【one】

January 12, final exam, Grade 9 (13).

After the last exam, the students, who had been nervous for nearly a week, returned to their classrooms from their respective examination rooms, and noisy discussions were heard one after another.

There was no set answer for the political exam, so everyone finally started to discuss where to go for the winter vacation.

At the end of the classroom, Zheng Matt's voice was the loudest, "Brother Pei, let's go swimming together during the winter vacation!"

Lin Chaoxi was packing her schoolbag. When she heard this, she turned around in shock.

"Brother Tian, ​​you can't learn from our Brother Pei, so you want to steal money and kill people?"

"No, my mom said that I passed the exam recently and I want to thank Brother Pei. I want to invite Brother Pei to our house for swimming!" Zheng Tianming said.

"Brother Tian is showing off his wealth!"

"Brother Tian is awesome!"

The boys started to cheer again.

"It's just a swimming pool." Zheng Tianming pressed his hands, signaling everyone to be quiet.

"I'm not in Anning during the winter vacation." Pei Zhi said.

"Want to go on vacation to the Alps?"

Pei Zhi: "Yongchuan."

"It doesn't seem cool enough, Brother Pei." Classmate Zheng grumbled, then threw the ball over, "Where's baby Chaoxi?"

"She's coming too."

"You don't want me anymore!"

"Yes." Lin Zhaoxi said righteously.

"You guys are not here during the winter vacation, why don't you go to Yongchuan together?" asked her classmate Chen Zhu, who had been silently sorting out test papers beside her.

"Well... there is a training camp."

"oh."

Chen Zhu didn't continue talking, but Lin Chaoxi understood that he was hesitant to speak.

The fire at the Naimao Internet Cafe and the fact that they were not in Yongchuan, he could not find anyone else to study with during the winter vacation. So after school, she left a little later and followed Chen Zhu after he left with his schoolbag.

Sure enough, when she was almost at the school gate, she saw a police motorcycle parked there.

Chen Zhu's father took off his helmet and waited for his son in the cold wind and twilight.

Chen Zhu looked straight ahead, pretending not to see Old Chen, and followed the crowd of people leaving school.

Lin Chaoxi had been following behind Chen Zhu. When the father and son were about to pass by each other, she rushed over, grabbed Chen Zhu, and shouted with a smile: "Uncle Chen, long time no see."

After being surprised, Mr. Chen said to her gratefully, "Hello, hello."

"We met in an Internet cafe. My name is Lin Chaoxi." Lin Chaoxi said.

Thinking of his inappropriate behavior in the Internet cafe that day, Mr. Chen felt embarrassed.

Chen Zhu stopped to show respect.

Lin Chaoxi took out something he had prepared earlier from his pocket and handed it to Chen's father: "My father runs a cram school. This is the better winter vacation sprint class in the city that I asked him about. It's a bit expensive, but the teacher is very responsible."

Father Chen looked stunned.

Lin Chaoxi was too embarrassed to look at Chen Zhu, fearing that she would see a look of "meddling" on the boy's face. However, Chen Zhu just lowered his eyes and looked at her silently.

In the twilight, the surroundings were filled with the chattering and laughter of students after school, but Lin Chaoxi felt that the surroundings suddenly became quiet.

She was worried for a moment whether she was meddling in other people's business, until Chen Zhu patted her shoulder and motioned for her to step aside and talk.

She was still an adult at heart, but she was actually a little scared when a child called her aside.

For the first half minute, Chen Zhu said nothing.

"This cram school is pretty good..." Lin Zhaoxi said reluctantly.

"I know."

"Huh?" I thought I was going to be scolded for meddling in other people's business, but when I looked up, Chen Zhu's expression was very serious.

"Why not just give it to me, why give it to him?"

It was "he" instead of "Dad". Lin Chaoxi was stunned for a moment and said, "Because this class is quite expensive..."

She remembered that Old Chen had said that Chen Zhu's mother didn't care about Chen Zhu at all. She had a second child at home, and if she wanted to enroll her child in a full-course sprint course that cost tens of thousands of yuan for more than 20 days, Chen Zhu's mother would definitely not take the money.

The only one who would pay is Lao Chen.

But Chen Zhu's relationship with Lao Chen was so bad that she would definitely not take the initiative to ask Lao Chen for money. So after thinking for a long time, she only had one solution: just give the address of the cram school to Lao Chen.

But for Chen Zhu, accepting his father's money and kindness meant reconciliation. The stubborn teenager would definitely not be happy to get away with such a "cheap deal" with the person he hated the most.

"Just think of it as spending a large sum of money to get back at him." Lin Zhaoxi said, "In fact, there are not so many things in the world that we have to fight to the end. We have to learn to accept..."

Chen Zhu still didn't say anything. Lin Chaoxi couldn't continue making up stories. Pei Zhi was standing not far away waiting for her. She quickly looked at Pei for help.

Pei Zhi came over, and Lin Chaoxi felt a lot more relieved.

"This is a comprehensive cram school with a very good reputation in the city." Pei Zhi said the first sentence.

"You also know why she went directly to your dad with the address of the cram school." This was the second sentence.

"This is your problem, you have to solve it yourself." This is the third sentence.

After that, Pei Zhi patted her shoulder and said, "Let's go."

Pei Zhi's way of solving the problem was so clean and neat that Lin Chaoxi numbly followed him and walked forward for a while.

When he looked back, Chen Zhu took heavy steps and walked to Old Chen's side.

Old Chen looked bewildered, but not too stiff, as if the conversation between father and son was going quite smoothly.

Lin Chaoxi breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, classmate Chen Zhu had solved his "problem".

"Am I being too nosy?" She subconsciously asked the question.

"What?"

"Nothing!" Lin Chaoxi was very hungry and began to inspect the stalls. He wanted to squeeze into the fried meat kebab stall, but inadvertently, he saw Bao Xiaomeng and other girls eating and playing.

She was a little happy at first, but now she felt disappointed again.

This world really does not depend on personal will. Some things may not produce results no matter how hard you try. Bao Xiaomeng is like this, and she is also afraid that Lao Lin will be like this.

"It's so difficult..." Lin Zhaoxi said, "Sometimes I really don't know what to do."

"Just work hard." Pei Zhi said.

Lin Zhaoxi looked at Pei Zhi. Pei Zhi retracted his gaze from Bao Xiaomeng, looked down at her, and said, "It's good to have a clear conscience."

"Brother Pei..."

"Um?"

“The chicken soup is also good.”

"You are welcome."

【two】

January 13, Yongchuan City.

When I got off the chartered car, I saw tall buildings standing in front of me, and the hustle and bustle of traffic. In the dim morning light, it was a busy scene.

Lin Chaoxi was still in the prime of his life, having just finished his final exams, and all the idioms he had memorized were popping up in his mind one by one.

Unlike the last time they came to take the exam, this time there was no Lao Lin or Lao Zhang on the bus, and the team was led by a teacher they did not know. Because their junior high school exam was late, they waited until the day of the math league exam to charter a bus to Yongchuan.

The examination hall was located in Yongchuan Middle School. Students filed in. The school gate was already crowded with students who had come to take the exam. The atmosphere was like a gathering of top students.

Lu Zhihao was carsick and walked slowly when he got off the car. Lin Chaoxi and the others were waiting for him by the car.

Lin Chaoxi helped Comrade Lao Lu and heard him say with a weak voice: "It would be great if Huajuan was here..."

Lin Zhaoxi: “?”

Lu Zhihao raised his eyelids and looked at Chen Chu who was walking at the front of their city team. Everything was self-evident.

Chen Chu did not pass the school's selection, but still appeared on the chartered bus for the exam.

It was said that he got an extra quota through an after-school cram school, and became the odd one out on the bus. On the contrary, many of his classmates who had better grades than him were not eligible to come.

"It's just a two-day trip anyway." Lin Zhaoxi imitated Huajuan's tone and said, "If you can't win the first prize, it's no use coming here."

"I can't get the first prize either." Lu Zhihao said silently.

“You can do it!”

"There's something else going on in the training camp." Lu Zhihao said leisurely, chatting with her and Pei Zhi.

Lin Zhaoxi: “…”

However, before they had taken a few steps, Lin Chaoxi wanted to take back his previous words of advice to Comrade Lao Lu.

Really, it would be nice if Huajuan was here.

A group of four students from Yongchuan Middle School stood in a row at the school gate. Leading the group was Vice Principal Zhang, dressed in a suit and tie with the school badge on his lapel shining brightly, as if he was afraid that others would not know his identity.

When the teacher leading the team from their city saw Vice Principal Zhang, he stopped and exchanged a few polite words.

At this time, Chen Chu also stepped forward and said to Vice Principal Zhang: "Hello, Uncle Zhang, I am Principal Wang of Xuesi Education. Let me introduce you..."

Before the three words "come to see you" were uttered, the Yongchuan group of four had already started talking to each other.

"Weren't they selected through the school?"

“That’s a backdoor!”

"I remember that you were not on the list of Anning Experimental Middle School."

"Our teacher Zhang hates backdoors the most!"

Chen Chu's face froze.

Lin Chaoxi and the others were walking behind. When they heard the four people shouting, their first reaction was that evil people will be punished by evil people. Their second reaction was to cover their faces, but the four people from Yongchuan Middle School started shouting at them again.

"Why didn't Hanajuan come?"

"The results are too bad?"

"Are you guys here to be abused again?"

"What do you want to bet on this time?"

Almost everyone at the school gate looked at them, and they wanted to say to Lin Chaoxi: Can we just take a gamble and not recognize each other when we meet in the future...