I used rebirth to bury his captivating gaze.

Chapter 57 Teacher Huo calls on students to stay at school for a second year (those called on by the

The handsome boy is the student in the last row by the window in Class 2, named Yu Dajun.

He grabbed the two wobbly iron handlebars of Yu Mei's bicycle.

Yu Dajun's two hands landed right on Yu Mei's fingers, and both of their faces turned bright red instantly.

Just then, the leg of her trousers that had been caught in the bicycle chain suddenly came out.

She quickly got off her bicycle, and Yu Dajun turned around and walked towards his classroom. At that moment, a tall, slender girl appeared beside him and called out to him. The two chatted and laughed as they walked straight towards Class 2 of the third year of junior high school.

The tall, slender girl was also in Class 2 and lived on the street. She was He Liyan, the eldest cousin of Yu Dajun's aunt.

He Liyan walked to the classroom door, glanced back at Yang Yumei who was pushing a cart into the school playground and placing it on the bicycle rack, twitched her lips, and then followed Yu Dajun into the classroom.

He Liyan is a girl with almond-shaped eyes, thin and thick eyebrows, two dimples when she smiles, and speaks softly and slowly, with an expression like that of a fairy.

Later, for reasons unknown, she committed suicide on her wedding day by taking medication.

Time flies. In the blink of an eye, the first half of junior high school was over, and then came the second half of the year, just days before the high school entrance exam, in Mr. Huo's class.

Based on his usual midterm and final exam scores, Mr. Huo asked some students to stay for another year to repeat the exam and then take the county's preliminary exam the following year.

Those whose names were called stayed at the school to continue their studies for another year of junior high.

Students whose names weren't called can still take the exam. Of course, the students whose names were called are also the ones that Teacher Huo likes the most. As for the students whose names weren't called, there are a few whose academic performance is at the bottom of the class.

Those whose names were called included Yang Yumei, Li Lihong, and more than a dozen other male and female students.

"Ah!" Yang Yumei exclaimed, "How could my name be on this list? Are my grades bad enough, Mr. Huo Jianhua?"

Mr. Huo replied very seriously, "Yang Yumei, your grades were among the best in the class in the first semester of your third year of junior high, but in the second semester, your grades plummeted in both midterms and finals, and you failed to make the cut. Didn't you see your own academic performance?"

Teacher Huo continued, "These spots are allocated by the township education bureau. This year is different from previous years. The county education bureau has issued a notice that this year, all rural residents who take the preliminary exam must score 15 points higher than urban residents in order to be admitted to the county high school."

In her previous life, Yang Yuhan was distracted by the handsome boy Yu Shuai's mesmerizing gaze, causing her to repeat the same eighth-grade and ninth-grade courses three times.

Now, Yang Yumei is the incarnation of her past life. She is inevitably too impulsive and cannot get through the stirrings of adolescence, which causes her academic performance to fall behind.

Yang Yumei finally came to her senses. She had indeed admitted to herself that on that morning, her trouser leg got caught in the bicycle chain on her way to class. She almost fell, but his sudden appearance saved her.

Yu Dajun was a boy in this class, but Yu Mei rarely saw him, probably because she was too focused on her studies.

Suddenly seeing her miserable state on the bicycle that day, Yu Mei noticed that Yu Dajun had been staring at her with a different kind of gaze in class.

Her heart began to flutter, which greatly reduced her energy for studying, and she ultimately failed the exam!

As for the students whose names were not called, they will all have to take the exam. Those whose names were called should go home and wait for the start of the new semester to repeat the year.

As for those whose names were not called, the other students will prepare for the first round of mock exams at the school next Monday, followed by the second round of mock exams. More than 200 students from four classes will take the exams, and in the end, only a few dozen high-scoring students will be eligible to participate in the county's preliminary exam.

Zou Yunfang, Zhu Yanli, He Liyan, and other candidates were eliminated in the first round of the school's individual exams, where each candidate was tested at a separate desk.

Of the more than 200 students in the four classes of the third grade, excluding those who were kept behind by their homeroom teachers to repeat the year at the start of the semester, more than 100 students took the exam. After the first round of exams, only 69 students remained.

Then the remaining 69 candidates went home for three days to review before taking the second round of exams at their own schools. After the exams, only 39 top students were left who were qualified to take the final exam at Gucheng County No. 1 Middle School three days later.

Yang Yuhan, Qi Hua, Yu Dajun, Xu Meili, Zhao Wenjie, and other candidates whose names are unknown are qualified to participate in the third round of the finals.

The group then passed by the main examination hall of the county's No. 1 Middle School, where top students from junior high schools in various townships were taking their final exam.

Yang Yuhan achieved first place in the county, and Qi Hua achieved second place. Both of them were admitted to Xingdian High School, a key high school that was newly built this year and was enrolling students for the first time.

Xu Meili was admitted to an agricultural vocational high school. Generally speaking, even if you don't get the score to a key high school, you can still get into an agricultural vocational high school in the county.

Zhao Wenjie was admitted to a secondary normal school.

Yang Yuhan originally intended to apply for a vocational school, but unfortunately, she had attended university in her previous life and wanted to continue her studies, leaving time for art classes.

Yu Dajun failed the final round of the county's No. 1 High School. He either had to drop out of school, repeat a year, or use connections at the county's No. 1 High School to attend a regular high school.

This year, all the junior high school students applying to high school are applying to key high schools in the county.

Candidates who have the means to receive government-subsidized grain rations can apply to vocational schools.

The categories for junior high school applicants include teacher training schools, high schools, vocational schools, and technical schools.

Time flies! September is here in the blink of an eye, and the new semester has begun. The students who passed the entrance exams have all gone to their respective schools.

Zou Yunfang, Zhu Yanli, and He Liyan dropped out of school and stayed at home.

Yang Yumei, Li Lihong, and more than a dozen other students who had been kept at school by Teacher Huo to repeat their studies returned to school. Li Lihong went back to her original class, Class 1 of the third grade.

Yu Mei returned to Class 2 of the third grade. In the classroom, she suddenly turned around and found that it was still the same handsome boy, Yu Dajun, sitting at his desk in the corner of the last row by the south window.

After Yu Mei finished reviewing the first half of the year's courses, she began reviewing the second half of the year's courses. Xu Meili suddenly dropped out of her county's rural vocational high school and joined this new class to review. Most of the students in this class were repeat students.

Yu Dajun, sitting in the last seat, not only studied his textbook diligently, but also occasionally cast mysterious glances at Yang Yumei, completely ignoring Xu Meili's arrival!

A year later, Li Lihua failed the entrance exam for teachers' college again.

Yu Mei still failed to get into the county's key high school. She had considered applying to a teacher's college or a vocational school several times, but her grades were not good enough to qualify her to take the exam, so she registered to take the high school entrance exam instead.

Even if she were to apply for a vocational school, she wouldn't consider nursing, which involves spending all day in the hospital dealing with patients—it would make her feel bad.

Then, she had no choice but to stay at home. In order to go to junior high school, she cut off her long braid. She saw that Yang Yuhan had cut her long braid into shoulder-length hair a few days before going to Tuandingshan Middle School. She would never cut it. Later, she imitated Yang Yuhan and cut her hair into a woman's No. 5 hairstyle. She started to imitate the No. 5 hairstyle.

I regret it now, but most middle school girls cut their long braids like this.

She didn't know if it was because she hadn't tried hard enough, or because of the influence of Yu Dajun's gaze.

She really liked him so much that she was completely infatuated with him!

But she didn't have the courage to confess her feelings to him. This era was a semi-feudal society; male and female classmates barely spoke to each other.

The girls in the Yang family compound, in particular, were influenced by their elders from a young age.

In the blink of an eye, another high school graduation season has begun, and Yu Dajun and Xu Meili, two classmates, have both been admitted to key high schools in the county.

Yang Yumei failed the exam again. She told her family, "No matter how many times I take the exam, as long as I don't give up, I will pass eventually."

"Who will support you through high school if you get accepted?" Yang Zhi asked.

Liu Yue smiled secretly. These words were exactly what she wanted to hear. Not what he wanted, but rather the result of her behind-the-scenes instigation.

Yang Zhanxi retorted, "I'm still alive, I don't need you to support me like an older brother."

"Yang Zhi, how come you've become such a different person after you got married? Before you got married, you said you would support your sister's education if Father's health deteriorated," Diao Yan said weakly.

“She has to pass the exam. I think she’s just wasting her time. She’s repeated three years and still hasn’t passed.”

Liu Yue tugged at his sleeve.

“You can still go to high school even if you don’t pass the exam. Don’t you know how to pull some strings? It’s just that your dad’s health isn’t good right now, otherwise I wouldn’t be wasting my breath on you,” Diao Yan said.

Yang Yumei said, "My classmate Li Lihong applied to a teacher's college but didn't get in, so she went to the county's No. 1 high school."

“That’s her daughter, you’re her younger sister,” Yang Zhi said shamelessly.

"Cough cough!" Yang Zhanxi coughed twice while lying on the heated kang.

The two of them turned and went back to the west room without saying another word.

“Yu Mei, look, your father and I can’t do farm work anymore. Why don’t you stop thinking about going to school? You’re seventeen or eighteen now. Let’s have a matchmaker introduce you to a good man and get married.” Diao Yan said indifferently.

"Why should I look for a partner? Just because my brother and sister-in-law won't let me study, should I give up? Besides, why should I be inferior to Yu Han from the south wing? Why should I fall behind her?"

“Yu Han, she’s almost graduating from high school, and you’re still hanging around in junior high.”

"Mom, don't you understand? What do you mean by me dawdling? I'm saying I'm unwilling to accept defeat, you know? I repeated my third year, and my grades improved, didn't they? That's how I passed the final exam at Tuandingshan Township Middle School and qualified to participate in the county's preliminary exam finals."

“At Tuandingshan Middle School, there were more than 200 students in four classes. In my first eighth grade, I was an average student, in my second eighth grade, I was an above-average student, and in my third eighth grade, I ranked second in my class. After two rounds of selection, I ranked among the top 69 in the school the first time. I was the last person the school had to reserve for the second round of selection. I was eligible to take the second round of selection and ranked 39th. I was also the last person the school had reserved.”

"Alright. Mom knows. You finally qualified to take the exam for Gucheng County No. 1 High School, and then failed the exam a second time because all the candidates from various townships in the county were from different schools. You've already done a great job. If it were me, I would have given up long ago."

"Why should I give up? I'm going to make something of myself and live a life several times better than Yu Han's."

"Ahem! You know what? Yu Han, she not only studies hard, but she also loves to work, you know... ahem." Yang Zhanxi listened to the advertisement on the tape recorder left by Yang Hong, which was about the recruitment of students for the Jiamusi Art School in this province.

“Yu Mei, your dad is right. Yu Han earned her own tuition for high school. She wasn’t idle during winter and summer vacations. I’m not saying this to criticize you, but you’re too lazy. You don’t want to do any physical labor. How can you compare to her? Didn’t Yu Han make a cutting board with your brother’s carpentry tools during winter vacation? And during summer vacation, she rode a big bicycle with a large wooden box on the back to sell popsicles. Can you do those things? I’m afraid you’d be ashamed.”

"Alright, stop comparing yourself to her. In a few days, you'll find a good husband, get married, have children, and then you won't have these thoughts anymore."

“I’m not getting married. If you mention marriage again, I’ll turn on you. Fine, Yu Han can do it too. It’s just picking up tin cans on the main road in the village, taking them home to use as cutting boards, and then selling them to pay for my school fees.”

"It's easy for you to say that, cough cough!" Yang Zhanxi continued listening to the tape recorder.

"Dad, I'm not just talking, I'll do it right away. I'm also going to raise a pig, grow it up and sell it for money. If all else fails, I won't go to the good middle school in the county. High school wasn't the school I wanted anyway. I'm going to go to the art academy to study painting."

"Look at you, trying to have your cake and eat it too, and in the end you didn't learn either one. Cough cough!"

"Her dad, don't worry about her. Focus on getting better first."

"I know my own body; I can't hold on much longer. When I'm gone, you two, don't let those two in the west room chase you away. And when I'm gone, watch your tempers, cough cough!"