Chapter 160: Undecided, No Need to Reject

She said, “I see.”

In fact, she saw nothing.

The bright red lion caught her eye, but her brain automatically filtered it out. She gazed at the orderly performance in the distance, but her mind was in a mess.

It was unclear how long Xu Sirui held her up. By the time he set her down, the lion dance was over. He rubbed his arm intermittently, laughing at her short height. Then, without further ado, he turned and returned to his own line.

The teacher at the front restored order, barking orders for them to line up. She was hustled back to her seat. Ahri stood to her left, Sailor Moon to her right. The sky ahead was a clear indigo, a glass-like, pristine view amidst the grayness of high school.

**

The two days of the college entrance examination were not much different from any other time for Zhu Yingning.

Zhou Tianqing had originally wanted to follow other parents' lead and drop them off at the school gate, then stand guard there, waiting patiently for them to emerge from their exams and offer their best wishes. But both children vehemently refused. Zhu Yingning said it was too much trouble, and Xu Sirui said, "Don't mess with our mentality. Exams are stressful enough, and we have to worry about whether you're getting a heatstroke outside."

Zhou Tianqing reflected on this and realized that this was indeed a bit self-indulgent. Why bother to stay outside in the sun in the middle of summer? So after dropping them off, he simply returned home to enjoy the air conditioning and eat watermelon.

Zhu Yingning and Xu Sirui were assigned to different examination rooms. Before going to their respective examination rooms, they didn't even say "come on" to each other like other people did.

Xu Sirui asked her: "What are we having for dinner tonight?"

"My aunt asked the hourly maid to make us a tonic feast, and I overheard it. I have an exam tomorrow, and I'm afraid I'll get an upset stomach from eating too much, so I asked her to make a simple noodle soup with some vegetables, beef, and eggs. Is that okay with you?"

"A wise decision."

"That's it." She raised her chin and pointed at herself with her thumb.

Xu Sirui smiled, and then they parted at the corner of the corridor to prepare for the college entrance examination.

There was no inspiring background music, no passionate and romantic vows. During these two days of the college entrance examination, everything was no different from usual.

The sky is clear, blue and cloudless.

**

After the exam, Wu Bo logged into Obi Island and sent a link on QQ to invite Zhu Yingning to play games together. As a result, she sent a message saying that she was reviewing the answers to the college entrance examination.

"?"

Wu Bo called and expressed his admiration, "You have such a good attitude."

He is indeed a loyal practitioner of the answer faction.

"After estimating the scores, I'll have a clear idea of ​​what I should be getting, so I won't be too excited when the results are actually released." She had a good reason.

"I can't do that. If I estimate my grades now, my entire summer vacation will be ruined. I'm going to postpone this final meal until the last minute."

"Don't worry, you will definitely do well in the exam."

"I hope so. By the way, where's Xu Sirui? Is he checking his answers too?"

"He's not right. He said there's no way he could fail the test. We need to keep it a little bit suspenseful so we can feel the surprise when the results come out."

"?"

Wu Bo gnashed with hatred, "...You all have such a good attitude. I hate you."

As she sent her pet to Fengwa for care, she instructed Zhu Yingning, "Then remember to come online after you finish checking the answers. It's finally vacation time, and I suspect your little elf has already run away from home."

The elf had indeed run away and gone to a charity home, and would never come back. After Zhu Yingning logged into the game, she had to buy a new elf egg and spent a few minutes feeling deeply sorry for herself for neglecting the original one.

During the summer vacation after the college entrance examination, even the air seemed tired. She spent a few days doing nothing, completely clearing her mind, playing games, eating fruits, playing badminton downstairs with Xu Sirui, and going out to have dinner with classmates in turn - she spent a week like this before she began to seriously plan the longest summer vacation of her life.

Zhou Tianqing suggested that they learn to drive. Xu Sirui was quite interested, but Zhu Yingning felt that it would be impossible for her to drive a car in the short term, let alone own her own car. After learning, her driver's license would probably just be a decoration gathering dust. It would be better for her to take advantage of this time to work more to save for living expenses during college, and send more money home.

Zhou Tianqing's persuasion was fruitless and he could only let her go.

She started taking tutoring orders again and shamelessly used her own estimated scores to increase her quotes.

They were all regular customers from the same neighborhood, and one parent half-jokingly asked her, "What if your actual scores don't match your predictions? Wouldn't that be a huge loss for us?"

"If I don't pass the exam, I'll refund the money," she said. Then, to avoid misunderstanding, she quickly added, "I'll refund the extra money, not all of it."

This made the parents laugh and they said she had learned bad things in Beijing and the longer she stayed there the smarter she became.

While she was busy tutoring, Xu Sirui was busy learning to drive. He'd arranged to take driving lessons with some of his adult friends. They were all men, and while they might not be able to afford a racing car in the future, they all learned to drive manual transmissions to save face. Sun Mingyuan, who turned adult on September 1st, couldn't learn to drive, so he could only call them daily to harass them.

After a few days, all the friends who were learning to drive with Xu Sirui turned as black as coal, but he was still glowing white.

"You're so amazing, Xu Sirui!" The friend could only console himself, "Eddie Peng and Leo Ku are all black too."

"You can count whether there are more white male stars or black male stars." He lowered his head and played with his mobile phone in anger.

"……roll!"

After scolding her, she remembered that the results would be out tomorrow, and her mood suddenly became depressed. She sighed and asked, "Aren't you nervous at all?"

He raised his head: "What are you nervous about?"

"...Forget it, I have nothing to say to people like you."

After practicing driving and returning home, Xu Sirui did not go upstairs immediately. He sat on the long rattan chair downstairs in the community for a while.

Next to the rattan chair was a street lamp, and under the lamp was a huge moth. He stared at the moth in a daze, and suddenly remembered the moth he saw in the so-called toilet in Zhu Yingning's house when he went to her house on the first day. He couldn't help but laugh softly.

After laughing, I felt a little dazed again.

He wasn't really worried about his college entrance exam results; he was worried about something else: filling out his college application form. The results were coming out, which meant filling out his application form would only be a matter of a few days, so he didn't have the luxury of procrastinating.

When filling out his dream university application at the end of his second year of high school, he'd written down a university in Shanghai, half out of spite and half out of evasion, hoping to be as far away from Zhu Yingning as possible, thus maintaining some distance from his imaginary friend. However, as the day for filling out his college application drew closer, he had to seriously consider this question he'd deliberately ignored.

He was pretty sure he was interested in game development.

If he wanted to work in IT, he could choose either Beijing or Shanghai. Both are super first-tier cities, far ahead in this area, and each has its own advantages. Shenzhen is also an option, but it's too far away, so it was not considered from the beginning.

He can stay in Beijing or go to Shanghai.

By now, his angry mood had long dissipated. The reason why he still did not rule out Shanghai as an option was because he had a subtle change in his career plan.

Before the age of 18, Xu Sirui was convinced he longed for an ordinary life. Ideally, he'd become a game developer, working a routine 996 or 007, and then face unemployment at 35.

By then, he might have saved up some money through his hard work in the past few years. After losing his job, he could use this money to live in Yunnan, or even if he was more ambitious, travel around the world, spend half of his savings, and then think about his livelihood in the second half of his life like an ordinary person with a worried look on his face.

Well, very good.

It's neither too conspicuous nor completely inconspicuous. There are times of hard work and then there are times of complete idleness.

But at some point, his expectation for the game was no longer just to be a programmer writing code and obeying the arrangements of his superiors, but to lead a team independently and slowly evolve from a studio into a mature company.

He wanted to start a business, to make the leap from pure academia to the business world, to build his own capital and brand. Only in this way could he become stronger, strong enough to support the people he cared about, and to no longer passively endure hardships, but to proactively respond to them.

Becoming a game programmer and starting your own business may seem similar at first glance, but they're actually quite different, requiring different skills and mindsets. Because of these significant differences, choosing a target city requires careful consideration.

When it comes to long-term brand building, team leadership, and familiarity with the full range of game development and operations processes, Shanghai undoubtedly better suits his needs.

However, he didn't have to go to Shanghai. As a native Beijinger, it would definitely be more convenient for him to study and work at home.

Most importantly…

Zhu Yingning wants to stay in Beijing.

If she said that she hoped he would apply to the same university as her, he was not sure whether he would overturn all his decisions.

He didn't dare think about it anymore.

The boy’s foggy thoughts are like the dark night, and the road ahead is like a lamp hanging in the air.

**

On the day the results were announced, Zhou Tianqing brought her grandparents along to add to the atmosphere. But after witnessing the entire process of checking their scores, she lamented that she had never seen such boring people, who didn't even show the slightest bit of surprise after seeing the results.

"Because the score is similar to what I estimated, I have been mentally prepared for more than ten days," Zhu Yingning explained.

Zhou Tianqing glared at Xu Sirui indignantly: "Why are you so calm?"

Xu Sirui didn't want to say it because after seeing the results he would have to start worrying about filling out the application form, so he chose not to answer her question.

Here, Zhou Tianqing was lecturing Xu Sirui, "You have to speak up when the adults ask you questions." Over there, Zhu Yingning was busy making a phone call with Zhu Zhiwei, informing her of the good news.

Zhou Tianqing patted Xu Sirui's arm and said, "Don't forget to get up early tomorrow to visit your mother. We agreed to tell her as soon as the results are out."

"I know." Xu Sirui nodded.

It seems that Zhou Tianlan made an appointment several days ago, so you can just go there when the time comes.

The next day he got up early and Zhou Tianqing drove over to pick him up.

The visit to Zhou Tianlan went smoothly and peacefully. Zhou Tianlan had gained some weight recently, and his complexion looked much rosier. He smiled as he listened to his college entrance examination results: "I had a dream the night before last. I dreamed of your score, which was only one point off what you're talking about now. Oh, you don't know how connected I am to Buddhism now."

"Yes, yes, yes." Zhou Tianqing laughed as he listened.

After leaving the prison, it was almost noon, and Zhou Tianqing took Xu Sirui to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

Seeing that her sister was doing well, she was naturally happy. She specially ordered a bottle of wine to drink with the snacks, and also encouraged Xu Sirui to have a few sips as well.

"...I don't want it." He looked speechlessly at Zhou Tianqing, whose cheeks were flushed from drinking. "Did you forget that you drove here?"

"It doesn't matter, just open it later."

"? I haven't got my driver's license yet."

"Hahaha!" Zhou Tianqing laughed a few times and patted his shoulder vigorously. "I forgot. It's okay, it's okay. It's just a matter of asking someone to buy it for you."

"...designated driver." Xu Sirui corrected.

He was not impressed by his aunt's drinking capacity. He suspected that their family's drinking capacity was entirely hereditary, because as far as he knew, his grandparents didn't seem to be able to drink much either.

With a smile on her lips, she poured herself another small cup, took a few sips, and said, "I'm happy... Look, you and Yingning both did so well in the exam, and you've grown up so much in the blink of an eye, and are about to go to college. As an elder, ah, I really have a lot of thoughts... Yingning is even considering having a relationship. How come you two grow up so fast?"

Xu Sirui suspected he'd misheard. Don't drinkers tend to talk nonsense? He snorted and shrugged, dismissing the question: "What's this about being in love? Don't spread rumors about people." His hand, gripping the glass, trembled slightly.

Zhou Tianqing picked up a peanut, stuffed it into her mouth, and chewed it slowly until she swallowed it all. Then she said, "How could I possibly make up a rumor like this? There was a kid named..." She thought for a moment, covered her forehead, and hissed, "I think it was a kid named Zhang. Hiss... I forgot his name. Anyway, little Zhang confessed his love to Yingning after the college entrance examination. How could you not know?"

She smiled smugly, like a child who had learned a secret known only to her. She shook her index finger and said, "I know. She doesn't trust you, so she didn't tell you anything. It was her first time someone confessed their love to her, and she was quite panicked. She came to ask me what to do and how to reject it without hurting the other person."

Xu Sirui's heart, which had been hanging in his throat, plummeted back to its original position with those last words. He gasped for air, letting the air tear through his lungs, refill his body, and force his clotted blood to begin flowing again. It was a long time before he became sluggishly aware of the pain in his fingertips. He looked down and saw that he had gripped the cup too hard, his nails digging into the flesh. The pink flesh turned outward was crystal clear, and a streak of bright red gradually seeped out.

But, okay, okay.

She asked how to refuse, and she didn't agree.

He pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled, trying to regain his dry voice, and asked casually: "So what did you tell her?"

Zhou Tianqing looked at him.

She was still drunk, her cheeks rosy, yet she seemed quite sober. Genetics were powerful; peach blossom eyes ran throughout her family, and Zhou Tianqing was no exception. Her eyes bore a resemblance to Xu Sirui's, with gracefully curved double eyelids, the corners of her eyes always slightly curved, as if half-smiled.

She looked at him, her eyes exceptionally clear, as if washed by water, with a transparent smile.

She said slowly, "I told her not to refuse."