At the start, I had to choose one of four options, and I immediately picked the Brahmin from the cou

"Mom, I'm full."

Li Xiao let out a burp, pulled out a tissue with a subtle floral pattern that clearly indicated it was a high-end product, and wiped his mouth.

Looking at his unladylike behavior, Zhao Xiulan laughed and scolded him, "You brat, eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you."

"It's all thanks to Aunt Liu's excellent cooking skills," Li Xiao chuckled.

In his past life, he had never eaten such a sumptuous breakfast. Back in high school, when he lived in the dorms, his breakfast was always the same: fried rice with eggs, a few pickled vegetables, and oh, and an egg.

Unlike now, this kind of divine spectacle, which he could never have dreamed of in his past life, is now just his most ordinary daily life.

Aunt Liu, who was waiting nearby, couldn't stop smiling when she heard Li Xiao's words.

"If you like it, young master, I'll give you a few different flavors tomorrow morning."

"Alright, stop joking around. If we don't leave now, we'll be late for the college entrance exam."

Zhao Xiulan stood up, casually picked up a transparent stationery bag from the sideboard, and stuffed it into Li Xiao's hand.

Li Xiao looked down and saw that everything he needed—exam admission ticket, ID card…not a single thing was missing. In fact, fearing that the items might not be useful, he had prepared double sets of all the stationery, making it look like a small armory.

"Mom, you've prepared way too much! I'm just going to take an exam, not go to war. Do I really need to bring so much stationery?"

Zhao Xiulan didn't respond to his words. She looked down at the Vacheron Constantin Elegance watch on her wrist and reached out to straighten the buttons on his collar.

"Old Zhang is waiting outside. Don't be nervous when you get to the exam hall, just write whatever comes to mind. Your dad was saying last night that it's okay if you don't pass the exam in China. We can just go abroad. Your dad has already made the arrangements. Treat it as a vacation abroad, relax a bit, and then you can take over the family branch company when you come back."

Li Xiao stood there, his lips twitching.

Just writing something casually? Going abroad? Taking a vacation? Taking over a branch office?

He recognized each word individually, but when they were spoken together by his mother, they sounded so unreal.

In his past life, he endured an inhuman existence during his senior year of high school in preparation for the college entrance examination.

In the dead of winter, he would get up at 5:30 in the dark to go to the classroom for early reading. The northern wind was like a knife, blowing into his collar. He wore a down jacket that had been washed so many times that the cuffs were covered in cotton lint. He would run all the way to the teaching building, just so he could memorize English words for twenty minutes longer than others.

After evening self-study, we returned to the dormitory. Six of us squeezed into a 12-square-meter room. My roommate was snoring and grinding his teeth, while he was doing math worksheets by the 15-watt lamp by his bedside until 12:30.

The next day, I was so sleepy that my eyelids were drooping, so I went to the convenience store to buy instant coffee. It cost one yuan a packet, and when I brewed it, it tasted cloyingly sweet and full of non-dairy creamer.

That year, out of more than 500 students in their school, only one was admitted to a 985 university and three were admitted to 211 universities.

He barely made it into a 211 university by the cutoff score. On the day the results came out, his father, for the first time ever, drank half a jin of baijiu (a type of Chinese liquor), patted him on the shoulder and said, "The Li family's ancestral graves are emitting auspicious smoke; the Li family has produced a scholar." His mother didn't say anything, but just kept putting food into his bowl.

In his past life, he was the hope of his family, a poor student who had to change his fate through the college entrance examination.

In this life, things have turned out quite well. He became the young master of a Brahmin family in the county town, and the college entrance examination, which was once the only way out in his life, has become an optional extra. Doing well is icing on the cake, and doing poorly won't prevent him from inheriting the family business.

This feeling of having someone to back you up is really reassuring.

"What are you staring at? If you keep staring, you'll be late."

Seeing that he was standing still, Zhao Xiulan gently pushed him.

"Here it comes, here it comes."

He stood in front of the full-length mirror in the entryway, glanced at himself, and then grinned.

Alright, it doesn't matter how he does on the college entrance exam in this life. But he still wants to do his best, just to hand in a less stressful answer sheet for his past self who stayed up until 12:30 under the lamp.

Pushing open the solid wood door, a slightly sweltering breeze from the June morning rushed towards him, but it couldn't dispel the lighthearted joy in Li Xiao's heart.

On the private driveway outside the yard, a black Maybach with an arrogant consecutive license plate had already started its engine.

In this small county town, this license plate alone is equivalent to a pass that allows you to travel without any obstacles. When the driver, Lao Zhang, who was dressed in a suit and tie, saw him come out, he quickly ran forward and opened the back door of the car.

"Young Master, get in the car. President Li just called to give instructions. Although there is traffic control around several test centers today, the higher-ups have already given the order. We'll take the newly built riverside avenue in the south of the city and go directly to the No. 1 High School's staff-only entrance to the internal parking lot. We're guaranteed to avoid squeezing with those parents outside."

Li Xiao bent down and climbed into the spacious and comfortable leather back seat. Listening to Lao Zhang's familiar report, he couldn't help but sigh again.

What is a county town Brahmin? This is what a county town Brahmin is. Ordinary people are scrambling to cross a single-plank bridge, but he not only doesn't have to squeeze, but even the roadblocks at the bridgehead have been cleared away in advance, and a red carpet has been laid out.

Not long after the car drove off, Li Xiao understood the weight of Lao Zhang's words.

The county town is small, with only three college entrance examination sites. Every year during these two days in June, the streets are full of cars dropping off students, and the horns can sound from seven in the morning until the exam bell rings.

But after Lao Zhang turned the steering wheel twice and got onto Yanhe Avenue, the road was spotless. There wasn't a single traffic jam, not even a single other vehicle in sight. There was a checkpoint at the intersection, and two traffic police officers saw the license plate of the black Maybach from afar. They didn't even stop it; they simply moved the cones aside and gave them a standard salute.

A few minutes later, the Maybach turned into the staff-only passage of the No. 1 Middle School. This passage is usually blocked by an electric gate, making it impossible for ordinary vehicles to enter. But today, the gatekeeper opened the gate from afar and stood at the entrance, smiling and waving at them.

Li Xiao got out of the car, clutching the transparent pencil case in his hand. Before he could even take a step, Old Zhang leaned out of the car window and pointed to the side door not far away. "Young Master, after you finish the exam, just come out from here. I'll be waiting for you in this spot."

"Alright, thanks for your hard work, Lao Zhang." Li Xiao waved to him and turned to walk along the tree-lined path toward the teaching building.

After passing through the faculty and staff area, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

Through the retractable iron fence of the school's main gate, Li Xiao could clearly see the huge crowd outside.

At this moment, parents were gathered in small groups outside the cordon. Some held up sunflowers symbolizing a successful start, while others stood on tiptoe anxiously peering inside. The teachers in charge were also loudly counting the admission tickets through a megaphone.

Those pairs of eyes, filled with anticipation, tension, and even a touch of fear, constitute the most authentic depiction of human nature under the scorching June sun.