Good excuse

Pu Shao was too busy. Although he had said before that he would come over to play a game of chess with Jiang Zhizhi and Pu Yu when they could play back-and-forth, he was unable to find the time until junior high school started.

Jiang Zhizhi didn't care. She had only intended to learn the basics, and being able to practice with Pu Yu was enough.

On the first day of September, the first day of school for the second grade, Lin Qingyu and Li Rongrong learned that Xu Qingbo and Yao Jiaqi had skipped to the third grade.

Li Rongrong was fine, she was just briefly surprised.

But Lin Qingyu was a little hurt.

She usually had a good relationship with Xu Qingbo, but Xu Qingbo didn't even tell her about such a big thing as skipping a grade.

"Zhizhi, did Xu Qingbo tell you?" Li Rongrong asked casually.

"No, I don't know."

In front of Lin Qingyu, Jiang Zhizhi told a white lie.

"Really? He actually skipped a grade without telling us. From now on, no one will take pictures of us when we go out together." Li Rongrong pouted and muttered.

Jiang Zhizhi comforted her: "It's okay, I will take pictures of you later."

Lin Qingyu remained silent, did not join their conversation, and quietly returned to her seat.

Class monitor Yao Jiaqi was away, so discipline committee member Lin Jiayi took a few boys to move the new books and distributed them to the classmates.

During the class meeting, the head teacher reassigned Lin Qingyu to serve as the class monitor and appointed Jiang Zhizhi as the new math class representative.

"By the way, Xu Qingbo and Yao Jiaqi's seats are empty. Lu Xiye and Chai Qingqing, you two should move to the front."

Lu Xiye and Chai Qingqing were both in the last row. Since there were empty seats, the head teacher naturally moved them to the front.

The class meeting was over, and before Chai Qingqing could react, Lu Xiye took his schoolbag and sat down in the seat next to Jiang Zhizhi, which was originally Yao Jiaqi's seat.

Putting aside the fact that he could sit at the same table with Jiang Zhizhi, he didn't want to sit in the seat that Xu Qingbo had sat in at all.

awkward!

Lu Xiye took Yao Jiaqi's seat, so Chai Qingqing had to move to Xu Qingbo's original seat.

Jiang Zhizhi didn't even look at them from beginning to end. She was writing some strange formulas on the draft paper.

Lu Xiye stretched his head and took a look curiously.

"What did you write?"

He couldn't understand it at all.

"Nothing." Jiang Zhizhi continued to do her calculations without raising her head.

Seeing that Jiang Zhizhi had no interest in paying attention to him, Lu Xiye was a little dissatisfied and asked, "What do you mean by nothing?"

"I'm doing math problems." Jiang Zhizhi had no choice but to look up and reply to him.

"What's your question?"

Why is there only draft paper?

"I've memorized it." Jiang Zhizhi said lightly.

Lu Xiye: ...

You have so much free time, why bother memorizing math problems?

Can’t I do it with the test paper?

"Is this what we're going to learn in the second semester of second grade math?"

"No, it's high school math."

?

"Jiang Zhizhi, are you teaching yourself high school mathematics?" Lu Xiye couldn't believe it.

The high school entrance exam is still two years away, and she is doing high school math problems now?

"Can you do it?"

He expressed doubts.

I suspect Jiang Zhizhi is showing off.

"It's okay, it's a bit difficult." Jiang Zhizhi answered him perfunctorily, and the ballpoint pen in her hand started moving again.

After the system upgrade, she no longer has to spend a lot of time memorizing.

During the summer vacation, she had memorized all the textbooks for the second and third year of junior high school. She basically didn't need to bother studying history, geography, politics, and chemistry anymore. Chinese and English were not challenging for her either. Now she put all her attention on mathematics and physics.

She has almost mastered all the knowledge of junior high school mathematics and physics.

Before school started, she absorbed all the high school textbooks and began to understand and master the high school knowledge content.

Because she had memorized it in her mind, she only needed to recall the content of the problem to do the calculation on the draft paper.

It’s quite convenient.

*

At noon, Jiang Zhizhi planned to go out to buy a cake and continue studying in the classroom like last semester.

It’s not that she did it on purpose, she just did it all the time and it became a habit.

Lin Qingyu left as soon as school was over, but Lu Xiye and Li Rongrong were not in a hurry.

"Zhizhi, aren't you going home at noon?" Li Rongrong poked her and asked.

"Um."

"Then let's go eat fish noodles? Lu Xiye, do you want to go? There is a new fish noodle restaurant opened on Shangyuan Street, it's super delicious. I have already told my mom that I won't be back at noon." Li Rongrong said excitedly.

Lu Xiye didn't answer and looked at Jiang Zhizhi.

Jiang Zhizhi put away her pen, turned around and smiled at Li Rongrong, "Okay, I'm craving something spicy too."

The three people walked out of the teaching building and were greeted by the third grade teaching building.

In a trance, Jiang Zhizhi seemed to feel a gaze falling on her from over there, and she subconsciously turned her head to look over there.

Among so many students wearing the same school uniform, she saw Xu Qingbo at first sight.

Unlike those students who like to paint colorful patterns on their school uniforms, Xu Qingbo's school uniform is always the cleanest, and he is always the one who stands out in the crowd.

"Xu Qingbo?"

Li Rongrong also saw him.

But at this moment, he had already retracted his gaze, and his figure passed through the green flowerbed and disappeared at the other end of the corridor of the teaching building.

"What? Why didn't you even say hello?" Li Rongrong curled her lips in dissatisfaction and snorted. "Just because you skipped to the third grade, are you going to cut ties with us old friends too?"

After coming out of the school gate, Li Rongrong still felt uncomfortable thinking about Xu Qingbo's appearance just now.

"Zhizhi, do you think Xu Qingbo is sometimes quite cold?"

"Cold?" Jiang Zhizhi thought about it and didn't think much of it. "It's okay."

From elementary school to last semester, Xu Qingbo often brought her extracurricular books and was very enthusiastic.

"Really? But I always feel like Xu Qingbo has a faint sense of alienation. Even when we hang out together, he's not very enthusiastic. Honestly, after spending so long with him, it feels like he's never truly smiled happily in front of us." Li Rongrong complained, "Maybe in Xu Qingbo's mind, we're just passing visitors. He didn't even tell us something as big as skipping a grade. Now that we're no longer in the same class, we'll have even less time to talk."

"Hehe, he's just not enthusiastic about you." Lu Xiye sneered and looked at Jiang Zhizhi meaningfully.

Jiang Zhizhi ignored Lu Xiye and said to Li Rongrong, "Because Xu Qingbo is a very reserved person, he rarely takes the initiative when we go out together."

"That's true." Li Rongrong grinned and stopped dwelling on the matter. "By the way, Zhizhi, Xu Qingbo and Yao Jiaqi both skipped grades. Why didn't you skip a grade? Your grades are even better than theirs, so skipping a grade shouldn't be stressful, right?"

Jiang Zhizhi smiled and grabbed Li Rongrong's hand, "Because I can't bear to leave you."

"Hehe, I can't bear to leave you either. Fortunately, you didn't skip a grade. If you had, I would have been heartbroken!" Li Rongrong took the opportunity to hug Jiang Zhizhi's arm and said coquettishly and affectionately.

"Really? For you to live well, I can't skip a grade." Jiang Zhizhi said jokingly.

"Not really. If you really want to skip a grade, I will still support you. However, you can't skip a grade quietly like Xu Qingbo did. You must tell me before you skip a grade, okay?"

"Well, if that day comes, I will definitely tell you in advance."

…

Not far from the school gate, Xu Qingbo came out of a small supermarket holding two loaves of bread. He looked at the back of Jiang Zhizhi who left with Li Rongrong, laughing and playing. After a while, he regained his composure and headed towards the teaching building.

Just like Jiang Zhizhi walking alone against the flow of people leaving school last semester.

In a trance, Xu Qingbo felt as if he could vaguely understand Jiang Zhizhi's feelings at that moment.

That kind of unshakable determination to go against the current is hidden in her small body and her always calm eyes.

That is a loneliness that no one can understand.

However, Xu Qingbo wanted to understand her.

He had never been as determined as he was now.

He wanted to get ahead of Jiang Zhizhi, to where she would go in the future.

He didn't know why Jiang Zhizhi didn't move forward, but if she was afraid, worried, confused, and at a loss, then he would walk the path she was going to take first.

One day, he will stand in front of Jiang Zhizhi, reach out his hand to her and say to her.

Jiang Zhizhi, come, come to my world, and head towards the distant place we are going to...

He knows.

Jiang Zhizhi will definitely come.

*

After school in the afternoon.

Jiang Zhizhi went to the library with Li Rongrong and Lu Xiye.

The most important physics course was newly added in the second year of junior high school. Jiang Zhizhi helped the two of them preview it, briefly explained the contents of the first unit, and asked them to do the exercises after class.

She herself continued to go to the library area.

After absorbing the contents of the last two bookshelves, all the books that could be borrowed normally in the entire library were memorized in her mind.

At the beginning, when she absorbed such a large amount of book content, her head felt a little swollen, but as she absorbed more and more, her mind became clearer and clearer, and she felt an indescribable sense of peace in her heart.

It took Jiang Zhizhi more than an hour to complete the final work.

“Beep—”

Jiang Zhizhi's phone suddenly vibrated.

In the quiet library, the sound was particularly obvious. She quickly took out her cell phone and saw that it was Pu Yu calling.

"Hello?"

"There's a youth Go tournament at the Youth Palace next month. Would you like to sign up with me?"

On the phone, Pu Yu spoke fluent Mandarin.

Recently she has developed a habit of using a foreign language every time she calls Jiang Zhizhi.

Jiang Zhizhi also habitually spoke to her in N Mandarin.

"Youth Go Tournament? Sure, but that would make us competitors, right?"

"Haha, what? Are you afraid of losing to me in the competition?"

"I'm afraid you'll be angry if you lose to me."

"Arrogant! You haven't even participated in a formal competition yet. Let me tell you, competition and practice are completely different! It's not certain whether you can even make it to the finals and face me!"

"What is the specific time of the competition?" Jiang Zhizhi asked.

"October 20th and 21st. The 20th is the elimination round, and the 21st is the final. It happens to be on the weekend."

"Well, see you at the game then."

After hanging up the call, Jiang Zhizhi was about to put her phone away when she suddenly noticed a middle-aged man in his thirties looking at her in surprise.

Jiang Zhizhi looked at the man in confusion, but then she came to her senses.

It must be very strange for a junior high school student like her to communicate in a foreign language when talking on the phone, right?

No wonder this man looked at her like that.

Jiang Zhizhi didn't take it seriously and turned around to leave.

"Wait, little sister..."

The middle-aged man actually caught up with her and stopped her.

Jiang Zhizhi blinked, "What's wrong?"

"Little sister, are you from Country N?"

Being able to speak N country so fluently, he must have grown up in N country, right? He guessed.

Jiang Zhizhi shook her head, "I'm not."

No? How could it be?

The man was stunned.

Jiang Zhizhi frowned, feeling that this person was very strange, and she turned around to leave again.

"Wait, wait a moment."

The man stopped her again.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Jiang Zhizhi's eyes became alert.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not a bad person." The man took out his business card from his bag and handed it to Jiang Zhizhi. "I'm from Fenghua Real Estate, a legitimate company. Our boss is going to have a meeting with an investor from Country N soon and wants to find some translators who can speak Country N, but I haven't found anyone suitable. Would you like to give it a try?"

Because the investor was traveling domestically with his family, the boss specifically requested a more approachable translator.

The girl in front of me is the same age as the investor's child.

He suddenly felt that it was truly fate.

Jiang Zhizhi took the business card and took a look. It was indeed Fenghua Real Estate. The person's surname was Wei, Weidong, and his position was secretary to the general manager.

She did know Fenghua Real Estate. Jiang Guozhong had done a lot of work on the construction sites under this real estate company. She had often heard this name in her previous life.

"Uncle, employing child labor is illegal." Jiang Zhizhi was not very interested.

"Little sister, you are not afraid that you can't do it well, right?" Wei Dong used provocation to Jiang Zhizhi.

Jiang Zhizhi naturally saw his intention and looked at him with amusement, "Uncle, aren't you afraid that your boss will be furious if he sees that you hired such a translator?"

"Actually, I think you and that investor's kid would get along well. What do you think? I'll pay you a normal translation salary. Want to give it a try?"

Child?

Jiang Zhizhi thought for a moment and asked, "How much is the salary?"

"How about five hundred a day? You can go back and discuss it with your parents. My phone number is on the business card."

"Five hundred? So little?"

Jiang Zhizhi didn’t know how many zeros there were in her system account now, and she was too lazy to even count them.

She actually doesn't care about this little bit of money.

However, it is not bad to have this excuse to make money, and I can give the money to Cheng Yuping.

"Little sister, there are seven days in total, and three thousand and five is not enough?"

Of course Weidong offered a lower price than the normal translation price, but Jiang Zhizhi was just a child.

Three thousand five is a huge sum of money for her, right?

"Ten thousand," Jiang Zhizhi quoted. "Besides, I have to go to school, so I can only work during lunch and after school in the afternoon. I need to be home before ten o'clock in the evening."

Her series of conditions left Weidong stunned.

"If you can accept it, come see me again. I will come to the library every day after school."

Jiang Zhizhi said this and left.

In fact, she doesn't care whether she can take this job or not.

The point is, this person gave her a good excuse to hand the money over to Cheng Yuping.

Jiang Zhizhi now feels more and more that Pu Yu is her benefactor, and it is so great to have met her.

When she returned to Li Rongrong and Lu Xiye again, Jiang Zhizhi looked in a good mood.