Chapter 3
After cleaning the classroom, all the students left, leaving only Lin Li and Tong Yao.
"I'm done sweeping."
Tong Yao checked it over and then nodded.
"You can go now."
With permission, Lin Li returned to her seat, grabbed her bag, and prepared to leave. As she walked out of the classroom, she saw an empty room and the approaching dusk outside the window.
Lin Li stopped in her tracks.
After checking the cleanliness, Tong Yao went to check that each window was closed properly, and finally unplugged the multimedia equipment and locked the classroom door with a "click".
She had just reached the top of the stairs when she saw Lin Li standing by the railing with her back to her.
"Why haven't they left yet?"
Tong Yao was the first to ask a question, her voice tinged with doubt.
Lin Li turned around, still clutching her schoolbag strap, and instead of answering her question, looked up and asked, "Is your mother coming to pick you up today?"
In my memory, Tong Yao's mother would occasionally pick her up from school, such as when the weather was bad.
"Why aren't you answering today?" Tong Yao frowned, not understanding why he suddenly asked this.
"It's nothing." Lin Li shook his head, a bright smile playing on his lips, and quickly walked to her side.
"Then let's go together."
The autumn evening breeze swept the leaves to the ground and also dispersed his voice, carrying a sincerity that could not be refused.
Tong Yao's fingers, hanging by her sides, quietly tightened around the strap of her schoolbag, her knuckles turning slightly white.
She was silent for two seconds, neither saying "no need" nor turning to leave, but simply giving a soft "hmm".
They remained silent the entire way.
Lin Li didn't know what to say; his mind went blank whenever he faced Tong Yao.
When did you start learning high school physics?
Tong Yao's voice was very soft, like the wind rustling through the leaves. After asking the question, she lowered her eyes slightly, her fingers unconsciously stroking the edge of her backpack strap, quietly waiting for Lin Li's answer.
Lin Li was somewhat surprised: "Why do you ask that?"
“Today, Ms. Xu saw the draft paper you wrote on,” Tong Yao looked up, her gaze clear and gentle, and then paused before adding the second half of the sentence, “but she thought I wrote it.”
No wonder I couldn't find that piece of paper when I got back; I thought it had been blown away by the wind.
For some reason, Lin Li suddenly wanted to tease this always quiet girl, so he deliberately put on a stern face, grabbed her arm, and stopped walking.
"Actually, I traveled from the high school timeline. In the future, I was a top student, a dark horse who made a comeback, you know?"
Tong Yao's eyelashes trembled slightly. Instead of immediately refuting him, she followed his words and asked with a hint of laughter in her voice, "Then, may I ask, Lin Li of the future, and me of the future, were you also reversed in your favor?"
Lin Li thought for a moment and couldn't really remember his college entrance exam score, but he did have some recollection of the mock exams in his senior year of high school. He scored around 550, and after the scores were converted, he estimated that his score would be similar to Tong Yao's.
He thought for a moment and replied seriously, "No, I guess you could say I caught up."
As soon as she finished speaking, Tong Yao's lips curled up slightly. She quickly covered her mouth with the back of her hand, but couldn't hide the smile in her eyes, which were slightly curved at the corners.
Perhaps influenced by the joke, a faint blush rose on her cheeks, making her less aloof and more vibrant and tender.
"That top student still needs to work harder." Her voice carried a hint of teasing.
Soon, bus number 42 arrived. After Tong Yao boarded, she waved goodbye to Lin Li.
Upon returning home, the first thing Lin Li did was to start steaming rice.
After dinner, he took his change of clothes and went into the bathroom. He adapted to his new body much faster than expected.
After taking a shower, Lin Li immediately lay down on the floor and started doing push-ups. In his previous life, he couldn't even do a single standard push-up, but this time he completed five in one go.
"Hmph!" He held his breath and finished the last one, finally stopping at ten—this was his current limit.
"It seems this body is still too weak?" He wiped the sweat from his forehead, somewhat unwilling.
Just then, a new message popped up on his phone from a QQ group called "Pigpen"—a name he came up with himself. It started as a small group, but later almost the entire class joined.
At this moment, Tang Yue and Li Jiahao are frantically tagging him in the group chat, urging him to go online and play games.
On Saturday, most students got access to their phones. The most popular game at the moment was undoubtedly "Honor of Kings." Lin Li had just logged in when she noticed a familiar gray avatar was lit up.
He opened the QQ chat window and sent a message: "Why do you have time to play games today? Won't your mom scold you?"
The reply came quickly: "You can play for two hours tonight."
"Shall we fight?" Lin Li asked.
"No, I just logged on to take a look. It's time."
"Alright."
Lin Li didn't ask any more questions and turned to join her classmate's battle.
After the game ended, looking at the "MVP" title on the screen, Lin Li smiled smugly and typed in the group chat: "Isn't that awesome?"
Tang Yue replied: "Awesome! You've been practicing secretly, haven't you? Your flick shot accuracy is amazing!"
Li Jiahao quickly followed up: "+1! You're cheating!"
In fact, Lin Li's talent in this game is average, except for his feel for FPS characters. He can still handle the current version, but after several changes to the heroes in later versions, he can no longer find that feel for quick-scoping.
...
On Saturday morning, sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains. Junior high school wasn't as suffocating as high school, and there were still weekends off. Thinking back to the days in high school when there was only one day off a month and the almost military-style management, Lin Li cherished the leisurely time she had now.
However, a notification in the class group chat broke the silence: due to the National Day holiday adjustment, students needed to return to school for make-up classes over the weekend. Immediately afterward, the QQ group also became lively.
Tang Yue asked in the group chat, "What's the homework this week?"
Chen Yan replied: "Math workbook pages 11 to 19."
"For Chinese, I would organize the wrong questions from the joint exam papers and copy them into a notebook."
Li Jiahao interjected, "Didn't Teacher Fu say that only those who failed this time were allowed to copy?"
The group chat was instantly flooded with gloating emojis.
Lin Li stared at the scrolling screen and suddenly remembered—he seemed to have gotten the lowest score in the class in this joint exam.
He scored 199 out of a total of 950. Except for Chinese, where he scored in the 70s, all other subjects were in the 20s or 30s, and physics was a dismal single digit—9 points.
He was immediately speechless. He had fallen asleep during the exam and had only filled in the multiple-choice questions randomly before handing in his paper.
This is terrible.
He quickly rummaged through his schoolbag, which was stuffed full of test papers for various subjects, but the joint exam paper was nowhere to be found. Only then did he remember that he felt so ashamed of his score that he had thrown it directly into the trash can after the exam.
Helpless, he had no choice but to ask for help in the group chat. But everyone had passed the Chinese exam this time, and no one had taken the test paper home, so there was nothing he could do.
"In that case, I won't write it." Lin Li was quite philosophical about it—it wasn't that she didn't want to write, it was just that she really didn't have any exam papers!
Seeing his optimism, Tang Yue couldn't help but remind him, "Teacher Fu said that anyone who hasn't finished their homework this time has to stand at the back of the classroom to finish it, and they can go back whenever they finish."
Lin Li said he was already used to being forced to stand as punishment.
So what if he has to stand there? He's not afraid of having his parents called in.
The group chat was immediately flooded with a string of "Wolf Exterminate".
This little incident quickly passed, and the conversation turned to the upcoming National Day holiday. Everyone excitedly discussed their holiday plans; some made plans to go to the provincial capital, while others expressed their financial constraints.
"Lin Li, what are your plans for National Day?" Tang Yue asked him.
Lin Li lay on the bed, holding her phone, remembering that she had to visit her sister in the provincial capital during the National Day holiday. Her sister had just given birth to her nephew, and her mother was planning to take him to visit.
"I know an internet cafe that can let us in," said Li Jiahao. In his previous life, he was a gaming addict. After graduating from junior high school, he stopped studying and made a living by playing games. Later, he even founded a gaming club and reportedly bought a car.
Lin Li wasn't very interested in computer games, mainly because he got motion sickness from 3D games; playing even one would make him dizzy and nauseous. Besides, he really disliked the smoky atmosphere of internet cafes.
He typed a message to decline: "No, I have family matters to attend to during the National Day holiday."
Putting down her phone, Lin Li began to sort out her life in this lifetime.
His family structure is simple: his father works away from home year-round, and his mother runs a small business. He also has an older sister who is thirteen years older than him and got married and moved to the provincial capital last year.
Perhaps because he was a boy in this life, his mother's dedication to his studies was far less than in his previous life. Recalling his past life, his mother was always worried about his education.
His grades weren't good in junior high, and we were worried he wouldn't get into high school, would go to a vocational school and go astray, or would suffer if he entered the workforce too early. So, starting in his third year of junior high, we spent money on one-on-one tutoring and managed to get him into high school.
He thought he would be grateful if he could get into a local high school, but he performed exceptionally well and reached the score required for a private school in the provincial capital.
Despite the high tuition fees, the mother gritted her teeth and insisted: "What can a girl like you do if you don't study? You won't find a good job without a degree. Unlike your cousin, who's a boy and can do manual labor even if he doesn't study, what can you do with your small frame?"
Throughout her life, her mother's educational philosophy became: "If you can study, study; if you can't, just drift along. Once you're an adult, go out and work."
Discipline is much more lenient now—in his previous life, it would have been impossible for him to go out at night; now, even if he goes to an internet cafe all night, his mother won't say anything as long as she knows where he is.
While we were having dinner, an advertisement for a new housing development was playing on TV.
In 2022, housing prices in Yancheng were at their peak. Lin Li clearly remembered that in his previous life, his mother bought an unfinished building at this peak, only to end up without ever moving in and burdened with debt, working hard every day just to pay off the bank. His private school also had high tuition fees, fifty to sixty thousand yuan a year, not including living expenses and other miscellaneous fees.
At that moment, the mother was staring intently at the advertisement.
Seeing this, Lin Li quickly asked, "Mom, you're not thinking of buying a house, are you?"
Upon hearing this, the mother casually remarked, "It's time to buy one. The place we live in now is too old, only seventy square meters. You're all grown up now, it's time to move to a bigger one."
Lin Li paused—in his past life, his mother bought a house on a whim, after being misled; in this life, she was actually considering it in advance? He pressed, "Does Dad know you're buying a house?"
"I haven't told him yet," the mother said dismissively.
The father is away from home most of the year, returning only a handful of times. He might bring back tens of thousands of yuan, but the mother supports the family's daily expenses. He is practically a hands-off manager at home, never getting involved in family matters, and probably doesn't even know which class or school Lin Li attends.
“Mom, I have no objection to you buying a house,” Lin Li shoveled the last mouthful of rice into her mouth, “but please don’t buy one from Shuhuan Group. House prices are so high now, and it’s not like we don’t have a place to live. I’m going into my final year of junior high soon, and high school is when we need a lot of money, so it’s okay to buy one a little later.”
The mother began clearing away the dishes: "Just focus on your studies. Don't worry about adult matters. The family savings are enough for your education. Just study hard at school every day and don't cause me any trouble."
"How much money do you have at home? Is it this much?" Lin Li made a "five" gesture.
The mother ignored her and took the bowl and chopsticks into the kitchen.
Do they really have that much savings? Otherwise, where did they get the down payment for the house in my previous life? No, I absolutely can't let her buy a house this year.
Lin Li turned around and went back to her room, picked up her phone and made a call.
"Hello, Grandma."
"Li'er, is school out for the holidays? Do you want to come over to Grandma's? Your cousin is here too."
"My mom wants to..." Lin Li told her grandmother about her mother's plan to buy a house and the recent news about unfinished buildings.
"Okay, I'll talk to your mom another day..."
After hanging up the phone, Lin Li watched the busy figures in the kitchen and silently prayed, "I hope Grandma can persuade Mom to stay."
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