Lin Ran turned his head and saw a beautiful girl in the school’s summer uniform and knee-length skirt happily walking toward him, accompanied by another girl.

The first girl had a sweet appearance, with a well-styled shoulder-length bob and a small pink bow in her hair.

Though she didn’t match the stunning beauty of Lin Ran’s deskmate, Su Qingyan, she was at least on par with the class flower.

This cute and sweet type had a significant appeal among high school boys of their age.

No wonder in my previous life, I was treated like a dog by my friends, spinning around for her sake… Lin Ran sighed inwardly as he watched the sweet girl approach.

This was Shen Lingshan, the girl Zhao Ke had mentioned—the creator of Lin Ran’s romantic misfortunes from his last life.

In his previous life, he had a beautiful class flower sitting next to him, but he never acted on his feelings, partly due to his introverted personality and lack of courage around Su Qingyan.

However, he also had his heart set on Shen Lingshan, who was in the same year as him. Initially, it was Shen Lingshan who found Lin Ran somewhat handsome and made the first move.

With a series of flirty and cute lines, she easily enchanted Lin Ran, who had little experience with girls, leading him to fall head over heels for her.

Who knew that despite her sweet and adorable exterior, she was actually a femme fatale? Once she had Lin Ran wrapped around her finger, she quickly trained him to be her loyal follower, making him willingly do everything she asked.

The naive Lin Ran thought he was making sacrifices for love, spending most of his weekly allowance of 150 yuan on Shen Lingshan, while he subsisted on instant noodles and bread without complaint. Yet, despite all he gave, the most they ever shared were a couple of brief hand-holding moments.

Whenever he wanted to confess his feelings and solidify their relationship, she would change the subject, stringing him along without ever committing.

“Isn’t our relationship good as it is? Why do we need labels?” she would say. “But don’t be discouraged; I really like how much you care about me!” Or, “How about this? I have a birthday coming up. If you prepare me ten gifts, I might consider being serious about you!”

In the end, after graduating high school, Lin Ran put in tremendous effort over two weeks, folding a basket of paper cranes, buying a large bottle of baby’s breath, and saving up to purchase an official Mickey Mouse plush toy—all ten gifts in total. Full of hope, he braved the rain to deliver them to Shen Lingshan on her birthday, only to find her passionately kissing a rich boy from school, his hands exploring under her shirt.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The boy had gifted her a set of Swarovski jewelry worth several thousand yuan.

Snap.

The pure-hearted warrior’s heart shattered, and he fell to the ground.

...

The past was too painful to revisit. But since he was reborn, Lin Ran had no intention of being anyone’s loyal follower again. At that moment, Shen Lingshan, still unaware that her catch had slipped away, approached him with her friend, Cui Qianqian, and a cheerful demeanor.

“Lin Ran, Qianqian and I want ice cream. Can you go to the snack shop and get some for us?” she said, her tone implying that it was a given.

Cui Qianqian chimed in impatiently, “Hurry up, there are only seven minutes left in break! If you don’t go now, we’ll run out of time!”

Before Lin Ran could respond, Zhao Ke, his friend, expressed his discontent, “You know there are only seven minutes left? The snack shop is so far; you won’t make it in time!”

The short breaks at Yunan High School were only ten minutes long.

Running from the teaching building to the snack shop and back would take at least eight or nine minutes, leaving hardly any time to relax. Generally, students would wait for the longer twenty-minute breaks to go to the snack shop.

At that moment, Shen Lingshan and Cui Qianqian were just craving snacks and didn’t want to wait for the longer break or put in the effort, so they found Lin Ran to do it for them—not only to save effort but also to avoid spending any money.

Hearing Zhao Ke’s criticism, Shen Lingshan pouted adorably, “You can’t do it.”

“But that doesn’t mean our Lin Ran can’t!”

“Right, Lin Ran?”

Listen to that. “Our Lin Ran.” Just this little flirtation was enough to keep him under her spell. Typical, so typical. In his past life, Lin Ran would have probably been ecstatic and rushed to do her bidding.

But now, he had seen through Shen Lingshan’s tricks. Even her cute pout only made him feel more contempt. However, as a mature man in his thirties, he wasn’t about to argue with a young girl.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Ran decided to politely refuse. “Are you kidding?”

“Huh?”

Both Shen Lingshan and Cui Qianqian froze, hardly believing their ears.

Lin Ran added, “If you’re fine, then why not just go buy it yourself?”

Shen Lingshan quickly recovered, putting on a pitiful look. “But I can’t run…”

Cui Qianqian chimed in indignantly, “Exactly! Our Lingshan is a girl; it’s too far to the snack shop. How can you bear to let her go?”

Lin Ran instinctively glanced at Shen Lingshan’s calves. Under her knee-length skirt, her legs were fair and slender, clad in red canvas shoes and white bobby socks.

“That’s nice legs,” he said.

Shen Lingshan beamed with pride, thinking that Lin Ran was finally submitting to her charm. Pretending to be shy, she crossed her legs, inadvertently showing off even more. “So… does that mean you’ll do it?”

However, the next moment, Lin Ran casually remarked, “With legs like that, you must be fast.”

“Believe in yourself; you can do it.”

“Huh?”

Shen Lingshan was dumbfounded. What a twist! You’re complimenting my legs as if you’re a sports coach?

Cui Qianqian was already getting anxious. “Lin Ran, can you stop stalling? Just go; there are only five minutes left!”

Shen Lingshan gritted her teeth, as if making a resolution. “Fine, you go buy the ice cream for us, and I’ll promise you—”

“I’ll have lunch with you today!”

As she said this, a victorious look crossed her face.

Every time she made such an offer to have lunch with Lin Ran, he would always be excited and agree to anything she proposed. This time would be no different—

But unexpectedly, Lin Ran looked at Shen Lingshan like she was a scammer, disbelief written all over his face. “You want to mooch off my lunch money?”