Snap!
The blinding flash of the camera suddenly lit up, and Wang Yu subconsciously squinted.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a dense crowd of people, dozens of young faces wearing identical school uniforms squeezed together, grinning at the camera.
"Alright! Students, look at me here, is the watermelon sweet?"
The photographer yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Sweet!"
The crowd erupted in a thunderous roar, a wave of heat mixed with youthful hormones, almost igniting the June air.
The flash extinguished again.
Old Zhang, the homeroom teacher, clapped his hands and, with his voice hoarse from chalk dust, shouted, "The photos are done! This summer vacation is also our longest holiday. How do you all plan to spend it?"
The crowd immediately burst into chatter.
"Definitely getting my driver's license! I've been looking forward to it since I was sixteen!"
"My buddy is a net cafe manager, I'm going to find him to game with all night!"
"My dad said after the exams, he'll let me go to his construction site to move bricks and experience life. Two hundred a day!"
"I'm going to save money to buy the latest gaming console! Nobody stop me!"
Amidst the noisy discussions, Wang Yu lowered his head, his gaze falling on the report card he held in his hand.
On the crumpled paper, that bright red number was like a heavy stone, pressing down on his heart.
A good university was completely out of the question.
What is this? Reborn into a hellish difficulty from the start?
Wang Yu cursed inwardly.
Beside him, an elbow forcefully nudged his waist.
"Hey, what are you thinking about? Your soul's flown away."
It was Li Ming, his best buddy, currently grinning widely, his tanned face full of carefree laughter.
"Look at your long face, so what if you didn't do well on the exam? It's no big deal."
Li Ming slung his arm over Wang Yu's shoulder, lowered his voice, and said mysteriously, "What are you worrying about? There's always a way out."
"Let me tell you, my uncle is a team leader in the production workshop of our city's largest food factory, managing dozens of people!"
"I just called him. We'll go there and work for two months during the summer. Food and lodging are provided, and we can earn at least three to four thousand a month!"
"So what if we don't go to school? We can still make big money! Then we can buy phones and computers, won't that be more carefree than those bookworms?"
Li Ming spoke animatedly, almost spraying spittle onto Wang Yu's face.
Wang Yu twitched the corner of his mouth, unable to say a word.
In his previous life, he couldn't find a job after graduating from university, sponged off his parents for two years, and then, when he went out to look for work, he was sent back to retake the college entrance exam by a dump truck that ran a red light.
What was the result?
This screwed-up life was practically a rerun with a different posture.
The joyful chatter of his classmates and the teacher's admonition to "be careful" all faded into a blurry background.
His mind was filled with a barrage of thoughts like "failed the exam," "it's over," "no future," and he didn't even hear what else Li Ming bragged about later.
The summer sun beat down fiercely on the asphalt road, and the air had a scorched smell.
Wang Yu walked slowly by himself, finally having time to sort out the jumbled thoughts in his mind.
He had truly been reborn.
It wasn't a dream, nor was it some near-death experience.
In his previous life, he also scored this low, and then, under his family's arrangements, he went to a third-rate vocational college, studied a mediocre major, and was unemployed upon graduation.
He spent two years as a full-time good-for-nothing at home, surrounded by his parents' sighs and neighbors' gossip, almost molding away.
Finally, he mustered up the courage to go out and look for work, and then... there was no 'then.'
When he opened his eyes again, it was the flash of the graduation photo.
Fate had given him a chance to start over, but it hadn't given him a brain that could defy destiny.
What was this?
A system bug? Or did God also think he lived too stifled a life in his previous existence, so he specially sent him back to experience a high-definition remastered version of a failed life?
The more Wang Yu thought about it, the more irritable he became, and he kicked a small pebble by the roadside with force.
Forget it.
Since he was here, could he die again?
At least he was ten years younger, with arms and legs, which was better than being a good-for-nothing waiting to die at home.
He took a deep breath and pushed open the familiar, paint-peeling iron gate of the family compound.
As soon as he reached the stairwell, he heard his parents' deliberately lowered voices from the living room.
"...I saw the report card. With this score, where can he go? I think, why don't we just send him to join the army? They're strict in the military, it'll temper his character well."
It was his father's voice, suppressing his anger, with an undeniable assertiveness.
Immediately after, came his mother's sigh.
"Join the army? Look at his physique, as thin as a monkey, he'd fall over with a gust of wind. How tough is the military? The training is so tiring every day, can he handle it?"
"Then what do you suggest? We can't just let him stay at home, can we?"
"I... I asked your Aunt Wang a couple of days ago. She said there's a language school in South Sudan. The tuition is really low, including food and lodging, it's only thirty to forty thousand yuan a year."
"How about we send him abroad to study? It'll sound better when he comes back."
Wang Yu's footsteps suddenly halted.
What the hell?
Join the army?
Or go to South Sudan?
Images instantly flashed in his mind.
Image one: He was wearing camouflage, crawling through mud, his face covered in sweat and dirt, while a dark-faced instructor pointed a belt at his nose and yelled, "Wang Yu! Haven't you eaten, damn it! Hurry up!"
He heard that the army ran five kilometers cross-country every day.
What kind of international joke was this!
He almost lost half his life just doing an 800-meter physical test; after five kilometers, he'd probably have to be carried away.
PASS! This was absolutely not happening!
Image two: He stood alone on a loess plateau, surrounded by a group of curious African brothers, clutching a well-worn English-Chinese dictionary, gesticulating at them.
"Um... this... this one... how much?"
Study abroad?
Go to South Sudan?
My goodness! He almost couldn't even write all twenty-six English letters for the college entrance exam. Go to South Sudan to study? Study what? The local indigenous language?
Besides, that place... was it safe? Didn't the news always say there was fighting there?
This wasn't studying abroad; this was practically participating in a 'Naked and Afraid' reality show!
The more Wang Yu thought about it, the more he felt a chill.
These two options were more outrageous and more life-threatening than the last.
He was immersed in his fear of the future, completely unaware that in the living room, his mother, Zhou Hui, sighed again and quietly added a sentence.
"Actually... there's another way, that childhood engagement he had..."