Chapter 5

Chapter 6: The agreement

Su Can woke up at the first light of dawn the next day. Today was his last day at school before middle school graduation, and for Su Can, who had traveled back in time and been reborn, it was also the crucial day that would determine whether he could distinguish himself in the exam-oriented education system ahead. He had to obtain the remaining "secret manuals" covering all the knowledge taught in middle school. Once this opportunity passed, there would be no way to get them. School would be out for two days, and then the high school entrance exam would be upon him. Right now, time had practically become the most precious asset of all.

Breakfast was milk and eggs his mother had gotten up at six thirty to prepare for him. After washing up, Su Can peeled an egg at the table, dipped the round white in vinegar, and ate with relish.

In fact, it had been a long time since Su Can had eaten anything in the morning. The pressure of work, along with his irregular, almost chaotic daily routine, had left his stomach unable to handle breakfast. If he ate in the morning, he would often feel uncomfortable for half the day, with the food still sitting poorly in his stomach at noon.

Now Su Can could fully feel how thin and weak this body was, yet how healthy and full of vitality it was inside. At sixteen, he had apparently still been five or six centimeters-ten-odd centimeters-shorter than his 2009 self.

"Mom, do you have twenty yuan? I need it for something today. There are some study materials I need to photocopy." Stuffing in the last egg, Su Can poured the milk into his mouth and looked at his mother, who was waiting nearby to clear the table after he finished.

His mother paused. In 1998, twenty yuan was no small sum for any student. Each fee the school charged for study materials was around twenty or thirty yuan, which already seemed like a lot to an onlooker. But for Su Can, from elementary school through middle school, apart from paying his tuition himself, he had rarely ever held that much money. At his age, his New Year's gift money was essentially confiscated.

Su Can remembered saving his pocket money from the second semester of sixth grade in elementary school. By graduation, his total savings had reached nineteen yuan and fifty cents.

Things had improved a little in middle school, but situations like this were still rare.

Su Can's mother heard the reason and, though she said, "Why are you only thinking of getting photocopies at the last minute?" she still went into the bedroom, took twenty yuan from her wallet, and handed it to Su Can. For an ordinary wage-earning family back then, that was a day's living expenses.

Holding the money and seeing the expectation on his mother's face, Su Can thought not only that he must never let his parents suffer for him again, but also understood more deeply the importance of wealth. In that era, everyone lived as though treading on thin ice, following the rules, all because their single source of livelihood had led to narrow values. They lacked the diverse approaches to life and innovative employment opportunities that would emerge with the countless new things of the twenty-first century.

As he recalled, layoffs and unemployment had grown increasingly serious in 1996 and continued rising afterward. More and more people losing their jobs had awakened everyone to the hard truth that "there is no such thing as a permanently secure job." Later, his mother had also been laid off and found work again, first working for others before finally opening her own stationery shop after numerous twists and turns. It had remained standing through all those years.

So, with this chance to start over, he had to hold wealth in his own hands. Otherwise, there would be many things he could do nothing about, even if he knew of them in advance.

His mother, Zeng Ke, who had absolutely no idea what had happened to Su Can, also had no idea that her son, facing a new day, could have such startlingly unconventional thoughts.

As he walked out of the residential compound with his schoolbag on his back, someone rushed up from behind and slapped him hard on the shoulder. A voice both familiar and unfamiliar rang out. "Hey, I was yelling my head off back there, and you wouldn't answer! What were you thinking about?"

Su Can had been recalling the math he had reviewed the night before. Clearly, he had encountered no obstacles. He had not expected that, looking at the material now with the mind of a twenty-seven-year-old adult, "clear at a glance" would be the most fitting description of his current state. He really had not heard anyone calling him from behind. Now that his train of thought had been interrupted, he looked at the person beside him with some annoyance.

Large ears, a crew cut, a high forehead, framed prescription glasses, and a thick lower lip-tall, skinny Xue Yangyi stood before him.

Su Can suddenly froze and blinked. Was he seeing things? Xue Yiyang from eleven years ago!?

A familiar warmth welled up in him, and once again Su Can felt an almost uncontrollable urge for his eyes to redden. Sometimes, there was a kind of friendship between men that could also be called childhood sweethearts.

In 2007, Xue Yiyang had come home on a month's family leave. When his leave ended, before taking a special flight back to Hainan Naval Base, he had drunk with Su Can in the cramped place Su Can rented in the big city. They had snacked on peanuts and sunflower seeds, talked about the embarrassing things they had done growing up together, and looked ahead to the future, happy and cheerful. Nothing could replace that bond.

After his brief stay at Su Can's place, he had gone back to the base. The fellow was a naval ground-crew noncommissioned officer, responsible for inspecting and servicing the fighter jets that went out on maritime patrols. It was exhausting work that not just anyone could do. Behind every flight was an enormous amount of sweat and toil from the ground crew.

Of course, there were all sorts of confidentiality regulations as well, and plenty of rules even for a trip home. The pay and benefits were not high, and if anything went wrong, they could face a court-martial. Thus, the hardships of ground-crew personnel remained unknown to others.

And that heart-to-heart conversation about their ideals in life in 2007 had been the last time Su Can saw this close friend he had grown up with.

During a nighttime patrol mission over the South China Sea in 2008, Xue Yiyang, responsible for inspecting an aircraft and making its final preparations for takeoff, had been checking the engine's pneumatic manifold when an incautious choice of route led to him being sucked into the fighter's engine, resulting in a major personnel accident.

Ordinary people could not see the efforts and sacrifices the nation's servicemen made behind the peace they enjoyed.

Su Can had only learned of it afterward. When the news reached him in 2009, he had spent two days and two nights drunk and in tears. Beside his seat, there had always been a full glass of liquor that no one touched.

Seeing Xue Yiyang alive before him now, sixteen years old just like himself, Su Can turned, spread his arms, and hugged him tightly. He was grateful to heaven for this journey of rebirth.

"Brother!"

"Hey, hey, what's gotten into you? Are you sick or something?" Though Xue Yiyang said this, there was a touch of feeling in his voice as well. The three close friends in their compound had grown up together, and their bond truly ran deep.

"Nothing, haha. What about you-heading to school?" Su Can knew he had plainly lost his composure. Under the surprised gaze of a middle-aged woman nearby, he let go and patted Xue Yiyang on the shoulder.

Xue Yiyang glanced at Su Can, who was acting rather strangely today, then said in high spirits, "This is great! I don't have any classes this afternoon! What about you guys? Shall we go to the usual place tonight?"

The usual place was a disc-based video game parlor. Back then, even the original first-generation PS, or PlayStation, counted as one of the most extravagant forms of entertainment. Internet cafés had only just begun appearing across the country, and they were expensive. At the time, Su Can had only heard of them and had never been to one. It was not until after he entered high school that he gradually came into contact with the burgeoning new phenomenon of internet cafés, so back then, disc-based game consoles were the most enticing form of entertainment.

Xue Yiyang attended City No. 1 High School. His grades had always been better than Su Can's, though the gap was not enormous. In addition, students in its middle school division benefited from a protective policy that discounted the "premium fee" for entering its high school division. Thus, although Xue Yiyang had scored higher than Su Can on the entrance exam, he had not met City No. 1 High School's admission requirement. Apparently, he had paid a premium fee of three thousand yuan to continue studying there.

Back then, City No. 1 High School had practically been every student's dream. It was full of beautiful girls, the teaching was excellent, and there was never any talk of keeping students after class for extra lessons. Every holiday was always given in full, and of course, the homework load was relatively light. Children of officials with any influence, along with children of wealthy families, from throughout the city and even outlying towns and counties all converged on City No. 1 High School. At a time when brands like Double Star and Anta were considered status symbols, its students were already wearing the higher-end Li-Ning sportswear line.

And by the time he entered high school, when Li-Ning was still a luxury to him, students at City No. 1 High School were already competing to outdo one another in top-tier athletic shoes like Adidas and Nike.

City No. 1 High School had always been shrouded in a mysterious, lofty veil.

"No, I'm going to study tonight. You should go home and study too. Review everything systematically, or you might fail to get in. Oh, right, what will your school's cutoff score be this time? Have your teachers let anything slip?" Su Can tried to gather as much information as possible. Having returned to the past, he had long since forgotten the admission cutoffs for the various schools.

Xue Yiyang stared at Su Can with his mouth hanging open. Was this still the Su Can he knew? He was actually turning around and telling him to study hard, even warning him he might fail to get in? He seemed like a completely different person. Was he all right?

"They haven't said outright. Last year's cutoff was 610. Our teacher said it probably won't be any lower this time. Why, do you want to try?" At this point, Xue Yiyang could not help giving Su Can a sidelong glance, with an innate sense of superiority. "Our school isn't easy to get into, you know. They're very strict about scores. That score you got last time, just 480, would put you right at the bottom of our class. I'd advise you to be more realistic!"

Su Can inwardly fumed at the brat! He was actually speaking to him with that sense of superiority, clearly looking down on his current school and exam scores. It made Su Can want to smack him on the forehead and see whether he would still put on airs!

"Oh!" Xue Yiyang suddenly thought of something and looked at Su Can in disbelief. Somewhat hesitantly, he said, "You couldn't be... you couldn't be planning to get into No. 1 High so you can pursue Chen Lingshan, could you!?"

Su Can was taken aback, an unforgettable feeling welling up inside him. Back in elementary school, he had harbored a secret crush on a girl whose features had already been perfect from childhood, marking her as a future beauty. That girl was Chen Lingshan. Even in elementary school, she had been like a princess, always standing behind a protective squad of girls. Later, she had earned admission to City No. 1 High School with excellent grades. Su Can had liked her for six years, and his feelings had only gradually faded after he entered middle school. But he had told his two closest friends about it long ago.

The Su Can of 2009 had long forgotten the girl he had secretly liked in elementary school. Only now, with Xue Yiyang bringing her up, did he feel a stirring of emotion. That faint childhood crush, the hope of running into her on the way to school, yet the fear of meeting her born of a young boy's nervousness-looking back now, what a beautiful feeling it had been.

Seeing Su Can lost in reverie, Xue Yiyang felt a twinge of sourness and said rather dismissively, "You'd better give up on that idea. Do you know how outstanding Chen Lingshan is at No. 1 High, or how many people like her? She has to deal with all those love letters practically every week. A girl that outstanding-and besides, you don't even go to the same school. Forget it. There's absolutely no way she'd like you!"

Su Can did not know whether to laugh or cry. So this brat had been this obnoxious as a kid! What kind of friend tried to talk him out of something by endlessly insisting he was not good enough for someone? Was the brat asking for a beating!?

Su Can knew Xue Yiyang had a certain sense of superiority and was even more dismissive of his "toad lusting after swan meat" aspirations. He could not be bothered to explain himself. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to kick him in the backside. Then an idea struck him. "How about we make a bet? If I get into your school, you stick your backside out on the first day and let me kick it in front of everyone. Otherwise, I'll let you kick me at my school gate! What do you say?"

Xue Yiyang's face instantly flushed red. He had still been about to say something to take Su Can down a peg, but hearing this, he immediately rose to the challenge. "Fine! If you can get into my school, I'll let you kick me! Otherwise, just wait for me to kick your ass!"