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Lin Qiang gave a dismissive snort, clearly unwilling. Seeing this, Wang Hu shouted even louder, "Everyone's afraid of that damned dinosaur. We're really unlucky to have ended up in the same class as you." The other boys immediately joined in, while the girls covered their mouths and giggled.

Wang Hu let out a pitiful wail. "Which brother will take pity on me and save me?"

The room erupted in laughter. Chen Yan had not said a word from beginning to end. Like a block of wood, she sat there quietly and blankly with her head lowered. Her dull yellow hair hid her eyes, and her pale hand gripped a pencil stub too short to be any shorter as she worked through problems. A row of threads had come loose from her dirty cuff, and there really was a faint strange odor around her. Chen Yan was not only a dinosaur, but her family was also exceptionally poor. Looking at her, there was not a single redeeming feature.

Chen Yan had been the same in his previous life, always keeping her head down, always doing problems. She only spoke when the teacher called on her to answer a question, and her grades never improved.

Su Yan had been young and reckless then too, and he had looked down on girls like Chen Yan just as much. Later, something happened during the college entrance examinations that changed his opinion of her.

Now that he had another chance, he saw Chen Yan from a different angle, and his state of mind was no longer the same. Chen Yan was a hardworking, good student. She was just a little slow. They were all the same age and in the same position, so what right did they have to mock others and take pleasure in bullying them?

Everyone watched in shock as Su Yan moved Chen Yan's desk beside his own. Wan Fang was so surprised that she could not even get the words out to stop him.

"Sit here," Su Yan said to Chen Yan.

Chen Yan's eyes widened. She wanted to say thank you, but could not force the words out for a long time.

After that commotion, class started soon enough.

The homeroom teacher was their Chinese teacher, but he had no plans to teach today. He hurried in and said, "Now that everyone is here, we'll hold a class meeting. We'll choose class officers and subject representatives, rearrange the seats, and then do a general cleanup. There's no evening self-study tonight. Morning self-study starts at 6:40 tomorrow, and school officially begins! Starting tomorrow, there'll also be evening self-study from 6:30 to 9:30. The schedule is out too. I'll put it up here, so make sure you take a look."

Pear Blossom High School was not the best high school, but its management was quite strict, and its atmosphere was relatively simple. Secret dating and the occasional fight were about as far as things went there.

"Class monitor, Lin Qiang. Vice monitor, Chen Wanwan. Study committee member..." The teacher announced them one by one, then read out, "Math subject representative, Su Yan." Su Yan, seated in the back, raised his head. The whole class looked at him. Many girls giggled excitedly, while the boys were filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment.

After arranging the class officers, it was time to adjust the seating. There was an odd number of students in the class, so the teacher arranged boy-boy and girl-girl desk mates to prevent early romance, but one desk inevitably had to be a boy and a girl.

Su Yan was fairly tall. His newly assigned seat was in the second-to-last row. Before the girl sitting in front of him could even celebrate, Su Yan took the initiative and said, "Teacher, I'll sit with Chen Yan."

The homeroom teacher was stunned. This student was being so proactive. Could he like Chen Yan? He looked at Chen Yan's appearance and felt that was unlikely. Chen Yan's desk mate happened to be unhappy about it, so the teacher agreed. Thus, Su Yan and Chen Yan returned to the last, most secluded corner. All the girls in class were heartbroken, jealous and envious of Chen Yan, but they also breathed a sigh of relief. They thought Su Yan was merely kind-hearted and would never like Chen Yan. They still had a chance.

It was only four-thirty after the general cleanup, and the whole class was dismissed.

Su Yan had just locked his bicycle in the residential compound and was about to go upstairs when Aunt Xu, the street sweeper, hurried over. She stopped before him, panting, and said, "Xiao Yan, you're out of school?"

"Yeah." Aunt Xu was a neighbor from the same street, and they knew each other well. She was actually about the same age as Su Yan's mother, but the pressures of life had aged her rapidly. Though she was only forty, she looked like an old grandmother.

"It's nothing much, but... when you throw out trash in the future, can you let me collect it?" Aunt Xu looked at Su Yan eagerly.

Su Yan froze, feeling troubled. He lived alone, and spent most of his time in the space. To be honest, he barely had any trash to throw out. Su Yan nodded. "Sure, Aunt Xu. Help yourself." He had almost forgotten about throwing out garbage. If he never threw any away for a long time, people would find it strange. There were also the utilities, especially the water at home. Su Yan barely used any.

"Thank you, Xiao Yan. Oh, right, how come I haven't seen your parents lately?"

"They got divorced and remarried separately."

"Huh?" Aunt Xu was stunned. She had never expected that. She had thought the young couple had gone traveling.

Su Yan said nothing more and turned to go upstairs.

After slipping into the space to bathe and eat, Su Yan returned to his room and went online. He added quite a few friends on QQ, all related to gaming, programming, and similar interests. Although QQ users were not as widespread as they would be years later, it was already at the forefront of the trend—fresh and interesting. You could find someone online and chat with them for ages. Unfortunately, QQ groups had not appeared yet. Su Yan had his own plans and did not want to waste too much time, so he acted quickly. He registered a gaming-related forum as fast as he could and began working on a separate website. At the same time, he joined many other people's forums to chat and post.

Although Su Yan had been skilled at programming and loved games in his previous life, time had now gone backward. Many convenient programs had yet to appear, and the internet was very different as well, making many things harder to do. Meeting friends with similar interests both relieved his boredom and helped him familiarize himself with the current situation. After a few days of figuring things out, those differences no longer mattered. Whether in the past or now, Su Yan was still Su Yan. His interests had not changed, nor had his passion. He wanted to make games and turn the ideas in his mind into reality through programming. Time had gone backward and conditions were worse, but it had also given him an excellent environment and opportunity. Games still had plenty of room to grow, and he had even more space to show what he could do.