Chapter 157 Tin Soldier
The girl directly dialed the voice call and said "Hello" softly.
"You can keep quiet until I'm done, or if you sound asleep, I'll hang up."
Xu Jiqing closed his eyes and said, "Okay."
Her voice was gentle, with a faint electric sound in the background.
It's not the kind of rhythmic intonation you use when telling stories to children.
Instead, she coaxed him to sleep earnestly, as if whispering to him.
"Once upon a time, someone made twenty-five tin soldiers out of an old spoon and gave them to a little boy as a birthday present."
"Twenty-five tin soldiers were dressed in beautiful uniforms, all identical. Only the last one had only one leg because there was not enough tin. Even so, he still stood firmly on the table with his only leg."
"There were many toys on the table. The little tin soldier saw a paper palace with a beautiful ballerina in it. Her dress was so dazzling, but nothing could compare to her beauty."
The old guesthouse was quiet, with a faint sound of wind outside the window.
She knew he was listening.
Xu Jiqing turned the volume of his phone to the minimum and put it to his ear.
The anesthetic had worn off long ago.
The hematoma on my head hasn't subsided yet, and the wound hurts. After a while, I feel dizzy and want to vomit.
My entire right arm, from shoulder to wrist, was powerless and felt heavy as lead.
Just now, during a team leader meeting in the auditorium, the head coach's pen rolled to his feet. He bent down and subconsciously picked it up, only to find that the nerve damage this time was more serious than he had imagined.
It wasn't just his wrist rotation that was limited; he had lost even the most basic ability to grasp, and his thumb and index finger were shaking violently.
But she's fine.
She was with him on the other end of the phone.
This made him feel stable and satisfied, like a wounded warrior returning victoriously.
Su Xia's head seemed to be turning a page on an electronic device and continued softly.
"The tin soldier thought that the ballerina lived in a spacious and magnificent palace, while when night fell, he could only squeeze into a small box. The monster in the snuff bottle also told him to watch his eyes and not to look at things he shouldn't see or think about things he shouldn't think about."
"But the tin soldier secretly fell in love with her. He protected the ballerina again and again, until a strong wind blew him down from the third floor, his bayonet fell into the crack of the stone, and it began to rain heavily..."
Xu Jiqing had read the subsequent story in his sister's picture book.
The bedside lamp was dim.
Those vague memories took on a clear outline as the girl's voice spoke:
The naughty child put the tin soldier into a paper boat. He drifted in the ditch and met a vicious rat in the sewer. The fast current washed him into the canal.
The paper boat was about to capsize and the water would flood over his head in a second.
In the endless darkness and loneliness, the tin soldier thought of the ballet girl.
He said to himself, "Forward, forward, brave warrior."
"Your end is nothing but death."
A huge wave hit, the paper boat capsized, and a big fish swallowed the tin soldier into its belly.
The next day, the little boy's cook went to the market to buy the fish. Miraculously, the tin soldier returned to the table from the fish's belly and saw his sweetheart again.
The girl's voice paused.
It was as if she was wondering if he had fallen asleep, or was simply hesitating whether to finish reading the famous tragic ending.
Xu Jiqing's breathing was very steady.
He turned off the bedside lamp and prepared to follow the doctor's advice and sleep sitting up in this position all night.
"The little boy threw him into the fireplace anyway, didn't he?"
Su Xia replied, "Yes."
This is what Andersen wrote.
"The little tin soldier was casually thrown into the fireplace. The fire melted his body bit by bit, but he still stood there straight, staring at his sweetheart, and the girl also looked at him."
On the quiet and dreamy winter night, Su Xia's speech speed as he read the story became slower and slower.
Xu Jiqing closed his eyes in the dark night.
He thought that if he were the tin soldier in the story, he would not need that gust of wind.
There was no need for the paper girl to be blown to his side, and she could not be blown to his side. He would rather melt silently and turn into a tin heart in the ashes.
Almost at the same moment this thought came to his mind, an ending he had never heard before rang in his ears.
The girl's voice was as light as a feather, but extremely firm:
"The fire melted his body bit by bit, and the molten tin flowed like a silver stream, more and more, until it formed another complete leg."
"God rewarded his courage, and the fire gave him a new life. The little tin soldier stood up with a pair of healthy legs and returned to the side of the ballerina."
Xu Jiqing was stunned.
"I'm not made of paper, Xu Jiqing."
Su Xia took a deep breath and continued.
“If it’s someone I like, I will jump off the windowsill on the first day the storm comes and get on that paper boat with him.”
Xu Jiqing may be the tin soldier, but she is not a paper girl who only knows how to wait.
She can't dance ballet and is afraid of pain and timid.
Less calmness and dignity, more tears and recklessness, and no one cares about anything when impulsive.
She seemed to have only a tiny bit of courage from beginning to end.
But it was this little bit of courage that led her to this night.
It allows a mortal like her to pry open a crack in the vast and unknown fate and grab another year for Xu Jiqing.
"I'm very lucky."
She smiled like a conceited captain, "With me here, our ship will never capsize and will sail to the glorious sea."
-
This year, Tsinghua University's high-level art troupe recruited a total of 30 people, with an elimination ratio of nearly 20 to 1. String and keyboard instruments were major categories, and the competition was particularly fierce.
The seventh day of the junior high school is the cultural subject examination. The papers are independently set by the self-recruitment teachers of Tsinghua University. The English questions are closer to IELTS. The other subjects are slightly more difficult than the college entrance examination. The emphasis is on screening rather than passing, and the logic and thinking ability are tested.
In the morning, we have Chinese and math exams, and in the afternoon we have English and comprehensive exams.
Not many art students chose science, so the liberal arts examination room was crowded, while the science examination room where Su Xia was was empty.
The downside is that you can’t see other people’s progress at all, and you don’t know whether your page-turning speed is normal.
The benefits are also obvious.
It is normal that she cannot solve questions of this difficulty. Instead of watching others fill a page with black words, it is better to have no reference around her so that she can think calmly.
Perhaps it was because of the fairy tale she casually tampered with with Xu Jiqing last night, and the shameless statement that "the boat will not capsize", Su Xia was nervous today, but in a good mood -
Everything she wrote is true and must be correct.
The boy at the table in front of me wrote it quickly and turned it over. He was probably guessing and was very cunning.
She saw through this little psychological warfare at a glance.
During the two-day competition, most provincial teams were under strict closed management, with the examination venue, canteen and guesthouse being the only three points in a straight line, and the participating players were strictly prohibited from going out.
Jiang Province was no exception. Following the old tradition, all mobile phones were collected.
Su Xia went to Bauhinia Garden for dinner by herself. After returning to the hotel, she talked to He Miao on the phone for half an hour.
After a full day of written exams, and having taken so many tests, both major and minor, over the past three years of high school, He Miao, who had never been optimistic about the results, was unusually positive. "If I tell you this, you'll definitely think I'm exaggerating..."
"But really, I feel very friendly when I walk around Communication University. The cafeteria aunties feel like they've known me for a long time. I always feel like I studied here in a previous life."
How can human intuition be so sensitive?
Su Xia was simply overwhelmed with admiration, "That's not an exaggeration at all, it just means you have it in your destiny."
It's her destiny.
I actually studied here in my previous life.
It’s just that at that time He Miao passed the postgraduate entrance examination after taking it for the second time, but now he has completed his undergraduate studies. As long as he works hard, he will most likely realize his dream five years earlier.
He Miao came with her parents. Her parents were rather conservative. Even though she did well in the written exam, they just told her to be humble and not to be too arrogant, as there are always people better than you.
Hearing her friend's unconditional affirmation of herself, she was so moved that she didn't know what to do. "Wow, Your Majesty, the beauty of Tsinghua University speaks so sweetly."
"...What's the beauty queen of National Tsing Hua University?"
Su Xia was stuck for two seconds before she reacted and was amused by her.
He Miao: "Both words suit you very well. I calculated that it is in your destiny."
"Your husband and Lin Lang will definitely be fine. Let's all work hard tomorrow. We'll come together again when school starts at the end of August. We can't eat McDonald's then. We have to have a good meal."
Su Xia gave her a choice directly, "Roast duck or shabu-shabu mutton?"
Just like when he usually got food from the cafeteria window, He Miao hesitated for a long time and still said nothing.
Su Xia waved her hand and said, "Two meals then."
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