Chapter 8: The Beauty Chased Me for Ten Blocks

After playing on their computers for a while, Song Hairong suddenly called out to Li Jingkun, gesturing for him to look at his screen.

He had opened the QQ profile of a girl and was browsing her photos. The resolution wasn't great, but the girl had a slim figure, long hair, and long legs; it was clear even then that she was quite pretty.

"Who is that?" Li Jingkun asked.

"Can't you tell?" Song Hairong looked surprised. "She's in our class."

With the scope narrowed down, Li Jingkun quickly realized who it was. "Xie Wenmin?"

"Yeah, it took me a while to find her," Song Hairong said.

"Have you been checking the profiles of all the girls in our class in the group chat?" Li Jingkun asked.

"Yeah, is there a problem with that?"

"No problem at all. A young man's fancy—it's perfectly normal."

When it comes to beautiful girls, every school has them; it’s just a matter of how many. Li Jingkun felt that middle school was full of beauties, with several in almost every class. High school seemed to have fewer, where having one or two per class was considered quite a lot.

Xie Wenmin happened to be the prettiest girl in their class. He had heard that one or two boys had already confessed their feelings to her via QQ.

"No way? We’re only freshmen."

To be honest, Li Jingkun was a bit surprised. It wasn't that you couldn't confess in high school; in fact, there were quite a few high school couples. But boys who were brave enough to actually confess were still rare.

Forget high school—many men reached college without ever having confessed, or having never actively pursued a girl, leading to years of being "single dogs" long after graduation. If you were too afraid to pursue girls in school, you would have even less luck once you entered the real world.

In reality, school-age girls are the easiest to pursue. They don't look at whether you have a car or a house; some don't even care about your grades. Often, just having the courage to speak up is enough. Once you enter society, however, women become much more mature, their options increase, their perspectives shift, and naturally, they are not so easily swayed. Some men, due to the nature of their jobs, don't even have the opportunity to meet one or two women a year.

Therefore, boys who were brave enough to confess now, even if they failed with someone like Xie Wenmin, still had a much higher chance of finding a partner in the next year or two than others.

"Why wouldn't it be true? A lot of us know," Song Hairong said. "Do you want to know who has confessed to her?"

"I don't want to know." Li Jingkun shook his head.

"Damn!"

Song Hairong was a bit frustrated by Li Jingkun’s lack of cooperation.

...

Li Jingkun spent about forty-five or fifty minutes copying the text. Once he had scraped together over thirty thousand words, he sent it off to the email address of *Tender Shoots* magazine.

It was still early before the school's 10:00 PM curfew, so he wasn't in a hurry to go back. Instead, he opened QQ to check the class group chat.

Shortly after the term started, the class had created a directory and set up a QQ group. Since everyone had just met, the group was quite lively, with everyone eager to communicate and express themselves. Though "lively" was a relative term; aside from weekends, only three or five people were chatting at any given time, and it was sporadic since everyone was studying at home.

Li Jingkun scanned some of the chat logs. It was all typical school stuff—whether to join a certain club, or complaints about the food in the first-floor cafeteria versus the second—all trivial matters.

Having a moment, he chimed in: "Look at you all, your attitudes aren't right! We have monthly exams next week, shouldn't you be logging off and studying?"

Those online saw the message and were nearly killed by laughter at his screen name: "Pretty Girl Chasing Me Ten Streets Away."

"Who are you? Identify yourself!"

"You're online too, how can you lecture us?"

"Haha, 'Pretty Girl Chasing Me Ten Streets Away,' so narcissistic!"

"You've been invisible this whole time, no wonder we've never seen you."

...

The group erupted again, though it was still just the same few people replying, as they were all sending multiple messages. Song Hairong, however, wasn't participating; he was playing a single-player game called *Meteor, Butterfly, Sword*.

As for the "invisible" status, it’s worth noting that for those who had just gotten their accounts and were new to the internet, logging into QQ meant staying "online." It was a way of saying, "I'm here, I'm free, come talk to me." But for veteran users, the default setting was always "invisible." Li Jingkun, in particular, didn't like seeking people out to chat online. If he wanted to talk to someone, he would initiate it himself. He didn't want others bothering him, fearing he wouldn't be free or that he’d be interrupted.

With over sixty people in the class, his invisible status meant few had ever seen his username.

"Li Jingkun, it's you!"

Usually, those who could log into QQ at night were those who lived in Liuchuan City and owned a computer, so finding the class directory was easy. Since the directory listed everyone's home phone numbers and QQ IDs, it didn't take long for them to figure out who he was.

"Doesn't Li Jingkun live in the school dorms?"

"Aha! You aren't in the classroom for evening study; you ran off to an internet cafe!"

Li Jingkun typed back: "I came out to look up some research materials. I didn't expect to find you all chatting instead of studying. It breaks my heart and leaves me so disappointed."

"You're the one who’s disappointing, going to an internet cafe!"

"What will it take to bribe us so we don't report you tomorrow?"

Everyone went to internet cafes to play games or chat; the excuse of "looking up study materials" was one no one believed.

Of course, Li Jingkun was just joking with them. After chatting for a while and browsing a few websites and blogs, he and Song Hairong headed back.

Regarding school clubs, Li Jingkun had some ideas; he wanted to join one for fun. City No. 1 High School had plenty—the Literature Club, English Club, Dance Club, Broadcasting Station, Green Maintenance Association, Choir, and so on. But what he wanted to join was the Guitar Club.

In his previous life, his grades hadn't been as good as they were now. Because he loved music, he had chosen the arts stream when they split into liberal arts and sciences in his second year. One reason was his own passion; the other was that art students didn't need as high a score for the college entrance exam. He had studied piano and guitar very seriously for over a year.

Piano was a mandatory subject for music students, and he had chosen guitar as his elective talent. Little did he know that after muddling through and studying earnestly for a year, he would realize that studying music was an incredibly expensive endeavor. Furthermore, his level after just a year of practice was quite limited. After all, most other music students across the country had been learning since they were children and took professional lessons that cost hundreds of yuan per day. How could they compete with that?

In the end, Li Jingkun and many other art students gave up halfway through.

Now, having a second chance at life, he was hesitant about whether to pursue music again. The reason for his hesitation was that, unlike his previous life, he had more options now, and he didn't know which one was best.

Regardless of what he chose later, he felt he should continue with the guitar. Firstly, he still loved music, and secondly, he wanted to take the opportunity to write down some of the music from the future. Whether he sang it himself or sold it, it would be a source of income.

But to join the Guitar Club, he needed at least a guitar. That brought him back to the issue of money. So, he would have to wait and see when *Tender Shoots* magazine replied to him.

"Beep... beep... beep..."

"Hello? Anyone there? Begging for some votes."

"..."

(End of chapter)