Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

The English test papers were passed from the first row to the back.

Lin Ying received the test paper, held her pen, and went through the questions from beginning to end.

It wasn't difficult; the vocabulary was slightly above the starting level of Form 1. One reading passage was about school life, and the other was about library borrowing rules. The final essay required a self-introduction and new semester goals—very standard.

She was just about to put down her pen when she remembered what Teacher Zhou had said earlier: it wouldn't count towards the final grade, but it would determine how to arrange English learning afterwards. In the school system, such words usually only correspond to another meaning: after assessing the students' abilities, the teacher would make adjustments.

Who are they arresting? The class leaders.

Lin Ying glanced at Zhou Yawen on the podium.

Within an hour of arriving, Teacher Zhou had already established rules, discipline, and a strict schedule. Someone like that wouldn't likely hold a democratic election on the first day; they'd probably use the most direct and forceful method to select the class monitor.

It refers to her grades, specifically her grades in this particular subject.

Lin Ying started working on the questions. She answered the multiple-choice questions very quickly, without needing to think too much.

She stopped when she turned to the grammar multiple-choice questions on the back. The last five grammar questions were a little tricky, testing tense combination.

Lin Ying skipped it all and left it blank; her essay was also just average.

Ninety points is enough.

Forty-six girls who had just entered the first year of secondary school came from different primary schools, and their family backgrounds, temperaments, and social circles all needed to be readjusted. Eleven or twelve years old is just the age when they start to care about their image and like to form cliques.

Whoever becomes the class monitor at this time will be the unluckiest person; it's definitely a thankless and difficult situation.

When the forty-five minutes were up, the stopwatch on the podium went off.

"Stop writing." Zhou Yawen tapped the table. "The last row, stand up and collect your papers."

After collecting the papers, Zhou Yawen did not grade them on the spot. Instead, she distributed the course schedule, school rules handbook, and lunch arrangement sheet in an orderly manner.

The morning was quickly filled with the usual back-to-school routines. The second period was for the Chinese teacher to talk about the reading list for this semester, and the third period was for the general knowledge teacher to introduce the textbooks—it was all just going through the motions.

It wasn't until the fourth period that it was time for math class.

The math teacher, surnamed Huang, was in her forties. She spoke much more gently than Teacher Zhou, and was carrying a stack of exercise papers printed with English words.

As soon as he entered the classroom, someone sighed softly.

Teacher Huang smiled and said, "No need to be so nervous. Today we won't have a formal lesson. We'll just do a few problems to see how solid your elementary school foundation is and whether you can keep up with the middle school level of thinking."

Lin Ying overheard Tang Xueqi muttering softly beside her, "Why do all the teachers say they won't have formal classes, but then they all give out curly hair?"

Lin Ying didn't say anything, but simply took the practice paper that was passed down from the front.

There were only ten questions this time. The first five were conversions between fractions, decimals, and percentages, the middle few were English word problems, and the last one was a linear equation in one variable.

After reading the question, Lin Ying unplugged her pen and started writing.

This time she didn't hide anything and moved extremely fast.

While you can't afford to fall into the trap of being the class monitor in English, it's a different story in math. Math is the foundation of science; future fields like chemistry, computers, and even business accounting all rely on this foundation. She needs to cultivate a good relationship with the math teacher to get firsthand attention and resources.

Moreover, the math class representative's job is simply to collect homework, distribute tests, and help the teacher record who hasn't handed in their notebook. The work is simple and straightforward, and there's no need to mediate all the trivial squabbles among the girls in the class.

Less than ten minutes later, Lin Ying put down her pen.

Fifteen minutes later, Teacher Huang began collecting the papers; instead of returning to his office, he sat down at the podium and began grading them with a red pen.

When she turned to Lin Ying's page, she read it from beginning to end and reviewed the solution steps for the last equation problem again.

Then: "Lin Ying."

"arrive."

"Did you learn equations in elementary school?"

"I've seen the first-year secondary school textbooks," Lin Ying stood up and answered. "My teacher lent them to me to preview before I graduated from primary school."

Teacher Huang nodded: "No wonder. The steps are written very accurately."

He picked up the test paper and said to the whole class, "This exercise is worth 100 points. Lin Ying, 100 points."

Tang Xueqi, standing next to her, stared at her with wide eyes: "Didn't you finish writing in just a few strokes? How did you get a perfect score so quickly?"

Lin Ying replied softly, "There aren't many questions."

Tang Xueqi: "..."

Teacher Huang put down the red pen and looked at Lin Ying: "From now on, Lin Ying will collect all the math homework for me. Put it on the left side of the podium every morning before self-study. Lin Ying should also write down the names of those who haven't handed it in and give it to me separately."

As is customary, she asked, "Would you like to be the math class representative?"

Lin Ying stood up: "Yes, Teacher Huang."

"Okay, sit down." Teacher Huang nodded in satisfaction.

Lin Ying sat back down in her chair. Being a department representative meant having minimal workload and clearly defined responsibilities—just right.

At noon, the bell rang to signal the end of get out of class.

The freshmen were led to the canteen by senior students; the canteen of Boya College is very spacious, and the queue for food is orderly.

Tang Xueqi, carrying a tray, followed behind Lin Ying and asked curiously, "Lin Ying, since you can write movies and earn so much money, why do you still need to go to school? And you even got a perfect score."

Lin Ying got a bowl of rice, a plate of vegetables, and a bowl of soup.

She looked at Tang Xueqi and said, "Being able to write films doesn't mean you'll be able to do chemistry experiments in the future. Earning money now doesn't mean you don't need to study in the future. As long as you want to keep moving forward, you can't stop."

Tang Xueqi carried her tray to the empty table and sat down, muttering, "The way you talk sounds like my mommy."

------

At 1:30 PM, the first period was English class again.

Zhou Yawen, carrying the stack of test papers from the morning, walked into the classroom in her high heels. The moment she entered, the whole class could sense her bad mood.

She placed the papers on the podium and said, "I've finished grading the English diagnostic papers from this morning."

Teacher Zhou picked up the top report card: "You are Class One, the group with the best overall scores in the freshman placement test. But today, the highest score on this English test is only 93."

No one dared to utter a sound.

"Ninety-three points is quite good in a regular class. But in Form 1 (1), this score only proves one thing: your English foundation isn't as solid as you think!"

Teacher Zhou opened the roster and began reading out the grades.

"Liang Jiamin, 93 points."

"Cheng Pui-yee, 91 points."

"Lin Ying, 90 points."

When Lin Ying's name was called, she went up to take the test paper and saw that the five completely blank grammar questions on the back were neatly marked with a big red cross, deducting ten points.

Zhou Yawen glanced at her; she knew the student was doing it on purpose. But in front of the whole class, she said nothing.

After all the test papers were handed out, Teacher Zhou picked up the blackboard eraser.

"During the first month of school, temporary class officers will be appointed. After a month, their performance will be evaluated to determine whether to make adjustments."

Lin Ying lowered her head and slowly folded the paper.

"Liang Jiamin, who ranked first in English in the initial assessment, will temporarily serve as class monitor."

Liang Jiamin, who was called upon, was a little reluctant: "Teacher Zhou, I..."

Zhou Yawen looked directly at her and asked, "Is there a problem?"

"No." Liang Jiamin immediately stood up straight.

"Zheng Peiyi, temporarily appointed as deputy class monitor."

Cheng Pui-yee stood up.

Teacher Zhou then announced: "The class monitor is responsible for maintaining discipline during morning self-study, lining up, and assisting with daily roll call. The vice class monitor is responsible for assisting the class monitor and recording late arrivals and early departures every day. You two will try it out for a month."

After saying that, she looked at the list in her hand: "Math class representative, Lin Ying. Teacher Huang already spoke with me about this this morning, same as before."

Lin Ying responded, "Yes."

"Tang Xueqi will temporarily serve as the English class representative."

Tang Xueqi, who was engrossed in flipping through a book, nearly slipped off her chair. "Me?"

Teacher Zhou stared at her: "You got 88 in English, which isn't too bad, and you sit in the front row, making it convenient for collecting and distributing homework. Is there a problem?"

Tang Xueqi quickly replied, "No problem, Teacher Zhou."

------

At 3:30 p.m., the school bell rang on time.

There was no formal homework on the first day of school, only a few school rule reply slips that required parental signatures. Lin Ying put the reply slips into her schoolbag and followed the crowd out of Boya Academy.

It's very close from Fortress Hill to Taikoo Shing; the bus ride takes about ten minutes, albeit a bumpy one.

Lin Ying took out her key and opened the door. The house was quiet. Mommy had taken Ah Qian back to Yu Fat Building in Sai Wan to stay. It was closer to the government primary school that Ah Qian attended. They would only come back to Taikoo Shing on weekends.

Lin Ying looked up at the clock on the wall; it was 3:50.

At this time, Lao Dou is definitely still polishing materials at Master Su's jade carving shop in Yau Ma Tei, and he won't be back until dark.

She was all alone in the spacious house now.

Lin Ying changed into slippers, took off her school uniform, put on loose-fitting home clothes, and went to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of warm water.

She carried her water glass to the bedroom. In the center of the desk sat the computer she'd bought for HK$65,000. A dust cover covered the monitor, and next to it were neatly stacked a printer, floppy disk cases, and a stack of printing paper.

She's definitely not going to touch the film business right now. But deep down, she's not someone who can stay idle.

If the script is too eye-catching, then I'll write something quieter.

Write novels.

In the early 1980s, Hong Kong had an enormous market for newspaper serials and popular novels; Ni Kuang's science fiction and Jin Yong's martial arts novels were still at the height of their popularity.

Go and compete with them in traditional martial arts? No need, that's not her territory.

Lin Ying reached out and lifted the dust cover, then pressed the power button on the main unit. She skillfully typed on the keyboard, opened the word processing software, and a large blank area appeared on the screen.

What should I write?

She had a thousand or eight hundred different tropes for online novels from later generations in her mind. But to make it palatable to readers in the 1980s, the approach had to be simple and down-to-earth.

I won't write about cultivation or fantasy.

The story follows a modern person who travels back to ancient times, starting from the lowest rungs of poverty, and gradually rewriting their destiny with knowledge far ahead of their time. They make soap, manufacture glass, work with cement, keep accounts…

Using common sense to overwhelm people from ancient times is called a dimensional reduction attack.

Lin Ying's fingers rested on the keyboard.

She first typed a line: "[Go back to ancient times to open a factory]".

These words are too straightforward and lack any sense of empathy, so I'll delete them.

[The daily life of a woman from a humble background creating things]

The name is perfect. It describes a humble family, unassuming, starting with a broken iron pot and a basin of soapberry water. By starting small and gradually expanding, readers can easily relate to the story, and the later business empire can be infinitely expanded.