I Don’t Need a Female Lead – Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Best Moment For Rebirth
“Ding-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling——”
The urgent bell rang, startling Wang Heng awake as he lay on the desk. He lifted his head and realized he was not in the hospital, but in the classroom.
The last scene in Wang Heng’s memory was himself collapsing in a pool of blood, with those girls who had mixed feelings of love and hate for him beside him… But now, he touched his neck—it was intact, the wounds completely gone.
What was going on?
While he was baffled, the invigilator walked up, collected the test paper from his desk, and headed to the next person without looking back.
And in the instant the test paper was taken away, Wang Heng caught sight of the title on it.
Gaokao test paper, English, seven years ago.
He scanned around and finally remembered where this classroom was—it was in the small city where he grew up, the exam room during his Gaokao!
The candidates around him stood up one after another, and as soon as they left the classroom, they couldn’t help discussing. There weren’t many high schools in this small city, so even with randomized arrangements for exam rooms, it was inevitable to run into familiar classmates. So finding someone to check answers with or exchange exam experiences was quite easy.
Wang Heng also stood up, hands supporting the desk, feeling an impulse to have tears welling up.
“I’m never playing with fire again!”
He said viciously.
————
When walking out of the exam room gate, Wang Heng couldn’t help sighing that his rebirth timing was really too clever.
At 25 years old, Wang Heng had forgotten half of the knowledge from university classes, let alone the stuff from high school. And even if given ample review time, he really didn’t want to dive back into the hellish sea of questions. Unlike now, crossing over right at the moment Gaokao ended—not only could he enjoy a full holiday, but he could also fill in volunteers with cheating foresight?
He strolled slowly back home, looking at the street view along the way, in a fairly relaxed mood. But upon returning home, his feelings became somewhat complex.
He had been raised by his father Wang Jian after his parents divorced when he was young. Wang Jian’s salary alone was limited, but fortunately, neither father nor son spent much, so they got by. Unlike other colleagues, this father had no hobbies like smoking or drinking; besides food, clothing, housing, and transport, his biggest expense was game point cards. Wang Heng remembered that before rebirth, his economic situation had improved a lot, but for his father, it was just a hardware upgrade for playing games—life hadn’t changed much…
That afternoon, when Wang Heng got home, he saw his father still sitting in the slightly cramped living room, battling for the alliance.
Hearing his son make a sound “back,” Wang Jian turned his head for a glance, then quickly turned back to stare at the screen, saying, “Back? How’d the exam go?”
“Not bad.”
“Not bad meaning what? First-tier university admission line?”
“A few dozen points above the first-tier university admission line, probably.”
Wang Jian glanced at his son again: “Yo, so confident? Then those universities you wanted before, the ones in the Imperial Capital, you could pick any?”
Hearing this, Wang Heng instinctively shivered and shook his head hurriedly: “No no no, not going to the Imperial Capital!”
“Why?”
Because he didn’t want to retrace the path of his previous life, he had to avoid those terrifying peach blossom tribulations—but Wang Heng certainly couldn’t say that, so he just made up an excuse: “Air quality isn’t great there, and prices are high, not comfortable staying.”
“But big cities are better for young people’s development.”
“Can you pause your game first before talking to me about development?”
“Can’t, my teammates are counting on my healing…”
“Dad, you sure have plenty of healing output.” Wang Heng complained, shook his head, and couldn’t help laughing.
This kind of daily routine where his father played games while he watched from the side seemed very distant in Wang Heng’s memory. Tasting it again now felt wonderfully nostalgic.
Wang Jian suddenly said, “You’re free tonight, right? Dinner’s on you. Money’s on the cabinet—get takeout or buy veggies and cook, whatever.”
Wang Heng: “…”
Being in charge of Dad’s dinner was not something he missed much.
————
Following his original life trajectory, Wang Heng would spend four years of university in the Imperial Capital, entangled with multiple girls. He found it hard to extricate himself from that vortex, sinking deeper and deeper…
But at the beginning, Wang Heng clearly had no wish to start a harem. It was just that his looks and temperament were quite popular, plus he had watched too many romance anime at that time and learned to act like a warm guy; additionally, it was a normal school with mostly girls, and most crucially—he didn’t know how to refuse, leading to such a tragedy.
Learning his lesson, Wang Heng decided to solve the problem at the source.
After closing the volunteer filling webpage, Wang Heng received a call from his same-class bro. This classmate was named Xiao Renjian; they were in the same class in junior high, counting as friends; by coincidence, they were assigned to the same class in high school, and with similar interests, they became bros who talked about everything.
“Xiao Heng, you done over there?”
“Done.”
“What’s your first choice school?”
“Rongdu, Telecommunications Science and Technology University.”
Xiao Renjian said in surprise: “Didn’t you always say you were going to the Imperial Capital? That’s like ten thousand miles off!”
“Changed my mind. Air quality isn’t great there, prices high, not comfortable staying.”
Wang Heng reused the excuse he’d given his father, but his bro wasn’t buying it.
“You can’t pick a tech university then! A place with gender ratio N to 1 is hell for straight men—didn’t you say that yourself?”
“I…”
“Don’t tell me you’re not a straight man anymore!”
“Straight for sure,” Wang Heng sighed, “but I really don’t want to date during university.”
Xiao Renjian laughed twice and said, “Your tone sounds like some playboy… Almost forgot, I called for something serious. The class group is talking about doing a teacher appreciation banquet. You don’t have WeChat on your mobile phone so you can’t see, they asked me to check if you’re coming.”
“Of course.”
“Oh yeah, that Han Yixuan is coming too. Heard she might have some thoughts about you. What about you, any thoughts?”
“What thoughts?”
Xiao Renjian egged him on: “No dating in university, so grab the timing for one before then?”
Wang Heng: “…No dating.”
The name Han Yixuan was of course deeply etched in Wang Heng’s memory. He remembered that right after the teacher appreciation banquet ended, this cute female classmate confessed to him, and he agreed. That was Wang Heng’s first romance; after starting university, they became a long-distance relationship and broke up after two years.
But after university graduation, Han Yixuan, who knew nothing about his situation back then, came to the Imperial Capital and charged into the asura field. After that, things unfolded in a way that horrified Wang Heng…
So Wang Heng’s attitude now was quite firm: “I have zero interest in dating right now, that’s it.”
————
PS: All events, institutions, characters, etc. appearing in this book have no relation to reality, purely for the needs of the novel plot. Any similarities are pure coincidence; the author disclaims responsibility.