The star tutor

"One day, I, Yang Rui, am going to make the front-page headline of the People's Daily! A whole page, with a headline like 'China's Best Tutor,' or maybe 'A Phenomenal Instructor.' Everyone will worship me. I'll be ridiculously cool..."

A fat man in a gray-and-white horizontally striped T-shirt was writing all over a wall with great gusto when a hidden weapon suddenly dropped from the sky. A red flip-flop, worn through in the middle, struck him on the head.

"Enough, Yang Rui. Stop embarrassing yourself. All I asked you to write was an ad, one line in total: 'Bright Moon Tutoring Class now enrolling students. Contact Yang.' Leave your phone number, then hurry up and go. If that old gatekeeper catches us again, we're in for another thrashing." A young man strode over, one foot bare. Clearly, he had thrown the weapon.

"All right, I know. We're back on campus. Can't I soak up the campus atmosphere, breathe in the air of youth, and get a little nostalgic?" With a few quick strokes, the fat man finished the ad, adding his handsome phone number at the end: 138888011X8. To be fair, he did have some skill. His lettering was genuinely beautiful, gleaming with a special radiance in the sunlight, visible from far away.

Yang Rui admired his work in rapture. This handwriting could give a great leader's a run for its money! At the same time, he lamented his bad luck. He hadn't unleashed his inner cosmos during the college entrance exam, had ended up at an ordinary second-tier university, and had even been reassigned to biology. Unable to find a job after graduation, he had no choice but to buckle down and take the graduate entrance exam. Through sheer dumb luck, he had become a graduate-school monk. He had worked without complaint, studying even harder than he had for the college entrance exam, and had finally graduated, only to suffer through another round of unemployment.

After careful consideration, Yang Rui had concluded that there were two reasons he couldn't find work:

First, who the hell had reassigned him to biology in the first place? National research institutes, public institutions-he couldn't get into any of them. His dad couldn't compete with other people's dads. At ordinary companies, his major wasn't relevant. "What's a biology graduate doing applying to our e-commerce company? Get lost..."

Second, after years of diligent study, getting up earlier than the roosters and going to bed later than the "chicks," he had literally exhausted himself into obesity. His constitution was unusual: the more tired he got, the fatter he became. Of course, he could control his weight too. He could get as fat as he wanted, and if he wanted to get even fatter, he could do that too. People struggled to see his fundamentally handsome nature beneath his obese body, causing him to miss out on job after job.

Eventually, he had wound up at a tutoring school. Unexpectedly, he had found a new lease on life there. More than a dozen students in his class had gotten into elite universities in one go, and there had been no stopping him after that. In just a few years, his students had spread across the country. Tsinghua, Peking University, Fudan, Zhejiang University-they were packed with them. He had become the tutoring school's star instructor.

All Yang Rui could do was sigh deeply. Born at the wrong time, a late bloomer! Only years after finishing his college entrance exam had he finally figured out, understood, and thoroughly mastered the material from back then. Saying any more would only bring tears!

Eventually, feeling that he had mastered all the "secrets" of the college entrance exam, Yang Rui had simply left with two colleagues to start their own tutoring school. To raise its profile, he had to hand out little advertisements on the side.

"Hey, you two brats over there! You again! Stop right there!" Just as Yang Rui was lost in admiration of his flamboyant lettering, an old man came charging over with a broom.

It all happened in a flash. Despite his head of white hair, the old man ran like an arrow. Before Yang Rui could react, the broom's bristles were almost in his face, a thick murderous aura bearing straight down on him. He could only turn tail and run. Looking around, he found no trace of his companion. That bastard Zhang Aimin! Every single time, he leaves me to cover his retreat.

Yang Rui pumped his thick legs and ran for his life, while the old man chased just as hard behind him, broom in hand, cursing as he went. "Fine, write your ads! Other people use chalk, but you actually used paint! Do you know how hard paint is to wash off..."

The more the old man cursed, the more sorrowful he sounded, until even Yang Rui could sympathize. Yes, paint is hard to wash off. If it came off easily, we wouldn't have used it.

At the last moment, through an incredible stroke of luck, Yang Rui dodged the old man's murderous precision broom throw and dashed out of the school gates. Unfortunately, at the very instant he was feeling pleased with himself, a beautiful BMW gave him a little tap. Everything froze in that moment. At the final instant of his life, Yang Rui thought, I haven't finished getting a hundred students into Tsinghua yet. What a shame.

"Yang Rui, I like you." Pressing a hand to his head, Yang Rui opened his eyes groggily and saw a girl with a delicate oval face, watery eyes, and fair skin. Her hair was tied in two little pigtails, with two red flowers on her head. She wore a white blouse with an ankle-length blue skirt and black cloth shoes. Her hands tugged fiercely at her white blouse as though she bore it a grudge.

What class is this student from? She's dressed so... rustic. What a waste of that pretty face. Wait. He suddenly remembered the words, "Yang Rui, I like you." Holy crap! This girl is confessing to me. Has she been possessed by some lunatic? From childhood to adulthood, apart from his mother constantly saying, "My baby, my baby, Mommy loves you most," no woman had ever "confessed" to him.

Yang Rui couldn't help asking, "What did you say?"

At his question, the girl's fair face instantly turned as red as a Fuji apple. That confession had already used up all her courage. Seeing that Yang Rui had woken up and was all right, she stamped her foot, swiveled her little bottom, and ran off.

Yang Rui was rather bewildered, and his head still hurt a little. Something about his surroundings felt wrong. It looked like an abandoned old factory dormitory, with a strange atmosphere, and he had no idea where he was. It was actually even more dilapidated than the rundown tutoring school where he worked. Feeling thirsty, he spotted a cup nearby. His thirst was unbearable, so he decided to go over and get some water.

But the moment he stood up, he froze. What the hell? A mirror hung on the wall in front of him. Though battered, scratched in many places, and missing a large corner at the bottom, it still showed his whole body. A young, handsome, tall, dashing, suave, elegant youth appeared before Yang Rui's eyes without warning. Holy shit, he's really handsome... Beautiful, deep-set eyes, a finely shaped nose, fair skin, a lovely chin, rosy lips. All right, the face was a little feminine, but the most important thing was his figure: slim, and tall too. He had to be over 1.8 meters, right? Those long legs had to be some sort of golden ratio. He looked ridiculously gorgeous.

At that moment, Yang Rui finally understood why that shy girl had worked up the courage to confess. Even he liked a man this good-looking. He was just too handsome.

Examining himself in the mirror from every angle, Yang Rui was overjoyed. I've experienced that legendary transmigration, haven't I? I've gone from a down-and-out fatty whose waist was bigger than his height to an exceptionally handsome, dashing, suave, tall, long-legged youth. What a jackpot!

Joy turned to sorrow. In his excitement, Yang Rui actually stepped in another puddle. Damn it! He slipped again, struck his head on the foot of the bed, and passed out once more.

When he woke, his head had inexplicably been stuffed with all sorts of things. Once Yang Rui had digested those additional memories, he wanted nothing more than to curse.

He had actually ended up in 1982.

This body belonged to the son of a high-ranking township Party official, and his name was also Yang Rui. A high-ranking township Party official ranked above even the township head-the undisputed local emperor. He was a second-generation official with impeccable political roots, yet he had actually wanted to kill himself because he'd failed the college entrance exam. He couldn't even manage suicide properly. After drinking a little pesticide, he had scared himself half to death. He had tried to vomit but couldn't, and had been afraid of embarrassing himself by calling for help. After struggling for ages, he had been discovered by his classmates, who thought he had heatstroke and brought him to the dormitory to rest.

And I ended up benefiting from it. What a silly kid. Your dad is the Party secretary! Even if you can't get into university, there are other routes. If my dad were the Party secretary, who would I be afraid of?

As these jumbled thoughts ran through his head, he heard voices outside. Yang Rui still hadn't quite worked out what was going on, so he simply stayed lying down.

Two people came in. One wore a blue cloth Mao suit and glasses. Tall and thin, with deeply set eyes, he was his homeroom teacher, Teacher Lu. The other wore a yellow dress and was rather plump, the same width from head to toe-a considerable width. Her face wasn't large, though; on the contrary, it was quite delicate and pretty. As soon as she entered, she threw her arms around Yang Rui and cried, "My baby, are you all right? What would Mommy do if anything happened to you? We won't take the college entrance exam anymore. You can join the army. I'll have your dad speak to his old army buddy."

At first, Yang Rui had gone rigid, unsure what to do. But the words "my baby" brought tears spilling from his eyes. His own mother had called him that too.

But when he heard the woman say he should join the army instead of taking the college entrance exam, Yang Rui immediately grew anxious. Join the army for what? I've finally become handsome, dashing, and elegant, and I haven't enjoyed any of the perks yet. Am I supposed to go into the barracks and become a perk for the veteran soldiers?

Besides, after so many years as a tutor, Yang Rui had worked through more college entrance exam questions than he had seen women. Deep down, he rather hoped to take the exam again.

Although the college admission rate in the eighties was absurdly low, university students in the eighties were valuable enough to make up for it. When the time came, with the title of top scorer in some category, strolling through a picturesque campus, coupled with his current tall, handsome, ridiculously gorgeous appearance, wouldn't he make up for all the regrets of the first half of his life?

"I'm going to university!" Yang Rui's resolve was absolute.