Chapter 1

"Is the prodigy well-prepared? The reputation of our department depends entirely on you!" A senior with glasses, looking as if he had high hopes, patted the young man who was tying his shoelaces on the bench, his face still somewhat childish.

The young man clearly didn't give the senior much face. Being tricked into the competition was already a helpless situation. If it were basketball or soccer, even if he wasn't good, he could still play a bit to save face. But tennis? He could barely swing a racket, let alone win a match. Just not embarrassing himself on the court would be a miracle!

You didn't hear wrong; Fan Ju was indeed the legendary reborn person who had already lived one life!

If the achievements of reborn people were ranked, Fan Ju wouldn't be at the bottom, but he certainly couldn't compare to those who dominated the world or ruled the universe.

Of course, Fan Ju was quite helpless about this. When he was reborn, he had no regrets or grand ambitions. In his previous life, he was just an ordinary person. That was fine, but the most important point was that he found himself cheated by God. The memories from his previous life couldn't be fully brought back.

This led to him, after being reborn, only managing to accumulate a small fortune of about 2 million RMB over 16 years. Two years ago, he used this money to buy an entire residential building near the university, which was said to be a developer's cash-out project. He then became a small landlord and entered the real estate business, which he remembered as a very promising field.

Rebirth indeed brought Fan Ju many benefits, but if he could have fully retained his memories, he believed he could have been even more successful. However, a major problem arose after his rebirth, and this problem was directly related to his biggest asset: the memories from his previous life!

How many people can remember things from when they were 3 or 4 years old, let alone when they were just born?

The memories brought by Fan Ju's reborn soul couldn't fit into a baby's brain. The memory of the reborn soul was like a 1TB hard drive with a 500MB/s transfer rate, but when faced with a 3.5-inch floppy disk with less than 5MB of capacity and a transfer speed of only 5KB/s, it was doomed to fail.

Even with the advantage of rebirth, Fan Ju spent over a year in a daze before he finally regained some "rationality." By the age of three, he had some basic concepts, and by five, he had the thinking ability of a primary school graduate. By 12, he had basically recovered to the adult standard. The 2 million RMB was accumulated over four years, relying on the few remaining memories from his previous life.

However, the early development of his brain also had its benefits. In his previous life, his intelligence was only at the ordinary level, but now he had mastered six of the world's major languages: Chinese, English, Spanish, Arabic, French, and Japanese, with some basic reading and writing skills.

Because he had the mind of an adult from an early age, he also put a lot of effort into physical training. At 16, Fan Ju's athletic ability far exceeded that of the "big brothers" who were two years older and spent most of their time buried in books.

However, having a good body didn't mean Fan Ju liked to compete. On the contrary, he was very clear that as a reborn person, it was better to be low-key when possible. This way, he wouldn't attract trouble from someone like "My dad is Li Gang" before he was strong enough.

But clearly, the senior didn't respect Fan Ju's wishes. According to the senior's logic, since Fan Ju was part of the management department, he naturally had to strive for the glory of the department.

"Even if I have to strive, shouldn't I be informed in advance? My name was already on the list, and you only told me right before the match. What kind of nonsense is this? It's clearly a setup!" However, Fan Ju only muttered this to himself. Facing the smiling senior, he could only nod with a serious face, pretend to dust off his shoes, and then pick up his racket to walk onto the court.

The university offered much more freedom than high school, and the sports activities were diverse. The number of basketball and soccer matches Fan Ju participated in was not small, but tennis, to be honest, was only a personal entertainment for a few well-off students, especially since the 2002 Masters Cup Final was to be held in Shanghai.

Of course, this also reflected the low level of the match. The management department even resorted to all sorts of tricks to gather participants, which showed how desperate they were.

As a national key university, the campus had fairly complete standard sports facilities. Even in 2002, there were four standard hard courts, though they were usually locked and rarely used. However, for a "university-wide" competition, the courts were "free" to use, coordinated by the student council.

About 20 spectators stood sparsely around the court. On one side of the court, a slightly old desk stood out, with two microphones tied with red ribbons standing upright on it. Behind the desk sat the senior with glasses and another rather attractive senior sister.

The senior with glasses looked at the time and then at the senior sister, as if asking if it was time to start.

The senior sister didn't care about the number of spectators. Student-organized matches were like this. As long as they could get the school's recognition and material and spiritual rewards, and add a line to her graduation record about organizing the first university-wide tennis tournament, what more could she ask for?

"Cough! Cough! The 2002 Amateur Tennis Masters Tournament now begins. Let's welcome the players from both colleges!" The senior with glasses pressed the button on the first-generation iPod, which was still a rare item at the time, even in the U.S., where it had only been on the market for less than six months.

Some students looked at the unique device with envy, while others, who were less informed, thought it was just a regular MP3 player. However, envy was useless. The small Apple player cost $499 in the U.S., which was more than 4,000 RMB, a price that many ordinary families couldn't afford. The cost of bringing it from the U.S. and the shipping fees made it even more expensive.

Of course, Apple products were considered "luxuries" in China at the time, targeting the high-end market. Ordinary citizens could only envy and use low-quality knockoffs.

Fan Ju walked onto the court with a new racket "borrowed" from the senior with glasses. As a reborn person, even though he had lost most of his memories, he still had a vague memory of the Apple brand, knowing it would become very successful, rivaling Microsoft.

"Tennis Masters Tournament? What a grand title. Ignorance is bliss, even with the 'amateur' label, it's still embarrassing." Fan Ju shook his head helplessly. Participating in a sports competition was one thing, but participating in such an embarrassing one made him feel like "Fan Lao Ye passing the imperial examination."

In his previous life, Fan Ju had two well-known nicknames: one was the famous "Fan Jin," the butcher's son-in-law who passed the imperial examination, and the other was a more respectful title, "Director Fan."

Of course, after being reborn, his circumstances changed, and so did his nickname. "Fan Jin" became "Little Genius" after he skipped two grades. However, his close friends wouldn't call him "Little Genius." Years of exercise made his appetite enormous, and he became known as "Rice Bucket."

Although the nickname "Rice Bucket" was common for someone with a big appetite, Fan Ju actually preferred his previous nicknames. They carried many memories from his previous life, which he had lost.

"The match between the Economics and Management Colleges officially begins!" The senior with glasses, who had only watched a few matches, was clearly a tennis novice. There was no official referee on the court, and the decision of who would serve first was left to the players.

No matter how much he complained, Fan Ju had to accept his fate. He dragged his racket to the net, greeted his opponent, and they played a quick game of rock-paper-scissors. The serving right smoothly fell to Fan Ju.

When people think of serving, they usually imagine a high toss and a powerful swing, with the ball often exceeding 150 km/h. However, Fan Ju's serve was nothing like that.

His serve was more like a badminton serve, with no speed and no strategic placement.

The opponent, after all, was a "representative" selected from the entire college, and he had some skills. With a forehand stroke, the ball, with a slight topspin, flew toward Fan Ju at a speed faster than the serve.

"Serve point! 15-0!"

Fan Ju didn't expect his opponent to have some skills. Unlike him, who was forced to participate, the opponent, though not a professional, was a genuine tennis enthusiast.

"XXX! Isn't this just setting me up to embarrass myself? That four-eyed bastard!" Fan Ju cursed in his heart, knowing that this was the first time he had to face such an embarrassing situation since his rebirth.

The opponent was also delighted. He had heard of Fan Ju's reputation and knew he was a rising star among the freshmen, excelling in sports and academics. When he learned his opponent was Fan Ju, he was a bit worried.

However, once Fan Ju served, he realized his worries were unnecessary. A rookie who hadn't even practiced basic serves was no match for him, a "professional" who had taken two years of tennis training. Winning the match was a sure thing; he just needed to figure out how to "crush" his opponent!

The two of them had their thoughts racing, but on the court, it only took a few seconds. Fan Ju, with no choice, had to serve again. The opponent easily read the ball's trajectory, gripped the racket with both hands, and hit it with full force!