Chapter One: Does a Graduation Gift Still Count After a Breakup?

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December 24, 2024 — Clear Skies
Auspicious: The day is in conflict with the annual star; major events are not advisable.
Taboo: Major events are not advisable.

"How could I be a scoundrel? This isn’t scoundrel behavior!
I’m just a heart shattered into many pieces, and different fragments fall in love with different people!"

"Enough said! You, Youyou, An’an, Pingping, Dandan, Wenwen, Rongrong, Jingjing…
Let’s break up! True love isn’t about selfish possession; it’s about learning to let go and growing together."

With a casual turn, he strode confidently toward his new vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz G-Class, which had just replaced his Porsche.
Two tears, full of theatrical flair, squeezed from the corner of Huo Qitai’s eyes. Then, he slammed the accelerator and sped out of Sanlitun’s bar street.

"In the past, chasing Wenwen among Youyou, An’an, Fanfan, and Fufu made me realize that Pingping, Dandan, Congcong, and Rongrong were the real ones.
Looking back at Huang Ran and Ru Meng. Looking back at Wu Xin and Yijiu.
Only Wu Jing and Chang Lu have stood by me!"

The nostalgic tune playing in the car was "Looking Back Again," a sentimental song by Jiang Yuheng. His uniquely weathered voice instantly resurrected genuine emotion from Huo Qitai’s feigned tears, conjuring the bittersweet passage of time.

"Ru Meng? Chang Lu? Haha! This song… it really fits the moment, piercing right through the heart."
The homophonic lyrics made Huo Qitai chuckle bitterly.

"So many years have passed. Thinking back on my naïve, inexperienced self, that so-called infatuation and true love—I really want to curse myself as a big fool..."

As 2024 neared its end, Huo Qitai, almost 35 years old, couldn’t help but feel a sting in his nose and sneezed loudly.

Unexpectedly, a vehicle suddenly appeared in the opposite lane. Huo Qitai swerved quickly but was violently hit by another car, broke through the guardrail, and plunged into the Liangma River.

"No way! The stock market just hit 5,000 points; I still have over a hundred Bitcoins, each worth $100,000. My assets just crossed the billion mark! I... I’m just breaking up, not committing a crime!"

Racked by searing pain and suffocating, Huo Qitai lost consciousness completely.

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"Ah... achoo!"

Another sneeze. Huo Qitai’s face turned pale; his eyes widened.

Before him were red tables and chairs, green window frames. On the blackboard, four large characters were chalked out: “Farewell to Youth.”

"Have I been reborn? Back to 2010, the day I filled out my college application—the very moment Liu Ru Meng forced me to sign the breakup agreement."

Huo Qitai looked at the figure before him: Liu Ru Meng in a simple white dress, her waist-length hair flowing. She was just as he remembered—aloof, reserved, with flawless pale skin, showing no trace of emotion.

Liu Ru Meng, the undisputed goddess and top scholar of Jian’an No. 1 High School.
From a well-off family, she scored 675 points in the college entrance examination, ranking first in the school and top ten in the province’s science stream. Her dream university, Peking University, was all but secured.

Six months before the exam, she and Huo Qitai had tentatively begun a youthful and innocent romance.
Yet today, in front of the entire class, she presented a "breakup agreement."

No special reason—just a simple claim of mismatched social status and family opposition. Liu Ru Meng spoke with exceptional calmness and detachment.

The "breakup agreement" essentially stated they would part peacefully, with no further ties or debts to each other.

Huo Qitai felt as if struck by thunder, his face burning red.
Facing such a radiant Liu Ru Meng, she suddenly and without warning proposed the breakup.

He couldn’t accept it; his breath halted, and his eyes stung so badly he could barely keep them open.

Especially when her deskmate Zhang Ting whispered that Liu Ru Meng’s maternal uncle was Liu Zhonglie, the most famous entrepreneur in the country, a powerful figure. This plunged him even deeper into despair and shame.

The Liu family, though not yet infamous as they would become in later years, was beyond the reach of ordinary people nationwide.

Liu Ru Meng bearing her mother’s surname was telling enough.

A poor boy just awakening to love felt utterly inferior at that moment, yet stubbornly clung to his fragile pride.

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He stiffened his neck, refusing to sign.

He pleaded with a mix of infatuation and desperation, begging her not to break up, vowing that if given time, he would also get into Peking University, start a business, make money, become a billionaire, and win her family’s respect.

This supplicating stance lasted well into his first two years of university.

He visited Peking University weekly to plead for reconciliation until he was utterly humiliated by Liu Ru Meng’s suitors, then finally gave up.

In the years after graduation, his relentless entrepreneurial efforts were fueled by this pride.

"Signing or not, we’ve already broken up. Huo Qitai, your determination to work hard isn’t wrong.
But some gaps in this world, no matter how hard you try, can never be bridged."

Liu Ru Meng shook her head, a faint polite smile at the corner of her lips, then took the breakup agreement and turned away.

"Huo Qitai, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never step over the threshold of the Liu family. Give up early!
Unless you marry in! Or sign a contract to marry into the Liu family with Mengmeng—maybe then you’d have a chance..."

Her deskmate Zhang Ting sneered.

The Liu family? Such a repugnant mire that stepping in once would disgust you for a lifetime.

But for Huo Qitai, who cherished his youthful love for Liu Ru Meng, there was no way he’d let it end like this.

"Wait!"

Fourteen years after high school graduation, Huo Qitai had replayed this moment countless times in his mind.

Now that he was truly reborn to this moment, he wouldn’t let time slip away again.

Indeed, teenage love in 2010 was pure, melodramatic, and intoxicating.

When confirming a relationship, one could sign a heartfelt pledge to love each other for ten thousand years.

When breaking up, a solemn breakup agreement was signed.

Looking back now, Huo Qitai found it all so childish, ridiculous, and melodramatic.

Yet it was undeniably the innocence and pain of his youth.

"If the breakup agreement is so melodramatic, then let’s make it even more so! Sign it, who’s afraid?"

A mischievous smile flickered across Huo Qitai’s lips as he stepped forward and decisively snatched the breakup agreement from Liu Ru Meng’s hand.

"Seriously? Brother Tai, you’re giving up so fast? Once you sign, there’s really no chance left, you know?"

His deskmate Xue Xiaoshan immediately urged.

He knew all too well how much Huo Qitai liked Liu Ru Meng.

"How’s that? You said just now you’d work hard to be worthy of me, and now you’re already discouraged?"

Liu Ru Meng turned slightly, her profile even colder, her fair skin gently flushed, a faint teasing smile playing on her lips.

The classmates watching the scene grew excited again.

"I signed the breakup agreement because it marks the end of our relationship," Huo Qitai smiled back, shaking off his earlier gloom.
"So from now on, Liu Ru Meng, we are completely done as boyfriend and girlfriend.
Now, I want to ask you, how much money would it take for you to be my lover? Just dating—no marriage."

"Lover? If you expect to humiliate me with such words to regain your pride,
I can only say you’re too fragile and immature."

Liu Ru Meng said coldly.

"No, no! I just realized that since you wealthy people measure sincere feelings by status and wealth,
I’m asking you—how rich do I have to be to make you my lover? It’s not unreasonable, right?
After all, everything has a price in your eyes."

"Alright! When you graduate from a prestigious school like Peking University with assets worth at least one hundred million yuan, come find me."

Liu Ru Meng laughed at Huo Qitai’s words and added jokingly:

"Put it in writing."

Huo Qitai took a pen and wrote on the back of the breakup agreement:

"In at most four years, I’ll graduate from Peking University and have assets over one hundred million.
By then, you must confess to me and be my lover!
Whether I accept your confession and allow you to be my lover depends on my mood at that time."

The classmates sighed deeply.

They weren’t merely mocking Huo Qitai’s arrogance but sympathizing with this last flicker of youthful stubbornness.

Many who had laughed when he was forced to sign the breakup agreement now looked upon his forced hope with pity.

They knew that someone like Liu Ru Meng, a golden phoenix from the capital temporarily residing in little Jian’an, was beyond ordinary reach.

"Do you really want to retake the exam to get into Peking University? Do you even know what one hundred million means?
The average graduate salary this year is less than three thousand yuan a month.
One hundred million means working for three thousand years without eating or drinking!
Huo Qitai, do you boys think doing this makes you manly, passionate, and deep? To me, it’s just childish."

Liu Ru Meng looked at him, both amused and annoyed.

Huo Qitai smiled confidently: "I’m eighteen now, youth is priceless and passion burns bright.
If I’m not childish and impulsive now, will I regret it when I’m thirty or forty?
So, do you dare to sign or not?"

The whole class was speechless.

Knowing Huo Qitai was hopelessly deluded, they figured he might as well bluff to save face.

"Heh! Fine! Sign it then—four years, my billionaire lover boyfriend.
Want me to add some bonus terms?
One hundred million, I’m your lover. Two hundred million, I’ll let you have another lover. If you make ten billion, you can have a hundred lovers."

Liu Ru Meng laughed off his words and jotted down the playful terms before signing the two copies of the “lover agreement.”

As she turned, her hair brushed her neck, revealing a small red mole.

"This red mole! She’s not Ru Meng; she’s Liu Ru Yu. So… the one who forced me to break up was not Ru Meng but her twin sister, Liu Ru Yu… I knew it…"

In the previous life, Huo Qitai only learned of Liu Ru Meng’s twin sister from news reports ten years later.

After Liu Ru Meng’s parents divorced, she lived with her father in Jian’an, while her sister Liu Ru Yu stayed in the capital with their mother.

No one at Jian’an No. 1 High School knew she had a twin who looked exactly like her.

Huo Qitai had gathered news and photos of Liu Ru Yu, finding the sisters nearly identical in appearance and temperament,
except the sister had a small red mole above the left side of her neck—a clear distinguishing mark.

"So that’s the truth?"

Squinting, Huo Qitai felt he had been played terribly in the past.

A surge of resentment and a new idea flashed in his mind.

He called out to Liu Ru Yu, who was wearing Liu Ru Meng’s identity and about to leave:

“Liu Ru Meng, although we’ve broken up, you promised me a graduation gift before. Does that still count?
You wouldn’t try to renege on that too, would you?”

Sunlight streamed through the window, glinting off his bright, straight teeth, making Liu Ru Yu blink.

“A graduation gift?”

Liu Ru Yu hadn’t heard of this from her sister today but pretended to know to avoid suspicion.

She nodded lightly, agreeing: “Yes! A promise is a promise, even though we’ve broken up, it’s just a gift, of course it counts…”

Before she finished, Huo Qitai said, “Good.”

Then, right in front of the entire class, he suddenly leaned in and covered her thin, moist lips with his own, thick and soft.

...

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