Fireworks

Swimmers sometimes reach a bottleneck period. No matter how hard they train, their movements and speed show little improvement, and they stagnate or even regress.

Lin Luo is also experiencing a plateau. No matter how hard she tries, her grades haven't improved much. In recent exams, she's been hovering between 19th and 21st in her class.

Fu Xingchuan and Zhu Sui'an are still staying in Jinghe. Zhu Changyu said that they might come back after the Chinese New Year.

The first semester of senior year is over, and they started their winter break remedial classes.

The numbers on the college entrance examination countdown hanging prominently on the front door of the classroom are decreasing day by day, and the review papers of various subjects in the drawers are increasing day by day.

It was freezing cold. I woke up before dawn and huddled in bed, unwilling to leave. I waited for the crowd to thin out before heading to the cafeteria, only to find the food was cold and hard. I had so much homework that I couldn't get back into bed until after midnight.

Lin Luo's days are repetitive yet different.

"Zhu Changyu, wake up! I've solved it. Do you want to listen?" After the first evening study session, Xu Yangyang pressed the workbook against his back. Zhu Changyu had just laid down and stood up with difficulty. "Listen."

Lin Luo noticed the obvious bloodshot in his eyes, likely caused by overwork. Xu Yangyang explained to him earnestly that his eyelids were drooping, narrowed to a slit, and almost closed.

Xu Yangyang didn't notice that suddenly, a loud noise came from outside the window.

"Bang~" Zhu Changyu was frightened awake.

There was a commotion outside the door, and many people gathered in the corridor. Xu Yangyang was interrupted before she could finish her speech and didn't want to go out to join in the fun.

They were now back to their original position, sitting behind the third largest group. When Zhu Changyu saw Ruan Ye come in, he asked, "What happened outside?"

"Someone is setting off fireworks to express their love." Ruan Ye took off his coat, revealing only a sweatshirt underneath. A rubber band at his wrist was exposed, decorated with a black bow and a pearl. It seemed to be for Zhu Sui'an.

"Setting it off in the teaching building? That's way too arrogant!" Xu Yangyang became interested. "Aren't you afraid of getting caught by Director Wang..."

Before she could finish her words, Director Wang's angry voice came over, "Don't run, it's you again. If I catch you, you'll be dead."

"Who is it?" Xu Yangyang asked.

Zhu Changyu pulled out his phone and hid in front of Lin Qiao's desk, staring at the screen. "Wang Yu from Class 1, didn't he call the Education Bureau a few days ago to report the school for giving extra classes?"

"Oh, I remember now." Xu Yangyang looked at the door. "Director Wang hasn't gone far yet! Why did you take out your phone?"

"Wang Yu and I used to go to an internet cafe together to play games, and I asked him what kind of fireworks he set off."

"Do you want to let it go too?" Lin Luo interrupted.

Xu Yangyang chuckled, "Come on! You wouldn't dare to do that at all."

"Who doesn't dare? Just wait and see." Zhu Changyu snorted.

Xu Yangyang leaned close to Lin Xiao's ear and said, "How about making a bet? He definitely wouldn't dare."

In order to form a bet, Lin Luo cooperated and said, "Then I bet he dares. What's the bet?"

"Well... the loser will supervise the other person's studies during the New Year."

"Okay." Lin Luo agreed readily. She understood what Xu Yangyang meant.

Winning or losing doesn't matter at all.

But Lin Luo still wanted to know whether Zhu Changyu dared.

As the Spring Festival approached, the intermittent sound of fireworks could be heard while sitting in the classroom during evening self-study, disrupting everyone's serious study. Zhu Changyu complained, "I can't study anymore. I envy Fu Xingchuan so much!"

"Is our class's location not very good? Why can we only hear the noise? I want to see the fireworks, too." Xu Yangyang and Lin Luo shared a hand warmer.

Lin Luo looked at the sky outside the window. It was pitch black. It seemed that the direction was indeed not very good. There were mountains in the distance.

Xu Yangyang nudged Zhu Changyu and asked, "Aren't you going to set off fireworks in the teaching building?"

Wang Yu from Class 1 was caught by Director Wang last time and was punished directly. A piece of white paper was posted on the bulletin board at the bottom of the building to warn others. Zhu Changyu was even more timid. "I thought about it carefully. This behavior will affect other students who are seriously reviewing in the classroom and will be offensive. Although I really want to take a break, I'll hold it in for a while and take a full break during the holiday."

Xu Yangyang raised an eyebrow at Lin Xiao, as if to say, "I'm right, right?"

Lin Luo looked out the window again. It was pitch black with only a few incandescent lights flashing. What was he doing now?

"Lin Luo, this is yours." The Chinese class representative was distributing the answer sheets for the final exam. Xia Changying collected them again to correct them and only handed them back now.

"Thank you." She took it.

She only scored 44 points, indicating an average level. Xia Changying gave her a long comment and asked her to revise it. It was the same question as before: her writing didn't resemble an argumentative essay and contained too much lyrical content. She was also asked which parts to delete.

The essay's title is: "A single well-spoken word is worth a thousand words." Lin's essay captures the essence of four words: "I believe in you."

Xia Changying said that her choice was very good, but it did not reach a high enough level. The content should not only be about people, but also be closely related to the destiny of society, the country and mankind.

After Lin Qi corrected it, the structure did feel clearer.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

My mind was full of thoughts, and I remembered that I had read a book with a very special title, called "One Sentence is Worth Ten Thousand Sentences".

She was very curious at the time which sentence could be worth ten thousand sentences, but people who had read the book told her that there were more than one sentence written here. Every character in the story had one sentence in his heart, and every reader also had one sentence in his heart.

I trust you.

This is a sentence from Lin Xiao's seventeen years of life.

Before leaving, Fu Xingchuan lent all his notebooks for various subjects to Lin Luo. She carefully read the contents and tried her best to learn the sentence "I believe you".

It was the last day of supplementary lessons and there was still evening self-study. Everyone was very restless. Lin Luo was working in her workbook, specifically practicing the multiple-choice questions in the comprehensive science paper.

She encountered a particularly difficult physics multiple-choice question at the end. She felt dizzy and bloated after finishing it, but she was still extremely nervous.

Suddenly, a pair of hands gently patted her shoulders, "Lin Qiao..."

It’s Fu Xingchuan’s voice. Is he back?

Or had she misheard? It was just the voice that was similar. Thinking this, Lin Luo tilted her body slightly and saw her reflection in the glass window.

It's him.

Lin Luo wanted to hear what he was going to say next, but other sounds drowned out his voice.

"call out--"

A beam of fire rose into the sky, and then burst into colorful and various brilliant lights. The beams fell and sprinkled on the earth like pearls.

The fireworks one after another are dazzling.

I don't know who made it happen, but coincidentally, they put on a fireworks show for their class before the holiday.

"Wow!"

Amidst the cheers, some people cried uncontrollably, covering their faces with their hands, while others shouted, "Good luck on the college entrance exam!"

Xu Yangyang's hair was caught by a pen, and the strands were tangled and knotted. Zhu Changyu carefully helped her remove the knot while watching the fireworks.

Ruan Ye disdains fireworks. Isn't it just the flame color reaction formed by the burning of chemical substances? What's so good about it?

He turned his gaze back to the room, and Zhu Sui'an suddenly appeared in his sight, looking out the window with a curved eyebrow, motioning him: "So beautiful! Look."

In fact, Ruan Ye wanted to look at her, but he turned back obediently. He saw Zhu Sui'an put his coat on his legs and covered his hands. He was about to say, "I'm not cold."

Zhu Sui'an reached in and hooked his fingers.

The fireworks in front of me suddenly became more beautiful.

Everyone in the class was watching the fireworks and no one noticed them.

Lin Luo fixed her eyes on the glass window, looking at Fu Xingchuan's face from top to bottom.

In fact, she was not very emotional because she had never liked watching fireworks since she was a child.

Lin Luo doesn't like fleeting things. Every time the fireworks are over and the sky turns dark again, she feels that the world is huge and she is too small.

Sometimes she would doubt the meaning of setting off fireworks, but she suddenly realized that perhaps their existence and splendor were the meaning, just like her insignificant love.

Fu Xingchuan was watching the fireworks, and Lin Luo also looked up at the sky again.

A few beams of light crackled and burst out in the darkness, but they were short-lived. After the lively carnival, everyone returned to their studies. Lin Luo was still unsatisfied and felt lonely. She hated this gap.

It was still the second evening study session. The sound of fireworks had just drowned out their cheers and noise, but now the noise had died down. For fear of attracting Cheng Kaizhong and Director Wang, the classroom fell silent.

"Did you call me for something just now?" Lin Luo turned around and asked Fu Xingchuan softly.

"It's okay." He was in a bad mood, so Lin Luo didn't ask any more questions and picked up the pen to write the questions again.

Zhu Sui'an pulled his hand out from underneath and walked back to his seat. Fu Xingchuan glanced at Ruan Ye, who was beaming with joy. He leaned over the table, deliberately placing his hand across Ruan Ye's table.

He had a book of poetry under his chin: Adonis's "My Loneliness is a Garden." The cushion was too high for him, so he flipped through the pages and returned to his original position.

With Fu Xingchuan's elbow on the table, Ruan Ye had difficulty writing, but he had no complaints.

Fu Xingchuan didn't want to sleep. In front of him, Lin Luo was writing furiously with a red pen, and everyone else was full of fighting spirit, so he also sat up.

Just as I was about to put the poetry collection away, I lowered my eyes and saw the following words written on the page he had opened: [I feel the universe flowing, between your eyes and me.]

He thought of something, closed the book, and took out an exercise book to mark the questions.

Before the end of evening self-study, Fu Xingchuan gave Lin Luo several exercise books and asked her to do the questions marked in red and ask him if she didn't understand.

Lin Qi nodded and said politely, "Thank you."

Fu Xingchuan nodded and left through the back door.

Lin Luo slowly packed her schoolbag. After putting it on her back, she saw the thermos cup in the drawer that Tong Yun had dropped when he came to see her in the morning. She picked it up and went upstairs to the sprint class.

There was only one class on the first floor, and the fifth floor was exceptionally quiet, but the lights in the sprint class were still on. As Lin Luo approached, she saw that most of the students in the sprint class were still there, all buried in their own exercises, not interfering with each other, as if the others didn't exist.

But there were two people huddled together in the middle of the classroom, as if they were discussing something. They were Fu Xingchuan and Tong Yun.

Lin Luo felt her schoolbag was so heavy. It was obviously empty, just a few exercise books Fu Xingchuan had given her and a stack of test papers. Why was it so heavy?

Wu Yun, the biology class representative of the second year of high school, happened to be coming out of the class. Lin Qi gave her the thermos and asked her to help pass it on.

Walking back to the stairwell, most of the people in the class below had almost left. No one wanted to stay in school for another second during the holidays. They couldn't wait to go home. Lin Luo also wanted to go home.

She hurried downstairs, her footsteps clacking, but the voice-activated light didn't wake up. She missed a step and twisted her ankle.

It hurts so much.

"I'll go with you tomorrow." Fu Xingchuan's voice echoed in the corridor.

"Okay." Tong Yun went downstairs with him.

The light is on.

Lin Luo ignored his injured foot and left in a hurry, holding on to the rusty handrail.