Reborn in A Little Thing Called First Love: Meeting You Again
Lin Wanxing died on a winter night at the age of twenty-five. Her computer screen was still lit, displaying the login page for A Chinese Ghost Story, paused on a screenshot of the century wedding between “Reed Slightly Tipsy” and “A Smile Is Alluring.”
In her previous life, she and Bei Weiwei were classmates in the computer science department at Qing University, equally obsessed with the online game, yet taking completely different paths. Bei Weiwei was the dazzling, confident belle of the department, and in the game, the top player in red, “Reed Slightly Tipsy.” Lin Wanxing, on the other hand, was an ordinary girl who sat in the corner of the classroom and was too shy to look up when answering questions. Her game ID, “Late Star,” belonged to a plain-clothed healer, one of countless beginners in the starting village. She quietly followed the team led by the gaming god “A Smile Is Alluring,” not even worthy of having him remember her name.
She had been secretly in love with Xiao Nai for four whole years, from the boy in a white shirt who succinctly explained his programming ideas at the freshman opening ceremony, to the celebrated young entrepreneur who later founded Zhi Yi Technology. She watched him fall in love with Bei Weiwei at first sight in the game, watched them go from virtual spouses to a real-life couple, watched them graduate, get engaged, and stand together at the top of their industry. She had always been a bystander. The private messages she had mustered the courage to send in the game went unanswered. When she ran into him in real life, she could barely stammer out, “Hello, Senior Xiao,” without blushing bright red. In the end, after years of insecurity and regret, her short life came to an untimely end.
In the last second before her consciousness faded, her greatest wish was this: If she could live it all over again, even if she could only speak to him openly, even if she could only join him for one dungeon run in the game, that would be enough.
When she opened her eyes again
