Chapter 126 Mom, I pick up garbage to support you28
That night, Jiang Fanyue had a strange dream.
She dreamed of a little girl selling matches.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't see the little girl's appearance clearly.
As the little girl froze to death in the cold night, Jiang Fanyue suddenly woke up.
The sky outside was bright, and the sunlight shone in from the unclosed curtains.
Jiang Fanyue raised her hand and blocked the dazzling sunlight with the back of her hand. For a moment, she felt as if she was in another world.
She sat on the bed for a while, then walked out of the living room in her cotton slippers. She wanted to pour herself a cup of warm water, but she saw a note Yao Rong had pressed under the cup:
[I'm out. There's breakfast in the kitchen. Remember to eat it when you wake up.]
As expected by the Meteorological Bureau, the heavy snow that had lasted for nearly a month finally stopped on January 12, and the temperature gradually rose.
But the impact left by the natural disaster has not been completely resolved.
Many factories were unable to resume work immediately.
Snowsweepers were operating day and night.
The railway was still not open.
Seeing that the time for the semi-finals was getting closer and closer, Song Zhizhi, who was far away in the capital, couldn't help but sweat for Jiang Fanyue.
"I don't know whether I should be happy or regretful." Song Zhizhi whispered to her mother.
In the preliminary round, five first prizes, fifteen second prizes, and thirty third prizes were selected.
These fifty contestants are eligible to participate in the semi-finals.
Among all the contestants, Jiang Fanyue is undoubtedly the strongest and most competitive.
No matter what the reason, as long as Jiang Fanyue cannot report to University A within the specified time, it will be regarded as a waiver.
Without a strong rival, Song Zhizhi's chances of winning are naturally much greater.
However, if her victory is due to Jiang Fanyue's absence, Song Zhizhi will feel that she has won unfairly.
Mother Song smiled slightly and touched Song Zhizhi's head.
She thought that only children would care whether the victory is fair.
For many adults, sometimes they would use some despicable means to win and get a better opportunity.
"Let it go." Mother Song said, "Whether she can catch up or not, you should prepare for the competition well."
Yao Rong was also talking about this with Jiang Fanyue.
Yao Rong asked, "If you can't catch up with the semi-finals, will you feel regretful?"
Jiang Fanyue said calmly, "Yes, I will feel a little regretful, but there is nothing I can do about it. If I can't catch up this year, I will participate next year. Anyway, I will only be a senior high school student next year, so I still have a chance."
Yes, she still has a lot of opportunities in her life.
This youth literary creation competition is no longer an opportunity that she must seize firmly in her life.
However, if she can avoid missing it, she should of course not miss it.
Yao Rong smiled and said his plan B: "If the trains in Changjin City haven't resumed running by January 17, we will ask the driver to drive us to Lin Province, and then take the train from Lin Province to the capital."
Fortunately, on the evening of January 16, the Railway Bureau issued a notice that starting from the next day, trains in the whole province would resume running.
The next day at noon, Jiang Fanyue, wrapped in a thick cotton coat and carrying a suitcase, walked downstairs and saw two cars parked downstairs.
In one car sat Yao Rong's assistant.
In the other car, in addition to the driver, there was also... the lawyer team from the fairy tale world! ?
"The lawyer team is also going to the capital with us?" Jiang Fanyue asked Yao Rong quietly after getting on the car.
Yao Rong said lightly: "Some things need to be handled by them."
Jiang Fanyue thought it was a matter of the factory, so he nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
Yao Rong leaned against the car door and looked into the distance.
This time she brought a team of lawyers to the capital, not for business, but to deal with some personal matters.
- For example, her ex-husband Jiang You.
To be exact, her tragic fate, Jiang Fanyue's tragic fate, and even the tragic fate of the Yao family all started when Jiang You abandoned his wife and daughter.
Some time ago, Yao Rong spent a lot of money to hire a private detective to investigate Jiang You's whereabouts over the years.
The person she hired did not disappoint her and investigated everything about Jiang You over the years.
That year, not long after returning to the city, Jiang You was introduced by others and married to his classmate, a female educated youth who also returned to the city after the college entrance examination.
After marriage, the two soon gave birth to a son.
The family background of the female educated youth is not simple. With the help of her father, Jiang You successfully entered the Capital Publishing House after graduating from university, and became a colleague with the mother of the heroine Song Zhizhi.
Over the years, Jiang You has had a happy family, a rich life, a decent job...
He has almost taken all the advantages.
But why? When
people do something wrong, they always have to pay the price for their mistakes.
Not to mention that Jiang You not only made a mistake, but also violated the law.
With the evidence in her hands, Jiang You will definitely not be able to escape the charge of bigamy.
***
On the morning of January 19, Yao Rong and his party arrived in the capital.
After staying on the train for two days, even if they bought sleeper tickets, everyone was exhausted.
Yao Rong booked several rooms in the best hotel near A University for everyone to rest.
Especially Jiang Fanyue, who will start preparing for the competition tomorrow. She must adjust her condition today and conserve her energy.
Soon it was the day of the semi-finals.
Song's father and mother both made time to accompany Song Zhizhi to A University.
The semi-finals were held at the activity center of A University. Song Zhizhi and her family arrived neither too early nor too late.
Before entering the activity center, the players needed to sign in at the entrance.
When Song Zhizhi signed her name, she paid special attention and found that Jiang Fanyue had not completed the sign-in.
The competition will start in more than half an hour, and I don’t know if Jiang Fanyue can make it in the end.
While thinking about this, a person lined up behind Song Zhizhi, obviously also a contestant who came to sign in.
Song Zhizhi quickened her writing speed, wrote her signature, and handed the signature pen in her hand to the person behind her.
Because of this action, she happened to be able to see the other person clearly.
The other person was about the same age as her.
Short hair, smiling eyes.
It was the kind of appearance that made people feel close to him at first sight.
"Thank you." The other person took the pen from Song Zhizhi, took a step forward, and leaned over to sign the form.
The handwriting was graceful and beautiful, and the style was profound.
The name written on the paper by the other person was -
Jiang Fanyue!
Song Zhizhi's eyes widened slightly, and she blurted out subconsciously: "What a coincidence."
Jiang Fanyue put down the pen, glanced at Song Zhizhi, and showed surprise.
Song Zhizhi was a little embarrassed.
She had been following Jiang Fanyue for two whole years. In her mind, she and Jiang Fanyue had been friends for a long time, so after knowing that the girl in front of her was Jiang Fanyue, Song Zhizhi immediately felt close to her from the bottom of her heart.
But Jiang Fanyue didn't know her yet.
Song Zhizhi was racking her brains to think about how to greet Jiang Fanyue, when she heard Jiang Fanyue say, "You are Song Zhizhi, right? I just saw your signature. I really like your book "Please Keep Me"."
Song Zhizhi was surprised and happy, and followed Jiang Fanyue's words and said, "I also like your work. I heard that Changjin City was hit by a sudden snowstorm, and I was a little worried. But good things come to those who wait. Good luck in the competition later."
Jiang Fanyue's eyes curved, "Thank you. Good luck to you too."
There were other contestants who had to sign in, and the competition was about to start, so the two said hello and left.
Jiang Fanyue walked back to Yao Rong.
Yao Rong asked casually, "Who is that?"
Jiang Fanyue: "She is Song Zhizhi."
Yao Rong said, "Like Taotao, I am very curious about what kind of sparks will be created if you compete on the same stage." Jiang Fanyue
thought for a moment and said, "There is no first in literature and no second in martial arts, just do your best."
Yao Rong said nothing more, just handed the mineral water and pencil case in his hand to Jiang Fanyue: "You go in and prepare for the competition, I'll wait for your good news outside."
Unlike the preliminary round, which lasted for three months, the format of the semi-finals was very simple -
at noon on January 20, fifty contestants completed the sign-in and entered the venue.
The organizers will give the contestants a topic for composition, and the contestants will write around the topic. The time is four hours, and the number of words is not limited. As long as the writing is completed within the specified time.
That night, ten judges will correct the contestants' articles.
On the morning of January 21st, all the contestants gathered at the venue again. The organizer announced the rankings of the competition and awarded prizes to the winners.
Therefore, in addition to testing the contestants' writing ability, the
semi-finals also test the contestants' ability to perform on the spot. Watching Jiang Fanyue walk into the examination room, Yao Rong did not wait outside, but planned to walk around A University.
But before she could leave, Song's father and mother walked up to Yao Rong and greeted her with a smile.
"Excuse me, are you Jiang Fanyue's mother?"
Yao Rong stopped and smiled.
Song's father is a businessman and Song's mother is a newspaper editor. What they are best at is socializing with people.
In addition, Yao Rong was interested in understanding what kind of person the heroine Song Zhizhi was, so the three of them soon had a lively chat and even made an appointment to go to the coffee shop next door for coffee.
***
The large venue can accommodate 500 people.
When Jiang Fanyue walked into the venue, there were already more than 20 contestants sitting in the venue.
Jiang Fanyue found her seat according to the seating chart. As soon as she sat down, she noticed that Song Zhizhi was sitting diagonally behind her and waving to her.
Jiang Fanyue smiled back, gently turning the pen with her fingertips, closing her eyes and resting her mind, patiently waiting for the competition to begin.
Little did she know that the other contestants around her had been secretly looking at her.
After the results of the preliminary round came out, they basically bought the collection of preliminary works.
Whether in terms of strength or fame, Jiang Fanyue is recognized as the strongest among the contestants.
Not to mention the contestants, even the judges think so.
For example, at this moment, Mei Xiuming, the chief judge, walked into the examination room holding the sealed test paper. His eyes swept across the contestant seats and he couldn't help but pause on Jiang Fanyue for a few seconds.
Until the time passed 12:55, Mei Xiuming opened the sealed bag under the gaze of everyone, took out the test paper from it, and personally distributed it to each contestant.
Jiang Fanyue opened the test paper and first looked at the proposition of this competition -
"Another Me in the World"
If there is another me living in this world, how will she live her life?
Jiang Fanyue stared at the question for a long time, thinking about the deconstruction quickly.
Somehow, she suddenly thought of that dream again, the little girl who was frozen to death in the middle of the night.
Almost in an instant, Jiang Fanyue made a decision.
Jiang Fanyue picked up the signature pen and pushed open the cap with her fingertips. While others were still in the ideation stage, she had already started writing furiously.
She didn't even need to think about the structure of the article, because those so-called structures were already basic techniques that she had memorized and used very well.
Song Zhizhi caught a glimpse of Jiang Fanyue's movements and secretly sighed, but she didn't panic and continued to follow her own pace.
One after another, the contestants began to write.
The whole venue was filled with the sound of pages turning and pens falling.
Three hours later, contestants handed in their papers one after another and left quietly.
Song Zhizhi finished writing the last paragraph and nodded with satisfaction.
Her performance this time was quite good, especially the ending, which had the effect of lingering sound and adding the icing on the cake.
Just as she was about to get up and hand in the paper and leave, Song Zhizhi noticed that Jiang Fanyue was still writing.
How long was her article?
Jiang Fanyue didn't know how long she had written.
She was just completely immersed in that emotion -
the me now, has turned my life into a dream fairy tale.
Then, did the other me in the world, the me with a different destiny, turn my life into a dark fairy tale?
Unlike most of the contestants who only wrote one destiny line, Jiang Fanyue intertwined the two destiny lines throughout the whole process, and kept moving forward until there were only fifteen minutes left before the deadline to hand in the paper. Jiang Fanyue wrote the end of the article.
In nearly four hours of writing in one go, she stopped to think for the first time.
There is no doubt that the ending of an essay is very important.
Many times, the biggest highlight of an essay even falls on the ending.
Some authors like to use the ending to sublimate, some authors like to use the ending to express emotions, and some authors like to reverse the ending to reveal all the doubts in the previous text.
After a while, Jiang Fanyue finally picked up the pen again, and wrote a short paragraph at the end of the article with a slow but powerful movement -
"Another me in the world is finally favored by the god of fate. Welcome you, or rather, welcome me, to the real fairy tale world."
In the office, Mei Xiuming read out the ending almost word by word, and he wanted to applaud.
Before the competition started, he was indeed full of expectations for Jiang Fanyue, the little player, hoping that the other party could bring him a huge surprise.
But he didn't expect that the other party would bring more than just a surprise.
It was simply to the point of astonishing heaven and earth.
The writing style is concise and powerful. It is the longest among all the contestants, but there is not even a word of tediousness.
Even the eye-catching degree of the paper makes it impossible to deduct a single point from her.
Finally, Mei Xiuming wrote down his score.
He gave her 9.8 points out of 10.
The 0.2 points less was not because there was any flaw in Jiang Fanyue's article, but because there was no such thing as a perfect score in this kind of competition.
9.8 is basically the highest score.
Putting down Jiang Fanyue's article, Mei Xiuming picked up the next test paper.
However, with the previous excellent article in front of him, this originally good article suddenly seemed a bit ordinary.
Mei Xiuming casually gave her 8.2 points.
Before dawn, the judges finally finished marking the test papers.
Ten judges, ten scores, remove the highest score and the lowest score, and the remaining score is calculated as an average.
While waiting for the score to be calculated, the ten judges sat together.
"How high do you think the score of the first place will be?" Mei Xiuming was the first to bring up the topic.
Old friend Yun Yingguang smiled and said, "I estimate it to be between 9.6 and 9.8."
Another judge hissed, "You estimate it so high? It seems that you also gave it a high score of 9.7 or above."
"Also? Well, I'll bet on 9.7, and the loser will buy you a midnight snack tonight."
"Then I'll bet on 9.7 too."
"Me too, 9.7."
"Same as well."
The judge who first called out 9.7 shouted, "Is it interesting? Is it interesting? At least bet on 9.6."
Mei Xiuming coughed lightly, "9.6 is low, 9.8 is high, and 9.7 is more reliable."
If the other contestants heard this, they would probably cry on the spot.
Some of them may not even have a highest score of 9.6.
But for Jiang Fanyue, this seems very reasonable.
It is impossible to use two sets of judging standards for one competition, so the judges used the same set of judging standards for all articles.
In this case, how could Jiang Fanyue, who has been honing her writing skills for many years and is able to support the sales of a newspaper, not be outstanding? If
she is not outstanding, where will the sales of "Fairy Tale Monthly" and the popularity of "The Dancing Elephant" come from?
Without letting people wait too long, the staff who counted the scores hurriedly walked to the judges with the freshly-made score sheet.
Mei Xiuming took a look and saw that Jiang Fanyue was indeed ranked first with 9.7 points.
He laughed and said, "It seems that the result is not as expected by everyone. Then I will treat you tonight's supper."
The person ranked below Jiang Fanyue was Song Zhizhi, who scored 9.4 points.
After the two of them, the third place only had 9.1 points.
This was a competition without too many suspense.
What everyone expected was that a dark horse would emerge and overshadow Jiang Fanyue and Song Zhizhi.
But unfortunately, dark horses are not so easy to come by.
The organizers gave Jiang Fanyue the following award speech:
"The Man Behind the Door uses sensitivity to analyze life and interprets the world with soul."
"Another Me in the World has true emotions, profound thoughts, and the language is full of vitality and appeal."
"This year's Youth Literature Creation Competition aims to cultivate young students to truly feel and pay attention to life. Jiang Fanyue is the contestant who best represents the spirit of the competition. Let us congratulate her."