Rebirth: Slice-of-life Cultivation-Chapter 175 - 157 New Semester

The winter break in my memory always seemed exceptionally brief.

It hadn’t been enjoyed for long before it hastily slipped away.

January 18, or February 17, 2014.

Yu Zhou Fourth Middle School started the new semester.

During breakfast, Xue Yuantong sat on a small stool, slightly tilting her head and constantly sighing, her face full of reluctance to live.

Jiang Ning pinched his steamed bread, watching her. She had shown this symptom a few days ago—the pre-school-opening sigh syndrome.

As the start of school approached, the sighs grew longer and longer.

"Alas."

Xue Yuantong bit into her steamed bread, "Jiang Ning, I don’t want to go to school."

Jiang Ning: "…"

The matter of starting school is the same all over the world, unsolvable.

With Xue Yuantong’s grades, she could get permission to skip evening self-study, but attending regular classes was definitely still mandatory.

Moreover, Jiang Ning felt that Xue Yuantong should already be quite happy to go to school by now, right?

No walking, no worrying about the heat or cold, snacks to eat, and studying wasn’t hard.

With such good treatment, she was still finding fault.

Jiang Ning ate his corn, saw that Xue Yuantong hadn’t really touched her food, so he suggested:

"Whoever eats breakfast slower today has to wash the dishes."

Xue Yuantong immediately stopped sighing and started nibbling on the corn cob.

...

Class 8 of Senior One.

A new year brought a new atmosphere, and some students changed into handsome clothes.

Especially Meng Gui, who wore a black long down jacket, the hem nearly reaching his shoes, and with his sharp ten-centimeter-tall hairstyle, he looked exceptionally slim.

Meng Gui usually sat in the third-last row, but on the first day of school, he ran to the last row to play.

Wang Longlong was watching Ma Shicheng play games. He wasn’t just a spectator, he was also a recon drone.

Keeping an eye on the surroundings for Ma Shicheng, avoiding teachers like homeroom and grade leaders, clearing obstacles for Ma Shicheng, so he could focus solely on the smartphone.

Wang Longlong glanced at Meng Gui, "Wow, did Brother Gui grow taller?"

Meng Gui was pleased inside; Wang Longlong had hit right where it mattered to him, as he loved when others praised him for growing taller.

Meng Gui fished a cigarette pack from his pocket.

His eyes alertly swept the area to make sure no one was paying attention, then he drew a cigarette out impressively and placed it in Wang Longlong’s hand.

"Brother Long, have a smoke."

"Awesome, Gui, you smoke now?" Wang Longlong said in surprise.

Meng Gui replied, "Shen Xu from Class 9 gave me one before, and I picked it up a bit. This New Year, while playing cards with others, I got used to it by smoking, and you know what, the taste of cigarettes is really not bad, it relieves stress."

His face showed the maturity and weariness of an adult.

"I finally get why the Yucai Store’s cigarettes sell so well."

Not only did the Yucai Store at the school gate have Little Black’s internet café, but it also sold loose cigarettes, at one-and-a-half yuan for two sticks, one yuan each, all sorts of prices. Students often went there to buy them, as if they were making some sort of deal.

Wang Longlong was aware not only did the Yucai Store sell cigarettes, but also areca nuts, and he had a junior high schoolmate who loved to chew areca nuts.

However, Wang Longlong knew these things were no good, and he never touched them.

He advised, "Brother Gui, smoking’s bad for your health, you know?"

Meng Gui calmly replied, "It doesn’t matter, I’m in very good health."

"Longlong, you should learn to smoke too. When you get older and enter society, you can’t avoid it. Learn it early, so when you’re in society, it’ll be easy to network," Meng Gui instructed, as if he had been through it all.

"Oh, Gui, I saw there was one more in your cigarette pack just now. Take that one out and give me the pack," Wang Longlong said.

It was such a small request, and Meng Gui wouldn’t refuse. He pulled out the last cigarette and handed over the pack to Wang Longlong.

Wang Longlong took the pack, "You know, Gui, after you smoke, don’t throw away the pack, the aluminum foil inside is very useful!"

He took out the golden aluminum foil, tearing it into two pieces.

In front of Meng Gui, he demonstrated, "Brother Gui, you see, first fold it like this."

Wang Longlong’s hand moved, "Then fold it like this."

Meng Gui watched, baffled, not knowing what Wang Longlong was up to.

"Like this."

"Then like this, ah, finally done."

Wang Longlong held two gold ingots.

He handed them to Meng Gui:

"Brother Gui, you’ve learned it, right?"

"From now on, you fold it yourself, don’t throw away the cigarette packs after smoking, you can get two gold ingots each time."

"When you’re in the late stages of lung cancer, burn these for yourself. The most important thing is that you made them yourself; it feels so much safer when you burn them!"

Wang Longlong looked on expectantly.

Meng Gui laughed in anger: "Damn it, you’re messing with me!"

While the two chatted, Cui Yu arrived, wearing a lightweight brown down jacket. He was already very skinny, and the horizontal lines of the jacket resembled the ribs on his body.

"Brother Cui, what happened to your face, why is there blood? It’s not auspicious on the first day of school!" Wang Longlong was curious.

Cui Yu cursed, "Damn it, I’m so unlucky. Miao Zhe that bastard scratched me. Look how I deal with him today."

Wang Longlong became solemn, in the whole class only Cui Yu dared to provoke Miao Zhe.

After all, that’s the tough guy who dared to fight with Pang Jiao and Shen Xu from the other class.

Miao Zhe walked to the classroom with a gloomy face, and as soon as he entered, he saw his poor seat, surrounded by Pang Jiao and Wang Yanyan. A visceral revulsion immediately rose from the bottom of his heart.

He felt that he wasn’t coming to school; he was coming to visit a grave.

With the mindset of visiting a grave, Miao Zhe squeezed into his seat. He awkwardly stood up, wiped the stool and desk with a piece of paper, and then finally sat down.

Pang Jiao and Wang Yanyan were chatting about fashion, beauty, celebrities, travel, and handsome guys.

Their chat was so lively, saliva flying back and forth as if two armies were at war.

Miao Zhe remained silent; he had been ostracized by Pang Jiao and the others for over half a term. They completely ignored him, immersed in their own conversations.

So, as a result, Miao Zhe often arrived in the class in the morning, and by evening self-study and dismissal, he would leave without uttering a word, like a ghost.

But Miao Zhe didn’t care. A bunch of vulgar girls would never understand the greatness of Miao Zhe.

Besides, he had the company of his online friend Yun Ni. He wasn’t alone.

Miao Zhe took the books out of his backpack and placed them on the desk. Because there were so many books, they looked messy on the desk. Before he could organize them, they accidentally encroached on Pang Jiao’s desk domain.

Pang Jiao, who was chatting, extended her hand with distaste and pushed his books back.

Miao Zhe’s movements halted; Pang Jiao’s fingers were still coarse and hairy.

He paused for a moment, then continued organizing his books.

It was only after he finished organizing that Miao Zhe recalled Pang Jiao’s rudeness and pettiness.

Miao Zhe couldn’t hide the hatred in his heart. Their invisible actions made him feel greatly insulted and humiliated.

If there was a button that he could press to make Pang Jiao drop dead, Miao Zhe would press it without hesitation right now!

Unfortunately, there was no such button in the world.

Miao Zhe couldn’t help but think back to when he was in elementary school. His deskmate was also a jerk, often bullying him, coming up with various schemes to borrow money from him. Back then, he didn’t have sharp fingernails to fight back.

So Miao Zhe would secretly sprinkle pencil lead on the guy’s head while he napped, thinking that if he persisted day after day, the other would eventually succumb to lead poisoning and die without any suspicion falling on him.

Miao Zhe felt that the plan was flawless.

Later, he found out that pencils don’t actually contain lead.

Thinking back, Miao Zhe smiled a little; his mood improved significantly. Although Pang Jiao could disgust him, she could no longer hurt him. He was not the weakling he used to be.

Moreover, it was a new term, and it was time to reassign seats. His grades consistently in the top ten, far surpassing Pang Jiao and the others.

This time, he would definitely choose a formidable seat and break free from them!

Because it was the first day of school, Jiang Ning arrived earlier to the class today. As he got there, Geng Lu was wiping the tables.

As if sensing something, Geng Lu lifted her head and saw Jiang Ning.

"You’ve gotten a bit thinner," Jiang Ning said, noticing a slight slimming of Geng Lu’s baby-fat cheeks.

Geng Lu puffed out her chest, causing her down jacket to bulge a little.

She said, "Really?"

Jiang Ning: "Actually, it seems like you haven’t."

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"See, I’m done wiping. Let me help you with your desk," Geng Lu offered, holding the cloth and pretending to help with his work, a habit she kept from when she used to sit in the back row.

"No need, I got it," Jiang Ning took the cloth from her hand, whisked it over the desk a couple of times, and with Spiritual Power, cleaned the desk thoroughly.

By this time, classmates gradually streamed into the classroom.

Bai Yuxia had gotten a little paler, and Dan Kaiquan had put on weight. Classmates mentioned each other’s changes, having grown taller, or become more handsome and so on.

Watching this scene, Jiang Ning found it quite interesting.

Like someday at work, this sort of scene would be hard to come by as colleagues rarely discuss these things and few pay attention to you.

Moreover, with about a week’s worth of annual leave, there simply isn’t enough time to notice any changes.

In the morning, the homeroom teacher Shan Qingrong confirmed that all the students had arrived and said,

"The new term has started. Let’s all quickly focus and throw ourselves into studying."

And other encouraging words.

Finally, he announced what the students were looking forward to:

"During the last class this afternoon, I’ll come and assign seats."

"I’ve heard some feedback from students in private, that sitting in the same corner for too long has caused their eyes to become skewed."

At this point, Shan Qingrong recalled Wang Longlong, who had suggested this.

"After changing seats, I plan to rotate the students’ seats by half a month."

In the afternoon, half an hour before class.

In the back row, the four big seats in a row, Ma Shicheng played a game while Hu Jun and Wang Longlong watched.

Guo Kunnan sat in his seat, glancing at them, feeling somewhat envious.

Lately, Guo Kunnan didn’t know what was wrong, but suddenly he couldn’t feel the joy of playing games anymore.

He took out his phone, swiped the screen, and felt a wave of boredom.

He turned the screen off, took out a bottle of spray, sprayed it on the screen, then wiped it off with a tissue.

Looking at the shiny, fingerprint-free screen, Guo Kunnan smiled in satisfaction.

His only pleasure now was wiping fingerprints off his phone screen; whenever he saw one, he would wipe it.

That’s the only way Guo Kunnan could feel a hint of joy in this world.

After wiping the screen and admiring it for a while, Guo Kunnan put the phone down.

Then, he accidentally caught sight of Cui Yu sneaking up to the back row with a phone in hand.