Ke. "They're copying it right now, wait a second and I'll give it to you!"

"Chen Tian!" Amidst shouting, Ah Fei rushed into the classroom with his two lackeys, calling out Chen Tian's name without a word of explanation!