rampant growth

The days after military training flew by, and soon it was time to choose our majors.

Hu Tong was determined to study science. Cheng Zhou was somewhat confused and often went to the office to seek the teacher's advice.

Master Hu has also been feeling worried lately, but not about the subject division.

The homeroom teacher called to say that the two children were too close, always going in and out together, practically holding hands even when going to the bathroom. Rumors about them were circulating throughout the grade, which was having a bad influence.

Hu Tong is not afraid to speak her mind. No matter how many times she is called to the office, she still does her own thing and wants everyone to hear her laughter.

Cheng Zhou is a sensitive child, and the teacher was afraid that he would do something rash if he heard harsh words, so she didn't dare to say much.

The homeroom teacher initially thought to let it go, in case the two's relationship faded without any obstacles. However, two months passed, and her "what if" never materialized, so the homeroom teacher finally called Hu Jiale.

That day, as usual, the two of them went into the study after school and locked the door. Hu Jiale gritted her teeth and pulled her lover to press her ear against the door to eavesdrop.

Hu Tong's annoyed voice came through.

"You're such an idiot, Cheng Zhou. How could you get this question wrong? I'll write it out for you again, watch carefully."

It's over.

Hu Jiale and her lover saw the same emotion in each other's eyes: terror.

They're flirting!

The sound of pages turning filled the air, but even after the couple's legs had gone numb from squatting, they still didn't hear Cheng Zhou's reply.

Hu's father gave Hu Jiale an uncertain hand gesture. He stared wide-eyed, quickly touched his two index fingers together, and then let go as if he had been burned.

Hu Jiale rolled her eyes, signaling him to calm down.

After a long pause, Cheng Zhou finally let out a sigh. Hu Tong then asked, "You still haven't decided whether to study humanities or science? Qiu Ying and I have already agreed to study science, why haven't you made up your mind yet?"

Yes. Hu Tong is now good friends with He Qiuying, the very artistic class representative for Chinese.

For a long time after the misunderstanding was cleared up, He Qiuying maintained a polite yet distant attitude towards Hu Tong.

Hu Tong could tell that the embarrassment caused by the misunderstanding had overwhelmed this kind and lovely female classmate, so she had lost the will to make amends with her.

The change occurred a few months later. He Qiuying finally regained her confidence and wanted to continue to carry forward her spirit of dedication, so she took the initiative to help her deskmate revise her essay.

After a while, that classmate confessed his feelings to her, right there on the teacher's platform during break, shouting himself hoarse.

He confessed his feelings to her.

He Qiuying was so frightened she almost fell backward, only able to see the male classmate's lips moving constantly. The shock of the jeering pounding against her eardrums almost synchronized with her erratic heartbeat.

Everyone said the two were a perfect match; one was fearless and only listened to He Qiuying. The other was happy to spend time and energy on her.

A few brief rebuttals were quickly drowned out by the jeers.

Hu Tong, who was still carrying the corrected math workbook back to class, spat out, "Pah!"

The person on the podium asked, "Hu Tong, what do you mean by this?"

Hu Tong shoved the man aside, slammed the exercise book on the table, and said sarcastically, "I said you're not good enough, ptooey ptooey ptooey!"

"You can't even figure out the recipe, yet you're still trying to mix it up. Love really can create miracles!"

Hu Tong's statement is an exaggeration. Everyone is a student in the top class; even if they have their strengths and weaknesses, their overall level is still there, and very few people fail. If someone fails a subject, it only means that they are exceptionally strong in another or several subjects.

"Here, your workbook. The teacher specifically reminded me to remember to correct it with a red pen. The mistakes are really... tsk." Hu Tong deliberately embarrassed the person, but she was still smiling. The person couldn't figure out her attitude, took the workbook, and muttered as she returned to her seat.

Some say that Hu Tong is clueless about romance and ruins good deeds.

Hu Tong pretended not to understand, and threw the exercise book, which grazed the tip of his nose and landed on the desk with a thud.

When the workbook was delivered to Cheng Zhou, he sat by the window, outside which were willow branches just beginning to sprout. Amidst the scattered green buds and the gentle breeze, he sat in the chilly early spring sunlight, looking up at Hu Tong with a slight smile.

The cold spring light seemed to have thinned his slightly bulging cotton-padded coat, which was tucked into his school uniform, making it appear less bulky.

"You're watching the fun too?" Hu Tong perfectly embodied the phrase "completely oblivious to romance," rolling up his exercise book and lightly tapping Cheng Zhou's shoulder.

"No." Cheng Zhou caught the exercise book that fell from his shoulder, his fingertips gently stroking the smooth plastic cover, his eyes slightly lowered. "I just think you—pfft—have a good formula."

Hu Tong snorted, seemingly satisfied with his explanation, and swaggered over.

Cheng Zhou clenched his fist on the table, turned his head, looked out the window, and remained silent for a long time. After staring at the sunlight for a while, patches of pale yellow began to spread across his vision, blurring his senses. He could only feel something growing wildly on the willow branches.

When He Qiuying called out to Hu Tong after school, she hesitated for a long time before finally managing to say, "Maybe I caused a misunderstanding."

“What did you do wrong? A toad trying to eat swan meat doesn’t care about the timing,” Hu Tong grabbed her arm, shook it, and said irritably, “Are you going to thank me, or do you want me to say ‘sorry for interrupting your romance’?”

"Of course I wanted to thank you!" He Qiuying's eyes widened, her eyelashes trembling. "Why would you say something like that? It's not funny at all... I still feel a little wronged."

"Feeling wronged?" Hu Tong grinned and moved closer to her. "What's wronged? If you're unhappy, you're unhappy; if you're distressed, you're distressed. What do you mean by feeling wronged?"

He Qiuying was amused by the ugly face she deliberately made. "Okay, this is so annoying! I'll ask the teacher to change my seat tomorrow."

"That's more like it." Hu Tong calmed down, only then realizing she had gotten too close—a position far more intimate than that of ordinary classmates. She belatedly felt shy: "Hehe, well...see you tomorrow?"

He Qiuying nodded shyly. The two of them looked at each other without speaking or moving.

"The dorm room is about to lock up," Cheng Zhou suddenly reminded him.

He Qiuying is a boarding student. At Chonggao High School, evening self-study ends at 9:50 PM, and the dormitory supervisor locks the doors at 10:20 PM. The power is turned off and the lights are turned off at 10:40 PM. Boarding students can only wash their hair during lunchtime.

"Oh, oh!" Hu Tong let go of her hand and stammered, "Then hurry back, watch where you're going so you don't fall, and remember to accept my friend request!"

With each sentence she spoke, she made a sound that was both "ah" and "ang," like a nagging elder during a holiday, conveying a mix of concern and assertiveness.

He Qiuying smiled again, shyly, revealing a small, bean-sized indentation on one cheek that, in the interplay of light and shadow, seemed to hold a sweet, golden hue. She said, "I gave my phone to the teacher; I'll have to wait until the monthly break to use it."

Hu Tong frowned and said with disdain, "You're even more honest than Cheng Zhou."

The two squeezed each other's fingers one last time before parting ways.

Hu Tong nudged Cheng Zhou's arm and said repeatedly, "Hurry up, hurry up, or we'll miss the bus!"

Cheng Zhou followed silently, got into the car, and chose a seat about eight feet away from Hu Tong. Outside the car window, layer upon layer of dark tree shadows swept by, making the face reflected in the glass clearer, but when the streetlights flickered, the face became so faint that the features were no longer discernible.

Cheng Zhou thought sullenly: What did he do wrong?

So he handed over his phone too.

The homeroom teacher specifically praised him during the class meeting.

Unfortunately, Cheng Zhou's grades didn't change much despite this "very conscientious" action; they remained stuck in the lower middle of the class.

He had no weaknesses or strengths, and his grades were so high that no teacher wanted to criticize or praise him. They only said that the child was down-to-earth, did his homework very carefully, and had neat handwriting.

That's why he was so troubled when it came to choosing his major.

"Qiuying and I have already agreed to study science, why haven't you made up your mind yet?"

Hearing Hu Tong ask this question, Cheng Zhou didn't know how much of his unhappiness stemmed from the affectionate nickname "Qiu Ying," and how much from his own hesitation and confusion.

"Hmm," Cheng Zhou said softly, "Mathematics is too difficult. I heard that after the specialization, the math exam for science students will be even harder, but science majors are better at finding jobs..."

"I feel like I've tried my best. I never dare to lose focus in class, and I've never copied anyone else's homework... but my grades just won't improve."

"Hu Tong, do you think I'm stupid? Will I never be able to learn math well?"

Cheng Zhou spoke at length, which was unusual for him.

The poor thing was so pitiful that even Hu Jiale and his father, who were eavesdropping outside the door, felt their hearts ache.

Hu's father sighed in a breathy voice, "A gentle knife, yet every cut is deadly. Our Hu Tong isn't made of iron either. Alas, alas, I'm afraid he's really done for."

Before Hu Jiale could answer, her father had already imagined his daughter's next reaction.

Hu Tong would slam his hand on the table and angrily rebuke Cheng Zhou for talking nonsense, then soften his tone, "How can you call yourself an idiot? Don't you know it hurts me? I'll teach you, okay?"

Mr. Hu shuddered.

Hu Jiale clicked her tongue and put her finger to her lips, signaling her lover to be quiet.

However, the scenario that Mr. Hu had envisioned did not occur.

After hearing Cheng Zhou's words, Hu Tong simply yawned.

“You know what, Cheng Zhou,” Hu Tong said with a hint of disdain, “the time it takes to talk right now is enough for me to memorize a poem or do two math problems.”

Hu Jiale, standing outside the door, clicked her tongue again, partly out of disdain for her daughter's lack of sensibility, and partly out of pity for her deceased best friend's man who had given her a flirtatious look that was meant for a blind man.

The couple's legs were numb from squatting, and with Hu Tong's energetic urging, they helped each other back to the bedroom.

"Write it quickly!"

"Write it down quickly!"

"Calculate it quickly!"

Cheng Zhou looked like a frostbitten cabbage, his slightly disheveled hair hanging over his forehead like damaged leaves. His gaze hid behind these leaves, quietly drifting towards the upright figure beside him.

Hu Tong was frowning, seriously working on the last big question on the slightly yellowed test paper, occasionally letting out a perfunctory yet fierce shout, both to supervise Cheng Zhou and to remind herself to stay alert.

The test papers weren't provided by the school; Hu Tong bought them himself.

The already thick stack of pale yellow paper was bulging with colorful sticky notes and bold handwriting, as if it might burst open at any moment.

What would that be like? Cheng Zhou suddenly realized he had been lost in thought, quickly looked away, and lowered his head.

Faced with his complaints, Hu Tong not only failed to comfort him but also criticized him for talking too much, speaking too slowly, and wasting time. But somehow, Cheng Zhou's worries and anxieties vanished at that moment.

He wrote his homework stroke by stroke, his mood peaceful.

Suddenly, Cheng Zhou stopped writing, looked at the tiny ink droplets gathering at the tip of his pen, and said softly, "I want to study science too."