After the Divorce, My Wife and I Were Both Reborn

Chapter 3: Chapter 3: A Parallel World?

Time trickled by, as slow as water seeping from stone.

Jiang Xia never imagined he’d run into Lin Yanwan here. Then again, maybe they saw each other all the time in high school. They just hadn’t been close, so they had subconsciously overlooked one another.

As if sensing his gaze, Lin Yanwan looked up, her expression instantly freezing.

Their eyes met. For a couple who had shared a bed for eight years, even the most subtle shift in expression was enough to convey a world of meaning.

There was no confusion in her gaze, only shock, surprise, and a thread of relief—the weight of her worries had finally lifted.

But the moment of eye contact was fleeting. With a silent, mutual understanding, they both averted their gaze.

They didn’t turn their heads, just shifted their eyes elsewhere, hearts hammering wildly in their chests.

"Yanwan, what’s wrong?" Shen Ying asked her.

Lin Yanwan shook her head slightly and brushed past him in silence, her expression so placid it betrayed nothing of her inner thoughts.

For their first meeting after being reborn, they both appeared remarkably composed.

Jiang Xia stared at the academic building across the way. The white tiles reflected the brilliant light, forcing him to squint. Then, he turned and looked back at Lin Yanwan’s retreating figure.

Her high black ponytail swayed with each step, revealing a fair neck brimming with a youthful vitality he’d never seen before.

’So this is what she looked like in high school. I rarely saw this side of her after we got married. She’s... actually kind of cute.’

’But that look she just gave me... was she reborn too?’

For a moment, Jiang Xia couldn’t be sure.

"Old Jiang, what are you looking at?" Wang Ming asked after coming out of the bathroom. He stood next to Jiang Xia and followed his gaze.

"Nothing." Jiang Xia said lightly, pulling his gaze away. He casually tossed him a bottle of water. "Let’s head back to class."

Wang Ming stroked his chin. "If I’m not mistaken, that was Lin Yanwan from Class 1, right?"

"You recognized her from here?" Jiang Xia gave him a strange look.

"She’s the belle of Class 1, isn’t she? Pretty, great grades... I just hear she’s kind of cold and aloof."

Jiang Xia fell silent. The truth was, Lin Yanwan wasn’t cold at all. She was just a homebody, maybe even a little socially anxious. She was exceptional in every way but disliked dealing with people, so over time, everyone just saw her as cold and aloof.

"What’s up, you have a crush on her too?" Wang Ming glanced at him and teased.

"Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not like that."

The two of them chatted softly as they walked away. Suddenly, Lin Yanwan stopped and turned to look, but her view was already blocked by other students.

"What’s wrong?" Shen Ying asked.

Lin Yanwan shook her head, her mind clearly elsewhere. "It’s nothing," she said.

’I’d already decided to stop paying attention to anything about him, yet heaven just had to make me run into him this early.’

’And that look in his eyes... ’

She couldn’t be sure if Jiang Xia had been reborn with her, but that subtle, hesitant look on his face—that was one of his classic habits.

’If that’s really the case, then why didn’t he talk to me?’

’Then again, it’s not like I had the guts to, either.’

She couldn’t help but smile wryly in self-mockery. As expected of a couple married for eight years. In some ways, they were still perfectly in sync.

"Yanwan, why don’t I go get you excused from class? You should take the rest of the day off. With your grades, it’s not like missing a few hours will hurt."

Hearing her good friend’s concern, Lin Yanwan stopped insisting. She really did need some time to compose herself.

"Thank you, Yingying."

"That’s what good friends are for."

***

As he followed Wang Ming to the classroom door, Jiang Xia looked up at the plaque on the wall: Senior Year, Class 6. The memories associated with it slowly trickled back, soaking into his heart.

He sat in the second-to-last row, by the window. His desk mate was a girl with light freckles named Chen Yao. She had shoulder-length hair, a youthful face, and a petite frame. Her only flaw was that she was too introverted, completely absorbed in her studies, and disliked talking to people.

In his past life, they had gotten along fairly well in high school. Chen Yao had always been a little more talkative with him than she was with others.

It was a shame, though. After they went off to college, they drifted apart and lost touch. He thought he’d heard a rumor that she had gotten divorced and was raising a young daughter on her own.

"You keep staring at me. Do I look weird today?" Chen Yao adjusted her glasses, her heavy bangs falling and conveniently covering the faint freckles on her cheeks. "Did you not do the practice test again?"

His train of thought shattered. Jiang Xia froze. He didn’t know a damn thing about any test. He quickly pulled a test paper from his desk; while not entirely blank, it was only about half-done.

’Thinking back, I really was a slacker back then. My academic performance was mediocre at best. I had only scraped into the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute by some miracle on the entrance exams.’

She kept her head down, but glanced at Jiang Xia from the corner of her eye and couldn’t help but sigh.

"Jiang Xia, I know you’re an art student, but you still have to pass the academic subjects. For a lot of people, the college entrance exam is their only chance to change their life. I’ll leave my paper here. Don’t copy it. Just use it as a reference if you get stuck."

Jiang Xia grinned and agreed, then turned to focus on the test.

’Since I’m getting a do-over in this life, and I already have a natural advantage in professional painting, shouldn’t I at least aim for the Central Academy of Fine Arts or the National Art Museum?’

However, just a few minutes later, Jiang Xia was stunned. He couldn’t solve a single math problem on the page. He’d returned all that knowledge to his teachers long ago.

It seemed he would have to relearn all three years of high school knowledge in a limited amount of time just to have a chance of scoring better than in his past life.

Sighing, he propped his chin on one hand, picked up his pen with the other, and started doodling idly in his notebook.

A few minutes later, Chen Yao shot him a look from the corner of her eye, her expression darkening. He was drawing again. ’Is it really so hard for this guy to do his practice problems?’ frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

She was about to poke him with her pen when she saw Wang Ming approaching, and she ducked her head even lower.

"Old Jiang, don’t forget tonight! The usual place. Full-time Warrior, let’s go!" Wang Ming said.

Jiang Xia froze for a second as a distant memory surfaced. ’The usual place must be the Croatia Internet Cafe near school,’ he thought. ’But what the hell is Full-time Warrior?’

Seeing his blank expression, Wang Ming got anxious. "Don’t even think about backing out! We already agreed. It’s my treat, but you have to help my Ghost Swordsman get his class advancement."

’Ghost Swordsman? Could Full-time Warrior be Dungeon and Warrior? But why does that name sound so weird?’

Jiang Xia was a bit disoriented. He collected his thoughts, and his memory returned to the days of pulling all-nighters at internet cafes with his friends.

In ’09, the side-scrolling fighting game *Dungeon and Warrior* was a massive hit in internet cafes big and small all across the country. In an era when personal computers weren’t yet ubiquitous, DNF’s first anniversary boasted eight million concurrent players.

"Hey, Old Jiang, should I play a War Frenzy, or should I play a Sword Spirit like you?" Wang Ming asked, conflicted. He had trouble making decisions, and in his eyes, both classes seemed pretty strong.

Hearing the string of awkward yet vaguely familiar terms coming from his childhood friend’s mouth, he suddenly realized that this world he’d been reborn into was probably not as simple as he had imagined.

"Old Wang, let me borrow your phone," he said. He decided he needed to figure things out first.

"What for?" Wang Ming asked, pulling out his phone and handing it over.

"To help you figure out which class to play."

"I’ve only got 30 megs of data, so go easy on it."

"Relax."

Jiang Xia couldn’t help but marvel. In the later 5G era, less than 20 gigs of data a month wouldn’t even be enough for daily video scrolling.

He glanced at the phone in his hand, one of the best-selling slider phones of the era—a No... Nokia?!!

Fuck!

’Am I crazy, or has the whole world gone mad?’

He looked over at his desk mate, his mouth opening and closing as if he wanted to ask something, but then the bell for class suddenly rang.

...