Chapter 1: Beginning Self-Discipline Today

Inside the classroom of Dongping County No. 1 High School, Xu Ming sat on a stool, furrowing his brows deeply, his expression anxious as he stared at the math test paper spread before him, confusion etched across his face.

"Shouldn't I be lying in a hospital bed?"

In his memories, after graduating from graduate school, he had started a business with classmates. Just as their venture was beginning to take off, they were maliciously sabotaged by competitors.

Ultimately, they were ruthlessly taken down.

Years of hard work were crushed by the heavy hand of capital.

He had collapsed drunk by the riverside late at night and was vaguely sent to the hospital. Who would have thought that upon waking, he wouldn’t see a hospital ceiling but instead find himself sitting in a classroom taking an exam?

It was nothing short of a nightmare.

Rubbing his eyes again, he noticed the heading on the paper: "Senior Year Practice Test." Relief washed over him.

Phew—

At least it wasn’t the college entrance exam.

Lifting his gaze, he recognized the familiar figures in the front row, though many names escaped him. Above the blackboard facing him hung a red banner with golden characters:

"Walk with determination through Tsinghua Garden; only diligence can unlock the bright Lake Weiming."

He read the words silently and suddenly jolted, finally confirming something.

"This is Dongping No. 1 High School. I’ve been reborn back at my alma mater?"

Looking up at the ceiling fan and the inspirational quotes on the walls, his mood gradually calmed as long-buried memories surged like tides in his mind.

As the county’s top high school, Dongping No. 1 High School completed all high school courses by the end of sophomore year. Especially in the second semester of senior year, the days were mostly spent on exams and reviewing questions.

Having grasped his situation, he was just beginning to accept reality when his arm was suddenly tapped.

Turning his head, a familiar face appeared in his line of sight.

"Got any ideas for the second fill-in-the-blank question?"

Qian Hong had slightly curly hair and was of average height among the boys in the class, his face radiating the innocent clarity of a high school student.

His gaze fixed on his deskmate, Xu Ming’s thoughts ran deep.

In his previous life, Qian Hong had gone to university in Jincheng, and they had lost contact for many years.

After a brief pause, Xu Ming lowered his eyes toward the fill-in-the-blank question that Qian Hong mentioned, trying to recall his old problem-solving state.

"For the inequality log₂(-x) < x + 1, find the range of x..."

He carefully analyzed the problem for nearly two minutes, his body growing restless, but his mind remained chaotic.

What was the domain of the logarithmic function again?

How to solve the inequality?

Forget it.

After years of entrepreneurship, his knowledge seemed scattered and hazy; formulas and theorems slipped from his memory, making accurate answers impossible.

He could only give up.

Yet he was not discouraged; his eyes grew even more resolute.

After all, with this new mind, he was confident that through review, he could quickly regain his knowledge.

His college entrance exam score in his previous life hadn’t been ideal, and for various reasons, he had chosen a private undergraduate school in the province. Although he worked hard in university and was admitted to graduate school at Yanjing University, regret lingered deeply in his heart. More than once, he had fantasized about going back to high school to correct the mistakes of his youth.

---

"Since heaven has granted me a second chance, I must not follow the old path again," Xu Ming thought to himself.

Just as he was about to make a study plan, a semi-transparent screen suddenly appeared before his eyes. His upper body instinctively leaned back, nearly startling him into a shout.

Seeing that no one else reacted, he relaxed.

He then examined the screen carefully. Lines of black text gradually appeared on the panel:

——

Name: Xu Ming
Occupation: Student
Mathematics: Lv0 (23/100)
Physics: Lv0 (20/100)
Chemistry & Biology: Lv0 (25/100)
Chinese: Lv0 (29/100)
English: Lv0 (33/100)
Talent: Absolute Self-Discipline
Entries: None

"What is this information…?"

Xu Ming was momentarily stunned, then overwhelmed with joy.

If anyone else encountered this, they might suspect it was a hallucination brought on by study pressure or mental stress — after all, high school seniors often had minor health issues — but he knew this meant his potential had been fully unlocked.

Suppressing his excitement, he examined the details closely.

His gaze first landed on the “Talent” section, then new text appeared:

【Talent: Absolute Self-Discipline】
【Effect: You always persevere in achieving the learning goals you set for yourself.】

Reading this, even his mindset as a man in his thirties struggled to contain its excitement.

He knew exactly what this meant.

Most students were intermittently ambitious, always setting bigger and bigger goals each semester, but few managed to persevere and complete them.

If he could maintain discipline, not only would he have a good chance of getting into a top university, but future opportunities to secure scholarships and pursue doctoral studies would also be within reach.

He could even delve deeply into academic research, make achievements, and contribute to the progress of civilization.

In his previous life, he had studied materials science at Yanjing University—a field known as a "pit of despair"—yet had still achieved some success.

When he decided to start a business, his advisor had tried to persuade him to pursue a Ph.D.

He continued to study the rest of the panel.

Besides the talent, he noticed that as he studied, his subject levels could improve.

He could also extract various entries to help boost his knowledge.

"Then I’ll start being disciplined from today..." Xu Ming took a deep breath and made a firm resolution.

He decisively pulled out his first-year upper-level math textbook from his desk.

---

He began reviewing from the topic of sets.

Currently, all his subjects were at level zero. Compared to the time-consuming tasks of memorizing Chinese and English, focusing on math first would undoubtedly increase his academic experience faster.

He was eager to extract those promising entries soon.

Moreover, math was the foundation for all other subjects; improving in it would also aid his physics, chemistry, and biology studies.

He recalled how much trouble he had in his previous life due to weak math skills while researching materials science.

Qian Hong noticed Xu Ming’s delayed response and was about to ask again when he caught a glimpse of a figure outside the window. He quickly sat upright and whispered a reminder.

"The homeroom teacher is back."

Wang Qingtao, the math teacher and homeroom teacher, returned to the podium and, like the others, was also working on the math practice test.

However, his answering speed was much faster.

Every half hour, he would walk around to observe the students’ progress.

His gaze swept back and forth over the papers, his expression alternating between satisfaction and shaking his head.

But when he reached the northern aisle and turned back toward the podium from the rear, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

His brows knitted tightly.

In his sight, Xu Ming was flipping through the math book, looking serious but doing something no student should during an exam.

"Has he not even memorized the formulas and still needs to look them up?" he thought.

Searching his memory for impressions of Xu Ming, he didn’t recall his math grades being this poor. How could he have fallen so far after just one winter break?

Despite his doubts, Wang Qingtao refrained from immediate criticism and instead muttered a few words to the class.

"The types of questions on this test, the vast majority have already been covered. Overall, the difficulty isn’t high," he said as he paced. "Anyone who gets these wrong hasn’t taken my earnest teaching seriously."

He planned to find time to have a proper talk with Xu Ming later.

With the hundred-day sprint to the final exams approaching, there was no room for slip-ups now.

Xu Ming, however, paid no heed. Fully immersed in math, he found the process of reviewing knowledge points immensely enjoyable.

He kept receiving positive feedback, dopamine flooding his system.

At that moment, it felt as though he genuinely loved math and was studying the material out of true interest—not merely to complete a goal.

As time passed, countless math symbols and formulas were gradually recalled in his mind.

Like a squeezed sponge, he was reabsorbing lost mathematical nourishment.

He experienced a sense of accomplishment in math he had never felt before, which made him even more thrilled about his talent for self-discipline.

Meanwhile, new information continued to appear on the panel.

【Through diligent study, your [Mathematics] level has increased. You gained 5 experience points.】

…