Chapter 25 Stars [VIP]
Chapter Summary: You can borrow a pen from me, but you can't ask me for help with a problem?
By the time Fu Xianyin realized what was happening, she and Gu Linzhao were already in the car.
Fu Xianyin felt that she was truly rebellious by nature.
She might not have gone even if Gu Linzhao had simply said "Let's go see the stars."
But then he added, "He skipped evening self-study."
Breaking class rules and regulations is very attractive to a rebellious girl like Fu Xianyin who has a tinkering mind.
Especially the class monitor, who usually kept a close eye on her, made her skip class.
Fu Xianyin's rebellious girl spirit burns brightly within her.
She only realized it after she got into the car.
What do you mean by skipping evening self-study? You don't need to attend evening self-study if you have a parent-teacher meeting in the evening, okay?
It's a shame this person isn't a marketing account.
She glared at Gu Linzhao resentfully and said, "I hope you never score 139 on your Chinese exam."
Gu Linzhao clicked his tongue: "I took you to see the stars and you cursed me."
Fu Xianyin turned her head away, not wanting to talk to him.
The sulking didn't last very long.
As Fu Xianyin watched the car gradually drive away from the city center, she said, "I've never seen this road before."
Gu Linzhao had a piece of candy in his mouth, his voice was a little muffled, but his words were piercing: "In Beichuan, you probably haven't seen many roads, have you?"
What he said is true.
Fu Xianyin has been in Beichuan for less than a month, and she has spent almost all of her time at school. She has to rely entirely on navigation to go out, and the only places she knows are the street in front of the school and the park where she watched Fu Yeyang play basketball.
But Fu Xianyin was angry.
She glared angrily at Gu Linzhao, who then laughed heartlessly.
Are you angry?
The other person's voice rose slightly as they reached out and placed their hand on Fu Xianyin's side, saying, "Here, have some candy. Don't be angry."
The night was pitch black, and Fu Xianyin couldn't see what kind of candy he was holding.
But Fu Xianyin's intuition told him it was a mint.
This is her stereotype of Gu Linzhao.
As she tore open the packaging, she said, "You're not going to drug me and then sell me, are you? Did you buy this candy from a legitimate supermarket? Is it legal, safe to eat, and non-toxic?"
Gu Linzhao: "Then why are you still eating?"
Fu Xianyin: "Someone as intelligent and brave as me, do you think I'm afraid of you?"
The plastic creaked and rubbed together as Fu Xianyin squeezed the candy into her mouth.
Surprisingly, it wasn't a refreshing mint.
It's a sweet and sour fruit candy.
She exclaimed, "Oh! It's apple flavored!"
Gu Linzhao said lazily, "Yes, it's an apple-flavored sleeping potion."
The car stopped in complete darkness.
Fu Xianyin looked at Gu Linzhao suspiciously: "Are you sure what you're doing is legal?"
It's pitch black, you can't see your hand in front of your face. Even if you killed her, let alone sold her, it would take until dawn for anyone to see her.
Gu Linzhao looked somewhat helpless as he shone his flashlight on a few words.
“Astronomy Park,” he said, “a proper park.”
He turned off the flashlight, gently tugged at Fu Xianyin's school uniform sleeve, and only after seeing her start to walk with him did he put his hands back in his pockets and say, "Besides, I'm not 18 yet, I can't do it."
Fu Xianyin kicked a small pebble away and said, "Times have changed. Now, some places are hiring people who are 16 years or older."
"Yeah?"
Gu Linzhao nodded thoughtfully: "Then I'll apply for the job another day and give it a try."
Fu Xianyin burst out laughing and muttered, "Crazy."
There aren't even streetlights in the astronomical park, probably to minimize light pollution. But today the sky is clear and the moonlight is strong, just enough to light up the road, so there's no need to use a flashlight.
Fu Xianyin followed Gu Linzhao, stepping on fallen leaves.
Because of the nice weather, there were quite a few people in the park today.
From a distance, she could hear the chattering inside. After listening for a while, Fu Xianyin suddenly asked, "Are Lin Anxu and the others here too?"
This guy has a really loud voice. She couldn't hear other people's words from a long distance, but she could catch a few words of Lin Anxu's.
“Yes,” Gu Linzhao said, “After they finished eating, they saw that the weather was nice, so they came to look at the stars.”
"Have you seen them?" Gu Linzhao pointed to the stars in the sky.
Fu Xianyin said, "I've seen it elsewhere, but not in the city."
Light pollution is generally severe in cities, making it difficult to find good locations for astronomical observation.
When Fu Xianyin was in junior and senior high school, she would sneak up the mountain in the middle of the night to look at the stars. She was very bold. Chen Huimei in junior high school was not so crazy and did not watch her as closely. So Fu Xianyin would sneak out of the house in the middle of the night and hire someone to take her up the mountain to look at the stars.
Later in high school, Chen Huimei became neurotic with anxiety about her grades. Sometimes Chen Huimei would kick her out of the house, so Fu Xianyin would find someone to take her up the mountain to see the stars.
She couldn't explain why she liked looking at the stars; perhaps it was because there were few people on the mountain, it was quiet, and she could spend a long time lost in thought by herself.
However, in her senior year of high school, the academic pressure suddenly increased, and Fu Xianyin never went back.
Gu Linzhao walked slowly, his voice lazy: "Lin Anxu brought me here in junior high school. After all, it's still in the city, so there's still some light pollution. As a result, not many people come to this astronomical park, and it has been abandoned over time."
Fu Xianyin looked around and said, "But it's quite dark here, and there aren't many tall buildings. The level of light pollution is quite good for the city."
Gu Linzhao said, "Because the buildings next to it were demolished and rebuilt, it's not like it is now after the reconstruction. When we were in junior high school, the light pollution here was much worse than it is now. Basically, no one came to see the stars. There were more elderly people coming to exercise."
I see.
Fu Xianyin said "Oh" and then said, "So you and Lin Anxu have known each other since junior high school."
"Hmm." Gu Linzhao nodded: "We were in the same class in junior high. We weren't in the same class in the first year of high school, but we were in the same class again after we chose our courses."
"It's quite a coincidence," Fu Xianyin commented.
“Indeed.” Gu Linzhao did not deny it, then suddenly laughed and said, “The first time Lin Anxu dragged me here, we had both had conflicts with our families and didn’t want to stay at home. We didn’t have anywhere we wanted to go, so he suggested we invite our classmates to come out and see the stars.”
"He said at the time, 'Come out to see the stars. What a romantic place. Maybe I'll run into my sister. Even if I don't, I can scout it out beforehand and invite her over later.'"
"It turned out to be a cloudy day, with thick clouds so thick you couldn't see anything. The park was only full of elderly people exercising. The classmate I had arranged to meet got so angry that he gave Lin Anxu a piece of his mind."
Fu Xianyin laughed uncontrollably.
She could even picture Lin Anxu from junior high confidently inviting his classmates to go stargazing, only to be dumbfounded when they arrived and saw an elderly couple.
As she laughed, she suddenly asked, "So, you also have conflicts with your family?"
"Of course."
Gu Linzhao looked at her as if she were some rare species: "Who hasn't had a few conflicts with their family members? It's a normal thing."
After he finished speaking, Fu Xianyin's ears suddenly felt a little hot.
It wasn't because Gu Linzhao said it was normal to have conflicts with family members, but rather because she suddenly realized something.
Gu Linzhao just talked about his childhood, so according to the usual pattern of conversation, it seems like it's her turn to tell her story.
She didn't really want to talk to Gu Linzhao about these things.
Or rather, she didn't know how to tell these stories to anyone.
A father who's having affairs, a mother who's gone mad, a home that's empty and her that's broken?
She suppressed the surging emotions in her heart and decided to wait for Gu Linzhao to speak again.
But Gu Linzhao really didn't say anything more.
A quiet atmosphere enveloped them, and Fu Xianyin inexplicably found it hard to bear.
"Brother Zhao, you're here!"
Lin Anxu spotted the two in the crowd not far away and waved excitedly, "Sister Yin, come quick, we just saw a shooting star!"
Lin Anxu was not surprised at all that Fu Xianyin was also present, probably because Gu Linzhao had told him.
Cheng Zhaozhao looked in the direction Lin Anxu was looking and waved to Fu Xianyin: "Yinyin, come quick!"
Fu Xianyin was rescued by Cheng Zhaozhao and ran over to her.
As she got closer, Fu Xianyin realized that almost half the class was there.
Cheng Zhaozhao said to Fu Xianyin, "Yinyin, look, that's Orion's belt."
Among the countless stars in the sky, Fu Xianyin spotted the three stars that formed a line at a glance.
Chen Nianke was also very excited. She tugged at Fu Xianyin and said, "Zhao Zhao and I just found the Cygnus constellation and even saw a shooting star!"
"Wow"
Fu Xianyin chimed in, "A shooting star! Did you make a wish?"
"It was too fast, I didn't have time to say anything." Cheng Zhaozhao said, "You don't know Yinyin, wow, this is the first time I've ever seen a shooting star. I was looking down at the constellations, but for some reason I suddenly wanted to look up, and that's when I saw the shooting star."
She was so excited: "I thought I was seeing things. I was thinking, 'Hey, why is that star moving?' But then I realized that everyone was silent, and that's when I realized it was a shooting star."
"I wonder if there will be another one. I didn't even have time to make a wish."
Cheng Zhaozhao said regretfully.
Fu Xianyin comforted her, "It will happen."
Chen Nianke was called away by a few other girls, while Fu Xianyin and Cheng Lingling found a bench and sat down, resting their heads on the back of the bench and looking up at the sky.
The Milky Way, dazzling with color, was adorned with clusters of nebulae, and countless stars seemed to fall from the sky.
Fu Xianyin felt she could watch it for a lifetime.
Unfortunately, no one saw a second meteor in the end.
Cheng Zhaozhao said dejectedly, "I was thinking of wishing that I could get into a better university when I saw it again."
Fu Xianyin comforted her, "It's okay, there's always next time. The college entrance exam is still a long way off, you'll definitely see the stars."
Cheng Zhaozhao's negative emotions quickly dissipated. On the way back, she kept talking to Fu Xianyin: "Yinyin, do you want to go to Tsinghua University or Beijing University of Technology in the future? I feel that with your grades, you can get into any university you want."
Fu Xianyin smiled and said, "I don't know either."
Cheng Zhaozhao: "I've given up on Tsinghua University and Beijing University. Right now, I'm thinking about applying to Beichuan University, but I'm still several tens of points short of Beichuan's cutoff score."
Fu Xianyin: "Take your time."
Fu Xianyin looked out the window.
The warm-colored streetlights reappeared in her sight, illuminating the entire city. Behind her lay darkness as the car drove towards the brightly lit streets.
All I could hear was Cheng Zhaozhao's rambling. She talked about the monthly exam and the next one, and somehow she started talking about the time when Lin Anxu and Gu Linzhao had a conflict with their families in junior high school.
"That time they practically ran away from home, and their families were so worried they almost called the police. When they got back that night, they were scolded again, with people saying, 'Don't you know it's dangerous to go out in the middle of the night?'"
Fu Xianyin thought for a moment and said, "But I remember Gu Linzhao telling me that his house doesn't have a curfew?"
Cheng Zhaozhao: "They're in high school now, but they were only in junior high back then. They would sneak out late at night. If I were their parent, I would have scolded them too."
Fu Xianyin didn't say anything more.
She had never experienced any of this. Starting from junior high school, Chen Huimei would kick her out of the house in a fit of anger, without caring whether it was night or whether a little girl like her would be in danger outside alone.
She wasn't envious; she just felt that Gu Banxian had truly grown up in a wonderful family.
Tuesday.
In math class, Gao Ying brought everyone heartbreaking news:
"The school just issued a notice that the monthly exam has been moved up to October 23. This is because the midterm exam is a joint exam, which the school takes very seriously. So moving the monthly exam up a bit will allow us to identify problems in time and leave more time to prepare for the midterm."
"Secondly, we were worried that you would be too busy having fun after the sports meet, so we held the sports meet after the exams."
A chorus of wails erupted from the classroom.
Gao Ying: "Alright, stop wailing and howling. It's a good thing to have the monthly exam first, so you won't have to worry about the monthly exam while you're having fun at the sports meet."
Lin Anxu asked, "Then, teacher, is the time for the sports meet still the same?"
Gao Ying: "The sports meet will be held at the same time. You should study or prepare for the sports meet this month. Remember to balance work and rest, do you understand?"
A few scattered sounds came from below:
I heard it.
"Alright, that's enough for now. Take out all the workbooks."
Fu Xianyin sighed.
Today is October 10th, and there are less than two weeks until the 23rd.
Fu Xianyin's feelings at this moment were similar to those when she first transferred to Beichuan.
The pressure was even greater than it was back then.
The second monthly exam was more difficult, and Fu Xianyin felt that she had very little time, especially in the subjects she was not good at, which were becoming increasingly difficult to learn.
In the last monthly exam, she only scored one point higher than Gu Linzhao, thanks to a stroke of luck in Chinese and an easy chemistry paper.
Without these buffs, Fu Xianyin felt that she might only be in the top five of the grade, or even the top three.
Progress is slow.
Fu Xianyin understood this deeply, especially regarding her weakness in chemistry. She might have spent a lot of time on it, but her grades wouldn't improve significantly.
She was not good at chemistry, a fact she knew when she first entered high school. Compared to those classmates who were naturally gifted in chemistry, Fu Xianyin spent more time on it but still couldn't necessarily get the same score as them.
Fu Xianyin opened the workbook and sighed.
During the long break, Fu Xianyin took out her chemistry workbook.
She had a question she couldn't answer, and asked Yin Zexuan before class, but he didn't have any ideas either.
It was during the long break between classes, and Fu Xianyin planned to go to the office to ask the chemistry teacher.
She picked up her workbook and stood up. For some reason, Fu Xianyin suddenly glanced at Gu Linzhao unconsciously.
He had his head down, looking like he was doing a math problem.
As she walked to the front of the stage, she passed Lin Anxu, who was organizing the sports meet registration forms. He looked at Fu Xianyin and asked, "Sister, are there any events you'd like to participate in at the sports meet?"
Fu Xianyin shook her head: "No, I'm not a smart person but I'm not physically strong. The thing I dislike most in my life is sports."
That's the truth.
Fu Xianyin thought that it might actually be a lazy bone.
She's the type who will never take the stairs if there's an elevator, and will never stand if she's sitting.
Class 15 is on the third floor, and climbing the stairs to class every day is already the most exercise Fu Xianyin can do.
Lin Anxu was amused by her and laughed non-stop. Then he sighed, "Sigh, there are too few girls in our class. We didn't have enough entries for the sports meet last year. Sister Gao was furious. Cheng Zhaozhao was even sent to the long jump and high jump."
Cheng Zhaozhao came over at some point, hooked her arm around Fu Xianyin's shoulder, and said, "Please, please don't send me to the long jump or high jump again this year. Lin Anxu, you should report the 200-meter race first."
Lin Anxu saluted: "Yes, sir."
Fu Xianyin opened her mouth: "The project isn't fully funded... and you still want to push it through?"
Cheng Zhaozhao sighed: "Yeah, it seems to be a school rule. I don't know for sure, but last year, Sister Gao assigned events to everyone. If I had known, I would have signed up for the 200 meters earlier. As for the long jump, that's fine, but the high jump is just hurdles for me, and I can't even get over them."
She hugged Fu Xianyin and sobbed, "I'm so embarrassed."
Fu Xianyin looked at the events on Lin Anxu's registration form and hesitated whether she should sign up for an easier one first. Then she heard Cheng Zhaozhao say, "But you don't need to worry, Yinyin. Every year at our sports meet, someone will carry the class banner. This year it will definitely be you."
Fu Xianyin: "Does holding up a class sign mean we don't need to report the project?"
Cheng Zhaozhao: "Yeah, you have to wear a skirt and put on makeup to hold up the class sign. If you hold up the sign, Sister Gao probably won't force you to sign up."
Fu Xianyin nodded thoughtfully.
Cheng Zhaozhao whispered in her ear, "Let me tell you, Yinyin, yesterday Song Yaoge was still in the dormitory choosing what dress to wear to hold up the class banner. Sister Gao hadn't even decided yet, but she had already chosen it."
Fu Xianyin also whispered, "So she was the one who held up the sign last year, right?"
That makes perfect sense.
Let alone having Song Yaoge hold up the sign last year, Fu Xianyin would think it would be perfectly reasonable to have Song Yaoge hold up the sign this year as well.
To put it simply, the person holding the sign should be someone with a good image and temperament in the class, and Fu Xianyin felt that Song Yaoge was quite suitable.
Especially before she transferred schools.
Just as she was hesitating whether to take the gamble or sign up for an easier sport beforehand, so that she wouldn't be left with only a hellish long-distance run, Cheng Zhaozhao whispered in her ear:
"No, Gu Linzhao was our classmate last year."
What?
What did you say?
Gu Linzhao holding up the class sign?
Fu Xianyin's eyes widened in surprise.
She looked at Cheng Zhaozhao incredulously, with an expression that seemed to say, "Don't try to fool me, I'm not well-educated."
"real."
Cheng Zhaozhao said, "Actually, there are usually no gender restrictions for holding up signs, but it is generally assumed to be girls. Last year, Song Yaoge was originally scheduled to hold up the class sign, but it rained on the day of the sports meet, and the opening ceremony was temporarily moved to a day later. Song Yaoge happened to have a dance competition at that time, and other girls could not borrow dresses at the last minute, so Sister Gao asked Gu Linzhao to fill in."
Fu Xianyin imagined a scene where Gu Linzhao suddenly appeared among a group of girls dressed like princesses.
It doesn't seem too out of place, does it?
She couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Just then, Yin Zexuan walked in through the front door. He looked at the chemistry workbook in Fu Xianyin's hand and said, "Do you have any ideas for that problem?"
Fu Xianyin: "Not at all."
Yin Zexuan: "Then wait for me a moment, I'll go with you to ask the teacher."
Fu Xianyin gave an OK sign, and waited for Yin Zexuan at the door with her chemistry workbook, only to realize that she hadn't brought a red pen.
Right next to her was Gu Linzhao's desk. Fu Xianyin weighed her options: should she walk a few more steps back to get the red pen, or should she borrow one from Gu Linzhao?
Two seconds later, Fu Xianyin decisively chose the latter.
She curled her fingers and gently touched Lin Zhao's desk, asking, "Can I borrow your red pen? I'll return it right away."
Gu Linzhao was not far from the podium.
He overheard Lin Anxu asking Fu Xianyin if she wanted to apply for a project, and he kept hearing Yin Zexuan say that he wanted to go to the chemistry teacher's office with her.
The chemistry teacher's office is on the fifth floor.
Previously, Fu Xianyin kept asking him questions, partly because he had promised to explain them to him, and partly because the chemistry teacher's office was on the fifth floor, and Fu Xianyin was too lazy to climb the stairs.
Why are you now willing to climb those two floors with Yin Zexuan?
The girl's fair fingers landed on his desk. She bent down slightly and leaned closer to him to speak, and Gu Linzhao thought she was going to ask him a question.
She then asked if she could borrow a pen.
So he looked up, met the girl's eyes, and said:
"You can borrow a pen from me, but you can't ask me for help with a problem?"
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