Rebirth Begins with Rejecting My Childhood Friend

Yang Baishan immediately said, "I think Xiuwen, you shouldn't speak for now. We want to hear how you've been badmouthing us behind our backs."

"Has he been talking bad about us?"

An Shishi glanced at Xu Xiuwen with a sly glint in her eye. "Xu Xiuwen doesn't want me to say anything. He's probably afraid you'll get angry, so I can't say."

Her words seemed to confirm that Xu Xiuwen had been saying negative things about them.

Hearing this, the roommates all glared at Xu Xiuwen angrily.

Jin Haonan couldn't help but join in. "Xiuwen, confession leads to leniency; resistance leads to severity. Just come clean—how exactly have you been defaming us?"

Xu Xiuwen smiled bitterly, "Brother Hao do I look like that kind of person to you?"

Jin Haonan replied, "Of course, I know you're not that kind of person, but An Shishi doesn't seem like the type to lie."

"Exactly! Exactly!" the other roommates chimed in.

Xu Xiuwen thought to himself, You're mistaken. An Shishi is a master manipulator and loves stirring up trouble.

But he couldn't say that directly.

Xu Xiuwen turned to her with a teasing smile. "Why don't you tell them what I said? Honestly, I'm curious too."

An Shishi shook her head. "I wouldn't dare."

"What do you mean you wouldn't dare? Stop slandering me—I haven't said anything!"

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything in the first place." An Shishi apologized decisively.

Xu Xiuwen was both exasperated and amused by her antics.

Jin Haonan said to An Shishi, "Shishi, go ahead and speak boldly. Don't worry, he wouldn't dare do anything to you."

An Shishi gave Xu Xiuwen a mischievous glance and then asked, "Should I really say it then?"

"Go ahead! I want to hear what you've come up with this time."

An Shishi smiled and said, "He said his roommates are all righteous, loyal, and his best brothers."

Hearing this, Cheng Lu pursed her lips to suppress a laugh.

The roommates also burst out laughing.

Xu Xiuwen breathed a sigh of relief and shot An Shishi a glare. This troublemaker. It's been too long since she got put in her place.

The atmosphere lightened considerably thanks to An Shishi's twist.

At that moment, Shen Minyao suddenly interjected, "Xu Xiuwen, who is this girl? Aren't you going to introduce her?"

Hearing Shen Minyao's question, the roommates stopped laughing and turned their attention to the situation, listening intently.

Xu Xiuwen's heart tightened, but he tried to remain composed as he replied, "Her name is An Shishi. She's Cheng Lu's classmate and roommate. She's also a student at the Jiaotong University."

An Shishi added with a smile, "Hello, everyone. I'm An Shishi. It's nice to meet you all."

Shen Minyao snorted coldly in response.

An Shishi noticed Shen Minyao's hostility toward her and felt puzzled.

A woman's intuition told her it had something to do with Xu Xiuwen.

Her eyes darted around as she asked, "Master, who are these three girls?"

Knowing he couldn't avoid the question, Xu Xiuwen quickly introduced them. "This is Su Yanyan, Tang Weiwei, and Shen Minyao. They're all students in the software information department at our university."

An Shishi nodded and smiled, "Nice to meet you all."

Su Yanyan responded with a polite smile.

Tang Weiwei kept her head down.

Shen Minyao, however, clearly didn't like An Shishi.

An Shishi noted her reaction silently.

Then she turned to Xu Xiuwen and asked sweetly, "Master, do you want some fruit? I can peel it for you."

"No, can't you see I'm eating right now?"

"It's fine. You can eat it after your meal."

"No need, thanks. Just behave yourself."

An Shishi continued to smile warmly. "Alright, I'll listen to you."

Meanwhile, Cheng Lu resumed feeding Xu Xiuwen his meal.

An Shishi suddenly asked, "Lulu, why didn't you tell me that Xu Xiuwen was hospitalized?"

Cheng Lu paused, then turned her head. "I just found out myself. I came here straight after a meeting and didn't go back to the dorm, so I forgot to tell you. By the way, how did you know he was here?"

"Oh, I see. I wrongly blamed you then. I heard it from someone in the dorm next door—XX, you know, she's one of Xu Xiuwen's fans. When I heard Xu Xiuwen was hospitalized, and none of you were in the dorm, I rushed over. I didn't expect you to already be here."

Xu Xiuwen initially thought his hospitalization was a minor matter, but it turned out even students from the Jiaotong University knew about it.

Cheng Lu had also found out about it through someone from the student council.

Suddenly, a thought struck him.

If students from the Jiaotong University knew he was hospitalized, then Xiao Youran, also a student there, must know too.

At that moment, the door to the hospital room was knocked on again.

Knock, knock, knock!

The knocking was urgent, reflecting the visitor's anxiety.

"Excuse me, is Xu Xiuwen here?"

The voice was incredibly familiar.

Xu Xiuwen immediately recognized it—it was Xiao Youran.

His heart sank.

Oh no. This is it. It's all over.

Xiao Youran had come too!

Xu Xiuwen's gaze darted toward Tang Weiwei and then toward Cheng Lu.

With the two of them already present, the situation was precarious enough.

But now, with Xiao Youran joining the mix, not even a divine being could save him.

He felt a wave of regret.

But it wasn't regret over getting involved with so many girls.

It was regret over getting injured and ending up in the hospital.

Yet, if he hadn't rushed into the fire to save Shen Minyao, she would have perished.

And that would've left him with lifelong guilt.

In comparison, the current situation seemed like the best possible outcome.

He could only focus on the silver lining: he had never planned to keep things hidden forever.

Xu Xiuwen had already considered coming clean to his girlfriends someday.

Now, as everything converged, he decided to face it head-on.

"Since everyone's already here, let's deal with this as it comes," he thought, his mind racing.

He raised his voice and called out, "Youran, I'm inside."

"Xiao Xu!" Xiao Youran's voice rang out excitedly from behind the door.

The next second, she couldn't wait any longer and burst into the room.

Once inside, Xiao Youran quickly scanned the situation.

Although the room was crowded, she immediately spotted Xu Xiuwen lying on the hospital bed, his hands wrapped in bandages.

Seeing him in that state, Xiao Youran's tears began to fall uncontrollably. "Xiao Xu, what happened to you?"

She rushed to his bedside, tears streaming down her face, crying so hard that she couldn't stop.

The sudden appearance of another girl, who ran to Xu Xiuwen's bedside and burst into tears, left everyone in the room stunned.

The expressions of the three girls—Tang Weiwei, Cheng Lu, and Shen Minyao—varied dramatically.

Xu Xiuwen's roommates immediately recognized Xiao Youran, their faces turning awkward and peculiar.

Cheng Lu shot Xiao Youran a cold glance.

An Shishi, meanwhile, was utterly speechless.

Is it really that dramatic? Isn't Xu Xiuwen perfectly fine?

An Shishi completely forgot that she had almost cried earlier and that her concern for Xu Xiuwen was no less than Xiao Youran's.

Xiao Youran, however, didn't care what others thought. When she found out Xu Xiuwen was injured and hospitalized, it felt like her world had collapsed. She'd held back her emotions all the way there, but upon seeing Xu Xiuwen, she couldn't control herself anymore. Her feelings erupted like a dam breaking.

She truly, deeply loved Xu Xiuwen. Knowing he was hurt made her feel ten thousand times worse than if she were the one injured.

Xu Xiuwen could tell Xiao Youran wasn't faking her emotions. Her tears were genuine, straight from the heart.

He felt deeply moved. After all, they had grown up together as childhood sweethearts.

Xiao Youran's feelings for him were incomparable to those of any other girl.

For a moment, guilt consumed Xu Xiuwen.

Here was a girl whose entire heart belonged to him, who cared so deeply about him.

Yet, he had repeatedly cheated on her.

At least for now, Xiao Youran didn't know that, besides Cheng Lu, he had also been involved with others.

If she found out, how heartbroken would she be? Xu Xiuwen didn't dare to imagine it.

He sighed silently.

Sigh, I really am a scumbag. I deserve to be struck by lightning.

He couldn't help but reflect on himself. In his past life, he hadn't been this much of a player. At least, when he was with one woman, he hadn't cheated.

But then again, in his previous life, he hadn't had the means to cheat.

Given his circumstances back then, managing to marry someone as wonderful as Shen Minyao was already a stroke of incredible luck. How could he have ever dreamed of infidelity?

Thinking about it this way, it seemed money truly was the root of all evil.

It's true what they say: when a man gets rich, he turns bad. It's practically a law of nature.

Still, no matter what, he was already on the path of no return as a scumbag.

There was no turning back now.

Cheating and being unfaithful are wrong, but true love isn't.

All Xu Xiuwen could do was try his best to take care of every girl who truly cared for him and minimize the harm they suffered.

"Youran, stop crying. The doctor said I'm fine. I just need to rest for a while, and I'll be good as new."

Xiao Youran looked at him, half-believing, half-doubting. "Really? You're not lying to me, are you?"

"I could lie to anyone, but I'd never lie to you."

Hearing this, Xiao Youran's mood improved significantly, and her tears stopped instantly—like someone had flipped a switch. It was almost magical.

Still, a trace of doubt lingered as she pouted and said, "But you lie to me all the time."

Xu Xiuwen felt a pang of embarrassment.

That was true.

"I'm not lying this time. If you don't believe me, you can trust someone else. Yanyan, tell her what the doctor said. Didn't they say I'd be fine after resting for a bit?"

Su Yanyan hadn't expected Xu Xiuwen to call her name. She froze for a moment, then quickly nodded. "Yes, the doctor said you just need to rest for a while."

Hearing someone else confirm it, Xiao Youran started to believe it a bit more.

But then she frowned and asked, "And who are you?"

Su Yanyan instinctively replied, "I'm Su Yanyan."

Xiao Youran turned to Xu Xiuwen, her expression serious. "Xiao Xu, who are all these people?"

She finally took a good look at everyone in the room.

Xu Xiuwen's roommates? Not important. She skipped over them immediately.

Cheng Lu? Hmph. Skipped.

An Shishi? A typical fence-sitter—skipped for now.

The only ones she didn't recognize were the three girls, including Tang Weiwei.

As for the girl with the black-rimmed glasses? Forget it.

But the two women beside her were equally intriguing. One, despite keeping her head down, exuded an undeniable beauty with a delicate and pitiable charm that was truly stunning.

The other one, from the moment she entered, had been frowning and glaring with an unfriendly look in her eyes. What caught Xiao Youran's attention the most was that she was also a beauty.

When did Xiao Xu get to know so many beautiful women? And why were they here in the ward, even arriving before her?

"Uh…" Xu Xiuwen didn't know how to introduce them. He felt a headache coming on. Xiao Youran had sharp eyes—she immediately noticed the three women, Tang Weiwei and the others, as soon as she came in, and even questioned them directly.

She gave him no time to prepare.

Xiao Youran's tone wasn't very friendly, and her expression was quite stern.

Shen Minyao, already suspicious of the relationships between Xu Xiuwen and the stream of beauties coming to visit him, found Xiao Youran's questioning particularly provocative. Without hesitation, she snapped back, "And who are you? Coming in here crying and fussing—don't you know Xu Xiuwen is a patient and needs peace and quiet?"

Xiao Youran felt bewildered and wronged by the retort, but she couldn't argue back. After all, Shen Minyao's words were in defense of Xu Xiuwen and came from a perspective she hadn't considered.

Still, Xiao Youran refused to back down or admit defeat. She huffed and said, "I'm Xiao Xu's... childhood friend."

She had wanted to say "girlfriend," but when the words were about to leave her mouth, she remembered Cheng Lu standing beside her. So, she quickly changed it to "childhood friend."

She even added, "No one has a closer relationship with Xiao Xu than I do."

That statement was a bit redundant, but it had the desired effect.

Cheng Lu immediately rolled her eyes.

An Shishi gave a subtle sneer, her expression tinged with mockery.

Even Tang Weiwei, who had been keeping her head down, couldn't help but glance up at Xiao Youran. But when she saw that the woman was no less beautiful than herself, she quickly lowered her head again.

That single glance was enough for Xiao Youran to take a good look at Tang Weiwei's face. She had assumed that Tang Weiwei, at best, was as pretty as Shen Minyao.

But she was wrong.

Even someone as confident in her appearance as Xiao Youran had to admit that Tang Weiwei's beauty was on par with her own.

Until now, she had only ever acknowledged one person as equally beautiful as herself—Cheng Lu.

Now, there was another one.

Xiao Youran's mood instantly soured.

When did Xiao Xu meet such a gorgeous girl?

"Xiao Xu, who are they, and why are they here?"

"Uh…"

"Speak!"

Xu Xiuwen had no choice but to introduce them with a forced smile. "This is Su Yanyan, this is Tang Weiwei, and this is Shen Minyao. They're all students from our Software and Information Engineering department."

Cheng Lu and Xiao Youran were roommates and rivals. Cheng Lu was very familiar with Xiao Youran's personality. Normally, she was kind and understanding, but when it came to Xu Xiuwen, she became petty, irritable, and jealous.

Cheng Lu could already tell that Xiao Youran was starting to suspect Xu Xiuwen's relationship with the three women. So, she stayed silent and watched the situation unfold.

Meanwhile, An Shishi, knowing beforehand that Xu Xiuwen had gotten injured saving someone—and that the person he saved was Shen Minyao—was also eager to see the drama play out.

Sure enough, Xiao Youran recognized the name Shen Minyao as the girl who caused Xiao Xu's injury.

As soon as she heard the name, she glared at Shen Minyao and demanded angrily, "So it was you who caused Xiao Xu's injury? Why is it that nothing happened to you while Xiao Xu ends up in the hospital?"

Shen Minyao, already feeling guilty about the incident, turned pale at Xiao Youran's accusation. Her whole posture slumped under the weight of her guilt.