“Brother Ren is really hiding his strength!”
“Riven is a brand-new hero, but Erye’s playing her like a pro.”
“I don’t get it, but it looks awesome.”
...
Inside the internet café, Guan Ren—who was only of Silver rank—still managed to show off a bit in the just-released League of Legends.
In truth, he didn’t even know how to perform the lightning-fast Q-A combo.
But for players in this era, who mostly didn’t even understand how to attack while moving, Guan Ren’s rampant domination looked like a god descending with mechanical might, executing a dimensional-crushing beatdown.
So after just a couple of games, a few elementary school kids munching on spicy sticks gathered around him, eyes glued to the screen.
“One, two…”
Guan Ren counted—just four of them. Not many.
After all, the game had only just launched and wasn’t popular yet.
He played three rounds, carried Zhang Chi and Liu Xiong to three victories, and had no intention of continuing.
“I’m heading back.”
“So soon? It’s not even noon yet.”
“You guys should head back early too. This internet café… hmm… isn’t great.”
With that, Guan Ren left. Zhang Chi and Liu Xiong exchanged confused glances.
“What does Brother Ren mean?”
“He’s probably… talking about those people.”
Zhang Chi subtly pointed with his mouth. Liu Xiong followed his gaze and saw a group of tattooed young men with bleached yellow hair in the corner.
On the other side, a few middle-aged men with scarred faces in leather jackets were grinding away at Legend of Mir.
There were also some students smoking, wearing the notorious uniform of No. 3 Middle School—the school infamous for troublemakers.
Liu Xiong felt a chill in his heart and immediately understood Guan Ren’s meaning. He looked at Zhang Chi again.
“Brother Chi, what do we do…”
“Xing’an Road’s always been like this. Even new internet cafés can’t escape it…”
“Damn, good thing I didn’t get tempted by their recharge deal.”
“I’ve still got 2 yuan left. I’ll use it up, but let’s not come back to this place again.”
...
In 2011, even though small county towns had improved a lot compared to the early 2000s, they were still, after all, small county towns—and it was still 2011.
Hooligans had been cleared out to some extent, but idle, jobless rogues still lingered, and they weren’t exactly harmless.
Especially in certain neighborhoods steeped in “tradition.”
Like Xing’an Road, where this New Thinking internet café was located.
Guan Ren still remembered back when he was in elementary school, it wasn’t unusual to see gangsters stirring up trouble on Xing’an Road even in broad daylight—just like scenes from Young and Dangerous.
And since those days, places like internet cafés and billiard halls had become hubs for these types.
So for parents who lived through that era, such places still carried a strong stigma. The school rules forbidding “commercial entertainment venues” weren’t entirely without merit.
...
Cases like this were just one slice of the many unpleasant realities of that era.
Seeing those people at the café today stirred some reflection in Guan Ren. He reminded himself.
His nostalgia for the past was really just nostalgia for his youth—not for an era that was still so full of flaws.
...
“You really don’t realize how fast the country’s progressed until you see it with your own eyes…”
Standing at the entrance to his residential complex, Guan Ren couldn’t help but sigh.
Coming from his mouth, though, the words sounded oddly mature for someone his age.
“Hey, you there—Little Guan.”
“What’s up, Uncle?”
Just as he was about to head inside, the truly seasoned gatekeeper, Uncle Lin, called out to him.
“What do you mean, ‘what’s up’? You’ve got time now, right? You promised to play chess with me this morning. Come on, set it up.”
“…”
Guan Ren had only casually brushed him off this morning. Who knew the old man had taken it seriously?
But Uncle Lin was a familiar figure.
Back when Guan Ren was a mischievous little kid, he once threw dog poop into someone’s yard and nearly got beaten up—Uncle Lin had stepped in to protect him.
“Uncle, I’m not very good at chess.”
“No worries, just play. I’ll go easy on you.”
...
The guard booth had no real setup. Uncle Lin just placed a thin wooden board on a plastic stool, with a hand-drawn chessboard on it.
Guan Ren played a couple of casual rounds with him. Surprisingly, the match was quite balanced.
He even managed to take the lead in one game.
Watching Uncle Lin scratch his increasingly red and shiny bald head more and more often, Guan Ren started to suspect. Was the old man actually holding back or not?
Eventually, wanting to head home early and also sparing the old man’s heart, Guan Ren deliberately made a blunder:
“Ah, oops! I moved my cannon wrong! Can I take it back?”
“No way! Taking back moves brings bad luck!”
Uncle Lin widened his eyes gleefully and stopped his hand.
“Little Guan, I already let you win a bit. Don’t push your luck now, haha… Check!”
Snap!
With a flourish, Uncle Lin slammed a piece down, nearly flipping the board.
“Alright, you’ve got experience on your side, Uncle Lin. You win today. We’ll have a rematch some other time. I’m heading up now.”
“Go on, go on.”
Guan Ren darted upstairs like the wind.
What he didn’t know was that as Uncle Lin leisurely packed up the chessboard, his eyes—still sharp and unclouded—remained fixed on Guan Ren’s back, filled with curiosity.
“This kid… he was letting me win… how interesting…”
---
Back home, the first thing Guan Ren did was check his email.
There was no reply.
Most likely, the editors didn’t work on weekends.
Still, Guan Ren wasn’t worried. He was confident in his submission.
Even if one editor missed the mark, he could always send it to another. After all, if you’re gold, you’ll shine eventually.
For now, it was better to focus on his studies.
Especially since there was a monthly exam coming up before National Day, Guan Ren wanted to improve as much as he could before then.
Of course, Li Min’s warning didn’t really bother him.
He was mainly acting out of a sense of responsibility to himself. He wanted to use the monthly exam to gauge his potential.
Also, it was so that he wouldn’t continue to trouble the person who was still away on a business trip.
“At the very least, when Sister Qiaoyun gets back, I can give her a test score worth looking at…”
Muttering to himself, Guan Ren opened his freshman year math textbook and workbook, and began scribbling on his scratch paper…
---
Naturally, he didn’t neglect subjects outside of math.
Among the subjects in the [3+X] curriculum, his strongest was Chinese.
Next was English.
His weakest was math. And the science comprehensive exam, which included subjects related to math.
Among the sciences, biology was manageable since much of it could be memorized.
But chemistry and physics? Not so much.
Especially physics.
As the old saying goes: “Math and physics are inseparable.” That was why Guan Ren chose to start improving from math.
“Anyway, let’s do a few problems to test my elasticity.”
Eager to begin, Guan Ren pulled out a physics test paper he had done at some unknown time, covered the answers with scratch paper, and focused only on the questions.
“As shown in the diagram, a triangle on…”
Oh? Isn’t this our little sliding block?
It’s been a while, kind of nostalgic. Come on then, let’s see how slippery you are.
At first, Guan Ren was pretty optimistic.
Compared to math, physics was at least a bit more fun.
He figured he probably hadn’t forgotten as much of it.
But reality was harsh.
“Holy crap… why are there so many formulas…”
A basic mechanics problem didn’t reveal his flexibility. It revealed his limits. He couldn’t even understand the question stem.
Sure, he remembered more physics than math from high school.
But the problem was, he’d forgotten all the key stuff.
“‘mgs’? What’s that? Mango tree? Magenta shine? And what the heck is ‘μmgs’?”
The essence of high school physics was obviously the formulas.
Exams basically handed out points based on formula usage.
But Guan Ren had pretty much forgotten them all.
He’d thought physics would be slightly easier than math. But now it seemed like he’d have to start all over from the freshman year textbook.
...
Still, that was okay. When it came to studying, the current Guan Ren actually quite enjoyed it.
If not love, then at least he had more initiative than before.
And the key reason behind that was his realization. Compared to working a job, studying was actually way simpler.
After all, studying was a process of receiving, whereas working was all about giving.
No matter how tough the problems, they still looked more straightforward than those never-ending reports and data at work, or the CAD software that crashed randomly, or the dizzying architectural blueprints.
At least with studying, if you didn’t understand something, you could ask a teacher or look it up.
But at work, the margin for error was much smaller. Screw up, and you could lose your job.
Of course, maybe teenagers and adults handle stress differently.
But Guan Ren wasn’t your average teen.
Even if hormonally and energetically he seemed young, in deeper parts of his psyche, he still had the mindset of an adult.
Take, for example, his sense of initiative and ability to handle pressure.
As a result, he didn’t feel as resistant to studying anymore. He saw things more clearly, felt less pressure, and naturally became more efficient.
“…Kinetic friction force f = μN…”
“…Static friction 0 ≤ fstatic ≤ fmax…”
“…G = mg, direction vertically downward, use g = 10 m/s²…”
“…So that’s how it works. Solved it! Having formulas really makes things quicker~…”
Before he knew it, Guan Ren had been studying both freshman physics and math straight from Saturday all the way to Sunday evening.
Apart from eating and sleeping, he had been entirely focused.
Most of the material he had returned to the teacher, he managed to cram back into his head over the two days.
As for the parts he still didn’t get, he jotted them down to ask his deskmate or teachers.
If he had to choose, asking his deskmate seemed like the better option.
After all, if someone’s explanation is pleasant to the eyes, ears, and nose—why not?
Hmm…
Though, if we’re talking about teachers…
Well, there was one teacher who was pleasant to the eyes, ears, and nose…
But…
“But Ms. Gu teaches Chinese… and right now, I need to focus on math and science. I probably won’t interact with her much for the time being…”