The eldest brother of the Wang family helped to carry Grandma Su out of the taxi. The two brothers Wang Jiaju and Wang Jiaxiang, who had gone to the hospital to rent a wheelchair earlier, were already waiting at the hospital entrance pushing the rented wheelchair.
"Push slowly and be careful!" The eldest brother of the Wang family warned Su Yun and others.
Unlike elementary school students like Su Yun who were on summer vacation, the rest of the Wang family still had to go to work, so today Grandma Su's checkup was carried by the eldest brother of the Wang family who had the latest working hours. Then Grandma Su was handed over to the two brothers Wang Jiaju and Wang Jiaxiang to look after, until those who got off work in the evening came to take her back to Camellia Building.
"Don't worry!" Wang Jiaju and Wang Jiaxiang answered in unison.
After receiving the confirmation, the eldest brother of the Wang family nodded, then hurriedly caught the bus to go to work.
Su Yun put the lunch box in her hand into Grandma Su's hand: "Grandma, there is white porridge and pineapple buns in it. After you finish those fasting examinations, you can eat them to fill your stomach. If you can't finish the examinations by noon, you can ask Jiaju to buy some more nearby. I have given him the money."
After getting the top spot in the preliminary round, the principal, who was overjoyed upon hearing the news, gave Su Yun a fifty-yuan incentive bonus, and Zhou Xinheng also received thirty yuan.
"Oh, what's there to buy? It'll only take a while, and we can just go home and eat then." Grandma Su was like one of the older generation who would rather suffer than spend money. "And you don't need this wheelchair, I can still walk with a cane, I can just sit inside and wait..."
She looked carefully and saw that there were rows of seats for people to sit next to the examination areas.
"Grandma, some money should be spent and cannot be saved!" Su Yun has seen many news reports about elderly people in later generations who were reluctant to spend this or that, and ended up getting in a lot worse by accidentally falling. Therefore, she would rather spend more money than have any accidents.
"I've already told you that I can still walk. There's no need for me to sit on a chair with two wheels. And that taxi is very expensive, several times more expensive than taking the bus... I might as well leave it for you to buy something good to replenish your body!" Grandma Su looked at Su Yun's thin appearance with pity.
It makes me angry to talk about this. Grandma Su was always reluctant to eat the fish soup, chicken soup and other things cooked by the Wang family. She always wanted to save these good things for her granddaughter who had just recovered from a serious illness. In the end, Su Yun had to do a lot of work to make the old lady obediently eat the food that was sent to her.
"Grandma, you are the patient now, taking care of yourself is the most important thing!" Su Yun has slowly figured out a way to act cute to Grandma Su, "With you around, even salted fish and cabbage taste good. Without you, even dragon meat tastes bland!"
"And here's this two-wheeled wheelchair. When you get better, I'll take you on a four-wheeled private car, a train with many wheels, or a plane that can fly... As long as you're here, even if you want to ride a rocket or a spaceship, I'll take you there!"
"Oh, okay, okay..." Grandma Su responded several times, "Our daughter is the best."
"Okay, okay, it's our turn for the inspection here - Susu, are you okay going alone?" Wang Jiaju walked over with the inspection form.
"Don't worry about me. Sir Zheng and the others are going with us. I'll be fine." Su Yun covered Grandma Su's knees with a small blanket, and then said a few words to the two brothers of the Wang family. Only then did he feel relieved and walked outside.
The semi-finals were held in the auditorium of Sham Shui Po Government Primary School, not far from the hospital, so Su Yun walked directly there after leaving the door.
With the help of systematic navigation and casually asking for directions, Su Yun arrived at his destination more than half an hour later.
"Here!" Li Jiefen waved while standing in the shadow of the teaching building.
Su Yun trotted over and said, "Excuse me, thank you. Just let me carry the guitar."
Because Grandma Su had to be taken to the hospital for a check-up today, Su Yun agreed with Lai Kit-fan to help bring the musical instruments over.
"Don't be polite, it's not a big deal. Zhou Xinheng is using a harmonica anyway, so it won't take much effort for him to carry it for you." Li Jiefen waved her hands, "I asked my father to redo it last night. The sound quality will be better than the preliminary round. You can try it and see how it goes."
Su Yun nodded, reached out to take the guitar from Zhou Xinheng, and played it a few times to test the sound. It indeed felt better.
After thanking Lai Kit-fen and Chow Sun-heng again, the three followed Cheng Kwok-kwong into the auditorium to wait.
This time, because they were all winners of the final round, especially Su Yun who was at the top of the preliminary round, even though it was a little-known and poor school, with two contestants as a backup, the attitude of the staff was much better than in the preliminary round.
You know, many famous schools only have one finalist, or even none, and can only be spectators. So, no matter how rubbish the Xinhui Chamber of Commerce School of the Hong Kong Four Districts Federation of Commerce and Industry is usually, its performance in this competition is undeniably excellent.
This time the draw was quite lucky, as Su Yun and Zhou Xinheng happened to be drawn one after the other, and were not put in the same group to "kill each other".
Although one of them would have to be eliminated based on the final points table, it was at least much better than being grouped together with the two students from the same school next to them. Su Yun remained silent as she watched the two elementary school students in front of her, who were originally arm in arm with each other, instantly distance themselves from each other after the lot was drawn.
When students from the same school are drawn into a group, they will either make internal adjustments to allow one of them to score points in the competition to answer questions, or they will fight to the death and no one will give in, and in the end they will have the final say based on their own strength.
Su Yun was also puzzled by this method: Logically, each school should be restricted to only one person qualifying, so as to avoid a situation of infighting, but this competition has no restrictions.
Anyway, she had never participated in this kind of competition before, so she was not afraid to ask.
Hearing Su Yun's question, Zheng Guoguang put down the big backpack carrying the science and technology project supplies on the ground and patiently explained to Su Yun: It is true that there are such competitions that limit one person from a school to qualify, but there are also competitions that do not limit the number of students from a school to qualify - because of various influences such as educational resources, the level of outstanding students from famous and strong schools is normally much better than that of ordinary schools and poor schools.
In those large-scale competitions, if the number of students who qualify from each school is limited, then many talented students from famous schools who have potential but may have failed or had bad luck will be eliminated, allowing students from ordinary schools to sneak in and take up the places.
Therefore, there is no limit on the number of people who can qualify for this large-scale competition among the 18 districts in Hong Kong.
As long as they have the ability, it is possible that all three contestants in the semi-finals will come from the same school, and the best one will be selected in the final to become the representative of the district.
"That's right. I used to watch competitions occasionally. Those that did not limit the number of students from each school that could qualify would often be famous schools like St. Paul's or Diocesan Girls' School, where half of the places would be taken up by one school." Li Jiefen said halfway when she hurriedly covered up the name that the Zhou family did not want to mention.
Li Jiefen secretly glanced at Zhou Xinheng's calm face and felt a little uneasy: He shouldn't have noticed... right?
"You don't have to show that look." Zhou Xinheng glanced at her and looked at the judges' seats above the stage with sharp eyes. "I will definitely study at Yinghua University like my elder brother in the future!"
"Well, if you work hard you will succeed!" Seeing Li Jiefen's embarrassed expression, Su Yun quickly changed the subject.
Zhou Xinheng said nothing more. He lowered his head dejectedly and continued reading the materials in his hand.
As for Lai Kit-fen, who had said the wrong thing, she did not dare to say anything more. After making a gesture of encouragement to Su Yun, she silently took out a small ball of wool from her pocket, cut off a piece and started playing cat's tangle to pass the time.
Seeing this, Su Yun stopped doing anything and turned back to check his competition equipment.
"Keep calm, don't be nervous, you've done a good job..." Zheng Guoguang instructed while helping to clean up and check.
"Come on!" When Li Jiefen heard the names of Xinhui Chamber of Commerce School and Su Yun being called out from the backstage, she waved to Su Yun.
Because the brothers Jiaju and Jiaxiang were not around this time, Zheng Guoguang helped Su Yun move and look after the things, while Li Jiefen was looking after Zhou Xinheng - there was no other way, unlike those top students from prestigious schools who were surrounded by a lot of school staff and their families.
It was no surprise that Zhou Xinheng, a veteran of the competition, could enter the semi-finals, but the school did not expect that Su Yun, who was two rounds younger than him, could become the first in the preliminary round and enter the finals. Although an incentive bonus was given, everyone thought that Su Yun was just lucky, probably because of external factors such as good luck in the question-answering phase, answering quickly and the opponent's strength was weak...
There are no more lazy people who have qualified this time, so what you need to compete in the question-and-answer and quick-answer sections is real strength and good luck.
"It would be great if someone from the principal or the school board could come and see Su Yun's performance..." Zheng Guoguang, who was looking after the competition supplies backstage, glanced at the stage. During the question-and-answer session, Su Yun answered the questions quickly and well as usual.
Not only did she take the least time, but her accuracy rate was also 100%, so Zheng Guoguang had no doubts about Su Yun's performance in the next round of answering questions.
As expected, if Su Yun's performance in the question-and-answer session was as calm and unhurried as clouds passing through the sky; then in the competitive answering session, Su Yun's performance could definitely be described as thunderous, clean and neat.
After Su Yun fed each of the two opponents in the same group an egg, they were so stunned that they felt like they could stuff an egg into their mouths...
I have to say that judging from Su Yun's reaction speed and hand speed, she is definitely a very reliable killer in answering questions.
The scariest thing is that she is so young, and she is also good at science and music projects... While I was thinking this, Su Yun had finished answering the questions and turned to the backstage to get something.
Due to time constraints and changes in the size of the auditorium, the order of the semi-final competition items was adjusted. One group competed in music events and the other group competed in technology events, and the two groups competed simultaneously.
Su Yun's group was competing in the technology event first and then the music event, so she turned around and took a color TV that was kindly provided by Zhou's Appliance Store.
Color TVs were a rarity these days and were very expensive. It was thanks to Su Yun's ability to help the Zhou family out that they found it difficult to borrow one, otherwise it would have been difficult to get one.
"Has anyone moved the things inside?" Although the difference was slight, Su Yun could tell at a glance that the placement of the items was different from how she had placed them.
She has a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder and likes to put things in a fixed place after use so that they are easy to find when she needs them again. Therefore, she can easily notice if something has been moved.
"Some staff came to check just now. I was afraid that they might damage the TV, so I asked Zhou Xinheng to come over and open the package for him to take a look... Is there any problem?" Zheng Guoguang explained.
"The TV is fine." Su Yun, after briefly checking the TV and guitar, said to Zheng Guoguang, "Sir Zheng, before my group goes on stage, I'll go to the store and call to ask if my mother-in-law has finished her checkup."
"Go ahead." Knowing that Su Yun was participating in the competition to earn some scholarships for Grandma Su's medical expenses, Zheng Guoguang had no doubts and asked her if she had brought enough money.
"I still have money for the phone call, don't worry, Sir Zheng." Su Yun responded with a smile and walked out quickly.
"Where are you going?" Li Jiefen, who was playing with wool, looked up and asked as she passed by their row of seats.
Su Yun gave Zhou Xinheng, who was reading a book without looking at her, a meaningful look: "I'm going to go out and make a phone call to see if my mother-in-law has finished the examination."
"Oh, then go ahead." Li Jiefen did not doubt him.
Su Yun nodded, quickened her pace again and walked to the convenience store at the entrance of the elementary school.
Nowadays, not to mention mobile phones, even telephones are a luxury. So in order to avoid difficulty in contacting others when she is out, Su Yun specially used the system to write down the telephone numbers of various locations such as the hospital nursing station and the coffee shop on the first floor of So Uk Estate.
Normally, if everything went well, Grandma Su should have finished the examination and returned to the ward.
So Su Yun first called the hospital nurses' station - and sure enough, they were all in the ward.
After the nurse called Wang Jiaju to answer the phone, Su Yun finally spoke: "Jiaju, help me go home and bring your guitar over, and help me beat up this guy!"
There was nothing wrong with the TV, but the guitar had been tampered with. When she goes on stage to play it, the strings will surely break after just a few strokes. What the hell is the point of playing it?
"I'll be there right away!" Wang Jiaju was not ashamed of his social demeanor when he first appeared. After hearing Su Yun's words on the phone, he didn't even bother to ask the reason and agreed directly.