The dragon boat racers on the river are working hard, and the spectators on the riverbank are cheering enthusiastically for their favorite teams.
The prizes for dragon boat racing aren't high, maybe a thousand or eight hundred yuan, enough for a dragon boat team to have a meal, plus a box of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) and other gifts.
The audience members received no prizes whatsoever.
But the festive atmosphere of a lively celebration with everyone participating is something that prizes simply cannot match.
Competition between villages and between towns is about a sense of honor.
Even Shen Yangyang and Li Chunchun, who were being carried on Shen Rongzhou and Li Xunjin's shoulders respectively, were infected by the cheers and shouted "Go for it!" in their high-pitched childish voices.
Shen Qingqing couldn't help but shout "Go for it!" as well.
For half an hour during the competition, the cheers from the river embankment never stopped.
Shouting so loudly is also very tiring. Li Yuxing stuffed a peeled zongzi into the hands of the three children who joined the cheering team. While eating, they continued to shout to cheer for each dragon boat.
Finally, a dragon boat with its entire hull in gold crossed the finish line.
There were both cheers and boos on the river embankment.
But the boos were all filled with laughter and joy, and there was no malice in them.
The dragon boat race ended, and the crowd slowly dispersed.
Shen Qingqing emerged from the crowd with a flushed face and her head covered in sweat.
Li Xunli opened a pack of tissues and wiped her face.
After the crowd dispersed, a lot of open space was left on the riverbank. The official competition on the river had ended, but some unofficial racing teams were preparing for the next round.
After the dragon boat race, the children had had their fill of rice dumplings and were almost finished eating them, so they all obediently went home.
After returning home, Shen Qingqing saw Zhi Guo and another jelly-like cake on the table. Every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, Shen Qingqing loved to eat these two things the most, even more than Zongzi.
So she leaned over the dining table, looking at her mother expectantly, and asked, "Mom, can I have two pieces of this?"
Li Xunli chuckled, "If you want to eat it, I'll cut it for you!"
Shen Qingqing sat down at the dining table and started eating happily.
The joyous Dragon Boat Festival has passed, and everyone is back to work or school. Li Xunli has also returned to her busy schedule.
It took a whole month in total, from the beginning to the end, until early July, when she finally finished making all the most exquisite porcelain pieces she could at the moment.
However, because they were all small, they only needed four gift boxes, each about the length of an adult's arm and the width of a forearm, to pack them all together.
Then the three new items were repackaged separately.
Just as Li Xunli and Li Xunjin were about to set off with some gifts to visit the person with connections, Shen Qingqing was also facing a very important exam in her elementary school life.
Exams that allow students to skip grades.
On the morning of July 11th, as soon as Shen Qingqing arrived at school, she was taken away from the first-grade classroom by the second-grade Chinese teacher.
The second-grade classroom is right next to the first-grade classroom. Just turn a corner from the back door of the first-grade classroom, and you'll find the back door of the second-grade classroom.
When the second-grade students, who were preparing for their exams, saw their teacher bring in an unfamiliar student and make sure she sat on the podium, their eyes were filled with curiosity.
Everyone was wondering if she was their Chinese teacher's daughter.
The bell rang, and the test papers were handed out. The students who were previously curious about Shen Qingqing saw that their Chinese teacher had given that student the exact same final exam paper as them!
What does this mean? Is this a new transfer student from some school?
"Alright, once you get your test papers, just do them yourselves quietly and don't look around!" After handing out the test papers, the second-grade Chinese teacher sternly tapped the podium.
Shen Qingqing had already taken out her pencil and started working on the test paper.
She flipped through the entire Chinese test paper and found it to be completely easy. Even the last question, which required writing a story based on a picture, had only increased from fifty characters to one hundred characters.
Shen Qingqing smiled and quickly began writing on the test paper.
The classroom was so quiet that the only sound was the soft scratching of pens on paper.
Unsurprisingly, Shen Qingqing was the fastest among the students in this examination room.
Her second-grade Chinese teacher stood next to her and watched her finish. For each question she answered, she silently graded it in her mind.
After all the work was completed, the second-grade Chinese teacher was not surprised at all that Shen Qingqing had gotten a perfect score.
The 100-word description based on the picture used three rhetorical devices and idioms, making it quite beautiful.
Shen Qingqing put her pen back into her pencil case, looked up and met the gaze of her second-grade Chinese teacher, clearly seeing the fondness in her eyes.
Shen Qingqing smiled subconsciously, then quietly asked: Teacher, may I go first?
As if afraid that the teacher wouldn't understand her silent lip movements, Shen Qingqing even placed her index and middle fingers on the podium and made a walking motion to help her understand.
The second-grade Chinese teacher hesitated for a moment, recalling how this child often handed in his paper and left the exam room early when participating in competitions last semester.
Looking at the students below who hadn't finished writing yet, and with a long time left before the exam ended, the second-grade Chinese teacher nodded helplessly and gestured for Shen Qingqing to walk behind her so as not to attract too much attention.
Shen Qingqing understood this, but since there were only two main subjects in the first and second grades, and after finishing the Chinese exam, she would have to take the math exam next, Shen Qingqing didn't wander around after she went out. She just sat down next to the pavilion in front of the second grade.
Lost in thought, daydreaming, and before you knew it, the first Chinese exam was over.
The second-grade Chinese teacher collected the test papers and left.
There are still ten minutes until the next math exam.
After the second-grade students came out, they saw Shen Qingqing sitting outside. Some of the bolder students walked straight towards her.
"Excuse me, did you transfer from another school?"
Shen Qingqing was lost in thought, enjoying the rare breeze, when suddenly someone stood in front of her and asked her a question, which startled her.
After regaining her senses and understanding her question, Shen Qingqing shook her head: "No, I'm a first-year student."
The student who asked the question was stunned. "Huh? You're a first-year student, why are you taking the exam in our second-year classroom?"
Shen Qingqing blinked. "Because I'm going to be in third grade with you guys."
"Huh?!" The students who had followed out of curiosity couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
The student who first spoke to Shen Qingqing stammered, "You...you want to skip a grade?"
Shen Qingqing smiled slightly: "That's right!"
At this moment, someone finally remembered who the girl was, "You're Shen Qingqing, the one who won the prize in the competition last semester!"
"Yes, I am Shen Qingqing!"
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