In her previous life, Jiang Shengyan had studied science, and she planned to do the same in this life.
Although she memorized things quickly, she forgot them even faster, and she didn't like rote memorization. The humanities required far too much memorization; Chinese, English, and biology were about all she could tolerate. Besides, she preferred math and physics. Even though her physics in her past life had been a complete mess—leaving her with a mild psychological shadow—she couldn't resist her genuine interest in the subject.
In junior high, Jiang Shengyan's physics had always been exceptionally good, and she loved studying both physics and math. But high school physics grew increasingly difficult, especially electric and magnetic fields, which she practically couldn't grasp at all and eventually gave up on. In this life, no matter what, she was determined to work hard and conquer this obstacle.
Jiang Shengyan mapped out her study schedule: memorization would take place every Monday and Thursday morning for Chinese, Tuesday and Friday mornings for English, and Wednesday and Saturday mornings for biology. During the daytime, she would focus on one subject per day—Chinese, math, English, physics, chemistry, or biology—and take the weekend off.
With her plan set, Jiang Shengyan began today's studies.
After studying earnestly for two hours, Jiang Shengyan felt she was doing all right. Because she had already learned the material once before, going through it again wasn't particularly difficult.
Her goal for now was to master the basics first and make as few mistakes as possible when solving problems. For Chinese and English, she would start by memorizing texts and vocabulary to build a solid foundation.
Checking the time, Jiang Shengyan saw it was almost noon. She figured she should start making lunch, as her mother should be getting off work soon.
In truth, Jiang Shengyan had never been very good at cooking. Whenever there was someone else at home, it never fell to her to cook. When she did cook occasionally, while it wouldn't qualify as toxic waste, it certainly couldn't be called delicious either.
She decided to steam some rice. Since they happened to have tomatoes at home, Jiang Shengyan planned to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes—a dish whose main appeal was that it was both simple and tasty.
Just as she finished cooking, she heard the door open and her mother walk in. Seeing her daughter cooking came as quite a surprise to Sheng Yue. On the one hand, her daughter disliked cooking and had never been taught how; on the other hand, her cooking was genuinely mediocre, using only cooking oil and salt with zero other seasonings.
Father Jiang, Jiang Mingyu, worked at a small enterprise and was currently away on a business trip. Mother Jiang, Sheng Yue, worked at a flower shop not far from home. Neither of them had particularly demanding jobs, and they frequently ate at home, never leaving the cooking to their daughter.
Seeing her mother step into the kitchen, Jiang Shengyan smiled and said, "You're back from work, Mom. Look at the scrambled eggs with tomatoes I made—they actually look pretty decent!"
"This is about the only thing you can manage to make halfway decently. Go on out, I'll whip up a soup and then we can eat," Sheng Yue said with a smile as she walked into the kitchen.
Jiang Shengyan quickly stepped aside. In less than twenty minutes, Sheng Yue emerged carrying a dish and urged Jiang Shengyan to come eat.
At the dining table:
"What was that about buying books you mentioned this morning? Didn't you just finish your exams and start your break?" Sheng Yue asked, puzzled.
Jiang Shengyan said seriously, "I want to get a head start on high school material. I'm worried I won't be able to keep up once school starts, and besides, I can't spend the whole vacation just playing around."
"What's got into you? Did you turn over a new leaf? Since when have you been so focused on studying? You... don't think you bombed the high school entrance exams, do you?" Sheng Yue asked cautiously. She knew her daughter pretty well; although the girl wasn't a poor student and lacked no intelligence, she had never been particularly diligent or focused on her studies, and her grades were never standout.
"No way, I think I did pretty decently on the entrance exams! It's just that since I'm about to enter high school, I'm feeling a little nervous. I heard high school subjects are quite difficult, so I figured I'd get a head start!"
Hearing her daughter say this, Sheng Yue was quite gratified. Remembering that the answer keys had been released after the exams, she asked, "The teachers released the answer keys—did you check your answers? Do you think you can get into Huaicheng No. 1 High School?"
Jiang Shengyan knew her past scores had always hovered right around the admission threshold for Huaicheng No. 1 High School, and her mother was always quite worried about it.
"Don't worry, I think I performed really well. I'll definitely get in," Jiang Shengyan said, giving her mother some peace of mind.
"Oh? So confident, are you? Well then, I'll just wait and see."
"Just you wait," Jiang Shengyan thought to herself with secret delight. Of course she was—she had a cheat code, after all.
In the afternoon, Mother Jiang went back to work, and Jiang Shengyan resumed her study plan.
After studying for a few hours, she found that she could recall what she had learned in her past life as she went along. Simple concepts only required a glance to understand, which saved a lot of time, though she still solved problems to reinforce the material just in case.
Two hours after dinner was Jiang Shengyan's scheduled exercise time. Since she had to memorize texts in the morning, and the daytime was too hot with a blazing sun, two hours after dinner the sun had set; after sitting all day, it was the perfect time to go out, stretch her legs, go for a run, and digest her meal.
Even though she wasn't fat right now, once the semester started she wouldn't have any time left for running and exercising. High school schedules were tight, so she should take advantage of this time to exercise more. Who knows, maybe she could grow even taller than in her past life.
She had still grown two centimeters during college in her previous life, finally settling at 168cm. If she worked hard in this life, maybe she could reach 170cm.
Jiang Shengyan overestimated herself once again. She had originally planned to jog for half a minute—no, half an hour—but after less than ten minutes, she was forced to drop down to a brisk walk.
She truly, genuinely disliked exercising. In her past life, her university physical fitness test of eight hundred meters had been a shaky, barely-passing struggle, and after campus running and fitness tests were no longer required, she had never exercised again.
Unable to run anymore, Jiang Shengyan had no choice but to walk. It seemed she needed to take things step by step; she couldn't become a giant overnight. She would just have to take it slow.
Passing by the basketball court, she saw a few boys playing basketball and stopped to watch. Jiang Shengyan only knew whether the ball went in or not and understood nothing else, but she felt their skills must be quite good, seeing as she had only stood there for a short while and already watched them sink several shots.
She had always held a certain admiration for boys who loved playing basketball. She remembered that during high school in her past life, the big break between classes was only twenty minutes long, yet even in the height of summer with temperatures hitting thirty-eight or thirty-nine degrees under the blazing sun, several basketball-loving boys in her class would still rush outside to get their fix. That was genuinely impressive.
"Watch out!"
As she was reminiscing, she suddenly heard someone shout loudly.
Standing outside the court, Jiang Shengyan looked up and saw a basketball flying rapidly toward her. There was no time to think; her instinctive reaction was to cover her head and squat down.
*Thump.*
Shengyan felt the ball brush right past the top of her head and the back of her hand before landing behind her. The back of her hand instantly flared with a mild pain.
When the group of basketball-playing boys hurried over, Jiang Shengyan was still a little shaken. Thank goodness her reflexes were fast, or today would have been an absolute disaster.
She looked up to see several boys crowding around her while she was still squatting on the ground.
"Are you alright? I'm so sorry, we almost hit you. Are you hurt anywhere?" Xu Jingyu asked with a mix of worry and guilt. He was the one who had thrown the ball; he had just been thinking about passing it out and ended up using too much force.
Jiang Shengyan figured that if she had actually been hit, she probably would have been at least a little angry. But thankfully she hadn't been, and they hadn't done it on purpose, so she decided to let it go.
Just as she raised her head to say she was fine, she caught sight of two handsome faces and froze in place. In real life, she had truly never seen anyone this handsome; these must be people sculpted with painstaking care by Goddess Nüwa herself. Jiang Shengyan could only admit that she was deeply envious.