Chapter 27 Spring Green (10) Xia Xia, in my eyes, you are only...

Lin Xia has wanted to ask this question for a long time.

This issue is very sensitive, embarrassing and sharp, but it must be faced. It is the biggest gap between them. If they don't say it out loud, they will never be able to treat each other wholeheartedly.

Lin Haisheng and He Ping were once teacher and student, and there was such a huge age gap between them. Lin Xia didn't know how they got together, but such an awkward combination would inevitably be seen by the world as one after money and the other after sex.

The people of this world, perhaps also including the relatives and children of two people, have sharp conflicts and hold different opinions, so they will naturally hate each other.

In particular, for unknown reasons, Lin Haisheng had never officially married He Ping, nor had he given her or their relationship a legitimate status, which had led to gossip about He Ping, both overt and covert. Lin Xia suspected that Lin Xuedong was likely to have contributed greatly to this resistance.

In this situation, how does He Chuan, who lives under someone else's roof and is not valued, feel and how does he view all this?

If he didn't want to say it, Lin Xia would understand, but as long as he was willing to say it, she would believe it.

He Chuan was silent for a long time after hearing this, so long that Lin Xia began to regret, began to panic, and began to think that he would never speak to him again. Only then did he finally speak, his voice as calm as always:

"Xia Xia, I may not be as noble as you think, but I won't be unable to distinguish between good and evil, or repay kindness with hatred. Xia Xia, I have always been very self-aware."

"My mother left when I was five, my father died when I was eleven, and she came back to take me away when I was sixteen. She was gone for a full eleven years, and I can't even remember what she looked like. At first, I missed her terribly, but later I almost forgot. I can say that I had no expectations of her, and I hardly had any feelings for her. She could have pretended that she didn't have a son like me, but no matter what the reason or consideration, she still found me and brought me with her, and I am grateful for that. But the relationship between us, mother and son, can never be deeper or closer, and we both know this very well."

"The relationship between Uncle Lin and her is their own business. Whether they get married, where they live, or what their future holds, I have no opinion, nor am I qualified to have one. I only know that Uncle Lin has been taking care of us all these years, especially me. I have no blood relationship with him, and yet he's still willing to give me a place to stay and pay for my education without any hardship or indifference. People in this world are actually pretty mean. Not many are willing to help or give alms. They only kick someone when they're down, never helping someone when they're down. In the years since my father passed away, I've experienced a lot from my relatives. I understand how precious kindness is. Even if it's not selfless or perfect, I'm still endlessly grateful."

"As for your father, he certainly didn't accept Mom and me, but as far as I know, he didn't do anything substantial to harm us. It might be because he and Uncle Lin and his son weren't very close to each other. It's understandable. Anyone would reject outsiders in their family, and I would too. But your family are all kind people. They've never hurt Mom and me, and that's enough."

"As for you, Xia Xia, you have nothing to do with all of this. It's the entanglement of the previous generation, or even several generations ago. It has nothing to do with you. You shouldn't be involved in it and worry about it. I believe your parents think the same."

He Chuan spoke for a very long time, calmly and forbearingly, gently and restrainedly. It seemed that this was something that had been buried in his heart for too long, but no one asked about it, and no one cared. Until today, he finally had the opportunity to pour it out, speaking from the bottom of his heart, and every word was sincere.

He suppressed all his emotions, but Lin Xia felt sad when she heard it.

For a man in his early twenties, these words were far too mature and steady. Someone who could view life this way, who could see through the world, must have experienced much pain and suffering. He briefly recounted his childhood, the events before he came to Wangchun, but Lin Xia could guess that he hadn't had an easy life.

He was so sincere, so frank, and showed her his inner self. What could she be dissatisfied with?

Although no tears fell, she felt a lump in her throat before she knew it. She sniffed and said slowly:

"So, you're so nice to me because I'm your granddaughter?"

Are you just, repaying a favor?

"I admit that it was like this at the beginning in the small forest farm. But I don't know when I started to forget this."

He Chuan said word by word:

"Xia Xia, in my eyes, you are just you."

That’s enough. With these words, everything is enough.

Lin Xia breathed a sigh of relief, letting herself lean all her weight on him, and said to him solemnly:

"He Chuan, in my eyes, you are just you."

Later they talked a lot, but Lin Xia had forgotten many of them. Tired of talking, they took out their MP3 players and started listening to music. They used a pair of headphones, one for each of them. Sometimes they listened to her favorite singers, sometimes to his favorite songs. As they listened, they fell asleep in a daze.

That night, outside the window was a biting north wind and a snowy wilderness, while inside the carriage were joys and sorrows, as well as all kinds of human life. But these had nothing to do with Lin Xia and He Chuan. They snuggled together, warmed each other, and supported each other. This was the most unforgettable night of their lives. It seemed that as long as the person in front of them existed, it would not matter if the end of the world really came.

.

At 5:00 AM on the 25th, a diesel locomotive, pulling a train that had been out of service for almost the entire night, slowly began to move. While the train's movement remained slow and intermittent, at least it wasn't delayed as long as the previous night. By the time the train arrived at Shenyang North Station at 8:00 AM, the train had electricity, water and food supplies, and the heating was gradually turning on.

It was not until 2:24 p.m. that the train, which was nearly 19 hours late, finally slowly entered the old station in the provincial capital.

Some people in the car cried with joy, while others kept cursing because of the mistake, but in the face of natural disasters, humans are ultimately powerless.

Lin Xia and He Chuan followed the crowd off the train and walked through the long underground tunnel. Seeing the exit was just around the corner, Lin Xia excitedly quickened her pace. When she was about to leave the station, He Chuan beside her grabbed her arm.

"What's wrong?"

Lin Xia turned around with a puzzled look.

He Chuan put the painting bag on her shoulder, put the painting box in her hand, and then took the plastic bag full of packaging paper garbage from her and said to her:

"Xia Xia, I'll take you here."

The light inside the old station was very dim. Coming from the underground tunnel, only half of the light was blocked by the ticket gate at the exit. People were rushing out with bags and packages.

There was a surging crowd of people all around them, a mixture of light and darkness. They stood in the middle of it, their eyes meeting, with only each other in their eyes.

It was only one night, but the two of them seemed to share life and death and spend their lives together.

At this point, Lin Xia simply couldn't imagine how she would have endured the past twenty hours if He Chuan hadn't rushed to the station and accompanied her on the train. She would have collapsed long ago, or she would have followed Zhao Qianyi's arrangements and gone back to prepare for repeating the year.

Fortunately, he came.

She was feeling lucky, and so was he.

At this moment, they all had too many thoughts and too many words to say, but it was not the right time. She had a more important battlefield to rush to, one that would determine her life's destiny.

He Chuan's eyes were deep, as if filled with thousands of words. He stretched out his free hand and wanted to touch Lin Xia's cheek, but stopped just where he was about to touch her. Finally, he raised it a little higher and rubbed her hair instead.

"Go ahead, Xia Xia, don't think about anything, just go take the exam."

Lin Xia nodded solemnly.

"I'm leaving now. Be careful on your way back."

"good."

Then Lin Xia turned around and strode out without hesitation, towards the light.

After getting out of the station, Zhao Qianyi and Lin Xuedong, who had been anxiously waiting in the crowd and hadn't slept all night, saw their daughter for the first time, rushed forward and hugged Lin Xia.

"Xia Xia! How are you? Are you okay? I was so worried about you!"

"Are you sleepy? Are you hungry? Give the food to daddy, and let's go back to the hotel."

For many years after that, even though Lin Xia's relationship with her parents had become distant, even though she went to a city thousands of miles away and didn't return home for several years, whenever she thought of the scene where she went through so many hardships to take the exam and her parents anxiously came to greet her when she got out of the train station, there was always a soft and warm corner in her heart.

As Lin Xuedong and Zhao Qianyi pulled her forward, Lin Xia did not forget to look back at the exit for the last time. Among the scattered passengers coming and going, her boy was still standing there, watching her leave and smiling at her.

So she smiled too, waved to him imperceptibly, and then followed her parents into the car.

.

Lin Xia fell asleep immediately after arriving at the hotel room that Zhao Qianyi had booked in advance near the test site.

The exhaustion, sleepiness, tension, and worry that had lasted for two days and one night were all released at this moment. Lin Xia slept for more than ten hours straight, and didn't wake up until 4 o'clock the next morning. Zhao Qianyi and Lin Xuedong were terrified, fearing that something might happen to the child in her sleep, but they didn't dare to call her. They finally breathed a sigh of relief when she woke up.

After Lin Xia got up, she felt extremely energetic and also extremely hungry. She took a hot bath, had a big meal, and briefly told her parents what happened on the way, glossing over all the difficulties and twists and turns so as not to increase their anxiety.

Then she took another nap for an hour, got up at 7 o'clock, packed her things, and Lin Xuedong took her to the examination room.

The first class in the morning was a test on sketching.

While painting, Lin Xia was a little nervous. She thought of Ren Zijian, Lao Sun, all the excellent classmates in the studio, and the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts that she visited that day.

Can she pass the exam? Can she?

If you fail the joint examination, everything in the future will be gone.

In addition to being worried, she couldn't help looking around. The boy sitting next to her had been writing non-stop since the exam started, with a very confident and relaxed attitude, which made Lin Xia even more upset.

Lin Xia took a deep breath and put pen to paper, slowly laying out the lines she had practiced millions of times. Even if she was nervous or flustered, her body had formed a conditioned reflex and she would not make any mistakes.

She couldn't help but occasionally steal a glance at the boy's painting next to her. As time passed, she suddenly realized that the boy's painting didn't seem that good. It seemed a bit average. No, in fact, it should be quite bad...

After realizing this, Lin Xia suddenly stopped being nervous.

In the following time, she never glanced at the side again, but focused on her own painting and was completely immersed in it.

The bell rang and the exam was over.

When it was time to hand in the papers, everyone's drawings were placed on the open space in front of the classroom. Before Lin Xia turned around and left, she took a last look at the whole thing.

She found that her painting was the best in the entire examination room.

The moment she walked out of the examination room, there was a smile on her face, and the long-lost confidence returned to her.

A long time ago, when Lin Xia was in junior high school, she did a classical Chinese reading. It told the story of King Xiang of Zhao learning to drive from Prince Qi. Prince Qi warned King Xiang that in long-distance horse racing, sometimes leading and sometimes lagging behind is normal. One should not be obsessed with catching up when falling behind, or feel proud when surpassing others. Instead, one should focus on oneself and move forward steadily at his own pace.

Beijing's art studios are full of talented people, and everyone is very excellent. She is among them, and she only wants to catch up, and her heart is full of anxiety. But in fact, as long as she can keep improving and not fall behind, she is already better than many people. After all, she does not have to be the first in the country to be admitted to Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts.

Now, she finally has a more objective understanding of her own level, and she is no longer worried about the upcoming joint examination.

The second subject in the afternoon is color; the third subject is sketching.

After the exam, Lin Xia and Lin Xuedong returned to Wangchun to celebrate the New Year and had a few days of short rest.

Ten days later, the joint examination results were announced.

The full score for the three subjects was 300 points. Lin Xia scored 288 points, ranking first in the entire city.