After dinner, there were still a few periods of evening self-study.
In reality, it was just two hours of extreme boredom. They had to stick it out until nine o'clock before they could go back to their dorms. Every night, a teacher was on duty.
But basically, the students did their own thing while the teacher at the podium occasionally glanced at their watch, ready to get off work on time. Sometimes, they'd even step out to chat with the teacher on duty in the next classroom.
As for the noise in the classroom, as long as it didn't attract the attention of the grade dean, everything was fine.
The students in the classroom, all wearing identical uniforms, could be roughly divided into a few categories based on their seating positions:
The good students in the very front rows were working through extra practice tests or studying ahead for future lessons.
These types of students had clear life goals.
The students in the middle would study occasionally, but they mostly whispered with their neighbors or kept their heads down to secretly read novels.
These students with their middling grades lacked self-control. They didn't have the guts to completely fall behind, nor the perseverance to study hard, making them the most lost of all.
In contrast, those in the back row would either sneak out when the teacher wasn't looking, play on their phones, or even huddle in a corner to play cards... Compared to the students in the middle and front, they were much more free-spirited.
These students generally had no intention of going to college. Some even told the teachers outright that they were just there to get a high school diploma and didn't plan on taking the college entrance exams. After graduation, most of them would either join the family business, learn a trade, and take up blue-collar work.
Xue Rui was one of these back-row students, which was why no teacher bothered him even when he brazenly slept during class breaks.
Even though the head teacher was his paternal aunt, she didn't actually force Xue Rui to study. Family knows family, and she knew Xue Rui just wasn't the type to sit still and learn.
'Which category does Lin Ruoxi belong to?' Xue Rui couldn't figure this girl out.
Lin Ruoxi sat in the last few rows, yet she was studying with her head down. She would occasionally press a gel pen to the spot between her eyebrows as if working on a problem, then stare blankly out the window, looking like she had a lot on her mind.
"How are Lin Ruoxi's grades?" Xue Rui nudged Qiu Mengze with his elbow.
"You're asking me? Today was the first time I ever talked to her, how would I know? But forget that, are you going to the internet cafe after class or not? Tell me the truth." Qiu Mengze was itching with anticipation. He had been cooped up for two whole months during summer break, and only an all-nighter would satisfy him.
Who would have thought that Xue Rui would suddenly stand up and shout to the teacher at the podium, "Teacher! Qiu Mengze is planning to sneak out for an all-nighter at the internet cafe tonight! He even tried to tempt me, but I firmly refused. Still, I felt I had to report this to you!"
As soon as he said it, the classroom fell silent. Everyone stared at Qiu Mengze's shocked and bewildered expression, which was quite comical. One of the boys in the class couldn't hold back a laugh, which triggered a wave of roaring laughter from everyone.
"HAHAHAHA!"
"Brother Rui is really something else..."
...
The supervising teacher felt a headache coming on. She had long heard of Xue Rui's reputation, but she never expected him to stage such a farce on her very first day with their class.
"Quiet!" she snapped, slapping the podium. Once the classroom quieted down, she addressed Qiu Mengze out of a sense of teacherly duty, "I will report this to your head teacher. Focus on your self-study. There are still twenty minutes until class is over."
"Xue! Rui! If you weren't going, you could have just said so! Why'd you have to pull a stunt like this?!" Qiu Mengze cursed in a hoarse voice, hiding his face behind a textbook. He was grinding his teeth in frustration.
"Mengze, I'm doing this for your own good. In the future, even bachelor's degrees will be a dime a dozen. What's the use of just scraping by with a high school diploma?" Xue Rui said earnestly.
Xue Rui was telling the truth. In his past life, he had graduated from a Tier 1 university. While it wasn't one of the elite national universities, he was still more accomplished than most.
Xue Rui himself had done very well. Riding the wave of the mobile internet boom, he'd gotten some money from his old man to start a small company. Business was booming, and he'd made a good fortune.
But his classmates weren't so lucky. Take Wang Huihui, the one who gave him foot massages. She had also graduated from a Tier 1 university, but because she had a child right after graduating, she had a multi-year gap on her resume. After her divorce, she hit a wall everywhere she looked for a job. The only respectable jobs she could find couldn't support her and her child, so she had no choice but to start washing people's feet for a living.
"Why are you suddenly acting like my old man?" Qiu Mengze swallowed. He suddenly felt that Xue Rui had become much more mature. He grinned and said, "But with grades like yours, you've got some nerve lecturing me, don't you?"
"My family owns two restaurants. Even if I don't go to college, I'll never have to worry about food or drink. What about you? Go sell fish with your dad? Or come work at my family's place as a waiter? Or a cook?" Xue Rui asked with a smile.
Xue Rui held no prejudice against any profession. In his eyes, every student, regardless of which row they sat in, was a vital cornerstone of society's future.
But, at this age, Qiu Mengze had no such awareness.
Qiu Mengze believed that smelling like fish all the time would make it impossible to find a girlfriend, while being a waiter or a cook just didn't sound cool.
"I..." It was as if something was caught in Qiu Mengze's throat, and he couldn't speak for a long time.
He had actually always been aware of the gap between his family and Xue Rui's; he had just been subconsciously avoiding it, never willing to face it.
His family just sold fish at the wet market. His allowance was only enough to afford ten-yuan packs of Yellow Crane Tower cigarettes.
Meanwhile, Xue Rui's family was well-off, and he could easily snag whole cartons of Soft Chunghwa cigarettes from their restaurants.
Qiu Mengze had never imagined his childhood friend would say something so brutally realistic. His mood sank.
Xue Rui clapped Qiu Mengze on the shoulder. "Actually, there's another position at the restaurant, called a Food and Beverage Manager. You get to manage a lot of people. It just requires a bachelor's degree."
"A manager? That sounds pretty badass." Qiu Mengze's spirits lifted instantly.
Qiu Mengze, with his zero real-world experience, suddenly felt like this position was tailor-made for him.
He imagined himself in a handsome suit, managing a huge crowd of subordinates, with beautiful women passing by and looking at him with respect. A foolish yet pure smile spread across his face.
Xue Rui held back his laughter. Qiu Mengze had been completely taken in by his bluff.
In reality, a Food and Beverage Manager didn't need a bachelor's degree at all, especially in a small city like Hedong. You didn't even need a diploma.
The title sounded grand, but the salary was actually less than a head chef's. Still, he had to set a goal for his childhood friend, otherwise Qiu Mengze would just spend all his days thinking about going to the internet cafe to play games.
He recalled his past life. Starting from the moment Lin Ruoxi jumped, he had thrown himself into his studies, shocking his aunt. In the end, he managed to test into a Tier 1 university, stunning his entire family.
To celebrate, Xue Rui's old man, Xie Jianfeng, had thrown a banquet with over a hundred tables.
He didn't accept any gift money—anyone, whether he knew them or not, was welcome to come and eat. He even put up a sign offering a 50% discount for "Teacher Appreciation Banquets," all so he could boast to others, "My son got into a Tier 1 university."
Nudged in the right direction by Xue Rui, Qiu Mengze felt a fire ignite within him. He opened his brand-new textbooks and started writing his name in them, one by one.
The new books had been handed out a day ago, and he still hadn't written his name in them. Meanwhile, the good students up front had already finished the homework problems for the first few lessons...
Xue Rui also picked up his pen and signed his name in his book. He was used to signing all sorts of documents, so his signature was very "artistic."
"Who's going to recognize it if you write like that?" Qiu Mengze reminded him.
Xue Rui paused. "Is there some special way I'm supposed to write my name?"
"Isn't it obvious? If you lose your book, whoever finds it won't know who to return it to."
Xue Rui nodded seriously. He still wasn't quite used to being a student again. He began writing his name, stroke by stroke.
"Year 2, Class 2, Xue Rui."
When he got to the character "Rui," Xue Rui froze.
He had signed his name with a flourish so many times that he was now being asked to write it in standard script.
For a moment, he actually forgot the stroke order for the character...
Living in 2024, an era where the mobile internet was incredibly advanced, there were almost no situations that required handwriting aside from signatures.
This led to many people being able to recognize characters but forgetting how to write them... a new kind of "illiteracy" in a sense.
"DRIIING~"
The teacher on duty walked out of the classroom the instant the bell rang, as if she couldn't bear to stay a second longer.
The students also stretched, slung their arms over each other's shoulders, and started heading out.
Some went to find their crushes, others headed to the tuck shop for snacks. There were also those who, chattering about the latest popular online games, made their way toward the "dog hole" in a corner of the school, likely intending to battle it out in the virtual world all night long.
"All done!" Xue Rui had written his name in every one of his books. Looking at the neatly arranged stack, he felt a sense of accomplishment.
Even though he hadn't actually learned anything, he still felt like he had worked hard.