Chapter 4

"Sure, give me the same as yours, and I'll pay you later."

"No problem."

After getting the food, Duan Yibin chatted with Yang Tang for a while before planning to go to the classroom. Tang Xun and Chen Song, however, went straight to the classroom after eating in the canteen and didn't come back at all.

Just before leaving, Yang Tang suddenly called out to Duan Yibin: "Old Duan..."

"Yeah... Is there something else?"

"No, go ahead and study!"

"Alright, take care."

Only after Duan Yibin left did Yang Tang sigh heavily. He had intended to tell Duan Yibin to apply for the prestigious Capital University when filling out the college application in two months. But then he thought, he hadn't even cooled his porridge, and now they were using Huabi instead of Renminbi, so many things might be different. He thus held back on the topic.

Due to the burn on his chest, Yang Tang barely finished his meal and then fell into a deep sleep. He didn't even know when Tang Xun and the others returned to the dorm or when they went to morning study.

When Yang Tang woke up and got out of bed, he found that the chest, which had been hurting intermittently the day before, no longer hurt. It wasn't just that the injury was healing; it was as if nothing had happened at all.

He pressed his chest through the bandage, but it didn't hurt. Yang Tang was surprised: "Could it be completely healed?" He carefully lifted a corner of the bandage and found that it had already completely scabbed over.

"Can't be! This isn't scientific!"

"The doctor clearly told me that this kind of injury would take several days to heal..."

Yang Tang muttered to himself but then removed all the bandages. Indeed, it had all scabbed over.

"Go to the classroom to review?"

After some thought, Yang Tang dismissed the idea. He was well aware of the importance of the college entrance exam, but being reborn at nearly forty and returning to high school, it would be a miracle if he could remember the knowledge from his textbooks.

Not to mention high school knowledge; even university knowledge was mostly forgotten by Yang Tang, except for English.

Due to his previous job, Yang Tang's spoken English was quite good. Although it wasn't a native accent, he could communicate fluently with British and American people.

The problem was that high school English, especially the college entrance exam English from his high school era, was more about testing than practical use. So out of a total of 150 points, Yang Tang might not even score 90 points, the passing line.

"Alright, without a big background, those who succeed in their studies have two paths: one is to pursue a career in politics, the other is to start a business. Those who truly engage in cutting-edge research are few, and the winners of the highest science awards are one in a million... Since I have no interest in politics, I should think about how to make money in the future!"

"Right, what about that thangka?"

Yang Tang was pondering the future when he suddenly remembered the thangka. He quickly searched and found the T-shirt that had been burned through in the laundry basin on the balcony. He checked the pocket on his chest, but the thangka was gone, leaving only some unknown fine powder.

"Can't be! Just one iron, and the thangka is gone!?"

Yang Tang found it hard to believe but didn't dwell on it too much. After all, he had already been compensated with 2,000 Huabi, and as long as the burn healed, the thangka, which was worth only a few dozen dollars, wasn't worth much more consideration.

Lying back on the bed, Yang Tang stared at the upper bunk, and before he knew it, he fell asleep again.

Then he had a dream.

In a white, hazy dream, a voice kept repeating: "Merit, sin, gain one and you can achieve great fortune... Merit, sin, gain one and you can achieve great fortune..."

"How do you gain merit and sin?" Yang Tang subconsciously asked in the dream.

The voice replied: "Change the course of life, and you can gain merit and sin!"

"Change the course of life, what does that mean?!" Yang Tang suddenly woke up, finding that the lights outside were already on, and it was almost eight o'clock. He had slept for half a day, which was quite enough!

Estimating that the school canteen had already closed and Tang Xun and the others had eaten dinner and gone to study, Yang Tang thought for a moment, took 100 Huabi, and left the dormitory. He climbed over the wall and left the school, planning to find something to eat outside.

"Rumble!"

After climbing down the wall and walking a few steps, Yang Tang's stomach started to rumble. He hesitated for a moment and decided to take a shortcut to the new street to find something to eat. He hesitated because the shortcut was dark and there was a high chance of encountering delinquent students from other schools.

Yang Tang wasn't afraid of thugs in society but didn't want to provoke them. However, when it came to delinquent students, especially junior high school students, he was a bit intimidated.

Junior high school students, especially those under 14 years old, would often gather in groups of a dozen or more to demand money, and if you didn't give it, they would beat you up, not knowing their own strength. This was a very frustrating situation.

Fortunately, the name "Shizhong Dafei" was well-known among the delinquent students in the area. With this reputation, Yang Tang dared to take the shortcut to the new street after hesitating.

"Help! Help!"

Just as he entered the alley, Yang Tang faintly heard a woman's voice calling for help.

"Can't be! So unlucky? Really encountering a robbery and rape?"

Yang Tang was speechless. In his experience, helping others was fine, but he had a principle: not to bring trouble upon himself. As he was hesitating whether to help, he suddenly heard a police siren. He quickly thought of a plan and shouted, "The cops are here!"

The direction from which the woman's cries for help came first fell silent, then there was a commotion.

Yang Tang, with his rumbling stomach, waited in the dark for about a minute. The police siren gradually faded away, and the other side fell completely silent. Just as he was about to return to the main road, a thought flashed in his mind: "Gained 0.5 merit!"

Damn!

Yang Tang was stunned, trying to figure out where the thought came from but couldn't find the source.

"It must be the reward for shouting just now," Yang Tang muttered to himself, feeling somewhat certain. "But I did save a woman from being violated, so why did I only get 0.5 merit?"

As soon as he said this, another thought flashed in his mind: "The arrival of the police would have stopped the incident!"

Yang Tang immediately understood. Even if he hadn't shouted, the woman wouldn't have been harmed, so he only got a meager 0.5 merit. Now the question was, where did the thought come from, and what was the use of the merit?

Fortunately, the answers to these questions were within himself, and there was no rush to figure them out. Yang Tang, with his rumbling stomach, returned to the main road and found a noodle shop, ordering a large bowl of beef noodles.

After eating and paying, Yang Tang returned to the dormitory and continued to lie on the bed, resting while worrying about the college entrance exam.

As a "middle-aged" person, since the college entrance exam couldn't be avoided, giving up before the exam wasn't Yang Tang's style. However, he knew his foundation was weak. Ancient history had been overturned, and he didn't recognize any historical figures. The subjects of history and Chinese, which were part of the liberal arts, had changed significantly from his previous life. Moreover, the second foreign language, French, was a subject he was unfamiliar with. How could he take the exam?

Therefore, Yang Tang considered strengthening and improving his English and math to around 110 points (each of the five subjects—Chinese, math, history, and two foreign languages—was worth 150 points) and then studying the other three subjects, aiming to score around 200 points in total. This way, his total score for the college entrance exam would be around 450 (including 30 points for physical fitness), which would be a decent result to show his parents.

With this plan in mind, Yang Tang fell asleep again. In the morning, he was surprised to find that the scab on his chest had fallen off, leaving only a strange pattern.

"This pattern is... Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva!?"

Yang Tang confirmed the scar in the mirror and was about to examine it more closely when Tang Xun's voice interrupted him: "Hey, where's my undershirt?"

Tang Xun always shouted this every morning, and Yang Tang, used to it, rolled his eyes, put down the lifted shirt, and started brushing his teeth and washing his face.

After breakfast, the four roommates went to the classroom together.

After morning study, there were two consecutive Chinese classes. The class representative, Liu Xinren, started distributing the test papers from last week's Chinese quiz.

Everyone around Yang Tang received their papers, but he didn't: "Liu Xinren, where's my paper?"

"Don't have yours? I'm not sure." Liu Xinren dismissed Yang Tang and sat back down.

If it were the original Yang Tang, he would have been furious and confronted Liu Xinren, who looked down on him. But the "middle-aged" Yang Tang didn't have the mood: No paper, no paper. I don't even want to listen. I'll just review English and math.

Just as Yang Tang was about to take out his English textbook from the pile of books on his desk, Old Wang came in. The Chinese teacher's name was Wang Zaidong, and the students called him Old Wang behind his back.

Wang Zaidong stood by the podium with a fake smile, scanning the room, and suddenly called out: "Yang Tang, come up and read the poetry question on your paper, let everyone appreciate it!"

The class burst into laughter.

The poetry question, yes, a question specifically testing poetry, was the second-to-last question on the Chinese test, worth 25 points. The "essay" question, which was worth 60 points in Yang Tang's previous life, was now worth 45 points.

Hearing Old Wang call his name, Yang Tang hesitated for a moment but still went up to the podium. Taking his paper, he almost fainted.

The poetry question was to "write a poem about love," with no restrictions on form or length, within 300 characters.

Yang Tang's "answer" was: "Love you for ten thousand years, exaggerated! Love you for a thousand years, absurd! Love you for a hundred years, too long! Love you for sixty years, as long as you're healthy, that's my strength."

Damn, ambiguous, very ambiguous!

"What are you waiting for? Read it!" Old Wang urged.

"Ahem!" Yang Tang, thinking quickly, recalled a few love poems from his previous life that were well-known but not remembered in this life. He chose half of one and lied to the paper: "Last night's stars, last night's wind, by the west side of the music hall, east of the lecture hall. Without the wings of a colorful phoenix, the heart has a single point of understanding."

The classroom, which had been buzzing with discussion, fell silent instantly.

...

...

Page flip, AD starts

Page flip, AD ends