Registration

Zhou Yuwen had originally planned to go to school and register on his own, but his mother insisted on coming along.

Zhou Yuwen didn't think it was necessary. "It's more convenient if I drive there alone. If you come with me, you'll have to take the train back by yourself a few days later. The station's already a mess at the start of the school year. Why does a little old lady like you need to go running around?"

His mother rolled her eyes at that. "You've grown up and become capable, have you? Who doesn't know how to take a train?"

"I finally raised you to adulthood, and I wanted to take this chance to go out and look around with you. And this is how you treat your own mother?"

"Your wings have grown strong, and now you think you can fly. You think your own mother's holding you back, is that it?"

With his mother putting it that way, Zhou Yuwen really had nothing to say.

The day before they left, his mother went into town and bought all sorts of local specialties and gifts, filling the entire trunk.

She couldn't help remarking, "Having a car really is nice. I get to enjoy the fruits of my son's success too."

Zhou Yuwen looked at the trunk, packed to the brim, and thought of his university days in his previous life. For a moment, he found it rather funny.

He knew that all those local specialties his mother had bought were for his class counselor.

Zhou Yuwen had thought it unnecessary in his previous life, and now, more than a decade later, he still thought so.

But his mother had always been stubborn. Even if he took great pains to explain it to her, she would only think he didn't understand the ways of the world and would surely suffer for it once he went out on his own.

The conflict between the two generations had still existed even when Zhou Yuwen was thirty, before his rebirth.

But after his rebirth, when it came to his unyielding mother,

Zhou Yuwen had gained a little more patience.

It hadn't been easy for the little old lady to raise him on her own. Sometimes Zhou Yuwen wondered what would have happened if he hadn't been lucky enough to get his hands on the child of the current meta in this world

and earned his first bucket of gold thanks to his considerable talent for writing.

What kind of life would he and his widowed mother have had in today's society?

When Zhou Yuwen was thirty, his mother had still been hoping to find him a match and get him married.

If Zhou Yuwen hadn't had money back then, forget blank paper.

He probably couldn't even have found newspaper.

The drive from Xuhuai to Jinling took three hours in total. In his previous life, Zhou Yuwen had lost count of how many times he had driven this stretch of the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway.

After arriving in Nanjing, Zhou Yuwen first stayed with his mother at a relative's home in Jiangbei for two days. Only on September 12, the day school started, did he take her to Forestry University to register.

Zhou Yuwen had set out by car at eight in the morning, thinking that was early enough.

But as they neared the school, they still got stuck in traffic for half an hour.

The car inched forward as horns sounded one after another.

For convenience, Zhou Yuwen deliberately took a small road around to the back gate.

Most of the drivers who had come today were from out of town, bringing their children to register. Presumably, their navigation systems were all sending them to the main gate.

Taking the side road and cutting through the smaller streets was much easier.

When his mother heard he was taking a shortcut, she grew a little worried and warned Zhou Yuwen not to try being too clever when he was away from home.

"Don't end up taking a wrong turn and missing the registration time."

A little later, his mother worried aloud again, "Why don't we turn back and wait in line for a while? Don't try to be too clever."

The plane trees along the road were lush and green.

Even though this wasn't a main road, there were still cars coming and going nearby.

Electric scooters and bicycles darted along the side road, and there were some locals on foot as well.

His mother chattered in Zhou Yuwen's ear about her worries, but he had spotted a familiar figure.

The woman by the roadside was about thirty-five, with short, permed hair in gentle curls. She wore a white short-sleeved top washed soft with wear and a pair of brown cotton-linen trousers.

She was dressed like an ordinary middle-aged woman.

When Zhou Yuwen got a clear look at her face, the corners of his mouth curved up.

He pulled the car over toward her and honked the horn.

Hearing it, the woman turned her head in confusion.

"Ms. Yao, are you going to school? Can I give you a ride?"

When Yao Lan heard Zhou Yuwen's words, she looked at him with even greater confusion.

She asked uncertainly, "And you are?"

"I'm one of your students. I only came to register today. Are you going to school? Can I give you a ride?"

His mother, sitting in the back seat, had been a little suspicious a moment ago. Why is this child striking up a conversation with a stranger?

But as soon as she heard the woman was a teacher, she immediately sat up straight.

"You're a student? What's your name?"

"My name is Zhou Yuwen. We spoke on the phone before," Zhou Yuwen said.

"Ah." The confusion in Yao Lan's eyes faded a little, and her gaze toward Zhou Yuwen softened. She said she remembered him.

Zhou Yuwen went on, "You're going to school, right? Let me give you a ride."

"No need. I was planning to take a walk."

"You're heading to the school's back gate, aren't you? It's a bit of a roundabout walk from here. Let me give you a ride," Zhou Yuwen said.

Hearing that, Yao Lan felt that Zhou Yuwen knew the roads around the school quite well and was somewhat tempted. Besides, Zhou Yuwen was stopped on the side road, and the people behind him had already begun urging him along.

Yao Lan didn't want to inconvenience anyone. After hesitating for a moment, she finally climbed into the car.

Zhou Yuwen's mother hurried to greet her.

Yao Lan returned the greeting with some reluctance.

Even now, Zhou Yuwen still didn't know whether to call Yao Lan his homeroom teacher or his counselor. In any case, she was the teacher in charge of him for four years. She was thirty-six this year and came from Luzhi in Suzhou.

She was a rather good woman, with the water-like gentleness of a Jiangnan woman and the shrewdness of a southern woman.

In his sophomore year, Zhou Yuwen had failed his plant pests and diseases course. When the makeup exam came around, he forgot the time and ended up not going at all.

In the end, Ms. Yao took him to the course instructor's office. She distracted the instructor while Zhou Yuwen quickly copied down the answer key.

Ms. Yao had treated Zhou Yuwen quite well, probably partly because of the two boxes of local specialties his mother had given her. In any case, she had looked after him throughout his four years at university, so he had a very good impression of her.

As for the other students, all they could do was smile when Ms. Yao came up.

He remembered one time when he was writing a novel in the library. When he came back that evening, he discovered that the students in his dorm room and the one next door were all gone.

When they returned, Zhou Yuwen asked them what they had been doing.

"Helping Ms. Yao move! I'm exhausted!"

It turned out that Ms. Yao had specifically called the boys in the class over to help so she could save on moving expenses.

Only a few boys who had been out had been lucky enough to escape.

Yao Lan was promoted to associate professor during his sophomore year. She had made a point of mentioning it at a class meeting.

She said the department had originally wanted to lighten her workload and relieve her of her position as homeroom teacher.

But she had refused.

"Our class is a collective, and I'm part of that collective too."

In fact, though, she wasn't their homeroom teacher for nothing.

The boys could help her move, and queue up to get a number when she made a dentist's appointment for her daughter.

The girls could tutor her daughter at home, and even cook and clean for her.

Of course, Zhou Yuwen hadn't escaped this ordeal either.

When her daughter entered an essay contest, Yao Lan had specifically asked Zhou Yuwen to write the essay for her.

But after it was submitted, one of the judges smiled awkwardly and said, "Anyone can tell from the writing that this isn't something your daughter could have written~"