Chapter 1

It was a summer afternoon in 2002.

In Mingzhou City, Zhenyang District, Donghai Province, inside a hotel room by the Yong River.

A shrill alarm pierced the tranquility of the afternoon nap, jolting Gu Zhe, who thought he was still half-drunk, awake. His low blood pressure and morning grumpiness surged up instantly.

"Damn! Didn't I turn off the alarm yesterday?"

Without opening his eyes, he swung his hand in the direction of the sound, turned over, and continued to sleep.

Unfortunately, this also caused him to miss the first moment of realizing that "he had been reborn."

Gu Zhe was supposed to be a middle-aged professional in the 2020s, serving as the head of the patent legal department at a tech company.

He came from a poor background, with an average education. After nearly two decades of hard work, he had been involved in frontline research, worked as a patent agent and an intellectual property lawyer. Later, through a series of fortunate events, he joined the State Intellectual Property Office and was eventually dispatched to a central enterprise.

Last night, a major case he had been planning for years finally came to fruition, successfully outmaneuvering a competitor.

The details of the case were complex and hard to summarize.

The law firm representing the competitor was Pan Optics, which speaks volumes about their capabilities. After all, even Apple, Qualcomm, and Tesla entrust their patent layouts to Pan Optics.

Thus, the entire company was elated, and a grand celebration was held in the middle of the night—since the case was arbitrated in Brussels, there was a time difference, so it was midnight in China.

At the celebration, Gu Zhe drank until his glass was empty, not worrying about drinking too much since he had a holiday coming up.

But the alarm still went off today, which annoyed him, leading to the scene of him groggily smashing the alarm.

Some might wonder: How could someone in the 2020s still use a mechanical alarm clock? That doesn't make sense!

But it actually does. Many self-disciplined individuals do this.

The biggest advantage of an alarm clock is that you can place your phone far away before bed, ensuring you can't reach it while lying down.

This easily avoids the bad habit of scrolling through your phone before bed or after waking up.

Lie down and sleep, open your eyes and get up, act decisively.

In the era of widespread AI recommendations, those who don't manage their time and decisions well will be slowly consumed by bad habits, turning from the master of the algorithm to its slave.

And life hackers know: if you can optimize your life through system design, don't waste your willpower.

They aren't lacking in willpower; they just need to use it for more valuable things.

...

Recalling the events of last night, Gu Zhe lay there for about a quarter of an hour.

Just as he was about to fall asleep again, a bell rang from the side, and this time it was an old-fashioned telephone bell.

He was startled, finally realizing something was wrong. He tugged at his hair and forced himself to open his eyes.

He found himself in a strange room with an old-fashioned decor.

He instinctively lowered his arm, which he had been scratching, and noticed that his arm was chubby—this was definitely not the body of a self-disciplined middle-aged man!

In his memory, he only had such a misshapen state during his student days when he was too busy studying to exercise.

Could it be... he had been reborn?

The bell continued to ring, now for the seventh or eighth time.

Gu Zhe thought: The fastest way to figure out the situation is to answer the phone directly. As long as he is cautious with his words, he shouldn't reveal any inconsistencies.

He gritted his teeth and picked up the receiver, "Hello? Who is it?"

"Who is it? Are you out of your mind! This is the college entrance exam! The listening test starts 15 minutes before the exam, and you have to be in the room by then! If I hadn't called to confirm the check-out, I wouldn't have known you were still here!"

A female voice came from the receiver, not at all formal with him.

Gu Zhe found the voice familiar yet strange. After a few seconds of recollection, his whole body trembled slightly, and he was about 70-80% convinced that he had been reborn.

"Let's talk later, I'm heading to the exam venue now, and I'll thank you later." Gu Zhe immediately hung up, rushed to the window to confirm, and indeed saw the exam venue across the street.

At that moment, his mind was a whirl of confusion, as if a million horses were galloping through it.

He had been reborn during his college entrance exam!

To be precise, it was the afternoon of the second day of the exam, after the first three subjects—Chinese, Math, and Physics—had been completed, leaving only the final subject, English.

Despite the surreal feeling, there was no time to waste!

He quickly grabbed his schoolbag, checked his stationery and documents, and ran out. Using the information on his ID, he found the exam venue as quickly as possible and entered just five minutes before the deadline.

Gu Zhe's frantic rush to the venue indeed drew the attention of the other candidates, who thought he was disrupting their pre-listening test calm.

A few classmates who didn't get along with Gu Zhe couldn't help but sneer maliciously:

He had been counting on a chemistry Olympiad to secure a guaranteed admission last year, but failed to even win a provincial first prize, so he had to return to study for the college entrance exam. It seems he's not cut out for language studies! Almost being late for the exam, this guy is finished!

...

Gu Zhe was running for his life, so he had no time to pay attention to others' reactions.

After sitting down and catching his breath, he had time to sort out the situation.

The person who called him was his junior high and high school classmate, Lu Tanyou. Of course, they had known each other even earlier, since a writing class outside of school in fifth grade.

They had always been good friends, often helping each other.

Gu Zhe attended Zhenyang High School, the best in Mingzhou. However, because the exam venues were randomly assigned, their class was sent to another school.

So, they couldn't return to the dormitory for a nap at noon and had to rent hourly rooms outside the school.

Clearly, Gu Zhe had been reborn during his nap, which almost made him oversleep.

Fortunately, these hourly rooms were booked by Lu Tanyou—her family was in business, and they had a group discount at this chain hotel.

The English exam started at 3 PM, with entry allowed between 2:30 PM and 2:45 PM.

Lu Tanyou, being responsible, confirmed the check-out status with the hotel just after 2:30 PM. When she learned that Gu Zhe hadn't checked out, she called the room to urge him.

"Whew, if it weren't for Tanyou's help, I might have ended up in a junior college right after being reborn."

Gu Zhe thought, still a bit shaken.

After all, he wasn't a top student who could get into Peking or Tsinghua University. He remembered his total score from the previous life was 621, with 102 in English.

The first-tier university admission line that year was 580, and the second-tier line was 530. His family couldn't afford private schools or a retake. If he had missed the English exam, he would have ended up in a junior college.

Although, having lived a life, Gu Zhe had a clearer perspective on academic credentials, seeing them as just a stepping stone for the early stages of a career.

But if he could get a better one, why not seize the opportunity to make up for this regret? It would save him a few years of detours in the future!

In his previous life, before the college entrance exam, he had faced various unexpected setbacks, leading to a slightly subpar performance.

If he had just performed a bit worse, it wouldn't have been a big deal; he could still have attended a 985 university.

The key issue was that when filling out his college preferences, Gu Zhe, being young and ambitious, felt he was destined for a C9 university and took a risky bet on a less popular choice.

The result was that he didn't even get into a 985 university, sliding to a 211 university that couldn't even fill its first-choice quota, let alone accept调剂 (adjustment) students.

In the early stages of his career, he faced several years of setbacks due to his subpar academic credentials before gradually proving himself through his work capabilities.

...

Just as Gu Zhe was sorting out his thoughts, the invigilator began distributing the exam papers, reminding everyone, "You can look at the papers, but you must not write anything until the bell rings."

The broadcast system also started testing the sound.

Gu Zhe quickly refocused, no longer letting his mind wander, and concentrated on the exam, silently encouraging himself.

Fortunately, this time he had been reborn after completing the first three subjects, only needing to face the English exam.

In his previous life, although his science scores were better, he had been in the legal and management fields for many years. The complex problem-solving skills in math and physics that he used in the college entrance exam were likely forgotten.

But English was different. As a science student aiming for a guaranteed admission through a competition, his English wasn't great in his previous life.

However, after working for a few years and transitioning to a patent agent, he dealt with foreign requests and specifications daily, studied foreign patent laws, and planned international litigation. Handling the college entrance exam English was a breeze.

Soon, the sound test in the broadcast ended, and the listening test officially began.

Many candidates, after hearing just a few sentences, immediately changed their expressions, as if facing a formidable enemy.

The listening test had been added to the college entrance exam the previous year (2001), initially using British English, but gradually adjusting to American English by 2005—

This was to keep up with the times and meet the new demands of China's entry into the WTO, cultivating talent better suited for international trade. However, this caused great difficulty for students who had only learned British English in their first and second years of high school.

For Gu Zhe, whether British or American English, after years of practice, it was as easy as eating and drinking.

The smooth listening test boosted his confidence. He proceeded smoothly, easily completing the entire exam.

He estimated that even with some tricky grammar questions, he could leave a margin of ten points, which would still be a solid improvement of 30-40 points over his previous life.