After leaving the classroom, they realized that the third period was already halfway through. Feeling embarrassed to go back into the classroom and disturb their classmates and teachers, they simply stood in their usual spot in the corridor.
Jiang Xiaoli buried her head in her hands and leaned against the railing. She glanced at Xu Xing and asked, "Have you gained weight recently?"
A slight blush rose to Xu Xing's cheeks. He turned his head to the other side and casually uttered two words, "No."
Actually, Xu Xing hadn't gained weight; he just looked more robust than when school started, thanks to her.
In order to catch up with and surpass her in every aspect, Xu Xing also started to run 5 to 10 kilometers every evening after hearing that she got up early every morning to go for a run.
In two months, the boy, who used to be as thin as a skeleton, gradually developed some muscle and looked more youthful and radiant, no longer as frail as a pale-faced scholar.
Jiang Xiaoli didn't care when he uttered just two words; she was already used to Xu Xing's aloof and indifferent demeanor.
After standing there for a while, she got bored, so she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and drew a small chessboard on it.
She raised an eyebrow at Xu Xing, "Want to play Connect Four?"
Xu Xing became interested and said, "Sure."
Jiang Xiaoli explained the rules: "I'll draw circles, you draw crosses, best two out of three. The winner can ask the loser to do something, how about it?"
Xu Xing thought for a moment and nodded in agreement, "Okay, but it can only be something I can do."
Jiang Xiaoli gave an OK sign, and the two began their game.
The match was originally set to be best of three, but neither of them could determine a winner until the end of the third period. Fortunately, the piece of paper was quite large, giving them plenty of opportunities to use their skills.
When the students who had just finished class saw the two of them gathered around something in front of the railing, they curiously came over and asked, "Xu Shen, what are you two looking at?"
The boy who came over was Feng Bo. When he saw the two of them playing Connect Four on a piece of paper, with its dense array of circles and crosses, he rubbed his forehead and asked, "You two masters, how long have you been playing?"
Jiang Xiaoli thought for a moment, "It should only take about ten minutes."
Feng Bo jokingly cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to the two of them, saying, "You two great heroes are my idols."
The two chatted with him while observing the development of the chess game on the paper.
Finally, the bell rang for the fourth period, and the two still hadn't decided a winner.
Jiang Xiaoli simply put away the paper and pen, saying, "The competition is sealed, we'll fight again next time!"
Xu Xing's lips twitched. "Okay, fine, but don't cheat."
She was furious. "Cheating? Am I that kind of person? Xu Xing, I'm going to sue you for defamation!"
Xu Xing was completely unfazed by her threats. He was used to her making things up as soon as she opened her mouth. He looked at her and said, word by word, "If you break the rules of the game, I will never play chess with you again."
Jiang Xiaoli nodded, "Okay, okay, I got it."
After she finished speaking, she returned to the classroom, sat down in her seat, took out the paper with the game drawn on it, and examined it carefully.
Xie Yitao stared at the scribbles on the paper and couldn't help but ask, "What is this?"
Jiang Xiaoli's expression was serious. "This is a battle for honor!"
The history teacher coughed twice, and Xie Yitao quickly opened his book to follow her train of thought.
Jiang Xiaoli watched the chess game for a while before putting the paper in her book and starting to study.
When I got home at noon, the housekeepers were still busy, but Li Guizhi was nowhere to be seen.
She peered into the kitchen and asked, "Aunt Yang, where did my mom go?"
When Yang Hui saw her return, she said, "Xiao Li is back. Your mother said she went to the bank to take care of something, so she might have been delayed and hasn't come back yet."
"Okay, I understand. Thank you, Aunt Yang." Jiang Xiaoli turned and went back into the main room.
Today, Li Guizhi went to the bank with her passbook and documents to apply for a capital verification report. The procedures were very complicated, and constantly confirming information took a long time.
She rushed home and found her daughter eating instant noodles in the main room.
She felt both sorry for you and amused. "I didn't have time to cook for just one day, and you had to make do with instant noodles?"
Jiang Xiaoli chuckled, "That's easy, Mom. Hurry up and get yourself something to eat."
Li Guizhi quickly made herself a bowl of noodles.
While eating, she complained, "The bank's efficiency is really terrible. I brought all my documents and things, but they still checked them one by one. If they weren't sure, they called the supervisor, and then the supervisor called the manager. It took three or four times to get it done."
"It's already done?" Jiang Xiaoli was a little surprised. She thought that banks nowadays would take at least a few business days to issue the report.
Li Guizhi smiled and nodded, "It was a blessing in disguise. Several clerks couldn't get it done, but we ran into their bank manager, who saved us from the process of getting signatures and stamps from all the other staff and gave me a report directly."
Jiang Xiaoli poured herself and her mother a glass of water. "That's good too. I'll call Zong Jiayu in a bit and ask him to come pick up the report. If we expedite it, we can get the company's business license this week."
"Yes, you can decide."
After dinner, Jiang Xiaoli saw her mother writing something. She went over to look and saw that the notebook was full of dish names.
Her eyes darted around. "Mom, is all of this the food you're preparing for tomorrow? There's so much!"
Li Guizhi rolled her eyes at her, "What's so much? There are seven or eight of us in total, ten dishes is not too much at all. Xiao Zong and the other young men are at the age where they can eat a lot!"
Jiang Xiaoli was a little jealous. "Mom, you've gone to such lengths for your godson's birthday. I'm getting jealous!"
"Haha." Li Guizhi put down her pen, pulled her daughter to her side, and coaxed, "Next year, when it's Xiaoli's birthday, Mommy will throw you a big birthday party, okay?"
"Hehe, I think it's okay!" She stuck to her mother for a while before letting go.
On her way to school in the afternoon, she made a phone call to Yihaodian from the corner store, asking Zong Jia to come to her house that afternoon to pick up the capital verification report. The company registration could only be completed before the cannery could be acquired.
When the first class ended in the afternoon, Chen announced, "Next week we will be holding this year's autumn sports meet. Students should actively sign up to participate in the events. Our class not only wants to have the best academic performance, but also to develop morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and practically!"
After the bell rang, Yuan Man was the first to rush to Jiang Xiaoli's desk. "You said you wanted to sign up for the long-distance running event at the sports meet. You're not going to back out, are you?"
Having served as class monitor for many years, Yuan Man naturally knew that the events with the fewest participants at each sports meet were long-distance running events.
Remembering the boast Jiang Xiaoli had made, she immediately ran over to confirm it.
Jiang Xiaoli closed the book. "Don't worry, Yuan Xiaoman, I keep my word. Just arrange either 1500 meters or 3000 meters for me."
Although she is not an athlete, her consistent morning runs have improved her physical fitness considerably. After all, it's all about participation in sports meets; winning an award is not important.
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