By this time of year, almost all third-year coursework was reviewing what they’d learned. Lin Jingzhe turned on the desk lamp, opened his math textbook, and started to look through it quickly.

There was a thick stack of textbooks at his elbow, of all subjects.

What questions appeared in this year’s college entrance examination? Over twenty years passed since he took it, and he’d long forgotten. However, he still had vague memories of some questions—the ones fiendishly hard for a high school student.

After a whole day in school, Lin Jingzhe didn’t find any of the problems they reviewed familiar. As expected, it was impossible to count on the teachers to chance upon the right ones. He decided to take matters into his own hands.

He returned home and spent time by his grandfather’s coffin then went to Xinhua Bookstore. He browsed through the section with college prep textbooks and bought the ones he judged to be the most difficult.

Then, he walked to Gao Sheng’s house. Once settled, he studied.

Anyone who picked up his studies after years of break would find their once extensive knowledge had imperceptibly slipped away. Except for the English he’d often used, Lin Jingzhe needed to put all his effort into reacquainting himself with other subjects.

Gao Sheng, who sat next to him, had problems to finish with his homework but gave up and said, “Can we take a break? You know, I called you to my house for dinner!”

Lin Jingzhe stopped writing and looked at him, frowning. He tapped his pen on the table, then said, “Come here, I’ll explain this problem to you.”

Gao Sheng looked at the book under Lin Jingzhe’s palm—the formulas he could see were so far beyond what he knew it might’ve as well been the language of aliens. He felt rising terror mix with panic but didn’t have the guts to refuse so unconsciously obeyed and shifted closer.

“Look at this tetrahedron. DE bisects SC into two equal parts…”

Lin Jingzhe spoke slowly; he taught and reviewed at the same time. His voice had already changed, and now, it was clear and resonated more than ever. It shocked Hu Yu a little.

While Gao Sheng bumbled his way through a math problem, his attention fell to Lin Jingzhe. The desk lamp illuminated the young man’s thin, finely boned face and his long, thick eyelashes. His eyebrows were wrinkled slightly, and his expression cold, but it didn’t detract from his good looks.

Gao Sheng was a bit confused. Right now, Lin Jingzhe’s temperament seemed different from the past, and it made him feel unfamiliar.

It wasn’t a temperament that belonged in their small Liyun Town. Gao Sheng felt that since this morning, Lin Jingzhe showed varying degrees of indifference to everyone except him and his mother.

Although Lin Jingzhe had always kept people at arm’s length, this wasn’t the same. Gao Sheng knew his friend very well—behind that strong facade, Lin Jingzhe was a timid, shy teenager with an inferiority complex. He tried to hide it, but he still slipped from time to time. Today, it was as if that side of him had completely disappeared.

“Take a break.” Hu Yu watched at the door for a while, but Lin Jingzhe didn’t seem to have lost heart because of today’s events. Relieved, she came in with two soup bowls. She put them on the table and happened to glance at the textbook. She asked, bemused, “This isn’t included in the scope of material required by the school, is it? Aren’t these problems too difficult to do for review?”

Lin Jingzhe looked at the bowl placed in front of him. It was about the size of a small washbasin and heaped with food. There was even a large ham hock sticking out.

In Gao Sheng’s bowl, there was but a small pig trotter, most of which was bone.

In recent years, the quality of life of ordinary citizens wasn’t high. Hu Yu didn’t have a formal teaching certification, so she wasn’t assigned a room at the teacher’s dormitory, and her work benefits were poor. Gao Sheng’s father was a migrant worker and wasn’t home. Mother and son rented a small set of rooms near the school. With Hu Yu’s meager salary, meat was a luxury.

Lin Jingzhe felt bitter.

Although Hu Yu wasn’t a certified teacher, she’d been teaching for many years and, by rights, should get the same treatment as the others. However, since the beginning of the last year, the name of this veteran teacher was not included in the quota of Liyun No. 1 High School’s teachers sent to the Bureau of Education. Li Yurong, having taken over as English teacher of the second grade, was listed instead.

Right now, they were powerless to do anything. Lin Jingzhe knew that to change this situation, making money as soon as possible was imperative. In his mind, he went over his plan once again and only then managed to calm his frustration. When he looked at Hu Yu, his face was much softer. Dividing the ham hock into two pieces, he said, “The review papers and books suggested by the school are too easy. I think depending on them is not enough.”

He wanted to give half of the ham hock to Gao Sheng, but before he moved his chopsticks, his own bowl sank—Gao Sheng dropped half of his pig trotter into it, then began to wolf down the rest of his food.

Speechless, Lin Jingzhe tried to reciprocate, but Gao Sheng covered his bowl and leaned away. “Eat it yourself, you’re way too thin.”

It puzzled Hu Yu why Lin Jingzhe felt he needed to get more textbooks. “The teachers in our school carefully thought over what books and review materials are necessary. As long as you go through them diligently, you should be sufficiently prepared for the college entrance exam.”

She picked up the math textbook and looked through it. When she read the first few pages, her eyebrows wrinkled. “This material is not covered by the curriculum. These problems won’t appear on the exam.”

She grew up in the countryside and graduated from Lin Municipal College. Lin City was the farthest she’d ever been from home. Naturally, she had no idea how big the world outside was.

Lin Jingzhe had long passed the age when he felt the need to prove himself right by arguing. Since this topic came up, he might as well use it as an opportunity to propel his plans and get Hu Yu on board, so to speak. “My grandfather told me that the students of Qunnan No. 1 High School use this set of textbooks.”

Qunnan No. 1 High School? That place?

Hu Yu’s eyes widened. If Liyun No. 1 High School was the best school in Liyun Town, then Qunnan No. 1 High School was the most prestigious in the whole Qunnan Province. Every year, Qunnan’s students’ university enrollment rate was almost five times higher than that of Liyun.

That’s why Hu Yu, who was well aware it was not easy to get into university, had always been in awe of that school. She held the textbook more carefully and asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, and these books here too.” Lin Jingzhe pushed the stack of books he’d already looked through to her. “Our school’s curriculum and learning objectives seem to be different from theirs.”

Well, that’s obvious, it’s Qunnan No. 1 High School after all! How could it be the same as our school? Hu Yu thought, a little guiltily.

Lin Jingzhe’s words were a revelation to her. Was the difference between the two schools’ university enrollment rate so significant because of the obsolete curriculum and limited scope of material?

She didn’t doubt Lin Jingzhe’s grandfather’s information. Jiang Jiping was the most learned and cultured man she’d ever seen and had the highest social status of the elderly in town. It was only natural he knew the provincial capital’s state of affairs.

The future of students is at stake. Once that flashed through Hu Yu’s mind, this matter became a pressing issue. Not bothering to collect the empty bowls, she grabbed a pen and paper and jotted down the titles of Lin Jingzhe’s textbooks. Then she turned around and rushed out of the house to investigate.

Gao Sheng’s hands trembled so hard he nearly dropped the bowl. “Jingzhe, buddy, you want to kill me!”

Once Hu Yu left, Lin Jingzhe’s expression became detached again. He glanced at Gao Sheng’s face full of grievances and asked in exasperation, “Li Yurong looks down her nose on Teacher Hu and tries her best to humiliate her. Have you never thought of fighting back?”

Gao Sheng’s face changed. He stopped kidding around, and his eyes filled with anguish.

Lin Jingzhe knocked on the table. “Now that you’ve made up your mind, come here, I’ll teach you how to solve the next problem.”