Rebirth: Slice-of-life Cultivation Chapter 11 – Chapter 11 Chapter 11 Everything is in the Past

Chapter 11: Chapter 11 Everything is in the Past Chapter 11: Chapter 11 Everything is in the Past Jiang Ning pedaled steadily, his mind as calm as water, as he remembered how Xue Yuantong had gone home that night in his previous life.

At that time, his heart was entirely captivated by Shen Qing'e, and he never paid attention to any other girl in class. However, he vaguely remembered that the next morning, he arrived very early, one of the earliest among his classmates. He saw Xue Yuantong's hair was a bit messy, and her military training uniform was wrinkled, as if she had slept in the classroom overnight.

Thinking this, Jiang Ning gradually realized that if he hadn't stopped Xue Yuantong tonight, she would probably have stayed in the classroom the whole night.

How silly and foolish!

He couldn't help but think about Xue Yuantong in her senior year. By then, she had grown taller, reaching 1.6 meters. Her childish face had completely matured, and with the top scores in the entire city, plus her eccentric personality, countless people admired her at school.

Jiang Ning, a non-entity, had absolutely no interactions with her.

However, in the end, Xue Yuantong, who should have created miracles and led a brilliant life, was diagnosed with leukemia right before her college entrance exams.

A life thus ended, like a meteor streaking across the sky.

From then on, Jiang Ning understood what tragedy meant.

Xue Yuantong was almost the most outstanding girl Jiang Ning had ever met in this life, not because of her family background, but by her talent alone.

He suddenly smiled and shouted to the girl who had not yet shone brightly, still full of stubbornness, timidity, and pride:
“Xue Yuantong, want to feel the breeze?”

“Breeze? How?” Xue Yuantong asked.

“I'll speed up,” said Jiang Ning.

Xue Yuantong murmured to herself, how fast could a bicycle possibly go?

“Come!”

“Hold on tight,” Jiang Ning cautioned.

Xue Yuantong didn't take it seriously—was she someone to get scared?

Then, as Jiang Ning gradually accelerated, Xue Yuantong's expression changed from disdain to surprise and finally to panic.

When she came back to her senses, she found her arms around Jiang Ning's waist. She had forgotten about the rule that men and women shouldn't touch, with the wind howling in her ears and the scenery on both sides of the road speeding by.

It was too fast; she felt as if she was flying close to the ground, her body stiff, her arms tightly gripping Jiang Ning, and the mountain bike shot forward into the boundless darkness like an arrow.

If there were any small stones on the ground, the whole bike would have been thrown off. She wanted to live, wanted to loudly stop Jiang Ning, but she completely forgot how to open her mouth, her heart filled only with shock.

In this rapid state, Xue Yuantong's mind gradually emptied, as if she was eternally falling in a vast, empty valley.

Soon after, she noticed the speed of the bike slowly decreasing.

Jiang Ning had just reached speeds over 70 miles an hour and could have gone faster, but he worried about Xue Yuantong falling off, and also whether this mountain bike could withstand it.

The mountain bike was a best-selling Giant model, priced over two thousand, but Jiang Junlong did not maintain it well, so it wasn't in peak condition.

As the speed returned to normal, Jiang Ning turned off the river dam.

“We're here.”

As he finished speaking, the bike stopped in front of a bungalow.

Xue Yuantong took a breath and loosened her grip from Jiang Ning's arms, trembling as she slid off the back seat.

She stared at Jiang Ning, still terror-stricken, thinking she was about to die moments ago. Even now, her heart was pounding and her legs were still stiff.

Xue Yuantong took a deep breath and then let it out.

“How was it?” Jiang Ning asked her.

Xue Yuantong rubbed her face, nonchalantly saying:
“Not bad, I didn't expect you, with your scrawny arms and legs, could ride so fast. You've piqued my interest a bit.”

“Great, I'll go even faster next time, I promise you'll be satisfied,” Jiang Ning declared.

Xue Yuantong: …you almost took my life!

“You wait here for a moment,” she said, and after walking inside the house, she returned with two large peaches in her hand.

“Here, these are peaches from my grandmother's tree, super sweet.”

“Also, thank you for taking me for a ride tonight.” After saying this, she walked back into the house without turning back.

To repay kindness was Xue Yuantong's personal creed.

And for Jiang Ning, Xue Yuantong's obviously frail yet pretentiously composed demeanor was also a rare pleasure.

…

September 2nd.

Jiang Ning went to school as usual, riding just a few hundred meters when he saw Xue Yuantong walking. It seemed she was later than usual for school.

“Get on,” Jiang Ning called out.

“Alright, I was planning to run three kilometers today, but since you invited me, I won't run,” Xue Yuantong said as she slowly moved to the back seat.

“I cooked two eggs, I'll share one with you,” Xue Yuantong never hitched a ride for free.

“Ride slower today, there are people on the road,” she cautioned, not from fear, but to avoid hitting pedestrians.

“Don't worry,” Jiang Ning assured.

Xue Yuantong admired the morning scenery, recalling the hardship of walking to school a few days ago. With the benefit of hindsight, she felt incredibly fortunate now.

Then she recalled the scene from last night, how fast it was; she had never seen anyone bike so fast it seemed to fly. Because she had been so scared at the time, she couldn't remember exactly how fast, but thinking about it still made her heart race.

‘Next time Jiang Ning wants to speed, I have to think of a way to refuse him; I can't take his antics.'
Xue Yuantong was lost in her own thoughts.

Watching Jiang Ning diligently pedaling ahead, she decided to look after her younger brother.

“Jiang Ning, if you don't understand something in your studies, just ask me!”

“Okay.”

“Huh, why aren't you arguing?” Xue Yuantong wondered. Both were students in the regular class at Fourth Middle School, and technically, her grades should be on the same level as Jiang Ning's.

Anyone else would probably have argued because it wasn't clear yet who should be looking after whom.

But Jiang Ning thought to himself, ‘Because I know you were amazing in your past life; no one in Yuzhou City could compare with you.'
He told Xue Yuantong, “You look like someone who gets good grades.”

“???” Why did that sound strange to Xue Yuantong?

However, Jiang Ning's tone was very sincere, which comforted Xue Yuantong somewhat but also took away some of the fun. It would have been nice if Jiang Ning had doubted her, and then she could have exerted herself in the monthly exam, topped the whole grade with her absolute score, and then slapped the report card on Jiang Ning's face, telling him with a glance that conveyed three parts arrogance, three parts pity, and four parts nonchalance:
“I am a woman beyond your imagination.”

Then Jiang Ning would prostrate in worship, treating her as divine from then on.

“Ha ha ha.” Imagining that scenario, Xue Yuantong laughed heartily.

The old man on the river dam glanced over, helplessly shaking his head, and even the little yellow dog that followed looked over disdainfully and snorted in contempt.

Xue Yuantong put on a serious face again, feeling a bit empty after the fantasy.

The reason she attended Fourth Middle School also had its origins, as she initially studied junior high at Yu Zhou No.14 Middle School, where she had surged to the top ten in the entire grade during her first monthly exam in junior first grade.

If she hadn't hidden some of her abilities, she would have been the top of the school.

The math test paper was extremely difficult, yet she beat the student who came in second by nearly twenty points.

The math teacher, a refined woman nearing forty, had changed outfits every day for a month since school started, showing just how many clothes she must have at home.

Xue Yuantong, who excelled in math, unsurprisingly received encouragement from the math teacher, who praised her profusely in front of the entire class, almost to the skies.

Not long after, the math teacher started a tutoring class outside of school, charging one thousand per semester, and some students from the class attended her tutoring sessions.

Xue Yuantong did not join. Considering her family's financial situation, a thousand yuan was a significant amount, not much less than her mother's monthly income.

As the tutoring class began, the math teacher's attitude toward the students in the class changed, starting to mock those who didn't attend her tutoring sessions openly in class.

Xue Yuantong, a good student, faced less of this mockery, but those with poor math grades who didn't join her tutoring were frequently singled out for various forms of sarcasm, to a demoralizing extent.

Those who paid the tutoring fee and attended her class received excellent treatment, all smiles and pleasantries.

The math teacher kept some tricks of the trade for her tutoring sessions, explaining some of the classic problems only there.

Eventually, feeling compelled, over twenty students from her class joined the tutoring.

She was responsible for three classes, with over seventy students attending in total, earning her over a hundred thousand in a year.

Xue Yuantong disapproved of her conduct, “You're running a tutoring class? Keeping secrets? I don't need to attend your sessions to outperform the students you teach.”

It didn't take much effort for Xue Yuantong to achieve this, creating a significant gap in math scores, but this brought on even sharper attacks from the math teacher, who mocked her coldly. Once, unable to hold back, Xue Yuantong talked back and was slapped by the angry math teacher.

Xue Yuantong's eyes were red that day, and she felt very upset. When she got home, her mother asked what was wrong with her face, and she lied about having fallen down.

She had considered telling her mother the real reason.

But her mother was just an ordinary person, unable to help and likely would lose sleep over it.

Against such a malicious person as the math teacher, her mother wouldn't have gained any advantage.

She considered transferring schools; with her grades, other junior highs would definitely take her.

But transferring schools would also require informing her mother, so Xue Yuantong ultimately gave up on the idea.

She heard from classmates who joined the tutoring class that the math teacher's husband had some status, which is why the school tolerated her behavior.

Those who attended the tuition spoke in frustration, as not everyone was wealthy; many students came from regular families, and paying a thousand yuan for tutoring was a big deal, but they had no choice but to spend the money to avoid trouble.

This led Xue Yuantong to decide to fight back against the math teacher in her own way. She knew full well that if she did just as well on the middle school exams, the math teacher would benefit from her score.

Just the thought made her feel sick.

So, in the math section of the middle school entrance exams, she committed an unprecedented bold act by turning in a blank sheet, throwing away all 150 points.

It was a capricious act; Xue Yuantong had calculated beforehand that the total middle school entrance exam points included physical education and experiments, making up 925 points in total. Even without the 150 points, she could still perform well enough, perhaps not getting into Second Middle School, but definitely landing a spot in Fourth Middle School.

She wanted to use a zero score to fight back against the math teacher, and then, when the results came out and she gained some attention, she could reveal the situation with her math score to expose the math teacher.

However, this plan failed. Despite her entrance exam scores, she didn't receive much attention, no one came to interview her, and no one paid attention to a fallen genius. Only the headteacher expressed some regret when learning about her total points.

The response was mostly cold looks and schadenfreude from classmates, considering someone who was previously among the top ten in her year ended up scoring just over six hundred in the entrance exams, not even crossing the threshold for Second Middle School.

That day, Xue Yuantong grew up.

Had she entered Second Middle School right from the start with the best scores in the city, perhaps she would have gained a lot of attention. People might have asked her, and some might have interviewed her. Then, she could have utilized the opportunity to speak out about the math teacher's actions.

Being the top scorer in the city could have also earned her a substantial scholarship to ease her mother's financial pressure.

Unfortunately, the Xue Yuantong who had turned in a blank sheet during the exam, fueled only by her defiance against authority, by her forward-charging passion, and by the fanciful daydreams unique to young people, never considered the consequences her decision might have. She just wanted to repay the malice she had endured for three years in her own way.

Her missing 150 points undoubtedly cost her many opportunities.

But if you were to ask Xue Yuantong now, does she regret it?

Xue Yuantong pursed her lips, her eyelashes lightly fluttered, and her gaze drifted towards the vast Huishui River.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on N𝘰vgo.co

Chapter end