Rebirth of a Top Student's Handbook

Shaking her head to clear her mind of the jumbled thoughts, Zhou Min began to diligently take notes.

Away from Zhou Min, the chatterbox, the classroom was peaceful. Most people were studying, except for a few who were sleeping, like Chen Sheng, whom Zhou Min thought was truly a pig.

Time flies, and before you know it, it's the weekend. Zhou Min hadn't even finished sorting through her first year of junior high before she packed her schoolbag and went home.

Back home, the living room was filled with people playing mahjong again. Zhou's mother was a gambling addict at this time, but she quit after Zhou Min became pregnant. In her words, "If you have something to do, who would play this game?"

Zhou Min is an only child. Her mother had a difficult childbirth, which led to difficulties in having children later in life. Although the country had long since started family planning, in their area, it was considered shameful for a family not to have two or three children.

Even if they are fined by the state until they are bankrupt, or imprisoned for several months, they are willing to do so, and when they come out, they are good men who sow seeds again.

Because of this, Zhou's mother was often teased by others. The strong-willed Zhou's mother always argued with others, and on the surface, she acted as if our family was doing better than anyone else. However, in private, she often taught Zhou Min that she must be better than others, and all her energy was spent on putting on appearances.

While her own family was frugal, she spent money lavishly on others. Every time Zhou Min finished an exam, her mother would go out and pretend not to care while showing off. All of this contributed to Zhou Min's excessive competitiveness and sense of self-esteem.

After saying hello, Zhou Min returned to her room and looked around the room she had lived in for twenty years.

Zhou Min had to admit that it was even more difficult than she remembered, with dim incandescent lights and dusty lime walls.

Zhou's mother devoted all her energy to farm work, competing with the men every day, acting as if she was very capable. Later, when she was only in her fifties, her health began to deteriorate.

As for housework, Zhou's mother would only do some when she was pushed to the limit, which included cooking and washing dishes. As for sweeping and wiping tables, she would only do so when they were absolutely too dirty to bear.

At this time, only Zhou Min was at home, and she did all the housework. However, Zhou Min decided not to spoil her mother anymore. Her mother had long been corrupted by her grandparents, and in the end, only her mother would suffer.

Zhou's mother was born into a family with a strong preference for sons over daughters. She had eight siblings and was the fifth child, with two older sisters, two older brothers, one younger sister, and two younger brothers.

My eldest aunt was the first child of my maternal grandparents, so she was quite loved, while my youngest aunt was the youngest child and also received a lot of care.

Only my second aunt and Zhou's mother, in that environment, were not raised to be cowardly and timid. Instead, they were intelligent, strong-willed, and daring, but both had a selfless personality.

In Zhou's mother's eyes, she had to do the hardest and most tiring work and eat the worst and least food so that the rest of the family would be happy. Everything had to be prioritized for her parents; as for her children, they would live long lives and could eat whatever they wanted.

Yes, Zhou's mother is someone who always sides with her own family; in her eyes, her children and husband come much later.

It wasn't until later, when Zhou Min's maternal grandparents passed away, and because Zhou Min's pregnancy was not going well, Zhou's mother was unable to fully care for the elderly, and was blamed by her siblings for this, that Zhou's mother realized the failure of her life.

Later, he poured all his love into Zhou Min's baby, spoiling the less than one-year-old child into being completely unruly.

With that in mind, Zhou Min decided to take matters into her own hands and start tidying up the house. After all, Zhou Min, who was used to a comfortable, clean, and bright environment, found this kind of environment simply unbearable.

Zhou Min covered the bed and cabinets with newspapers, then opened the window, took a clean broom, tied it to a bamboo pole, and began sweeping the roof and walls.

Not long after he started sweeping, Zhou's father pushed open the door and came in, saying, "What are you doing in your room? Why are you making so much noise?"

Seeing Zhou Min's appearance, Zhou's father realized that the house was indeed quite messy. He took the broom from Zhou Min and said, "I'll do it."

Looking at her father's height of 186cm, Zhou Min silently wondered how she could have inherited her mother's height when her father was so tall.

Although 162cm is not short, many clothes don't look that good on me.

Zhou Min decided that she must eat properly from now on. She remembered that it was around this time that she was ridiculed for being fat, and then she started dieting to lose weight. In the end, her three meals a day were irregular, and she never grew taller again.

Zhou's father was quite fast, after all, he had the advantage of height. Zhou Min quickly grabbed a broom to sweep away the dust on the ground, and then grabbed a few rags. She tied one rag to her father's broom so he could continue wiping the wall, and used the other rag to wipe the table herself.

Just as Zhou Min was about to finish cleaning, her mother also finished playing mahjong and came into the room, saying, "What are you doing? The room is full of smoke."

"We're doing a big clean-up. Look how dirty our house is!" Zhou Min replied while wiping the cabinets.

"Then you can clean up outside too, I'll go cook." Zhou's mother said as she walked out.

"No, I still have homework to do, I have so much homework."

"It's great that you can read. If you read, I won't ask you to do anything else." It was because Zhou Min never studied at home that her mother liked to make her do housework.

Compared to doing housework, Zhou's mother would definitely prefer Zhou Min to study, after all, everyone wants a successful child, which is something to be proud of.

Zhou Min thought that when I go home in the future, I will definitely study hard and push all the housework to my mother so that she won't have time to go out and compete with others for farm work.

It's important to know that Zhou Min's family didn't own much land. Zhou's father could easily finish the work by himself, but Zhou's mother was a restless person who was always helping her own family or her husband's family with chores.

Not only did she do it herself, but she also liked to force Zhou's father to do it with her, which led to Zhou's father becoming increasingly lazy.

Zhou's father was actually a rather mild-mannered but lazy man. He was completely controlled by Zhou's diligent mother, who ordered him around every day, and yet he was always doing all the work for others for nothing.

Over time, Zhou's father became less and less motivated and increasingly lazy.

Later, Zhou Min received a free high school education, which motivated her father to earn money, since his daughter was a college student and he needed to save up for tuition.

Thinking of this, Zhou Min felt that she could no longer be so sensible. It wasn't that her family was poor; it was that they had saved all their money for others to spend.

"Mom, I want to change to a brighter light bulb."

"This isn't bright enough. Go and see if anyone has a 45-watt light."

"I don't care, the light is too dim, I can't concentrate on reading."

“Your uncle was just a kerosene lamp back then, and he’s still a postdoctoral fellow now. Don’t make excuses if you don’t want to study.”

"What era was that? Back then, other families were poor too. Now everyone has energy-saving light bulbs, so they can definitely concentrate better than me. That's why I didn't do well on this exam."

"How did you do on the test this time?" Zhou's father couldn't help but ask.

"Only in the forties." Zhou Min took the opportunity to reveal the exam results.

"How come you only got such a low score?" Zhou's mother, who cared about her reputation, couldn't accept it.

"Alright, go and get her a 100-watt one later." Zhou's mother said, then thought for a moment, "Or how about a 200-watt one?"

"I don't want an incandescent bulb anymore, it's not bright enough. I want an energy-saving bulb, like a flashlight, that's brighter," Zhou Min said to her father.

"How much does that cost? We don't have that much money at home!" Zhou's mother became anxious as soon as she heard about the stun gun. That was a rare item; who in the countryside used one?

“But it saves electricity, much more than an incandescent bulb,” Zhou Min tried to persuade her mother.

"Is that so?" Zhou's mother asked Zhou's father for confirmation.