The youth gently pressed down on the top of his ballpoint pen, and the tip, which had fought valiantly for over ten minutes, finally received the signal for a truce and retracted into the pen barrel, leaving neatly written equations on the desk as proof of its battle.
Turning to the next page of his white answer sheet, the title was revealed,
"Yuanyue International High School Spring Semester Opening Exam, Subject: Mathematics, Test Duration: 120 minutes"
Below the printed title, the answerer's name was written in black font,
"Yan Huan"
It was during the afternoon, infused with the color of spring, when the sun's rays sprinkled generously outside the second-floor windows of the school building, illuminating the side profile of the handsome young man who had just finished answering the questions.
From under his slightly long, black, and slightly curly bangs, his dark eyes glanced outside the window, reflecting a vast expanse of green grass bathed in a crimson glow from the sun, the playground tracing the sun's trajectory.
On the track, the young people in their athletic wear were running laps, chasing after the soon-to-set sun like Kuafu...
In his past life, the image of Kuafu in Yan Huan's mind was that of a young and robust boy because he felt that such an act of tirelessly, blindly chasing after the sun was very youthful in spirit.
It was something that only young people would do, and it was their enviable privilege.
Fortunately, the parallel world also had legends about Kuafu, so he could write such sentences in his essays.
All around, other students were still buried in their work, only Yan Huan light-heartedly placed his warm ballpoint pen on the desk.
Holding his chin, he exchanged a glance with the balding middle-aged math teacher on the podium before they tacitly looked away.
This kid, finished so quickly again...
Zhou Bin, your bald head is reflecting light again...
Thoughts collided in the void, but neither was aware of the other's inner thoughts.
"Review the question carefully, and check your work thoroughly,"
That was from Zhou Bin, his math teacher from last semester, quite a humorous name. Every time he saw him, Yan Huan thought about Japan-imported Coca-Cola.
Bored out of his mind, he listened passively to the vigorous scribbling sounds of the other students, his thoughts drifting off to who-knows-where.
"Is my transmigration lacking a bit of [fantasy]?"
Yan Huan felt suddenly frustrated as he pondered absent-mindedly.
A Golden Finger system implanted in his brain, a yokai that repays her debt at night, a foreign foodie in the storeroom asking, "Are you my master?"...
He had nothing of the sort!
He seemed to have died young, suddenly, at his overtime-laden work desk, and then was reincarnated as an infant, starting a new life in a completely unfamiliar place that seemed to be a parallel world.
He lived a disciplined life for over a decade, until this year when once again he stepped into his youth!
In fact, Yan Huan had a little expectation about this; his sixth birthday wish was to have more fantastical elements in his life after transmigration.
But contentment brings happiness; having already died once and then been reborn to transmigrate, what more could he ask for?
If Carefree could be resurrected and reborn in a Different World, he probably wouldn't care about the boomerang elbow jokes flying all over the internet.
Content with his lot, Yan Huan thought so and, feeling utterly bored, decided to really take up the advice from Bin... no, Teacher Zhou Bin and pick up the test paper to check it properly once more.
So, he pinched the test paper, picked up the ballpoint pen again, and seemingly reviewing but actually daydreaming, he began to pass the remaining time of the exam.
Soon, it was nearly time to hand in the papers.
"There are twenty-five minutes left until the end of the exam, please review your name, student number, and the answer sheet one last time."
"Tick... tock... tick... tock..."
It was just another ordinary afternoon, amid the silent examination hall filled with fervent writing, the sound of the clock hands ticking in a regular rhythm, as if reminding the examinees of the urgency of the remaining time.
But a second later, Yan Huan belatedly sensed something unusual.
Wait a minute, isn't the exam using a digital clock?
He looked towards the whiteboard on the podium; the countdown timer was flashing, yet it was completely silent.
As Yan Huan was puzzled, a voice like a hallucination suddenly intruded, as clear as a songbird's,
"Hello, can all the students in Examination Room No. 1 hear me?"
Yan Huan's movements slightly stalled, and he instinctively wanted to turn his head to look towards the classroom door. In his mind, a piercing, child-like scream suddenly exploded, interrupting his action,
[Do not respond! Do not respond! Do not respond!]
What's happening, have the Three Body People come over?
Why didn't they come in my past life but now they're here?!
While Yan Huan was covering his ears and thinking this way, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly spotted a small head poking into the wide-open door of the examination hall.
Under the black, sleek bangs was a fair hand placed in front of the mouth like a trumpet, confirming that the voice just now had indeed come from her.
She was a beautiful girl, with a face that could easily score full points, magnetizing onlookers so that it was hard to pull their gaze away once they set eyes on her.
Most memorable were her bright and moist eyes under her long eyelashes, twinkling with starry light, her eyes curving into a smile, momentarily resembling an angel, captivating and lingering.
At her breast pocket of the grey school jacket, there hangs a school tag bearing her name.
"First Year Class B, Bai Yi."
Good, it's not a Three Body Person...
[Your life is about to conclude, world line emergency intervention will now commence!]