September 1st, Yu Shulin hoisted his backpack, mounted his newly bought bicycle, waved towards Liang Zhou at the villa gate, and with a push on the pedals, glided out of the residential area.
He Long stood behind Liang Zhou, holding a phone, and kindly reminded him, "Boss, you've been resting for too long. Mu Qiu is about to go crazy."
Liang Zhou frowned.
Yu Shulin was assigned to Class 2, Grade 10—specifically, the second advanced class. The homeroom teacher was... Teacher Gao.
...This was truly an unexpected delight.
After the class assignments came the opening ceremony. By the time the drawn-out ceremony finally concluded, the entire morning had passed.
In the afternoon, textbooks were distributed, seats were arranged, a class meeting was held, and class officers were preliminarily selected. After all these miscellaneous tasks were dealt with, it was already time for dismissal.
In good spirits, Yu Shulin rode his bike home. Setting down his backpack, he went to the kitchen to help Aunt Liu carry the dishes and asked with a smile, "Where's my brother? Did he go out? When will he be back?"
Aunt Liu ladled the soup into a bowl, placed it on the table, and sighed. "The young master is on another business trip. He said he's going to the neighboring province to record a program and will be back the day after tomorrow."
"...I see." He replied, his mood dipping slightly, before shaking his head and suppressing this inexplicable dejection. No, no, he wasn't really just fifteen years old; he couldn't be so dependent on a guardian.
On the second day of school, the class ranking list was posted.
Although the advanced class was formed by mixing regular admits and supplemental exam admits, for convenience, the ranking was still based on the high school entrance exam scores.
Speaking of the high school entrance exam scores, Yu Shulin felt he had a lot to say.
But whatever he might have wanted to say, the title of last place in the class was firmly planted atop his head. In fact, it wasn't just last in the class; last in the entire grade... was also him.
The classmates were abuzz. Such a low score, yet he got into the advanced class? This was blatant favoritism! The top students clutched the ranking list, their eyes sweeping across the classroom, trying to spot that audacious oddball who had used connections so brazenly. They thought, if your grades are so poor, fine, you used backdoor means to get into City No. 2 High School, but did you have to be so shameless about it? If your grades are bad, just stay quietly in a regular class. What are you doing showing off in the advanced class? Isn't that just asking to be criticized and expelled?
Yu Shulin looked at the ranking list and sighed inwardly. How long would this black mark of his entrance exam scores follow him?
"Um..." A soft, timid female voice came from beside him. He turned to look at his deskmate. "What is it?"
Seeing his gentle attitude, his deskmate relaxed a bit and continued the conversation, "Who is this Yu Shulin? His entrance exam score is so low, how did he end up in the advanced class?" Since everyone was meeting for the first time and had little common ground, and noticing the people in front and behind were discussing this topic, she mustered her courage to use it to start a conversation with her deskmate.
The classmate in front, hearing her words, quickly turned around with the ranking list, eagerly joining the conversation. "Yeah, yeah, who is this guy? Using connections so openly, he probably isn't someone easy to get along with."
Yu Shulin twitched the corner of his mouth. Although he did use some connections, he wasn't brazen about it at all, really.
Seeing two pairs of eyes shining brightly at him, he sighed and confessed, "The Yu Shulin you're talking about is me."
"Eh?!" The boy in front widened his eyes, scrutinizing him. After a long moment, he reached out and patted Yu Shulin's shoulder, saying awkwardly, "Bro, just how did you get into the advanced class..."
The deskmate girl was already stunned. She hadn't expected the subject of their discussion to be right in front of her. Her face flushed red, and she hurriedly apologized, "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to talk about you like that."
He smiled and waved his hand, not too bothered. "It's fine. You weren't wrong. I did use some connections, but I got into the advanced class by passing the supplemental exam."
"Supplemental exam?" The two exclaimed in surprise.
He nodded, scratching his cheek a little sheepishly. "My entrance exam scores were too poor. To take the supplemental exam, I had to use some connections."
The boy in front, seeing how frank he was, felt slightly better about him and became a bit more enthusiastic. "If you passed the supplemental exam and got into the advanced class, your skills must be pretty good. So how did you do so poorly on the entrance exam?"
The deskmate girl also widened her eyes curiously, clearly very interested.
"There was a bit of an accident, so..." He shrugged, looking rather helpless.
The boy in front wore an "I understand" expression and extended his hand. "Just pre-exam nerves, right? I get it. We'll be classmates from now on. I'm Wang Zhi. Nice to meet you."
Was this considered making an acquaintance? Yu Shulin smiled and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."
Seeing this, the deskmate girl also smiled and said shyly, "I'm Yang Sese. Very glad to meet you both."
"Likewise," Yu Shulin replied with a gentle smile.
The boy next to Wang Zhi, who had been lying on the desk reading, turned his head. He swept a cold glance over the three of them, his gaze settling on Yu Shulin, and scoffed lightly, "Trash who used backdoors, what are you so proud of?" Then, chin raised, he stood up and walked out of the classroom.
"Pfft, what's his problem?" Wang Zhi rolled his eyes and said to Yu Shulin, "That guy is the top scorer in our class, Li Tao. He's really arrogant and hardly talks to anyone. Didn't expect his first words to be so obnoxious."
Yang Sese was also displeased with his attitude, wrinkling her nose and muttering softly, "So rude."
"Exactly, exactly. Shulin, don't take what he said to heart. We'll use our grades to shut him up later!" Wang Zhi said fiercely, feeling an inexplicable surge of confidence in Yu Shulin.
Seeing them like this, Yu Shulin's smile deepened a little.
During the subsequent roll call in class, everyone learned he was the last-place student who had used connections. While he felt somewhat helpless under the probing and disdainful glances of his classmates, he accepted it with equanimity.
—There was nothing to be angry about. He had indeed used connections.
His calmness, however, worried Wang Zhi, who had immense faith in him, making Wang Zhi insist that Yu Shulin was too soft and too easy to bully.
Too easy to bully? He twirled the pen in his hand, just smiling. In his past life, he had indeed been easy to bully—whether at his uncle's house, at school, or later in prison, he had never been a tough character. But since his rebirth, no one had managed to bully him.
A summer break of relaxation had left the boys and girls who had just entered high school a bit too loose and excited.
The first class of the new semester was math. Teacher Gao walked into the classroom as the bell rang, very dissatisfied with the noisy state of the students below. He slapped the teaching plan on the lectern and said loudly, "All this racket is disgraceful! Quiet!"
The top students were quite obedient. Seeing the teacher seemed about to lose his temper, they hurriedly sat up straight, quieted down, and took out their textbooks to open them.
Teacher Gao nodded in satisfaction. Without a word, he turned and swiftly wrote two problems on the blackboard. He then turned back to scan the youthful faces of the students and said leisurely, "For our first class, let's do a little assessment. These two problems on the board are from last year's first monthly exam for the first year of high school. They primarily test junior high school knowledge, with only one or two high school concepts mixed in. Since you've all made it into the advanced class, it proves you are diligent and quick-minded. So, who would like to come up first and give these a try?"
