Reborn as a high school freshman with an awakened system, a fat boy transforms into a male god.

The two stopped talking.

Zhou Ziheng picked up his Chinese textbook and flipped through it quickly, his lips moving rapidly as he began to cram at the last minute.

He suddenly turned his head again, looking at Lin Bei with a serious expression: "Brother Bei, do you think if I'm cramming at the last minute, will Buddha kick me?"

Lin Bei glanced at him: "You should hold onto your feet first."

"That makes sense." Zhou Ziheng nodded, then lowered his head and continued muttering, his lips moving even faster.

Lin Bei leaned back in his chair and quickly reviewed his progress in each subject. His average accuracy rate for math, physics, and chemistry was just over 83%, English was 85%, and politics, history, and geography were over 95%. The memory palace technique was a game-changer for subjects that required rote memorization. Chinese was the only variable; he had done everything he could on the essay, a truly unpredictable question, and the rest depended entirely on the mood of the examiner and the grader.

The total score should be around 85%.

按照上一届的月考成绩分布，1050分的85%是892.5分。上一届年级第一998分，年级前五十大概在900分左右，班级前十大概在890分上下。

He was on the edge.

They might get in, or they might not.

Thinking about this is useless. You only know the truth after you take the exam.

Lin Bei silently said a sentence to himself.

"You've done what you could. The rest is up to the test paper."

……

The first test was in Chinese.

When the preparatory bell rang, the proctor entered the classroom carrying a sealed bag of exam papers. She was a woman in her forties, wearing black-rimmed glasses, with a serious expression and a brisk walk. She placed the bag on the podium, glanced around the classroom, and then began to unseal it.

The classroom was so quiet you could hear the rustling of exam papers being pulled out. Zhou Ziheng finally stopped talking.

Try curling my hair.

Zhou Ziheng stared at the exam paper in front of him, his expression like that of someone gazing at a distant relative he wasn't very familiar with but had to greet.

Lin Bei first flipped to the last page and glanced at the essay topic.

Read the following material and write an essay of no less than 800 words according to the requirements.

The material is a discussion about "persistence and giving up." The gist is: In life, we often face choices. Sometimes persistence doesn't guarantee victory, and giving up doesn't guarantee failure; the key lies in how we judge the situation.

Lin Bei stared at the question for five seconds.

He has so much to write about on this topic.

[The system has detected that the host's inspiration is flowing freely. Friendly reminder: This exam essay is not a web novel; do not include content related to "rebirth," "system," or "golden finger." The examiner's first reaction upon seeing this won't be "This child is incredibly talented," but rather a call to a mental hospital.]

Lin Bei's lips twitched. He ignored the system and picked up his pen to start writing.

He wrote "Between Persistence and Giving Up".

He wasn't trying to deny perseverance, nor was he advocating giving up. What he wanted to write about was: when to persevere, when to give up, and... the most difficult thing is, how to find your own path between perseverance and giving up.

He wrote about his weight loss journey. He ran over five kilometers every day, was exhausted like a dog, and wanted to give up countless times. But after persevering, he lost weight, his stamina improved, and he could finally see the outline of his chin when he looked in the mirror. He chose to stick with it because he was on the right track.

He wrote about Su Wantang. Of course, he couldn't use her real name, but he wrote about a friend's story. A person who was driven to a corner by life, he persisted in pulling her up and didn't give up. Now she's doing very well.

He also wrote about some things he gave up. Giving up meaningless internal strife, giving up opinions that weren't worth caring about. Not all giving up is weakness; some giving up is cutting losses, giving yourself a way out.

He wrote smoothly, the pen tip gliding across the paper, his thoughts flowing like water from a bursting dam.

After finishing it, he read it over and thought it was alright. The structure was complete, the arguments were clear, and the evidence was sufficient; it should at least get an above-average score.

He glanced at Zhou Ziheng. The skinny man was writing furiously, his expression contorted as he reached the essay section. His pen moved incredibly fast, his wrist trembling, and the paper was already densely covered with writing, filling more than half the page.

Lin Bei turned his gaze away and began working on the questions in front of him.

He did fairly well on the basic knowledge section. He could easily handle pronunciation, character forms, idiom usage, and identifying grammatical errors using his memory palace technique. Classical Chinese reading was slightly more difficult, but he reviewed the classical Chinese texts in his textbook twice during the National Day holiday, memorizing common vocabulary and grammatical particles.

The easiest task was memorizing classical Chinese poems and prose. No understanding was required; all that was needed was to "see" them. He simply flipped to the relevant page in his memory palace, copied down the sentences that needed to be filled in the blanks, and that was it.

After he finished, he checked it over from beginning to end.

After finishing the Chinese exam, Zhou Ziheng handed in his paper and turned around.

"Brother Bei! What did you write in your essay?"

"Between Persistence and Giving Up," Lin Bei said.

"I wrote 'Persistence leads to victory.'" Zhou Ziheng covered his face with his hands. "After I finished writing it, I realized the material said 'Persistence does not guarantee victory'... Oh no, oh no, oh no."

Lin Bei glanced at him: "Didn't you read the question carefully?"

"I reviewed it, but as I was writing..." Zhou Ziheng slumped on the table, "I suddenly thought of the novel's plot halfway through, got distracted, and when I came back to writing the essay, I forgot the topic."

Lin Bei: "..."

As the two were talking, Wang Jun came down the stairs. He was holding a half-empty bottle of cola, looking calm and collected, as if he hadn't just finished the Chinese exam, but was already on vacation.

"Brother Bei! Old Zhou!" Wang Jun ran over, his face jiggling. "Guess what I wrote in my essay?"

"What?"

"I wrote, 'Whether to persist or give up depends on your mother.'"

Lin Bei was taken aback: "What do you mean?"

"My mom said if I don't do well on the exam, I shouldn't come home," Wang Jun said seriously. "So my conclusion is: whether I persevere or give up, the ultimate goal is to get home alive. Getting home alive is victory."

Zhou Ziheng was silent for a moment: "Are you writing an essay or a will?"

Wang Jun sighed: "Anyway, when my parents see my report card, they only look at the total score. If my total score is bad, I'm doomed."

[Wang Jun's family philosophy: Grades determine life and death. If you do well, you're their biological child; if you fail, you're adopted. He clearly belongs to the latter.]

"But I have a secret to answering multiple-choice questions," Wang Jun suddenly lowered his voice and leaned closer mysteriously.

"What's the secret?" Lin Bei asked.

"If there are three long and one short, choose the shortest; if there are three short and one long, choose the longest; if there are two long and two short, choose B; if they are all different lengths, choose C." Wang Jun counted on his fingers, one by one. "My mnemonic is about 25% accurate."

"Isn't that just like being completely blind?" Zhou Ziheng said.

"It's different." Wang Jun said seriously, "Blindly guessing is leaving it to fate, but my blindly guessing has a theoretical basis, which is a summary of the blood and tears of countless predecessors."