In the class meeting on Friday, The Butcher Thompson, furious, handed out the test papers one by one and read out the scores, looking for someone to make an example of. He called Ryan Carter's name twice with no response, only to realize he was sleeping.

Even the usual troublemakers in the class couldn't help but feel a bit of admiration at that moment.

"You little brat! Are you rebelling?!" As expected, the stack of books in front of the first row was suddenly empty. Before the student in the front could protest, Zane Thompson grabbed a hefty tome and hurled it at Ryan Carter.

Here we go again!

Watching that book whoosh through the air with a fierce wind, Ryan Carter, who had suffered from this trick many times before, raised his hand. The thick "Chinese" textbook, flying right at him, was smacked away with a loud smack! Like Peter Pan being swatted by the Hulk, it flew from one end of the classroom to the other, landing with a thud among a pile of books.

For a moment, the whole world seemed to freeze—even Zane Thompson was stunned.

But only for a moment. His face quickly turned ashen, his voice trembling with the indignity of being challenged, "You dare fight back?"

This was the first time in Zane Thompson's entire reign over the junior high that anyone had dared to fight back, and it just had to be the usually mild-mannered Ryan Carter?

To Zane Thompson, it felt like graduation was approaching and now any random nobody dared to challenge him.

Zane Thompson stormed off the podium, waving the thin bamboo stick in his hand—the one that made everyone's feet curl in fear. "Hold out your hand!"

Maybe it was the vividness of the dream that scared him, or maybe Zane Thompson's tyranny had left its mark even in dreams, or perhaps he wanted to test something—Ryan Carter held out his hand in front of him.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

The thin bamboo stick whistled through the air, striking his hand several times in quick succession, making the whole class wince. The burning, raw pain that shot from his hand to his heart made Ryan Carter suck in a sharp breath, and he began to doubt whether this was really just a dream.

Ryan Carter turned his head. The window reflected his shadow, and in those overlapping images, he could vaguely make out his current self: a clean white shirt, short, neat hair, a rebellious tuft sticking up at the back from sleeping, a thin and lanky body... He clearly looked about fifteen or sixteen.

So this really is a dream!

Since it's a dream, he didn't care anymore.

But Zane Thompson still wasn't satisfied. He wanted to crush Ryan Carter's dignity. He slapped a test paper onto Ryan Carter's desk and said mockingly, "You fell asleep when your score was being read! Come on, read it out loud for the whole class! How many points did you get on this last mock exam before graduation?!"

Ryan Carter looked down at his test paper. It was a Chinese exam, and the score was—82!

Ryan Carter remembered that the full score for the junior high Chinese exam was 150, and you barely passed if you got 90. He quickly flipped through the paper and saw that his essay only got a red "17" at the end. The whole test was a disaster in terms of points.

Next to him, Zane Thompson saw him bow his head in silence and showed a hint of satisfaction.

"I—said—read it out loud!"

It seemed that if he didn't read it, this The Butcher Thompson in front of him wouldn't let it go.

Ryan Carter spoke, "Eighty-two..."

"Are you at a funeral? Read each section separately! Louder!" Zane Thompson demanded.

"Multiple choice, 30 points. Fill-in-the-blank, 25 points. Reading comprehension, 10 points..."

"Wait a minute! I won't even mention the main sections, but this time the reading comprehension was so easy, basically free points, and out of 40 you only got 10..." Zane Thompson sneered. "If I grabbed a rickshaw puller off the street, he'd probably score higher than you!"

The classmates wanted to laugh, but at this moment, they couldn't. Everyone could imagine how miserable it would be to stand in Ryan Carter's shoes right now.

"Keep reading, how many points did you get on your essay, the essay..." Before Ryan Carter could answer, Zane Thompson glanced over and read it out himself, "Essay... topic: 'Looking Forward to My Future'... score: 17 points! At least you have some self-awareness, knowing you don't have much of a future!"

With Zane Thompson's expression and this mocking performance, laughter finally broke out.

Zane Thompson was very pleased with the effect. The class's overall ranking had dropped in this mock exam, and he was actually in a foul mood. Reading out the scores in class today was meant to make an example of someone, and Ryan Carter just happened to walk right into it!

Ryan Carter's family was also the kind he called "unwilling to do anything for their child, not even willing to spend the money to get on the teacher's good side, so why should I bother helping you manage your kid?" So naturally, Zane Thompson had never liked Ryan Carter.

So he pressed on, strutting up to the podium like a rooster, opening the class roster on the lectern, running a finger down the list, "Come on, let's see your full subject scores and ranking in this mock exam, Ryan Carter..."