Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 252 After School
Xuan Chong returned to school life and gradually began to accept that he had been reborn—perhaps time travel was just a pipe dream in the classroom.

Mr. Ren taught several more history classes. After class, Xuan Chong took the opportunity to ask questions, trying to find out why he had been reborn into junior high school and what the relevant circumstances were.
After arriving at the office with his homework, Xuan Chong looked at Teacher Ren, who was grading assignments, and asked, "Teacher, Chapter 3 of Modern History, this..."

When Xuan Chong raised a pointed question, Teacher Ren slowly picked up a cup of tea and looked at Xuan Chong: "You need to focus on the key points. This is exam-oriented education now. Just memorize the contents of the textbook. Don't waste your energy thinking about random things."

Xuan Chong: "Oh. Well—(still wanting to ask why)"

Teacher Ren: "Hurry up, hurry up, I still need to grade homework."

The teacher chased Xuan Chong away like shooing away flies.

Xuan Chong watched as the teacher dipped his pen in the red ink bottle and drew large √ and × marks on his workbook. As the red ink scribbled, Xuan Chong was terrified by the teacher's overly forceful movements.

Having been reborn back to his junior high school days, and back to his teenage years when he was suppressed by his teachers, Xuan Chong couldn't help but leave the office.

Unbeknownst to them, after Xuan Chong left, Teacher Ren in the office looked up and glanced in the direction Xuan Chong had gone. (This is from the perspective of Xuan Chong's current timeline.)
The office environment transformed into a void of space and a vast starry sky; the desk became the deck of an engineering warship.

However, in an instant, as another student entered, the environment changed back to an office. But in front of the office was a row of spherical screens.

Next to Teacher Ren, the geography teacher was calling over a student to reprimand him.

The student who was called over was called over because he made a mistake in the Global Sources processing and transportation block he drew on the animation drawing tool.

This geography assignment goes beyond simply answering questions about global mountain ranges, rivers, and plains in the 21st century. It also includes information on oceans, underground mining areas, the "manufacturing industry categories" of human settlements near each mining area, and potential future projects based on geographical conditions.

The poor student, after being scolded, went back to redo his homework.

...Three months passed just like that...

From Xuan Chong's perspective, he gets up at six o'clock every morning and works until ten o'clock at night; since smartphones are not yet widespread, he goes to bed at eleven o'clock at night.

Even so, compared to the short video era before its rebirth, "going to bed at 11 pm" is already quite early.

Covered in a soft blanket, Xuan Chong lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling in the darkness. A sense of loneliness washed over him as he idled away. There was no television, no short videos.

Outside the window are scattered vacant lots. The next ten years will be a period of real estate frenzy, and buildings will be built there. But for now, these places are still empty. Two or three hundred meters away, the sound of dump trucks honking their horns recklessly on the road at night can be heard intermittently into the bedroom.

"I really want to go to another world!" Xuan Chong rationally told himself that he had class tomorrow and shouldn't think about it. Before closing his eyes, he fantasized: anything is possible in dreams.

There was nothing in my dream.

As the alarm clock ticked, I slowly started getting dressed, while my parents next door were brushing their teeth in the bathroom.

After Xuan Chong got dressed, he brushed his teeth in a daze and put on his clothes.

As the school gates opened, I entered the school and began an ordinary day.

As the repetitive daily routine continued, passion was worn away; when listening to lectures, I began to be careless and lost my "curiosity" when it came to homework.

Of course, it was only a momentary daze before Xuan Chong realized that he was a reborn person, and began to devote himself to learning with the concept that "rebirth should be worthwhile".

Unlike most people, Xuan Chong did not have such obvious goals to change his fate, such as buying a house, speculating in stocks, or even getting in touch with future celebrities and industries as early as possible.

Xuan Chong had no lingering attachment to his previous life. He had a happy family; his father's workplace provided housing, and his family eventually bought a house as usual. He attended a university that matched his major, and found a job immediately after graduation.

Xuan Chong: I have enough money to live on after I became an adult, and I don't have any obsession with "changing anything" about my life trajectory; because whether I want to be a CEO or a figure in the limelight, those are things that require worry. In my previous life, I didn't want to worry about these things.

Therefore, as memories of his previous life resurface during this rebirth, he is no longer interested in the new stars, new records, or emerging commercial trends of his junior high school days.

In this second life, Xuan Chong bypassed the waves of passionate games, sports, and culture; he bypassed emerging industries such as real estate; he had no interest whatsoever in investing his energy in making changes.

The only thing I want to change is—to fight for what I wavered about in my past life.

Xuan Chong: Why did I become enlightened so late in my past life? In this life, I became enlightened early, no longer experiencing the confusion of encountering various new things in my youth. I can give up wasting energy on those areas whose "usability in life" is very short; such as discussions about "basketball" or "character data in handheld games." I've used this most energetic time on the most useful areas of life, so what level can I achieve?

Day after day, I practiced and solved problems. —After all, my most diligent and hardworking period in my previous life was too short. Although I eventually passed the exam. Decades later, looking back, I want to do those problems again! To see where I fall short of those academic elites! Once upon a time in my youth, I absorbed many "mythical concepts," but later I realized they weren't really myths.

After his rebirth, Xuan Chong realized that the only project worth "investing his energy to do again" was studying hard.

…The daily routine of going to and from school is like a wash, cleansing away all fantasies, leaving only innocent aspirations. …

As the school bell rang again and again, and the students ran around, Xuan Chong occasionally had the image of "Wu Xiaoque's superior habits" flash through his mind. Xuan Chong dismissed it, thinking it was just something he had imagined and shouldn't take seriously.

In the past few months, when Xuan Chong was half asleep, his thought process allowed him to take random and nonsensical ideas as reasonable. For example, he thought that "bananas can be used as nuts to weld onto fighter jets" or "if a wavy symbol is pasted on an iron block, it will dissolve in water."

The rebirth was incredibly real! Much more real than in a dream. Xuan Chong took it very seriously and dared not treat the "dream" as reality.

At home, Xuan Chong often heard his mother talking on the phone with her colleagues: "Some kids go crazy while studying, saying they are from heaven and don't belong in this era."

Xuan Chong firmly believes he is not at all prone to mental illness. His mental state is remarkably stable; he certainly wouldn't "go mad and suddenly lose his self-awareness."

Study hard and make progress every day.

Xuan Chong walked home from school and, glancing at the less than three yuan of pocket money in his pocket, realized the reality that he was just an ordinary person. —Even when he grew up, he couldn't possibly make this entire street bow down to him.

As for the feeling of being a powerful figure that the book "The Fierce Soldier" gave me... well, maybe it was the novel's influence on my thinking!

The highly adaptable consciousness of "novels are novels, and life is life" is rapidly adjusting itself according to the environment.

Xuan Chong, a second-year junior high student, was copying the text about Fan Jin passing the imperial examination at his desk when he saw the butcher slap Fan Jin awake. He couldn't help but cover his face and think, "That slap must have hurt a lot."

…Campus life is “intense,” and the “wonderful” campus is just something you see in TV dramas…

After a semester, as Xuan Chong gradually focused on his studies and listened attentively in class, his grades began to steadily improve.

Xuan Chong began to look up at the class. Oh, his grades had always been in the lower middle range, but now they had risen to the middle range. Students at this level were often "lone wolves" in the class.

The top students gathered together to discuss their "grades"; at least, what they heard was: what rank they wanted to achieve in the next "exam". This is the answer I got for this problem, what's yours?

Meanwhile, the bad students also gathered together to discuss which equipment in a certain "video game" had explosive effects and which mounts had high attributes.

Of course, there were also physical education students discussing the training indicators for achieving the physical fitness standards in the recent high school entrance examination. They stood with their hands on their hips, sweating profusely, and chattered: "This move of mine is faster!" "I've tried this move, and I feel it's easy to get injured."

Young people are full of imagination, and when they hear unfamiliar words, they always associate them with other things; for example, one afternoon, Xuan Chong overheard a student in the back row talking to his deskmate on a handheld console, saying, "Let's play a game this class." Xuan Chong could then clearly add various meanings to it, such as "this dimension"...

Joining in the fun was a natural trait of Xuan Chong when he was young, a habit that gradually disappeared after he grew up.

Now that he has been reborn, Xuan Chong has recovered. While others were discussing excitedly, he couldn't help but go over to take a look.

Every time school ended, several students would gather around a table and chat enthusiastically about anime characters and sports like basketball—topics that were unfamiliar to them. But Xuan Chong wanted to join in.

Xuan Chong discovered that, just like in his previous life, each student clique was exclusive. Every time he stood aside and tried to join in, he would be met with surprised and "outsider, don't come here" looks, to the point that Xuan Chong experienced the feeling of social death.

After several attempts, Xuan Chong had to resort to his adult experience: don't waste time on useless social interactions...

...sour grapes...

So Xuan Chong continued his solitary journey. However, this aloofness caught the attention of another person.

One day, when Xuan Chong was erasing the blackboard, the class representative was tidying up the chalk stubs; the two briefly crossed paths in front of the teacher's desk. The class representative said, "Um, Xuan Chong, remember to erase the top."

Xuan Chong looked at the class representative and was momentarily unable to recognize her.

The class representative smiled and said, "You don't know me? My name is Xie Ming."

Xuan Chong remembered; this was the one who got first place in math, physics, and chemistry.

Then the class bell rang, and the class representative announced, "This class is taught by Professor Gao."

A few days ago, Xuan Chong had already inquired about the information and learned that Teacher Gao's name was "Gao Jinjian" and his nickname was "Gao Jingjian".

…This class was unusually quiet…

The teacher on the podium drew a "wave" with chalk and explained how to solve it.

Xuan Chong glanced around during his free time and saw that, as usual, students who were not good at studying were playing handheld games in the back, silently pressing buttons as if they had ignored the outside world.

On the left and right sides, some students were reading novels under their desks. Of course, when the homeroom teacher stood by the window, they were all called out. These unfortunate kids were jolted out of their own worlds and then called out by the homeroom teacher to stand as punishment.

Teacher Gao, who was teaching on the podium, did not interrupt the lesson. Xuan Chong looked up and glanced at the class representative. At this moment, his eyes were focused on the blackboard, and he looked like a statue.

Xuan Chong had a strange feeling that at this moment, whether they were "good students" or "bad students," they were in a different world from him.

"Knock knock knock," Teacher Gao walked to Xuan Chong's desk without him noticing. While emphasizing the "mnemonic for wave function", he tapped Xuan Chong's desk with his finger to signal Xuan Chong to listen.

Xuan Chong looked up at the blackboard. As he looked, the functions of lines on the blackboard gradually transformed in Xuan Chong's mind into flowing waves; and the original 30 degrees, 60 degrees, and 45 degrees, which were conducive to calculation, began to be refined into deflection cases of 23 degrees, 32 degrees, and 56 degrees.

A ship is in such waves, changing with the waves. As the ship sways with the waves, how does the pressure on the floor inside the ship change? Multiplying gravity by a trigonometric function gives the change in pressure on the floor, which is also a wave function.

A minute later, Xuan Chong shook off the thoughts that had suddenly popped into his head and then looked down at his exercises. However, a problem suddenly appeared with the element of a 23-degree angle, and the problem gave the hint that sin23° is approximately equal to 0.39.

Xuan Chong's left hand was calculating with his fingers, while his right hand quickly filled in a series of derivation formulas with the tip of his pen.

…The school bell rang…

Xuan Chong got on his bicycle and just then ran into the class representative.

Class representative Xie Ming looked at Xuan Chong and asked, "You're taking this route?"

Xuan Chong: "Yes, you ride a bike too." Xuan Chong glanced at it; his bicycle was very advanced, a mountain bike, and it seemed effortless to pedal.

Class representative: "Well, there's road construction near my house, so I'll have to take a detour." — At this point, Xuan Chong sensed the class representative chuckle.

So the two left the school gate one after the other, Xuan Chong riding ahead and the class representative following behind. However, compared to Xuan Chong's composure, Xie Ming was looking around suspiciously. (In Xuan Chong's time, there weren't many cars on the road.)
After a long while, Xuan Chong said, "My house is just ahead. I'll take this side road right away."

The class representative rode his bike leisurely, looking at Xuan Chong: "Hmm, your place is really nice." His words were tinged with envy.

Xuan Chong: Okay? —Looking at the ordinary daily life around him, Xuan Chong didn't find anything special. Then Xuan Chong said, "Isn't this how it is in XX City?"

Suddenly, Xuan Chong felt the class representative staring at him. His gaze seemed to be trying to convey something unusual.

Xie Ming: "Now we're just in the same school—" This is what Xuan Chong can hear.

Xuan Chong felt that he said something else, but the sound of a large truck horn driving by made it impossible to hear the last sentence.

He then rode away, and Xuan Chong also rode into the fork in the road. Suddenly, Xuan Chong turned his head to look at the class representative, only to find that he could no longer see him on the main road behind him.

Xuan Chong: "Huh? Where did he go just now? But it's perfect timing."

Xuan Chong darted into a small alley at a fork in the road, bought a scallion pancake from the vendor, and ordered a bowl of duck blood vermicelli soup. He pulled out a crumpled five yuan from his pocket.

I'd saved up my allowance for a week, and that wasn't enough to treat everyone. I'd have to wait until Xie Ming left to eat.

The owner here is quite skilled; after glancing at Xuanchong, he sprinkled on some extra scallions and cilantro.

…on another forked road…

Xie Ming rode his electric scooter into an alley, bought a bowl of mutton soup, and ordered two freshly baked preserved vegetable and meat-filled sesame cakes from the sesame cake shop next door.

In his view, Xuan Chong, who had just been riding a shared bicycle, stopped at the subway entrance and entered the underground tunnel.

He then naturally took out his phone from his pocket and scanned the code to pay. It cost twelve yuan in total. He continued eating with his head down.

Xuan Chong had never paid attention to this phone before. If he had, he would have been very surprised, as it was a product completely different from his school days.

Xie Ming ate his food bite by bite, while the store manager was dealing with an even longer queue.

After finishing his meal at the restaurant, he left and got on his electric motorcycle, riding through streets lined with electric vehicles.

Deliberately avoiding the elderly and some resentful middle-aged women, Xie Ming carefully obeyed the traffic lights—out of fear of being extorted.

…at school…

Upstairs in the teaching building, the head of the teaching department and the principal were looking out the window at the ever-changing city in the distance.

Principal: "This year's freshmen have all gotten used to the ten-minute breaks between classes!"

The Dean of Students said, "They've all adapted and are basically immersed in it." He looked at the projection screen between the two distant buildings, which displayed the date and timely weather forecast.

The projection principle involves two buildings connected by a steel cable structure, with water pipes suspended from the cable to spray distilled water and create a mist. Then, hundreds of millions of laser emitters between the buildings create a hundred-meter-wide display screen, a 22nd-century urban broadcasting system. Right now, after broadcasting the weather forecast, they're showing Journey to the West (22nd-century version).

Principal: "Yes, you'll get used to it." Sensing that the head of student affairs was watching a TV series, he raised his hand and switched the time and space. Then, the tall buildings in the distance disappeared and were replaced by the city clock tower.

The principal continued, “In the ‘curriculum,’ they are all outstanding individuals, historical heroes; but the goal of ‘moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education’ is not this kind of ‘shining.’ As ‘successors,’ you must always remember that as individuals, you can also be ‘oppressed,’ encounter ‘helplessness,’ and be powerless in the face of ‘injustice.’”

In this way, they won't give up the fight and become isolated and aloof!

(End of this chapter)