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

In his past life, he was one of the thousands of carp that squeezed through that gate, carrying the hopes of his entire family, and cautiously and timidly crossing the Dragon Gate that determined his fate.

Now, however, he stood in the shade of the VIP passage inside the door, calmly observing everything from an almost detached perspective.

The immense sense of division brought about by this leap from the Brahman class in the county town is so real that it's almost dizzying.

"Hey student, stop looking around and hurry up and find your exam room. The preparatory bell is about to ring," a proctor wearing a name tag reminded him as he passed by.

"Okay, thank you, teacher."

Li Xiao snapped out of his daze, suppressed the complex emotions in his heart, and successfully found his examination room according to the examination room location map provided by the school.

Because he arrived late, there were hardly any people left in the corridor. Li Xiao followed the room numbers one by one and stopped at the door of the third classroom at the end of the corridor.

Li Xiao looked up at the exam room number posted on the door frame, then checked it against the number on his admission ticket. After confirming that everything was correct, he stepped inside.

The classroom was small, a standard exam room for forty students, with desks arranged upside down in five rows and eight columns, and barcodes affixed to the corners of each desk.

He arrived relatively late. The entire classroom, except for the seat he was in, was already filled with students waiting for the exam.

The two and a half hours of exam time flew by.

Li Xiao looked down at the test paper in front of him, which was filled out completely but made no sense whatsoever, and couldn't help but sigh self-deprecatingly.

Before leaving home, he was full of ambition, thinking that he would give his past self, who stayed up all night studying, a satisfactory answer without regrets.

But when the exam papers were actually handed out, he truly understood what it meant to be a harsh reality.

Logically speaking, as his mother tongue, this should be the easiest subject to fool, but when he actually picked up his pen to read classical Chinese texts and recite ancient poems, his mind was filled with despair.

Sentences that I used to know by heart have been completely forgotten after more than a decade of being immersed in the harsh realities of society.

There was also that modern text reading comprehension question, which asked what thoughts and feelings the author expressed in describing the two jujube trees in the yard.

How could Li Xiao know what the author was thinking at the time? He could only use the fixed template and ramble on about his homesickness.

As for the final 800-word essay, he simply let loose completely, using the same techniques he used in his previous life for writing year-end summaries and company weekly reports, unleashing a torrent of words, characterized by flowery language but utterly devoid of substance.

Outside the classroom, students were already comparing answers in the hallway.

Two girls huddled together, flipping through a reference book. One was checking her answers to the multiple-choice questions in Chinese, while the other looked dejected, saying that she had gone off-topic in her essay.

A boy next to him was pounding his chest and yelling to his companion, "I clearly memorized that poem recitation, but as soon as I got to the exam hall, my brain turned to mush! I'm doomed, completely doomed!"

Outside the school gates, however, lies a completely different scene of suffering.

Under the blazing midday sun, anxious parents crowded outside the cordon, their eyes like searchlights as they searched for their children among the surging test-takers.

Instead of joining the crowd at the school's main gate, Li Xiao skillfully avoided the flow of people and turned onto the quiet, tree-lined path reserved for faculty and staff.

As soon as I stepped out of the side door, I saw Old Zhang standing next to the black Maybach with consecutive license plates.

Upon seeing Li Xiao emerge, Old Zhang immediately came to greet him.

"Young Master, how did the exam go? You must be exhausted!"

The air conditioning in the carriage was already on, and the temperature was set just right. There was even a glass of freshly squeezed juice with ice and several plates of delicate tea snacks on the small table in the back seat.

Li Xiao plopped down in the back seat, took a big gulp of iced juice, and then sighed to the heavens.

"Old Zhang, let's not talk about sad things anymore. Are we going back for lunch?"

Old Zhang was amused by his sighing and lamenting appearance, and replied with a smile while smoothly starting the Maybach.

"Young Master, Madam originally instructed the family to prepare a meal, but Mr. Li said that you just finished your exam this morning and was worried that you might find it boring to eat at home. Coincidentally, our upscale private restaurant in the south of the city just opened today and hasn't officially opened to the public yet. Mr. Li suggested that you go there first to try the food and relax."

"Alright, let's go try it."

Li Xiao has now completely adapted to this evil privileged class behavior.

Old Zhang glanced at him in the rearview mirror and saw his young master sitting with his legs crossed, scrolling through his phone and humming a song. His leisurely demeanor was completely different from when he left in the morning. "Young master, you've adjusted your mindset pretty quickly."

"That's life! What matters isn't what cards you're dealt, but knowing whose table you're playing at. If the table's all ours, what do I have to be afraid of?"

Old Zhang was speechless after hearing these remarks. He turned the steering wheel and drove the car onto the newly built scenic avenue in the south of the city.

In just twenty minutes, the car finally stopped in front of an antique-style Chinese courtyard.

Li Xiao pushed open the door and got out of the car. Before him stood black tiles and white walls, shaded by green bamboo, with two elegant characters, "Gui Lan," carved on the door plaque.

As soon as Lao Zhang opened the car door for him, a lobby manager in a bespoke suit led two rows of beautiful waitresses in ink-wash style cheongsams to greet him.

"Young Master, you must have had a tiring exam this morning."

The manager bowed slightly, gestured for someone to lead the way, and smiled as broadly as a blooming chrysanthemum.

However, Li Xiao knew very well that the people in front of him were serving him with utmost respect not because of him as a person, but because of his status as the young master of the Li family.

Having spent so many years in the workplace in his past life, he was immune to such polite words. But to be honest, who would want to be the one being flattered when they could be the one being flattered?

Without changing his expression, he nodded slightly to show respect before stepping over the threshold and into the courtyard.