I knew Rachel had also come back to the first day of senior year when she tore up our couple’s notebook in front of the entire class and handed it back to me before sitting next to Tyler, the new transfer student everyone was crushing on. I calmly picked up the torn notebook and gave my spot on the math competition team to Emily, the scholarship student from the class next door who I often ran into at the library. In our previous life, Rachel and I had promised to attend the same college and spend our lives together. It wasn’t until the night before her wedding, when she drunkenly pulled out the love letter she had given Tyler years ago and called me crying about how she couldn’t marry the man she truly loved, that I realized she never really loved me. Given a second chance at life, I chose to let us both go. While Rachel was busy skipping class and having fun with Tyler, I was leading our competition team to dominate the national finals. On the day the SAT scores were released, Rachel, who had gotten pregnant and dropped out, saw a video of me being interviewed as the state’s top scorer. She completely lost it!
The moment I saw the tattered couple’s notebook carelessly tossed onto my desk, I knew Rachel had also come back. For the past ten years in our previous life, we had leaned on each other and worked hard together. I pulled all-nighters to build my startup, while she stayed in our tiny apartment making hangover soup to keep me going. Two kids from a small town, constantly encouraging each other. After ten years of perseverance and countless nights of drinking until I got ulcers, we finally put down roots in a big city, with a decent income and a fully paid-off house. Back then, standing in front of my own company building and holding Rachel’s hand, I felt overwhelmed with emotion. Without her support, I wouldn’t have made it this far. At that point, I finally felt confident enough to propose and start planning our wedding. To make up for all the years she had stood by me, I secretly prepared a $200,000 engagement ring and a fully paid house as a surprise. Everything seemed to be heading in the right direction. I even started fantasizing about having a child after we got married. It didn’t matter if she didn’t like doing housework or taking care of kids. In the past, when I didn’t have money, I had to take care of her myself. But now that things were better, I could hire not just one, but two nannies to take care of her and the baby. But fate seemed to be playing a cruel joke on me. The night before our wedding, Rachel said she wanted to have drinks with some friends for her bachelorette party. I agreed, of course, and promised to pick her up at midnight. But when I drove to the bar, I found her sobbing in a private room, bitterly regretting her life choices. She said she regretted more than once giving up her high school crush for a boring guy like me. “I was too young back then, too afraid to confess to the guy I liked because I didn’t want to ruin my reputation as a good student,” she cried. “But look what happened? This boring, studious boyfriend ended up wasting my most precious ten years!” “He tricked me into studying hard for three years, and then tricked me for another ten years, saying he’d give me a good life.” “Now I’m thirty, and no other man would want me. I have no choice but to marry him.” “You guys might envy me for finally getting my happy ending, but have you ever thought about how I’ve wasted my entire life with someone I don’t even love?!” I stood frozen at the doorway, my blood running cold. For the past ten years, even though I couldn’t give her a more luxurious life, I had given her all my salary and bonuses, and taken care of all the housework. Whether it was her freeloading parents or anything she wanted, I always tried my best to fulfill her wishes. She told me she wanted a unique wedding. I wanted to give her the grand wedding of her dreams once we were more financially stable, but in her eyes, I was just deliberately holding her back. Just as I was reeling from the shock, a girl passing by couldn’t resist the drama and posted a video online: “After seeing this, would you still choose to give up true love and marry a boring guy? Look at this poor man standing outside like a loyal dog while his drunk fiancée rants inside.” In an instant, we became a trending topic online. Everyone sympathized with Rachel and criticized me for ruining her youth. Some people even made memes out of my expression, calling me “the most pathetic simp of the new era.” Ten years of devotion, and I was left with nothing. My so-called friends who saw the post pretended to care while actually mocking me: “Are you still going through with the wedding? What if the bride runs away?” “Wow, you really outdid yourself, man. Trapping your high school crush for ten years? Are you some kind of yandere or what? Hahaha!” I became the target of everyone’s ridicule and mockery. But Rachel only panicked for a moment when she first found out about the video. Then she became righteously indignant. “It’s all your fault anyway. Even strangers online think you’ve held me back. Everything is your fault.” I leaned back on the sofa, looking at her tiredly. “We’re only legally married, we haven’t had the ceremony yet.” “In that case, let’s forget about the wedding and just get divorced.” Hearing this, Rachel suddenly started screaming. “I’ve wasted ten years on you! If we divorce now, I’ll lose half of everything! No way!” “If you want to dump me, you better pay up first!” I looked at the woman I had loved for ten years in disbelief, immediately getting up to find our marriage certificate. I can’t believe I misjudged her so badly! But just as I turned to look for the documents, Rachel, seeing that I was determined to divorce her, somehow crept up behind me. In a moment of madness, she pulled out a sharp knife from somewhere and stabbed it into my body. “How dare you even mention divorce when I’ve put up with you for so long?” “Only if you die can I have both money and freedom!” Her face was twisted with malice as she spoke the last words I heard before falling into darkness.
“What’s going on with you two? Did you have a fight?” Seeing me lost in thought, my buddy Mike nudged me with his elbow. He pointed at Rachel, who was now leaning close to Tyler, the new transfer student, and asked curiously. I finally snapped back to reality, my eyes cold as ice. Since high school, Rachel and I had been known as childhood sweethearts. In everyone’s minds, including my own until recently, we were destined to be together forever. So when they saw Rachel suddenly acting cold towards me and clinging to Tyler instead, everyone was shocked. I shook my head. “We didn’t fight. We just realized we’re not compatible and decided to split up.” Mike nodded. “That’s good, fighting would only hurt your relationship. See, I told you… Wait, what?! Split up?!” His voice wasn’t exactly quiet, and the entire classroom turned to look at us. I calmly nodded. “That’s right. From today on, Rachel and I are just regular classmates.” Everyone gasped and turned to look at Rachel. She was still staring at Tyler with undisguised adoration in her eyes. “Is it because of that guy?” Mike asked. “Not really. We just suddenly realized we’re not right for each other,” I said with a shrug, pretending not to care. Hearing this, Rachel suddenly turned to look at me with a strange expression. She looked at me as if I had done something to wrong her. I found it somewhat amusing. She was the one who stabbed me, yet she had the audacity to look at me like that? In the end, I didn’t say anything and just looked down at the form on my desk. It was a registration form for the state math competition. Normally, this year’s competition wouldn’t have much to do with me. I had already participated and won a gold medal in junior year, basically securing my college admission. But that year, Rachel had fallen ill and couldn’t compete with me. I knew she was lazy and stressed about the SATs, so I wanted to help ease her burden. At the same time, I subconsciously thought we should go to the same college. That’s why I agreed to lead the team for another competition in senior year. The main goal was to help Rachel win a medal too, so even if she couldn’t get a full scholarship, she could at least get some bonus points for college admissions. But that was all in our previous life. Now that things had come to this point between Rachel and me, the original plan was obsolete. However, since I had promised the teacher, I felt obligated to see it through. I looked at the registration form in front of me, thought for a moment, and then stood up. “Anyone interested in the math or biology competitions can come sign up with me. For the next year, I’ll be leading the team to prepare for the competitions as captain.”
In our small town, we didn’t have many educational resources, let alone specialized training for academic competitions. Even when I participated in the competition in junior year, I had to mostly self-study. I had to find all the practice problems on my own and figure out the solutions through countless sleepless nights. The school teachers only realized there was such a path to college admission after I had already won and secured my spot. Fortunately, our class was considered the top one in our school, and most of my classmates were ambitious and eager to get into good colleges. They were naturally interested in this opportunity, so they all rushed over to sign up. I asked Mike to help me record the list of names first, and then I would screen them later to decide who to include in the competition team. Mike agreed without hesitation. But soon, he looked at me with some hesitation. “Actually, I think Emily would be a great fit. You know how good she is at math. If she could get into college through this competition route, she’d probably end up at a much better school than she could through regular admissions.” I knew Emily Parker, the class president from the neighboring class. I had a strong impression of her – throughout freshman and sophomore years, I never saw her score below 98 on a math test, and her physics and chemistry grades were also top-notch. But oddly enough, her English and literature scores were terrible, barely passing. Someone like her would indeed be more suited for the competition route. I thought for a moment and nodded. “If she’s interested, go ahead and put her name down. But keep in mind that these competitions are quite different from regular math classes. We’ll need to test her first to see if she’s really up for it.” “But…” Mike still hesitated, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back. I looked at him, puzzled. “What’s wrong? She doesn’t want to participate? If that’s the case, forget it. It should be voluntary. There’s no point in forcing anyone, it’ll just make things harder to manage later.” “No, no, that’s not it,” Mike quickly said when he saw I was about to drop the subject. “It’s just that… Rachel doesn’t like you interacting with other girls, right? If you end up preparing for the competition with Emily, I’m worried it might cause problems for you.”
I sighed, feeling a bit exasperated. I had to emphasize once again: “I’ve already said this – Rachel and I are completely over. This isn’t just empty words; we really won’t have any contact anymore.” Mike still looked skeptical, but he didn’t say anything more. He just sat down and wrote Emily’s name on the paper. Just then, I suddenly felt uneasy, as if someone was watching me. I turned my head and caught Rachel hurriedly looking away. Seeing me look at her, she quickly put on an air of indifference. Mike finished recording the names quickly and handed me two sheets of paper. “Here are the lists of students interested in the math and biology competitions.” I nodded. “Great. Thanks! I’ll treat you to barbecue tonight.” Mike hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up. “Why don’t you ask Rachel? Weren’t you planning to have her join the math team all along?” Rachel turned her head at the right moment, deliberately lifting her chin and not looking at me as she said coldly: “If you want me to participate, that’s fine, but I demand that Tyler joins too. Otherwise, I won’t do it.” “No need. We have enough people already, and we still need to screen them. I’m going to submit the list to the teacher now,” I said, ignoring her words and just organizing the forms. Rachel froze, seemingly not expecting me to disregard her like that. She looked like a rooster suddenly choked, abruptly falling silent and staring at me in disbelief. But I didn’t meet her gaze again. I just walked out of the classroom, minding my own business.
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