Buddies

The summer sun blazed down fiercely.

The plastic bottles on the street were softened by the heat, and the air carried the stench of rotting trash.

After all, it was a village within the city—summers always brought an extra layer of odor.

But in a few years, there would be renovations, so things might get a little better.

The National Day holiday wasn't particularly long, but for G2 students feeling the pressure, it was already a welcome break.

Lin Mo walked toward the intersection and spotted Fang Jun holding a Cravendale ice cream bar in one hand, while the other swung wildly like an inflatable doll outside a pharmacy.

Beside him, An Yuexin was huddled in the shadow under the convenience store's awning, looking as wilted as a cabbage short of water.

"Old Mo! Over here!" Fang Jun shouted, as if he wanted the entire street to hear.

They had made plans the night before.

After all, Lin Mo had just returned and hadn't seen them yet.

Lin Mo walked over. "Been waiting long? You're already eating ice cream."

"This idiot Fang Jun dragged me out half an hour early like he was chasing a lifetime," An Yuexin said, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "Said he was afraid you'd be waiting."

Lin Mo glanced at An Yuexin's face, which looked like it was about to melt. "Don't you need to keep Mai Chuwen company?"

An Yuexin rolled his eyes and flipped his phone screen toward Lin Mo.

The screen showed the back of countless heads at a famous mountain scenic spot—a sea of people packed so tightly it was suffocating.

"She's stuck at the cable car station with her family. She sent me over a dozen voice messages half an hour ago, all complaining about the crowds. By the looks of it, she probably wants to jump off the mountain right now."

"Listen to that. Classic case of 'heart in chaos while body's elsewhere,'" Fang Jun said, crunching the last piece of ice from his bar, his words garbled. "If Mai Chuwen were here, Lao An would be cooling her down like a human fan in some milk tea shop right now, not giving a damn about his brothers."

"What the hell are you talking about!" An Yuexin grabbed him in a headlock. "If Cai Junhuang sent you a text, you'd run faster than a rabbit."

Fang Jun just shrugged helplessly. "Actually, if she wanted to go out with me, I definitely wouldn't invite you two. But she's been busy with dance practice, and I heard she has something important to do recently."

"What is it?" Lin Mo asked casually.

"No idea. She didn't go into detail. But judging by how she looked, she's under a lot of pressure."

"You don't know this, you don't know that—how do you even manage to be her boyfriend?" An Yuexin let go, elbowing Fang Jun in the shoulder with a mischievous grin.

The strong always love to mock the weak.

Fang Jun stared at the cracks in the floor tiles for a moment before mumbling, "We're not there yet. We're not in that kind of relationship."

"You're kidding me?" An Yuexin's eyes nearly popped out. "You two flirt all day. We all thought you were already together. Now you're saying you're not even a couple? Playing at Plato's love?"

Lin Mo wasn't particularly surprised. He had long known the kind of person Cai Junhuang was.

In his past life, that woman had a stubborn streak etched deep in her bones.

Until she achieved her dream—or watched it shatter—she would hold onto it with everything she had, letting nothing else stand in her way.

So, honestly, Lin Mo wasn't overly optimistic about Fang Jun and Cai Junhuang. But he didn't think they were absolutely doomed either.

In short, he figured they should just let things take their natural course.

In that previous life, Cai Junhuang had stayed single her whole life, living like a proud and solitary swan.

Fang Jun, on the other hand, had made compromises in the currents of society, eventually marrying someone his parents found for him through a matchmaker.

Two lives that were almost parallel lines had, because of Lin Mo's rebirth, created a faint point of intersection.

But whether that intersection could change Cai Junhuang's choice was anyone's guess.

"Alright, enough roasting out here," Fang Jun said, waving his hand to cut off the topic. "Today it's just us bros. We're hitting the pool hall. I'm gonna clear the table in one round today. Loser buys drinks."

An Yuexin snorted. "With your skills? Just don't poke yourself in the toe with the cue."

The three of them threaded through the heat-wafting alleyways and climbed the stairs to a pool hall on the second floor.

The moment they pushed open the door, the cool blast of air conditioning mixed with the lingering smell of years of smoke hit them. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but at least it cut the summer heat.

Fang Jun went to rent a table, while An Yuexin went to pick a spot.

Pool tables worked like computer cafe seats—first come, first served.

Lin Mo took the cue An Yuexin handed him and casually chalked the tip.

"Master Mo, want to break first?" An Yuexin raised an eyebrow.

"Sure. Time to show off some real skills," Lin Mo said, stepping up to the table. He bent down, scanning the colorful pile of balls.

With one strike, the red balls scattered across the table, and four of them dropped straight into the pockets.

They were playing English billiards—reds first, then colors.

An Yuexin let out a cheer. "Lucky break, Master Mo!"

"It's pure skill!"

After saying that, Lin Mo intentionally missed his next shot.

It wasn't a competition, so there was no need to take it too seriously. Then it was An Yuexin's turn.

Fang Jun walked over too.

"Everyone move aside! The king of billiards has arrived!"

Fang Jun gripped his cue and rubbed a heavy layer of chalk on the tip.

But too much chalk meant... increased friction, which reduced the spin speed of the cue ball.

The result? The ball reached its target, but veered off course.

"Hey! No way! I missed by a hair."

Then, as if something just came to him, Fang Jun said, "Hey, remember those tenants from the Dragon Boat Festival, the ones who rented the room?"

An Yuexin thought for a moment and recalled it. "Oh! You mean those guys? What about them?"

Lin Mo already knew through his divine sense but still pretended to be curious.

Fang Jun sneered. "I always said they were no good. Two of them somehow got injured. The others just abandoned them and took off. By the time their security deposit ran out, those two still hadn't found jobs, so my dad had someone kick them out."

This outcome wasn't hard to predict.

In fact, Fang Jun's father had been more than generous—he only kicked them out after their deposit was used up.

An Yuexin asked, "Could those two even walk?"

"Yeah, they could. We wouldn't have kicked them out if they couldn't. They were just lazy—wouldn't work, couldn't even pay the couple hundred bucks in rent."

"Do you know where they are now?"

Fang Jun shrugged. "No idea. Maybe they went straight to a factory job. At least factories provide housing."

Lin Mo had no idea where they went either. It seemed they were no longer in Yangcheng.

Those people had left a mark on Lin Mo's life in his previous incarnation.

But in this life, they were nothing more than passersby—barely even that.

So in this life, he could go to college properly and experience how different the world could be.