After Rebirth, My Wife Becomes My Deskmate

The fire started at the edge of her white wedding dress.

Huo Zhiye stood at the end of the hall, the ring in his hand burning like a piece of iron. He was supposed to walk forward, but his feet felt rooted to the ground, leaving him helpless as he watched Lin Ji turn back.

Lin Ji wore the gown that should have been theirs, his face paler than the lights, his lips moving as if trying to call his name. The next second, a screech of brakes tore everything apart.

Blood spread from under the wheels, dark red turning black.

Huo Zhiye lunged forward to grab him, but his fingertips only met cold air.

"Lin Ji!"

==================

Huo Zhiye was jolted awake by his own shout.

He jerked his head up from the desk, forehead smacking straight into the open workbook, hissing as pain shot through him. The classroom was loud and chaotic, the ceiling fan creaking as it spun, hot air from the back window carrying chalk dust straight into his nose.

"Ye ge, did you sleep yourself stupid?"

Someone poked his arm with a pen.

Huo Zhiye didn't answer. He looked down at his own hands first.

Knuckles clean. No wounds. No blood. No red marks from the ring at that wedding.

He lifted his head to look at the blackboard.

Right in the center, Teacher Liu had just finished writing a line, the chalk text still fresh.

【287 days until the College Entrance Exam】

Huo Zhiye's breath stopped.

"Hey." Cheng Ye slammed a bottle of iced cola onto his desk. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Bad dream?"

Huo Zhiye didn't take it. His gaze traveled across rows of desks, as if pulled by something, landing directly on the seat by the window in the third row.

Someone was sitting there.

Lin Ji.

Cool and quiet, head slightly lowered, back straight, as if even the summer heat had no right to touch him. His left hand pressed down on scratch paper, his right hand held a pen, the tip tapping lightly on the page as he wrote—not fast, but steady, unnervingly so.

Alive.

Not the body at that wedding, soaked cold by rain and blood.

Huo Zhiye's eyes stung. His chest felt like someone was slowly scraping it with a dull knife, the pain so sharp he shot to his feet.

The chair legs screeched against the floor. The whole classroom turned to look.

Cheng Ye jumped. "What are you doing? Gotta pee?"

Huo Zhiye didn't answer.

He rounded two rows of desks, practically charging forward. Everyone was startled by his intensity. Even Teacher Liu looked up from the podium, frowning. "Huo Zhiye, what are you up to now?"

But he couldn't hear.

There was only one thought left in his head.

Lin Ji was alive.

He was really alive.

Huo Zhiye rushed to Lin Ji's desk and grabbed his wrist.

The wrist bone was thin, the skin a little cool, but the palm was warm.

As if afraid the warmth would fade the next second, Huo Zhiye tightened his grip, his voice hoarse: "You—you're alive?"

The room went silent.

Even the fan seemed to stall.

Lin Ji looked up.

His eyes were dark, so dark and still, like a deep pool weighed down by snow. But right now, that pool clearly reflected Huo Zhiye's crazed face.

He frowned slightly, then twisted his wrist, trying to shake him off.

"Huo Zhiye." Lin Ji's voice was cold. "Let go."

Huo Zhiye didn't let go.

He stared at that face, at that familiar indifference carved into his bones, and suddenly his nose stung, his eyes burning hot. In his past life, he had seen Lin Ji in so many ways—cold, enduring, shaking with pain but refusing to speak—but never like this, clean as a blank sheet of paper.

He hadn't been shattered by that car yet.

He hadn't been forced by Xie Dayong to drag himself to work in the middle of the night, injured.

He hadn't, on the day of the wedding...

Huo Zhiye squeezed his eyes shut.

No.

Can't think about that.

If he thought about it, he'd want to tear himself apart.

"Huo Zhiye!" Teacher Liu slapped the podium. "Get back to your seat!"

Huo Zhiye blinked slowly, like someone just pulled out of water.

Lin Ji took the chance to pull his hand back. There was already a clear red mark around his wrist.

He glanced down, his expression even colder. "Have you lost your mind?"

Huo Zhiye opened his mouth.

He wanted to say, I looked for you my whole life.

Wanted to say, Don't die again.

Wanted to say, I'm sorry, I couldn't hold onto you in time.

But the words got stuck in his throat, twisted, and came out as: "You're still this fierce, huh."

Lin Ji: "?"

Cheng Ye: "?"

The whole class: "?"

Huo Zhiye froze too.

This mouth of his had caused enough trouble in his past life. Reborn, his brain was already done crying, but his mouth was still running on stubborn, like a reckless idiot.

Lin Ji clearly considered him an even bigger lunatic. He pushed his scratch paper aside, his tone flat. "Something?"

"Yeah." Huo Zhiye jumped at the opening, afraid that if he hesitated even a second, he'd be dragged back to reality. "Even if there's nothing, I'd still come."

Lin Ji raised an eyebrow.

Huo Zhiye suddenly realized what he'd said. His ears burned, but he still stood there, stubbornly straight. "I mean, I—I have something to talk to you about."

"Are we that close?" Lin Ji asked.

Huo Zhiye choked.

Close. Closer than close.

In our past life, you even knew how many times I kicked off the blankets at night.

But he couldn't say that.

Huo Zhiye struggled for a long moment before squeezing out, "We don't have to be close to talk."

Lin Ji's gaze had already shifted to that of someone looking at a patient who just escaped from a psych ward.

Behind him, Cheng Ye couldn't help it anymore and burst out laughing, nearly burying his face in his desk after Teacher Liu's glare pinned him down.

Huo Zhiye stood there, suddenly realizing his palms were drenched in sweat.

In his past life, he'd never been afraid of anything. The family board meetings, the gossip outside, the look Song Shicheng gave him—he could always smile them away. But now, just being looked at coldly by Lin Ji made his chest tighten, like a stone lodged there, making it hard to breathe.

He was scared.

Scared Lin Ji didn't know him.

Scared Lin Ji hated him.

Scared Lin Ji had already been hurt too deeply by his past self's mess, and wouldn't give him a single glance in this life.

"Huo Zhiye." Lin Ji finally spoke again, his tone even colder than before. "What exactly do you want?"

"I want..." Huo Zhiye's throat bobbed.

The whole class was watching.

He looked at Lin Ji's impossibly clean face, suddenly wanting to laugh and cry at the same time. Finally, he forced the emotion down, pulled the corner of his mouth into a smirk, and put on a careless look. "I want to change my luck."

Lin Ji: "..."

Cheng Ye: "..."

Teacher Liu: "..."

Huo Zhiye kept rambling. "Aren't you top of the grade? Let me sit next to you, soak up some of that academic aura."

Lin Ji stared at him for two seconds, as if confirming whether this guy actually had a brain.

"If you want to change your luck," he said, "take a left out the door and run two laps on the track."

Huo Zhiye nodded seriously. "Can't do that. If I run, I won't have the energy to chase you."

The moment those words landed, the classroom exploded.

"Holy sh*t." Cheng Ye sat up straight. "Ye ge, did you take the wrong meds today?"

"Looks like he's possessed," someone in the back whispered.

Lin Ji's expression finally cracked. His brows furrowed slightly, clearly annoyed by that "chase you." He twirled his pen and said coldly, "Huo Zhiye, don't joke with me."

"I'm not joking." Huo Zhiye said immediately.

Too fast—like he was rushing to spit out all the words he owed from a lifetime.

"I really have something to talk to you about."

Lin Ji: "Talk."

Huo Zhiye opened his mouth, and froze again.

Talk about what?

That I owe you a wedding from my past life?

That I was a complete bastard in my last life?

That the first thing I wanted to do after being reborn was kneel in front of you and confess?

If he actually said that, Lin Ji would probably send him straight to the nurse's office.

Huo Zhiye's mind raced, finally landing on the option least likely to scare someone to death, and most in character for himself: "Don't we... have an Engagement?"

The moment those words left his mouth, Lin Ji's expression changed.

Not shy. Not moved.

Wary.

He tapped the desk lightly, his voice low but sharp as a taut thread: "Who told you that?"

Huo Zhiye's heart sank.

So Lin Ji had known about this all along, even back in his past life.

He froze for a few seconds before realizing he'd stepped on a landmine. He quickly added, "I found out myself."

"You found out yourself?" Lin Ji chuckled, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Huo Zhiye, do you take me for an idiot?"

"No." Huo Zhiye denied it immediately. "I really didn't mean it that way."

"Then what did you mean?"

"I meant..." Huo Zhiye clenched his jaw, forcing himself to push forward. "I'm not against this Engagement."

Lin Ji went quiet, his gaze sweeping across Huo Zhiye's face as if judging which words were true and which were false.

"So?"

"So don't go looking for anyone else," Huo Zhiye said.

The words came out too fast, barely passing through his brain.

Lin Ji's fingers paused.

The classroom fell into a strange silence, even the cicadas outside seeming to hit pause.

Huo Zhiye realized he'd gone too far. In his past life, this was his problem—his mouth moved faster than his brain whenever he wanted to push his luck, and by the time he realized what he'd done, the situation was already in flames.

But this time, he didn't want to back down.

He looked at Lin Ji, lowering his voice as if afraid to startle him. "What I mean is, I'll handle it."

Lin Ji's expression didn't change. "Handle what?"

"Handle..." Huo Zhiye's throat tightened as he forced himself to tear down the last veil. "Handle things between you and me."

Lin Ji finally put down his pen.

He looked up at Huo Zhiye, his eyes carrying not just coldness, but a faint trace of scrutiny—like a small knife, silent, but unsettling.

"Huo Zhiye," he said. "You're really strange today."

Huo Zhiye's heart jumped.

"Strange how?"

"Strange in every way." Lin Ji's tone was calm. "In the past, nine and a half out of every ten sentences you said to me were just picking a fight. Today you suddenly bring up the Engagement, and tell me not to look for anyone else."

"Are you..." He paused, as if the next guess was too absurd, his tone turning uncertain. "Possessed?"

Huo Zhiye: "..."

Behind him, Cheng Ye burst out laughing, nearly sliding off his chair.

Huo Zhiye was completely stunned by that "possessed," and it took him a long moment to squeeze out a response: "If I were really possessed, the first thing I'd do is throw away that half-pack of spicy strips on your desk."

Lin Ji froze.

Huo Zhiye didn't notice he'd slipped up. His mouth kept running. "It's been sitting there all morning. You haven't touched it. You definitely don't eat those."

Lin Ji's expression shifted instantly.

He looked down at the corner of his desk.

There really was a small, unopened pack of spicy strips there—Ruan Tian had secretly slipped it to him this morning. He had never told anyone he didn't eat that stuff, let alone that he hadn't even drunk much water today. How could Huo Zhiye hit the mark so precisely?

"How do you know I don't eat spicy strips?"

A chill ran down Huo Zhiye's spine.

Damn it.

This fast mouth of his was really going to be the death of him.

A thousand excuses flashed through his mind, but in the end, he chose none of them. Because the way Lin Ji was looking at him had completely changed—not like he was looking at a lunatic, not like he was looking at an idiot, but like he had finally discovered a crack that shouldn't exist.

"Huo Zhiye." Lin Ji's voice dropped even lower. "How much do you actually know about me?"

Huo Zhiye's throat went dry, his palms cold.

He knew too much.

He knew about the old scar on Lin Ji's left shoulder. Knew that when Lin Ji had a fever, he gritted his teeth and bore it. Knew that on the surface, Lin Ji didn't talk much, but cared more about others' feelings than anyone. Knew that Lin Ji never admitted it, but his heart softened faster than anyone else's.

He even knew that the last time Lin Ji looked at him in his past life, there was no hatred in his eyes—only disappointment.

But he couldn't say any of that.

If he did, Lin Ji would only pull further away.

Huo Zhiye was silent for too long. The faint, barely perceptible ripple in Lin Ji's eyes slowly settled again. He seemed to file something away in his mind, didn't press further, and simply tucked the spicy strips into his desk drawer, saying flatly, "If you have nothing else, go back to your seat."

Huo Zhiye stood there, not moving.

He suddenly felt a strong urge to hold onto this person, to say everything he'd wanted to say countless times in his past life—but there were too many people in the classroom, and Lin Ji was still standing behind a line too far away.

He couldn't rush.He took a deep breath, forcing his voice to stay steady. "Yes."

Lin Ji looked up at him.

"From now on," Huo Zhiye said, "don't go eat dinner alone."

Lin Ji looked as if he hadn't understood. "What?"

"I said I'll eat with you from now on." Huo Zhiye's mouth worked fast, but his heart was pounding wildly. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

Lin Ji was silent for two seconds.

"Huo Zhiye," he said. "Have you forgotten that you and I aren't even close yet today?"

Huo Zhiye: "..."

He wanted to say, I haven't forgotten. I just want to be close to you too badly.

But he couldn't say that either.

All he could do was steel himself and nod. "Fine. I'll start over."

He stepped back half a pace, as if seriously redoing homework, and spoke with deliberate formality. "Classmate Lin, from now on at dinner time, could you give me the chance to walk with you since we're headed the same way?"

This time, Lin Ji didn't shoot him down immediately.

He looked at Huo Zhiye like he was suddenly acting both ridiculous and suspicious.

Cheng Ye, standing behind them, felt his teeth ache from eavesdropping. He couldn't help muttering under his breath, "Damn, Ye-ge, you're really something."

Huo Zhiye didn't look back. His eyes stayed fixed on Lin Ji's face.

After a long moment, Lin Ji let out an extremely soft "Mm."

"We'll see," he said.

Huo Zhiye's heart leaped.

Those two words might have been a casual brush-off to anyone else, but to him, they felt more like a lifeline than any answer he'd gotten in his past life.

He stood there, pressing down the corners of his lips again and again, but he still couldn't suppress that silly smile.

Lin Ji saw it. His brow twitched. "What are you smiling about?"

"I'm not smiling." Huo Zhiye immediately wiped the expression off his face, putting on a serious look. "This is just my natural face."

Lin Ji: "..."

Teacher Liu finally lost it, slapping the chalk box on the podium with a loud bang. "Huo Zhiye! Back to your seat! If you're not in class right now, you can stand outside and listen all day!"

"Coming, coming." Huo Zhiye turned to reply, and as he spun around, he couldn't help stealing another glance at Lin Ji.

That glance was as light as if he were afraid of disturbing something, yet as heavy as if it held all the words he'd never said in his past life.

He returned to his seat, and Cheng Ye immediately scooted his chair closer, lowering his voice. "Did you just lose your mind?"

Huo Zhiye flipped open his textbook and said casually, "No."

"Then what the hell is wrong with you?"

Huo Zhiye's pen paused.

He looked up at Lin Ji's back.

That back was straight, quiet, cold as snow. But Huo Zhiye knew that beneath the snow, it wasn't empty. Hidden there was a tenderness and pain that a person wouldn't easily show to others.

He finally smiled a little and answered Cheng Ye in a low voice. "I'm chasing someone."

Cheng Ye: "???"

"Chasing who?"

Huo Zhiye looked away, his tone light, as if stating something utterly natural. "Lin Ji."

Cheng Ye looked like he'd been struck by lightning. "Don't you have an Engagement, dammit?"

"So I'm chasing him with full justification."

Cheng Ye: "..."

That logic sounded like total bullshit.

But Huo Zhiye had already lowered his head and was seriously writing a line on the blank page of his textbook.

[Step one: Don't scare him off.]

After writing that, he added another line.

[Step two: Win my wife back.]

Outside the window, the cicadas were buzzing irritably. Inside the classroom, chalk dust floated and settled in the sunlight. Lin Ji sat in front, quietly doing his problems, his back motionless, as if nothing had happened.

But Huo Zhiye's eyes burned as he watched.

He knew that from this moment on, many things were different.

He had come back.

Lin Ji was still alive.

And this time, it was his turn to do the searching.

As soon as the bell rang between classes, Ruan Tian burst into the classroom carrying a stack of exercise books, rushing over to stand by Lin Ji's desk. "Ji-ge, what's up with that Young Master Huo? Did he suddenly change his opinion of you into some other kind of opinion?"

Lin Ji glanced at the person in the front row who was pretending to do problems but was actually eavesdropping with perked ears, and said flatly, "I don't know."

"Don't you believe me? I just saw the way he was looking at you—like he wanted to take you home."

"You're overthinking it," Lin Ji said.

That said, he subconsciously looked at the unopened bag of spicy sticks in his desk drawer.

Then he thought of Huo Zhiye's words: "Don't go find anyone else."

And that look in his eyes, as if it came from a long, long time ago.

Lin Ji squeezed his pen but said nothing.

Up front, Huo Zhiye caught everything, lightly tapping his finger on the page.

He knew he'd already revealed too much today.

But it didn't matter.

He still had plenty of time.

In this life, he had all the time in the world.

When the school bell rang, Huo Zhiye was the first to stand up.

He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked casually over to Lin Ji's desk, lowering his voice. "Walk together?"

Lin Ji was packing up his papers. He looked up at him, his gaze clear and indifferent. "We'll see."

Huo Zhiye smiled.

"Then I'll ask again tomorrow."

Lin Ji didn't reply. He just stuffed the last paper into his bag, and as he stood up, his shoulder brushed lightly against the sleeve of Huo Zhiye's school uniform.

It was very light.

So light it was as if nothing had happened.

But Huo Zhiye stood there, suddenly frozen.

He looked down at the spot that had been brushed, as if some warmth still lingered there.

Cheng Ye walked past with his backpack, saw his dumbstruck face, and couldn't help shaking his head. "Ye-ge, you're done for."

Huo Zhiye didn't argue.

He just lifted his eyes to watch Lin Ji's receding figure, and a smile slowly crept onto his lips.

"Yeah," he said softly. "I know."

====================

After school, Huo Zhiye followed Lin Ji out of the school gate.

As soon as he rounded the teaching building, he saw Lin Ji stop beside a black car that was all too familiar.

The window rolled down, revealing a face he knew all too well from his past life.

Song Shicheng.

Seeing Lin Ji, the man smiled warmly and properly, like a considerate elder. "Xiao Ji, get in. I came to pick you up today."

Huo Zhiye paused mid-step, the smile vanishing from his face instantly.

He recognized that face.

Among those who had forced him to flee his Engagement in his past life, this man was one.

And now, Song Shicheng seemed to have just noticed him not far away. He slowly turned his head, his gaze landing on Huo Zhiye and pausing for two seconds.

That look was faint, but it cut like a silent knife.

"Young Master Huo?" Song Shicheng smiled. "What are you doing here too?"