Li Mo
The next day, Li Mo returned to school, and her old class teacher, Yuan Hai, suddenly announced that she could start applying for financial aid for impoverished students.
Li Mo went up on stage to receive the application form and found that everyone was staring at her.
Especially her deskmate Chen You, whose gaze towards her was filled with very straightforward shock.
There are three types of people in Yuehai: those with good grades but poor family background, those with good grades but good family background, and those with poor grades but good family background.
The first type of students accounts for a very small percentage, with only three to five students in a class. Chen You belongs to the first type. He comes from a very remote small county—Luxian.
Luxian County is a well-known impoverished county, ranking among the poorest in the country.
Chen You's family has been farmers for three generations. He studied very hard since he was a child. His elementary and junior high school classmates had either gone to vocational high school or dropped out of school. His peers had all gone down different paths from him. Only he fought his way through and won first place in the 2008 Luxian County Junior High School Entrance Examination.
There are only two or three impoverished counties like Luxian in Yuehai City, so each county was given twenty special admission slots. Regardless of whether they passed the admission score of Yuehai Middle School, as long as they could be among the top twenty in the county, they would all be admitted.
On the day he was confirmed to have been admitted to Yuehai Middle School and assigned to the honors class, Chen You was in a state of ecstasy, like Fan Jin who had just passed the imperial examination. He was so happy that he couldn't sleep for three days and three nights. His parents set off firecrackers and held a banquet in the village to celebrate Chen You's admission.
At that time, Chen You had already begun to envision a bright future for himself.
But reality is always particularly cruel.
Yuehai Middle School has five key science classes, and these classes are full of top students. He is always at the bottom of his class.
The "favored sons of the emperor" of that time no longer exist.
He began to become mediocre and became a "transparent figure" at school. In fact, among the bottom ten students in the class, his grades were about the same, and he even scored much higher than Liang Xinchong. However, he seemed to be the one with the fewest friends.
Unlike Liang Xinchong, who was handsome and academically gifted, attracting everyone's attention regardless of their grades, he wasn't like Lu Jianhao or Zhang Yuqi, who had outgoing personalities and talents in art or singing.
He had nothing, and his once proud achievements were now utterly worthless.
From childhood to adulthood, he only studied and worked. After two years in Yuehai, compared with many privileged young men, he became increasingly taciturn.
To put it simply, they've become stupid from reading too much.
In his first year of high school, Chen You had a crush on a girl. That girl was confident and radiant, and she introduced herself on the podium like this: "My name is Qin Yue, the Yue as in joy." When she smiled, her expression was so vivid.
Chen You blinked, and just like that, he had someone in his heart.
However, Qin Yue wouldn't notice her because he knew that Qin Yue liked Song Feiran from the next class.
Song Feiran is much better than him. He has better grades, is better looking, has a better personality, and can even play basketball.
Chen You had seen Qin Yue cheering for Song Feiran by the playground. He lowered his head even further, drooped his head, and quickly left the scene.
It's said that liking someone makes you feel inferior.
Every time Chen You saw Qin Yue, he wished he could turn into an ostrich and bury his head in the sand.
What made Chen You feel extremely inferior during his high school years was not just the girl he liked and his mediocre grades.
There was also something extremely serious—his family background.
So when Chen You heard about applying for a poverty subsidy, he felt like he couldn't breathe.
To Chen You's surprise, in addition to the familiar names from last semester, there was one more name on the list of applicants for the poverty subsidy this time.
That person was his new deskmate, Li Mo.
Not only was Chen You surprised, but everyone else in the class was also shocked, including Liang Xinchong.
Li Mo doesn't look like a student from a poor family.
She was very confident and spoke with poise and grace to everyone. Her spoken English was very standard. Most students at Yuehai Middle School had started learning English professionally from kindergarten or primary school and even began taking professional oral English classes in junior high school. However, Yuan Yuan still praised Li Mo's spoken English. When she spoke in English class, she had a slight London accent. Even her Mandarin was very standard, making it hard to guess where she had transferred from.
She was beautiful, with a classic oval face, very clean bone structure, tall and slender. Her face alone wouldn't be strikingly beautiful or flawless. She carried a distinct scholarly air, along with a touch of vulnerability and stubbornness, like a jasmine flower slowly blooming on a summer morning.
Not long after she transferred to this school, rumors began circulating in the grade: there was a little jasmine in Class Two.
A girl like this is the school beauty in a angst-filled youth movie; one boy after another likes her, and they are all unconsciously attracted to her.
Her aura seemed to have been built with a lot of money.
It's hard to imagine that her family was poor.
Tang Keqing was the person in the class who had the best relationship with Li Mo, and even she was shocked for a moment.
"Li Mo, you...you're a student from a poor family?"
"Yes, that's me."
"Huh?" Tang Keqing was shocked.
"how?"
Tang Keqing thought for a moment, tried to organize her words, and then said, "You look like... you've had a life of comfort and privilege since childhood, with loving parents, in short, like a princess."
Li Mo picked up her pen and filled in her personal information on the application form for students from impoverished families.
Tang Keqing is right; she did indeed grow up in that kind of environment.
At this time last year, her father, Li Jiansheng, told her that during the 2008 Olympics, he and her mother, Shen Peixian, watched the Olympics at the Bird's Nest.
Unfortunately, the change happened in an instant.
Now it's 2008, they didn't go to the Olympics, and she no longer has a father.
The application form for students from impoverished families has been submitted.
There are only three students from impoverished families in this class: her, her deskmate Chen You, and a girl named Jiang Yixuan.
Jiang Yixuan was promoted from the regular class in the last class placement exam. People didn't interact with her much and weren't familiar with her.
The three of them went to submit the forms together, but Jiang Yixuan walked ahead alone, her back view cold and lonely.
Since Chen You learned that Li Mo was a poor student like him, he straightened his back a bit, and when he talked to Li Mo, he no longer always hung his head and stared intently at the ground.
Instead, he dared to raise his head and look into Li Mo's eyes.
Chen You regarded Li Mo as "one of his own kind"—he and she were similar in some ways, both coming from equally poor families.
People are all the same; like attracts like, and unlike repels like.
Although Chen You is still often timid, at least he dares to ask her questions now.
As for the girl named "Jiang Yixuan", she didn't say a word to Li Mo after handing in her form. She remained aloof from the crowd, listened attentively in class, and studied diligently after class, sometimes memorizing vocabulary and sometimes doing her homework.
Jiang Yixuan is also quite different from Chen You.
Chen You's silence stemmed from his inferiority complex, but Li Mo couldn't see a trace of inferiority in Jiang Yixuan.
She simply couldn't be bothered to interact with anyone.
I see everything in a detached way.
Later, Li Mo started talking to Jiang Yixuan when she went to a bookstore outside the school.
The bookstore's manager is young, unmarried, and an early advocate of "non-marriage".
The bookstore is called "Xiao Tu Bookstore," and the manager is Tu Lan. Even though she is over thirty years old, she is still radiant, dressed neatly and cleanly, and is very beautiful.
"Boss lady, I'd like a set of high school chemistry materials." The speaker seemed to be a student's parent.
Tu Lan said with a smile, "I'm not the boss's wife, I'm the owner of this bookstore, and I'm not married yet."
Then the two of them started talking.
Tu Lan said she was still unmarried, and the students' parents said it was a pity that she was not married at this age. Tu Lan said she would never get married, and the students' parents were shocked and said that her life was ruined!
Back in 2008, "non-marriage" was seen by most people as no different from being a freak.
Li Mo didn't intentionally eavesdrop on their conversation; she was just choosing some interesting extracurricular reading materials when she overheard them.
At that time, Li Mo just thought the store manager was quite interesting, and she would probably visit the bookstore many times in the future.
Li Mo met Jiang Yixuan on her third visit to "Xiao Tu Bookstore".
At that time, Jay Chou's album "Capricorn" was released, and Xiao Tu, the shop manager, was very trend-following. The shop played "Rice Fragrance" or "Give Me a Song's Time" on repeat.
The best-selling campus publications in bookstores were "Reader" or "Youth Digest," which were very popular among high school students at the time.
Li Mo's weekly allowance is fixed, but she still doesn't stop buying books just because she doesn't have money. She saves money by cutting back on her three meals a day to two, and sometimes she only eats one meal a day when she's not hungry, saving money to buy a few magazines to read on weekends.
You can borrow books at Xiaotu Bookstore, and the prices are very cheap, only one or two yuan.
But Li Mo has never liked borrowing books.
The reason is simple: if you can't annotate or write anything in a book, it's really unbearable.
She discovered that Jiang Yixuan was also that kind of person.
Jiang Yixuan comes to Xiaotu Bookstore every weekend to buy a few books. This weekend she also bought Fahrenheit stickers.
When it came time to pay the bill that day, Jiang Yixuan was in front of her in line. The two recognized each other, but their relationship was limited to knowing each other's names. They were not familiar with each other and were quite distant, so they simply nodded slightly to each other as a greeting.
It was Jiang Yixuan's turn to pay the bill.
The cashier scanned the QR codes on Jiang Yixuan's book list one by one.
Li Mo was surprised to find that their reading lists were very similar.
Jiang Yixuan brought a copy of "Little Fire" this week, which is a book that Li Mo really likes. She also just bought and finished reading it last week.
Li Mo rarely saw anyone around her read this book, and she suddenly felt like taking the initiative to greet her. Perhaps heaven heard her call.
Jiang Yixuan was just a few yuan short. She stood there, frowning, and hesitated for a while.
Just as she was about to tell the cashier that she wanted to return the Fahrenheit sticker on her phone, Li Mo offered her help: "I'll lend it to you first."
Jiang Yixuan wanted to refuse.
Li Mo said, "Let's just consider this as making friends?"
This was the first time they had actually spoken to each other.
They weren't very familiar with each other yet, and after that day, Li Mo never imagined that her relationship with Jiang Yixuan would become so good.
I can save money to buy books, which provides intellectual nourishment, but I'll still miss out on meals.
She only had a fixed allowance of 150 yuan per week, and a lot of it was spent on books, so she naturally ate less.
Li Mo started buying some buckwheat bread. At that time, online shopping was not so popular among high school students. She mostly bought it from small supermarkets or convenience stores outside the school. A big box could be bought for a dozen yuan, which could solve her breakfast for a month.
She ate buckwheat bread during breaks between classes, usually didn't go to the cafeteria for lunch, and ate dinner at home, so she didn't really starve.
But since she went to the cafeteria with Tang Keqing less often, she would sometimes see Li Mo eating buckwheat bread when she was hungry at noon, and her nose would suddenly feel sore.
Tang Keqing was a strange child who cried easily. Seeing this scene, she couldn't help but cry and asked her, sobbing, "Don't you have money for lunch?"
This startled Li Mo.
She smiled and said, "I'm fine."
Sometimes Tang Keqing couldn't stand it anymore and would drag Li Mo to the cafeteria, saying he would treat her to a meal.
It's fine to freeload once or twice, but if it happens too often, Tang Keqing might be willing, but Li Mo would feel embarrassed.
At noon, she was still eating bread, but she didn't eat it in the dormitory anymore, so Tang Keqing could see her.
Li Mo changed to eating in the classroom, a place where Tang Keqing wouldn't see her.
Li Mo is like a little hamster, secretly eating dry bread during breaks.
He managed to dodge Tang Keqing, but he couldn't dodge Liang Xinchong, who was standing next to her.
Li Mo finished eating the whole bread and was about to throw away the trash when she turned around and saw Liang Xinchong staring at her.
She rarely saw him with such a blank expression.
In her memory, Liang Xinchong always had a cheerful look whenever he saw her, or he would look at her with a fawning expression like a puppy.
His smile always had a hint of smugness and a touch of mischief.
But when he had no expression on his face, he was actually quite frighteningly cold.
After throwing away the trash, Li Mo ignored him.
Liang Xinchong pressed her further, asking, "You're not eating rice, you're just eating this?"
Li Mo: "Who told you I wasn't going to eat?"
"I only saw Tang Keqing in the cafeteria; it's been a long time since I've seen you."
Li Mo said, "You go to the cafeteria so late every day, by the time you get there I've already finished eating."
Liang Xinchong didn't believe it at all.
If he could be so easily fooled, he wouldn't be Liang Xinchong.
He reached into his pocket, took out a meal card, and placed it on her desk.
"You gave me your meal card, what are you going to eat?"
Liang Xinchong said, "I have money to eat."
Li Mo understood what he meant. When he said he had money to eat, that was really all he meant, nothing more.
She understood that one should not accept rewards without merit.
Li Mo threw his meal card back.
Liang Xinchong glared at her and called her by her full name, somewhat angrily: "Li Mo, what are you doing?"
Li Mo imitated him and solemnly called her name: "Liang Xinchong, I don't want your things."
Liang Xinchong didn't argue with her about a worthless meal card.
The next day at noon, while the other students rushed to the cafeteria, Li Mo was eating bread in the classroom.
Day students can choose to eat lunch in the cafeteria or outside, and generally they don't go home to eat, unless their home is very close. After all, they have classes in the afternoon, and if they have to travel back and forth, they are likely to be unable to concentrate in class.
After eating the bread, Li Mo sat down in the classroom and slept on her desk to catch up on her sleep—day students don't have dormitories to sleep in, so they can only sleep on their desks in the classroom.
Liang Xinchong's family lives in a school district house just a street away from Yuehai Middle School. He could go home to live there even faster than he could go back to the boys' dormitory, but he just doesn't.
She also slept on the table, just like Li Mo.
Not only that, he also stopped taking his time at noon and left the school as soon as get out of class ended.
When they returned, they were carrying two meals.
One copy was placed on Li Mo's desk, and one was for herself.
For several days in a row, Li Mo had been eating dry bread for lunch. But now, the smell of fresh food made her mouth water.
She forced herself to speak: "What are you doing now?"
"I bought an extra one." Liang Xinchong perfectly demonstrated what it means to lie through one's teeth.
Li Mo originally wanted to be reserved, but after holding back for a long time, she couldn't resist and finally compromised and opened it.
She lowered her head and took two bites.
Liang Xinchong, standing to the side, wasn't in a hurry to open the lunchbox. He rested his chin on his hand and watched her eat, smiling broadly.
At first glance, he seems a bit silly.
He has such a handsome face, yet he insists on making such a silly expression.
"Is it delicious?" Liang Xinchong asked her, his tone carrying a hint of seeking praise.
Li Mo first scolded herself in her heart for being so unprincipled, then said to Liang Xinchong in a very serious tone, "Thank you, but don't bring me any more in the future."
"Then I'll buy an extra portion each time, it'll be a waste if you don't eat it."
Li Mo said, "I'll feed it to the trash can."
She truly kept her word.
The next day, Liang Xinchong used the same trick again. Despite her craving, Li Mo didn't hesitate to throw the food directly into the trash can.
Liang Xinchong stared at the food in the trash can, then looked at Li Mo: "You..."
You talked for a long time, but couldn't come up with anything.
Li Mo couldn't bear to throw it away; this guy was very willing to spend money, and a meal like that probably cost tens of yuan. If Li Mo accepted it once or twice, there would definitely be a third and fourth time.
Human relationships are like a snowball; the more it rolls, the bigger it gets.
She didn't want to owe anyone a favor, even if that person was Liang Xinchong.
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