Chapter 3: Modern Times

He's come back to life!

These past few days, he hadn't had his fill on the manor.

Zheng Fa felt very ashamed; after eating all sorts of delicacies in this world, eating pigweed leaves was even harder to swallow...

After all, it is hard to go from luxury to frugality.

As for cured meats and other tastier things, he always yielded them to his younger sister and mother.

After all, if he ate well and drank well in this world, then went to snatch that tiny bit of meat, his conscience wouldn't let him pass this hurdle.

Five years ago, when his father passed away, he cried all night before falling into a drowsy sleep; closing his eyes, he discovered he had arrived in this wonderful realm.

Since then, every seven days he would come to this world in a dream, and after another seven days, he would return to the original world; it was very much like the "transmigration" spoken of in this world, except that he, a person from another world, transmigrated to this world, and moreover, it was the so-called "body transmigration."

From then on, he would gorge himself for seven days in this world, then return to the Xuanwei Realm—that is what people of that world called the world—and in the Xuanwei Realm he would almost starve for seven days.

Now he was somewhat accustomed to it.

Zheng Fa touched his slightly protruding belly and walked out of the house.

He lived in a two-bedroom, one-living-room unit in a teachers' apartment building at Qingshui High School; the building had six floors in total and was built in the last century.

Thirty years of time made the building seem somewhat out of step with the times; not only was there no elevator, but the corridors were narrow and dim, the iron handrails were covered in rust, and moss even grew in the corners of the stairwells.

In the eyes of others, this house was old and dilapidated, and they might think living here was inferior to those new residential compounds, but Zheng Fa was very satisfied; from childhood to adulthood, the houses he lived in were built of mud bricks mixed with straw; when he first came to this world, the white walls and translucent glass in the room made him think he had arrived in a fairyland.

Not to mention electric lights, televisions, cars, and mobile phones—things ordinary people of this world took for granted.

After learning a little about this world, he once truly believed this was the fairyland spoken of by the storytellers during market days—there were iron birds flying back and forth in the sky, covering a thousand li in a single day.

A tiny screen could let you know what had happened a thousand li away.

After learning a bit more, he knew that the people of this world were actually all mortals, and their bodies were even weaker than those of people in his original world.

Zheng Fa's family had been tenant farmers of the Zhao family for several generations; they had nothing extraordinary, but the Zhao family was no ordinary household; they were a prestigious clan, and every blood-related child in the clan practiced martial arts; those with exceptional talent could even enter the legendary immortal sects.

But the people of this world, let alone cultivating immortality, the act of practicing martial arts seemed to exist only in television or in ghostly and bizarre videos.

Zheng Fa did not look down on the people of this world; with the bodies of mortals, they had achieved feats spoken of by storytellers that were like immortal miracles; he felt this was even more worthy of admiration.

His current identity was a Gao San student at Qingshui High School; the apartment building he lived in was right behind the teaching building, and it took only five minutes to walk to the classroom.

As soon as he reached the classroom door, he heard a male student sitting in the first row near the door shout at him: "Zheng Fa, Old Chen is calling you!"

"Got it!" Zheng Fa replied, placing the schoolbag on his back onto his seat, and he also heard that male student ask: "Zheng Fa, what did you do?"

Zheng Fa was also thinking about this, feeling nervous in his heart.

Old Chen was their homeroom teacher and also their Chinese teacher.

Being summoned to the office by the homeroom teacher first thing in the morning was absolutely a terrifying event in student life, even if that student was a transmigrator.

Walking to the teachers' office and pushing open the slightly mottled yellow wooden door, Old Chen's bald head shone unusually brightly under the morning light beside the nearest desk.

"Teacher Chen."

"Zheng Fa, come, sit!"

Zheng Fa felt slightly relieved; seeing Old Chen's attitude, it didn't seem like anything bad; he sat in front of Old Chen, legs pressed together, hands resting on his knees.

Highlighting his obedience.

"What are you nervous about?" Old Chen laughed at his posture: "I just wanted to ask you; you're in Gao San now; what university are you planning to apply to?"

"I..." He hadn't expected Old Chen to be looking for him to ask about this; for a moment, he didn't know what to say.

"Actually, regarding this matter, teachers generally don't interfere; it depends on your personal willingness; ordinary students just discuss it with their families. But your situation is, after all, special..."

Old Chen didn't finish his sentence, but Zheng Fa understood his meaning—when Zheng Fa transmigrated, he was only twelve or thirteen years old, but his identity in this world was already that of an orphan.

The original body's parents were originally teachers at Qingshui High School; they died in a car accident, which was even more tragic than in the Xuanwei Realm, but the social security in this world was much better.

On one hand, as the original workplace of his parents, Qingshui High School had always provided him with some help; although it was only waiving tuition fees, at least he didn't have to worry about studying.

On the other hand, the community and other organizations had always provided corresponding subsidies; combined with the house and inheritance left by his parents, life was not wealthy, but he didn't have to worry about eating.

If compared again with the life of the Zheng family in the other world, this world could almost be called a nest of blessings.

Including Old Chen, all the teachers in the class knew Zheng Fa's background; whether out of pity or out of collegial friendship, they generally tried not to mention words like parents or family in front of Zheng Fa.

Because he had never lived with the parents of this world, he felt gratitude in his heart towards them, but not much affection; yet Zheng Fa understood this small warmth.

Seeing him not speak, Old Chen could only continue: "What are your own thoughts? Tell me, and I'll give you some reference."

Zheng Fa was naturally grateful in his heart.

Although Old Chen looked a bit rough, he had always been responsible; it wasn't even seven o'clock yet, and he was already sitting in the office; moreover, Zheng Fa knew he was almost always there every morning.

"I want to study physics." Zheng Fa had also thought about university matters.

Perhaps studying was not considered a joy for the youth of this world.

But Zheng Fa cherished it extremely.

When he was young, he had attended one year of elementary schooling; at that time, he didn't love studying very much, and even preferred doing farm work to going.

But later, when his father met with an accident, he no longer had the conditions to attend the school, and he instead began to miss the school.

Only the son of Wang Guanshi, Wang Gui, in the manor completed elementary schooling; later, he was even selected as the book boy for the Seventh Young Master.

The other children in the manor did not have these conditions.

Therefore, the other children in the manor were very envious that Wang Gui could attend school.

Zheng Fa was even more so.

Now that he had the opportunity to study, and even attend university, the highest institution of learning in this world, he naturally yearned for it.

Studying physics... hmm, his physics grades were the best.

Also, it was because he had an innermost curiosity about the so-called science.

He had read the history of this world; several hundred years ago, the situation in this world was not much different from that of the other world.

In fact, because there was no immortal path or martial path, it appeared even more lifeless.

The world underwent earth-shaking changes over several hundred years; in his view, the greatest reason was this discipline named science.

He was filled with longing, reverence, and even fascination for him.

"Physics? Pursuing an academic path?" Old Chen pondered; this child's family conditions were poor, so academia might well be the right path.

"Do you have an ideal university in mind?"

"Jiang Nan University."

"Jiang Da?" Old Chen glanced at Zheng Fa. "Jiang Da is not easy to get into; with your current grades... it's difficult!"

He seemed to hold little hope for Zheng Fa.

Yet after finishing his talk with Zheng Fa, watching the student's retreating figure, he revealed a look of satisfaction.

A female teacher sitting opposite Old Chen asked curiously, "Is this the child of Teacher Zheng's family?"

"Yes." Old Chen nodded.

A hint of sympathy, mixed with some surprise, appeared on the female teacher's face. "Didn't they say this child's grades weren't very good? He only got into our high school back then because he was a teacher's orphan, receiving some leniency with his scores."

"When this child first entered the school, his grades were truly terrible." Old Chen smiled with some pride. "Back then, no other homeroom teacher wanted him; he ended up in my class."

"Then getting into Jiang Nan University is indeed difficult!" The female teacher nodded.

Jiang Nan University ranked among the top ten nationwide, and its Physics Department was one of its flagship specialties.

"No, you don't understand this child. From Gao San down to his first year, his grades have been climbing steadily. In his first year, he was at the very bottom of the class; by his second year, he could rank in the middle; now in Gao San, he occasionally breaks into the top ten."

The female teacher looked somewhat surprised. "Such strong late-stage momentum? Then there really is hope for Jiang Nan University?"

Old Chen shook his head. "No, it's a bit too late. With his current grades, he's still at least twenty points short of Jiang Nan University... what a pity."

Zheng Fa had no idea about Old Chen's praise and regret regarding him.

In this world, he had no relatives or friends, and he knew the information he could obtain was far too limited.

All he could do was keep his head down and work hard.

As usual, he ate his lunch in the school cafeteria; sitting opposite him was his deskmate and close friend—Wang Chen.

Looking at the food before him, Wang Chen's face was full of despair. "Did the cafeteria chef's family sell eggplants? Why do we have this eggplant with beans every single day?"

He glanced at the other few dishes.

The water spinach lay collapsed at the bottom of the plate, looking utterly ravaged.

A single bristle on the braised pork stood stiffly upright, flaunting itself defiantly at him.

"These people in the kitchen must all be the principal's relatives, right? They've been making these same few dishes from the first year through Gao San, and they can still make them taste this bad! They really haven't forgotten their original intention!" He looked across at Zheng Fa. "Wait for me after this; let's go to the supermarket to buy some bread!"

Opposite him, Zheng Fa had just poured the braised pork sauce over his rice, stirred it a couple of times with his chopsticks, and shoveled the last mouthful of rice into his mouth.

The expression on his face was one of enjoyment, satisfied to the point of near reverence.

Only after swallowing the rice did he lift his head, looking at Wang Chen with slight bewilderment as if he had just heard him speak. "Why aren't you eating?"

Looking at Zheng Fa's food tray, cleaner than if it had been washed with water, and then at his own nearly untouched meal, Wang Chen opened his mouth but could say nothing, beginning to doubt himself.

Is it really that delicious?

He picked up his chopsticks, closed his eyes, and forcibly shoveled down several mouthfuls...

Ugh!