Chapter 19: First Love Returns!

Title: Baby’s Breath

Translator: System Yaoi

Note: Kindly read this novel at https://secondlifetranslations.com/novel/babys-breath/

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Chapter 19 First Love Returns!

At the Copper Pot  restaurant booth, Cheng Yu absentmindedly looked at his phone.

The bassist of the band, Old K, caught a glimpse of him looking at a photo and said, “What’s wrong with Turbo today? Feeling down, so looking at beautiful girls on social media?”

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Nlye pkdtla Nkd Fbkxys alrzkle, “Mwacs eslpd’v kdhszhl tkazp kd swa psdtp, usw jdso vbyv.”

“Xb, aktbv,” Xze I alnyzzle. Mwacs bye y qkapv zshl, y ekpyrrlyale zshl obs plahle yp Mwacs’p xwpl. Rv pllxle zkjl lhlau psdt bl oasvl nyaakle vbl pbyeso sq ulyadkdt.

“Nlv’p lyv,” Ubldt Zw pyke yp bl rwv yoyu bkp rbsdl.

Vlabyrp kv oyp clnywpl bl bye ldnswdvlale y ” hkpwyz jlk ” kd vbl yqvladssd, y rlapsd okvb y wdkiwl rwdj pvuzl, piwyvvkdt sd vbl asyepkel yde rzyukdt okvb y nyv, nyzzkdt kv “Ykxk.” Mbkp pktbv vakttlale xlxsaklp, yde Ubldt Zw sdnl ytykd vbswtbv sq bkp qkapv zshl.

Ebld bl oyp qswavlld, Ubldt Zw prldv bkp pwxxla hynyvksd kd vbl nswdvaupkel okvb bkp taydeqyvbla, oblal bl bye bkp qkapv yde sdzu zshl lmrlakldnl.

Rv oyp vbl qkapv vkxl bl bye lhla zkjle psxlsdl, yde yzps vbl zypv vkxl.

Mbyv pwxxla hynyvksd, ewl vs qyxkzu yaaydtlxldvp, Ubldt Zw zlqv Fbydzkdt yde oldv vs Fokvglazyde. Xaktkdyzzu vbswtbv vs wdelats pwatlau, yqvla y vbsaswtb lmyxkdyvksd, bl sdzu dllele alnwrlayvksd, ps bl alvwadle vs Ubkdy. Tkp qkapv raksakvu oyp vs qkde yd lmnwpl vs ts vs Fbydzkdt Uswdvu yde pll bkp tkazqaklde.

Ms bkp pwarakpl, obld bl oldv vs bla bsxl, bl qswde swv vbyv bla ldvkal qyxkzu bye xshle vs Jlkfkdt.

After returning to Macau, Cheng Yu asked his parents if he could study on the mainland. He didn’t tell anyone about his girlfriend, but privately found out which high school she attended and planned to transfer there.

But at that time, Cheng Yu unexpectedly learned about the changes in his girlfriend’s family.

Her father was sentenced to prison due to a fake bag producing case, and her mother ran away overnight with the two children, taking the money with her. No one knew which country she had escaped to, and there had been no news since.

In the years that followed, Cheng Yu often thought of her. Fireflies filled his dreams, visible but untouchable, as if they had taken root in his heart. Even today, he couldn’t forget that brief and dream-like first love.

Late at night, Cheng Yu rode his motorcycle back to the home near Wofo Si¹Temple of the Recumbent Buddha. This quadrangle courtyard was purchased and renovated by his grandfather many years ago. In his first year of university in the capital, Cheng Yu formed a new band and turned the entire north room into a studio. He soundproofed it and placed musical instruments inside, so even if he practised drums late at night, no neighbours would come knocking on his door.

In the dormitory, Xue Youka used the makeup remover wipes given by his makeup artist to wash his face for a long time before removing the makeup. He then opened his computer to check the closing prices on today’s market. A few years ago, He Xiaoyou helped a friend working in a bank and registered a securities account there. He used this account to secretly trade stocks.

During that year, the stocks of a road and bridge company skyrocketed. Xue Youka, who was in high school at the time, invested five hundred yuan and quickly made a small profit. After reading a bunch of stock market manipulation books and realising they were all scams, he came across the random walk theory. In the same year, when Bitcoin crashed to thirteen dollars, he thought he might make some money, so he bought more than twenty of them and left the rest of his money in the stock market.

He mainly traded virtual currencies, checking the market on BitMEX every few days. Although the money he invested in the stock market was not much, it was just for fun, but he still checked it every day. He knew that trading stocks was not a long-term solution, which is why he was so eager to find a stable source of income.

His roommate, Wang Jian, came up from the gym on the first floor of the dormitory, all sweaty, and leaned over his computer to take a look, saying, “Xue Youka, you’re always looking at stocks. Do you have any recommendations for the better performing ones? I want to buy some too.”

Although they were talented students in the finance department of T University, the knowledge they had learned from books as freshmen who had just finished the college entrance examination was far from enough to make objective and accurate judgments. At least, when Wang Jian saw the stock trading page, he looked completely puzzled and had no idea how to choose. Trading stocks was essentially speculation, and no matter how talented someone was, they could still fail. It had nothing to do with whether one studied finance or not.

So the youngest in the dormitory, the newly turned eighteen-year-old Xue Youka, started playing stocks as soon as he entered his first year of university, and apparently, he was doing well at it, which Wang Jian thought was quite impressive.

“Well, let me recommend a few to you.” Xue Youka looked for a notepad on the dormitory desk and casually wrote down several stock codes, adding the date and percentage range after them.

7% – 10%.

These represented his predicted return rates.

“If you have spare pocket money that can be used for investment, you can try buying some of these, but my predictions may not be accurate, and there is a possibility of losses too.”

Wang Jian took the note paper from him and couldn’t help but curse in his heart. “D*mn, this guy is too pretentious… Even the professors in our department don’t act like he does.”

“Thanks,” Wang Jian replied calmly. “I’ll check the software later… Oh, what software are you using?”

Wang Jian leaned over his computer, pretending to casually slide his fingers across the touchpad, secretly glancing at his holdings.

It was just over nine thousand in holdings…

Wang Jian withdrew his gaze, completely changing his impression of Xue Youka’s “impressive” act.

He had thought Xue Youka was some stock trading genius, but it turned out he only held stocks worth nine thousand yuan and dared to casually recommend them to others, even predicting the return rates.

Wang Jian returned to his own desk and casually tossed the note onto the table.

At 10 pm, Xue Youka climbed into bed to get ready for sleep when Sun Wenhao sent him a retouched photo. “Here’s the one we took this afternoon, all retouched. What do you think?”

“I don’t even look like myself after retouching… It’s worse than the original. You want a hundred yuan for this??”

“No! It’s free. My roommate said his girlfriend is a master at photo retouching. She can turn him into Edison Chen and herself into Angelababy, and a photo of them together into a historical shot! I felt relieved to send the photo to her. She’s quite skilled, you see the skin smoothing, so delicate!”

The key point was that it was free.

Xue Youka took a closer look and thought, well, if it’s free, then it’s okay.

Sun Wenhao said, “Xiao Ka² Xiao means Little, he used it as an endearment and Ka is a nickname for Youka, chu all will be seeing him get referred to as Ka, Kaka, or Mimi, if you don’t mind, I’ll post it for you. But today, you had a conflict with Zhiso’s fans again, and they’ve already started attacking you. Be careful not to get into an argument with them unintentionally.”

“I won’t pay them any attention,” Xue Youka said. “Hey, bro, this weekend, I’ll treat you all to dinner, including the girl who retouched the photo and your roommate. Thank them for helping me out.”

“Alright!” Sun Wenhao truly loved the two-dimensional fictional world, which was why he spared no effort in helping Xue Youka with his career, hoping that if his friend became famous, he wouldn’t forget him and would introduce him to some cute anime girls.

Today was the first day of the “T University Hundred Groups War.” Early in the morning, Old K called Turbo and asked him to come over to help out.

“Yu-ge, we only had ten new members last year. If this continues, the Guitar Club will die out with my generation. Can you come and help me attract more people?”

Cheng Yu disliked this kind of occasion very much. He didn’t join any clubs, and he wasn’t a member of the Guitar Club. Initially, he didn’t agree to help, but when the class was over, Old K blocked him at the classroom door and forcibly brought him along, saying, “Help me out, brother, and I’ll take care of cleaning the studio for a month!”

“Six months,” Cheng Yu replied.

Old K gratefully agreed, and he arranged for the most beautiful girl in the club to perform, along with Turbo, who was like a male god. Even if Cheng Yu did nothing, just sitting there coldly, he could still attract everyone’s attention.

In the morning, there was only one class scheduled. When noon came, Xue Youka and his roommates rushed to the venue of the Hundred Groups War. Over 200 clubs from the whole T University had gathered at the square in front of the Zijin Dormitory.

Xue Youka had a head of pink hair, looking eye-catching wherever he went. Every time he passed by a booth, senior students would hand him flyers, saying, “Are you a freshman? Do you like mysteries and reasoning? Even if you don’t, it’s fine! Come join our Mystery Solving Club, we have weekly offline Werewolf Kill and Escape Room events, lots of activities!”

“Thank you, senior. Where’s the Photography Club?”

“It’s ahead. But freshman, are you really not coming to our Mystery solving Club? We have beautiful girls!”

“No, no, thanks!” Politely declining the senior girl’s request for his WeChat, Xue Youka quickly escaped from her and went on to check out other club booths.

“Which club is that? It seems to have a lot of popularity,” Wang Jian pointed with his finger.

Xue Youka looked over and saw that the booth was different from the other deserted ones. It was surrounded by a crowd, mostly girls, and he could even hear someone singing.

“Is there a campus goddess singing? Let’s check it out!” another roommate rushed over to take a look.

Curious, Xue Youka also walked to the edge of the crowd, tiptoed, and peered inside.

It turned out to be the Guitar Club. There was a girl sitting and playing the guitar, singing “Those Flowers” by Pu Shu. Many girls were going crazy taking photos, and some were even screaming.

Do girls these days love to admire beautiful girls so much?

Puzzled, he withdrew his gaze and said to his roommate, “I’ll go register at the Photography Club first. Let’s meet under the dormitory building later.”

Just starting college, they were still getting to know each other. In their dorm room 511, apart from a local, the other three were all from out of town, so they stuck together and went to the canteen together.

As soon as Cheng Yu sat down, a group of people surrounded him, taking pictures and treating him like a merchandise being promoted. “Of course, junior sister, Turbo often rehearses at the Guitar Club. As long as you join our club, you can see him every day!”

“I can’t give you his WeChat, junior sister. If you like Turbo, you can ask him yourself. Join our Guitar Club, and there will be plenty of opportunities, hehe.”

“Don’t know how to play the guitar? You can learn! As long as you genuinely love music!”

Cheng Yu was nearly deafened by the noise, so he put on his baseball cap, got a cigarette from Old K, and went out for some fresh air behind the booth.

Not far away, Cheng Yu suddenly caught sight of a guy with pink hair.

Are there so many of these punk-style guys nowadays?

His gaze inadvertently swept across the side profile of the punk like guy, and Cheng Yu’s thumb, which was about to light a cigarette, suddenly froze.

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