Chapter 8: Off to School

    After the teacher’s words, everyone turned their attention back to the lesson on the board. Although, some students began to nod off, some opened their books and discreetly scrolled through their phones.

    While others passed folded notes to one another.

    It seemed like they were all giving the teacher their ‘full attention.’

    Tang Yifei, however, found herself drawn to a girl sitting in the second row near the classroom door. This girl radiated an aura.

    She must be Xing Fei, the one everyone had been talking about. Her looks were more on the cute side, as opposed to the striking beauty of Li Yifei. If they walked together, it wouldn't be surprising if more eyes were drawn to Li Yifei.

    Right now, Xing Fei was paying close attention to the teacher’s explanation.

    Seeing her so focused made Tang Yifei reminisce about her own school days long past. No matter the generation, students always seemed to fall into three groups.

    First, those who are focused on learning.

    Second, those who study sometimes and play sometimes.

    Third, those who don’t pay attention in the class at all.

    These might be the color of every classroom.

    In this particular class, based on the memories in her head, they were ranked near the bottom of the grade.

    Looking around at the atmosphere, she could understand why.

    Even her close friend, Li Ying, was casually scrolling through her phone, not much different from the others.

    Kids these days... Even though they're in school, they should focus on learning a little more.       

    The teacher, meanwhile, continued teaching as if unaware of the students’ distractions. As long as the students weren’t too noisy, it seemed the teacher didn’t mind. When the teacher did call on a student to answer a question, she naturally chose Xing Fei’s group—the group of adorable students.

    Of course, Xing Fei’s answer was correct.

    The teacher smiled proudly.

    This was a math class, and even though Li Yifei had chosen the arts major, she still had to take two math courses—there was no escaping it.

    Tang Yifei had studied in the science major, and seeing the math problems on the blackboard felt somewhat familiar to her. Science-major students studied more math, so it was deeply ingrained in her memory.

    Having gone through this once already, it was just a matter of refreshing her memory.

    Besides, Tang Yifei had always been a good student, having attended a top-tier high school renowned for its rigorous curriculum. Thanks to the strict teaching she received there, she understood the math problems on the board now too. But just understanding them wasn’t enough—she had to take notes as well.

    When she got home, she would definitely have to start reviewing her textbooks. There was only a week left until the first-term finals.

    Li Ying, noticing how diligently her friend was taking notes, was taken aback. She recalled overhearing the doctor’s conversation with Grandma Li during their visit to Yifei in the hospital.

    Maybe her friend had forgotten a lot of things? Was she really understanding what she was writing? After all, Li Ying herself had tried taking notes like that before but didn’t always get it.

    After the math class ended, the English teacher came in.

    Her best friend continued taking notes.

    Finally, the morning classes had ended.

    Xu Kai, sitting behind them, commented, “Yifei’s really focused on studying this time.”

    “That’s true,” Li Ying agreed, unable to deny it.

    Tang Yifei wasn’t surprised by what she heard. It was natural for her close friends to be suspicious—after all, her behavior had changed.

    "Surviving this time, I think my mind is clearer," she said.

    "Really? Is it like those movies where the main character has an accident and becomes a genius?" Li Ying joked.

    "Genius or not, we’ll see after lunch. Let’s go eat now, or we’ll only get bread and milk if we’re late," Xu Kai chimed in.

    The discussion about her supposed newfound genius was cut off.

    Tang Yifei was excited to go to the school cafeteria, even though she knew it wouldn’t be anything like the elite school she used to attend. She wanted to see it for herself.

    However, she hadn’t expected there to be so few food stalls, and two of them already had long lines of students.

    "I knew it—we’re too late again," Xu Kai grumbled.

    "Yifei, do you want to wait?" Li Ying asked her.

    "I’ll go with whatever you guys decide."

    Tang Yifei replied, feeling the stares and hearing the whispers around her. This body’s previous owner seemed to be quite famous, though she wasn’t sure in which ways.

    However, one of them would be for her beauty. But today, the class beauty was wearing a mask. For students at this age, rumors about facial disfigurement would spread like wildfire.

    For someone as beautiful as Li Yifei, jealousy was inevitable, especially among other girls. The prettiest girl always became the target of her own circle.

    "Let’s just grab bread and milk," Xu Kai concluded, noticing that Li Ying was glaring around, as if ready to spread her wings and protect her friend.

    Xu Kai and Tang Yifei dragged Li Ying toward the stall for bread and milk, deciding it was better to eat back in the classroom.

    While Tang Yifei appreciated the protective stance of her friend, she knew they couldn’t win against the entire cafeteria of whispering students. If they were in the classroom, it might be easier to handle.

    Back in their classroom, Xu Kai sighed as they all sat down.

    "Don’t care about them, Yifei," Li Ying said, trying to comfort her.

    "Once my bruises heal, I’ll be back to looking good as usual. You can relax, Li Ying,"

    "Yeah, it’s just some bruises. Those people are wrong," Xu Kai said with a laugh.

    "Exactly," Li Ying quickly agreed.

    They then unwrapped their bread, and Tang Yifei soon understood why her two friends had been so disappointed earlier. The bread was dry and hard to swallow. Thankfully, the milk made it a bit easier to get down.

    After finishing, they returned to the topic of the new supposed genius.

    "Let’s see, can you solve this math problem for me?" Xu Kai asked.

    Li Ying also watched expectantly.

    Tang Yifei got to work, quickly finishing the problem and handing it back to Xu Kai.

    "So, how’d she do?" Li Ying asked eagerly.

    According to the memories of the body’s previous owner, Xu Kai was a smart student, usually ranking 9th or 10th in the class. The two girls often copied his homework.

    And while he had tried to tutor them, they hadn’t been very receptive. Though, it might have also been because Xu Kai’s explanations weren’t always clear—some people could understand problems at a glance.

    But couldn’t effectively explain how to solve them.

    "It’s correct," Xu Kai said, confirming.

    Xu Kai quickly wrote down another math problem for Tang Yifei to solve. Naturally, Tang Yifei in this body had no trouble with it. The problem was easy for her.

    “This one’s correct too,” Xu Kai confirmed.

    “Incredible!” Li Ying exclaimed.

    “But will this last?” Xu Kai asked, a bit skeptical.

    “Why wouldn’t it?”

    “Well, sometimes these bursts of intelligence fade after a while.”

    “Oh well, I’ve got nothing to lose. I wasn’t doing great in school anyway, so even if I go back to how I was, it won’t be a big deal,” Tang Yifei joked.

    Li Ying suddenly looked downcast, prompting Tang Yifei to ask with concern. After all, she didn’t often have such a close friend, so she must keep this friendship.

    "What’s wrong?"

    “You’re going to be both beautiful and smart now, and I’ll just be cute... and still dumb,” Li Ying pouted.

    Xu Kai burst out laughing at Li Ying’s self-deprecating remark.

    “Want me to teach you?” Tang Yifei offered.

    “You’re going to teach Li Ying?” Xu Kai asked in surprise.

    “Yes, why not?”

    “Go ahead! I’d like to see if you can actually make her understand math.”

    So, they spent the lunch break with Tang Yifei tutoring Li Ying. It seemed like they needed to start with the basics, but Tang Yifei thought it would be a waste of time. Instead, she chose to teach Li Ying how to spot key patterns in the problems.

    This made it easier to substitute values and solve them.

    The one who was most surprised by this method wasn’t Li Ying but Xu Kai.

    “There’s a method like that? I’m definitely going to remember this.”

    Li Ying, on the other hand, was still confused.

    “Xu Kai, have you made notes for the upcoming math exam?” Tang Yifei asked, switching topics.

    “Yeah, I have.”

    “Copy one for me. I’ll show Li Ying how to solve the problems, so she can memorize them.”

    Li Ying was good at memorization. Because both girls dreamed of becoming actresses, which meant memorizing scripts was necessary.

    It wasn’t surprising that they would apply the same method to memorizing other subjects like social studies. However, relying solely on subjects like that wouldn’t be enough to pass.

    Tang Yifei finally saw the upside to her and Li Ying’s shared dream. 

    “Want my English notes too?” Xu Kai asked.

    “That would be great.”

    “Wow, I wish I could get hit by a car like you,” Xu Kai joked.

    “If you got hit, you’d probably end up dumb,” Li Ying teased him.

    “That’s possible. Or worse, I might end up a ghost sitting in class here with you guys.”

    “No way! That’s too scary,” Li Ying said, shuddering at the thought.

    “If you’re scared, how are you going to be an actress? What if you have to act in a horror movie?”

    “There’ll be tons of people on set. What’s there to be scared of?” Li Ying shot back, defending herself.

    Tang Yifei just listened to the banter, enjoying the atmosphere. She loved this sense of camaraderie, even though other classmates, who were slowly trickling back into the room, kept glancing their way.

    When the bell rang for afternoon classes, Tang Yifei returned her focus to her studies. Even though she had been in the science track, she had also studied subjects in the arts.

    Her grandfather didn’t want her to be idle and wanted her to be a perfect lady, so she had studied everything from literature to history.

    At the time, she had wondered what was the point of doing it.

    But once she met her grandfather’s peers, she finally understood. They studied those subjects to converse intelligently with the elders, which in turn facilitated business matters. If they could discuss common interests, everything would become easier.

    Before long, the bell rang again, signaling the end of the school day. The students on cleaning duty gathered to tidy up the classroom.

    Fortunately, Tang Yifei’s group wasn’t on duty.

    She was free to go home.

    “Once you’re fully recovered, let’s go out for ice cream, okay?”

    “Aren’t we supposed to be studying for exams?” Xu Kai reminded her.

    Li Ying sighed in exasperation but then her eyes lit up.

    “Tomorrow, I’ll have Tang Yifei’s exam notes. Maybe this time I won’t need to retake any exams!”

    “Don’t lose the notebook I gave you, Yifei,” Xu Kai said firmly.

    “Don’t worry, I won’t,” Tang Yifei promised confidently.

    As they reached the school gate, her younger brother, Li Yifeng, was already waiting for her. As soon as he saw her, he asked,

    “How was your day?”

    “It went smoothly, of course, since I was there,” Li Ying answered for her.

    Li Yifeng turned to Xu Kai for confirmation, to which Xu Kai responded jokingly,

    “Nothing happened. Even if something did, we wouldn’t have listened anyway.”

    And thus, Tang Yifei’s first day of school came to an end. She found herself looking forward to tomorrow, eager to learn alongside her close friends again.

    Even though bus number 7 was a bit crowded, her sweet little brother made sure to shield her from the crowd.

    Come to think of it, life as Li Yifei wasn’t so bad. She liked it.