The teacher and student picked out four pork floss breads, paid the bill, and headed back.
I happened to see two students from the same exam room handing in their papers one after the other.
Neither of them had a good expression, as if they were exchanging answers.
The Chinese teacher walked over and gave each of them a piece of bread. "How did you do on the exam? Have you all finished?"
One of the boys scratched his head and said, "I've answered all the questions, but I'm not sure about many of them."
The other girl took a bite of the bread and nodded silently.
The Chinese teacher chuckled twice and comforted the two, "It's alright, it's alright, just think of it as an experience."
The remaining two students didn't leave with the crowd until the competition ended. They looked calmer, though not exactly confident, but there was a hint of smugness in their expressions.
As usual, the Chinese teacher distributed the bread to them and asked the same two questions.
I received a "not bad" and a "basically all of them".
The two students in the same exam room looked even more miserable.
"Okay, everyone's here. You all wait here and don't wander off."
The Chinese teacher told them to wait where they were while he went to the office to get the registration slip.
As soon as the teacher left, several older students surrounded Shen Qingqing.
"Little sister, why are you participating in the competition in first grade?"
"Yeah, don't you think it's too difficult?"
Shen Qingqing blinked. "I don't know either. The teacher asked me to come. I think the difficulty level is okay. I finished it all."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone smiled, because they had all finished their tasks as well.
However, there is a big difference between finishing something and being able to do it.
Shen Qingqing didn't mind their laughter; after all, they meant no harm, and a couple of laughs wouldn't hurt.
"Hey? Little sister, where did you buy this necklace?" The girl who came out first saw the Ruyi knot that Shen Qingqing was wearing, and reached out to pick it up and look at it again and again.
Shen Qingqing's smile instantly became genuine. "My mom made this. She knew I was competing today, so she specially made this for me to wear. But I don't know the price. I'll have to ask my mom when I get home."
"Oh, so your family sells this! Besides this kind, do you have any other kinds?" The girl nodded knowingly.
Shen Qingqing shook her head: "No, my mom only takes custom orders right now. She makes whatever you want it to look like. If you want this one just like mine, I can give it to you. It will bring you good luck!"
The girl touched the auspicious knot with her thumb, looking very tempted, but still shook her head: "Never mind, this was made for you by your mother. You can ask your mother how much it costs, and then I'll see if I want to buy one just like yours."
Shen Qingqing didn't say much, just nodded: "Sure, mine is white, but if you want, you can choose a color you like, or your lucky color!"
"Really? That's great! When you get home, be sure to ask your mom! And while you're at it, ask if, besides the ruyi knot, you can make a ruyi buckle? And also the kind that looks like a jade pendant." The girl immediately perked up. "Come find me at the fifth grade on Monday. My name is Chen Yurong!"
"Okay! I got it, Sister Yu Rong!" Shen Qingqing clenched her little hand and gave an OK sign.
The Chinese teacher finally returned with the registration certificates and took the children on the bus back to school.
Shen Qingqing then rode her bicycle home from school, arriving home after midnight.
Shen Yangyang eats at regular times, so Shen Rongzhou set aside some food for Shen Qingqing before dinner and kept it warm in the rice cooker.
"Dad! I'm home!" Shen Qingqing locked her bicycle and opened the door.
"You're back? How did the competition go? Go wash your hands and eat!" Shen Rongzhou got up and went into the kitchen to bring her food.
Shen Qingqing threw the transparent test paper bag containing the pens onto the sofa, ran into the kitchen, washed her hands, and said, "I think it's okay, my grades should be pretty good!"
"Really? That's good! You're only in first grade, you don't need to compare yourself to those older students. Just do what you think is right!" Shen Rongzhou brought the food to the table. Although his words sounded discouraging, they reflected his true feelings.
Their family values learning, but they are not the kind of family that only focuses on grades.
While eating, Shen Qingqing described to Shen Rongzhou how big and beautiful Yanqi Elementary School was, and how different it was from her own elementary school.
Shen Rongzhou also recalled his own primary school, telling Shen Qingqing that primary schools in their era were all made of adobe...
Shen Qingqing was still thinking about talking to her mother about the Ruyi Knot. It was almost six o'clock when she finally grabbed her bicycle keys, intending to go to the porcelain kiln to find her mother.
To her surprise, as soon as she opened the door, she saw her mother riding back angrily on her bicycle.
"Mom, what's wrong?" Shen Qingqing stepped aside to let her mother into the house, then followed behind her mother and asked anxiously.
When Shen Rongzhou came out of the kitchen, he saw his wife's angry face and quickly came out to ask, "What happened?"
"I'm so angry today! The factory only has two production lines left, right? The line next door is almost finished with a batch of winter clothes, and today they said that once that batch of winter clothes is finished, they'll merge them into our line."
"No one had any objections at first. So many people had been fired before, which had already made people very uneasy. I didn't expect the boss to start causing trouble today."
“Before, he would only check the goods when they were shipped out, and everyone could see how he did it. Today, I don’t know what got into him, but he went around the factory checking each item one by one and scolded everyone, saying that we weren’t working hard and weren’t serious.”
"Deduct all the money you made today!" Li Xunli said angrily, her face turning red.
After listening, Shen Qingqing and Shen Rongzhou exchanged a glance, and their brows furrowed in unison.
"Does no one in the factory have any objections?" Shen Qingqing asked.
"We had objections, so after he deducted our pay, our team objected. Our team is always number one every month and has never had any problems with our shipments, so we went to the company to argue with them. They said that they hadn't said anything before because we had worked there for a long time, but now the receiving party is checking more strictly and they can't tolerate us anymore!"
"Isn't this a false accusation?" Li Xunli is the least tolerant of being falsely accused and slandered.
"So you're just going to let it go like this?" Shen Qingqing asked again.
Li Xunli was even more furious: "Of course we refused to settle the score and demanded that he return the money to us. But he turned the tables and said that everything we did before was substandard. If we really wanted to settle the score, we would have to pay him back!"
"Our team leader was so angry that he left on the spot and said he was quitting."
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