Chapter 8

"Wei, the sun is up, get up quickly, it's time for school!"

"Ugh... OK, OK, I know... Mom, I know! It's not even 6 o'clock yet! I won't skip school!"

Early in the morning, Ye Wei was woken up. After morning exercise, a shower, and breakfast, he soon boarded the yellow school bus heading to the Harvard-Westlake Middle School campus.

Harvard-Westlake Middle School has classes six days a week, from 8:00 to 15:15, divided into nine periods, each 40 minutes long, with a 5-minute break in between.

Every Monday from 9:30 to 10:00 is the school assembly, and every Saturday from 9:25 to 9:50 is the class meeting. From Tuesday to Friday, it's activity time, which can be used for club activities, school sports, or just hanging out and daydreaming.

Most people use this time for club activities. The middle school has over 60 student-created clubs, ranging from serious ones like peer support, environmental protection, and animal rights, to playful ones like the food club, Doctor Who fan club, and the nap club...

Yes, the activity of the nap club is to sleep collectively on the desks.

Ye Wei also started a club called "Dream Chasers," which meets every Thursday. There are no fixed activities; they do whatever they want each time, essentially pranks!

The Dream Chasers have been around since seventh grade, and including him, there are five members. The reason there are so few is because the recruitment is strict. His friends are spread throughout the school, but he only has four close friends.

According to the calls they made, almost everyone in the school has been looking for him these past two days, and he is now the most popular person in the school.

As soon as he got on the school bus, cheers and applause broke out. The students on the bus greeted him: "Good morning, Wei!" "I heard you were sick the past two days, are you feeling better now?"

Ye Wei smiled and sat in the last row. In just a few days, he had changed a lot. He didn't feel particularly proud of this, but he also didn't want to push away everyone's enthusiasm. There's no point in overthinking it; he has to go to school, and it's time to embrace his youth.

"The main issue is mental. I'm a bit afraid the principal will hit me, but with his memory, he should have forgotten about Monday, right?"

"Ha ha ha!" Laughter filled the moving school bus.

When they arrived at the school, it wasn't long before the first class started.

Harvard-Westlake has a unique course system. Students can arrange their own schedules, but they must attend five classes each week in English, history, math, language, and science. There are also art and physical education classes. After scheduling all the required courses, the remaining free periods are called "X time," which accounts for about one-third of the total class time.

X time is used freely by students. They can use it for school activities they participate in, or they might be called by a teacher to help with a project, or to the library to organize books...

Ye Wei's course selection strategy is nothing special. He takes academic classes in the morning when he is more energetic, and in the afternoon, when he is more tired, he takes arts and sports classes, which are more fun. He schedules an X time at noon for rest and lunch.

In the morning, he followed his schedule, running between different classrooms.

Compared to the past, with the eight years of education experience from his dream, these middle school courses are no challenge for him. Everything feels like he just learned it, so even if he gets distracted, he won't have any doubts about what the teacher is saying.

Looking at the white girl next to him, she writes three or four pages of notes for every key point the teacher makes, afraid of missing anything, and her pen never stops.

He propped his head up with one hand and twirled a pencil with the other, very relaxed, almost humming a tune.

Noticing his gaze, the white girl glared at him angrily and muttered, "Can you share some of your intelligence with me?"

"Hey, girl, I'm pretty sure your looks are enough for your intelligence," Ye Wei winked at her.

The white girl couldn't help but laugh, "Wei, you're such a jerk."

"Yes, I think so too."

She is one of the most common types of students at Harvard-Westlake. This place is full of contradictions. Some people work very hard, studying all night to get an A on the next day's test; others are arrogant, arrogant, and materialistic, prioritizing fun, almost wearing a shirt that says, "My family is very rich."

"Harvard-Westlake has only two types of students: the spoiled children of the rich and the extremely smart Asian students."

This is a stereotype from the outside, a joke, but it basically explains what this school is about.

The tuition is extremely expensive, over $20,000 per year, and the school holds various parent fundraising and donation events. Rich parents wave their money, making their children stand out...

On the other hand, the academic atmosphere is very strict, with a lot of homework, tests, and a dense curriculum.

So, the higher the grade, the fewer fools there are. By the time they reach twelfth grade, even the spoiled children have some skills, which is why the school's Ivy League acceptance rate and college acceptance rate are consistently among the best in American high schools.

It's like an independent small kingdom with its own set of laws, both good and bad, very different from other schools.

Moreover, there are many children of celebrities and a bunch of rich kids, like in "Beverly Hills, 90210."

This gives it a mysterious aura, making students from other schools enthusiastic about it, just like fans of a top team in a league, some loving it, some hating it, admiring, dismissing, envying, despising... but everyone knows about it and talks about it.

Ye Wei thought about the movie, listened to the class, and before he knew it, the morning was over. At 12:15, after class, he immediately went to the cafeteria, hungry!

In fact, the school doesn't have a uniform lunch time. Students eat during their free time, bringing their own lunch or buying hot food from the cafeteria, which is open from 7:30 to 15:30. Students pay with their ID cards, and their parents settle the bill monthly.

So, at any time, there are students studying hard in class, while others enjoy food in the cafeteria.

The weather today was particularly nice, sunny but not scorching, warm and pleasant. Harvard-Westlake is a campus built among trees, with lush greenery and old buildings with red roofs and white walls. The students display their youthful energy, making the campus one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Because of the Monday assembly incident, Ye Wei is now the most popular person in the school. His sudden disappearance for two days was like a "hunger marketing" strategy, making his popularity even higher.

Rumors were flying, saying he was expelled, that he was hiding out of fear, that he was high on drugs and lying in the hospital...

When he showed up today, it caused a sensation.

"Hey, VIY! Are you okay? That's good."

"BOSS, where were you the past two days? What you did on Monday was awesome, ha ha!"

"Wei, I heard the new 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is scary. Want to go see it this weekend?"

"Here's my number, call me."

As Ye Wei walked, many people greeted him. The boys fist-bumped him, and the girls flirted with him, inviting him out. A blonde girl even slipped him a scented piece of paper with a phone number and a pink lip print.

He wasn't a nobody before, but this level of attention was a first for him.

No one dislikes being popular, and the situation at home had stabilized, so Ye Wei was in a good mood. When he entered the spacious cafeteria, two guys who had been waiting at the door walked up, laughing and calling his name: "Wei, Wei!"

Seeing the two, Ye Wei couldn't help but feel nostalgic, brothers!

They were both members of the Dream Chasers. The tall, fat white guy on the left is Bud Mazur, of Polish descent.

Bud was wearing a large blue Hawaiian shirt and oversized shorts, showing his hairy legs. He had a buzz cut, a chubby face with a silly smile, and a greasy mouth, eating a large hot dog.

The short, thin white guy on the right is Lev Popil, of French descent.

He was dressed in flashy 80s disco-style bright clothing, with a long face and a ridiculous mustache. Because he was a pervert with no courage, and because he had a big nose, he always considered himself Cyrano de Bergerac, the protagonist of the classic French love tragedy.

"You were so cool on Monday! Why did you only show up today!" Lev exaggeratedly bowed, kneeling on one knee, "My king, please accept my humble worship!"

The students around them laughed as they passed by. Ye Wei put on a serious face and said, "I grant you honor," then laughed and asked, "Where are Corwin and Chen Nuo?"

"They knew you were coming back today and said you would be surrounded by many people, so they didn't want to deal with it and ran off with their food, the cowards."

Ye Wei nodded; the two guys' introversion was a problem.

Lev's eyes sparkled, seemingly lost in some fantasy, "Believe me, brother, many hot girls will fall in love with you, they will devour you... The homecoming incident won't happen again because you are cooler than James Dean!"

Bud kept saying "YES" and had already finished his entire hot dog, "Bro, what do you want? I'll get it for you."

"Or I'll get it myself, so it doesn't end up half-eaten."

Ye Wei laughed, but then his heart ached, remembering in his dream, after he moved and changed schools, not only did he suffer, but his friends did too.

Without his protection, they were bullied by the school bullies, becoming more and more isolated, like ragged teddy bears left in a corner.

By his senior year, Corwin was in a mental hospital; Chen Nuo became a highly nearsighted shut-in, immersed in the online gaming world; Lev was arrested for stealing women's underwear during a nude run and ended up in jail, later leaving the United States for China's Shaolin Temple to become a monk.

Bud disappeared after high school, seemingly vanished, until years later, everyone saw his new news on TV.

It turned out he had been a shut-in for four years, binge eating and becoming a super obese person who could barely move. He had to be taken to the hospital due to illness, but the medical staff couldn't move him, so they had to call the fire department to get him out of his house.

Ye Wei, preoccupied with his own issues, was extremely heartbroken by his friends' situations but couldn't do much about it.

But now it's different. He feels responsible for keeping them on the right path, extending the current good times into the future. Thinking about this, Ye Wei became serious, "Bud, seriously, you can't eat so much. You need to learn to control yourself."

Bud immediately whined, "But I'm hungry!"

The three of them walked to the food counter, where the aroma of food was wafting, and Lev didn't join in the discussion about how much Bud should eat, instead chattering away:

"Bro, it's time for our club to recruit new members. Many people will come, and we need to be selective... only hot girls, with big chests, hehe... When we get to high school, we'll start a similar club... By the way, bro, how's the post-production of that short film coming? Will it be ready for next year's film festival?"

Not just his friends, Ye Wei knew his parents were also looking forward to his performance at the film festival, so he couldn't delay this. He thought for a moment, the submission deadline is at the end of December, and there's still plenty of time, so he said, "No problem, don't worry."

"Great, when we shine at the film festival, we'll have a hard time choosing which girl to be our girlfriend." Lev couldn't help but laugh evilly.

As they spoke, the three of them picked up different plates of food and sat at a clean, empty table, eating and chatting.

Bud was mostly eating, while Lev was mostly talking: "Bro, it's up to you. Many people are preparing to participate, and there will be intense competition. John Williams, that guy is spreading the word that he's definitely going to win the 'Most Popular Work' award, ha ha, what a tone!"

John Williams, the son of a wealthy businessman, the quarterback of the second-string football team, and the leader of a group of school bullies, is a real scumbag who loves bullying others.

Because the students who were bullied by them would seek protection from Ye Wei with the phrase, "He's my person, don't touch him," there were many conflicts.

"He'll be crying and going home." Ye Wei was interested. In his dream, he ultimately didn't participate due to family issues and quickly transferred schools, not caring about it afterward.

But now, he smiled, "As long as I participate, no one else can win the grand prize besides us."

"Of course, of course!" Bud excitedly bit into a hamburger.

"Look, that guy is right there!" Lev nodded his head, and the two of them looked over to the food counter.

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