Reborn: I'll Never Fail My Childhood Sweetheart Again

As soon as December arrived, a first snowfall bid farewell to late autumn in Lin’an, announcing the arrival of winter.

Speaking of which, the timeline for Hangzhou’s first snow is quite extensive. In the past fifty years, the earliest was back in 1955, when it snowed in mid-November. Similarly, it snowed on the same date in 1969 and 1976. The latest snow, however, drags on to mid-April, while heavy snow often occurs in the deep winter months of January and February.

Compared to the first snow across the country, Lin’an is relatively late.

According to Old Feng, they usually start seeing snow in Harbin, Hei Province, in mid-October.

Although the first snow in Lin’an arrives late, heavy snow is not an annual occurrence, and the average snowfall days are even fewer. Back in the fifties, it could snow for half a month, but in the twenty-first century, only ten days remain. Whether this is due to global warming or not is unknown.

With the arrival of the cold wave and first snowfall, the reactions of the people in room 302 varied.

Feng Zhongliang acted as if nothing happened. Compared to Harbin’s frequent lows of minus thirty degrees Celsius, this weather was nothing.

The others wore thicker clothing, but it was manageable.

The most exaggerated was Zeng Kaiping. This guy was fully armed—sweater, down jacket, hat, scarf, gloves—all the warm gear was ready. Sitting at the computer, he was wrapped in a blanket, bundled up like a big zongzi, still shivering from the cold, cursing incessantly.

"Damn it, what kind of ghost weather is this? It’s like it’s trying to kill us!"

Lin’an is indeed colder than Guangdong Province but not outrageously so. Yet, this energetic guy seemed particularly sensitive to the temperature.

Of the four seasons, he hated winter the most. Besides the cold, he had to temporarily say goodbye to his beloved shorts and flip-flops.

The heat wasn’t a problem for him. Even if he was drenched in sweat, he could enjoy some chilled watermelon and soda, and if he got overheated, he could just drink some herbal tea.

"Ah Ping, it’s only zero degrees now. You can’t handle this? How would you survive in our Hei Province? That would be like stepping into hell!"

Even Old Feng was amused by him, thinking this guy was just too intolerant to the cold.

"No, no, no, Old Feng, let’s agree on this first. If you have any happy events in the winter after graduation—like a wedding, a new house, or a baby’s full month celebration—I’ll send a red packet, but I won’t be there in person!"

Zeng Kaiping shivered in response.

Although he said that, in a previous life, Old Feng really did get married in the winter.

Harbin hosts a series of international ice and snow festival activities every year, and many newlyweds seize the opportunity to have ice and snow weddings, which are quite romantic.

Old Feng’s lover insisted on the winter wedding, and naturally, Feng Zhongliang couldn’t postpone it just for Zeng Kaiping.

Originally, it was thought that this energetic buddy would be absent, but unexpectedly, he braved the cold and came. After returning, he declared he’d never visit Hei Province in winter again, but when Old Feng’s baby had a full-month celebration in winter, Zeng Kaiping still showed up. He truly inherited Su Zelin’s expertise in saying one thing and doing another.

After chatting with the Five Hooligans for a while, Su Zelin headed out to the corridor to smoke.

A cigarette on the ground, he looked aimlessly at the small snowflakes descending from the sky. To be precise, they were more like snow particles or ice chips, as they didn’t form any flower shapes and didn’t exhibit any aesthetic appeal.

However, the idle guy still remembered the first snowfall of last year, when he went, by the empress dowager’s order, to Zhejiang University to deliver a down jacket. Unexpectedly, Qin Shiqing discovered it was a couple’s outfit after putting it on, and later dragged him to the cafeteria for a meal.

Now, he was wearing that mid-length Ya Ya down jacket. Actually, his mother’s taste wasn’t bad; it was comfortable and warm. However, Su Zelin usually only wore it around the finance college.

After smoking a cigarette in the corridor, there wasn’t much to see with this pitiful first snow, so Su Zelin was about to return to the dormitory when someone came up from the stairwell—it was the junior girl.

Today, Huang Panpan was wearing a thick hooded down jacket, with the furry hood up, wrapped in a scarf that nearly covered her mouth and nose.

Though Lin’an’s winter wasn’t particularly cold, the bitter north wind blew fiercely outside. Running all the way from the girls’ dormitory, her little face was reddened by the cold wind, her breath creating wisps of white vapor, and she rubbed her hands quickly to warm them up.

Inspired by the late-night emotional hotline expert, Teacher Zeng’s strategy, Huang Panpan was no longer as clingy after starting university as she was in high school, but her texts came every day, and every few days she would visit room 302 without fail, braving wind and snow.

"Senior!"

Seeing Su Zelin outside the corridor, Huang Panpan’s big eyes instantly lit up, and she hopped over like a little bunny, handing him a bag: "Here, for you!"

Su Zelin looked inside—there were a few bags of chips and two packs of Hua Zis.

When the weather was warmer, the junior girl would habitually bring a few cups of milk tea, but as it got colder, she stopped bringing milk tea because it would freeze after a while and wouldn’t taste good, so she switched to something else.

The snacks were for Su Zelin’s roommates, as Huang Panpan knew that the idle guy didn’t often eat snacks, but it didn’t stop her from bribing the others. The Hua Zis, of course, were for Su Zelin.

"Panpan, don’t buy me cigarettes anymore!"

Su Zelin said somewhat helplessly.

Girls giving cigarettes to guys always felt a bit odd.

This everyday detail also reflected the different ways Qin Shiqing and Huang Panpan treated him.

Although Qin Shiqing couldn’t do much about his smoking, whenever she saw him do it, she’d snatch the cigarette away. She kept him in check, whether it was in his studies or bad habits in life. She once even served as a little spy for his parents, responsible for supervising him on the way to and from school, absolutely not allowing him to sneak off to the arcade to race horses and such.