I had already attended university for four whole years, but the only book I had left in my possession was a textbook, The Principles of Marxist Philosophy. I had no idea where all my other textbooks had gone to.

But if you thought that I was one of those deep thinking youths with a healthy interest in philosophy and politics because I kept this textbook, then you were terribly wrong.

I had kept this particular textbook only because it was the exact size I needed to hold the cover of my cup noodles down. Textbooks belonging to others always carried the smell of paper and ink, while mine always smelled like instant ramen.

Despite all that, Daning still managed to convince him to take those remedial classes with him and retake my exams.

Over the rest of the week, Daning played games all night to gather enough equipment for sale and caught up with schoolwork in the day. He was so busy, he barely had enough time to sleep or eat. As for me, I too, played games all night and gathered equipment to sell as well, but I slept in the day so that I had enough energy to do my best in the game at night. That was pretty hard work too.

Perhaps you are curious about why I didn’t revise my work in the day like Daning. Besides having too little energy left, more importantly, I still didn’t think I could graduate. I had failed 34 classes and was barred from taking the exam for the 35th class I needed to pass in order to graduate.

That was how it was. Why should someone like me bother with remedial classes?

Of course I did it for Daning. This guy had been playing video games with me for the past four years and we might never see each other again after this. Wasn’t it only right for me to accompany him in something that he wanted to do?

After pulling several all-nighters, Daning finally accumulated enough money to pay for all the remedial classes he wished to sign up for. A bright smile finally appeared on his exhausted face when he personally handed the huge stack of bills he had worked so hard for to the staff at the Accounts Department. I went with him and saw that smile on his face. I had never seen him smile so genuinely before, not even when we managed to get our hands on the best equipment in the game.

When I saw that smile on his face, I suddenly thought that perhaps I should start getting serious too. Unfortunately, I had really failed way too many classes, plus Mr. Chen had already foretold that I wouldn’t be able to graduate. Even so, I still handed over the money that could have gone into a new computer over to the staff at the Accounts Department, because I didn’t want others to see the two gaming buddies who had played games together for the past four years go separate ways just before graduation. That would make me feel so lonely.

To my surprise, the school had decided to go a step further in minimizing this entire process. After they collected the fees for remedial classes, they skipped the classes part and allowed us to sit for the exam immediately instead. Daning had just spent so many nights working hard to enough money and now he had to go for a string of exams. There was simply no time for him to revise and it was impossible for him to catch up on four years of study in just a few days.

At first, he cooped himself up in the room and tried writing notes on small pieces of paper in hope of sneaking them into the exam hall. But after he was done with the notes for just two classes, he realized that this took too much time. Writing cheat notes was too slow, so he ended up bringing the entire textbook in.

Unlike Daning, I went for the exams with almost nothing in hand. The only thing I had besides a pen was an official document from the school that had a list of all the exams I was supposed to take. Since I was present at every exam, all the invigilators recognized me and didn’t bother checking that piece of paper anymore. Eventually, I didn’t even bother bringing it along to the exam hall.

The school had made arrangements for the students to retake their exams precisely to give the students with a good attitude like Daning a chance to save themselves from their years of bad decisions. But I had made way too many bad decisions for too long, so such a chance was already useless to me. I came for the exams solely to have fun.

I hadn’t done any revision nor written any cheat notes. I certainly wasn’t going to hide a textbook in my clothes either. Once the exam paper was passed to me, I would just hunch over and write nonsense. If my pen ran out of ink, I’d just leave everything blank.

So, just like that, I went for exam after exam. During this time, Daning and I were busy going for exams and hardly saw each other at night. Even if we happened to see each other in the dorm, we wouldn’t talk to one another.

I suddenly realized that we were growing more and more estranged.

Just when I started feeling sad about the way things had become, I suddenly received a phone call from Daning one afternoon on my way back to the dorm after the exam.

Once I picked up the call, I could hear Daning panting away on the other end of the line. “Muyun, the last time you said something about dragging a teacher down with you even if you were going to die. What did you mean by that?”

I could sense something was wrong, so I asked him, “What’s happened?”

After hesitating for a long time, he finally told me that an invigilator had caught him cheating. His exam paper was immediately confiscated and he was no longer allowed to sit for that exam.

I was surprised to hear this. When it came to an exam retake, most invigilators closed an eye to the students’ antics. The students had paid a lot just to take this exam after all, so even if the invigilator caught a student cheating, they would either just give the student a verbal warning or take away the student’s cheat notes. I had never heard of an invigilator actually throw the student out of the exam.

So, I quickly asked the next question, “Who was that invigilator?”

Daning replied in a frustrated voice, “Who else? Mr. Chen, of course!”

It turned out to be the expert at shooting delinquent students like us down. The vengeful thoughts I had hidden away for so long instantly came back to me.

The next thing I heard was Daning prodding me impatiently over the phone, “Do you have some plan in mind? Hurry up and tell me what you’re going to do!”

I laughed and said, “Come to the top floor of the Block for Grooming Talents. I’ll tell you when you get there!”