The thug life with Li Nanxing, Jeremy Chan

​You've heard about all the inspiring teachers that the stars have met throughout their school years, but have you ever wondered what the celebs were like while they were students?

At the press conference for upcoming drama My Teacher Is A Thug, that was the very thing we set out to discover, and the stars did not disappoint with their hilarious and surprising responses.

Who was punished with walking around the school barefoot for the entire day, and who cut holes (literally) in fences to enter a private property just for a dip in a pond?

​"Back then, we'd do anything to look cool!" Nanxing chuckled as he thought back on his secondary school days. "When the teacher was talking to you, you wouldn't even look at him, much less answer, because that's what was cool, right?"

His dedication to looking - and feeling - "cool" was so extreme that he picked up something that he really shouldn't have - underage smoking.

"We were mimicking what the adults did - everyone, including the teachers and principal - smoked! They think we didn't know about it but they'd just sneak off to a corner to do it," the actor chuckled.

He continued, "It was seriously cool - they'd tuck a cigarette behind their ears, then take it out to smoke. After smoking, they could stub it out and stick it back behind their ear again!"

Nanxing didn’t get away scot-free for his misdeed though. “Of course, we got caught and punished for it,” he sheepishly admitted, “But I still felt like a cool kid even though I got punished for it.”

​"I don't know if I can say this," Jeremy admitted before he launched into his story. "There was this pond on Pulau Ubin that was on private property. The first time my friends and I went there, we just entered despite the ‘No Entry’ sign."

"The second time we went there, they put up a fence all around the area - but that wasn't going to stop us! We cut a huge hole in the fence and just went in anyway," he laughed.

Jeremy continued, "We brought portable gas stoves to cook instant noodles because we figured we'd get hungry, and we even brought tents and such to spend the night there.”

Unfortunately for him, the then-13-year-old had a strict curfew imposed on him and had to return home while his friends spent the night there. "It was still fun, though," he grinned.