Chapter Two: An Unconventional Examinee

Li Mu had already experienced high school once before and understood deeply that, in the early 21st century, teachers wielded an overwhelming sense of authority and dominance over their students. With the media still underdeveloped and public supervision over teachers lacking, harsh words from teachers were common, and even physical punishment or its disguised forms were still prevalent from elementary to high school.

This time, Li Mu’s exam venue for the National College Entrance Exam was City No. 5 High School, which was infamous for having the worst reputation in the entire city. The students there were the weakest academically, and the quality of the teaching staff was just as poor. Most teachers there had graduated from the local normal college, which Li Mu knew all too well—any local student who barely passed the admission threshold would be welcomed with open arms by the normal college, yet even so, every year the school still struggled to fill its quota.

Given this background, Li Mu wasn’t at all surprised by the teacher’s sharp-tongued remarks. Having been reborn, with a mental age now over thirty, how could he possibly fall for such intimidation?

At that moment, the male teacher glanced at his watch and, sounding as if he were doing a favor, said, “You’re allowed to be half an hour late for the exam. If you go home to change now, you might still make it.”

Li Mu frowned and asked, “But what about the listening section?”

The male teacher shrugged, spreading his hands in feigned helplessness. “That’s out of my control. Looking like this, I can’t let you into the exam room.”

The other candidates in the room were stunned. This teacher was downright despicable—making things difficult for a student during such a crucial exam was akin to playing with someone’s future.

Li Mu, however, merely let out a cold laugh, not taking the teacher seriously at all. He raised his chin, brushed aside his water-drenched bangs to reveal a delicate yet battered face, pointed to the injury on his left temple, and said in a nonchalant, almost roguish tone, “Listen, I just got hit by a car on my way here and I’m still dizzy. If you don’t let me sit down in the next ten seconds, I might collapse any minute. If I end up lying right here today, your three years’ salary won’t be enough to cover the consequences. Believe me?”

His words left not only the three proctors but also every student in the exam room staring at Li Mu as if he were an alien. For one, the concept of “faking injury for compensation” wasn’t yet common knowledge given the underdeveloped media and internet. For another, who had ever seen a student talk to a teacher like that? It was simply outrageous.

Yet, unconventional actions often yield unexpected results. Had Li Mu taken the usual route, begging and pleading, the teacher might have pressed his advantage. But by brazenly threatening to cause a scene, the young man—no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight—immediately backed down.

After all, the injury on Li Mu’s forehead was real, his face and clothes streaked with blood. It was hard not to believe he’d been in an accident. If the teacher didn’t make trouble for him and Li Mu collapsed after entering, it would have nothing to do with him. But if he refused to let Li Mu in and the boy fainted at the door, any unfortunate outcome would fall squarely on his shoulders.

Dozens of eyes were watching. If you refused to let someone in to sit down and they collapsed, you’d be blamed no matter what.

Swallowing his pride, the male teacher waved his hand impatiently, face dark but tone utterly defeated. “Fine, fine, get in and sit down!”

The room erupted in laughter. Since he wasn’t their teacher, there was nothing he could do even if they laughed at him. Besides, there’s safety in numbers.

The male teacher’s face was ashen. After the female proctor checked Li Mu’s admission ticket, Li Mu walked into the exam room under the admiring gaze of every student, found the only empty seat, checked the number and name to make sure it was his, and sat down.

“Hey, man, you’re incredible!” The chubby boy behind him poked Li Mu with his pen, admiration written all over his face.

Li Mu smiled but said nothing; his mind was now completely focused on the upcoming English exam.

The chubby boy’s voice was loud enough that the dark-faced male teacher heard him. The teacher immediately scolded, pointing at the boy, “No talking during the exam! Otherwise, you’ll be treated as cheating!”

“Come on!” Emboldened by Li Mu’s example, the chubby boy wasn’t one to back down either. He shot back, “The papers haven’t even been handed out yet! Accusing me of cheating now is pure slander. Watch out or I’ll report you to the education board!”

“You—” The teacher nearly spat blood from anger. Damn it, today was truly a bad day—being threatened and mocked by two students in public. But he had no rebuttal; without the test papers, accusing someone of cheating was indeed a stretch.

The female teacher showed her higher professionalism by smoothing things over, “Alright, Xiao Wang, hand out the papers. We’re already a minute late.”

The male teacher nodded begrudgingly and began sorting the papers with the other two proctors.

Meanwhile, Li Mu, still dripping wet, began receiving tissues passed to him from all directions in the room—some torn from toilet rolls and balled up in pockets, clearly from the boys, others were little packages of soft tissues, perhaps more thoughtfully provided.

Li Mu thanked them one by one, finally managing to dry his face and arms. As for the water soaking his clothes, there was nothing the tissues could do; he simply let it be.

While waiting for the papers, Li Mu looked at his admission ticket. The photo showed a faint mustache above his lips—a snapshot of his youthful self.

He reached out and felt the rough, pitted surface of the old desk, the sensation under his fingertips vivid and clear. There were carvings left by previous students, lines of words that appeared upside down from his perspective.

He leaned down and realized the desk had been flipped around, so he couldn’t reach the cubbyhole on his side—a strict anti-cheating rule during exams.

A wave of emotions swept through Li Mu. This was truly the college entrance exam room! The battered double desks, the narrow benches that made your back ache when you leaned over and your rear hurt when you sat—he hadn’t felt this uncomfortable in more than a decade, and yet it was all so familiar.

In his past life, as a science-track student, Li Mu excelled in math and the sciences. Thanks to his literature-loving father, his Chinese was also strong, but English had always been his weak spot.

Normally, on a 150-point English test, if he did well, he might score just over 100. Even so, his total mock exam scores were always over 560, and if not for that car accident, he would have easily made it into a first-tier university.

If he’d scored just 10 to 15 points higher in English, he wouldn’t have fallen short applying to a top university in South Su Province. If he’d scored over 120 in English, he could have made it into a prestigious institution.

In his previous life, after being admitted to a second-tier university, Li Mu chose computer science. Once in university, he was exposed to programming and realized the importance of English—every computer language was in English, and in the early 21st century, many top foreign software programs hadn’t even been localized. Without a good command of English, they were almost unusable.

From then on, Li Mu began to focus on improving his English, passing the College English Test Band 6 during university, and continuing to study English on his own after graduation.

Fifteen years had passed since his own college entrance exam. He had forgotten most of the high school Chinese texts, poems, and even the classical passages. The myriad math formulas were a distant memory, as was all the content from the comprehensive science test. If he had to start over and take those three subjects again, he’d be lucky to score 150 points combined.

Luckily, fate had been extraordinarily kind to him. Though the timing of his rebirth was unfortunate in some ways, in terms of his life path, it was just right.

English was the last subject of the college entrance exam; Chinese, math, and science were already done!

Li Mu quickly did the math in his head: subtracting the 49 points he’d scored in English that year from his total meant he’d gotten 486 points in the other three subjects.

With 486 points already in the bag, he only needed a passing score in English to guarantee admission to any first-tier university in the country.

At that moment, the English test papers were handed out. The female proctor reminded them that the listening test would begin in three minutes.

Li Mu pushed aside all distracting thoughts and scanned the entire English test at lightning speed.

He couldn’t recall the exact questions from his year, but after a quick glance, he was instantly confident.

To be sure, there wasn’t a single word on the paper he didn’t know. That alone put him far ahead of ninety percent of the candidates.