Yama Reborn

Chapter Three: Something’s Not Right About This Picture

Late at night, Chen Nuo sat in a chair, calmly gazing ahead. On the table in front of him, a printed glass cup contained half a cup of clear, cool boiled water. Chen Nuo stared at the cup as if lost in thought before sighing a moment later.

「School Belle Sun was in a terrible mood.」

She had been scolded for half an hour in her father’s office the previous day. When she returned home from school, her mother learned about her fall from the building during the day. Her mother got so angry that she argued with her father all night. School Belle Sun locked herself in her room.

Entertainment options for students of this era were very scarce. There were no smartphones to play with. Even children from wealthy families only had Nokias, and having a color screen with a 24-chord ringtone was enough to show off extravagantly. Personal computers were even less widespread. At this time, QQ’s online user count had just broken one hundred thousand, largely thanks to white-collar workers in companies and internet cafes across the country.

So all School Belle Sun could do was put on headphones and listen to new songs by a Taiwanese singer named Jay Chou on her MP3 player until she fell asleep. She didn’t even hear her mother knocking on the door, calling her to eat. Late at night, School Belle Sun woke up hungry and tiptoed out of her room, finding a bag of cakes in the kitchen—the kind sold by weight at the market.

The source of School Belle Sun’s bad mood was a boy named Chen Nuo. Sun Keke had known she was good-looking ever since she was a child. Starting from middle school, the boys in her class would always sneak glances at her. This number increased even more after high school—especially when she dressed lightly in the summertime. But having a father who was the Dean of Discipline, School Belle Sun was always well-protected. After all, it was only the year 2000. Though the boys were a bit rebellious, few dared to take on the high difficulty and risk of courting the Dean of Discipline’s daughter.

However, a few days ago, someone did. That person was Chen Nuo.

Sun Keke took out a love letter she had secretly hidden within "Selected Physics Problems: 1996-2000" from her bookshelf. The handwriting was poor, the words cheesy. This was the first love letter School Belle Sun had received in her seventeen years of life. At that time, the boy named Chen Nuo had marched into her classroom quite recklessly and, in front of many people, placed the letter before her.

Then, for the following few days, School Belle Sun became the center of attention in the class! She actually had mixed feelings about it; she was a bit annoyed, yet at the same time, she secretly relished the attention and discussions centered around her. Understandable, for a seventeen-year-old girl.

Over the past two days, the fervor had already begun to fade. But yesterday afternoon’s jumping incident...

In fact, it was a huge misunderstanding. School Belle Sun just happened to be walking on the second-floor corridor when she saw the boy who had sent her a love letter lingering on the first floor. The unfortunate thing was that the sunlight was too dazzling at that moment. School Belle Sun suddenly thought the boy standing in the sun looked as if he was glowing, and he actually appeared a bit handsome. School Belle Sun leaned over the railing to spy, bending forward quite a bit. Then her glasses slipped off. She reached out to catch her glasses and leaned out a bit further...