Luxuriant is the Peach Tree, How Its Leaves Grow

Chapter 3

As soon as the bell for the last morning class rang, the classroom instantly exploded with noise. Every single person in the room had a joyous smile beaming on their face.

Although the lunch break was short, for these exhausted high school seniors, it was like a lifesaver!

Ye Jinliang rubbed his dry eyes, strained from staring at a novel, and muttered to himself, "It's time to buy some eye drops. I exhausted myself from reading!"

He cheered himself on with absolute self-righteousness, not feeling guilty in the slightest.

Even though he was reading for leisure, it was still a book!

Don't dismiss a bean bun as not being real food—this is the power of words, and the power of words cannot be underestimated.

With that said, he closed the novel hidden inside his textbook, stood up, stretched lazily, and subconsciously glanced in Gu Ran's direction.

In the back row by the window, Gu Ran sat all alone, looking exceptionally solitary.

At first glance, he seemed to be detached from the rest of the world.

But that wasn't the point. The point was—this guy actually wasn't sleeping!

Ye Jinliang's eyelids twitched violently as he stared at Gu Ran in disbelief.

Oh no, oh no, this guy has definitely been possessed. He's actually doing practice questions?!

He rubbed his eyes again, looking as if he had just seen a ghost.

He hadn't seen wrong. Gu Ran was indeed doing practice questions, and he wasn't just putting on an act.

Ye Jinliang quickly walked to the back row, stared at Gu Ran in astonishment, and asked, "No way, Brother Gu. Blink if you've been kidnapped. This studious look isn't like you at all!"

Hearing this, Gu Ran looked up and joked, "Then what is like me? Smoking, drinking, eating fatty meat, sleeping in class, and reading novels? Does being pure scum of society sound more like me?"

Ye Jinliang: "......."

He couldn't help but feel that this guy was subtly taking a jab at him...

After his quip, Gu Ran started packing up his test papers and wearily massaged the bridge of his nose.

After a whole morning of self-testing, he had come to a profound realization of his current situation: he truly hadn't learned a single thing during his high school years!

He couldn't remember any of the Chinese literature passages required for memorization; he had completely forgotten all the math formulas and theorems; and he had absolutely no recollection of chemistry, physics, or biology.

With exactly two hundred days left until the college entrance examination, getting into a top-tier university was going to be incredibly difficult.

But he wasn't discouraged. English was a piece of cake for him. After all, he was a master with over ten years of programming experience; tackling English would be as easy as slicing melons and chopping vegetables.

As for Chinese, it mostly tested reading comprehension. With the life experience of a thirty-something-year-old answering the questions, it shouldn't be too hard... probably.......

All that was left was to pick up those science subjects again. That shouldn't... be too hard either, right?

The more he thought about it, the less confident he felt, but he still silently cheered himself on and mapped out a study plan for the future.

Scoring five hundred points on the exam is a matter of attitude; scoring six hundred points is a matter of IQ.

As long as I straighten out my attitude toward studying, I can definitely score five hundred!

I definitely will!!!

He stood up, stretched his limbs, and headed to the cafeteria with Ye Jinliang.

In his past memories, the two of them always went to a small restaurant outside the school for lunch and ordered a couple of dishes.

But now, Gu Ran wanted to try the cafeteria. The school cafeteria, which he never had the chance to visit in his previous life, should be full of the taste of youth, right?

......

.......

The cafeteria's menu could certainly be described as "abundant"!

Today's specials included stir-fried pork with pineapple, scrambled tomatoes with oranges, stewed green beans with pears, and apple radish soup... This was simply a wild, chaotic medley, with the main theme being absolute nonsense cooking!

Looking at the array of culinary nightmares before him, Gu Ran really couldn't fathom what kind of mental state the cafeteria ladies were in when they cooked these dishes.

"Young man, hurry up and order what you want. There's a line behind you!"

Gu Ran's prolonged staring at the various "cuisines" in a daze had drawn the dissatisfaction of the serving lady.

Hearing this, he smiled awkwardly. "Ah... well, I'm actually not that hungry right now. Let the students behind me order first."

With that, he quickly grabbed Ye Jinliang and fled the line.

It seemed there was a good reason he didn't eat at the cafeteria in his past life!

"I told you we shouldn't come to the cafeteria, but you insisted. Now do you believe me?"

Ye Jinliang kept nagging tirelessly beside him, and Gu Ran could only reply absentmindedly, "I believe you, I believe you..."

Suddenly, Ye Jinliang's voice grew excited. "Brother Gu! Brother Gu, look quickly!"

He yanked Gu Ran's arm hard.

The latter looked in the direction he was pointing and saw an elegant, fresh-faced girl appear before them.

Her long, straight, and silky black hair was loosely tied back with a hairband. The black-and-white school uniform she wore didn't look tacky at all; instead, it added a touch of everlasting youthful vitality.

She wore a pair of white skate shoes and white cotton ankle socks. In the eyes of a seasoned veteran like Gu Ran, this added a hint of subtle allure to her pure appearance.

The girl's fair, delicate face wore a serious expression, as if eating was a matter that required strict attention.

The moment he saw her, Gu Ran inexplicably thought of his dad. The identical expression on her face made him feel like the two of them would get along swimmingly.

Thinking of this, he shook his head, turned around, and pulled Ye Jinliang toward the cafeteria entrance.

This guy was acting like he had never seen a woman before, making a scene in broad daylight. Even if Ye Jinliang didn't care about his own face, Gu Ran still had his dignity to uphold!

"No, Brother Gu, that's the school beauty! Ye Zhenzhen, the number one student in our grade. You're just going to walk away?!"

Ye Jinliang, who was being forcibly dragged out of the cafeteria, was still reluctant to leave. After all, chances to bump into the school beauty were rare!

She spent most of her time studying at her desk. It would be a pity to miss this chance!

"What else? If we don't leave, are you planning to go up and confess your love?"

"Uh..."

Gu Ran's rhetorical question instantly choked him, leaving him speechless.

The two walked along the street outside the school, grabbed a quick bite, and prepared to head back.

But Ye Jinliang voiced a different opinion. "Back to school?!"

"Why go back to school in the middle of the day? Come on, let's go to the internet cafe and play some shooters! I bought a six-month rental of the Barrett sniper rifle yesterday and I haven't had enough of it yet!"

That single sentence brought back a flood of memories for Gu Ran.

In 2010, before the overpowered premium weapons were released, the popularity of CrossFire was unprecedented. Walk into any internet cafe, and half the people there would be playing the shooter!

People firing assault rifles, firing pistols... The marketing slogan "The gunfight dream of 300 million mice" was no joke.

It wasn't like in later years, where overpowered weapons were everywhere and hackers were as common as stray dogs!

Some even famously claimed: "The Northern Server is a grand stage; if you don't have hacks, stay away."

It was the same for other games. Major game developers competed to rake in cash, releasing a dizzying array of games with endless pay-to-win models. The original flavor was long gone.

Wait!

It's 2010 now. The iPhone 4 has just been released, the world is just entering the era of smartphones, and mobile gaming is only in its infancy.

This...

In an instant, Gu Ran froze in his tracks. A flurry of game titles flashed through his mind: Temple Run, Defend the Radish, Everyday Parkour, Rhythm Master, Hearthstone, Anipop, Honor of Kings, Onmyoji, Battle of Balls...

As a veteran coding master from the future, he had analyzed countless mobile games and possessed a comprehensive, inside-out understanding of those household classics.

After all, the corporate culture of his previous company was simply: "Rip off the best games and serve them to the players!"

Cloning a mobile game was just another day at the office for him.

In this era, the mobile gaming market was still a complete blank slate, providing an unimaginably vast stage for him to flex his skills.

As the saying goes, even a pig can fly if it stands in the wind of opportunity!

Then... could he soar even higher?