Chapter 29

Lu Siwen coming to find Zhai Da during lunch break caught the attention of many people.

Of course, it wouldn't be everyone, but even if it was only one-tenth, in the small Maofang Middle School, it was enough for the phenomenon to spread from person to person.

Lu Siwen’s fame at Maofang Middle School was actually far higher than Zhai Da thought; it’s just that in his past life, someone’s eyes seemed to only have Lin Shuyao, so he selectively ignored Lu Siwen’s excellence and fame.

Perhaps he had even turned his nose up at Lu Siwen before, having thoughts like, "How can any girl be mentioned in the same breath as Lin Shuyao, or even be better? I won't listen, I won't listen."

But he might have already forgotten.

And in the eyes of those who knew, Lu Siwen was a campus goddess two tiers higher than Lin Shuyao.

Which two tiers? Academics crushed her, family wealth crushed her.

One was Cinderella, the other was a real princess.

It’s just that Cinderella might still cause unrequited love, while a real princess always carries a sense of unreal distance; it is said that Lu Siwen was picked up and dropped off every day and had learned musical instruments, which already exceeded the imagination of many small-town high school students.

Some people thought it was a pity that Lin Shuyao wasn't there during lunch break, otherwise that would have been lively.

This matter might eventually reach Lin Shuyao’s ears, but Zhai Da didn't care.

During the afternoon Chinese class, the head teacher, Ding Rong, walked in carrying a stack of test papers: "We have a quiz today, 150 minutes including the evening self-study. Those who need to use the restroom, go now."

High school quizzes come when they come; everyone wasn't that surprised, and many people got up to go to the restroom.

Zhai Da raised his head, feeling a bit eager to try.

It had been over ten days since his rebirth; although various test papers were piled up like a mountain at home, he was currently still in the state of "absorbing knowledge from books," rather than "verifying sorrow from test papers."

Plus, he hadn't done any homework, so this would be his first time seriously taking a test, and it was in Chinese, a subject he was good at.

He didn't know how many points he could get.

The "Big Three" of Chinese, Math, and English were the only three official subjects for the college entrance exam in the scattered province; the full score was only 480, meaning the value of each point was higher than the 750 full score.

If he could get over 120 points in Chinese or even higher, the help for the college entrance exam would be huge.

He had been reciting ancient poems and texts lately, so he had some confidence.

The papers were soon handed out. Zhai Da answered the questions very seriously; his impression of the texts he had recited was still quite deep. After all, in his past life, he had always dealt with words as a copywriter, and coming back to learn them now, he was much stronger than the Zhai Da of that time.

Occasionally, for parts he couldn't remember clearly, he could fill them in by relying on his sensitivity to language...

Fill-in-the-blanks, distinguishing polyphonic characters, diagnosing faulty sentences, idiom application, modern text reading, classical Chinese reading, subjective questions...

Time always flies during exams, and with high concentration, there was a feeling of being in another world.

When he looked up, it was already dark outside.

Wu Yue had already slept through two naps.

He checked his watch; there was still an essay to write, but only twenty-something minutes left.

Zhai Da twisted his neck; the advantage was with him.

It wouldn't be that someone was all-around in every subject but got a low score on the essay, right?

Today’s essay theme was "Flower." On the test paper was a series of descriptions of various flower languages, and finally, the candidates were required to write an 800-word essay with "Flower" as the theme.

Although the genre was not limited except for poetry and classical Chinese, 90% of students would choose "argumentative essays" and "narrative essays," which meant spending 800 words explaining their understanding of the theme.

Zhai Da took about three seconds, and then began to write.

"Flowers Everywhere in the Four Seas"

Let’s try writing a piece of prose.

"Not all flowers bloom in spring; not all rivers flow to the sea."

"Flowers bloom in all four seasons; rivers flow in all eight directions. As long as there is passion, mountains and seas are all seas of flowers."

"I hide the rose behind me; the wind rises and the flowers fall. From now on, I give flowers to myself and ride toward freedom."

He barely used his brain; his writing was smoother than going to the restroom. Grasping "Flower" as the theme and "self-love, self-confidence" as the main idea, a piece of prose was quickly finished.

Of course, the large amount of top-tier copywriting accumulated in his past life also contributed significantly.

This was also an attempt; the college entrance exam essay isn't necessarily about the more flowery the language, the higher the score. Let’s see how many points this style can get.

Following Ding Rong’s prompt, the two-hour Chinese quiz officially ended.

Zhai Da wrote the last sentence.

"Spring has an appointment, flowers will not be missed; year after year, we shall not fail each other."

Perfect!

A pair of delicate, fair hands reached over, and the paper was taken away before he could even appreciate it.

Turning his head, it was Lin Shuyao with a "strictly business" look.

Heh, childish.

What’s the difference between this way of trying to get someone’s attention and male classmates pulling girls’ hair to use as dental floss?

Lin Shuyao left without looking sideways.

"Your pants are stuck in your butt."

Lin Shuyao’s waist, which was twisting as she walked out, almost snapped; she stumbled and subconsciously covered her little perky butt.

Zhai Da said to Wu Yue, who had just woken up after sleeping for 150 minutes: "Pull them up quickly, it’s disgusting; the edge of your underwear is showing."

Wu Yue nodded blankly and pulled his pants... they really were stuck.

Lin Shuyao froze in place, her face turning red in a flash.

She couldn't leave, and she couldn't stay.

It wasn't until Ding Rong called out that she left with her head buried.

Zhai Da stretched, feeling happy and comfortable.

Since he was reborn, taking a little joy from the awkwardness of adolescence, that’s not too much, right?

The scores for this kind of quiz should be known tomorrow, and they would have to go over the papers in class. Zhai Da suddenly felt that Ding Rong was also quite hard-working; he didn't know how late she would have to grade.

The teaching profession, at least in 2008, had high pressure and low pay, and the third year of high school was 996 to the max.

For students, studying can be considered changing their own destiny, so being a bit bitter is nothing; for teachers, teaching is also this bitter, but it actually doesn't change their own destiny.

Without a bit of sentiment for educating people, it’s really hard to last long.

On the way home from school, Zhai Da and Wu Yue walked side by side:

"You seemed to be sleeping in a daze during the exam; did you hand in a blank paper?"

"Pretty much..."

"Do you have discs at home?"

Wu Yue shrank his neck: "How could I have such things... my family’s TV is in the restaurant, it’s not convenient to play those..."

"Aren't they stuck to the back of the subject tutoring books? Did you throw them all away?"

"The discs behind the tutoring books give away such things? So wild! Are they genuine?"

"There are both genuine and pirated ones. Go back and look for them. Anyway, you don't use them, so give them all to me later, for every subject."

"Subjects... so it was that kind of disc... scared me..."

Zhai Da had sorted things out over the past two days. Because he didn't know how to cherish them before, many subjects were incomplete, like having the first part but not the second, or the third but not the second. It would be too late to look for them when he saw the relevant content.

He wasn't picky about which company produced them or if they were famous teachers; mixing and matching was fine too.

Wu Yue realized belatedly: "You plan to start studying?"

"I’ve always been studying. What about you? Completely stopped? What have you been doing lately?"

In his past life, Wu Yue went straight to serving dishes at his family’s restaurant after graduating from high school, and after that, it was demolition and letting himself go. If the trajectory didn't change...

In these last few months, he was purely wasting time.

Zhai Da was thinking, what if he invited Wu Yue to watch the TV together... but he subjectively felt that "doing it for someone else’s own good" might be looking for trouble...

For someone whose house is being demolished, does it matter if their grades are good? It would be more effective to remind him not to go down the wrong path and not to get himself into the detention center.

Wu Yue suddenly whispered: "I’m investigating."

"What investigation?"

"There’s a street behind my house, and at night there are those little houses with red lights. I never dared to look much when passing by, but lately, I’ve been understanding their business model."

Zhai Da looked at this guy in surprise: "You went in to play? I’m warning you, small workshops use heavy ingredients; be careful not to get caught."

Going from one wrong path to another?

But this one seemed okay...

As everyone knows, there are actually only two of the three illegal acts that endanger society.

Wu Yue quickly shook his head: "I’m just observing their customer flow from afar."

As he spoke, he swung his schoolbag to his chest and took out a small notebook, which recorded many things; that was his "Entrepreneurship Notes."

He said seriously:

"Basically, from ten o'clock to one o'clock in the morning is when there are the most people; it’s much less in the second half of the night. Also, I suspect a small shop at the entrance of the street has a connection with them. One day a police car stopped at the intersection, and the owner immediately made a phone call, and the rolling door over there was pulled down."

"You’re investigating these..."

Wu Yue became more excited as he spoke: "I searched on the internet at the internet cafe; our scattered province has a reward of no less than 500 yuan for reporting this aspect, and for every administrative detention, an extra 1000 yuan is rewarded. If a fixed location is destroyed, an extra 2000 yuan is rewarded, capping at ten thousand!"

"Think about it, working only earns one or two thousand a month; ten thousand is half a year’s salary. I investigate carefully, verify cautiously, and collect evidence. I can figure it out in a month at most, and the efficiency will be even higher in the future. Isn't this better than working? Maybe I can even get a silk banner!"

Zhai Da felt like he was re-acquainting himself with Wu Yue: "Aren't you afraid of retaliation..."

And even higher efficiency in the future, is this changing from part-time to full-time?

How wicked is this?