Chapter 252: After School
Xuan Chong returned to school life, gradually accepting that he was reborn—perhaps transmigration was just a yellow millet dream in class.
Teacher Ren’s history classes continued for several more sessions. After class, Xuan Chong asked questions under the pretext of inquiring, wanting to confirm why he was reborn into junior high. What was the related situation?
Holding his notebook, Xuan Chong went to the office and asked Teacher Ren, who was grading homework: “Teacher, Modern History Chapter Three, this…”
When Xuan Chong raised a sharp question, Teacher Ren slowly picked up a cup of tea, looked at Xuan Chong: “Grasp the exam points. This is exam-oriented education. Just memorize the content in the book. Don’t overthink and waste energy.”
Xuan Chong: “Oh. Then—(still wanting to press why)”
Teacher Ren: “Go on, go on. I still have homework to grade.”
The teacher shooed Xuan Chong away like chasing a fly.
Xuan Chong watched the teacher’s pen dip into the red ink bottle, then draw large checkmarks and crosses on the notebook. As the red ink outlined them, Xuan Chong was startled by the teacher’s overly fierce movements.
Rebirth returned him to junior high era, back to the adolescence suppressed by teachers. Xuan Chong involuntarily exited the office.
Unbeknownst to him, after Xuan Chong left, Teacher Ren in the office lifted his head and glanced in the direction Xuan Chong departed. (This was looking at Xuan Chong’s spatiotemporal location)
The office environment switched to the void starry sea; the desk turned into the deck of an engineering warship.
But in an instant, as another student entered, the environment reverted to the office. However, in front of the office was a row of spherical screens.
At the position next to Teacher Ren, the geography teacher was calling over a student to reprimand.
This student was called over because his global resources processing and transportation blocks drawn in the animation mapping tool were wrong.
This geography homework not only required answering information on twenty-first century global mountains, rivers, plains, etc. It also included oceans, underground mining areas, and “manufacturing industry categories” for human settlements near each mining area; as well as projects that could be planned in the future based on geographical conditions.
The miserable student, after being reprimanded, hugged his notebook and went back to redo it.
…Three months passed like this…
In Xuan Chong’s perspective, it was getting up at six in the morning every day, busy until ten at night; since mobile phones weren’t widespread yet, he would flop onto the bed and sleep at eleven.
Even so, compared to the short video era before rebirth, “sleeping at eleven” was already quite early.
Covered entirely by a soft quilt, lying on the bed, Xuan Chong stared at the ceiling in the darkness, a loneliness of idleness surging in his heart—no television, no short videos.
Outside the window were sparse open spaces. Within the next decade, it would be the real estate frenzy era, with buildings erected there. But now these places were still empty. Two or three hundred meters away, the horns of dump trucks blared unrestrainedly on the road at night, coming in waves into the bedroom.
“I really want to go to otherworld!” Xuan Chong’s rationality told him to go to class tomorrow and not think randomly. Before closing his eyes, he fantasized: everything exists in dreams.
Nothing exists in dreams.
As the alarm clock beeped, he slowly started up, putting on clothes, while his parents next door brushed their teeth in the bathroom.
After putting on clothes, Xuan Chong also brushed his teeth in a daze, then put on more clothes.
As the school iron gate opened, he entered the school for another mundane day.
As the repetitive life day after day continued, passion was worn away; during classes, he began to slack off uncontrollably, and his “curiosity” toward homework also faded.
Of course, it was just a momentary daze. Xuan Chong would realize he was a reborn person, starting with the concept that “rebirth must be worth something,” and invest into studying.
Unlike most people, Xuan Chong didn’t have obvious goals to change his destiny, such as buying a house, or speculating on stocks, or even contacting future famous celebrities and industries early.
Xuan Chong had no obsession with his previous life. His family was happy, his father’s unit had housing allocation, and later his family normally bought a house following the trend. The school he got into matched his major, and he found a job immediately after graduation.
Xuan Chong: The money he earned as an adult was enough to spend; he had no obsession with “changing” his life trajectory; because whether becoming CEO or a figure at the forefront, it all required worry. In his previous life, he didn’t want to worry about those.
Thus, in this rebirth, as memories of the previous life kept surfacing, he wasn’t interested in newly emerging celebrities, new albums, or upcoming commercial waves in this junior high era.
Reliving this life, Xuan Chong bypassed passionate games, sports, cultural waves; bypassed emerging industries like real estate in commerce; no interest whatsoever in investing energy to change.
The only thing he wanted to change was—striving for what he wavered on in his previous life.
Xuan Chong: Why did I awaken to studying so late in my previous life? In this life, I awaken early, no longer confused by various new things in adolescence. I can abandon wasting energy on domains with very short “usefulness in life”; like discussions on “basketball,” “character stats in handheld games.” Use this time of peak energy on the most useful domain in life—what level can I reach?
Day after day brushing questions, doing problems.—After all, in his previous life, the most serious and effortful time was too short. Though he passed the exams later. Decades later, looking back suddenly, wanting to do the questions again! Try where exactly he differed from those top students and elites! Back in adolescence, he accepted many “concepts after myths,” but later felt they weren’t really myths.
After rebirth, Xuan Chong found the only project worth “investing energy to do again” was studying hard.
…School life like water washing away all fantasies, leaving only pure aspirations….
As the class dismissal bell rang again and again, classmates running around nearby, Xuan Chong’s mind occasionally flashed with “Wu Xiao Que’s habit as one in power.” Xuan Chong denied it, thinking it was just his dream fantasy. Can’t take it seriously.
In these months, when Xuan Chong slept half-asleep, his logical thinking could make nonsense seem reasonable. For example, believing “bananas could be welded to fighter jets as nuts” or “an iron block with a wave symbol pasted on it dissolves in water.”
Rebirth is quite real! Far more real than dreams. Xuan Chong took it very seriously and dared not treat “dreams” as reality.
At home, Xuan Chong often heard his mom on the phone nagging colleagues: “Some kids, while studying, go neurotic, saying they’re from heaven, not suited to this era.”
Xuan Chong believed he was absolutely not the type to go mentally ill. His spirit was quite stable; he wouldn’t “go crazy, suddenly not knowing who he was one day.”
Study hard every day, progress upward.
After school, Xuan Chong went home, checked his pocket with less than three yuan in pocket money, confirming his reality as an ordinary person.—Even if he grew up in the future, he couldn’t make the whole street bow to him.
As for the feeling of dominating from that novel “Brave Soldier.” Hmm, probably the novel poisoning his thoughts!
“Novels are novels, life is life.” Highly adaptive awareness was quickly adjusting itself to the environment.
In second year junior high, while copying the text about Fan Jin passing the exam at his desk, seeing the butcher slap Fan Jin awake, Xuan Chong couldn’t help covering his face, savoring: “That slap must hurt a lot.”
…Campus life is “tense”; “beautiful” campus is just acted in television dramas…
After one semester, as Xuan Chong gradually put his heart into studying, listening attentively in class, his achievement began to steadily improve.
Xuan Chong began looking up at the class situation. Oh, his achievement was previously mid-to-lower, now risen to mid-level. And students at this level in the class were often “lone wolves.”
Good students gathered together, exchanging “achievement”; at least what he heard was: how many places to get in the next “exam.” The answer I calculated for this question is this—what’s yours?
Bad students also gathered, discussing in some “electronic game” which equipment effects were explosive, which mounts had high attributes.
Of course, there were sports students discussing recent junior high entrance exam sports standard training indicators. Sweating profusely, hands on hips, nagging: “This movement of mine is faster!” “I’ve tried this movement, feels easy to get injured.”
Adolescents are full of fantasies; upon hearing unfamiliar terms, they always associate with others. For example, one afternoon, Xuan Chong heard a student in the back row talking to his deskmate with a handheld: “This class, let’s play a round.” Xuan Chong could clearly add diverse meanings like “this plane” in his mind…
Joining in the fun was Xuan Chong’s unique nature in adolescence; this habit gradually disappeared after adulthood.
Now after rebirth, Xuan Chong regained it. When others lively discussed, he couldn’t help stepping forward to take a look.
Every time after school or class dismissal, across a few desks, some students chatted animatedly. Their topics on animated characters and basketball-like sports movements were very unfamiliar, but Xuan Chong wanted to blend in.
Xuan Chong found it the same as his previous life: every student clique had exclusivity.
Every time he stood by trying to interject, he encountered gazes of “surprise” and “outsider stay away,” making Xuan Chong feel socially dead.
After several times, Xuan Chong had to use adult experience: don’t waste time on useless socializing…
…Sour grapes when can’t eat them…
Thus, Xuan Chong continued as a lone ranger. But this unsociable appearance caught another person’s attention.
One day while Xuan Chong was erasing the blackboard, the class representative was sorting chalk stubs; the two crossed at the podium. Class representative: “Mm, Xuan Chong, remember to erase the top.”
Xuan Chong looked at this class representative, momentarily face-blind.
The class representative smiled and said: “You don’t recognize me? I’m Xie Ming.”
Xuan Chong remembered: this was the one first in math, physics, chemistry.
Then the class bell rang, and the class representative reminded: “This class is Teacher Gao’s.”
In recent days, Xuan Chong had already inquired and learned Teacher Gao’s name was “Gao Jinjian,” nickname “high-precision.”
…This class was exceptionally quiet…
The teacher on the podium drew a “wave” with chalk, explaining how to solve it.
In his spare time, Xuan Chong glanced around: as usual, poor students in the back silently played handheld games, pressing buttons as if ignoring the outside world.
On left and right sides, some students read novels under their desks. Of course, when the head teacher stood at the window, they were called out. These unlucky kids snapped out of their worlds, then stood penalty outside called by the head teacher.
Teacher Gao teaching on the podium didn’t interrupt the lesson. Xuan Chong looked up again at the class representative, who stared focused at the blackboard, like a statue.
Xuan Chong vaguely felt an illusion: at this moment, whether “good students” or “bad students,” they were all in different worlds from him.
“Dong dong dong,” Teacher Gao unknowingly walked to Xuan Chong’s desk, emphasizing the “wave function mnemonic” while tapping Xuan Chong’s desk with his finger, signaling him to pay attention.
Xuan Chong looked up at the blackboard. As he watched, the merely linear functions on the blackboard gradually turned into flowing waves in his mind; the originally computation-friendly 30 degrees, 60 degrees, 45 degrees began detailing into deflections at 23 degrees, 32 degrees, 56 degrees.
A ship in such waves, changing with the waves. And as a ship sways with the waves, how does the pressure on the floor inside change? Gravity multiplied by trigonometric function gives the pressure change on the floor—this is also a wave function.
One minute later, Xuan Chong shook his head to dispel these sudden thoughts, then lowered his head to do exercises. But suddenly the question featured a 23-degree angle example, with the hint: sin 23° ≈ 0.39.
Xuan Chong’s left hand fingers calculated, right hand pen tip quickly filled a string of derivation formulas.
…The dismissal bell rang…
Xuan Chong mounted his bicycle, just then bumping into the class representative.
Class representative Xie Ming looked at Xuan Chong: “You take this road?”
Xuan Chong: “Yes, you bike too.” Xuan Chong glanced: his bicycle was advanced, a mountain bike, and seemed effortless to pedal.
Class representative: “Mm, road repairs near my home, detouring now.”—Saying this, Xuan Chong felt the class representative chuckle happily.
Thus, the two left the school gate one after the other, Xuan Chong riding ahead, class representative following. But compared to Xuan Chong’s composure, Xie Ming looked around. (In Xuan Chong’s era, there weren’t many cars on the road.)
After a long while, Xuan Chong said: “My home is ahead; I’ll turn off this road soon.”
The class representative pedaled leisurely, looking at Xuan Chong: “Mm, your home area is really nice.” His words carried envy.
Xuan Chong: Nice?—Looking at the ordinary surroundings, Xuan Chong didn’t feel anything special. Then he said: “Isn’t xx city all like this.”
Suddenly, Xuan Chong felt the class representative staring at him. His gaze seemed to want to narrate something unusual.
Xie Ming: “Right now we’re just in the same school—” This was what Xuan Chong could hear.
Xuan Chong felt he said something after, but a passing large truck’s horn drowned out the next sentence.
Then he biked away, Xuan Chong turned into the fork. Suddenly, Xuan Chong turned back to look at the class representative, but found him already gone from the main road behind.
Xuan Chong: “Huh? In just this moment, where’d he go? But perfect.”
Xuan Chong darted into a small alley at the fork, bought a scallion oil pancake from the boss, and ordered a bowl of duck blood vermicelli. Pulled out crumpled five yuan from his pocket.
He’d saved a week in his pocket, just this pocket money, really not enough to treat. To eat, had to wait for Xie Ming to leave.
The boss here had good skills; after glancing at Xuan Chong, he added extra scallion and coriander.
…On another forked road…
Xie Ming rode an electric bike into an alley, bought a bowl of mutton soup, and from the neighboring pancake shop, got two freshly baked plum vegetable pork filling pancakes.
In his eyes, Xuan Chong who just rode a shared bike parked at the subway entrance and entered the underground tunnel.
At this time, he naturally took out a mobile phone from his pocket, scanned to pay. Total twelve yuan. Head down eating.
And this mobile phone, Xuan Chong never paid attention to it; if he noticed, he’d definitely be astonished—it was a product utterly different from his school era.
Xie Ming ate his food bite by bite, while the shopkeeper nearby handled a longer queue.
After finishing the meal, he exited the restaurant, mounted his electric motorcycle, and rode through streets full of electric bikes.
Deliberately avoided elders, then some resentful middle-aged women; Xie Ming carefully obeyed red and green lights.—Because afraid of being scammed.
…At school…
On the teaching building, the director was with the principal looking out the window at the distant ever-changing city.
Principal: “This batch of new students, all adapted to the ten-minute breaks?”
Director: “All adapted, basically immersed.” He looked at the projection screen between two distant buildings; the screen showed date and timely weather forecast and other information.
This projection principle relied on steel cable structures between two buildings, with water pipes on the cables spraying distilled water to create mist. Then through billions of laser emitters between the buildings, creating a hundred-meter-level display screen—a twenty-second century city broadcast system. After weather forecast, now playing Journey to the West (twenty-second century version).
Principal: “Yeah, good if adapted.” Sensing the director chasing drama, he raised his hand to switch spacetime; then distant skyscrapers vanished, replaced by the city clock tower.
The principal continued: “In ‘courses,’ they are all above others, all historical heroes; but the ‘moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, labor’ cultivation goal isn’t this kind of ‘shine.’ As ‘successors,’ must always remember: as individuals, one will also be ‘oppressed,’ encounter ‘helplessness,’ be powerless in ‘injustice.’
Only like this, they won’t abandon struggle, turning into aloof loners!
