Chapter 12

During the lunch break, Zhai Da uses his meal card in the long-lost school cafeteria to get a two-meat-one-vegetable meal for eight yuan and fifty cents.

As everyone knows, the school cafeteria is actually not cheaper than outside, nor is it necessarily cleaner.

It is just harder to eat than outside.

Zhai Da looks at the ash from the bottom of the pot in the rice and thinks to himself, no wonder he could endure such hardship in his past life... so he had been eating plenty of it back in high school?

With a thud, a mountain-like figure sits in the empty seat next to Zhai Da, and he vaguely feels the bench almost turn into a seesaw...

"Meat Mountain" Fan Junwei's tray is as exaggerated as he is; the rice connects several compartments and is piled high, making the one-meat-one-vegetable dish look like a drop in the ocean by comparison.

Fan Junwei sits down first, then adds: "Can I sit here?"

Zhai Da: "You can sit, but when I get up in a moment, be careful not to flip the bench."

Fan Junwei nods: "It's fine, I have experience."

The lunch, which he didn't have much appetite for to begin with, is now even less interesting. Fan Junwei does indeed have a strange smell on him, just as in his memory...

It is not just simple body odor... but sweat mixed with a... dusty smell, and even a bit of a garbage smell...

It is hard to describe. Although sometimes the hygiene level of boys is only better than animals, that is when they don't mind themselves.

A strange smell coming from someone else is a different matter, the same principle as the enoki mushrooms.

Zhai Da eats a few bites and simply gets up to leave. Fan Junwei shifts to that side, and the bench maintains a delicate balance.

Returning to the classroom, the students are basically catching up on sleep or grinding through problems. The classroom maintains relative quiet by tacit agreement, and even when they talk, they keep their voices down.

At the back of the classroom, numbers are posted on the blackboard: 71 days left until the college entrance exam. It is like the "Om Mani Padme Hum" on the Five Elements Mountain, suppressing a group of monkeys and keeping these high school students in basic order.

Passing by, he notices Wu Yue reading. In Zhai Da's impression, this guy had long ago given up on studying, planning to work for his family after graduation—his dad runs a small restaurant—until his family's home was demolished, and he completely let himself go.

The young man has a future; read more books, look at fewer legs, and life will be smooth sailing.

"What book are you reading?"

Wu Yue doesn't even lift his head, extremely focused, just letting Zhai Da see the cover.

"Yilin"

Zhai Da raises an eyebrow: "Looking for humorous jokes?"

Although in Zhai Da's eyes, the whole thing is a joke, there is indeed a dedicated "humor section."

It is also the least funny part.

Wu Yue looks at Zhai Da with disdain: "Am I such a shallow person? I'm reading seriously. You say this foreign technology is amazing, right? Flies have evolved to be able to collect nectar."

Zhai Da's lips move, and he pats Wu Yue on the shoulder: "I suggest you could also look at a cookbook."

"A cookbook? To help my dad stir-fry?"

"No, you will own a restaurant of your own in the future."

Wu Yue feels this is the greatest recognition for him: "You think that highly of me?"

He even feels a bit dazed. Compliments between high school students are usually unnutritious things like "you're pretty good." This came out of nowhere.

It even makes Wu Yue feel embarrassed.

Zhai Da gives a thumbs up: "Yes, I believe it firmly."

He finds everything fresh now, so he doesn't catch up on sleep during the lunch break, but instead flips through the textbooks and the test papers in the desk compartment.

To be honest, listening so attentively to the two classes in the morning was mainly to see where the foundation of an adult who has been out of school for more than ten years stands.

The result is... bottomless...

Almost touching the center of the earth!

On a test paper, the part he can understand is no more than 20%...

Which part? The text part.

If it weren't for his cheat, he would have panicked already.

However, before carrying out the "special project of changing his destiny," he still needs a more systematic and comprehensive understanding of every aspect of his studies, after all, it is too far from his past life.

He would only occasionally chat with a blind date, saying things like "although I didn't go to an undergraduate college..." and other such nonsense.

Splashed in the face with knowledge, Zhai Da rubs his tired eyes, preparing to change his train of thought. The moment he looks up, a thin, broken line flashes across the edge of his vision.

Holy crap! Special item!

He immediately looks up, but only sees a back in a school uniform flashing past outside the classroom door frame. The broken line representing the system's recognition seems to have only appeared for a fraction of a second before disappearing again because his line of sight was blocked.

Zhai Da immediately gets up, startling Yang Fan, who is sleeping on the desk, but he is naturally weak-willed and doesn't say a word.

Zhai Da doesn't have time to apologize and rushes out to chase, as he must not let any clues about special items slip by.

But after jogging all the way to the door, he is blocked right in his tracks by the head teacher, Ding Rong...

"Where are you going? Class is about to start."

As soon as the words fall, the bell rings, and the corridor instantly becomes chaotic, with countless idle students running back, like ducks being herded.

Zhai Da turns his head to look, but the trail is completely lost, so he sighs and returns to his seat.

Wearing a school uniform... a student? Looking at the direction they were going, it should be Class 9 or beyond.

Maofang Middle School has twelve classes in the senior year; the first ten are ordinary classes, and eleven and twelve are key classes, one for liberal arts and one for science.

The "special item" on the student... what could it be?

The afternoon consists of two more major classes. Zhai Da, who has not yet fully adapted to campus life, feels very tired. He hasn't worked for three years since winning the lottery in his past life, living as he pleased and waking up naturally every day.

Being suddenly pulled into this kind of mandatory schedule, plus the fact that he doesn't understand most of the content, feels quite agonizing.

After all, in the last three years of his past life, the only thing he did diligently was going on blind dates.

The only subject that is still somewhat comfortable is the Chinese class, which has a bit of a foundation from his past life as a copywriter.

As long as he brushes up on the ancient poems and the logic for answering questions, it shouldn't be too bad, and he might even get a high score on the essay.

Finally, he makes it to the theoretical end of the school day, but immediately after comes the evening self-study. Senior students have to come back after eating in the cafeteria, and then stay from 6:30 until 8:30.

However, as the "school's celebrity," Zhai Da has an additional task.

That is to receive psychological counseling.

Yes, students who faint in the exam room are high-risk groups for "flying kites," and the school doesn't dare to handle it coldly, fearing that if they keep it cold, the student might just go cold.

So they forcibly arranged a psychological counseling task for him, but it is not something as high-end as a so-called psychologist, but rather conducted by a "Civics and Politics" teacher.

Under the strange gazes of his classmates, Zhai Da walks out of the classroom and comes to a small office at the corner of the top floor, the sixth floor, of the teaching building.

He knocks on the door, and a gentle voice sounds from inside: "Please come in."

This office is very small, with only one desk, behind which sits a man in his forties wearing square-framed glasses. However, the person himself is not greasy, even though he is wearing an old cadre jacket.

This is probably because his eyes are very intellectual; even a dog passing by could smell that this is a typical intellectual.

Shen Rui—Zhai Da remembers him, even more vividly than his classmates.

The other party is one of Maofang's "campus legends" and is also somewhat famous in Dongyang County.

Because he is the first person from this dump of a place, Dongyang, to be admitted to a top-tier university, graduating from "R University," and is said to be a Ph.D.

However, judging from the fact that he is a "Civics teacher" at Maofang Middle School and has to spend time dealing with such trivial matters as heart-to-heart talks with Zhai Da, it is not hard to judge that this person did not have a script of rapid advancement after starting work.

Zhai Da actually encountered some similar people in his past life—graduated from top-tier universities, high academic qualifications, but achieved nothing by middle age, shuttling between various occasions, never going three sentences without mentioning their alma mater.

You can never guess what they do for a living, as if they don't have a proper job, and there are usually a few bosses around them who haven't read much, flattering them whether sincerely or falsely.

However, the one in front of him is a bit different.

The temperament is different.

If a middle-aged man looks like he is full of learning but isn't bald.

Then he is highly likely to be truly awesome.

When he was a freshman, the other party taught a few substitute classes for them. His eloquence left a deep impression on Zhai Da and became a synonym for "intellectual" in his mind for a long time.

Shen Rui looks up and smiles: "Student Zhai, please sit."