He was fully aware that in this society, although diplomas were becoming less and less valuable by the day, they were still indispensable. If he wanted to change his fate and let his parents enjoy a comfortable and worry-free old age, the first step was to pass the college entrance examination smoothly and make it onto the list.

After eating a few bites at random, David Bennett realized he didn’t know when the morning self-study class started, so he left home early. When he arrived at school, there were few people on the playground—a few sports enthusiasts were jogging and stretching, and a few boys were practicing shooting near the goal. Seeing people playing soccer made David Bennett itch to join, but now was clearly not the time.

He found his class; there were already three students in the classroom, heads buried in their books—two girls and one boy, the boy being Henry Jordan. The schedule posted on the wall showed that David Bennett had arrived more than an hour early.

David Bennett recalled that this Henry Jordan was from a nearby town and had boarded at school throughout high school. The class had been reorganized three times in three years, and David Bennett didn’t have much of a relationship with him.

With just over a month left before the college entrance exam, his family didn’t want David Bennett to feel constrained by money, so they had, for once, given him 50 yuan. After sitting at his seat for a while, David Bennett pulled out a few English multiple-choice questions and walked over to Henry Jordan.

“Hey, Henry Jordan, could you help me look at these English multiple-choice questions?”

David Bennett’s purpose was to make contact with Henry Jordan.

Before the seating numbers for the college entrance exam were assigned, he wanted to establish a friendship with Henry Jordan. Although time was tight, it wasn’t impossible. After all, Henry Jordan didn’t know that in just over forty days, David Bennett would have something very important to discuss with him, and right now, there was no conflict of interest between them.

This was the first contact after being reborn, and it was a precious morning. Picking a few simple English single-choice questions was ideal; he didn’t want to walk over with a few big math problems and have Henry Jordan spend more than ten minutes explaining. He wasn’t sure if Henry Jordan was the helpful type, and if he wasn’t, and got annoyed by the big problems, how would he approach him in the future?

The first time asking for help went smoothly; Henry Jordan was quite approachable. Before morning self-study started, David Bennett went to Henry Jordan again to ask about two geography multiple-choice questions.

David Bennett’s work as a proofreader had given him an extraordinary ability to focus his mind. Coupled with his years of political perspective from working at a daily newspaper and his adult comprehension, at this moment, as David Bennett studied politics and history textbooks again, he felt he was getting twice the results with half the effort.

All day long, David Bennett just read, understood, and memorized.

When he got tired, he would quietly observe Henry Jordan for a while, trying to figure out his personality and preferences, and watch his social circle. Apart from asking Henry Jordan questions twice before morning self-study, David Bennett didn’t approach him again that day. He didn’t want to come across as too abrupt; his intuition told him that Henry Jordan was a rather sensitive guy.

During evening self-study, as David Bennett let his mind wander to relax, he suddenly thought of a problem: the things recorded in his notebook were all earth-shattering information—what if someone else saw them? What if it brought unknown trouble?

No, he couldn’t just record things so openly; he needed to be covert, to find a way that others couldn’t understand.

The whole night, David Bennett was designing a recording method that only he could understand—a system that mixed Arabic numerals, English, pinyin, the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, increments and decrements, reversals, and colors.

By dawn, after he had successfully embedded a set of lottery jackpot numbers from thirteen years in the future into a string of bizarre symbols, David Bennett buried a black notebook at the very bottom of his bookshelf.

The next morning, David Bennett still arrived very early. After sitting in the classroom for ten minutes, Henry Jordan entered.

David Bennett greeted Henry Jordan politely, and more than half an hour later, took a few English questions he was genuinely confused about to ask Henry Jordan for help. David Bennett clearly felt that Henry Jordan’s attitude was much more natural today when explaining.

During the afternoon break, David Bennett went to Henry Jordan again to ask a few questions, all the while observing Henry Jordan’s attitude and personality.

There was no other way—last time in high school, David Bennett and Henry Jordan hadn’t interacted much, and he basically didn’t know this person, not to mention that more than ten years had passed in between.

Chunshan No. 1 Senior High School didn’t have a cafeteria. For meals, students either went home, brought food, or ate at the snack street near the school. Lunch break time for seniors was just about enough, but dinner time was obviously tight—there was enough time to eat, but not enough to go home.

Boarders like Henry Jordan definitely had a long-term meal arrangement with some small restaurant outside the school. After class, keeping an eye on Henry Jordan as he left the classroom, David Bennett followed him out.

Walking among the stream of students, trying to keep a distance but afraid of losing him, David Bennett felt he’d never worked this hard even when chasing girls.

The place where Henry Jordan ate was average in terms of environment. A TV hanging from the ceiling was playing ""Slam Dunk"" on VCD. Several students sat at a table, eating and watching, occasionally making comments.

David Bennett casually picked a few dishes and squeezed his way to a table next to Henry Jordan. His current goal was simply to increase his presence in front of Henry Jordan, to get his face known first.

After a while, a few more boys from their class came in, greeted David Bennett and Henry Jordan, and they all sat at one table.