Chapter 12: The Dinner Party (Part 2)

  Xiao Fei's expression changed to one of concern, "Hm, the third middle school is indeed not suitable for your development... how about it, are you interested in taking the entrance exam for the first high school?"

  Xiao Yunyun finally spoke up, "Come on in, the first high school has several classes that are all pretty good!" Xiao Yunyun was never one to be shy, speaking straightforwardly, and after sizing Su Can up, she said with a hint of shyness.

  Su Can nodded, "I'll try my best, but my grades aren't as good as yours, I don't know if I can get in."

  The elder uncle took another sip of wine on the side, without saying a word. Zeng Na may not have expected that Su Can, who was usually strong, would suddenly change like this today, and she was quite surprised.

  Xiao Yunyun was taken aback, probably didn't expect Su Can to bluntly say that he couldn't keep up with his own grades, and hastily said, "It's okay, just work hard."

  It was Su Can's straightforward and sincere response, without any pretence, that contrasted with Xiao Fei's strong irony, to the point where Xiao Fei couldn't persist anymore, and it wasn't good for him to continue finding a breakthrough by provoking Zeng Quanming through Su Can.

  In addition, Xiao Shu's brother-in-law, Zeng Zhao Ding, seeing that the atmosphere was not right, immediately stood up with his wine glass and said a lot of good things to Xiao Fei, making him feel slightly better.

  He snorted, staring at Zeng Quanming, thinking that his younger brother was more sensible than him!

  Xiao Fei pulled his daughter along, and as they were about to leave, he gave Su Can a glance and said in a gloomy tone, "You'd better study hard! Don't fail the entrance exams for both junior high and senior high!"

  The family gathering was not very happy, Su Can was under pressure for the college entrance exam, Zeng Yuan's final exams were approaching, and Zeng Na would soon be in her third year of high school. She had been hovering around 20th place in class and was worried about how to break through the top 20 barrier and get into a good school. With everyone preoccupied with their own worries, plus Xiao Fei's troublemaking, they all dispersed quickly.

  Back home, Old Mother Zeng Ke had already spoken up, "Your big uncle said that if you get into the third high school, he'll buy you a bicycle. Son, work hard! It will be glorious to ride the new bike your uncle bought for you on the first day of school!"

  Su Can nodded and smiled, then walked back to his room under his mother's relieved gaze. He spread out the internal physics test questions and next to him were English, language and mathematics, all of which he had grasped more or less clearly after reviewing them last night and this morning. In fact, although the six volumes of junior high school books looked impressive, compared to those 16-page, brick-sized financial investment books, these were just small magic tricks.

  Moreover, Su Can still has the foundation of the entire knowledge system, so re-studying it is doubly easy. The biggest problem lies in memorization, perhaps there will be some problems with language memorization. However, when it comes to composition scores, understanding these things, Su Can has a strong grasp. With a mindset that is ahead of its time by over a decade, Su Can estimates that he might still be able to shock the views of modern teachers who grade papers.

  Physics was a subject that Su Can had been good at since he was young. He remembered that when he was in junior high school, he had a natural talent for this subject which is closely related to life. Now looking back, it seemed almost obvious, just like opening the computer case and explaining what each component is - motherboard, CPU, memory card slot... The three years of junior high physics didn't pose any difficulty for Su Can, and soon the internal physics test questions were completed under his dense writing, the whole process took only two hours.

  At the same time, even top students may not have Su Can's speed and overall grasp of the situation. Dong Qingyun was somewhat dismayed by the internal practice test papers for each subject during this period, while Tang Yu was engrossed in intense calculations under the afternoon sun, burying her head in a large number of books, still frowning and feeling that the two days of review time before the middle school entrance exam were a bit too short.

  After thoroughly reviewing Chinese, math, English and physics, Su Can walked out of the door and looked at the living room of his home eleven years ago. Many pieces of furniture were still old-fashioned decorations from back then. VCDs were still a rare commodity at that time, generally costing one or two thousand yuan per unit. Outside the apartment complex, there were specialty stores for renting video tapes. At that time, adults' leisure activities mostly consisted of renting popular TV dramas after work and watching them at home.

  Mother Zeng Ke is off today, cooking dinner in the kitchen, Su Can poured himself a glass of water and sat down in front of the 21-inch old-fashioned color TV set, turned on the TV and casually watched the news and TV shows from eleven years ago.

  Zeng Ke saw Su Can sitting on the sofa watching TV, and at first, she was stunned. Although Su Can was only sixteen years old, his expression while watching TV made her feel a sense of unusual calmness that was different from usual. He stared at the TV, but his eyes seemed to be thinking deeply, which made Zeng Ke unable to scold him. Normally, Su Can would be reprimanded for watching TV before exams or after school every day, but now, Zeng Ke suddenly felt as if her son had grown up a lot in an instant...

  In the afternoon, Father came back and heard Su Can's review progress, and his mood improved a lot. The whole family had dinner together in harmony, and Mother was smiling with a hint of elegance. Father still looked majestic and gave high praise to his efforts before the exam, and also expressed concerns that he shouldn't be too anxious.

  Seeing his parents eleven years younger, Su Can's heart was filled with emotions. In the future, his parents would gradually grow old worrying about him, but now that he had returned as a blessed child of heaven, he couldn't let them worry about him again and accelerate their aging. He wanted to keep their current vitality intact.

  After dinner, the sky had gradually darkened. Su Can was thinking about the problems he still had to review in several subjects: language, mathematics, foreign languages, and biology. These four subjects were already sufficient for him to pass the exam with flying colors. The next subjects to tackle would be physics, chemistry, history, geography, and politics.

  Su Can himself knows his own affairs, his biggest weakness lies in memorization, which is a bit like nonsense. Who can recall clearly the year and place where Nurhaci held the founding ceremony 11 years ago? History and politics are mostly his weaknesses, and it's a bit late to review them now. Su Can didn't plan to put his energy into these aspects either, he only planned to roughly review and memorize them when the time comes.

  The focus of tomorrow's review is still on physics and chemistry. As long as I grasp these key points, I am confident that I can get into the top high school.

  As soon as the night fell outside, there was a knock at the door. Su's father opened the door and his mother called out to Su Can in the room, "Su Can, Xue Yi Yang and Liu Rui are looking for you!" Then came his mother's voice from outside, "How come, the college entrance exam is the day after tomorrow, and you're all going out to play together?"

  Xue Yi Yang scratched the back of his head, "Exactly, call him out to play for a bit, after all, it's about balancing work and rest..."

  Walking out of his room, Su Can was still a bit dazed. Liu Rui was also one of their childhood friends who grew up together with them since they were young. They had done many mischievous things together, such as hitting the neighbor's pigeons, smashing other people's glass windows, and pulling out bicycle tire tubes. The three of them had grown up together, but went their separate ways in college. Later on, they could only occasionally gather together. Seeing Liu Rui in front of him, Su Can couldn't help but recall the days when they used to laugh and play together, feeling a deep sense of closeness and warmth.

  "Alright! You're now grown up, Su Can, and you know what to do. Go out and have some fun, but come back early!"

  Su Can refused Xue Yi Yang yesterday also because when they were taking the college entrance exam, he and Xue Yi Yang Liu Rui played together until late at night, afterwards everyone's grades were terrible. In order to not let that tragedy happen again, yesterday he refused the invitation to go out and play laser tag.

  Now Su Can is very confident about the exam, and he has been studying hard for the past two days, so he really needs to take a break. He wants to relive his childhood memories with his old friends, something he hasn't experienced since he was reborn.

  As soon as they left the residential area, Xue Yi Yang and Liu Rui became indignant, "Su Can, this time we've been thoroughly defeated! Those few people who came from that side today were too arrogant, speaking wildly, and both Liu Rui and I were humiliated! We must find a way to regain our dignity!"

  Xue Yi Yang and Liu Rui went to their usual CD game room this afternoon, at that time computer games had not yet become popular, so in the CD room, the most popular was Konami's Kcet team's "Pro Evolution Soccer" series, which was no less popular than the later "Red Alert" and the famous game "StarCraft" that was popular for ten years.

  At that time, there was no such thing as a local area network match. Players' competitions were limited to the circle of that game room. Su Can, Xue Yiyang and Liu Rui were naturally considered top-notch players in their circle. Even some middle-aged workers who came to practice ball skills after work praised these three kids.

  They were even more unscrupulous, who knew that this afternoon Xue Yi Yang and Liu Rui encountered a master, a team of men and women who had never appeared in their circle before, holding their own game controllers, like a war team, came to the CD room with this novel thing at that time.

  Originally, everyone was calm and peaceful when practicing ball skills, but who knew that the other party would say that if someone defeated them, they would cover the entire cost of the game room.

  Doesn't this obviously look down on them in this competitive circle? At that time, many people were not convinced and went to challenge, but they all lost. Later, Xue Yi Yang and Liu Rui couldn't hold back either, and finally took action. Many people also looked up to them, hoping they could shake the opponent's group. Although usually in this circle, people are not very convinced of the three of them, but at this stage, under the strong external enemy, many people have to admit that their skills are the best here, and all hopes of turning the tide are pinned on them.

  Xue Yi Yang and Liu Rui were evenly matched with two of them, saving face for their circle. Who knew that later on, they picked another person who directly defeated Liu Rui, and had a win-loss record against Xue Yi Yang, who was somewhat struggling to cope.

  Finally, the most powerful young man was also itching for Xue Yiyang's skills and took action himself. This time, Xue Yiyang was defeated miserably in front of everyone. The two of them messed around for an entire afternoon, and when it was almost time to go home for dinner, they still didn't give up and made a bet with others to fight again. The other party also readily agreed, with a tone that showed they didn't take them seriously.

  The three of them were together from the start, and after dinner, Xue Yi Yang invited Liu Rui to come find him again. This time, Xue Yi Yang and Liu Rui took defending their collective honor as their banner, dragging Su Can along with them to battle!