“Thank you, Big Brother David.” This time Thomas Thompson spoke fluently. Bullet casings were a rare thing—some classmates had family in the armed forces and could occasionally get a few casings used in militia training, but they were all from Type 56 rifles. What David Clark gave him included pistol and anti-aircraft machine gun casings. Bringing those to school would be enough to make everyone envious.

After seeing Thomas Thompson off, Emily Clark brought David Clark inside and started sorting out his luggage. David Clark hadn’t brought much back—just a few clothes, a quilt, and some items from the army like a tea mug and a canteen. Emily Clark told David Clark to take off his clothes and change into ones from home, then soaked all his clothes, including the ones he brought back, in a large washbasin and carried them to the outdoor faucet. In those days, no household had a bathroom; toilets were communal, and water was fetched from a public tap outside.

While he had the chance, David Clark carefully observed his home. By modern standards, this place was almost bare.

One room had a big bed, which used to be his parents’. The other room had two small beds—one for David Clark and one for Emily Clark. After their parents passed away, David Clark took over the big bed, and Emily Clark stayed in the other room, sleeping on one small bed while the other was used for storage.

There was a simple wardrobe in the parents’ room with some of their clothes. The father’s clothes now fit David Clark well, while his old clothes seemed a bit small—he’d grown a lot during his two years in the army.

Other furniture in the room included a dining table, a desk for homework, a cupboard, two camphor chests, and a few stools. Some books were piled on the desk; David Clark glanced at them and saw they were all textbooks or study materials like Mao’s Selected Works. The only novel was Hao Ran’s “The Golden Road,” which was so worn it was falling apart.

There were two household appliances: a tube radio that crackled noisily, and a flashlight.

Some award certificates were posted on the wall. David Clark looked at them for a long time and found only one was his, from a sports meet in junior high; the rest belonged to his sister Emily Clark. David Clark read through all the awards and dates, then analyzed them with his graduate student mind from Hua Qing University. He noticed a pattern: in elementary school, Emily Clark won “Three Good Student” and perfect attendance awards, but after entering junior high, she only got perfect attendance, never “Three Good Student.” This showed that Emily Clark was a well-behaved student—never late, never left early, never skipped class, not even for leave—but her grades were average, so she never got the “Three Good Student” award. As for David Clark himself, he’d always been a troublemaker, never even getting a perfect attendance award.

Emily Clark put David Clark’s clothes in the wash with detergent, then came back from the faucet and saw David Clark studying the certificates. She couldn’t help but ask, “Brother, what are you doing?”

David Clark asked, “Xiaofang, what grade are you in now?”

“I’ll be starting high school this semester.”

“How are your grades?”

“Just average.” Emily Clark’s answer matched David Clark’s analysis.

“What do you mean by average? What’s your rank in the class?”

“What rank? Just in the middle. In junior high, I was in the thirties in the class.” Emily Clark replied indifferently.

In the thirties? In the class? David Clark felt a bit frustrated. Back in his day, he got into Hua Qing University as the top student in the whole county, but now, after being reborn with a younger sister, she was only in the thirties in her class.

“Well, it’s fine. Once I settle in, I’ll help you catch up on your studies,” David Clark promised.

“You’ll tutor me?” Emily Clark looked at David Clark like he was a weirdo and laughed, “Brother, even your junior high diploma was arranged by Uncle Uncle Grant from the factory’s armed department. And you want to tutor me?”

“Heh, well, well, you know what they say—after three days apart, you should look at someone with new eyes,” David Clark said. “Your brother may not have been a great student back then, but I’ve been tempered in the great melting pot of the PLA. Now teaching a high schooler like you is no problem.”

“Yeah, right. You never even studied English, and now we have to learn English. How_are_you, do you even know what that means?” Emily Clark said with disdain. The siblings had always bickered, and Emily Clark wasn’t afraid of her brother.

“All_right, and_you.” David Clark replied offhandedly. Come on, he’d even passed IELTS—this kind of kindergarten-level conversation was nothing.

“Wow, your English pronunciation is so good! It sounds better than our teacher’s. Where did you learn it?” Emily Clark was impressed.

“I was a scout, you know. If you don’t know foreign languages, how can you capture prisoners?” David Clark started making things up.

But Emily Clark wasn’t fooled: “Weren’t you fighting the Vietnamese? Why would you need to learn English?”

“The Vietnamese used to be ruled by the Americans, so they can speak English too.” David Clark continued to bluff.

“Fine, let’s say you know English. But what about math? Do you know that? And physics, chemistry—you never studied those either,” Emily Clark asked.