Chapter 45
When Jian Li was dizzy from working on her manuscript, Xia Liu dragged her to sign up for a table tennis competition.
This year is the Olympic year, and table tennis fever has swept the streets of Taocheng. Xia Liu would play table tennis with Jian Li whenever he had time, under the pretext of preparing for the Games.
Winter has passed and spring has arrived. Jian Li weighed 130 kilograms during the Spring Festival and has recently lost another ten kilograms. Considering her height, her weight has finally returned to normal and slightly plump.
Wang Mengmei was naturally happy, and she took some time out of her busy schedule to buy some new clothes for Jian Li.
She was wearing a top with wood ear lace and a half-length navy blue pleated skirt. Just a small section of her white calves was exposed, which made many people on the table tennis court focus on Jian Li.
Xia Liu envied Jian Li's fair skin: "I want to be fair too. We are both playing table tennis outside, why are you so much fairer than me?"
Jian Li: "Maybe it's genetic."
Wang Mengmei is fair, Jian Feng is also fair, and no one in their family lags behind in height or skin.
Xia Liu sighed: "There's nothing I can do about it. My dad is so dark."
Jian Li thought about Xia Liu's father, he was indeed dark. Xia Liu's skin was not bad, but it was yellowish in color.
"Buy some pearl powder and try it."
There are pearl powder commercials on TV lately that sound miraculous, saying that if you drink a spoonful of pearl powder every day, you can have white skin in less than a month.
Jian Feng received his salary last month, and he bought two large bags without saying a word.
Jian Li pulled her cheeks to show Xia Liu: "I had acne before, but it has healed in the past few days."
When she heard that it could cure acne, Xia Liu became even more excited and decided to go back and ask her mother for help.
The teenage girls have finally reached the stage of loving beauty. Among the various magazines circulated in the class, there are a few copies of Zhiyin. I don’t know who stole them from home.
At the beginning of the new semester, three pairs of "premature love" have appeared in the class.
Xia Liu quietly told Jian Li: "The sports committee member of our class is now friends with the study committee member of Class 3."
Yesterday, she saw the sports committee member secretly stacking stars under the desk.
A bunch of colorful plastic tubes cost a dime. Fold them in half and cross them, wrap them around enough times and stuff them in the box. They will form a stacked star.
It is a fashion in school this year to stack stars. After stacking, they are placed in a glass jar. Whoever receives such a jar will be the focus of everyone's attention.
Xia Liu also bought a handful and pulled Jian Li to stack them together. Jian Li got bored after stacking just a few and started folding puppies with a thin tube out of boredom.
In the end, Xia Liu's glass jar was not filled.
Xia Liu quietly pointed at the people on the table tennis court and asked Jian Li one by one who was friendly with whom.
"Well, Liu Dajun, he's dating the arts committee member of Class 4."
Jian Li was a little surprised. After the two brothers Dajun and Xiaojun provoked her last year and were given the nickname "Chopstick Brothers", they have been missing and always walk around her. She really didn't know that Liu Dajun had pursued the class beauty of Class 4.
Xia Liu: "Liu Dajun is hanging out with the big brothers outside the school now."
Jian Li understood instantly.
Kids of this age naturally feel impressive because they have a "big brother" protecting them outside of school.
Xia Liu said that he was going to prepare for the sports meeting with Jian Li, but during the two hours of practice, the two of them just talked nonsense for one hour and fifty minutes.
Finally, the day of the sports meet arrived, and Jian Li saw her sister on the high school team from afar.
Qian Ping signed up for the relay race this time. She and her deskmate quickly reconciled and the two of them became the third and fourth runners of the relay respectively.
The relay race started later, so Qian Ping went to watch Jian Li's competition.
Then Jian Li lost magnificently.
Even the group stage was not passed, so it was really important to participate. Xia Liu held on for a while longer than Jian Li, but in the end he still stopped in the top three.
Jian Li wiped the sweat off her face and ran to Qian Ping's side: "Sister, have you signed up? What are you competing in? I'll come and cheer for you later!"
Qian Ping patted her head and said, "Okay, let's have a relay race later."
The relay race started with the junior high schools. Because there were two junior high schools this time, the atmosphere of the competition was even more intense. The students cheered for their own schools at the top of their lungs and hoped that the other school would be crushed to pieces.
Even the teachers were excited, and some young teachers were shouting along.
At last, the clock was checked and it was found that Class 2 of Grade 9 of Jianli School won first place.
Suddenly there was a lively cheer on the playground.
After the junior high school competition, we started to compete with the high school students.
The evening sun is bright yellow, like an egg yolk.
Qian Ping was standing in the fourth position, his heart beating wildly.
Not content with just finishing her own class's competition, Jian Li also ran over to the high school to cheer for Qian Ping. Inspired by her, the students in the refresher class stood by and cheered for her at the top of their lungs.
“Bang!”
As the starting gun sounded, Qian Ping watched helplessly as the first runner in his group fell behind at the start.
The cheers on the playground were incessant, and the loudest ones came from the review class.
The second runner was a little better, but still only maintained third place.
Qian Ping's deskmate ran in the third leg.
The girl who usually doesn't care about anything and laughs now has a determined look on her face.
Gradually, he surpassed the second place.
Qian Ping held his breath and took the baton while running.
Then it’s time to sprint.
At this moment, all distracting thoughts disappeared, and she only had one goal in front of her between heaven and earth.
She automatically blocked out the noise around her, and the long-suppressed desire to win in her heart took over, like a little man beating a drum standing above her head, and the sound of wind swept around her.
Qian Ping and the first place finisher crossed the finish line almost at the same time.
The PE teacher standing at the finish line picked up a stopwatch.
"The third group was 0.08 seconds faster than the second group!"
Qian Ping, who was standing at the end of the third group, had not even had time to catch her breath when her classmates surrounded her.
"We win, we win!"
Qian Ping was lifted up and thrown high into the air.
Qian Ping's deskmate was crying loudly and seemed out of place.
Jian Li couldn't squeeze in, so she took the opportunity to grab an unfamiliar teacher who was holding a camera.
"Teacher, take a quick photo!"
Before the young teacher could react, the shutter had already been pressed.
Fortunately, the effect was really good after the shoot, so I didn't bother with Jian Li.
Qian Ping and her deskmate held hands, and both of them climbed onto the simple award-winning platform with red eyes.
The review class won two first places today, one in the relay race and the other in tug-of-war.
The teacher hung the award certificates issued by the school on the back wall of the classroom. This exciting sports meeting finally allowed these children to relieve their stress.
The photo with Qian Ping at the center was published in the school newspaper, and Jian Li cut it out and gave it to Qian Ping.
Qian Ping put the photo inside her textbook, and her once empty heart suddenly felt like a heavy stone had fallen from her chest.
It was written on the blackboard that there were still fifty-nine days until the college entrance examination.
*****
After the sports meet, Jian Li faced another midterm exam.
Jian Li still got the first place in this exam, but Xu Yanan dropped one place and became the fourth in the class.
After the results came out, Xu Yanan just lay on the table, and it was unclear whether she was crying or feeling upset.
The head teacher, Mr. Fang, also felt sorry for the students and made some pointed comments when summarizing the test results.
"The questions this time are difficult, especially in math, and there are several additional questions, so everyone's scores will change. What we need to look at is not the usual grades, but the grades of the high school entrance examination. Don't give up or put too much pressure on yourself because of temporary gains and losses. There is still a long time to go, and the improvement of grades requires everyone's efforts bit by bit."
Xu Yanan didn't hear anything Teacher Fang said.
Until school was over, Xu Yanan was still lying on the table.
What a coincidence, today's student on duty is Jian Li.
Xia Liu mouthed to Jian Li at the door: "Is she leaving or not?"
Jian Li tentatively patted Xu Yanan, who was lying on the table, and said, "It's time to go home, Xu Yanan, are you feeling unwell?"
Xu Yanan did not feel unwell. She just looked up at Jian Li with a pale face, then stood up and left tremblingly.
Xia Liu started to complain when she saw Xu Yanan leave: "Look at her just now, it's like someone owes her something!"
Xu Yanan's look was not really kind.
Xia Liu of course stood on her friend's side, and her original sympathy for Xu Yanan disappeared: "It's not your fault that she didn't do well in the exam, otherwise why didn't she get second place!"
Jian Li shrugged. She felt sympathy for Xu Yanan, but she really didn't feel any guilt.
"Let's not talk about her anymore. Let's go."
Xia Liu said "oh" and followed Jian Li to the restaurant obediently.
Her mother Li Lijuan had gone back to her parents' home a few days ago. Xia Liu's grandmother's home was in another province, and it would take at least ten days to go back. So before leaving, Li Lijuan paid Wang Mengmei half a month's worth of food so that Xia Liu could eat at a small restaurant at noon and in the evening.
The two of them arrived at the small restaurant, and Wang Mengmei made two bowls of noodles for them. The base was made of kelp and bean sprouts, and on top was the spicy hand-rolled noodles, which were then topped with a spoonful of meat sauce and a spoonful of red oil.
The spicy aroma hits your nose, and just smelling it makes me feel like all the greedy bugs are being lured out.
Wang Mengmei also brought out two side dishes.
As the weather got warmer, the sales of the casserole in the store began to decline. Wang Mengmei added cold dishes to the menu, such as tofu with spring onions, cold bean curd skin, preserved egg and cucumber...
Each side dish is prepared before meal time, and costs RMB 1.5 for a small plate, and RMB 2.5 for a large plate.
Xia Liu likes to eat cold tomatoes the most, taking a bite of tomatoes and a mouthful of noodles, and burping after finishing. Wang Mengmei cleared the table and sent the two of them back to do their homework.
There were more and more people in the store, and Jian Li couldn't even do her homework in the store.
After discussing it, the two decided to go to Xia Liu's house to do their homework and watch TV after finishing their homework.
When they were almost at Xia Liu's house and passing by Xu Yanan's house, Xia Liu pulled Jian Li.
"Look, it's Xu Yanan!"
Jian Li looked in the direction Xia Liu pointed, and it was indeed Xu Yanan.
Xu Yanan was seen standing at the door of her house with her head lowered, while her mother Sun Yan was coaxing a little boy there.
Xia Liu was a little surprised: "I thought her mother would beat her."
After so many years, everyone knows Sun Yan's temper.
Jian Li remained silent, just looking at Xu Yanan who was silent over there.
Sometimes, neglect is a form of violence.
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