"Are you going home after this exam?"
Yang Yuqing asked, gently brushing back her long hair.
Qin Yuanqing's heart suddenly sped up, thumping hard in his chest. Yang Yuqing was already quite pretty—fair-skinned, gentle in demeanor—and that casual hair-brushing motion highlighted a different kind of charm, instantly adding to her allure.
Qin Yuanqing hurriedly suppressed the restlessness rising within him, silently chanting, 'Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.' He quickly shifted his gaze away, then smiled and replied, "I wasn't planning to. What about you? Are you going home this time?"
They had attended the same junior high school, both from nearby villages. The Qin family village and the Yang family village were neighboring villages. In junior high, they were both top students, so although they weren't close friends, they knew each other well.
Later, when they both entered County No.1 High School, having come from the same junior high and neighboring villages, they naturally had more contact. Sometimes they even arranged to charter a car home together. Taking the bus was slow, and after reaching the town they still had to take a motorcycle home, which was troublesome. A chartered car was faster and could drop them right at their doorstep.
"Yes," Yang Yuqing said softly. "After tomorrow morning's exam, we'll head home at noon."
She then added that three people were already confirmed, just one more short of a full car.
Qin Yuanqing's heart stirred. He suddenly realized that although he had been reborn for a month, he still hadn't gone home to see his parents.
His mother had passed away from cancer two years after he started working—lung cancer. He clearly remembered taking her to the hospital on September 3, 2015, the day of the grand military parade. He had sat with his parents in the hospital watching the parade on a computer. Not long after National Day, his mother passed away.
Qin Yuanqing had always blamed himself for her death. He believed that if he had taken her for annual checkups, the lung cancer could have been discovered earlier, before it spread to her brain, leaving no chance for surgery. She had worked hard all her life yet never enjoyed any blessings. Before she died, what she couldn't let go of most was him, her youngest son, who hadn't yet started a family or built a career.
"Now that you mention it, I kind of want to go back too," Qin Yuanqing said. "That way, with me included, it's four people—perfect for one car."
From the county seat to home, the fare was 25 yuan, slightly more expensive than the bus's 15 yuan. But considering that taking the bus required motorcycle rides at both ends, which added up to another 10 yuan anyway, the cost was basically the same. A private car was far more convenient.
"That's great!" Yang Yuqing exclaimed excitedly, then instinctively grabbed Qin Yuanqing's hand. Feeling the soft, delicate touch, Qin Yuanqing's heart wavered.
Beast… beast!
How could he have such wicked thoughts? Women were troublesome creatures that should be avoided at all costs. Didn't Confucius say, 'Only women and petty men are difficult to deal with'?
Yang Yuqing also realized her impropriety and quickly let go, her face flushing red.
Fortunately, Qin Yuanqing had thick skin. He quickly changed the subject, chatting about the exam to ease the atmosphere. Otherwise, it would have become unbearably awkward.
As night deepened and the dormitories were about to turn off the lights, Yang Yuqing packed her books into her backpack and prepared to leave. Qin Yuanqing offered to walk her back.
"No need! Hurry back yourself—the school gate is about to close. I can get back to the dorm on my own, it's just a few steps away," Yang Yuqing said quickly.
"It's fine, just a few minutes!" Qin Yuanqing laughed. Being reborn, his biggest change was having a much thicker skin—thicker than a wall. In the past, he would blush just talking to girls, stumbling over his words like a scrawny monkey.
Yang Yuqing, thin-skinned as she was, had no choice but to accept. Being walked back to the dorm by a boy for the first time, her cheeks flushed faintly.
They crossed the sports field and walked another fifty or sixty meters before reaching the dormitory building. There were only two dorm buildings—one for girls, and directly opposite, one for boys.
When Qin Yuanqing was in his first year, he had lived in the dorms. Back then, some ill-intentioned boys would occasionally use binoculars to spy on the girls' dormitory, claiming they saw plenty of "scenery."
Qin Yuanqing never really believed that. Both dormitories had clothes hanging in the corridors—how could anyone see anything across the way?
Besides, wouldn't the girls close their doors?
After watching Yang Yuqing enter the dorm, Qin Yuanqing turned to leave. With a playful smile at the security guard, he managed to exit the school gate.
Back at his rented place, Qin Yuanqing took a shower, then picked up his English textbook and flipped to the vocabulary section, silently memorizing words.
To learn English well, the first step was memorizing vocabulary—knowing whether a word was a verb or a noun. Then came grammar, common phrases, and formula-like expressions, followed by tense distinctions: past, present, or future. There were no shortcuts—only steady, step-by-step effort.
Two units of vocabulary weren't too many, but not too few either. Along with key points from the texts, by midnight Qin Yuanqing's head was throbbing. He turned off the light, pressed play on his MP4, and listened to downloaded Mars English recordings to train his listening skills.
He didn't know whether this method would help, but it was better than doing nothing.
At some point, the sound faded, and Qin Yuanqing drifted into sleep, having a beautiful dream…
"Ring ring~~~"
The alarm rang. Qin Yuanqing opened his eyes to bright daylight. He had set his alarm for 7 a.m.
Thinking back to last night's dream, he felt speechless.
Sure enough, high school students were at the age when hormones were at their peak—no exaggeration there.
He lived very close to the school, just a three- to five-minute walk. With some time left before the exam, Qin Yuanqing picked up his English textbook and reviewed again.
China's university education had a peculiar trait: strict entry, lenient graduation. Sixty points meant survival. As long as you passed, teachers wouldn't be too harsh with participation grades. Even scoring fifty, with a bit of sweet-talking, could still get you through.
As a result, except for top-tier universities, academic pressure in college was far less than in high school. High school studies were extremely heavy—if you did assignments properly and weren't especially fast, you simply couldn't finish them all.
One subject, one test paper per day—scary or not?
Once revision season began, the pace only intensified. Daily test papers, monthly exams, mock exams… After surviving that, even a 996 work schedule felt like reliving high school.
The first exam in the morning was English, starting—without exception—with listening comprehension. Qin Yuanqing remembered that during the college entrance exam, he had been reading Coiling Dragon updates at an internet café and arrived a bit late, missing the listening section entirely.
English was his weak point in listening, not in other areas.
He listened carefully and answered each question. After listening, came multiple-choice questions, where he rarely lost points.
Finishing the paper, Qin Yuanqing realized his biggest weakness was still listening comprehension—scoring 20 points there would already be good.
As for the English essay, neat handwriting, correct spelling, and smooth sentences usually earned high marks.
After all, China's mother tongue was Chinese, not English. With exam-oriented education and most people never going abroad, "mute English" was common.
Qin Yuanqing estimated his English score would be around 130–135—probably his best ever in high school. His recent efforts hadn't been in vain.
After English came biology. Among the science subjects, biology had the smallest weight. It was Qin Yuanqing's relatively weaker subject, but by no means a shortcoming.
Physics, chemistry, and mathematics were interconnected. In some sense, even biological reactions followed chemical formulas.
When Qin Yuanqing handed in his biology paper, there were still twenty minutes left.
After leaving the classroom, he didn't return to his room. For boys, going home was simple—just go empty-handed, unlike girls with bags upon bags.
While waiting, Qin Yuanqing grabbed some lunch nearby. He had decided to go home on a whim last night and hadn't informed his parents, planning a surprise.
At 12:30, Qin Yuanqing finally met up with Yang Yuqing and the other two girls, all from the same school and familiar faces. After greetings, he noticed the girls were each carrying suitcases along with milk and bread—clearly they had rushed back to the dorm to pack after the exam.
He didn't comment; this was normal.
Some people didn't even buy bread or milk—just went straight home and ate their fill there.
After waiting about ten minutes, the private car arrived. Qin Yuanqing helped load their luggage into the trunk, then consciously took the front passenger seat.
With only one male among three girls in the back, being surrounded on all sides might sound nice—but it really wasn't appropriate.