“Ring-a-ling-a-ling! Ring-a-ling-a-ling!”
The sharp, piercing sound of the electric bell, like a rusty saw cutting through something, stimulated Yang Mingyu’s blurry consciousness.
What’s going on?
Don’t hospitals all use those gentle electronic notification sounds? Which nurse's station would use such an old-fashioned electric bell? It’s so inhumane.
He struggled to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt as heavy as if they were glued together. The sharp pain in his chest seemed to have vanished, replaced by a long-lost feeling of comfort, and his entire body was filled with strength.
Something wasn't right.
His near-death experience before succumbing to a heart attack told him it shouldn't be like this.
“Teacher Yang! Teacher Yang! Wake up quickly! Class is about to start!” A slightly anxious voice called out next to him.
Yang Mingyu suddenly opened his eyes.
What greeted him was not the hospital's pale ceiling and the smell of disinfectant, but a mottled, slightly yellowed wall. The air was filled with a mixture of old books and poor-quality chalk dust, and the electric fan overhead whirred “creak, creak,” even the wind it blew carried a stuffy heat.
He wasn't lying in a hospital bed, but rather slumped over an old office desk. Pressed beneath his arm was a hardcover lesson plan book.
Yang Mingyu slowly pushed himself up, looking around in a daze.
This was a cramped and simple office. Several chipped office desks were pushed together, piled high with homework and textbooks. On the metal filing cabinet against the wall, there were still a few outdated promotional posters.
This scene… it was too familiar.
So familiar that it made his heart pound.
“Teacher Yang, are you alright? Did you not sleep well last night?” A young female teacher at the next desk asked with concern.
Yang Mingyu mechanically turned his head and saw an equally young face. It was… it was the music teacher from back then, Little Lin. What was her name again? Lin… Lin Xiaorou? Twenty years later, she was already a famous musician in the city.
But now, she clearly looked to be in her twenties, with a simple ponytail and the fresh innocence of someone just out of school.
“I…” Yang Mingyu opened his mouth, but the sound that came out surprised even him.
It wasn’t the hoarse, dry voice of a man nearing sixty, but a young and magnetic one.
He subconsciously raised his hand and touched his face.
There was no loose skin, no deep wrinkles; what he felt was firm and smooth skin. He then touched the top of his head; there was no barren 'Mediterranean,' but thick, luxuriant hair.
An utterly absurd conjecture, like a flash of lightning, entered his mind.
He abruptly stood up, and the chair legs scraped against the floor with a harsh “clatter” due to his sudden movement, startling everyone else in the office.
“Teacher Yang?”
“Mingyu, what’s wrong with you?”
He temporarily ignored his colleagues’ calls, stumbling towards the wooden-framed full-length mirror hanging in the corner of the office.
In the mirror, a face that was both familiar and strange was reflected.
That face belonged to the twenty-eight-year-old Yang Mingyu.
With sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, a high nose bridge, and distinct facial contours. Although there were dark circles under his eyes from staying up late preparing lessons, those eyes still shone with the sharpness and brilliance of a young man whose edges had not yet been smoothed by reality.
He was wearing a simple white shirt, his body tall and straight, without an ounce of excess fat. He could clearly feel the blood coursing through his veins, his heart pounding “thump-thump-thump” in his chest. His high blood pressure was gone, his heart disease was gone, and his entire body was filled with strength.
This wasn't a dream!
This wasn't a dying man's final burst of energy!
That desperate regret, the cold floor, the coming of darkness… it all felt like something from a past life.
Had he really come back?
A surge of ecstasy erupted from the bottom of his heart. He wanted to burst out laughing, to shout and scream, to tell the whole world that God had given him a chance to start over!
But he ultimately held back.
Thirty years of experience had long taught him to control his emotions.
He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and his gaze frantically searched his surroundings for useful information to confirm this incredible reality.
His sight finally settled on the old-fashioned calendar on the wall.
The red plastic date ring framed a number that was etched into his memory.
【September 1, 2002, Monday】
September 1, 2002!
He had returned from 2032, a full thirty years into the past!
He had returned to the starting point of his teaching career, to the day he first taught his first batch of students!
Everything was still in time! All his regrets still had a chance to be remedied!
The excitement could no longer be suppressed, transforming into an electric current that shot from his spine all the way up to his scalp. His body trembled slightly from extreme excitement, and his eyes instantly reddened.
“This is great… this is great…” he murmured, his voice tinged with a sob.
“Teacher Yang, what exactly is wrong? Are you feeling unwell?” Lin Xiaorou asked again, still worried.
Yang Mingyu suddenly turned around, looking at his colleagues’ concerned and puzzled faces. He forced a smile uglier than a cry, and waved his hand: “No… nothing, it’s just… I just had a nightmare. I’ll be fine after I calm down.”
“Oh, that’s good then. Get ready quickly, class starts in five minutes. Today is the first day of school, so don’t be late.”
“Okay, okay.”
Yang Mingyu responded, walking back to his desk step by step. Each step felt like he was treading on clouds, unreal, yet incredibly solid.
His gaze slowly fell upon his desk.
A photo frame sat on the corner of the desk, containing a picture of him with his parents. Back then, their hair hadn't fully grayed, and their smiles were radiant.
The open lesson plan book on the desk was in his own handwriting, the young script full of vigor.
And right next to the lesson plan book, a document lay quietly.
A document in a kraft paper envelope, stamped with the school's official seal.
In his previous life, it was on this very morning that he, with immense disappointment and reluctance, opened this document. Then, he saw the appointment that would cast a shadow over his entire career.
Now, it appeared before him once more.
Yang Mingyu’s breathing suddenly quickened.
He reached out his hand, his knuckles turning white from the force. He read out, word by word, the bold black text printed on the kraft paper envelope:
【Appointment Notice for Homeroom Teacher of Grade One, Class 14】
It was it!
The class universally recognized by the entire school as a “dumpster” and a “haven for academic failures”!
The class that ultimately failed completely in the college entrance examination, leaving him with lifelong regret!
When he saw this appointment in his previous life, he felt as if his world had collapsed, and all his ideals and aspirations were doused with cold water, chilling him from head to toe.
But at this moment, when he saw these words again, there was not a trace of reluctance or aversion in his heart.
Instead, there was an ecstasy of having recovered something lost, a heroic spirit of going to battle!
He smiled.
In that smile, there was the joy of rebirth, the anticipation of the future, and even more, an absolute confidence in the miracle he was about to create in this life!
With thirty years of top-tier educational experience from the future, a “spoiler” who knew the future destiny of every student…
Heaven had given him a hand of unbeatable cards. If he still managed to lose this game, then he, Yang Mingyu, would have lived two lives in vain!
Lin Tian, that internet-addicted boy obsessed with games, in this life, I will make you open the door to the world of code ten years earlier and become a true IT master!
Zhao Min, that stubborn girl labeled as a “delinquent,” in this life, I will clear all obstacles for you, so you can confidently pick up a scalpel and become a skilled surgeon who can bring people back from the brink!
Chen Jing, that insecure, timid “invisible girl” who dared not look people in the eye, in this life, I will let your photographic memory talent shock the entire academic world!
And all of you, all my students…
You are not trash!
You are just in the age when you most needed guidance, encountering your most helpless selves and the most powerless teacher.
In the previous life, I gave up on you.
In this life, let me redeem you!
“Ring-a-ling-a-ling!”
The class bell rang again, clearer and more powerful than before, like an inspiring battle song!
Yang Mingyu suddenly lifted his head, his eyes burning with a fierce flame.
He straightened his collar, picked up the appointment notice and his lesson plan book, and, under the astonished gaze of his colleagues, strode out of the office.
This time, his steps were firm, and his posture was upright.
He was not going to meet a group of hopeless academic failures.
He was going to meet a group of unpolished gems, a group of future pillars of society waiting for him to turn stone into gold!
Your future, starting today, will be rewritten by me!