Back to Seventeen: I Won’t Be Your Backup Boyfriend

In his previous life, Chen Yang was the perfect boyfriend in everyone else's story. He treated his school beauty girlfriend like a princess, gave up his dreams to inherit the family business for her, and even set aside his dignity to marry into her family, gladly enduring everyone else's judgment. Yet after giving her everything with all his heart, all he got in return was the sight of her nestled in another man's arms and the chilling words, “You’re wonderful, but we’re not right for each other.” After an accident, he opened his eyes to find himself back at seventeen. Sunlight streamed into his high school classroom, and right before him was the school beauty who had consumed half his life, holding out a pink-and-purple love letter.

This time, when Chen Yang saw the familiar sense of entitlement in her eyes, all he felt was scorn. As the whole class stared in astonishment, he took the letter and tore it to shreds right in front of her. “Sorry, I’m not interested.”

He thought this was just the beginning of breaking free from his past, but instead, it ushered in a bizarre new routine. His desk was stuffed with anonymous love letters and snacks every day, girls were always “accidentally” bumping into his arms in the hallways, and even the class beauty and top student who had once ignored him began arranging all kinds of “chance encounters.” Chen Yang rubbed his chin and suddenly understood: while he had been shackled to “one crooked tree” in his previous life, had there really been an entire peach grove behind him?

The saying “Sacrifice your wife to the heavens, and your romantic luck will know no bounds” really was true. When the school beauty approached him again with a blush, trying to spring the same “gentle trap” as in his previous life, Chen Yang merely smiled faintly. He was no longer the fool who had humbled himself into the dirt. In this life, he would keep his eyes open, take in the countless sights he had overlooked, and live out a passionate youth that truly belonged to him. As for those old “obsessions”? They were nothing but dust he casually brushed away on the road to being reborn.