Rebirth and Conquest

Amidst a stigma, Chen Yan entered junior high school, which was located in a town a bit further away, about a half-hour drive away. At this time, Chen Yan got his first bicycle. Because the school was far from their village, and his friends who were familiar with Chen Yan's 'bad reputation' were still obediently staying in elementary school, Chen Yan did not suffer much 'discrimination' here.

However, this didn't seem to make much difference to Chen Yan. Being a quiet underachiever became Chen Yan's motto for going to school. Chen Yan stopped skipping classes. He went to school quietly, listened to lectures quietly, and stayed quietly in an inconspicuous corner. And whether out of boredom or to thoroughly adhere to his motto, Chen Yan developed a habit, or rather a quirk: during exams, he would always get one question right and then get one wrong. If he got the first, third, and fifth questions right this time, then next time, the question he got wrong would definitely not be the second, fourth, or sixth. For this reason, Chen Yan's grades always remained firmly in the middle range.

When Chen Yan was in the first year of junior high school, he also finished the second year's curriculum. When his classmates were moving up to the second year, Chen Yan skipped a grade and went straight to the third year. This time, his skipping a grade was a little different from before. He applied through the normal procedures. Although Chen Yan's grades were not very good, his application to skip a grade inevitably raised some questions. However, due to Chen Yan's extremely low profile over the past year, no one paid much attention to this matter. His grandmother had become numb to it, or rather, used to it. Chen Yan skipping grades had become a habit, and no one could control him.

By this time, Chen Yan's family's financial situation had fallen far behind that of the other villagers. Chen Yan's maternal grandparents had little to spend money on, and his younger brother, Chen Haoran, had even less ability to spend money. Therefore, most of the money sent by Chen Yan's mother was spent on Chen Yan. Whatever Chen Yan wanted, his grandmother would give him; even things Chen Yan didn't want, his grandmother would still try to give him. For example, Chen Yan's allowance was already higher than what his peers could only dream of. However, Chen Yan still hadn't seen his mother. Ever since that woman came back once when he was eight years old, she had never shown her face again. If it weren't for the money she sent every now and then, Chen Yan and his family would hardly have noticed her existence.

The two years of junior high school were the most peaceful two years for Chen Yan. No one mentioned his 'dark history' anymore, and no one paid attention to him. Of course, Chen Yan didn't pay much attention to others either. Chen Yan always thought that when he graduated from junior high school, he would be able to leave without leaving a trace. But he didn't expect that the reality was not so. His departure could actually create some ripples here.

It was a summer afternoon, with a romantic atmosphere in the air. Chen Yan, having finished his last class at the school, was preparing to ride his bicycle away; he had graduated.

Just then, someone called out to him, "Chen Yan, wait a minute!"

This was the first time anyone had spoken to Chen Yan since she came to the school. It was a girl wearing a floral dress with long hair draped behind her. She must have rushed over, because her beautiful face was flushed from strenuous exercise.

Chen Yan stopped on one foot, turned around and looked behind him. Chen Yan's hair was a little long, and his bangs almost completely covered his eyes. Because some people say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and Chen Yan did not like to expose his inner thoughts. In addition, Chen Yan always had a wooden expression on his face and always wore a strict school uniform. If someone who did not know him saw him, they would definitely think he was a bookworm who had gone crazy from studying.

The girl who ran up to Chen Yan had a shy look on her face. Then, she awkwardly took out a glass bottle, put it in Chen Yan's hand, and said, "This is for you."

Chen Yan looked down and saw that the glass bottle was filled with stars of various colors, all folded from paper. At that time, it was very popular among girls to fold their own little stars, put them in a bottle, and give them to the people they liked. Different numbers of stars represented different meanings.

Chen Yan remained silent. He wasn't interested in whether there were eight hundred or a thousand stars in the bottle, but he could tell there were definitely quite a few. He looked at the girl with his expressionless face, waiting for her to say something next.

Seeing Chen Yan's reaction, the girl was somewhat disappointed. She looked at Chen Yan with disbelief and asked, "Chen Yan, don't you recognize me? I'm Jin Ling. We were in the same class when you were in fifth grade."

Oh, so it's the girl whose pencil case was filled with earthworms. Chen Yan then remembered that the face of the person in front of him did indeed look somewhat like that little girl from back then. But why did she come to find him? Could it be that she only remembered to punish him, the 'culprit', after so long? Chen Yan curled his lips inwardly.

"Actually, I've been watching you for a long time. I already know about what happened that time. You didn't do it. I'm sorry, we all wronged you." The girl said somewhat embarrassedly. "Ever since junior high school, I've been paying attention to you and wanted to tell you about this, but you always seemed so cold and unapproachable, so I was too embarrassed to bother you."

So he wanted to play Bao Qingtian to clear his name? No need, he didn't care at all. Chen Yan thought to himself as he prepared to ride away.

Then the girl said, "Chen Yan, I don't think you're a bad child. The reason others treat you that way is because they don't understand you. You're always silent and don't care about anything. Sometimes I feel like you're a melancholy prince, staying only in your own castle and not paying attention to anything outside..."

Chen Yan almost fell off the car. No way, is this really an adjective used to describe him? He is the "infamous" bad student Chen Yan! He is silent because no one wants to talk to him, okay? Chen Yan felt that his nerves had been greatly shocked. What has this girl gone through in the past two years to have such a sense of aesthetics!

"Chen Yan, I like you!" the girl suddenly said, raising her voice. Her face immediately turned bright red. After a pause, she continued, "I thought that since we were in the same class, I could gradually get closer to you. But I didn't expect you to skip a grade. Now you're about to graduate. I'm afraid that if I don't say it now, I'll never have another chance. I know you might not like me. Although I've always secretly looked at you these past two years, you've never even glanced at me."

The girl lowered her head as she spoke, forced a smile, and said softly, "Actually, it's okay. I just wanted to tell you. You don't need to take it too seriously. Well, I'm done talking now. You can go now. I'm sorry for bothering you with all that talking."

After the girl finished speaking, Chen Yan rode away on her bicycle, leaving the girl with only her back view and no other response.

The girl stood there stunned for a while before she realized that Chen Yan had really left! The girl sniffed, held back her tears, and silently turned around and went back to the classroom.

After returning home, Chen Yan immediately retreated to the study. The bottle filled with little stars was casually placed aside. The study had become the place where Chen Yan spent most of his time. Apart from his uncle, who would occasionally come to visit, Chen Yan rarely appeared in anyone's sight. His presence in the village had clearly diminished. In fact, looking at it this way, Chen Yan really did have the feel of a prince living in his own castle, except that this prince was an unpopular bad boy.

Chen Yan sat at his desk reading. His study was filled with books on various topics, almost like a small bookstore. In addition, there was a computer on his desk, which he had bought a few days ago. In the countryside at this time, a computer was definitely a luxury.

"Brother, brother..."

Suddenly, a series of shouts came from outside, and then Chen Haoran barged in without any apparent reason. Chen Haoran is now seven years old and has just finished first grade. He has grown a lot taller, and his chubby body from when he was a child has become thinner.

Because Chen Yan disliked being disturbed, his study was practically a forbidden area in their home. His maternal grandparents rarely came up, but his younger brother especially liked to come here, always arriving without warning or knocking.

Holding his summer homework in his hand, Chen Haoran ran up to Chen Yan and threw the homework on Chen Yan's desk, then started yelling for Chen Yan to explain the problems to him.

Chen Yan felt a headache coming on. How could Chen Haoran have become like this? Wasn't his younger brother supposed to be sensible and well-behaved, hardworking and ambitious? But now he was acting like a spoiled brat who came to him for everything! He seemed to be becoming more and more like him in his past life. Moreover, he seemed to be talking to his brother even less than in his past life, but his brother's clingy nature hadn't diminished at all; in fact, it had gotten worse. Was it because he was too lazy to bully him anymore?

Unable to understand, Chen Yan helplessly rubbed the corner of her eye and opened the book that Chen Haoran had messed up: "Tell me, what don't you understand?"

Chen Haoran leaned his head close to the book, flipped through a few pages, and then pointed with his chubby little hand: "This is it."

Chen Yan looked at the question Chen Haoran was pointing to and then asked, "Is this the question you don't understand?"

"Mmm!" Chen Haoran nodded vigorously.

Chen Yan couldn't help but twitch his lips. It was an arithmetic problem. He could do the first one, seven plus five, but he couldn't do the second one, eleven plus five. Was his younger brother really that stupid? Impossible! In his previous life, his younger brother's academic performance was outstanding, far superior to his own, a playboy.

"You know the first part, so why can't you do the second?" Chen Yan couldn't help but ask.

Chen Haoran lowered his head and remained silent when asked the question, then started playing with the hem of his clothes like a child who had made a mistake.

Chen Yan stopped talking to him, took the star-shaped bottle she had just received at school, placed it in front of Chen Haoran, and asked, "Can you count?"

Chen Haoran nodded immediately and said loudly, "Yes!"

"Then count out eleven first, and then count out five more."

Chen Haoran said "Oh," took the bottle, and asked, "Brother, what's this?"

"Star"

"Where did you get it from?"

"A gift from someone else."

"Then, could you give me a few?"

Have you finished counting?

Chen Haoran fell silent and began counting stars with the bottle in his hand.

After counting, he pushed the two piles of stars in front of Chen Yan and proudly reported to Chen Yan, "Brother, I'm done counting!"

Without even looking, Chen Yan reached out and swept the two piles of stars that Chen Haoran had counted together, then said, "Now count how many stars are in here."

Chen Haoran said "oh" again and started counting.

So, during this holiday, Chen Yan's bottle of stars became Chen Haoran's abacus for doing math problems, and later it was given to Chen Haoran.

...