Chapter 3: The Obsessive Manual

upied with their respective concerns. Su Cen had his high school entrance exam, Zeng Yuan had her final exams coming up soon, and Zeng Na would be entering her senior year of high school, where she ha...Chapter 3: The Scroll Leading to Obsession

"Pearl milk tea!" At Tang Wu's side, the twin sisters Cheng Yun and Cheng Lan exclaimed in surprise. Soon enough, Su Can remembered who had spoken.

Back then, well, it was during junior high when the vice-class monitor Dong Qingyun was flourishing in class, a pure bureaucratic bud and a typical example of one. Relying on his status as the vice-class monitor, no one dared to offend him, especially those few who were not interested in studying and later became social ruffians. Back then, their rebelliousness had yet to fully sprout; they almost all turned into henchmen for Dong Qingyun to help complete unfinished assignments every day.

This made Dong Qingyun even more untouchable, becoming quite famous even among other grades. Su Can remembers that since junior high, Dong Qingyun had launched a fierce pursuit towards Tang Wu, though whether it succeeded or not remains unknown after both of them were promoted to senior high through the entrance exams.

Although milk tea has long become outdated and no longer as glorious as before, it still represents something novel and relatively upscale for students today. Especially when Dong Qingyun mentioned "Taiwanese pearl milk tea," Cheng Yun and Cheng Lan's hearts stirred.

Tang Wu clearly wasn't interested in Dong Qingyun. As the class’s vice monitor, she frowned slightly, "Oh, I forgot. Which problem are you stuck on Anyway, tomorrow is the last day before vacation. Can we talk about it when you come to school"

Dong Qingyun waved his test paper and, upon hearing this, retracted a bit, "Well... I suppose that's fine."

Then he glanced at Su Can beside him, as if deliberately saying, "Hmm, since tomorrow is the last day anyway, there will be two days of free review time afterward. Or should I come find you and we can study together You know some problems that might stump me; maybe I have ideas for ones that puzzle you."

Dong Qingyun's words were, in a roundabout way, a provocation towards Su Cen. Earlier, when Tang Wu blushed and turned her head under Su Cen’s gaze, he hadn’t missed it. He thought to himself that the boy who had been hiding like a turtle for three years suddenly decided to go crazy before graduation and pursue the school beauty, Tang Wu

Especially after seeing the rare blush on Tang Wu's face, which made Dong Qingyun stare in surprise while harboring immense animosity towards Su Cen. However, with this statement, he clearly showed that he and Tang Wu belonged to the top class of their grade based on academic performance. Only she could sit at his level, whereas someone like Su Cen would soon be forgotten.

Tang Wu was obviously tempted. Although her grades were excellent, she wasn’t arrogant enough to think she knew everything. It was perfectly normal for her not to know some of the junior high questions; that was why Dong Qingyun’s words seemed reasonable. Tang Wu originally planned to review and rest on alternate days before the exam, so having someone like Dong Qingyun, who had similar grades as hers, help her fill in any gaps would be greatly beneficial.

Su Cen could not miss Dong Qingyun's deliberate actions at this moment; he found it amusing how jealous this guy was. Su Cen didn’t comment on it and casually glanced at the test paper in Dong Qingyun’s hand, asking, “Hey, can I see that”

"See Can you even understand" Dong Qingyun raised his eyebrows and handed the test paper to Su Cen without hiding his disdainful tone.

When Su Cen saw that there was no title on the test paper and it belonged to the school’s printing room, he recognized its unique scent from the thick oil ink still lingering on it. The smell brought back a nostalgic yet painful memory of the past that made him want to cry. How precious were these memories!

Of course, Su Cen wouldn’t show his true feelings; otherwise, with so many people watching him shed tears over an object, they might think he had lost his mind or was expressing grief about his uncertain future.

The others saw that he had taken the test paper and frowned as he looked at it but didn't pay much attention to what was happening. Instead, they chatted quietly among themselves, some of them already feeling a sense of loss over their impending graduation.

This set of papers has no header and starts directly with the first question. Whether it's a selection or geometry, proof questions, or calculation problems, there are no blank lines between questions until the hundredth one. Combined with Director Qingyun's attitude previously, Su Cen realized that this was an internal test paper. Generally speaking, teachers at schools would distribute some relatively difficult exercises within the current stage as internal reference materials to top-performing students in the class so they could further improve themselves and prepare for their final battle.

These resources are usually limited in quantity and only distributed to outstanding students like Director Qingyun and Tang Wu. Students like Su Cen hardly ever receive them.

This isn't due to any bias or sinister motives from the school teachers, but because these questions fall under the category of marginal exercises in the curriculum so far and are extremely difficult for this stage. Distributing such challenging review materials to average students before an exam would be counterproductive since it could only disrupt their normal thinking patterns, leading to terrible consequences. On the other hand, top-performing students can solidify and review their entire knowledge system with these exercises.

Looking at these problems, Su Cen doesn't necessarily understand them all instantly; however, he did study advanced mathematics during his high school and university years, which is based on a profound understanding of junior high mathematics. Just like how a high school student might not fully solve but still be confident in answering most of the middle school exercises, at least eighty percent of them are manageable for him. Furthermore, Su Cen studied diligently after consecutive failures, yet due to his weak foundation, he couldn't improve his scores.

It's like how a person who has been frail and underdeveloped since childhood cannot become an expert with formidable inner strength unless they experience some miraculous events such as finding treasures by diving off cliffs.

Now it seems that the heavens are giving him another chance to build his foundation.

The exercises currently look very familiar to him, and he can see everything clearly. Some questions would be solvable if he had paper and a pen.

If Director Qingyun and Tang Wu, who haven't fully mastered this comprehensive set of junior high knowledge and traps, knew that Su Cen was confident like this right now, they might be astonished to the point where their jaws drop.

Su Cen realized that if this wasn’t a dream, the fact that he had inexplicably returned to eleven years ago was an unalterable reality. The clarity and vividness of everything before him, whether through senses or sight, were so real. If reincarnation really happened to himself, then in order to prevent his tragic future from repeating itself, Su Cen understood that the first "boss" he needed to defeat would be the junior high school graduation exam right in front of him; otherwise, he was merely destined to relive a life filled with hardship.

Among the crowd chatting, Cheng Yun and her twin sister Cheng Lan were the first to glance at Su Cen with boredom. He had been standing there staring blankly at this set of papers for nearly five minutes now. Could it be that you, Su Cen, are really so engrossed in these internal practice questions Don’t you think about your own mediocre grades and ask yourself if you can even compete with Tang Wu or understand the content of these exercises

Su Cen snapped out of his trance upon seeing everyone looking at him with strange expressions. He couldn't help but apologize with a smile, "It's getting late, guys, let’s hurry home and not worry our families... By the way, Dong Qingyun, could you lend me this test paper I want to make a copy for myself."

Dong Qingyun never expected that Su Cen, who usually shrank away timidly, would suddenly become so calm and natural, even going as far as calling him by his name directly. Hearing his own name called out like that felt odd, akin to an older brother speaking down to him.

The surrounding crowd was taken aback; this Su Cen really has the guts to ask! At this moment, Tang Wu looked at Su Cen and couldn’t help but feel a slight thaw in her usual icy demeanor. Just moments ago she had lamented about his mediocre future prospects, yet now Su Cen seemed to have such an ambitious attitude. This injected a bit of relief into Tang Wu’s melancholic heart caused by graduation.

However, Tang Wu naturally knew that even if one's fate could be turned around through temporary effort, it was far too late when only three days remained before the high school entrance exam...

"Can you" Despite her glacier-like indifference, Tang Wu couldn’t help but voice a rare concern for Su Cen.

“Sure! I’ll make a copy for you.” Dong Qingyun suppressed his barely surfacing anger and agreed outwardly, already scheming inside. "If Su Cen is determined to dig his own grave, don’t blame me!" The internal test papers were given only to people like them because their current quality and way of thinking were the only ones capable of breaking through these questions and reaching the peak of junior high school level. high score sheet, she pretended not to notice, as if unaware of Tang Wu’s first-place standing.Su Cen didn't exert his full effort on this test paper. His scores were only a few dozen ranks behind Xu...