Reborn to prepare for the college entrance exam, you're letting me retire and make a comeback?

Jiangcheng No.1 High School, the Nth monthly exam for senior students, Chinese language exam room.

The ceiling fan hummed, stirring up the stuffy air. The students were engrossed in their work, the rustling of their writing blending with the chirping of cicadas outside the window.

That's how it is in senior year of high school: if you can't die from the exams, you'll die from them.

clack.

With a rustling sound, Lu Qian's pen stopped, stuck on the first major question in the dictation.

"Wait, what's the next line after 'No one can help me rise to power'?"

The handsome boy in his school uniform scratched a handful of his hair and frowned slightly.

Aphasia in written form is difficult to manage.

"Huh? What did you say, Qianzi?!"

Sitting next to Lu Qian, the buzz-cut boy Zhang Liu scratched his head: "You mean... you have a mole below your chest?"

Go cool off somewhere else.

"Okay!"

Zhang Liu's mind went blank, and he immediately performed a three-second fall asleep routine on the table.

"..."

Lu Qian curled his lip, thinking to himself that this silly kid must have ruined his brain playing World of Warcraft.

After all, at Jiangcheng No.1 High School, if a student can't even get two subjects to pass the city's first mock exam, they're practically an all-around genius.

"However, I'm afraid I'll have to sit at the same table as this guy now..." Lu Qian scratched his head in impotent rage.

Half an hour ago, just as the Chinese exam was starting, he was reborn.

I was reborn 108 days before the college entrance examination, in the examination room for the monthly Chinese exam.

After spending twenty minutes adjusting to the reality of my rebirth, I stared at a huge pile of Chinese language questions in front of me and worried for ten minutes...

"I've been reborn, but the timing of my rebirth is wrong, what should I do?"

"I need help urgently!"

In his previous life, as a corporate editor who stayed up all night writing scripts, Lu Qian had long since forgotten all the knowledge his high school teachers had taught him. What classical Chinese texts could he possibly know?

I'm already thankful I don't turn an 800-word argumentative essay into a screenplay...

"But this is a dictation question..." Looking at the blank page on the test paper, he was still somewhat unwilling.

As we all know, on a high school Chinese exam, you can choose not to write an essay or answer multiple-choice questions, but you absolutely cannot make a single mistake on a comprehension-based dictation section, because that would lead you to create a miracle with two pens in one night.

There's an old saying in the education field, what's it again?

Those who master Chinese language will conquer the world.

Jiangcheng No.1 Middle School, a key middle school in the county, is very strict about the dictation section of the Chinese exam.

What, you can't write it?

Sorry, I'll just copy it a hundred times to calm my nerves.

After all, if you can't do the reading comprehension questions, that's a matter of intelligence; if you can't do the dictation questions, that's a matter of attitude.

Of course, being seasoned veterans of society, Lu Qian wasn't going to sit idly by and wait for his doom, so he decided to seek outside help.

He slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the fair nape of the girl in the front row.

The school beauty, Lin Shuyue, sat upright, her black ponytail hanging down her shoulders, the ends of her hair swaying gently as she wrote.

The sunlight shone on the girl, making her look pure and radiant.

She has that Chen Duling-like vibe with her high ponytail.

Mo Yan once said that beauty is a winning combination with any other card, but playing it alone will always lead to a dead end.

Clearly, he had a pair of trump cards sitting right in front of him.

Lin Shuyue, Lu Qian's childhood sweetheart, is the class monitor of Class 7 in the third year of high school. Her legs are 1.1 meters long, and she looks like she could play with them for a year. Despite her young age, she has already achieved great success. She is the dream lover of all the boys in their class and is definitely their childhood white moonlight.

At the same time, this sweet and soft green plum is also a top contender for Tsinghua and Peking Universities in her grade.

Although in later years one became a top-notch lawyer in the country and the other was still a low-level screenwriter, and because of the huge gap in their classes they didn't have much interaction, they still have a good relationship at this age.

Now that I've been reborn, shouldn't I at least enjoy some easy money and save myself ten or eight years of hard work?

With such a stunning girl sitting right in front of me, who else would I copy if not her?

"Why."

Lu Qian slowly extended his index finger, lazily curling a soft strand of hair around it halfway.

"Shuyue." His voice was low.

Immediately afterwards, the pen cap poked the girl's thin back with a light touch.

OK, I've picked out the shoulder strap.

It's obviously intentional.

The old man still really enjoys this kind of thing.

Upon feeling the touch of the pen tip, Lin Shuyue's back instantly tensed up, like a startled cat.

"Lu Qian..."

Her voice was soft: "Could you please stop poking me there...?"

She speaks softly and gently; you can tell she's the kind of sweet and gentle girl.

"..."

Looking at the youthful Lin Shuyue in front of him, if it weren't for his rebirth, Lu Qian would never have combined such a sweet and gentle girl with the sharp-tongued, aggressive, and aloof lawyer from his later life.

But life is unpredictable; the large intestine contains the small intestine, and who can say for sure what the future holds?

He leaned forward, elbows on the table, and said, "School beauty, is the answer to question three C or D? Just give me a straight answer!"

"Lu Qian, how could you do this?" Lin Shuyue said softly, "It's wrong to check the answers during the exam, especially with Teacher Zhang watching..."

"..."

Just as Lu Qian was about to say something, he saw his homeroom teacher, Zhang Tugai, staring straight at him from the podium.

Good grief, direct bloodline suppression, and they instantly became obedient.

It has to be said that Old Zhang is quite capable when it comes to disciplining students; dealing with students like him is a piece of cake for him.

Even after many years, being stared at by my former homeroom teacher like that still triggers a stress response.

Lu Qian remembered hearing someone say that there are only two kinds of teachers in the world.

One type is a teacher who speaks ill of others when they are not in school, but speaks ill of them after graduation.

Another type is like Lao Zhang, whose teachers were badmouthed during his school years but are now deeply appreciated by countless people after graduation.

Old Zhang, who never gives up on any student, is the second type of teacher.

Lu Qian still felt a sense of awe towards such a teacher.

At worst, I won't do this cheating; copying it a hundred times isn't a difficult task.

The next moment, he saw a crookedly folded piece of paper slip out from Lin Shuyue's sleeve and land on his scroll, covering the four characters "臣本布衣" (I was originally a commoner).

It perfectly concealed the truth.

"It has to be our own homegrown plums; only those who use them know how good they are." Lu Qian nodded.

Saying no, but the body says yes

In Lu Qian's memory, this childhood sweetheart, though seemingly soft and gentle, was actually quite proud. A typical example was her habit of handing him the rest of her milk tea halfway through, then saying in a huff:

"I won't drink it anymore, you can suck it instead."

Smoke it if you want, Lao Ji is happy to do it.

Those who are good-looking are called Qingmei (青梅), and those who are not good-looking are called "from the same village" (同村的).

What's more, his childhood sweetheart has dimples when she smiles.

"As expected, this kind of retirement-and-living-with-soft-food lifestyle suits me best..."

Lu Qian held the note between his fingers and unfolded it with a grin: "No one can support my lofty ambitions, but my beloved will help me reach the summit!"

hum!

A blue panel suddenly came into his field of vision.

[Ding—Host trigger keyword unlocked, the Retirement Counterattack System begins loading...]

At 18, you participated in the school basketball finals. In an attempt to impress your crush, Su Yuwei, you recklessly dunked at the last moment, resulting in moderate wear and tear on your right knee meniscus. You were hospitalized for a month, which severely impacted your college entrance exam scores, ultimately preventing you from getting into your desired university.

[Annotation: Start showing off early, and this wheelchair came at the perfect time!]

At 23, you watched your long-time crush, Su Yuwei, run off with a rich second-generation heir. Heartbroken and furious, you stood in the rain outside her house all night, only to be met with her unwavering devotion. Ultimately, this experience left you with a lifelong health problem.

[Annotation: While you're still unable to let go, others have already moved on!]

At 30, after a period with a scumbag boyfriend, you entered into a marriage bought with a dowry of 60 yuan, but your career remains a complete failure.

[At 35, heartbroken and devastated by your divorce, you worked 72 consecutive all-nighters to complete a merit-building project, resulting in an acute myocardial infarction and a three-day stay in the ICU. Your health is deteriorating daily.]

[Annotation: A person growing on the liver? No, a liver growing on one's life!]

At 48, your parents, who have always silently supported you, are growing old. Although you've remarried, you still have elderly parents to care for and young children to raise. Mortgage and car loan payments force you to work three part-time jobs a day. Over time, cervical spondylosis has gradually developed.

[Annotation: How can a man who dwells between heaven and earth suffer from cervical or lumbar disc herniation?]

At 60, in an attempt to woo your 58-year-old neighbor, you bravely challenged yourself to do a 360° loop on the community's horizontal bar, resulting in a herniated lumbar disc and earning you the nickname "Iron Lumbar Disc Herniation Hero."

[Annotation: An old steed in its stall may still aspire to gallop, but its ambition lies in a wheelchair?]

[Summary of current situation at age 80: Main activities: bed → wheelchair → toilet, a three-point line.]

[Lu Qian, the Retirement Counterattack System is fully loaded... If you could restart your life... would you, in your twilight years, have the confidence to defy fate and reclaim your lost health and glory?!]

Lu Qian: "???"

"Damn, they just said retirement, and they actually turned it into retirement life?"

Lu Qian was completely bewildered when he saw this panel.

"80 years old? Rewriting life's script? Defying fate? Retirement?"

"However, I've experienced those scenarios at 18 and 23, so what I'm saying is absolutely true..."

"Reborn with a system by default, the heavens have truly been right!"

It's 2025 now, so naturally everyone knows what a system is, and Lu Qian is no exception.

He looked at the system and muttered to himself, "But what's with this 80-year-old retirement system? I was reborn at 18, shouldn't I have a 'loser's rise to power' system?"

"Also, if the person the system is talking about is me... then wouldn't the rest of my life be even more miserable than before I was reborn?"

Physical exhaustion leads to a failed life.

Life is hopeless, and the parents sigh.

By all accounts, he's a complete loser.

Growing increasingly unhappy, he chose to shift his attention.

"Forget it, forget it, I don't want to think about this anymore. Doing things at 18 that I'm 80... isn't this the life I've always dreamed of?!"

Reborn into this life, Lu Qian, a seasoned slacker, decisively chooses to lie down and accept defeat rather than strive for success, and decisively chooses to go to school rather than pursue ambition.

He is quite accepting of the system.

Although the system painted a less-than-ideal future for him, it also allowed him to gain an information advantage and avoid many future tragedies.

Moreover, the term "retirement" sounds so comfortable, and it's obvious that it's a system designed to be abandoned and neglected.

How could he possibly lose?

Thinking about it, Lu Qian saw the panel light up again and quickly continued to look down.

Medical studies have shown that the smiles of attractive young women can improve cardiovascular health in older adults.

[A beautiful woman named Lin Shuyue with a quality index of 96 has been detected within two meters of the host. The host must make Lin Shuyue smile sweetly within ten seconds to receive a cash reward of 5000 yuan.]

[Countdown: 10, 9, 8...]

"Wait, is the time allotted that tight?"

After reading the countdown on the panel, Lu Qian leisurely turned her gaze to the high ponytail in front of her and Old Zhang on the podium, with only one thought in her mind—

No, this system keeps logging in... Is it even legitimate?!