Forced Me to Regress, Huh?

Cheng Zhu sat in the dorm room, holding his phone, and could already imagine Lin Lu’s expression.

After the voice actress read his message, her breathing became heavy, and his face appeared in her mind. She could imagine his expression when he typed that message.

He actually said I was still stuck on the topic of Zhang Qiqi half an hour later and called me weird!

“Are you calling me nosy?!” She typed angrily, but for some reason, her heartbeat quickened slightly.

“What do you think?” Cheng Zhu replied ambiguously.

“I can’t be bothered with you!” Lin Lu ended the chat, seemingly unyielding but essentially retreating.

Sitting on her bed, she looked at the piglet plushie labeled Cheng Pig on the bedside table.

She grabbed it and punched it twice!

“Take that! I’ll beat you to death!” she muttered fiercely, though it took a while for her quickened heartbeat to calm down.

Of course, she wasn’t just being nosy.

And naturally, he wasn’t just calling her nosy either.

But in the end, the conversation stopped at nosy.

This was the essence of budding ambiguity.

In Room 309, Dong Dong’s bed was next to Cheng Zhu’s.

He glanced across at his ‘lifelong enemy’ and asked in puzzlement, “Old Cheng, what’s with that grin? You’re smiling like you’ve just won a war.

“You’re not gambling online, are you?” Dong Dong sat up from his bed.

“Gambling? What nonsense are you spouting?!” Cheng Zhu looked at him and quickly added, “But you’re not entirely wrong.”

Love, for most people, was nothing short of a high-stakes gamble in life.

However, this scumbag was currently stewing over something else—regretting that Shen Qingning didn’t message him.

Forget it. Her personality is different from Lin Lu’s. Handsome, you don’t have to sell yourself short, he thought.

The following days were grueling, filled with the endless bitterness of military training.

During these days, Cheng Zhu’s greatest realization was that senior students came to see him while he stood at attention under the scorching sun.

His name had been popping up too frequently on Sci-Tech University’s forum.

Moreover, whenever his name appeared, it was often linked with campus belles.

One moment, it was Shen Qingning. The next moment, it was Lin Lu. Now, even the matter between him and Zhang Qiqi had spread in a small area.

Initially, Cheng Zhu didn’t have much resistance towards military training. But with people constantly coming to watch him and him having to stand there like a display, he felt like he had become part of a zoo exhibit, or rather, a tourist attraction of the School of Information.

Towards the end, he had a stern, deadpan expression when he stood at attention.

As for his reputation on the school forum, it was a mixed bag.

Alright, it was basically a lot of scolding.

Still, Cheng Zhu firmly believed that these naughty brats didn’t mean what they said.

If you think I’m awesome, just say I’m awesome. Why do you have to tack on stuff like, ‘He really deserves to die’?

A few shameless guys actually had the gall to say I’m not as handsome as they are. Why don’t you take a piss and look at your reflection?

And then there are those who said, ‘He probably just has some dirty money’. Fine, that’s a beautiful compliment I’ll take!

On the final day of military training, it was time for everyone to part ways with the drill instructors.

Some emotional people were even tearing up.

Instructor Feng, a veteran of countless military training sessions, managed to put on a sorrowful expression, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t squeeze out a single tear.

Military training just happened to end before the weekend.

Dong Dong suggested they go to West Lake for some fun, but Cheng Zhu declared he was going home.

“Huh? Old Cheng, at your age, why do you want to go home?” Dong Dong was baffled.

If it were him, even if he was studying in his hometown, even if the school was only a hundred meters away from his house, he’d still insist on staying at the dorm over the weekend.

Ah, freedom~ The air even feels fresher than at home.

No nagging parents, just roommates trash-talking each other while playing games.

“You don’t understand.” Cheng Zhu waved him off.

He planned to head straight to his grandparents’ house. His mother, Xu Yun, would bring Little Youzi there for dinner, and Old Cheng was even closing the restaurant for the entire day.

You’s Family Supermarket had already gotten on the right track, and business was going pretty well.

He wasn’t raking in a fortune, but it definitely showed promise.

For middle-aged people, having their career welcome a second spring was definitely a joy.

After all, in this day and age, it was already fortunate for middle-aged folks not to hit a career setback.

In addition, before opening the supermarket, he had borrowed money from his father-in-law. No matter what, Old Cheng had to go to his father-in-law’s today to pour a few drinks, say a few words of gratitude, and return the old man’s money as soon as possible.

Around five o’clock, Cheng Zhu arrived at his grandparents’ house.

He knocked on the door and immediately heard Little Youzi’s voice from inside.

“My big brother is back! You’re not allowed to open the door! I’ll open it!”

This simple sentence made Cheng Zhu’s stern expression, which had lasted for several days, completely fade away, replaced by a bright smile.

The door opened slowly, revealing Little Youzi’s round little face.

She looked up at Cheng Zhu, her two braids falling behind her, her big eyes blinking. Then she turned around and shouted the same words he had said earlier. “My big brother is back!”

Then she naturally slipped her little hand into Cheng Zhu’s big hand, gripped his index finger, and led him into the house.

With this little girl at home, it’s very difficult for me not to go home, Cheng Zhu thought.

Today, the meal at his grandparents’ house was exceptionally sumptuous.

The old man had gotten a free-range chicken from somewhere, a half-grown young chicken. The meat was especially tender and wasn’t tough like older ones.

Cheng Zhu’s grandmother and mother felt their hearts ache when they saw how tanned he had gotten.

Little did they know that it was all thanks to a young lady giving their (grand)son sunscreen, or else he would have been much darker.

“A man being a little darker doesn’t matter.” Old Cheng looked at his son and didn’t feel anything at all. He was only concerned with licking his father-in-law. “Dad, let me toast to you.”

Meanwhile, Little Youzi kept chattering non-stop, bombarding Cheng Zhu with endless questions, very curious about his life at college.

After dinner, the family sat on the couch. Cheng Zhu accompanied Little Youzi to watch cartoons while the adults chatted among themselves.

The show they were watching was SpongeBob SquarePants.

A classic episode was playing on the TV.

In this one, Patrick came to ask Spongebob to go jellyfishing, but Spongebob said he couldn’t go because he had school today.

Patrick said, “If you go to school, what am I supposed to do today?”

SpongeBob replied, “I don’t know. What do you usually do when I’m not at home?”

“Wait for you to come back.”

Little Youzi gently patted Cheng Zhu’s thigh and looked up at him. “Big Brother, I wait for you to come back every day.”

Cheng Zhu thought, Huh? Has your Teacher Zhang stopped assigning homework again?

He replied loudly, “I also want to come home and watch cartoons with you every day.”

“But Mom only lets me watch cartoons on weekends,” Little Youzi said.

“That’s why I come home on weekends,” Cheng Zhu replied.

Little Youzi was easily persuaded by his words.

Cheng Zhu patted her head gently. At her age, she had no idea how rare and commendable it was for a college student to return home regularly to accompany his kindergarten-aged sister instead of hanging out outside.

Fortunately, your brother played around so much in my past life that I even ate healthcare supplements as meals.

There were too many temptations outside.

It was all too easy for someone to forget their little sister with so much going on.

With this thought, he suddenly remembered the box of mint candies that Lin Lu had given him. He hadn’t finished them yet, and they were still in his pocket.

He wasn’t much of a candy person, so he just had one piece after lunch and dinner. Now, there were only a few left.

“Do you want one?” Cheng Zhu quietly took it out, blocking Xu Yun’s line of sight with his body. The siblings were adept at mischief in front of their parents.

“Is it okay? If I just eat a small one, my teeth shouldn’t be damaged, right?” Little Youzi raised one finger.

She added, “I’ll roll it up with my tongue later so my teeth won’t touch the candy!”

Cheng Zhu couldn’t decide whether she was clever or not.

He quickly took one out and handed it to his sister.

Little Youzi pretended to yawn and then patted her mouth with her hand, tossing the candy into her mouth.

The next moment, her expression froze, and her facial features scrunched up. Children didn’t like mint candies. They felt they were too cold and strong.

Cheng Zhu didn’t expect her to react so strongly. His first instinct was to quickly take out his phone and snap a picture of her expression.

Haha, this is fun!

Little Youzi didn’t know whether to eat it or spit it out. In the end, she had an idea and swallowed the small mint candy whole.

Cheng Zhu gave her a thumbs up and whispered, “Was it that bad? I’ll secretly buy you some milk candy later, but you’re only allowed to eat one piece.”

Little Youzi immediately nodded enthusiastically and replied firmly, “Okay!”

Afterwards, Cheng Zhu picked up his phone and opened WeChat.

“My sister doesn’t like the mint candy you gave.” He sent a message to Lin Lu and attached the photo he had just taken.

He had always been one who made full use of everything—people included.

“Haha, Little Youzi is so cute!” Lin Lu looked at the photo and immediately replied, “Most kids don’t like mint candy. Why’d you give it to her?!”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t say it was from you. Your image as Big Sister Little Lu in her heart is safe.”

“That’s more like it,” Lin Lu replied in satisfaction. “Next time, I’ll get her super delicious candy! Help me bring it back for her to eat!”

“What do you mean? I can’t eat it?”

“You can’t, tee-hee.”

“I’ll tea your head!” Cheng Zhu quickly sent. Then he suddenly realized he had made a mistake and quickly corrected it. “I’ll tee your head! Tee-hee!”

Damn, the typo exposed a big problem.

At 7:30 pm, Cheng Zhu’s family left his grandparents’ house and headed home.

Xu Yun looked at the suitcase her son had brought back from school, thinking it was full of dirty clothes and smelly socks.

Some boys were like this. They brought clean clothes to school and brought the dirty ones home for their mothers to wash.

Of course, Cheng Zhu was not such a person.

This suitcase was full of sexy lingerie!

Not to mention letting his mother wash them, he couldn’t even let her see them!

After all, he had just turned eighteen, and his parents could easily make assumptions. Since he started taking model photos and selling that kind of clothing at eighteen, did it mean he had already been doing that sort of thing back in high school?!

Therefore, after returning home, he first arranged the new designs he planned to shoot.

In the future, he would have many different identities, so he would just let his parents know a few that were appropriate.

He didn’t want his neighbors to ask, “What does your son do?” and have his parents be at a loss for how to answer.

Cheng Zhu locked the door to his room.

Then he took out his phone and sent a message to Yezi.

At first, Yezi used to chat with him almost every day, but he rarely replied.

Over time, she started treating it like a message board, sending just one or two messages a day, at most three.

She would share little things from her daily life or say whatever was on her mind, adding that Cheng Zhu didn’t need to reply—she just wanted to send them.

Later, she was afraid this might still bother Cheng Zhu, so she posted these things on her Moments instead, with the visibility set to only one person.

Cheng Zhu would occasionally like her posts to show he had seen them, but he wouldn’t necessarily start a conversation or leave comments, treating it like reviewing memorials.

Yezi didn’t feel aggrieved at all. On the contrary, the stark difference in how they treated each other became oddly addictive to her. She reveled in it and never grew tired of it.

“We’re shooting new items tomorrow. Clear your schedule,” Cheng Zhu said directly.

Yezi had pinned his chat at the top of her list. She immediately felt her butt begin to itch and replied, “As you command!”

Cheng Zhu thought, Last time, it was just an emoji with the words ‘As you command’ on it, sandwiched between two confetti emojis. This time, she’s actually typed it out directly.

So, no more pretending, huh?!