Doing It Over Again

It was once again the season for new student enrollment. As the best middle school in Peng County, the Experimental Middle School never lacked prospective students. Many parents whose children weren't assigned to this school would try various connections and channels, all to ensure their children could receive better education and eventually enter a good high school.

This year was different from previous years because the Experimental Middle School introduced a new policy - entrance examinations for experimental classes. This examination was open to all graduating elementary school students across the county. Regardless of rural or urban household registration, the top 80 students could enter the experimental class. Although many people didn't quite understand what the experimental class was, they heard it was for high-performing students and assumed the best teachers would be assigned to teach. As soon as this news came out, many parents rushed to register their children.

On the examination day, about an hour before the test, some children were already waiting quietly outside the examination room with their textbooks, mostly rural students who arrived early fearing they might be late.

Forty-five minutes before the exam, the chief examiner Li Lu opened the door to the second examination room. As he watched the room gradually fill up, he exchanged a glance with the assistant examiner Teacher Luo before turning to write the examination rules, number of pages, and end time on the blackboard.

When the bell rang to distribute papers, he glanced at the second seat in the first row. The exam was about to begin, but this student hadn't arrived yet. He thought perhaps it was some pampered child who had given up on the exam. Having taught at the Experimental Middle School for many years, he had seen plenty of spoiled children, so this situation wasn't surprising.

"Excuse me!"

Li Lu looked toward the door to see a somewhat frail boy standing there. His shirt and pants looked old but clean, giving the immediate impression of a well-behaved child. "Come in quickly, the exam is about to start."

The boy bowed to him and quickly took his seat in the second spot of the first row. Watching the boy methodically take out his stationery, unaffected by his tardiness, Li Lu turned his attention away. After all, staring at students during an exam could affect their performance. It wasn't easy for these underprivileged children to have such an opportunity to enter the school - the better they performed, the more opportunities they might have.

Originally, Shen Shao had left early today specifically to avoid being late like in his previous life when he had almost missed the exam. However, he encountered a child with a broken arm on the way. Though he initially didn't want to get involved, seeing the roughly ten-year-old boy crouching under the sun with a red face looking pitiful, he couldn't help but take him to a clinic for disinfection and bandaging, and even helped report to the police before rushing to the Experimental Middle School, nearly being late again.

Shen Shao settled in his seat and picked up the test paper. Looking at the questions that weren't particularly difficult in his eyes, he began writing as soon as the starting bell rang.

The experimental class entrance examination only tested Chinese and Mathematics. After the morning's Chinese exam, Shen Shao left the school alone and found a shop where he ordered a bowl of rice noodles with two vegetable buns. Looking at the crowded and somewhat run-down streets outside, he sighed.

Two days ago when he opened his eyes and saw his childhood home, he thought he was dreaming, but now he was certain he had returned to when he was eleven years old. This was the year his mother had drunk nearly a bottle of pesticide after learning his father, who worked away from home, had gotten involved with another woman. She died before reaching the hospital. His father, under the village's condemnation, simply packed up and left to find that woman, never to return.

Unfortunately, he had returned too late - his mother's grave was already growing grass, and his father had disappeared somewhere with that woman, leaving him alone to look after a modest house and the ten thousand yuan or so his mother had left him.

The rice noodles weren't particularly tasty, and the vegetable buns were somewhat lacking in filling and oil, but Shen Shao ate everything clean, even drinking the noodle soup. The mathematics exam wouldn't start until three in the afternoon, and with nowhere to rest, he decided to go to Xinhua Bookstore. After all, it was too uncomfortable to stay outside in such hot weather, and the bookstore offered free books to read and air conditioning.

In the middle of the day, the Xinhua Bookstore was nearly empty. Shen Shao found a book in the classics section and squatted in a corner to read. Occasionally, store clerks organizing books would pass by and notice this young boy seriously reading an adult translation of a classic, giving him extra glances. One clerk even found some old newspapers for him to sit on when they saw him uncomfortable from squatting.

After two o'clock, Shen Shao returned the book to its place and the newspapers to the previous clerk, thanking them before leaving the bookstore. As soon as he stepped outside, a wave of heat hit him. He touched his forehead, looked at the glaring sun outside, and unhesitatingly headed toward the Experimental Middle School.

In his previous life, he never had the chance to enter university gates, and he didn't want to leave that regret in this life too. If he couldn't cherish this second chance at life, what would be the point of living - just to increase the country's GDP or exhale carbon dioxide for plants to photosynthesize?

The mathematics exam was even easier for Shen Shao than the Chinese exam, though he was somewhat bothered that he had missed a poetry fill-in-the-blank question worth one point in the morning exam. It felt somewhat embarrassing that at thirty years old, he couldn't match an elementary school student's knowledge.

After finishing the questions, with plenty of time left before submission, he triple-checked his answers and verified he hadn't missed writing his name or examination number before submitting early. After all, it took an hour to get home from the county town, and he might have to walk in the dark if he left too late.

Walking out of the school gates, although it was nearly five in the afternoon, the sun was still glaring. But even more eye-catching was the black Mercedes-Benz parked not far from the school gate, its spotless black body reflecting blinding light in the sunshine.

In this era, anyone driving a Mercedes-Benz was considered wealthy in common people's eyes, so such a car parked at the gate drew many glances from passersby, wondering which student's parents were so rich to drive such a vehicle.

After walking just a few steps, Shen Shao saw a middle-aged man in a suit step out of the Mercedes and approach him in a few strides.

"Are you student Shen Shao?" The middle-aged man was very polite, even bending down to try to meet his eye level while speaking.

Shen Shao stepped back slightly, keeping closer to the school gate. "May I ask what this is about?"

The middle-aged man politely smiled and took out an envelope from his jacket, extending it to Shen Shao: "Thank you for your help this morning. This is a small token of appreciation from our master."

Shen Shao thought for a moment, guessing this man might be connected to the child from this morning, though he wondered how they had found him. Looking at the envelope, he didn't reach for it: "Uncle, you're too kind. It was just a small gesture. Our teachers have taught us to learn from Uncle Lei Feng's spirit of dedication, so I cannot accept your gift."

The middle-aged man, watching this thin boy seriously talking about learning from Uncle Lei Feng, thought he was an honest and well-behaved child. He looked back at the black Mercedes behind him, then without further discussion, tucked the envelope into Shen Shao's pocket: "Teachers also taught us that good children deserve rewards. Goodbye, little one." After doing this, he quickly returned to the car, which drove away as if afraid Shen Shao might try to return the envelope.

Shen Shao looked at the crowd of people coming and going around him, and without checking what was in the envelope, put it in his school bag and quickly walked away.

Walking back to the village, some villagers working in the fields who saw him asked caringly about how his exam went. Some, feeling sympathetic about him living alone, gave him some of their home-grown fruits and vegetables.

Although these items weren't worth much money, Shen Shao was very grateful for the gesture of kindness.

Returning to his small, shabby apartment, Shen Shao first tidied up the place, then started preparing the water spinach given to him by the neighbors. Before he could finish washing it, he heard his aunt calling from outside.

"Xiao Shao, you're back?" Zhang Shulian was holding an enamel bowl filled with chicken soup. Seeing Shen Shao in his oversized shirt, lonely washing water spinach, she felt a twinge in her heart. She put the bowl down on the cutting board and moved beside him, gently pushing him aside to efficiently wash the vegetables. "I stewed a chicken this afternoon, have some soup to build up your strength."

These past couple of days, the boy had been constantly studying, with no adult to look after him. She wanted to have him stay at her house, but with elderly parents and children there, it wasn't really conducive to studying. This arrangement was better - she and her husband could regularly check on the boy without worrying about conflicts between him and their own children.

"Thank you, Aunt. Has Uncle had any?" Shen Shao looked at the chicken soup on the cutting board, where a chicken leg was floating, releasing a rich aroma.

"Don't worry, this chicken was plump, nearly five or six jin. Even our whole family couldn't finish it. Things spoil quickly in summer, so you can help us eat it and prevent waste." Zhang Shulian felt sorry for Shen Shao, being so sensible at such a young age. Thinking of how her brother-in-law had irresponsibly run off with another woman, she felt he was truly worthless. But as a daughter-in-law of the Shen family, she couldn't voice these thoughts. "Were the exam questions difficult? The temperature's high these days, stay home and rest well, don't go out and get heatstroke."

"Mm," Shen Shao nodded obediently with a sweet smile, "Don't worry, Aunt, I'll definitely get in." In his previous life, even in such poor condition, he had ranked around fiftieth. This life, with nearly twenty more years of experience, he couldn't waste this chance.

After giving a few more instructions, seeing it was getting late and she needed to feed the pigs, Zhang Shulian hurriedly left.

After seeing his aunt off and finishing his meal, Shen Shao took out the envelope that the middle-aged man had forcefully given him earlier. Opening it, he found a stack of blue-green hundred-yuan bills, feeling like there were at least twenty or thirty notes.

Currently, housing prices were only three to four hundred per square meter, yet this person had given two to three thousand just to say thanks - it seemed excessive and overly formal.

Taking the money out of the envelope, a note fell out with three characters meaning "thank you" written in neat, childlike handwriting.

Shen Shao counted the money - exactly two thousand six hundred yuan. Looking at the money, he turned to the calendar hanging on the wall.

August 22, 1996

He had traversed nearly twenty years to return to this empty home. Though he had wondered why he hadn't been sent back six months earlier, which would have allowed him to prevent his mother's suicide, he didn't want to waste this rare opportunity.

He wanted to turn his dreams into reality, rather than letting them remain just dreams.

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