Watching Li Jianfeng's retreating figure, Qiu Mengze finally felt the weight lift from his chest.
He was terrified of his old man. At home, he always pretended to be a good kid, even sneaking off to internet cafes in secret. If the school had actually called his parents, he would have been done for.
"Brother Rui, thanks. I'll be sure to buy you a few packs of cigarettes later to make it up to you." Qiu Mengze rubbed his eyes and turned his head away, not wanting anyone to see him in such a sorry state.
He was convinced that Li Jianfeng had left entirely on account of those few packs of Zhonghua cigarettes.
"You idiot. It had nothing to do with the cigarettes." Xue Rui rapped Qiu Mengze on the head in exasperation.
"Then what was it?" Qiu Mengze scratched his head.
Xue Rui didn't answer. A kid this age wouldn't understand the hidden meaning in the words he and Li Jianfeng had just exchanged. Qiu Mengze would figure that kind of thing out on his own one day, so Xue Rui couldn't be bothered to explain.
"Ooh, look who's crying after getting yelled at a little."
"Stop pretending, we all saw you."
Many of the surrounding students started teasing Qiu Mengze for their own amusement.
"Get lost, all of you!" Qiu Mengze scrambled into the dorm and bolted the door from the inside.
One student said with a look of admiration, "Xue Rui is still the best. He calmed that director down with just a few sentences."
"Of course. Don't you know who Xue Rui is? I was his classmate in middle school. What happened today was nothing."
"There's more? Tell us!"
Many of them began to discuss Xue Rui's "dark past" behind his back.
...
Xue Rui gave himself a quick wash, then lay down on his bunk, staring blankly at the ceiling.
It had only been a day, but the amount of information he had to process was overwhelming.
'I'm only sixteen right now. What am I supposed to do? What *can* I do?'
It was 2012, the golden age of the mobile internet's explosive growth. Douyin, Pinxixi… these giants hadn't been born yet.
But Xue Rui was only sixteen. There was nothing he could do. By the time he was able to do anything, the market would probably already be carved up.
'Forget it. Starting a business is exhausting. If it weren't for my startup, would I have worked myself to death?' Xue Rui temporarily dismissed the idea.
Besides, he only had a few dozen yuan in his pocket. Where was he supposed to get the seed money for a business?
Ask his family for money?
Unrealistic. His mom said playing on a phone would ruin his eyes, so she wouldn't even buy him one…
Buy a lottery ticket?
He couldn't remember the numbers. After all, who would have thought they'd be reborn? And even if he did remember, there was no guarantee those would be the winning numbers…
Play the stock market? Trade crypto? The cycles were too long.
'Whatever, no need to rush.' Xue Rui pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew the general direction of the future and had the advantage of information asymmetry. There would be no shortage of opportunities.
Being reborn at this specific point in time was perhaps an arrangement of fate. That meant dealing with Lin Ruoxi's situation was naturally the highest priority.
While he was brainstorming, an unknown amount of time passed. The discussions in the dorm room died down, and his roommates drifted off to sleep.
Snoring, teeth grinding, and sleep-talking rose and fell one after another. It was quite the scene.
Suddenly, Xue Rui's head felt a bit dizzy. Upon closer inspection, it seemed his entire body was shaking.
'An earthquake?' Xue Rui shot up. He thought for a moment; in his memory, there were no earthquakes this year.
Feeling the rhythmic shaking of the bed frame, Xue Rui ground his teeth. "Qiu Mengze, you better keep it the hell down!"
He slept on the bunk above Qiu Mengze. The shaking was clearly caused by whatever his roommate was doing down there.
The moment Xue Rui cursed, the bed frame suddenly stopped shaking.
"Damn it, I still have two more years of this before I graduate!" Xue Rui looked like he'd lost the will to live. Returning to his high school days wasn't as wonderful as he'd imagined. Living in a dorm, for instance, was pure torture for him.
Xue Rui didn't have a watch. He had no idea how late he'd stayed up until his eyelids could no longer hold, and he finally sank into a deep sleep.
...
「The next morning」
The sky was just beginning to lighten. It couldn't have been later than six o'clock.
"RING RING RING!"
After a series of chimes, the "March of the Athletes" began to play over the broadcast speakers. The students, yawning endlessly, reluctantly climbed out of bed.
Hearing this song, all the students knew it was time for morning exercises.
As for Xue Rui, he simply covered his head with his pillow, showing no intention of getting up.
"Xue Rui! Xue Rui! Get up, it's time for morning exercises," Qiu Mengze said, shaking Xue Rui's back.
Xue Rui cursed, "Don't bother me. I'm not going."
"They're taking attendance. The homeroom teacher will chew us out otherwise."
"Then just say 'here' for me," Xue Rui said impatiently. He felt like he had just closed his eyes before someone woke him up.
Qiu Mengze's hand froze in mid-air, a strange look on his face. "But… you're the Sports Rep. You're the one who's supposed to lead the group and take attendance."
"What the hell!" Xue Rui roared. He couldn't believe that, on top of everything, he was also responsible for this kind of bullshit.
Like a zombie, he climbed out of bed, mechanically washed up, went downstairs, and headed to the sports field…
"Right dress!" Xue Rui ordered the students of Class Two, who were lined up in a neat formation.
In truth, he had long forgotten what a Sports Rep was supposed to do. He was just mimicking the Sports Reps of the other classes.
With the blow of the gym teacher's whistle, dozens of classes began to "run in circles" around the track.
It was two and a half laps, a full kilometer.
The morning exercises Xue Rui remembered from his memories were different: students with light in their eyes, staring straight ahead with firm and clear gazes, revealing an infinite longing and pursuit of the future. Their faces overflowed with youthful smiles; confidence and boldness were the very essence of youth.
But what about reality? Now that he had truly returned to the scene from his memories, the "youth filter" had vanished…
Xue Rui discovered that the students around him were more or less the same as him. Their condition wasn't terrible, just listless and wilted.
However, Xue Rui had to admit that the students' steps were still quite synchronized, just like trained soldiers.
Xue Rui ran alone on the outside—the position reserved exclusively for the Sports Rep.
"Xue Rui, lead the slogan," a girl reminded him.
"None of your business. Who the hell are you?" Xue Rui didn't want to chant. He felt this kind of formalistic running was completely useless. The fact he even showed up was him being generous.
"I'm the class president!" the girl retorted, glaring at Xue Rui with a dissatisfied expression.
"Oh, alright. Your rank is higher than mine."
"One, two, one. One, two, one…"
"O~ne, two~, three~, four~."
Xue Rui's cadence was weak and listless. The students of Year Two, Class Two followed his example, chanting so lifelessly it sounded like they were on their last goddamn breath.
"Not that one!" the female class president frowned.
Xue Rui paused for a moment, then heard the slogan from Class One up ahead: "Hoist the sails, cleave the waves! Year Two, Class One, we'll make our days!"
And Class Three behind them had yet another slogan.
He realized that every class had its own unique slogan.
"Son of a bitch!" Xue Rui had only returned to this body yesterday. How was he supposed to remember a slogan from so long ago?
Who would have known that there was a troublemaker in Class Two's ranks who followed Xue Rui's lead and yelled, "Son of a bitch!"
"Don't copy me!" Xue Rui cursed.
Someone had started it, and now the boys of Class Two had mischief in their hearts. They repeated Xue Rui's "Don't copy me!" again, their voices thunderously loud and a far cry from their previous state.
"Holy crap, Xue Rui is a badass…"
The surrounding classes were so stunned by Class Two's "slogan" they were completely disoriented.
At that moment, the head director for the second year, standing in the distance, was saying with a smile to the person beside him, "Look at our second-year students, so full of spirit. Their voices are the loudest on the entire field."
"Director Wang, you are a veteran teacher. We still have much to learn from you," a male teacher next to him said, casually laying on the flattery.
...
"Fuck!" Xue Rui cursed again.
"Fuck!" the students of Class Two shouted back.
This time, Director Wang heard it clearly. The smile on his face instantly froze.
He had just been bragging to the people around him, only to discover that Class Two wasn't chanting a slogan at all. He roared with fury, "Where is your homeroom teacher! What is this nonsense you're shouting?"
Hearing the director's reprimand, the students of Class Two finally quieted down and ran obediently.
As for Xue Rui, he simply stopped chanting altogether. He slowed his pace to fall in with the last row, his peripheral vision fixed on Lin Ruoxi's figure.
They had already run one lap. Strands of Lin Ruoxi's hair were stuck to her face, making it impossible to see her expression. Her body was as frail as a duckweed in the wind, looking as if a single gust could blow her away…
Suddenly, Lin Ruoxi's legs gave out. She bumped into the student in front of her and then fell straight backward.