Rebirth of a Top Student's Handbook

"No need." Zhou Min pulled back her luggage, refusing Chen Sheng's offer. She hadn't walked far when she bumped into Zhu Da. Zhu Da saw the luggage in Zhou Min's hand and came over with a smile, saying, "You can carry it for me, it's on my way anyway."

Zhou Min agreed after considering that Zhu Da's house was indeed in the same direction as hers. Watching Zhu Da help her carry her luggage, she suddenly remembered that after the college entrance exam, Zhu Da had also helped her carry her luggage home. She remembered that after getting off the bus, he carried her luggage, weighing over 100 pounds, for two or three miles, collapsing from exhaustion before even reaching her house. Later, Zhu Da watched the luggage while Zhou Min went home and called her father to help carry it home.

Thinking of this, Zhou Min couldn't help but smile, completely unaware of Chen Sheng's gloomy face behind her.

After returning home, Zhou Min tidied up the room and organized all the things she had brought back. Then, she began to persistently ask her mother for her suitcase again.

Ever since Zhou Min's mother changed the furniture, she has been cutting back on living expenses for the past few months. The snacks and fruits she used to use to save face and entertain neighbors and mahjong partners have gradually disappeared. Even the gifts she gives to Zhou Min's maternal grandparents are no longer as extravagant as before, not to mention the money she spends on her nephews and nieces.

As for the suitcase Zhou Min wants, she still hasn't received it. Every time, her mother brushes it off by saying the family is out of money. Zhou Min says that winter vacation is still long, and she believes she will definitely be able to get a suitcase.

Hearing the mahjong game outside was about to end, Zhou Min tied her hair up and went to the living room. Just as she arrived, she heard her mother calling for her to stay for dinner. That's how Chinese people are; they know it's impossible, but they still put on a very good show. Even as an adult, Zhou Min was often criticized by her mother for not knowing how to greet people, but Zhou Min genuinely disliked these superficial gestures.

After greeting them, Zhou Min waited quietly until everyone left, then began talking to her mother about her suitcase.

"Mom, look how much you won today, buy me a suitcase."

"Where did I win? This is all from what I lost earlier, and I just made up for it." Zhou's mother was never one to admit to winning money, because having too much luck was not something her fellow card players liked.

"Oh, Mom, you have no idea how tired I am when I got home today. One of the boys in my class even helped me bring my luggage back."

"Then why didn't you call your dad to pick you up?"

"I just didn't want to disturb you while you were playing mahjong. Besides, Mom, we'll be taking the high school entrance exam in the county, and we'll definitely need suitcases then."

“Isn’t your travel bag pretty good? It was given to you by your aunt’s workplace; it cost several tens of yuan.”

"But this doesn't have a lock. When we go to the county to take the exam, we leave all our things in other people's dorms without locks. What if our things get lost? Especially our books, exam admission tickets, and the like. It will affect our exam."

When Zhou's mother heard that it would affect her exam, she became a little anxious. But when she looked at the 100 yuan she had won that day, she gritted her teeth and agreed.

After agreeing, Zhou's mother felt increasingly distressed, and she vented this distress as anger. While cooking, she began to berate Zhou Min: "Look how much money you've spent lately! You want everything to be the best. Your father and I have saved up so much money for so long, and you've spent it all in just a few days. If you don't study hard, you'll be letting your father and me down..."

Zhou Min was now immune to all of this. Seeing that her goal had been achieved, she flattered her mother a few times and then went back to her room to read.

Zhou's mother passed by Zhou Min's door several times and saw Zhou Min reading a book, so she happily went to continue cooking.

During dinner that evening, Zhou's mother started complaining again about the high household expenses and the fact that they couldn't make ends meet, urging Zhou's father to find a way to earn some extra money.

The rather lazy Mr. Zhou started making excuses, like it was too cold to do anything, and in the end, Mr. Zhou got another scolding from Mrs. Zhou. In the past, Zhou Min would have been scared to see this, always feeling that she had spent too much money and was causing her parents to argue every day. But as she grew up, Zhou Min realized that this was her parents' way of getting along.

Even though Zhou's mother had plenty of money in her past life, enough to never worry about finances again, she wasn't happy. Because Zhou's father preferred living in their hometown, Zhou's mother stayed in the county town to help Zhou Min raise the children. Even though they had enough to eat and wear, Zhou's mother wasn't truly happy. Only when Zhou's father occasionally visited would she find a sense of being needed in her complaints about him, and Zhou's father clearly enjoyed it. Only young Zhou Min could perceive their arguments as quarrels.

After talking about money for a while, Zhou's mother asked Zhou Min, "Winter vacation has started now, right? Do you still have to go to school tomorrow?"

"No need to go, I need to pick up my report card the day after tomorrow."

"How did you do on the exam this time? Don't let it be like the midterm exam where you ranked in the 40s or 50s again." Zhou Min was unhappy when she thought about her midterm exam results last time, and she even lost her appetite.

"It's alright. I've been studying very hard lately, haven't you noticed?"

"That's great! We must study hard and try not to be inferior to those boys, so they won't look down on girls." Zhou Min was encouraged by her mother step by step to develop a strong competitive spirit. From school to work, she always tried to outdo the boys, which made her very tired.

Now, hearing these words from Zhou's mother again, I really want to tell her how she gradually prevented me from starting my own business, and to tell me that family is still the most important thing for a woman.

Zhou Min ignored her mother's words, finding them neither entirely agreeable to her mother's two extreme views, having already been educated by society. Zhou Min hoped that this time she could walk her own path in life peacefully, never again being swayed by others.

After nagging for a while, Zhou's mother remembered that there was a market in the village tomorrow. She arranged for Zhou's father to go to the village entrance to buy two chickens after dinner, and planned to buy some other things at the market tomorrow before going to Zhou Min's maternal grandfather's house together.

After finishing her meal, Zhou Min went back to her room to study, memorizing her English vocabulary list over and over again. She felt her academic workload had recently become a bit lighter. Since completing all her junior high school notes, Zhou Min said she could now take the high school entrance exam without needing to review them.

Zhou Min felt she couldn't set such low standards for herself, considering there were many top students out there. She decided to take some time tomorrow to buy a few middle school Olympiad books to increase the difficulty, and also to buy herself an English dictionary to memorize vocabulary. This was something Zhou Min had always wanted to do in her past life, but she had never been able to stick to it.

Thinking of this, Zhou Min opened her small wallet, counted the money on her, and found she only had a little over 40 yuan. She didn't know what to do tomorrow. As for asking her mother for money to buy books, Zhou Min gave up. For the sake of her suitcase, she decided to ask her mother for less money recently.

The next day at daybreak, Zhou Min was taken to the street by her mother right after breakfast. As for Zhou's father, he was the typical type who would rather wash dishes than go shopping with his mother.

Zhou Min watched as her mother haggled with the seller, spending 100 yuan on a box of milk powder, a box of sesame paste, and a large bag of cookies and cakes. This was Zhou's mother—more generous than anyone else when it came to spending money on her own parents.

Passing by a street stall, Zhou's mother saw a bright red cotton-padded coat. She put down what she was holding and examined it closely. Zhou Min was about to refuse when she heard her mother say, "How about buying this coat for your cousin?"

Zhou Min's face flushed with anger. It was happening again! Every time she complained that her mother was biased and treated others better than her, her mother wouldn't admit it. You see, her mother rarely bought her clothes; many of Zhou Min's clothes were hand-me-downs.

"What about me? I want to buy one too, I have no clothes to wear," Zhou Min said angrily.