Chapter 2

  Xinhua Bookstore still looks very old-fashioned. Oh, ceiling fan!

  There were still as many people as ever.

  After a good night's sleep with no dreams, Chen Xuan came with a clear mind and refreshing spirit, carrying the extra pocket money from yesterday.

  I originally wanted to buy a drink, but... in the years when instant coffee was a luxury, forget it. Cappuccino? What's that?!

  Not to mention the buses that clattered all the way here... and the soap used for washing face last night and this morning... Chen Huan looked up at the gloomy sky, the air was also severely polluted!

  The prices on the back of the book are finally somewhat comforting.

  Chen Huaisheng hesitated for a long time between the 20-yuan Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary and the 7-yuan Student's English-Chinese Dictionary. She only had 21 yuan in total; she also wanted to see the gap between her knowledge of other subjects and her memory; she also wanted to study the eight-legged essay writing of middle school students...

  In the end, a dollar killed the former Deputy Director Chen. She finally compromised with reality, and with great difficulty, she carried the five or six kilograms of books back home - she was only eleven and a half years old, not yet fully grown physically, and most importantly, had no money!

  The whole summer vacation, because he didn't go to the outdoor swimming pool and didn't play wildly outside, Chen Haosong's skin didn't turn black; nor did he gain weight, it was really... sometimes hard to swallow!

  So, when parents are very pleased to see their daughter grow rapidly in a month, learning household chores, and working hard every day with English dictionaries, math textbooks, Chinese essays, history, and literature... Although the allowance has increased a bit, those are all necessary expenses! Just look at the two rows of books on the bookshelf, and you'll know that your daughter will definitely be admitted to No. 1 Middle School!

  As for going to school, Chen Huai-sheng was not afraid at all. Her own test scores should be fine. What she really feared was the school, and what she feared were her peers of the same age. The kind of discomfort that spreads from deep within may lead to unprecedented isolation.

  Forget it, being isolated is just that. In middle school, grades have always been everything, as long as your grades are good, even if you openly date early, not many people will bother you.

  The first day of early self-study began with a speech. Chen Huaicheng sat upright, his face calm and focused, but in fact he was thinking about whether to buy Tang and Song poetry or Tang and Song lyrics with the few dollars in his hand.

  The first class is English.

  Chen Huaisheng was even more miserable. Were those five English marks worth spending forty minutes on? Ah?! In desperation, she began to practice cursive and hard-pen calligraphy in her self-bound notebook with white paper. Hmm, should I buy a French elementary textbook?

  "Hey, you!" The English teacher, who was also the class advisor, knocked on Chen Huasheng's desk with a look of displeasure. "What's your name?"

  Chen Hui immediately stood up. To be honest, she had mixed with the Education Bureau for seven or eight years and was in charge of high schools and led educational innovation, so Director Chen was not easy to deal with.

  "Teacher Qin, I'm Chen Haicheng."

  "Which elementary school did you graduate from?"

  "XX Central Primary School."

  "Oh," Qin Ren's expression slightly softened as he heard that the small school had English classes starting from fourth grade. "Have you learned all of these?"

  "...I studied phonetics on my own." The interest class textbook didn't have phonetics, this was a fact she had carefully confirmed three times over, it's really unimaginable what the pronunciation of those students would be like.

  "Oh? Then read this word." Qin Renying wrote the word on the blackboard.

  Chen Huaisheng read it once.

  "Read it again."

  Chen Haotian listened and read it again. His pronunciation, which I had corrected for four weeks, was still the standard pronunciation with almost no accent, and he could score 85 points by any standard. His diligence made his parents so happy that they almost cried.

  From the first lesson to the final exam, the head teacher never managed Chen Huasheng's thoughts and actions during class. And Chen Huasheng was very happy to recite the English-Chinese dictionary in her first-year English class, while practicing cursive writing - those seven yuan were really worth it, saving her at least seventy yuan on an English reference book.

  When junior high school started to differentiate algebra and geometry, this was Chen Haoteng's first impression after getting the class schedule, and his second thought was a slight fear. No matter whether it's the middle school entrance exam, college entrance exam or graduate school exam, math is always unavoidable. Moreover, he had no valuable memories of this subject at all.

  There's nothing for it but to study hard then.

  So, every day Chen Huan returns home, helps with cooking a dish, then recites an English passage from memory, recites a Tang poem, reads several newspapers brought back by her father, and spends all the time not sleeping on math and science problems. Except for English and composition, she doesn't dare to learn ahead of schedule for this semester, fearing that it will form a bad habit of not listening in class, everything is done according to the progress, but often uses high school exam questions and standard answers to desperately grind; The gap between high school and junior high is too big. During major exams, she also maintains her grades in the top three for each subject, except for English, of course. She was born with a talent for English from her previous life, and this life will definitely not fall behind. Okay, actually, she envies her colleagues who can speak two foreign languages, so, leave some time to learn another foreign language! Of course, this has to wait until after starting work and earning money. Now, most of her pocket money is spent on buying books, at most adding a popsicle, without even having a cup of coffee!

  Speaking of which, how much does the cheapest instant coffee cost per bottle? Something that I wouldn't even bother to look at in the past has now become a luxury. Hmm, no, that's something that will happen many years later.

  ……

  Chen Huaisheng would fall into a state of cognitive dissonance whenever he compared his current life with the memories of his past few decades, and in severe cases, he even vomited several times. On the other hand, his dependence on coffee had been thoroughly shattered by reality. Also shattered were his habits of consuming high-end skincare products, imported health supplements, fashionable clothing and accessories, and changing cars every six years... No, she no longer wanted these luxurious indulgences, nor the terrifying pressure to perform like a mountain.

  Reality is just next year's middle school entrance exam.

  "Chen Hua Sheng, roll call." Zhang Ying, Chen Hua Sheng's deskmate, study committee member and math class representative. He was a boy who looked laid-back but actually studied every day until 10 pm at home. Basically, he and Chen Hua Sheng always maintained their positions among the top three in the class and were regulars among the top ten in the grade.

  "Give." Chen Huan didn't intentionally do poorly on tests, so her scores in English, algebra, geometry, and physics were all close to perfect. However, there were some subjects like language arts where it was impossible to get a perfect score, especially since her brain worked differently from that of an average middle school student, and she couldn't afford to stand out too much. As a result, her performance on essays was sometimes good and sometimes bad, which often led her language arts teacher to whisper to her that she should go find tutoring outside of class.

  "Uh, you're really not attending the Olympic math class?"

  "Not participating."

  "What about the English interest class?" The question in front had been asked for two years, he gave up. This is a new one, must strive for it.

  "Not participating."

  "Teacher Qin specifically named you to go."

  "I'm self-studying high school English grammar. Do you think I'll participate?" She's actually studying university English 4 and postgraduate entrance exam English grammar. The benefits of studying hard are slowly showing up, and many forgotten things have been made up for. Now she studies ten hours a day, whether it's weekdays or weekends! This doesn't even include the time spent jogging around the playground every day! Unfortunately, in her two lifetimes combined, her physical education won't be able to enter the top ranks.

  "Alright." Zhang Ying also didn't dwell on it, and directly dropped the matter. Because his name sounded a bit feminine and he wasn't tall or big in stature, he was often teased for being effeminate. Therefore, he studied hard and took exams, using his grades and the teachers' favoritism to counter the teasing and bullying.

  To be honest, bullying among students is quite common. Fortunately, Chen Huasheng has good grades and the image of a female superhero who fetches water buckets and does push-ups is deeply ingrained in people's minds, so she didn't have the opportunity to fight back.

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