First Encounter
After the high school entrance exam, Wen Sheng didn't know how many times she had gone to Cangshui County Middle School.
She wasn't a student at the school. The security guard at the school gate recognized her a few times, but after exchanging a couple of pleasantries, he felt too embarrassed to go in again.
So at noon that day, Wen Sheng took advantage of the few people around and sneaked around to the back of the school's east wall.
The wall is not high, just 1.5 meters high, made of red bricks, with the four large white characters "Climbing Strictly Prohibited" painted on it.
Wen Sheng hesitated for a moment, then gestured to show her height. Finally, she stepped on the crooked bluestone by the wall, pushed herself up, and flipped herself inside nimbly.
"I'm sorry, Uncle Gatekeeper, I was just taking a look, I won't cause any trouble." She muttered softly, patted the dust off her clothes, and bowed in the direction of the gatekeeper.
She knew she was wrong, but there was nothing she could do. The results would be released tomorrow, and she was feeling anxious and uncertain. She couldn't sleep during the day and had nightmares at night.
Sometimes she dreams that she failed her exam and wakes up in a cold sweat; sometimes she dreams that she is on a green train, heading towards the city on the other side of the mountains.
But those were all dreams.
In reality, like now, she still has to find her own way.
Cangshui County Middle School is under renovation. The fence has blocked the main road that originally led to the teaching building. The roadside is full of workers pushing small carts. The ground is covered with red bricks, cement and wooden planks, and the air is full of dust.
It was Wen Sheng's first time here, and she wasn't familiar with the area. She didn't dare ask anyone for directions, so she slowly walked around the fence. After wandering around for almost ten minutes, she still couldn't find the teaching building. The entire campus was a maze of winding paths, and there wasn't even a single sign.
Just as I was getting annoyed by the wandering around, a wooden board suddenly appeared in front of me with the words "Billboard" written on it. Several red papers were pasted on it, all with names and grades written in calligraphy.
It's the list of outstanding students for the semester.
Wen Sheng's eyes lit up. Wasn't this what she was looking for? She jogged over, but her foot slipped, and she almost kicked a piece of cement on the ground. She staggered a few steps before regaining her balance.
Xu Jianing, Grade 1 (1), Science score 644.
The name written with a brush on the red paper was sharp and elegant, and the line with the score was even framed in black, making it stand out among the other red papers. Wen Sheng noticed it immediately.
"Xu Jianing... ranked first in science, ranked first in the whole city."
We must quickly offer our prayers!
Wen Sheng looked left and right, and after confirming that no one was around, she immediately put her hands together, bowed solemnly to the person at the top of the list, and muttered, "Senior Xu, please bless me to get into this school! Don't go off-topic in my Chinese essay, get the math problems right, and get a high score on my foreign language essay..."
She prayed very devoutly, her eyes closed, bowing once for each subject she spoke of. But when she got to the foreign languages, a voice suddenly came from behind her:
"Are you worshipping a god, or me?"
Wen Sheng was startled and almost knelt down on the spot. She suddenly opened her eyes, turned around abruptly, and her gaze met a pair of eyes as soon as she raised them.
Under the osmanthus tree next to the bulletin board, a boy in a white shirt had appeared out of nowhere. He had fair skin, his sleeves casually rolled up to his elbows, his hands in his pockets, and he leaned lazily against the osmanthus tree with a blank expression on his face.
Wen Sheng's heart skipped a beat.
"I...I...I was looking at the rankings..." she stammered, looking down with her hands still clasped together, caught by the person in question before she could even come up with an excuse.
She swallowed hard and added softly, "Make a wish while you're at it."
The boy raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
Wen Sheng felt incredibly embarrassed, but with her hands still clasped in front of her chest, she had no choice but to brace herself and look up at him.
"I can get high scores on foreign language essays, I haven't memorized the physics formulas wrong, I get all the biology multiple-choice questions right, and I can balance the chemistry formulas."
Wen Sheng recited the wishes quickly and softly, her voice trembling. Only after she finished saying the string of wishes did she exhale and quickly put her hand in her pocket, pretending that nothing had happened.
What about history, geography, and politics?
Wen Sheng was taken aback. "Huh?"
The boy looked at her and asked, "These will all be on the high school entrance exam, right?"
Wen Sheng opened her mouth, then realized he was serious, and muttered softly, "Aren't you first in science? Can you bless my humanities?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted it. Wasn't this questioning the other person? How could she think that the genius was only good at one subject!
Wen Sheng's ears turned red instantly, and she wished she could disappear into the ground. Just as she was thinking about how to make amends, the boy under the tree suddenly chuckled softly and walked over to Wen Sheng's side.
"It's not just about science."
He stood to her left and pointed to the red paper list on the other side of the bulletin board: "This is the exam before the division of arts and sciences."
Wen Sheng followed his finger and saw the three characters "Xu Jianing" on the first line.
Xu Jianing said, "I can also protect history, geography, and politics."
Wen Sheng was almost starting to doubt his life, but he also knew why his teacher had said that the county high school was no worse than the city high school, and could even be better.
"so."
"So?" Wen Sheng repeated subconsciously, looking up at him hesitantly.
Xu Jianing looked down at her with a half-smile and asked, "Didn't you skip a few more exams?"
“Okay.” Wen Sheng put her hands together again. This time, she didn’t look at the list, but faced Xu Jianing directly to complete the ceremony.
"May I get all the subjective questions in history right, all the multiple-choice questions in geography right, and all the subjective questions in politics right."
She bowed as she read, her voice so soft it was like a mosquito's hum, yet every word reached Xu Jianing's ears clearly.
Xu Jianing nodded and gave a faint "Mm," adding, "I've got it."
"ah?"
"What you pray for."
Wen Sheng quickly lowered her head, pretending to look for mud on her shoes, then looked up and stole a glance at him. She saw that he had already turned around and taken two steps, but then suddenly stopped and looked back at her.
"May I have your name?"
"I..." She was speechless for a moment. Xu Jianing waited a few seconds, then slightly raised the corner of his mouth, "You haven't finished making your wish yet?"
"Wen Sheng".
Is it the "sheng" in "shengxiao" (a type of Chinese flute)?
“Yes…” Wen Sheng was somewhat surprised that he had gotten it right right away, instead of “life”.
"The sheng is a musical instrument with a clear, bright sound, like the cry of a phoenix. It has a very beautiful name."
Xu Jianing raised her chin and pointed in the direction of the gatekeeper, saying, "Just go through the main gate. You don't need to climb over the wall anymore. There's no one at school today."
After saying this, he turned around and slowly walked into the teaching building.
Wen Sheng stood there stunned until he was completely gone before she suddenly came to her senses, covered her face and squatted down, her whole face burning.
"Oh no, he saw that I climbed over the wall."
At this moment, she really wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it. The key point was that she had worshipped him in front of him, bowed after worshipping, and recited each of her wishes.
She crouched down next to the bulletin board, holding her head in her hands, her eyes glancing at the construction site ahead. There were workers carrying bricks, as well as shovels, spades, and mixers... Was it too late to borrow them now?
The next morning, Wen Sheng put on her faded old clothes, which were her most proper clothes, and stuffed the insoles that Wen Chunhua had sewed for her a few days earlier into her cloth shoes. She walked step by step toward the town. By the time she arrived at the middle school gate, it was already noon.
The list was posted on the bulletin board. She looked at it from the last row upwards, faster and faster, and the faster she looked, the more flustered she became, her palms were sweaty.
Finally, at the very top, she saw that familiar name—
Wen Sheng.
She ran all the way home, and before she even entered the yard, she smelled the aroma of stir-fried garlic sprouts and cured pork coming from the kitchen. Wen Chunhua was serving rice when she heard the noise and turned around: "Why so early?"
Wen Sheng rushed in, her face still damp with sweat, her eyes red-rimmed, but her voice was cheerful: "Chunhua! Chunhua! I passed the exam for Cangzhong! My name is on the list, at the very top!"
Before Wen Chunhua could offer her congratulations, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door.
Wen Dazhi returned, carrying a bundle of firewood on his shoulder. As soon as he entered the door, he heard the sisters talking.
"What did you get into?" "He leaned the firewood against the door, dusted off his hands, and peeked into the kitchen."
He frowned, leaned the firewood against the door, dusted off his hands, and glanced into the kitchen.
Wen Sheng immediately stood up straight and said loudly, "Dad, I passed the exam! My name is at the top! My teacher recommended me for the exam."
"Is the rice ready?" Wen Dazhi walked to the pot, lifted the lid, coughed, and continued, "I'll ask about it another day, how much rice we need to carry a month."
Wen Chunhua glanced at Wen Sheng secretly. Their eyes met in mid-air, and neither of them spoke, but they smiled at the same time.
——
Xu Jianing's first year of high school was uneventful.
The steamed buns in the cafeteria were still too hard to bite, and the stir-fried cabbage was so watery that not a drop of oil could be seen. He ate quickly, taking no more than ten minutes for a lunch. Then he picked up his schoolbag, walked through the noisy crowd, and quietly sat back in the classroom to continue working on his problems.
Every weekend, Li Changshui would bring him a lunchbox from home to give him a special meal. The lunchbox was made of aluminum and wrapped in an old towel. Inside were home-cooked dishes such as scrambled eggs with tomatoes and stir-fried pork with green peppers. Occasionally, Li Changshui would also specially save braised pork for him.
Sometimes, after the teacher finished explaining a new lesson, he would habitually call on Xu Jianing: "Xu Jianing, come to the blackboard and give me two questions."
He stood up, picked up the chalk, and quickly wrote down the final function problem. Before turning around, he casually wrote "optional" before the problem.
After class, the teacher said half-jokingly, "Why don't you just make me a test paper?"
He said "okay," and the next day he indeed wrote a whole set of mock exam questions and handed them in. The number of questions was moderate, the difficulty was reasonably distributed, and some of the final questions were even more exciting than the questions in the city's competition.
The math teacher was silent after reading it, and his gaze towards him changed. "I can give this paper to the second-year high school students directly."
Since then, Xu Jianing has been frequently asked to help with creating and printing exam papers. Even teachers from other grades know that Class 1 of Grade 1 has a "universal question bank".
The top student in the first year of high school at Cangzhong High School has never changed his name.
One day, he met a little girl in front of the bulletin board who was clasping her hands together and quietly making a wish to his name. He then realized that life could be anything but mundane.
Actually, he was supposed to go home that morning, but his math teacher asked him to help with some math problems, so he stayed the next morning. When he got back to his dorm, he found that he had left his bag in the office.
On his way back to the teaching building, the main road was blocked by construction, so he had to take a detour through a side road, and that's how he passed by the bulletin board.
A girl stood in front of the bulletin board. She was thin, with long hair tied in a ponytail and dressed simply. She clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and bowed slightly with each sentence she spoke.
Xu Jianing looked at her and suddenly felt a bit of novelty, so he walked to the osmanthus tree and watched her pray earnestly without interrupting.
He has seen many people look at the list; some are envious, some are jealous, and some just stare at the numbers.
But she didn't look at the numbers, she only worshipped the names.
He watched quietly for a while, and only spoke when she was halfway through reading: "Are you worshipping a god, or me?"
He himself didn't understand why he didn't leave school on time that night.
His luggage had been packed long ago, his blankets had been put away, and the bed was just a bare wooden board. Logically, he should have caught the last bus back home that afternoon.
But he didn't leave.
The bed was so hard it hurt, so he used his schoolbag as a pillow, put his coat under his body, closed his eyes and made do with it for the night. He woke up before dawn, staring at the ceiling.
Xu Jianing raised his hand to his forehead, clicked his tongue softly, then got up to wash up, picked up his bag, walked out of the school, and went to the place in the county where the results were posted, all in one go.
A crowd had already gathered in front of the bulletin board. He stood not far away, squinted and scanned the area. Soon, he saw that familiar name on the red paper at the very top.
Wen Sheng.
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