Chapter 11

It's mid-October now.

Another week has come to an end.

What's the most frequent thing in the third year of junior high? Exams!

Weekly tests are conducted every week.

Now that the exams are over, Liu Hongli held her score sheet and began reading it from beginning to end.

First place: Tong Yao, Chinese 143, Mathematics 150, English 148, Physics and Chemistry 187, Politics and History 191.

...

Cheng Yu, Chinese 132, Mathematics 80, English 125, Physics and Chemistry 120, Politics and History 190.

...

Tang Yue: Chinese 120, Mathematics 90, English 120, Physics and Chemistry 60, Politics and History 120.

Cheng Yu's grades are good enough to get into the top high school in the area. If she could improve her math a little more, she could get into the honors class.

Tang Yue's situation is really bad, but she should still be able to get into a local high school.

Lin Li listened until the very end, but never heard her own name called.

The next second.

"I want to especially commend one student, Lin Li!"

"Chinese 128, Math 150, English 132, Physics and Chemistry 190"

Political History 100. "

Lin Li knew her deduction points without even looking at the test paper.

I got all the Chinese dictation questions wrong, got the physics questions wrong because of the formulas, and for politics and history, I just guessed everything.

“Lin Li has made great progress recently. Could you share your experience with everyone?” Liu Hongli said to Lin Li.

“Of course,” Lin Li said, standing up and continuing, “Push more, think more.”

The classroom fell silent instantly.

"Gone?" Liu Hongli asked in surprise.

Lin Li nodded and then sat down.

The next second, a rustling sound rang out.

Tang Yue said, "I'm just a plant, Lin Li is such a good pretender."

Li Jiahao also said, "I support it."

Tang Yue looked at Li Jiahao and thought for a moment: "You shouldn't call him Jiahao."

Li Jiahao was a little confused.

Tang Yue said with a solemn expression, "You can't suppress the name Jiahao. Only Lin Li is worthy of it."

They were surprised by Lin Li's results, but not too shocked.

They saw it: Lin Li had changed his attitude. He stopped sleeping in class, completed his homework diligently, and spent his breaks sitting in his seat doing practice problems.

Recently, he and Tong Yao have become a new highlight in their class.

There's one thing that's always been consistent: except for going to the toilet, he sits there from morning self-study until school ends without even wiggling his butt.

When Li Jiahao saw it, he complained that Lin Li's trousers were probably soaked with sweat.

Although I knew Lin Li's grades would definitely improve, I didn't expect them to improve so quickly.

Tang Yue sighed, "It seems we've got a male protagonist from a novel right here among us."

"Teacher, I want to report this!"

Cheng Yu suddenly jumped up from her seat.

Her gaze was fixed on Lin Li, her eyes almost overflowing with jealousy.

"I want to report Lin Li for cheating on the exam. He definitely copied Tong Yao's score this time."

Immediately, classmates who didn't know Lin Li started whispering among themselves.

"I knew it! How could someone improve so much in just one month?"

"Lin Li, the Tech Bro~"

"He cheats on small tests, let's see what he does on the high school entrance exam."

Liu Hongli actually suspected that Lin Li's grades were inflated, but as a teacher, she couldn't very well question him in public.

But she didn't agree with Cheng Yu's words. Instead, she said, "Whether Lin Li cheated or not, everyone will know in the next monthly exam. This monthly exam is just as important. There are absolutely no loopholes in the city-wide unified exam. Don't go around saying that people cheated. What if they really did it on their own merit?"

Lin Li sat below, paying no attention to what the people around him were saying. Only those who had wronged him knew best whether he had cheated or not.

Thinking about it, Lin Li turned her head and looked at Cheng Yu.

"Hehe!" Lin Li let out a sarcastic laugh.

The next second, a clear, cold female voice came: "Teacher Liu, Lin Li did not cheat, I can testify."

Tong Yao stood up, looked at Liu Hongli, and said seriously.

"First of all, he sat next to me and didn't look at my test paper once during the entire exam, which I can vouch for. Secondly, Lin Li got a perfect score in chemistry, while I only got 87. If Lin Li copied my test paper, it's impossible for him to get a higher score than me."

Liu Hongli nodded. "What you said makes sense, but it's normal for everyone to suspect him of cheating. After all, everyone has seen his previous grades. If Lin Li can maintain his current grades in the next monthly exam, then everyone will believe him."

Tong Yao refused to back down. "Teacher Liu, you can post the answer sheets for this week's test on the honor roll outside, along with mine. Everyone will understand when they compare them that our problem-solving methods and approaches are definitely different."

"Yao Yao!" Cheng Yu looked at Tong Yao, her voice filled with disbelief.

Tong Yao turned to look at Cheng Yu, her eyes filled with disappointment: "You sat on the podium to proctor the whole exam, and Lin Li was sitting in the first row. You know in your heart whether he cheated or not. You really went too far this time."

Upon hearing this, Lin Li suddenly looked up, her heart feeling as if it had been clenched by an invisible hand and then suddenly released.

She actually stood up for me! She actually sided with me!

Lin Li's gaze lingered on Tong Yao's profile, watching her slightly furrowed brows and her gently pursed lips as she argued her case. Suddenly, her eyes welled up with tears.

During that argument with Cheng Yu, Tong Yao said that it would be a lie to say she didn't care. That thorn had been stuck in his heart and hadn't been removed; it was just that over time, his flesh had covered the thorn.

If you don't touch it, it won't hurt. But if you accidentally touch it, the thorn will pierce the flesh again until the flesh heals.

As Lin Li watched, she suddenly smiled.

His previous liking for Tong Yao was a secret imitation hidden in his textbooks, a quiet admiration when he saw her easily solve difficult problems, and a regret when he saw Tong Yao's later setbacks in life. That liking was not intense. Sometimes he even doubted that he was just admiring her, wanting to get closer to her, or even just a friend's liking.

But now, when she stood firmly on his side, when she defended him in her cool voice, he suddenly realized that he liked her, she liked Tong Yao, and he liked Tong Yao too.

Suddenly, he felt a dizzying sensation as the world spun around him.

Then he collapsed onto the table and passed out.

Lin Li opened his eyes and looked at the scene before him. Was he... dreaming?

No, this is the previous life.

The person in the picture is a girl; this is Lin Li from her previous life.

18-year-old Lin Li was riding an electric scooter when it rained heavily that day.

The rain blurred her vision, and then she slipped.

Then came the screeching of brakes and the sound of a crash.

Lin Li died, in the summer when she was 18, the day before her college entrance exam results were released.

Suddenly it dawned on me why I couldn't remember my grades when Tong Yao asked me about them—it turned out she hadn't had a chance to check my score yet.

The scene continues, and Lin Li's soul floats out after her death, watching herself being buried in the ground.

Then, a girl arrived.

It was Tang Yue. Tang Yue's eyes were red. She silently offered incense to Lin Li, holding a stack of paper money in her hand. She watched as she threw a piece of paper into the brazier.

That night, Tang Yue talked a lot, from when they first met at age 4, through elementary school, through middle school, and even about where they had recently made plans to go for summer vacation after the college entrance exams.

"Lin Li, do you know that Tong Yao's father passed away? She almost didn't finish high school and ended up attending a regular high school in the local area. I wonder how she is doing now?"

“I haven’t been in contact with her since junior high school, so I don’t know…” Lin Li said, looking at Tang Yue.

Of course, Tang Yue couldn't hear Lin Li's words; she continued talking to herself.

"Hey, Lin Li, to be honest, this is the first time I've seen a classmate of mine lose their parents. I always feel like these things are still far away from me. Sometimes I feel like I'm still that kid in junior high school, but when I look at my parents, they're no longer young. They lost their father at such a young age. I wonder how they are now. Children from single-parent families are so pitiful!"

Then Tang Yue choked up and said, "Lin Li, you're pitiful too. Today is the first time I've seen a close friend of mine die. Shouldn't the death of relatives and friends be far away from me? I'm only 18 years old, and you, you're only 18 years old too."

Lin Li watched Tang Yue cover her face and weep bitterly, her hand outstretched in mid-air, unable to touch her. "I'm sorry, I didn't expect this either. I always thought the word 'death' was far away from me..."

During that time, she met many people. Her sister and brother-in-law brought her little nephew, who asked where his aunt had gone and wanted her to hold him.

Looking at her four-year-old nephew, Lin Li's eyes were filled with regret. Reflecting on her short 18 years of life, she realized that she had wasted her best years of youth in a daze.

Her life was a failure. A person's life should be lived in such a way that when he looks back on his past, he will not regret wasting his years, nor be ashamed of having accomplished nothing.

As she pondered this, she felt the shackles on her soul lifted, and she was able to move freely.

She just floated and floated.

I drifted to a university.

She saw someone, the person from the depths of her memory.

Lin Li followed her at a distance for a while.

She saw that she had gone on a blind date.

The blind date was a very ordinary man, so ordinary that he couldn't be more ordinary.

Then they got engaged.

No, no!

Tong Yao, you shouldn't be like this. You should go to the best high school in the province, then get into the best university, be with the person you love, and then get married and even have children.

Why did it turn out like this? If only I were a boy.

If I weren't a girl, would our ending be different?

The next second, the scene shifted. Lin Li's soul disintegrated into fragments and floated into the sky.

Lin Li had heard that after a person dies, the substances in their body do not disappear into thin air. The brain waves of the brain are transformed into memory waves, which float in the air and slowly drift out of the atmosphere. After 150 years, they may return to Earth and take over a new life, which is called reincarnation.

Is she about to enter reincarnation?

Lin Li was unwilling to accept this. Suddenly, she saw a black hole. The space around the black hole was distorted. The black hole was getting closer and closer to her. Then she was sucked into the black hole.

The next second.

"Lin Li, stand up." Liu Hongli grabbed Lin Li by the back of the neck.

This is her first day of rebirth.

Lin Li suddenly felt dizzy upon seeing this, and the video cut off.

...

"Teacher, is Lin Li alright?"

"It's nothing, he just fainted due to low blood sugar. I gave him some glucose, he'll wake up soon. Okay, all of you, come over here. The infirmary isn't a place for you to play around."

Just then, the phone rang, and the teacher answered it and went outside.

Before leaving, she glanced back and pointed to the table: "Tong Yao, right? I have something to do and need to go out now. When this young man wakes up, please make him some sugar water. The sugar is on the table."

The footsteps faded into the distance, then with a click as the door closed, the person on the bed stirred.

Looking at the ceiling of the infirmary.

Lin Li blinked. "He's back?"

The door opened, and then the curtain beside Lin Li's bed was pulled back.

"Lin Li, you're awake? You scared me to death, you know?"

Tang Yue stared at Lin Li with wide eyes: "I thought you were so angry that you couldn't spit out blood because you were wrongly accused of cheating that you died of anger."

"Oh dear, you have no idea. When Teacher Liu saw you suddenly collapse on the table, she couldn't wake you up no matter how much she called you. Your face was deathly pale. She was so scared she almost died."

"Cheng Yu was scolded terribly. Teacher Liu has already asked her parents to take her home to reflect on her actions."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Tang Yue saw that Lin Li wasn't speaking and was looking at her with a sticky, disgusting gaze.

"I know I'm beautiful, but don't like me. We're too familiar with each other, I can't bring myself to do it."

Lin Li was still reminiscing when she saw Tang Yue crying so bitterly at her grave, and she was about to reach out and pat her head to comfort her.

And that's what I heard.

"Get lost! Disgusting!" Lin Li stretched out a leg from the bed and kicked him.

Tang Yue was prepared and dodged backward.

"Alright, I'm glad you're okay. I'm going back to the classroom now."

Watching Tang Yue leave, Lin Li realized that she seemed to be the only one in the infirmary.

Feeling the stickiness on my back.

Lin Li sat up in bed.

His back was covered in sweat, probably from that "dream" he had just had.

The weather is getting cooler now, and lying in bed wearing wet clothes is uncomfortable and feels rather cold.

He drew the curtain, took off his school uniform jacket, grabbed the collar of his school uniform short-sleeved shirt, and ducked his head.

He took off his short-sleeved school uniform, and now he was shirtless, his back covered in sweat. He was about to use his short-sleeved uniform to wipe the sweat off his back.

The next second, the curtain was pulled open.

Lin Li looked up.

………………

After listening to what the infirmary teacher said, Tong Yao glanced at the white sugar on the table.

I looked around but couldn't find the paper cup for drinking water.

She went back to the classroom and brought her own cup.

Back at the infirmary, I saw that the door was not closed, but just ajar, but I didn't think much of it.

I tiptoed in, poured the sugar into a cup, and then went to the water dispenser to get some hot water.

Holding her cup, she heard rustling sounds coming from behind the curtain and realized that Lin Li must have woken up.

So without thinking, she pulled back the curtain.

The moment the curtain was pulled open, Tong Yao's water glass wobbled slightly, and water droplets on the glass slid down her fingers onto the cuff of her school uniform. Her slightly furrowed brows froze at the unexpected sight.

The boy was half-naked from the waist up. His sixteen-year-old frame had not yet fully developed. His shoulders were as thin as branches sprouting in early spring, and his shoulder blades protruded slightly. His abdomen tightened because of Lin Li's raised hand.

There is no excess fat on the sides of the waist.

The waistline tapers gently along the direction of the hip bones—that's the V-line.

The outline of Lin Li's abdominal muscles was faintly visible under her skin as she breathed.

Because they had just sweated a lot, their muscles still gleamed faintly in the sunlight.

At this moment, the air was so quiet that you could hear the two of them breathing.

Tong Yao's ears turned a visibly red, and she quickly turned her back to Lin Li, her fingers gripping the water glass tightening slightly, her knuckles turning pale.

Her tone was no longer calm as usual, but rather tinged with panic and tension: "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were changing clothes."

After placing the water glass on the bedside table, she stopped moving, keeping her back turned, and added, "The teacher told you to drink it when you woke up, and then... change your clothes and wake me up."

Lin Li's mind went blank for a full two seconds.

Isn't there no one left?

The wet school uniform was still hanging above his back, and he was as stiff as a statue.

His ears were the first to explode with heat, which shot up his neck. He glanced down at his bare upper body, seemingly unable to believe his current appearance.

The next second, he suddenly realized what was happening and hurriedly grabbed his school uniform jacket with his left hand to put it on.

Pull the zipper all the way up.

The sound of fabric rubbing together was particularly clear in the quiet infirmary.

"Okay, all done."

Lin Li blushed and whispered.

Tong Yao turned around after hearing this, not knowing what to say for a moment.

The awkwardness in the air hadn't dissipated, but the two seemed to have reached some unspoken understanding, and neither of them mentioned the incident from earlier again.

Lin Li sat on the bed, feeling everything.

My heart is about to explode.

Ugh! I'm so embarrassed, so incredibly ashamed.

He reached past Tong Yao, picked up the water glass on the table, and took two sips.

During this time, he didn't dare to look at Tong Yao, his gaze fixed on the swaying warm water in the cup.

This cup... looks familiar...

Just then, Tong Yao's voice rang out softly, still in its usual cool tone, but half a beat faster than usual, and with a slightly elusive quality:

"I'm glad you're alright. I'll go back to class."

Only when the door closed softly did Lin Li seem to lose all her strength. She put the water glass on the bedside table, covered her face with her hands, fell back onto the bed, and buried her face in the pillow.

How embarrassing!!! How am I going to face Tong Yao after this?!