Chapter 1

Who am I?!

Where am I?!

What am I doing?!

Looking at the questions on the exam paper in front of him, Gao Fan began to ponder these three profound philosophical questions.

The first question seemed to have an answer. At the top of the paper, his name and background were written:

Gao Fan, Class 7, Grade 2, Cangtang County No. 1 High School, Leping Region.

The handwriting was quite good, though a bit childish, it was clearly practiced, with a hint of Liu style. Was this written by me? Since graduating from university, I rarely write by hand, and when I do, like filling out forms, my handwriting isn't as good as this.

The second question also had an answer on the exam paper. The header read:

Mao Lin Province 1982 High School Chemistry Competition Exam Paper.

This meant he was in a chemistry competition exam room. If everything went as expected, this should be a classroom in a middle school in Ruizhang, the capital of Mao Lin Province, with a large blackboard in front and a somewhat droopy banner above it, which read "Competition Exam Room."

So, what am I doing here?

I've been transported into the body of a high school student in 1982, and this student is participating in a chemistry competition. Looking at the paper, nothing was written except for his name. No, that's not true; the multiple-choice questions were answered: A for the first question, B for the second, C for the third... Oh, am I supposed to help him cheat by coming here?

No way!

Gao Fan shouted from the bottom of his heart.

I'm a well-respected librarian at the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, known as a "human walking chemical information database." Why am I in a high school chemistry competition exam room in 1982?

In 1982, I wasn't even a single-celled organism!

After being dazed for a few seconds, Gao Fan began to receive the memories of the body. The information was substantial, but Gao Fan, the "human walking database," lived up to his reputation. He quickly categorized and filtered the information, providing the most important details to his brain, helping him understand his identity and situation.

The original owner of this body was also named Gao Fan, born in 1966, male... this detail was important, not because of gender discrimination, but out of habit.

His father, Gao Yiping, was the current factory manager of Canghai Fertilizer Plant in Cangtang County, Leping Region, Mao Lin Province; his mother, Ran Yuying, was a regular staff member in the administrative department of the factory. The relationship between his parents was harmonious, and Old Gao was somewhat afraid of his wife, which even Little Gao knew.

Old Gao and his wife were early advocates of family planning and only had two children. Gao Fan had an older sister named Gao Min, who was two years older and attended a provincial commercial school. A commercial school was a vocational high school, and in this era, many parents believed it was more practical for their children to attend a vocational high school rather than a university. They could get a stable job after graduation, save two years of schooling, and start working two years earlier, which gave them an advantage in terms of work experience.

Of course, Gao Min attended a vocational high school because her college entrance exam scores only reached the vocational high school line, which was still a good score. Old Gao, a university graduate from the 1960s, was somewhat disappointed that his daughter only got into a vocational high school and placed his hopes for the family's glory on his son, Gao Fan.

Gao Fan was a sophomore at Cangtang County No. 1 High School, with average academic performance. However, he was in the top class, and with his grades, he had a good chance of getting into a regular undergraduate university, though a key university was out of reach. Cangtang County's education level was not high, and only a dozen or so students could get into key universities each year, and Gao Fan was not among them.

This time, the province was holding a high school chemistry competition, with preliminary rounds organized by each region and the winners advancing to the provincial finals. With Gao Fan's level, he should not have passed the preliminary round. However, his father was the factory manager of the fertilizer plant, the largest enterprise in the county. The school often relied on the fertilizer plant for sponsorships for things like repairing the playground or adding facilities. Thus, with the help of several unseen hands, Gao Fan successfully passed the preliminary round and became one of the four students from Cangtang County to advance to the provincial finals.

The provincial policy for this competition was that all participants in the finals would receive at least a third prize. While out-of-province universities would not offer any special benefits, the provincial universities promised to lower the admission threshold by five points for third prize winners, which was a significant advantage.

In the sophomore year, there were a few students with some background in the county, but their grades were so poor that even a 50-point reduction wouldn't get them into a university. Therefore, their parents didn't bother with the competition and let Gao Fan take the cheating opportunity.

The Gao Fan who was replaced by this Gao Fan had a bit of a middle school syndrome. He couldn't resist the temptation of a five-point reduction but felt it was somewhat dishonorable. He wanted to prove himself in the finals.

Before coming to the provincial capital, he spent several days in the fertilizer plant's library, reading through old issues of journals like "Fertilizer Design," "Fertilizer Industry," "Mao Lin Chemical Industry," and "Pujiang Chemical Industry," memorizing a lot of obscure knowledge.

Gao Fan knew that the chemistry competition mainly tested high school chemistry knowledge. However, he secretly hoped that the examiners might include some obscure topics, and he might get lucky and hit on them. If the exam included some advanced content that he had recently studied, he could confidently say that his qualification for the finals was not just a favor from the fertilizer plant.

After all, when he learned that Gao Fan was also going to the provincial capital for the chemistry competition, the beautiful study committee member, Huang Chunyan, had given him more than one disdainful look, which hurt the young boy's self-esteem.

Huang Chunyan…

Thinking of this name, Gao Fan felt his heart pound fiercely. Yes, the brain controlling this body was that of a 40-year-old adult, but the hormone levels were those of a 16-year-old boy.

He turned his head to the side, and saw a girl with braids sitting next to him, her face as smooth as jade, with bright eyes and white teeth... well, Gao Fan could see her teeth because she was biting her pen, deep in thought. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed, and a screenshot of her face could easily be turned into a "Xishi holding her heart" emoji.

The girls in this era were so beautiful, all natural and unadorned, with no artificial enhancements.

Gao Fan sighed, and the surge of hormones subsided. After all, he was a middle-aged man, and this girl was only in her sophomore year. In this era, elementary school was five years, and with early schooling, this age would be equivalent to a junior high school third-year student in the future.

Falling for a junior high school girl, do you have any shame?

Gao Fan sternly asked himself.