A Thoroughly Miserable First Half of Life

A burst of laughter erupted in the classroom, startling the doves resting beneath the plane trees outside into fluttering away.

It was summer, and the sun had baked the entire campus into something like a steam oven.

The final year of high school was the most oppressive, and it was rare for someone to crack a joke that wasn't a complete dud.

The students took advantage of the laughter to hurriedly exchange a few whispers.

A girl in the front row grinned broadly, tilting her head toward the girl behind her. "I never noticed before, but this Zhou Yuwen is pretty interesting."

The homeroom teacher standing at the lectern was the only one in the class who wasn't laughing.

She was 156 centimeters tall and slender, with a small face. Her glasses lent her an air of authority.

She was a little like a young witch from an anime.

Only when the laughter had gradually died down did Hu Jie ask expressionlessly, "Is it that funny?"

That put a complete stop to the laughter.

"There's less than a month left before the college entrance exam."

"Why don't I wait until you're done laughing before I continue?"

All the students lowered their heads slightly, looking as though they knew they were wrong.

It was the first class of the afternoon, and the June weather was already hot and stifling.

With the college entrance exam approaching, the students were under pressure, and so were the teachers.

In the end, Hu Jie sighed.

"Study on your own for the rest of the period. Zhou Yuwen, come to my office with me."

Everyone froze when they heard that Zhou Yuwen was being called to the office.

Wasn't that a bit much?

Over such a small thing?

He had to go to the office?

Zhou Yuwen was in trouble today!

The sudden burst of laughter just now had thoroughly "woken" Zhou Yuwen up.

Wait.

Was this a dream?

This dream was way too real, wasn't it?

Had he really fucking been reborn?

"Do I have to invite you?"

Hu Jie had reached the classroom door, but when she saw Zhou Yuwen still sitting motionless in his seat, she stopped and looked at him with some displeasure.

Even Zhou Yuwen wasn't stupid enough not to know he had to follow her.

And so Zhou Yuwen left the classroom behind Hu Jie.

Zhou Yuwen was 180 centimeters tall, while Hu Jie was 156. The two walked one behind the other along the corridor outside the classroom.

From behind, they looked rather like a creepy uncle and a little loli.

"What did you score on the last mock exam?"

There was no one in the office, and Hu Jie's desk was by the window.

She sat down and asked him that first thing.

Zhou Yuwen thought it had been more than ten years ago. Who would remember?

Fortunately, he hadn't forgotten the basic skill of self-preservation.

He just had to lower his head and take the scolding.

"Oh, you did well. No wonder."

Zhou Yuwen hadn't answered, but Hu Jie had already looked it up on the computer. She asked him, "Do you think you've got the college entrance exam in the bag?"

Zhou Yuwen still said nothing.

"The third mock exam is generally a little easier than the actual college entrance exam."

"I don't want to say too much about your family situation, but even if you won't think about yourself, you should think about your mother. It hasn't been easy for her to raise you."

Here we go again...

All his life, whenever he'd made a mistake and been caught by a teacher,

the first thing the teacher said was always, "It hasn't been easy for your mom to raise you..."

When he was little, Zhou Yuwen had felt somewhat guilty. Those words had reduced him to tears, and he'd said, "Teacher, I won't dare do it again! I'll study hard!"

It was because of that that Zhou Yuwen had rarely made mistakes growing up, and had been afraid of making them. Whenever he did make one, his teachers always said, "It'd be one thing if other people did it, but how could you be so thoughtless too?

"It's hard enough for your mom to raise you on her own..."

Thinking about it now annoyed him. If he hadn't been reborn, he might still have felt a little guilty.

The thing was, Zhou Yuwen had been reborn. He knew it hadn't been easy for his mother to raise him, but it wasn't as if he'd treated her poorly.

In his later life, he'd been a web novelist with some success, at least, and he'd even gotten his mom into an upscale home, hadn't he?

Hu Jie went on with the same old lecture for more than ten minutes, only to find that Zhou Yuwen had kept his head lowered the entire time.

He looked as though he knew he was wrong, but in fact he showed no intention of repenting.

"Sigh..."

At last, Hu Jie let out a deep sigh. There was no greater sorrow than a heart that had died.

There was less than a month left before the college entrance exam. Telling him to study hard now was pointless.

It would be more practical to have him learn a trade.

"Forget it. Just stand here and reflect on yourself."

"Go back when class is over."

Zhou Yuwen hurriedly nodded his agreement, and Hu Jie paid him no more attention. She lowered her head and began grading papers.

That was how it was in the final year of high school. For teachers, there were always more papers to grade and more mistakes to go over.

When the bell finally rang, the teachers began returning to the office one after another.

The math teacher noticed Zhou Yuwen standing beside Hu Jie and asked, "Huh? What happened? Did he do something wrong?"

Hu Jie shook her head to indicate that it was nothing.

"You can go back."

"Thank you, teacher!"

Zhou Yuwen bowed to Hu Jie, then took off!

The math teacher snorted with laughter at the sight. Watching Zhou Yuwen's retreating back, she said to Hu Jie, "That Zhou Yuwen is quite polite!"

Hu Jie merely rolled her eyes at her, at a loss for words. "What good is being polite? It won't earn him two extra points on the college entrance exam."

After standing in the office for half an hour, all his senses felt so fresh!

Now Zhou Yuwen could be absolutely certain!

He really had been reborn!

Holy shit!

Zhou Yuwen practically ran all the way from the office back to the classroom!

It had been a long time since he'd felt this way.

He didn't know when it had started, but Zhou Yuwen had always felt as though an invisible "veil" had settled over his mind and body. Whatever he did, it was as though something stood in his way.

He had thought he would muddle through the rest of his life like that!

Who could have imagined that one day he'd actually get to start over?

His five senses were especially sharp now. As he walked down the corridor, he could hear the whispers of everyone around him, feel the gentle breeze, and hear the chirping of birds sheltering beneath the plane trees!

Reborn?

He really had been reborn!

He even felt better than he had at seventeen before!

A smile slowly spread across Zhou Yuwen's face.

He ran all the way back to the classroom.

It was break time. Apart from those who had gone to the restroom, a dozen or so students remained in the classroom, sitting scattered at their desks and turning around to chat with the classmates behind them.

When they saw Zhou Yuwen return, they merely looked up at him.

Then they lowered their heads and resumed whispering.

"You're going to Baijing for college? That's so far away!"

Several students had gathered in small groups near Zhou Yuwen to chat. Some said they wanted to go to Baijing, while others wanted to go south.

They imagined their futures with anticipation.

"Chen Rongrong, what college are you planning to attend?" At that moment, a slightly chubby boy wearing glasses spoke to the girl beside him, stumbling over his words a little.

"Me?!" Chen Rongrong blinked and said a little shyly, "My grades aren't good. I want to go to Lanjing Jiaotong College."

"Nanjiao? Isn't that a junior college?" another girl asked skeptically.

"Nanjiao is one of the better junior colleges!" the chubby boy who had spoken earlier countered.

He said Nanjiao was better than most second-tier universities!

"Chen Rongrong, what are you planning to major in?" the chubby boy asked her cheerfully.

"Hehe, I'm going to be a flight attendant!"

Chen Rongrong had a great figure. She was 170 centimeters tall, with long, straight black hair and a large frame, a classic northern beauty. In high school, she liked to wear a blue sweatshirt with black leggings.

Back then, people didn't call them yoga pants. They were the kind of tight pants that showed off the shape of her legs, with white socks pulled over the calves, setting off her legs nicely.

One thing about large-framed women was that their melons were big too.

Chen Rongrong's melons were among the biggest in the entire senior year, and even a sweatshirt couldn't hide them.

A lot of boys had secret crushes on her, and the chubby boy who had been talking just now was one of them. His name was Shen Ding.

Chen Rongrong had indeed been pretty in high school.

And the girl was good at putting on an act, acting cute and playing dumb.

She was a classic two-faced person, speaking in a cutesy voice in front of teachers, then acting normally around ordinary male classmates.

People said that every boy had a white moonlight all his own in his youth.

Zhou Yuwen didn't. In his mind, there hadn't even been such a thing as a class belle or a school belle.

As for childhood sweethearts and innocent young love,

those had nothing whatsoever to do with Zhou Yuwen!

To tell the truth, Zhou Yuwen's high school years-

No, the first half of Zhou Yuwen's life-

had been thoroughly miserable.