Reborn: I'll Never Fail My Childhood Sweetheart Again-Chapter 258 - 114: Senior Su Is Panpan’s Best Elixir

Su Zelin stayed at the internet café until noon before logging off.

Even though his mom couldn't control him anymore, he still needed to manage his online time. After all, he was a boss now and couldn't live like he used to.

They grabbed a quick meal, and then he and his close friend went their separate ways home.

On the way, Su Zelin took some time to check his bank balance and found an additional eight thousand yuan.

Apparently, the money from Nanaz had arrived. However, his bank card wasn't linked to a phone yet, and he didn't have text message alerts for balance changes, so he had to go to the bank to check the account directly.

First, he went home for a nap. After waking up, he read some comics and played a few rounds of Gameboy.

This dull way of passing time continued until about four-thirty in the afternoon, when the time was about right. Only then did Su Zelin go downstairs, hop on his bike, and arrive at Jianglan Second High School some ten minutes later.

"Hey kid, is the university on break?"

The security guard, upon seeing him, smiled and asked.

During high school, the guard knew most of the troublemakers, not the top students, and Su Zelin was one of them.

The reason? Such kids stirred up trouble in school and liked to cause a scene.

Climbing walls, smoking, fighting…

These were all things the guard had to keep in check, and Su Zelin checked all the boxes.

However, he only smoked on campus in his first year of high school. After reaching a peace agreement with Su Jianjun, he stopped doing that.

The epic fight with the athlete students was enough to make him memorable to the guard.

After working there for many years, the guard had seen many unruly students, but it was the first time he'd seen someone as fierce in a fight, single-handedly taking down several sports students. The guard on duty at the time rushed to the scene upon hearing the news and was stunned by what he saw, which left a deep impression of Su Zelin.

But unlike other troublemakers, this same person scored full marks in English the next year. The school even put up a banner to recognize him, and the local TV station came to interview him.

Looking back, he was quite an anomaly among the disobedient students.

"Haha, yeah, we're on break. I don't have much to do at home, so I thought I'd visit my alma mater."

While talking, Su Zelin pulled out a cigarette and offered it to the guard.

It's quite common for college students to smoke, so the guard accepted it without surprise and lit it with a lighter.

They stood there chatting and smoking at the school gate until the cigarette was finished. The troublemaker checked his phone; classes were almost over, so he leisurely walked inside.

No one would have expected that the first person to come back for a visit would be the most rebellious student from high school.

Furthermore, during many school fundraising events, it was often those former troublemakers who contributed the most, having become big bosses after stepping out into society.

This student was smart and articulate; perhaps he would frequently be the biggest donor at school celebrations in the future, even becoming a VIP guest of Jianglan Second High School.

The security guard watched Su Zelin's retreating figure, feeling a touch of sentiment.

... 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Jianglan Second High School, teaching area.

"Ring, ring, ring…"

The bell signaling the end of class rang.

Students flooded out of the classroom like a tide, all heading toward the cafeteria.

Some boys, not wanting to queue, even ran off with their lunchboxes.

It's easy to guess that most of them were from first and second years who didn't yet bear the weight of graduating, allowing them to be this carefree.

Grade 12, Class 5.

After class, the pre-graduation class was much calmer.

The life of a twelfth-grader was hard and tense, akin to hell.

Desks piled high with materials, endless exercises, and never-ending test papers.

This was the era shortly after the expansion of universities, still known as the era of galloping thousands of troops over a single-plank bridge. Countless prospective examinees gritted their teeth to endure, with some even soaking their pillows with tears under enormous pressure at night, yet they had to pull themselves together again to fight hard once dawn broke.

Reflecting upon this arduous experience after graduation, probably no one would want to live through it a second time.

However, if one could make it through, gain admission to a good university, then vast opportunities awaited, dramatically altering the trajectory of their later life.

In the classroom, Huang Panpan finished a worksheet, looked up, and let out a long breath.

Since she was determined to apply to a finance college, it was like she had become a new person. She was always one of the first to arrive in the classroom and the last to leave, even attending tutoring sessions on weekends, almost giving herself panda eyes.

"Panpan, take it easy. Don't overdo it and risk your health,"

Seeing her exhaustion, Wei Xian couldn't help but advise.

"It's okay, I can manage. My mom got me Life Number One!"

Huang Panpan smiled.

Many students from families with decent means who were born in the '80s had tried these so-called "elixirs": Tai Yang Shen, Chinese Turtle Essence, Red Peach K, Life Number One, San-Zhu oral liquid, calming and brain-nourishing fluids...

Especially in the '90s, parents bought these "elixirs" in droves so their children could be better prepared for college entrance exams, sparking a frenzy of brain-boosting supplements.

Whether these "elixirs" were effective, nobody really knew.

Some believed they worked, while others thought they were just paying for the placebo effect, akin to healthcare tax.

But parents were more willing to believe they worked than not!

Take Red Peach K, for example. Initially, it was advertised as a blood tonic, with ingredients like purified water, sugar, porphyrin iron, wolfberries, dates, hawthorn honey, and starch, none of which particularly benefited brain health.

But seeing the booming interest in brain supplements, businesses quickly marketed them as brain-boosting health products, which sold like hotcakes.

By the year 2000, only Life Number One continued to prosper, alongside a widely recognizable ad campaign.