Chapter 128 Soaring and Singing: The end he had been anticipating for over ten years had unexpectedly...

The first, second, and third mock exams came to a close amidst the chaos. With that, all the major exams of his high school years, except for the college entrance exam, were over. And with them came the end of his youthful years.

On the afternoon before the college entrance exam, many students gathered around the railing, feeling melancholy. Someone launched a paper airplane, and suddenly everyone went crazy, throwing books and exam papers. School leaders and homeroom teachers came to stop them, but this time no one listened, and the revelry was eventually tacitly allowed.

The white exam papers fell from the sky like flowers scattered by fairies. Li Leshan looked up as the papers fell from above. They slowly landed at his feet. These papers, filled with handwriting, belonged to them, but they were also his own.

Walking on the camphor tree-lined avenue, he kept recalling the principal's words: "Today I am proud of Shishi High School, tomorrow Shishi High School will be proud of me." He also thought of the school motto: "Be pragmatic and truthful, experiment and innovate; for tomorrow, spread your wings and soar." Now, stepping on this familiar asphalt ground, he recalled the bits and pieces of the past, and all the memories of living here were so vivid.

Fortunately, he persevered through three years of high school, experiencing confusion, hardship, and despair. Recalling the past feels like a dream, though the excruciating pain was undeniably real.

Han Jiang and Xu Qing chased after him, running all the way to him, and superstitiously said they wanted to shake the top scholar's hand.

"I'm not bragging," Han Jiang started to boast, "You're definitely going to be the top scorer in the city this year, no doubt about it. Maybe even the top scorer in the province. Our homeroom teacher talks about you every day."

He grasped Li Leshan's hand and bowed devoutly, "May the top scholar bless me to get into a university."

"Why don't you say the top scorer in the country?" Xu Qing chuckled.

"Damn, you think I wouldn't dare say it?" Han Jiang patted Li Leshan on the shoulder. "Brother, keep it up! If you get the top score in the national exam, Shengping will be famous. That National Civilized City title will definitely be awarded this year."

...

National Civilized City? This seems to have been discussed for several years now, yet we still haven't been able to apply.

“I’m telling you, if you really pass the exam, the principal will definitely put up a statue for you, right in the middle of the small garden, next to the statue of Tao Xingzhi. Tao is the ‘people’s educator,’ and you are the ‘national champion,’ how impressive!”

Li Leshan looked hesitant, but in the end he said nothing. He pointed to the books on the ground, indicating that he had to move them and couldn't indulge in their pipe dreams.

National champion? He's really not at that level yet.

"Oh, you want us to carry it for you, right?" Xu Qing misunderstood and immediately instructed Han Jiang, "Hurry up, don't tire out the top scholar."

"Yes, ma'am!" Han Jiang stood at attention and immediately bent down to start moving the books.

These two, you never would have guessed they were such drama queens!

"Haha," Han Jiang said through gritted teeth, having worked very hard carrying the load. He usually doesn't do any heavy or tiring work and almost twisted his back just now. "The power of knowledge is truly extraordinary."

Li Leshan smiled and took on most of the burden for Han Jiang, finally giving Han Jiang a chance to catch his breath.

"Hey Li Leshan, where are you going from now on?" Han Jiang lifted the book up a bit, still panting, and asked.

Xu Qing, holding Han Jiang's backpack, rolled her eyes. "Where else would he go if not Beijing? Tsinghua and Peking University are vying for him. Do you think he's like you?"

"Then where are you going?" This was Han Jiang's main point.

Xu Qing pondered for a while, and to be honest, she hadn't really made up her mind. For her, taking the college entrance exam was more like a task than a dream; she had to complete this task first before thinking about the next step.

"I haven't decided yet," Xu Qing said. "Maybe I'll go to Beijing, maybe Shanghai, or maybe the provincial capital. Oh well, I'll go wherever I get accepted."

"Where are we going?" Han Jiang asked, chasing after her.

Annoyed by the questions, Xu Qing quickened her pace, leaving the two of them far behind. "Ugh, you're so annoying!"

"Doesn't anyone want to stay in Shengping?" Han Jiang wondered. Why did everyone want to go so far away? Would they return to their hometown after graduation? Would they ever come back? He didn't know, but he had a feeling that they wouldn't.

Perhaps after this parting, we will never meet again.

Han Jiang huffed and puffed as he carried Li Leshan's book to the fifth floor. He started panting heavily, as if he had run a marathon without taking a break.

"Take a break, take a break..." Han Jiang leaned against the door frame, bending over.

Li Leshan opened a bottle of mineral water for him.

Exhausted to this extent, Han Jiang couldn't even care about saving face. He should have waved his hand and said no thanks, even though Xu Qing was right beside him. But Han Jiang really couldn't pretend anymore; he felt like everything was going black.

Oh God, please stop this! He has his college entrance exam tomorrow!

Panting, Han Jiang and Xu Qing stood downstairs at Li Leshan's apartment building. Facing his floor, they cupped their hands to their mouths and shouted at the top of their lungs, "Li Leshan, good luck on the college entrance exam!"

"Good luck on the college entrance exam!" Han Jiang continued shouting, his voice hoarse.

They all knew that Li Leshan's journey to this point had not been easy. He had to overcome the hurdle of the college entrance examination; it was his chance to change his fate.

The window was unexpectedly opened, and Li Leshan looked down at the two people shouting desperately, feeling a warm current flow through his heart.

"Thank you," Li Leshan waved, then gestured in the air, "Thank you all."

Han Jiang squinted. Luckily, he had good eyesight and the distance between the buildings was low, otherwise he would have gone blind and still not been able to see what Li Leshan was gesturing.

“He said thank you,” Han Jiang said.

Han Jiang understood the gesture. Having spent so many years with Li Leshan, this gesture appeared with an absurdly high frequency, averaging one every few sentences. Han Jiang felt he would never forget it for the rest of his life.

"You're welcome—" Han Jiang continued to call out.

"How do you sign for 'You're welcome'?" Han Jiang asked Xu Qing.

“What are you trying to do? Li Leshan can hear me.” Xu Qing used sign language to indicate that she was not being polite.

"You really know how to do it!" Han Jiang felt betrayed.

"Didn't you learn the basic vocabulary too?" Xu Qing was a little speechless. "Ugh. You always study it with such enthusiasm, I thought you knew it all."

He would always be engrossed in reading a sign language book, completely absorbed in it. Xu Qing thought he was very good at it, but it turned out he didn't know anything at all.

“There are little pictures on it, I’ve been flipping through it and looking at them,” Han Jiang explained.

"I'm really fed up with you." Xu Qing didn't want to say anything more. She wanted to keep quiet to avoid further misunderstandings with Han Jiang, since she had her college entrance exam tomorrow.

"Is this on the college entrance exam?" Han Jiang asked again.

...

Tomorrow is the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao). Zhang Fang repeatedly reminded everyone to leave home two hours early, and those who live far away should rent a place near the examination center. In short, they absolutely, positively must not be late. There will be many people and heavy traffic on the day of the Gaokao, and anything could happen on the road.

Li Leshan's exam site was at No. 2 High School, a place he didn't go to often. Fortunately, Shengping was a small place, so even if he wasn't familiar with it, he would become familiar with it eventually. No. 2 High School was in the west of the city, where there wasn't much traffic, which was somewhat of an advantage.

The small desk lamp on the sewing machine table was still running. Li Leshan spread his textbooks out on the table. He had done practice problems during the day to make sure his skills were sharp, and he didn't plan to do any more practice problems at night. He wanted to go back to the textbooks and think about the knowledge he had learned over the past three years.

During the months of the mock exams, he and Jiang Yueming texted each other less often. Both of them held the idea of ​​not disturbing each other and carefully maintained each contact, which lasted only a few minutes, sometimes seven or eight sentences, sometimes just one or two.

A gentle evening breeze drifted in through the window, easing some of the summer heat. Li Leshan glanced out the window at the scenery, a view unchanged for decades, which, perhaps sensing the impending separation, seemed to soften considerably.

He took out his phone and sent a message to Jiang Yueming.

Li Leshan: Good luck on the college entrance exam, relax and get some sleep.

Lately, not only him, but Han Jiang and Xu Qing also felt the same way. Jiang Yueming had too high expectations of himself and too much pressure. Although pressure is a good thing, too much pressure can be counterproductive.

Jiang Yueming was indeed awake and quickly replied to the message. He said okay and gave Li Leshan a long list of instructions, probably saying everything he had wanted to say but hadn't had time to say these past few days.

The two-day college entrance examination marked the end of his high school career. As the English exam ended, the announcement "Exam over, everyone stand up" came over the loudspeaker. The setting sun shone directly onto Li Leshan's desk, illuminating the English exam paper that shimmered with gold.

Li Leshan stood in front of his seat, looking out the window. The moment he put down his pen, he felt no excitement or agitation as he had expected; only a calm. His mind was blank. Functions, derivatives, parabolas; all sorts of ancient poems; fill-in-the-blank and cloze tests… He couldn't remember anything for a moment, not even the feelings of joy and relief.

The end he had been looking forward to for more than ten years turned out to be so uneventful.

Those days of skipping dinner to do one more practice problem, waking up half an hour earlier to memorize a few more words, and the cold stairwell at two or three in the morning—all those nights of struggle and defiance—finally came to an end at this moment.

The moment he stepped out of the examination hall, the setting sun shone on Li Leshan, causing him to squint involuntarily. He felt a bit of glare, and his eyes became sore.

There were all sorts of sounds around me—laughter and crying. Some people were still discussing whether the island in the geographical description was Hawaii, some were still debating which physics formula to use, and some were still debating whether the last math problem was C or B.

However, the moment he stopped writing, the outcome was no longer relevant to him.

He took a deep breath; the most important exam of his student days had come to a spectacular end.

Ahead came wave after wave of people, jumping and waving their arms to commemorate this passing year, and to remember this time of youthful innocence and bittersweet experiences.