05Opportunity
This winter, after the idea of taking Yang Xiao to study in another city came to mind, the Zhou family's love of learning intensified. Zhou Daye would often go to town to inquire about the city's high schools, and when he returned, he'd magically bring her several brand-new notebooks. Zhou Qi would also frequently mail her workbooks after returning to the city after the Lunar New Year holiday. Yang Xiao herself was either buried in practice exercises or memorizing vocabulary and chemical equations, often squinting at her exams.
By the time she realized she couldn't see people and scenery in the distance clearly, Zhou Daye had already taken her to town to get glasses. How Zhou Daye discovered that Yang Xiao was nearsighted is also an interesting story.
That Sunday afternoon, Yang Xiao, wearing the black down jacket Zhou Qi had bought her, and carrying her schoolbag, was returning to school for evening self-study. She had barely left the school when Zhou Daye noticed she was leaving empty-handed and chased after her, holding a few pieces of brown sugar he had bought for her, telling her to take them with her to drink with hot water during her period.
Both of them were wearing Zhou Qi's black down jackets. The days were short in winter, and by around six o'clock when it was time for evening self-study, it was already completely dark in Lu Zhentian.
Zhou Daye's old habit of swallowing words when he was anxious was now severe. He chased after Yang Xiao breathlessly, exhaling puffs of white air.
Yang Xiao heard footsteps and turned around to see a black figure moving towards her. She squinted her eyes hard but couldn't see who it was. She quickened her pace towards the school in fear.
Zhou Daye saw Yang Xiao squinting at him from afar, then turning around and running away. He felt extremely strange. It was Aunt Cai, who was returning home from the stall, who saw this and called Yang Xiao in her shrill voice.
Only then did Yang Xiao stop, turn around, and quickly walk to Zhou Daye, touching her nose a little embarrassedly.
Aunt Cai saw that the two had something to say, so she hurried home.
Yang Xiao then explained to Zhou Daye that she couldn't see his face clearly and thought someone was following him. Zhou Daye immediately realized that the girl was probably nearsighted.
He took her to He Yanjing's store in town after an evening self-study class to get glasses. When the optometrist tested her, he said that both eyes had a degree of 300. Yang Xiao was a little scared and said that she thought she could see clearly by squinting. He Yanjing immediately interrupted her and said that the more she squinted, the worse it would be.
Zhou Daye spent several hundred dollars to get a pair of glasses for Yang Xiao and asked her to wear them. He also repeatedly reminded her to sit up straight while doing her homework.
After putting on the black-framed glasses, even Li Maoqiu said that Yang Xiao looked more like a scholar. Yang Xiao pushed her glasses a little shyly. She didn't know why people in the town liked to use the word "scholar" to praise people for their good figure and temperament. In short, in Lu Town, this was indeed a compliment.
Winter passed by as the fog always covered Yang Xiao's glasses, forcing her to take them off, wipe them, and put them back on again. Spring was coming.
The students in the class were coming in less and less. The teacher said they had taken leave to plant the early rice, but fewer and fewer students were coming back to cancel their leave. After the last final exam, Song Haoxuan listened to his family and took a hairdressing class. The desk behind Yang Xiao was vacant. As if one call would lead to hundreds of responses, the number of empty desks in Yang Xiao's class increased.
Li Maoqiu often told Yang Xiao that these empty tables were like delicious traps set by hunters to shake the morale of the army.
Yang Xiao always thought Li Maoqiu's description was cute, but everyone has their own choices. As long as she tried her best to make her own choices without being interfered with by others, that would be enough. This was what Zhou Qi taught her when her "military morale was unstable."
Spring has arrived, and the high school entrance examination is only about two months away.
Yang Xiao's grades remained as stable as ever. Even the principal, upon meeting Zhou Daye, praised her as a promising student, saying she would be even more successful than Zhou Qi in the future. Zhou Daye, upon hearing this, turned and went to the chess table, where he chattered with his fellow chess players about his daughter's "great achievements."
That day, Yang Xiao was taking her lunch box to the cafeteria to get food. Her teacher took it to the office halfway and gave Yang Xiao a lunch box packed by the faculty and staff, asking her to eat while listening to his lecture.
The teacher said that this year the city is training a group of students who will take the college entrance examination with a strong foundation plan, and is willing to recruit some students who are studying in other places but have expertise in basic subjects to train them, and asked Yang Xiao if she is interested.
When Yang Xiao heard that the school would subsidize half of the tuition for students who were selected for the Strong Foundation Program, she stopped eating, put down her chopsticks, borrowed the teacher's cell phone, and called Zhou Daye. After explaining to him what the Strong Foundation Program was, Zhou Daye stammered and let her decide for herself.
Of course she wanted to go, as she could go to school and get her tuition waived. Moreover, her teacher said that this was a stepping stone to a prestigious school.
When the call reached Zhou Qi, he could feel Yang Xiao's excitement and excitement through the sound of electricity. However, Zhou Qi knew about the Strong Foundation Program and that she might not be able to change her major after entering university. So he analyzed the pros and cons again for Yang Xiao and advised her not to just look at the aspect of saving tuition. He asked her to think carefully about whether she really liked these basic subjects and whether she could accept continuing to study them in the future.
In fact, Yang Xiao had decided from the beginning that she wanted to study mathematics.
When he was in elementary school, Yang Xiao calculated the cost and profit of Yang Guoqiang's insoles. She even asked Yang Guoqiang to get the wholesale price from others when purchasing shoe materials, and then lower the price to the seller and give him a commission based on the sales volume, so that both sides could make a profit.
Yang Guoqiang praised her intelligence, and she said it was a word problem she learned in school. In junior high, Yang Xiao's love for math became even more pronounced. She loved to act like a detective, finding the key to solving a problem and then neatly deriving the answer. After solving a problem, she would always tell Li Maoqiu, "This is the beauty of math."
Li Maoqiu always gave the same answer: "Pay less attention to the famous quotes posted on the school bulletin board."
After hanging up the call with Zhou Qi, Yang Xiao thanked her teacher for the lunch box and promised him to try the strong foundation training. She was still a little dazed when she left the office, staring at the setting sun hitting the glass and the shadows passing through the cracks in the ground.
But her feet kept walking towards the classroom. When she came to her senses, she found that the pen in her hand had leaked red ink.
He walked quickly towards the sink at the door of the toilet. The junior high school in the town was not large and the infrastructure was not perfect. The toilet was just a ditch-like horizontal road with a water valve at the innermost position that would flush water at regular intervals. This also meant that when the water valve in the town's toilets was not working properly, there would often be an indescribable stench near the sink.
Yang Xiao didn't like the smell, but the ink seemed to be deliberately against her. No matter how much she rubbed it back and forth, it stuck to her like a dog-skin plaster.
So, along with the sound of water, she clearly heard her own heartbeat, which was saying to her one by one, powerfully and without her being able to ignore it, Yang Xiao, your chance has come. The chance for you to get out of this humid place has come.
When you have a goal, time always passes quickly.
As the almanac paper was torn off page by page, the cicadas chirped louder and louder, and the high school entrance examination was imminent.
Yang Xiao didn't bother to wipe the thin layer of sweat off her forehead caused by the stuffy school uniform fabric, and was busy solving the fill-in-the-blank questions.
Li Maoqiu folded a small fan out of scratch paper and fanned her. When he saw her put down her pen, he said, "Take a break. You need a break after class. Hey, your brother is coming back, right? It's Zhou Qi."
When Yang Xiao heard her brother's words, she was stunned, then shook her head and said she didn't know him.
Li Maoqiu smiled and said, "Then please ask for me. I feel embarrassed to ask you to continue teaching me chemistry since you are busy studying."
Yang Xiao felt warm in her heart after hearing this. Li Maoqiu was always so considerate and sensible, but how could he go back on his word after taking someone else's ribs? "Don't worry about me. I'm just reviewing while I'm tutoring you."
Li Maoqiu pouted, "You're such a piece of cake! You're going to college! I know you understand these simple lab questions and can do them right. Explaining them to me every day is a waste of your time."
So he insisted on not letting her be distracted, waved his hand and said he would find out if there were any college students in town who had early summer vacation and could make up for it.
After hearing this, Yang Xiao stood up and rushed towards Li Maoqiu, giving her a tight hug. Her usually eloquent lips were now unable to utter a single word, and she could only say one sentence: "Maoqiu, you are so kind. Thank you."
Li Maoqiu laughed and scolded her for being pretentious, while with his other hand he kept fanning her with a breeze.
This gentle breeze is one of the few things in Yang Xiao's life that can dispel the scorching heat and bring her peace of mind. Even if she sits in an air-conditioned room in the future, she will still cherish this unnatural breeze.
On the eve of the high school entrance examination, the teacher wrote on the blackboard: "The sky is high, the birds fly freely; the sea is wide, the fish leap freely." She has always been a talkative person, but she turned such a long silence into one sentence after another of pre-exam instructions, from small things like putting stationery into transparent file bags and preparing a few extra gel pens to big things like the philosophy of life. Life is long, and the high school entrance examination is just a page in life that can be wonderful or regretful.
Yang Xiao sat at the desk, stroking the irregular and even prickly edge of the desk with her fingers. She thought of the large playground and tall buildings she saw during last year's graduation exam, and her heart was filled with infinite anticipation and nervousness.
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