Rebirth 08: A Happy Life Begins in Elementary School

The tranquility of the weekend gave Li Zhao a rare moment for reflection.

The benefits of focused thinking are obvious, but there are also some drawbacks.

It's easy to overthink things, making already clear conclusions confusing again.

And it's very tiring.

This sixth-grader's little mind is full of energy but lacks stamina.

Li Zhao's memories and cognition from his previous life have exceeded his capacity, making it difficult to activate.

His mana bar is already short, and casting a skill consumes a lot of mana, no wonder he gets tired easily.

Fortunately, the recovery was quick; a good night's sleep and everything was fine.

Young people have that unique resilience.

On Monday, after getting off Zhou Xiaoyun's motorcycle, Li Zhao made a special trip back to the newsstand at the alley entrance, asked for a copy of the South China Weekly, and immediately started reading.

"Kid, you have to buy the newspaper first, you can't read it beforehand. What's the point of buying it if you read it all..."

"One serving, please."

"Oh." The boss was interrupted halfway through his speech and was very upset.

Li Zhao folded the newspaper neatly and carefully stuffed it into his schoolbag.

It's been published.

"Don't wait until disaster strikes to devise a plan—Reflecting on the shortcomings of urban disaster prevention planning through field surveys of mountain towns" was even given a more prominent place this time.

The fact that four consecutive articles were published in the South China Weekly is quite an achievement for a completely new pen name.

Even Li Zhao himself couldn't help but wonder if there was a certain leader within the newspaper who particularly admired him.

It was another familiar class meeting, with the familiar Chinese, math, and English lessons.

But Li Zhao was not tired at all, even though the knowledge had long been ingrained in his mind, and even though he had experienced his student days in their entirety.

Sitting in the classroom now, he finds it quite interesting.

It's interesting how the teacher on the podium pretends not to see anything when he can clearly see everything in the classroom; it's interesting how the students below the podium are listening to the lesson in all sorts of ways; it's interesting how Chen Nian suddenly becomes very serious while studying; and it's interesting how He Shuyao, with her long ponytail bobbing up and down as she nods, is in front of her to the right.

The doodles left by my seniors on my desk, the magnolia tree at the school gate, the heavy clouds that look like it's going to rain, the damp wind blowing in from the window...

Hey, why are you daydreaming?

When time slows down, the world easily becomes more lovely.

During his school days, parents often said, "You'll understand how good it is to be a student later." Li Zhao never agreed with this until he started working.

Going to work is inhumane.

The same routine repeats itself day after day. Student days are full of energy, and you always look forward, no matter what. But once you start working, it's a completely different mindset.

As I lived, I felt like I was dead.

He suddenly felt a strong sense of empathy for his classmates.

Everyone sitting here now seems to have a bright future, but career and income will soon divide everyone into different classes.

How many people can say they are happy twenty years from now?

Li Zhao feels that lately, he's been writing about earthquake relief and his future self twenty years from now, focusing on his personality, and he's particularly prone to getting caught up in emotional thinking.

No wonder Chen Nian asked that question during lunch:

Why do you seem a bit down lately?

"no."

"It feels like he's a writer."

"Your intuition is quite accurate."

"Didn't you say you didn't?"

"Chen Nian," Li Zhao said earnestly, "I feel that you've become smarter ever since you made up your mind to study hard."

Chen Nian was initially laughing, but upon closer inspection, something seemed off.

After finishing his meal, Li Zhao went to Huang Keyun's side to use the computer again, and even a certain math teacher who had been observing this all along was no longer surprised.

Li Zhao first searched for the title of his article, then reposted it from the official website of South China Weekly to his blog, copied the comments he had written in advance, clicked publish, and then posted it on several mainstream forums.

"That's it," Li Zhao murmured to himself.

That's probably all he could do. The article was just published on Monday morning, and it will take some time for it to spread and gain traction.

Ultimately, Li Zhao has no say in how much influence it will have.

Li Zhao couldn't control how many people could be saved in the end.

He forgot the specific number, and even if the number changed, he didn't know if it was related to his article.

In any case, let's just pretend it's irrelevant.

If we can see that Sichuan and even Linjiang have taken some action because of this article, that would be enough.

"Li Zhao?" Huang Keyun called out softly.

"What's wrong, Teacher Huang?"

"It's nothing, I just noticed you were lost in thought for a while."

"Oh, just spacing out."

"I heard the national competition results will be out as early as this weekend."

"it is good."

Is that all the reaction you're going to get?

Huang Keyun waited for a while and found that Li Zhao had no interest in continuing the topic and started fiddling with the computer again.

Li Zhao was looking at the data for Yuan Nong Hi-Tech. On April 14, the stock closed at 18.88 yuan, hitting the daily limit.

Very stable.

"Aren't you nervous at all?" Huang Keyun asked again.

"Of course not."

Why?

"I'm guaranteed to win first prize in the national competition; there's not much room for tension."

Huang Keyun chuckled, suddenly intrigued, and continued, "But the scores haven't been released yet. I've seen online that there's this 'accumulating good karma' thing; aren't you afraid something might happen?"

"Teacher, you're letting your emotions get the better of you. But I can understand that you didn't write the exam. The national competition paper is out of 150 points, and in previous years, you could get first prize with a score of 125 or above. The essay is worth 20 points. English essays are different from Chinese essays, so there's basically no chance of going off-topic. If your sentences are fluent and your vocabulary is rich, you'll definitely get a high score. What I should be thinking about is whether I can get a perfect score. There's no need to worry about first prize."

Huang Keyun was stunned.

Is this confidence in one's absolute strength?

"In the end, it's just a primary school exam paper; how difficult can it be?"

Li Zhao suddenly shut up.

Oops, I got so caught up in watching the stock market that I started saying some honest things.

"That's true, we can't treat you like a primary school student. The teacher is overthinking it."

Before Li Zhao could even get nervous, Huang Keyun had already gotten through it on her own.

Great scholars will surely debate the classics for me.

Li Zhao was about to leave when he suddenly heard footsteps, accompanied by He Lin's voice:

"This is really amazing. I can hardly imagine that this is the writing level of an elementary school student."

Oh? Li Zhao immediately sat down again, his seat blocked by the partition of the office cubicle.

"It's that Li Zhao again? I've read his essays before; his strengths and weaknesses are both very obvious..." came Teacher Wu's voice.

"Hey, Teacher Wu, I told you last time, this is the kind of kid who knows how to pretend. I've seen plenty of those." - Team Leader Liu's voice.

This trio is really solid; they regularly update their posts and chat about articles around the coffee table every noon.

Like a quest NPC.

"It's different, completely different!" He Lin slapped her thigh in frustration. "Let me tell you, Lao Wu, do you know how this article makes me feel?"

"Go ahead and say it."

"It's just like watching that four-knife you admire."

Li Zhao couldn't help but shrug. No way, He Lin's sensitivity to words is that high?

"Don't exaggerate... A primary school student, getting involved with four knives, let me see."