Doing It Over Again

y people assigned to our class, and there are sixty students here.
It looks like everyone’s excited about high school life.
Right now, let’s have everyone give a brief self-introduction in front of the class so we can get familiar with each other.
This is also a good way to start your lives as high school students.”

That was when Shen Shao had his first chance to appreciate the high level of these students.
Many of the teenagers who introduced themselves spoke fluent Mandarin, and they spoke vividly without any stammers or pauses.
In a one minute-long self-introduction, many of them left a vivid impression.
As expected of the strongest high school in the province, these students represented an all-around high level of development of morality, intelligence, physique, and appearance.

When it was Shen Shao’s turn, he attracted the attention of many of the girls as soon as he stood on the podium.
After all, he happened to have an appealing face.
No matter the era, liking handsome faces is a common disease.

“Hello everyone.
My name is Shen Shao.
Not the Shao that means ‘young master’, the Shao from the Hundred Family Surnames.
If you think I’m taking advantage of you by asking you to call me Shen Shao in the future, you can also call me Xiao Shen or Xiao Shao.
Of course, Shao Ge works too.”

The students laughed loudly, and a boy called out, “How is calling you Shao Ge not taking advantage of us!”

Shen Shao scratched his head and said, “We were all assigned to the same class, which is a kind of fate.
In the future, please give me advice.
Together we’ll make progress every day!”

Shen Shao stepped down from the podium amid the friendly jokes and laughter of his classmates.
Next it was Liang Cheng’s turn on stage, and he stammered and introduced himself.
When he returned to his seat with a pale face, he looked at Shen Shao and felt a sense of admiration.
How was Shen Shao able to behave so confidently with so many people watching?

Zhang JiaHe, who was standing beside the podium, couldn’t help but look over at Shen Shao a few more times.
As the class teacher of Class 15, he certainly knew which students were assigned to his class and already had an impression of Shen Shao, the external student with the highest score on the admission test.
Zhang JiaHe was a Chinese teacher, but he understood how difficult the exam questions were.
When the computer randomly assigned the students to each class, the teachers of the other two experimental classes sighed with regret for a while after Shen Shao wasn’t assigned to them.

“Hello, my name is Zhou ZeYu….”

Shen Shao finally remembered—that is, Zhou ZeYu had also scored high enough to enter an experimental class.
As it turned out, the two were assigned to the same class.

After introducing himself, Zhou ZeYu winked in Shen Shao’s direction before returning to his seat and sitting down.

“Shen Shao, do you two know each other?” Liang Cheng noticed Zhou ZeYu’s action and asked curiously.

“Yeah.” Shen Shao nodded.
“We happened to meet when I went to check the admission test results.”

“It’s nice to already have a new friend.” Liang Cheng was a little envious.
He’d never been good at socializing.
In junior high school he got good grades, but the students in the class used to call him a nerd, and he didn’t have many friends.
When he saw Shen Shao speaking to him in such a friendly way, he immediately labeled Shen Shao a good classmate.

Hearing this, Shen Shao smiled and didn’t say anything.

After the students finished introducing themselves, they began to hand out textbooks and workbooks.
When he held the ink-scented books in his hands, Shen Shao felt a lot more excitement than he showed on his face.
In his last life, he never had the chance to sit in a high school classroom and study.
In this life, he was finally able to realize his dream.

After the teacher handed out the books, everyone was allowed to go home.
When Shen Shao left the classroom, someone patted him on the shoulder.
He looked around, and as expected, it was Zhou ZeYu.

“Man, we’re really lucky to be assigned to the same class,” Zhou ZeYu said.
He was holding a few textbooks he was going to take home to study.
His other hand was on Shen Shao’s shoulder.
“Do you live on campus or outside?”

Shen Shao said the name of the community he lived in.
Liang Cheng, who happened to be walking next to them, looked a little excited and said, “Shen Shao, I live in the same community as you.
In the future, we can go to school together.”

Zhou ZeYu looked at the somewhat skinny Liang Cheng and smiled.
“I live in the neighborhood nearby.
Why don’t we go to school together in the future?”

Liang Cheng nodded vigorously.

Shen Shao looked at them and finally understood those online jokes in his previous life about “making an appointment to go to school” and “being so close they go to the bathroom together”.
Although it was a bit childish, he couldn’t deny it felt good.

“OK, let’s meet in front of our community at 6:50 in the morning.” Shen Shao patted Liang Cheng and Zhou ZeYu on the shoulder.
“Anyone who’s late has to treat the others to a drink.”

“No problem!” Zhou ZeYu breathed an inner sigh of relief.
He just came to class and already made two friends.
That was a good start.

Therefore, their happy high school life began with the friendly atmosphere of making an appointment to go to school together.

TL Notes:

mandarin duck hot pot – 鸳鸯锅 – A two-flavor hot pot.
The pot is divided down the middle so the diners can enjoy two different flavors of broth.
“Mandarin ducks” a common reference to an affectionate or happily married couple

gold-collar workers – 金领 – gold collar worker; highly-skilled worker

self-made rich man – 富一代 – rich first generation (as opposed to a rich second generation)

fluent Mandarin – 流利的普通话 – I think this means the students weren’t speaking the local dialect of the area, or it could mean they spoke standard Mandarin without much of an accent.
It could also mean they were speaking in a confident, outgoing way

Hundred Family Surnames – 百家姓 – A classic Chinese text composed of common Chinese surnames, originally compiled during the Song dynasty (960-1279).
The book lists 507 surnames (Wikipedia)

nerd – 书呆子 – Alternatively: bookworm, pedant, bookish

Transliterated names, places, and titles—new in this chapter:

second young master – 二少 – Èr shào

young master – 少 – shào – This could also be translated “Childe”, but that’s a bit old-fashioned.
It means “the son of a rich family”.
It has the same pronunciation as Shen Shao’s personal name (邵 – Shào).
When people hear his name, they might think he’s being addressed as “Young Master Shen”, hence the joke about “taking advantage of you”

Liang Cheng – 梁城

Sprite – 雪碧 – A lemon-lime flavored soda

Zhang JiaHe – 张家和

Liu Ling – 刘玲

Cai ShengSheng – 蔡胜生 – Cài Shèngshēng

Xiao Shen – 小沈 – Little/Young Shen

Shao Ge – 邵哥 – Older brother Shao.
Since all the students are in the same grade and roughly the same age, if they call him this instead of Xiao Shen or Xiao Shao, it might signal they look up to, admire, or are interested in him

ge – 哥 – Older brother.
Also a common way to refer to an older man of the same generation as yourself