Chapter 28 Is that fate? Is it free, or is it something you'd buy no matter the cost...?
After getting the gloves, Jiang Yueming only did two things a day: showing off and flaunting them, although the two meanings were not much different.
"What's wrong?" Han Jiang asked, somewhat exasperated, watching him put on the gloves over and over again. "Are you showing off those five-yuan gloves you bought at the Zhonghua Market again?"
"You can't buy it for five yuan," Jiang Yueming said.
"You've really got money, kid." Han Jiang exclaimed in surprise, "Ten yuan? Or... fifteen?! Jiang Yueming, where did you send your fortune?"
This thread doesn't look like anything special, so how come it's so expensive?
Jiang Yueming looked somewhat smug and grinned, saying, "It's free."
It's free, it doesn't cost money, and it's something you can't buy no matter how much money you spend.
"Wow..." Han Jiang was really tempted now. He moved closer, almost pressing his face against the gloves. "Where did you get them? You didn't even tell me about something this good."
Han Jiang was unusually eager to learn; he was just waiting for Jiang Yueming to tell him the address so he could pick up three or four of them.
Jiang Yueming created plenty of suspense, dragging things out for a long time and acting mysterious for quite a while. This scene was just like in the novel "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils," where Mu Wanqing was about to remove her veil when a long and tedious commercial suddenly appeared.
“Grandma Li Leshan sewed it for me,” Jiang Yueming said.
"You want his grandmother to... Li Leshan too?" Han Jiang was about to launch into a tirade to get Jiang Yueming to help him get one too, when he suddenly froze in place. "His grandmother?"
"Really?" Xu Qing had been observing the two of them for a long time, and when she heard the name "Li Leshan," she spoke up.
"Why would I lie to you? Go ask if you don't believe me," Jiang Yueming said. Would he really lie to them about something like this? He had known Li Leshan for almost half a year, but those six months felt like several years.
"I believe you, okay?" Xu Qing also came closer, staring at the gloves with great curiosity. "Let me see them."
Jiang Yueming had barely uttered the word "go" when Xu Qing casually took the glove in her hand. The glove was soft and still retained some of the warmth from Jiang Yueming's palm.
“Li Leshan…Grandma’s craftsmanship is really good.” Xu Qing said, holding the gloves and reluctant to let go.
"What's the big deal?" Han Jiang said. "My mom can sew too. I'll have her sew one for you later. It'll be pink and have a bow."
Xu Qing reluctantly put the gloves back on, muttering under her breath, "That's different." Fortunately, Han Jiang didn't hear her, and that was the end of it.
“Then I want one too,” Jiang Yueming said, shifting his gaze from Xu Qing’s face. “I want the gray one.”
"Don't you already have it?" Han Jiang said, pointing at Jiang Yueming, "If you don't bring it when it's actually done, you'll be in for a beating."
Jiang Yueming certainly wouldn't bring one; he was just there for the fun of it. Besides, he already had one, so he naturally changed the subject, "How's your final exam review going?"
Han Jiang indeed grabbed the gloves and ran off. Mentioning them made him happy, and his regret at not getting the gloves for free vanished in an instant.
"That's top-notch," Han Jiang said with certainty. He had reviewed it thoroughly recently, and it couldn't be better. "It's an easy, effortless, and effortless thing."
"Oh, you're even using idioms now." Jiang Yueming looked at his confident demeanor and waited to see how Han Jiang would do on the exam. It wasn't that she didn't trust Han Jiang; she did, so she was looking forward to it.
The final exam is directly related to the comfort of the holiday. Although the time to enter junior high school is getting closer and closer, the holiday is getting further and further away. According to Yin Guiying, they don't even have a holiday anymore.
Jiang Yueming felt that this was an overreaction, but when he thought about how the exam to decide which junior high school he would attend was getting closer and closer, he actually felt a little nervous.
"I've told you to write neater, neater!" Yin Guiying sighed heavily as she looked at the boy in front of her. "Is your handwriting meant to fly to the heavens? To go to space with Yang Liwei? Trying to steal someone's spot?"
When Yang Liwei goes up, his words will still be floating in mid-air.
“Look at the girl in front of you, Yuqing. Her handwriting is so neat and beautiful. Why don’t you ask her for advice? If that doesn’t work, there’s always Li Leshan. His handwriting is good, isn’t it? Ask him for two sheets of homework paper, and then go to the stationery store at the school gate and buy some tracing paper. Ten sheets will only cost two cents. Buy a hundred or two hundred sheets, and I’ll give you the money.” Yin Guiying said, reaching into her pocket for money.
"No, no, Teacher Yin!" Jiang Yueming cried out in his heart.
“I have money,” Jiang Yueming hurriedly said, waving his hand to refuse Yin Guiying.
“Look at other people’s test papers, and then look at yours. They’re worlds apart. Theirs are pleasing to the eye, while yours is just like studying oracle bone script. You’re only concerned with improving your math and English scores, but you’re not planning to improve your Chinese score at all?” Yin Guiying said. She took out two test papers and placed them on the desk, gesturing for Jiang Yueming to pick them up and compare them. If she hadn’t compared them, she wouldn’t have been surprised.
"The teacher knows you've been practicing math lately, so the requirements aren't high. Just spend ten minutes a day practicing your handwriting, and you'll get an extra five points. That's almost like solving a big math problem, isn't it?" Yin Guiying said logically.
"Can it really...improve by five points?" Jiang Yueming asked. Teacher Yin had said a lot, but he only remembered the words "five points". Between working hard on the bonus questions and practicing calligraphy, it wasn't a difficult choice, and he immediately chose the latter.
“Would I lie to you?” Yin Guiying waved her hand at him. “Go back to your self-study. Three calligraphy practice sheets a week. Give them to… don’t give them to me, give them to Li Leshan. If one is missing, I won’t hold you accountable, I’ll hold Li Leshan accountable.”
She felt that the same trick she used to deal with ordinary people wouldn't work on Jiang Yueming, so she had to change her approach.
"Teacher Yin, why are you still practicing collective punishment? That's feudal dross and needs to be eliminated," Jiang Yueming said discontentedly.
"Take the essence and discard the dross. Understand? Go back now!" Yin Guiying shouted. This kid is getting bolder and bolder, even lecturing his teacher.
Practice calligraphy.
Although Jiang Yueming knew his handwriting was bad, he didn't feel it needed practicing. He guessed it was because he had spent too much time with Han Jiang, whose handwriting was even worse. It was like choosing the tallest among the short; without comparison, there was no harm, and his own handwriting seemed less bad.
Cao Fan has many calligraphy copybooks, such as those by Sima Yan and Wu Yusheng, which are scattered all over the bottom shelf of the stationery store near the entrance. Jiang Yueming felt that meticulously copying calligraphy copybooks was tiring and time-consuming, and he didn't think it was worthwhile. It would take half a day to practice, and a set of calligraphy copybooks couldn't be passed down like a family heirloom.
He decided to look for Li Leshan. If Li Leshan's handwriting had to be categorized into a school, it would lean towards a semi-cursive style, unlike the handwriting of an elementary school student. Standing next to a group of elementary school students, it stood out like a crane among chickens.
...
"I want to practice calligraphy!" After school, Jiang Yueming stood by the desk waiting for Li Leshan, announcing this important decision.
Li Leshan paused briefly as he was tidying up the test papers. He asked, "Have you finally decided to practice calligraphy?"
In fact, Li Leshan had said this many times, but with a score of 60 or 70 in math, things like calligraphy practice and other miscellaneous things had to be put on hold.
"Teacher Yin said it could raise the score by five points," Jiang Yueming said. Five points is still a score, and one point is still a score. Although it's not like the college entrance exam where raising one point can eliminate thousands of people, the admission score for No. 1 High School is clearly fixed, and you can't be even one point short.
Li Leshan knew why he had suddenly become so persistent.
"I don't need to practice anything else. Just give me two of your Chinese exam papers, and I'll trace your compositions," Jiang Yueming said. He wanted to save money on a set of calligraphy practice books and also learn how to write compositions at the same time. Jiang Yueming's composition was his weakness, but that's to say. He didn't really have any strengths either. Everyone else had both strengths and weaknesses, but Jiang Yueming had a moderate weakness.
Although he said there were only two, Li Leshan found a total of eight, even digging out his fifth-grade test papers.
“This is too much,” Jiang Yueming said in surprise, holding the test papers. “We don’t need that many.”
Li Leshan said he was afraid that Jiang Yueming would get tired of practicing by drawing two pictures at a time, and eventually stop practicing altogether.
“You really know me.” Jiang Yueming laughed.
However, he felt that Li Leshan didn't really understand, or rather, didn't understand that much. Perhaps if Jiang Yueming were really asked to find a calligraphy model and trace it properly, he would really get annoyed. This wasn't something he liked to do. Every stroke had to be written within the lines, confined to a small grid, within a tiny space. But when it came to exams, there were actually no grids to refer to.
They worry about writing outside the lines, about misspelling words, about the paper not looking neat or being non-standard. They have so many things to worry about. They've heard the saying "one point deducted for each misspelling" since they were little. There's still no standard answer to whether to cross out misspelled words or enclose them in parentheses. If they misspell a few words, the whole test paper looks bad, as if it's a huge deal. But actually, it's okay, it really is okay.
Jiang Yueming is not a conventional person. He dislikes being constrained, tied down, or bound, neither by fate nor by life. However, he clearly understands that some pauses are necessary, and some constraints are essential; without experiencing these, one cannot grow, fly high, or go far.
He understands now, but for some reason, he won't understand some things later. Perhaps it's because he's still very young, still a child, and can't think that far ahead or that deeply.
So much later, when he was no longer the boy who sat under the old locust tree striving for five points and jumping for joy over a pair of gloves, when he became an adult, he was somewhat unclear and confused as to why sometimes, even after experiencing suffering and torment again and again, even when his body and soul were riddled with holes, he could not escape or avoid it no matter what. Even if some people were well-behaved from beginning to end and never went astray.
Is that fate?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com