12: Chapter 12 Reborn, My Wisdom Destroyed!

Hangzhou City No. 6 Middle School.

"I work hard, who am I afraid of? Raise my score by one point, and defeat a thousand people!"

On the playground, the high school seniors were shouting at the top of their lungs, their voices echoing across the entire field and reaching the ears of Zhou Fan, who was on the main path.

The scent of gardenias lingered in the air. On the basketball court, the freshmen and sophomores were sweating profusely, while the young girls on the sidelines with their naive smiles clearly hadn't yet experienced the brutal beating of the third year of high school.

Long-lost memories kept flooding back: the familiar teaching buildings, the azure sky, even the air was filled with youthful vitality. Every little detail in his memory became clear, like a conversation from a reunion across time and space.

"Old Zhou, what are you spacing out for?" A familiar voice sounded from behind him.

Wearing a jersey and still looking as carefree as ever, Wu Chen casually threw his arm around Zhou Fan's shoulder.

Then, Wu Chen looked around mysteriously and whispered, "How is the startup going with President Lei? I haven't seen you at school lately; have you been over there the whole time?"

"Yeah!" Zhou Fan nodded slightly and smiled, "It's going okay!"

Hearing this, Wu Chen suddenly sighed and muttered with a slumped face, "It's a pity that the college entrance exam is coming up soon, and the teachers are cracking down too hard, otherwise I would definitely have gone to gain some startup experience! Also, I've already started saving money to prepare for starting a business. Wish me luck; I've used up all my New Year's money..."

"You still have New Year's money?" Zhou Fan knew his childhood friend's personality well and asked curiously.

"This year's..."

Wu Chen's face slightly collapsed. He shook his head with a helpless expression, suddenly seeming to remember something.

"Oh right, the homeroom teacher just told me that if I saw you, I should tell you to go to her office!" Wu Chen's expression became a bit strange. He paused slightly and added, "Judging by her expression, it didn't seem right... You'd better pray for yourself!"

"Then I'll go over there first." Zhou Fan nodded and walked straight towards the teachers' office.

"Taking a month off before the college entrance exam, RIP..." After Zhou Fan walked away, Wu Chen couldn't help but shake his head, his tone full of emotion.

But when he saw Chen Fei walking out of the teaching building, he immediately grabbed him.

Senior year office.

"Teacher Lin."

Zhou Fan knocked on the door politely.

Lin Xueqin, who was at her desk, couldn't help but look up upon hearing this. As soon as she saw who it was, her eyebrows raised slightly.

As a teacher who had been with the class since the first year of high school, Lin Xueqin had a pretty good impression of Zhou Fan. Although his personality was a bit introverted and he didn't like to talk much, and his grades hovered in the upper-middle range, he rarely did anything out of line and never caused her any worry.

But in the past month, or rather, over the past year, she had clearly noticed significant changes in the child. The previous changes were manageable, but recently, he had been asking for leave every other day, disappearing for days at a time each time...

The last two months were even more outrageous; the child's father actually came to ask for leave in person, and the reasons were very legitimate... She couldn't refuse...

Other kids would sneakily find excuses to ask for leave behind their parents' backs, but this student was something else; his father ran to school every day to ask for leave for him. It was simply upside down.

Regarding Zhou Fan's college entrance exam, she was quite anxious inside, but the parents' attitude... it felt a bit like the emperor wasn't anxious, but the eunuch was.

"How is your recovery from the surgery?" Lin Xueqin looked at Zhou Fan with a strange expression.

"...It's okay. It was a minor surgery, nothing serious." Zhou Fan was stunned for a moment, then nodded, reacting quickly.

"I noticed your walking posture was quite normal just now; it looks like you've recovered well, but..."

Lin Xueqin sighed softly and suddenly said earnestly:

"There are some things I want to talk to you about... There's less than a month until the college entrance exam. That kind of surgery... couldn't it be done at any other time? Why did it have to be done at such a critical time right before the exam!!!"

From the teacher's look of disappointment, Zhou Fan sensed something. Because within that gaze, there was also a hint of embarrassment and helplessness, so he could only remain silent.

Lin Xueqin looked at Zhou Fan and didn't pursue it further, but shook her head instead: "Go to the classroom. Start reviewing properly from today on. There's only one month left, don't give up!"

Zhou Fan walked out of the office, somewhat bewildered and full of confusion. Because of the teacher's vaguely embarrassed expression and her words that stopped mid-sentence, he had a bad premonition.

So, as soon as he stepped out of the office, he took out his phone and dialed Zhou Changlin's number.

"Dad, what kind of excuse did you make up for me? What surgery did I have? The teacher's expression was really off..."

Zhou Fan held the phone, and after it connected, asked straight to the point.

"Oh... the surgery... I couldn't think of a good excuse at the time, and she asked so urgently, so I just..."

"So what surgery was it..." Zhou Fan's bad premonition became more and more real.

"It was a circumcision..."

"What!!!"

"I really couldn't find any other reason! You've been asking for leave for so long, where am I supposed to find so many excuses for you? Yesterday a cold, today a fever—if I say that too often, even your teacher won't believe it."

Zhou Changlin's tone gradually hardened, and after a slight pause, he spoke again:

"Personal leave... sick leave... I've used them all. Your Teacher Lin's face was getting uglier and uglier. What could I do? I just casually said it was a circumcision..."

"You could have said it was hemorrhoid surgery and it would have been better than this..." Zhou Fan was completely numb.

No wonder Teacher Lin always spoke only halfway when mentioning the surgery, and was always being evasive...

And saying it could be done at any time... yet had to choose right before the college entrance exam.

At this moment, Zhou Fan finally understood...

"I just spoke without thinking..." Zhou Changlin's voice grew weak again.

Beep, beep, beep...

The phone made a busy signal. Zhou Changlin glanced at his wife beside him and scratched his head.

"Look at your son... I didn't do it on purpose to embarrass him... He actually hung up on me..."

"You deserve it..." Lin Cuilan glared at Zhou Changlin and said speechlessly, "After what you did, how can our son ever hold his head up in front of his teacher? You pig-brained..."

"..." Zhou Changlin's expression froze.

In the school hallway, Zhou Fan felt like life was meaningless. In his previous life, he was a dignified academician, a respected national chief engineer...

Reborn once, his reputation... completely ruined!

"Old Zhou..."

Behind him, a voice sounded, making Zhou Fan turn around instantly. He saw the two of them, Wu Chen's face flushed, his mouth tightly shut, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upwards...

"If you want to laugh, just laugh..." Zhou Fan looked at the two of them with an expressionless face.

"No, we would absolutely never laugh at a brother~!"

"Yeah, it's just a circumcision, what's so funny about it..."

"The dignified Technical Director of the Fanmi Technology R&D Center... what a huge sacrifice for the sake of R&D..."

"Uncle Zhou really is a genius. I usually don't laugh, unless I really can't help it..."

"Hahahaha!!!!"