The ticking of the clock continued to echo, and Zhang Yu was earnestly working on the exam papers in front of him in the classroom.
But the exam papers seemed endless, no matter how he answered or filled them in, he never reached the moment of completion.
And the distance between him and his classmates grew, until he could no longer make out the figures in front, as if the darkness behind him was gradually consuming him.
Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, panic rose from his heart, and his hand that was writing continuously began to weaken and lose strength.
Only when he fell into that bottomless darkness along with countless books and papers, did Zhang Yu suddenly wake up from his bed.
"Was it a dream?"
"It seemed like memories from Zhang Yu's past."
He rubbed his head, feeling countless fragmented memories belonging to the original body surging and fluctuating, constantly shifting in his mind.
Although Zhang Yu had already mastered this body at this moment, he still hadn't fully integrated with the original memories, needing focus to recall many details.
Especially regarding yesterday's bizarre ritual, whenever Zhang Yu tried to recall it slightly, he felt a wave of dizziness, completely unable to remember what had happened.
He looked at his phone and found that it was only five in the morning, intending to roll over and continue sleeping, but discovered that this body couldn't fall asleep anymore.
As if waking up at five to go to school had become an instinct for this body.
"Why do I feel a sense of guilt lying here any longer?"
Zhang Yu sat up, thinking it must be the influence brought by the original memories.
Touching his somewhat empty stomach, Zhang Yu stood up decisively, thinking: "Forget it, better go to school, at least I can get a full meal."
He remembered Songyang High School should provide three meals a day, and this month's meal fee had already been loaded onto the card.
And now, burdened with a 700,000 debt, and having only over fifty bucks on him, he couldn't afford to eat out.
So, leaving the sultry apartment and wading through sewage-filled alleys, Zhang Yu squeezed onto a bus with a crowd.
In the cramped bus filled with the mixed odors of sweat and food, even though the air conditioning was on, it felt like it wasn't, and Zhang Yu only felt like a squashed takeout, being bumped along, directed toward the city center.
After spending an hour and a half and changing buses twice, Zhang Yu finally squeezed off the bus, drenched in sweat.
Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Zhang Yu thought: "Speaking of which, why am I a day student?"
"Oh, I remember now, it's because I couldn't afford the accommodation fee."
Unlike where Zhang Yu lived, the place he got off was in the city center, where all he saw were high tall buildings and clean, spacious roads, even the air seemed fresher.
The men and women walking on the streets were mostly well-dressed, looking like urban elites.
After a series of stops and starts, he finally reached the school gate, where from afar Zhang Yu could see the big characters of Songyang Senior Immortal School at the entrance.
There was even a scoreboard on the electronic screen at the school gate, listing the top ten scores from last month's grades for each of the three high school years.
This alone reflects that Songyang High School is a school that pays great attention to student grades.
And if Zhang Yu were to summarize it from his recollections, it would be that at Songyang High School, grades were the prime focus, it was a world where everyone adhered to performance-based merit.
Studying and taking exams here were as natural as breathing, with almost everyone harboring extreme score discrimination.
Things like "Your score is so low, no wonder you have to wait in line at the cafeteria for so long," "With such a low score, you simply don't deserve to eat at the same table with us," "Straight A students have all rights to harshly ridicule underachievers"... all fall under campus positivity.
"This is completely a world of score supremacy, a hell for underachievers."
Zhang Yu glanced at the '10th in total score for freshmen Zhang Yu' on the electronic screen, and thought to himself: "Thankfully, I'm one of those with high scores."
"Although my ranking currently seems somewhat undeserved, at least it hasn't been exposed yet, I should still be able to have a decent time at school, right?"
The Songyang High School cafeteria provided breakfast, and Zhang Yu followed the memory to this place.
Walking down, he observed that although there were many students queuing for food in the cafeteria, they were all quietly lined up, silently taking their meals and eating quietly, like gears in a machine, functioning precisely at every step.
Some students even read books while eating, seizing every moment to study.
He found a random place to sit, and just as he took a bite of a meat bun, he noticed someone taking the seat across from him.
It was a girl with long black hair and a fair face.
Zhang Yu recalled her name in his mind.
"Bai Zhenzhen."
"To be precise, she's the top scorer for freshmen, the woman at the top of the disdain chain in the first year."
Seeing the girl sipping porridge across from him, Zhang Yu thought to himself: "Are we friends?"
"Because I am among the top ten in the grade? Is this the so-called top student's circle?"
Bai Zhenzhen was the type who, as long as she didn't smile, appeared to be in low spirits, even mundane words could exude a sense of aloofness from miles away in her presence.
Just as she sat before Zhang Yu, without speaking a word, it made Zhang Yu feel as if she had some grievance against him.
As Zhang Yu focused on recalling the memories related to Bai Zhenzhen, trying to confirm what kind of relationship they had.