23 Chapter 23
◎Love should not be the rope that binds your wings◎
After the competition, Sang Xinqi finally felt relieved. Her only goal now was to focus on preparing for the Gaokao. Time slipped by quietly amidst her focused study, and in the blink of an eye, it was already the end of December.
During the break, Chang Yisi lazily slumped over the table and looked sideways at her. "Sangsang, tomorrow is New Year's Day holiday. What are your plans?"
Sang Xinqi was sorting through her notes when she heard him. Her pen paused slightly, then she continued writing calmly, "I haven't decided yet. I might review at home or go to the library."
Chang Yisi blinked and leaned closer to her. "What's wrong with you lately? You've changed completely since you came back from the competition. I've never seen you work so hard before."
Sang Xinqi pursed her lips and said nothing.
In fact, she had never thought about applying to Peking University before.
But when I was chatting with Liao Yishen that day, he casually mentioned, "I should go to Peking University for college."
Just that one sentence, like a seed, took root silently in her heart.
She also wanted to go to Kyoto University and attend the same university as him.
"I want to study fashion design at Kyoto University," she said softly.
Chang Yisi was stunned for a moment, then gave a thumbs up, "Great! You have great ambitions!"
Sang Xinqi smiled helplessly.
"But..." Chang Yisi hesitated, "The score line for Beijing University is no joke. The competition is too fierce."
Sang Xinqi put the books on the table into her schoolbag one by one. Her fingertips tightened slightly, but her tone was firm, "So, in these last five months, I have to give it my all."
Chang Yisi looked at her serious profile, and finally nodded with a smile, "Come on!"
Sang Xinqi also smiled, "Yeah, let's work hard together."
Recently, Sang Xinqi and Jiang Xun no longer wait for Liao Yishen at school after school as they used to. Instead, they meet at the library on the way home. The three of them study together until nine o'clock and then go home separately.
Today is no exception.
After school, Sang Xinqi and Jiang Xun went straight to the library. She had just finished half of the test paper when the library door was gently pushed open and Liao Yishen walked in.
He walked straight to her side, took out a cup of milk tea from his backpack and handed it to her, "Here."
Sang Xinqi looked up and took the milk tea. Her fingertips accidentally touched his fingers. The slightly cool touch made her heart beat slightly faster. "...Thank you."
Liao Yishen raised his eyebrows and looked at her with a half-smile, "Are you suddenly so polite?"
Sang Xinqi pursed her lips and smiled, but said nothing.
After spending time together, she discovered that Liao Yishen was different from when they first met. He used to be quiet and always gave people a sense of alienation, but now, he would occasionally tease her and even make jokes. He looked much more lively and more like an ordinary teenager.
Seeing this, Jiang Xun came over immediately and asked, "Where's mine?"
Liao Yishen shrugged, "No."
Jiang Xun's eyes widened as he looked at his empty hands. "You really didn't bring it for me?"
Liao Yishen nodded, his tone calm, "Well, I didn't buy it."
Jiang Xun: “…”
Sang Xinqi couldn't help laughing out loud.
Jiang Xun looked hurt, "Okay, I'm redundant."
A smile flashed in Liao Yishen's eyes, and then he took out a bottle of drink from his schoolbag and threw it to him, "Here, it's yours."
Jiang Xun immediately smiled and took the drink, "You are indeed a good brother!"
Sang Xinqi glanced at him and couldn't help but complain, "Giving you a bottle of drink makes you a good brother?"
Jiang Xun unscrewed the bottle cap and shook the drink proudly, "Of course!"
He tilted his head back and took a sip. Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he turned around and asked, "By the way, what are your plans for tomorrow?"
Sang Xinqi didn't even raise her head, her pen scratching on the draft paper. "Of course, I'm studying."
Jiang Xun wailed, "It's New Year's Day holiday! Can we have some time to relax and work?"
Sang Xinqi finally raised her head and looked at him with a half-smile, "Aren't you also going to take the entrance exam for Peking University?"
When this was mentioned, Jiang Xun suddenly became depressed and collapsed on the table. "Alas, I can't study anymore. I want to give up..."
Sang Xinqi: “….”
Liao Yishen looked at him and said, "Hold on a little longer."
Jiang Xun looked up to the sky and sighed, "Studying is so tiring..."
"Get lost," Sang Xinqi glared at him, "Stop creating anxiety here."
Jiang Xun: “…”
The three of them chatted for a while and then continued to study.
Suddenly, there was a loud "bang" outside the window, followed by the sound of fireworks exploding one after another. The three of them looked up at the same time and saw a bunch of blue fireworks blooming brilliantly in the night sky, the dazzling light reflected on the glass windows of the library, a breathtaking beauty.
"So beautiful..." Sang Xinqi unconsciously put down her pen, her eyes following the fleeting fireworks in the sky.
Jiang Xun couldn't hold back any longer. "Today is the last day of the year! Why don't we stop studying and go out and play?"
Before Liao Yishen could express his opinion, Jiang Xun had already agreed with both hands, "Okay, okay!" Before he finished speaking, he began to pack his schoolbag in a hurry, fearing that Sang Xinqi would regret it if he was a second late.
Seeing his impatience, Sang Xinqi and Liao Yishen smiled at each other.
The three of them walked out of the library, the cold night wind blowing in their faces, but no one paid any attention. The sky in the distance was occasionally lit up by fireworks, and the atmosphere of the New Year was getting closer and closer. Jiang Xun ran ahead excitedly, turning back and shouting, "Hurry up! Let's go to the nearby mall, there's an event going on."
Sang Xinqi trotted after him, her hair rustling in the wind. She turned around and noticed Liao Yishen was still walking beside her, keeping a perfect distance. Another golden firework exploded in the night sky, illuminating his handsome profile.
At this moment, all the fatigue seems to disappear, a new year, new hope, and... the important people around me.
Sang Xinqi curled the corners of her mouth quietly and quickened her pace to catch up with Jiang Xun who was shouting in front.
The three of them soon arrived at a nearby shopping mall. The New Year's Eve crowds made the entire business district bustling with activity. Jiang Xun excitedly pointed to the center of the square and said, "Let's celebrate New Year's Eve here!" Sang Xinqi smiled and nodded, "Okay."
A band is performing in the square, and the dynamic music and the cheers of the crowd are intertwined to create a warm New Year's Eve atmosphere.
Liao Yishen leaned forward slightly and suggested in Sang Xinqi's ear, "Eat something first?" His warm breath brushed against her ears, and Sang Xinqi suddenly felt numb all over, and her cheeks were hot. "Hmm..."
They chose a hot pot restaurant, and amid the steaming hot pot, the three of them chatted about interesting things about preparing for the exam.
It was already half past ten when they finished eating and there was only an hour and a half left until New Year's Day. When they returned to the square, the band was singing a lively song. The crowd swayed to the rhythm, and the three of them joined in.
"You sing so beautifully," Sang Xinqi turned her head and said to Liao Yishen.
The corners of his lips curled up slightly, "You too."
"It's so fun to spend New Year's Eve with you," she said happily from her heart.
"Me too," he said softly, but it made Sang Xinqi's heart tremble.
Happy times always pass quickly, and in the blink of an eye it is the countdown to the New Year.
Amidst the deafening cheers, Sang Xinqi suddenly turned around and looked at Liao Yishen. The moment their eyes met, they said in unison:
"Happy New Year, Sang Xinqi!"
"Liao Yishen, Happy New Year!"
In their eyes, which smiled at each other, they reflected each other and the brilliant fireworks.
On the way home, Jiang Xun tactfully went ahead.
The streets were still bustling in the early morning, and the two walked slowly hand in hand.
"It's too late, your mother should be worried," Liao Yishen said softly.
Sang Xinqi pouted, "I want to stay with you for a while longer..."
He gently ruffled the top of her hair, "We still have plenty of time."
Under the moonlight, Sang Xinqi suddenly looked around, blushing and whispering, "You...lower your head."
Liao Yishen's heart beat faster and he leaned over obediently.
The girl pecked him quickly on the lips and jumped away like a frightened deer, her cheeks flushed.
This sudden kiss made Liao Yishen stunned in place, and he could only hear the deafening sound of his own heartbeat.
The next second, he hugged her tightly. When they separated, he cupped her hot cheeks and kissed her tenderly and cherishingly under the girl's trembling eyelashes.
This awkward kiss lasted for a long time until Sang Xinqi gently pushed him away, breathing heavily. Both of them had red faces and did not dare to look each other in the eye.
"I...I should go back!" Sang Xinqi stuttered, turned around and ran into the community.
Liao Yishen stood there, his fingertips lightly touching his lips, where her warmth still lingered. This special New Year's Eve will become the most precious memory of their youth.
During the three-day New Year's Day holiday, Sang Xinqi spent almost all her time in the library. She listed the difficult questions that had accumulated one by one, and Liao Yishen patiently explained them one by one.
When he lectures, he is always clear and organized, and occasionally he draws some simple diagrams on the draft paper to make complex topics easy to understand.
"Using auxiliary lines to connect these two points here will make the idea much clearer," Liao Yishen lightly drew a line on the geometric diagram with a pencil, and Sang Xinqi suddenly understood.
"You explain it more clearly than the teacher," she couldn't help but sigh.
Liao Yishen smiled and said, "You are the one who gets it right away."
After the holiday, life returned to the rhythm of three points - home, school, and library.
It’s boring but fulfilling, and every day I’m accumulating energy for my dreams.
Winter vacation came in a blink of an eye. On the last day before the vacation, the six of them had a small gathering. After all, they hadn't gathered together for a long time. At the dinner table, they tacitly agreed not to mention their studies, but talked about the latest gossip. Studying was tiring enough, and talking about other things was more relaxing, which was also the meaning of their gathering.
As the New Year approaches, Mr. Sang has returned, and the house suddenly becomes lively. Although Mrs. Sang always nags, "We are divorced, why don't you go back to your own home for the New Year?" Mr. Sang always smiles and doesn't take it seriously. He still stays at home to help put up Spring Festival couplets and make dumplings.
On New Year's Eve, Liao Yishen suddenly appeared downstairs of her house. In the cold night, he was wearing a gray scarf, and the white breath he exhaled turned into mist under the street lights. The two walked around the community several times, talking about everything from final exams to college applications, from Spring Festival Gala programs to future university life.
"If only we could get into the same university..." Sang Xinqi stopped talking mid-sentence.
Liao Yishen turned to look at her, his eyes gentle but firm, "I definitely will."
Sang Xinqi smiled and nodded. The clock had already moved towards the new year, and they said goodbye under the blooming fireworks.
When Sang Xinqi got home, she found her phone vibrating. It was a message from Liao Yishen, "Happy New Year, my Sangsang."
Sang Xinqi looked at the message and couldn't suppress the smile on her face.
The joy of the Spring Festival has not yet faded, and the new semester has quietly arrived.
During the first week of school, the classroom was still filled with a lazy atmosphere. Some people were chatting in low voices, talking about interesting things that happened during the Chinese New Year, while others were lying on the table to catch up on their sleep.
But this state only lasted for a few days - the countdown numbers in the upper right corner of the blackboard became smaller day by day, like a silent alarm bell, making everyone unconsciously tense.
During the break, Sang Xinqi rubbed her sore wrists and looked out the window at the branches sprouting new buds. Winter had passed, and their spring was about to arrive.
After school that day, Sang Xinqi and Jiang Xun rode their scooters to the library. Jiang Xun screamed as he rode, "Ahhh! I'm about to collapse from studying."
Sang Xinqi pinched his lower back in disdain, "Stop yelling. You're breaking down in school, but your grades haven't improved."
"This is what makes me most angry!" When they reached the intersection, the light turned red. Jiang Xun braked and stopped the car, dissatisfied, "Why are your grades so advanced while mine are like an old ox pulling a broken cart?"
Sang Xinqi stared at his back, "Because I'm really learning, and you're just performing."
Jiang Xun refuted vigorously, "I am not."
"I know!" He suddenly turned his head and said, "It must be because I lack the motivation for love! Look at you and Liao Yishen..."
"Come on," Sang Xinqi rolled her eyes, "Don't you also have the motivation of love?"
"I'm single, okay!" Jiang Xun retorted angrily, but the tips of his ears turned red.
Sang Xinqi snorted softly, "The afternoon before yesterday, in the grove in the southeast corner of the playground..."
Jiang Xun instantly felt like a cat whose tail was stepped on, "She and I are just friends now."
"Oh~" Sang Xinqi deliberately stretched out her tone, "So kissing ordinary friends is popular now?"
"It was obviously her who started..." Jiang Xun was stuck in the middle of his sentence, his face flushed red, "Wait! How did you know?"
Sang Xinqi blinked innocently, "I went to the store to buy a pen, but who knew someone couldn't wait to go into the woods?"
She lowered her voice and imitated, "There's no one here~"
Jiang Xun hurriedly turned around and tried to cover her mouth, "Grandpa, please keep your voice down!"
Sang Xinqi laughed out loud.
"Beep--" A shrill horn sounded behind him. Jiang Xun turned around and glared at it impatiently, then moved his electric bike forward a little.
"Why are these people in such a hurry? Can't they see the red light?" he muttered, and just as he finished speaking, the red light came on.
The two chatted and laughed all the way to the library.
Find your previous spot, take out your books and start studying.
An hour passed.
"Strange, isn't he usually the most punctual?" Sang Xinqi opened her notebook, but couldn't help but look up at the door frequently.
Jiang Xun twirled his pen, "Maybe the teacher kept him after class."
The clock slowly slid towards eight, but the familiar figure still hadn't appeared. Sang Xinqi stared at the math problem on the table, the formulas written on the draft paper gradually blurring into a blur.
"Everyone has urgent matters to attend to," Jiang Xun couldn't help but speak when he saw her in a daze.
Sang Xinqi poked the notebook with the tip of her pen. "No...if he couldn't come, why didn't he tell me last night?"
"What if something urgent happens?" Jiang Xun excused himself for him.
The pen in Sang Xinqi's hand broke with a "snap" on the draft paper.
Jiang Xun looked at the pen she had broken, "This pen is so miserable."
Sang Xinqi turned around and rolled her eyes at him, then packed her schoolbag and said, "Let's go. Let's go back early today."
On the way back, Sang Xinqi was full of worries.
"Do you think anything will happen to him?" she asked again.
Jiang Xun threw his schoolbag over his shoulder and said, "Grandpa, this is the fifth time you've asked me this question. How about I accompany you to his house now?"
"No need..." Sang Xinqi shook her head, "Maybe there really is something urgent."
When she got home, she rushed into the room without even changing her shoes. The moment her phone screen lit up, her expectations were dashed again - there was no new message.
She threw her phone on the bed in frustration, and when she turned around, she was startled by a figure in the living room.
"Dad? Why are you back?"
Father Sang put down his phone, his eyes smiling behind the lenses, "You ran to your room as soon as you came back. I'd be surprised if you saw Dad."
Sang Xinqi stuck out her tongue and went over to hold her father's arm.
"Why are you in such a hurry to go back to your room? Is there some secret?" Father Sang pinched her nose.
"It's just...a classmate matter," she said vaguely, her fingertips unconsciously curling the corner of her clothes.
At this time, Sang's mother came out of the bedroom. Looking at the heartwarming scene between father and daughter, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curled up, "Sangsang has made great progress recently."
"If my daughter works hard, there's nothing she can't learn," said Father Sang proudly.
Sang Xinqi's ears burned with praise, "Dad! I'm not that great..."
"Oh, are you still shy?" Mother Sang joked, but her eyes lingered on her husband's face for a moment.
Father Sang understood and gently shook his daughter's hand.
"Sangsang, Mom and Dad have made a decision..." He paused, "We want to send you to the Royal Academy of Art for further studies."
Sang Xinqi looked up suddenly, and the pillow in her hand fell to the ground. "What?"
"An old classmate of Dad's teaches there. His friend saw your designs and really admired them," said Father Sang in a gentle voice. "Haven't you always been interested in fashion design? This is a rare opportunity."
Sang Xinqi clutched the corner of her clothes, the focused silhouette in the library flashing through her mind. She heard her own dry voice, "But... Peking University's fashion design program is also very good..."
The living room suddenly became quiet.
Father Sang pushed up his glasses and said, "Sangsang, are you...in love?"
"How do you know?" She regretted the moment she said it.
"So I guessed it right," Father Sang laughed. "Is it Yi Shen? He's a pretty good kid, and he's also good at studying."
Sang Xinqi looked at her mother for help, but she shook her head helplessly, "You kid, you lied and revealed everything."
"You..." Sang Xinqi's face flushed, "You're so cunning!"
Mother Sang sat down next to her and gently held her hand. "Mom doesn't object to you dating, but you are still young. Some decisions need to be considered in the long term."
She stroked her daughter's hair and said, "Love shouldn't be a rope that binds your wings."
The moonlight outside the window quietly climbed onto the coffee table and shone on the brochure of the Royal Academy of Art. Sang Xinqi looked at the building on the title page, and her heart seemed to be torn in two.
The morning light shone obliquely onto the desk through the glass windows of the classroom. Sang Xinqi stared at the densely packed formulas on the textbook, but the expectant eyes of her parents last night appeared in front of her.
The registration form for the IELTS training class, the brochure of the Royal College of Art, her mother's words "Love should not be a rope that binds your wings"... these images were repeatedly intertwined in her mind.
"Sangsang?" Chang Yisi poked her arm gently with a pen. "What's wrong with you?"
"Ah?" Sang Xinqi suddenly came back to her senses, and her voice seemed particularly abrupt in the quiet classroom.
Chalk dust traced an arc in the air, and the math teacher's stern gaze swept over, "Sang Xinqi, are you listening carefully?"
"I'm sorry, teacher. I'll listen carefully now," she lowered her head hurriedly, her cheeks flushed.
When the bell rang, Chang Yisi came over immediately and said, "Sorry, I didn't expect you to respond so loudly."
"You've been distracted all morning. What happened?"
Sang Xinqi played with the eraser and hesitated for a moment. "If... you were asked to choose between someone important to you and your dream, what would you choose?"
Chang Yisi answered without hesitation, "Of course it's a dream!" She counted on her fingers and explained, "Important people are always there, but the chance to realize a dream may only come once."
Then he added, "But if it's true love... then it's a different story."
Sang Xinqi looked out the window at the big tree next to the playground. Many times when Liao Yishen came to their school, he would stand under that tree waiting for her.
She remembered the slightly furrowed brows when he was explaining the problem, the awkward kiss on New Year's Eve, and the determined look in his eyes when he said "I will."
"What's wrong? Why are you asking this?" Chang Yisi's eyes suddenly widened. "Could it be that you have encountered such a choice?"
Sang Xinqi didn't answer, but buried her face in her arms.
The sun shone warmly on the tips of her hair, but her heart seemed to be hanging at a crossroads, swaying back and forth.
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