I was reborn without dreams

Chapter 3 is very satisfied with the current situation.
Aside from registering at Dongweigang Middle School on the first day, Zhang Da'an never went to school again. Instead, he was busy catching fish and shrimp in the surrounding wild rivers and ponds. With the Dragon Boat Festival approaching, he could also sell the reed leaves he picked.

There's nothing else along the Yangtze River, but reeds are more plentiful than anything else, stretching as far as the eye can see.

The school-run factory of Dongweigang Middle School specializes in making reed weaving handicrafts. It used to be quite profitable, but last year the owner ran away because of gambling. Zhang Zhengdong then sold off the factory's products and got 90,000 yuan to pay the teachers' back wages.

Therefore, Principal Zhang's worries were not only about the school's teachers and students, but also about what to do with the dilapidated state of the school-run factory.

This place is so cheap, not many business owners would come here to build a factory.

The reason is quite simple: there are no paved roads here, and the reed weaving handicraft factory relies on waterways, using inland waterway shipping.

In the past, there would be the loud clattering of diesel engines during unloading and loading, but it has been much quieter these past two months.

"Zhang An! You damn bitch, are you even going to take the exam or not—"

On a large embankment facing east in Dongwei Port, Zhang Zhengdong, riding a motorcycle, screeched to a halt, braced himself with his legs, and then shouted at Zhang Da'an, who was boating on the water, across a patch of reeds.

Since registering for school at Dongweigang Middle School on May 5th, Zhang Da'an has been acting as if he has disappeared.

Don't ask, the answer is a 630-point package.

The entire Dongweigang Middle School only has three classes with about a hundred students in the third year of junior high school. Because the educational level is so low and the teaching staff is extremely weak, in previous years only a handful of students could get into high school. Most of the students from Dongweigang Middle School would find a place to work as apprentices or take a job after graduation. The slightly better ones would go home to help out.

Zhang Zhengdong boasted that he would produce a super-killer this year, directly getting a student admitted to a provincial key school and a national key school. All the faculty and staff of the school said that the principal was awesome, the principal was old, and the principal was long-lived.

Although Principal Zhang is busy raising money to pay the teachers and staff every year, month, and day, he is just stubborn and inflexible. Why can't he admit that our Dongweigang Middle School is really useless?

In a time before the rise of "lying flat" and even the widespread use of the internet, all the faculty and staff of Dongweigang Middle School... no, all the teachers and students have grasped an extremely advanced philosophy of life.

In the villages surrounding the school, the older folks all know that Zhang Zhengdong is a "fool" and a "dumbass".

But no one said anything bad about him. After all, he was the one who led the team to renovate the school playground, and although there was no paved road outside the school, he was the one who led the team to drive hand tractors and pave it with loads of gravel.

Anyway, it's good that the students won't have mud all over their shoes on rainy days.

Zhang Da'an, who was raising the cage, looked up at Zhang Zhengdong on the boat, calmly waved his hand, and then made a "six" gesture with his fingers.

This means... 630, for a package.

"Six hundred and three farts, you! Get up! You little dog Zongsang (beast), you tried to fool me, you made me a laughingstock, I won't let you celebrate your birthday. I'll fuck you...&*@&￥%#@#..."

Anxious.

Principal Zhang Zhengdong was anxious.

There's no rush.

There are still two weeks left until the high school entrance exam in mid-June. However, Zhang Da'an didn't even go to the mock exam and stood Zhang Zhengdong up. Now the teachers at the school are all wondering if the "expert" invited by the principal is actually a master of slacking off.

To be fair, the fish were good; they were all large crucian carp and willow-leaf bream.

The food at Dongweigang Middle School's cafeteria in May was visibly plentiful, with no shortage of fresh fish and shrimp, thanks to the expert chefs Principal Zhang had hired who could provide it every day...

Zhang Da'an made a small profit of several thousand yuan.

Amidst Uncle Zhang's grumbling and tirade, Zhang Da'an, wearing waders, stepped ashore and calmly said, "Uncle, you have to trust me, we're family."

"Pah! One of us? You're nothing but a dog! You, you scoundrel, you've ruined so many lives! If you can't get into high school, you'll be working as a laborer on a construction site. If you don't do it for the whole summer, I'll break your legs, you..."

"Look at you, what's the rush? What's in it for me to lie to you? Trust me." "Trust you, you idiot! Trust you! Why didn't you go to the mock exam! Why didn't you go—"

"It's a long way, it takes more than an hour to go back and forth, so it's better to put in a few more eel traps."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Zhengdong, who was already furious, was about to kick his good nephew into the river, but Zhang Da'an said again, "It's only half a month. If you're in a hurry, you can wait half a month before you're in a hurry."

"..."

Makes sense!
He kicked out with lightning speed; no wonder he was a soldier, he's incredibly agile.

Zhang Da'an easily dodged the attack, then quickly shouted, "Be careful not to kick over the shrimp trap! There are eels and turtles inside!"

"A soft-shelled turtle? How big?"

Uncle Zhang, who had intended to kick it again, completely lost his mind; turtles were a valuable commodity.

"One pound and eight ounces."

"Really? Let me see... Wow, this is amazing! Great, great..."

He grabbed the turtle shell with his backhand, and the 1.8-pound green turtle kept stretching its neck, trying to bite his hand, but it was too short and not long enough, so he could only let Uncle Zhang examine it over and over.

"Uncle, this turtle of yours..."

"You little monkey, here's a couple of whacks on the head!"

After all, he was a seasoned veteran. As soon as he heard Zhang Da'an speak, he knew that his good nephew couldn't say anything nice and was just joking with him.

Happily stuffing the turtle back into the shrimp trap, Zhang Zhengdong hurriedly tied the trap to the back seat, turned the motorcycle around, and asked while gripping the handlebars, "Are you sure the exam is okay?"

"Don't worry at all."

"I'll trust you one more time."

He completely ignored Zhang Da'an and rode his motorcycle along the embankment towards the school.

This citywide mock middle school entrance exam was meant to familiarize students with the testing environment. Dongweigang Middle School is not a testing venue; the conditions are too poor. There isn't even a loudspeaker in the classroom. We can't skip the English listening test.

Therefore, the high school entrance examination for Dongweigang Middle School has always been held at Binjiang Middle School in Binjiang Town. After all, it is a proper middle school, and it is equipped with multimedia classrooms, music classrooms, and art classrooms, which are rare these days.

In the past, taking the exam required riding a bicycle, which took more than an hour round trip, and Zhang Da'an found it too far.

The results of the mock exams came out early, serving as a city-wide assessment. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, no more than thirty students from Dongweigang Middle School will be able to get into high school this year. Out of a grade of 140 to 150 students, that's about all we'll have.

The number of students who can get into provincial key high schools has been in the single digits every year; the number of students who can get into national key high schools has been only three in the past few years, and they all got in by just barely meeting the cut-off scores. It's purely because the students have outstanding talent and weren't held back by this lousy school.

Fortunately, Dongweigang Middle School still has a senior high school class. Although there is only one class, for many unlucky students from the school who did not score high enough, they can at least attend a regular high school. The only drawback is that since the senior high school class was established, not a single student has gone to university.

Zhang Da'an expressed his satisfaction and even fondness for this situation.

After all, this is the only way he can leverage his professional expertise from before his rebirth and make a fortune in education and training.

(End of this chapter)