Chapter 108: Check the score
Chapter 108: Check the score
The silence lasted for a long time; neither of them wanted to move.
Cheng Bing pulled Fang Yuenian's hand away, not looking at it, and silently groped to clean it for him. Fang Yuenian didn't look up; he was too tired, his whole body ached, and he couldn't straighten up at all, so he just lay there on top of Cheng Bing. After a long while, Cheng Bing finally said, his voice a little hoarse, "Can I... do it too?"
Fang Yuenian finally raised her head and met his gaze. The embarrassment and anger that she hadn't had time to process earlier suddenly descended upon her. Thinking about what she had done, Fang Yuenian's face burned red, and she hurriedly tried to slide down the back of the chair.
Cheng Bing immediately wrapped her arms around him as he moved, looking a little confused and anxious: "What's wrong?"
Fang Yuenian's retreat failed, so she blushed and whispered, "Are you comfortable?"
Cheng Bing's face turned even redder; she was about to explode.
"……Um."
“Then in the future…” Fang Yuenian said a few words, but found it too difficult to say, so she whispered in his ear again, “We will always be happy together… I’m willing to do anything, anyway, you won’t hurt me.”
Cheng Bing could no longer bear it and hugged the person tightly. Feeling that they were both trembling slightly, he said softly, "I know."
When Cheng Qiuyan got home, she had already finished watching the news and was about to go to sleep. Cheng Bing had put a lot of effort into making herself look normal before leaving the carpenter's shop, but once inside, she immediately felt a strange unease.
Hearing the door open, Cheng Qiuyan greeted, "Bingbing's back?"
"Hmm," Cheng Bing said from the doorway. He put his phone on the table next to him and went to the sink to wash his hands.
He had been spending a lot of time at the carpenter's shop lately, so Cheng Qiuyan didn't think anything was wrong. She walked towards her son and looked at his back as she softly said, "Bingbing, Linghua's mother from next door just came over and said she wants you to help her buy a train ticket for tomorrow."
"ticket?"
"Yes, she said to buy it online first, otherwise if she can't buy it at the station, she's going to visit her family's Linghua and is bringing a lot of things with her."
Cheng Bing wasn't very interested in asking anything else; she just wanted to take a shower quickly, so she said, "Okay."
Cheng Qiuyan smiled and said, "She went to Xiaohui's house today to ask him to help her buy one, since he has a computer. But Xiaohui was playing games and ignored everyone. She even said a lot of things, like, 'You don't really like playing computer games and you don't go out much.'"
Indeed, since his family bought a desktop computer, Cheng Bing has basically never "played" with it. This is mainly because he spends most of his time at school. When he occasionally comes home, he might look up some information or find old TV series for his mother to download and watch. He doesn't really like playing games. When his family didn't have a computer, he didn't go to internet cafes like his classmates did. He used a Nokia phone for almost three years and didn't develop a strong dependence on other electronic devices.
However, Cheng Qiuyan soon noticed the box next to her, which looked unfamiliar, and asked, "What's this?"
Cheng Bing shook the water off her hands and said in as calm a tone as possible, "A new cell phone, given to me by Fang Yuenian."
"What?" Cheng Qiuyan was a little surprised. "Xiao Niannian bought you a cell phone?"
“I bought one for himself too,” Cheng Bing said, taking the box into her hands. After thinking for a moment, she added, “He bought it with his New Year’s money and didn’t ask his family for it.”
"Isn't New Year's money also the family's money?" Cheng Qiuyan scolded. "New cell phones aren't cheap these days. Your dad was telling me when he was going to buy you one. Xiao Niannian is the same; he's spent all his New Year's money on this. What will he do if he wants to buy something for himself but can't ask the family for money? You're students, not people who earn money. You should think carefully before you spend your allowance. I know he probably thinks that your sister bought both of your cell phones before, so he's buying you one too. And you, it's not a small thing, why did you have to ask for it?"
Cheng Bing didn't want to argue, so she simply said, "It's already been bought."
Cheng Qiuyan knew that it was difficult to return things bought these days, so she asked, "How much is this phone?"
"The two together cost less than two thousand."
This number isn't astronomical, and Cheng Qiuyan breathed a sigh of relief—she had just thought of the neighbor's kid's phone that cost nearly ten thousand yuan, and had been quite frightened, thinking that Fang Yuenian had gone to such great lengths.
"That's alright."
Cheng Bing was a little taken aback by her mother's sudden change in expression. After a moment of surprise, she smiled and said, "He thought about it for quite a while before making this decision, Mom. How much do you think it cost?"
Cheng Qiuyan scolded, "That's because Xiao Niannian knows how to save money. Stop laughing and go take a shower—he bought you a cell phone, what are you going to give him?"
This sentence successfully reminded Cheng Bing of what Fang Yuenian had said earlier, and her face immediately flushed again. She hurriedly said, "Let's talk about it later."
She quickly went into her room, found some clothes, and went to take a shower.
Cheng Qiuyan smiled behind him.
Fang Yuenian's journey home wasn't so smooth. He had to be careful, since he couldn't let the adults see anything he had. However, Wang Jing was still awake, helping the foreman with his work for the day, scribbling in a notebook. Just as she was fretting over something, Fang Yuenian returned.
Knowing it was him, Wang Jing didn't even look up, but hurriedly waved and said, "Niannian, come here and help your mother see if this calculation is correct."
The workers' working hours are a big deal. If there are any disputes about this, it will not only cause trouble, but also lead to gossip.
Fang Yuenian brushed past her, "Okay, I'll be right there."
After entering his room, he hid everything carefully and only went out again to help Wang Jing after making sure everything was alright.
Wang Jing, however, was no longer in a hurry and asked, "You went out right after lunch this afternoon, what were you doing?"
“Oh,” Fang Yuenian said, “I went to the carpenter’s shop.”
He never hid anything from Wang Jing, and even seemed to secretly want her to know something.
Wang Jing said, "What are you two busy with at this time? Are you going to break up the bookshelf again?"
“No,” Fang Yuenian thought for a moment, “Cheng Bing will make me a small bookend, so it will be easy to put on the table and pick it up later.”
Wang Jing smiled and squinted: "You always ask for these things. Hasn't he made enough little treats for you? Stop ordering him around. Oh right, I'm going to the fields to pick some cantaloupes tomorrow, the first batch. You can cut some good ones and give them to him to eat."
She probably thought it was just two boys who were good friends exchanging gifts, and Cheng Bing's identity was not ordinary, so she almost wholeheartedly approved of her son befriending him.
Fang Yuenian could no longer hint at anything, so she could only mutter, "His family has it too."
"Yes, there are. They're different varieties. The melons Mom grew this year are sweet and plentiful. Why don't you give them to him to try?"
"Oh, I understand."
After ending the conversation, I hurriedly went to take a shower.
But his heart was pounding. The hot water slid over his skin, and he couldn't resist touching himself with his hand like Cheng Bing had just done. But suddenly, places he had never paid attention to before seemed untouchable. Just thinking about Cheng Bing's expression, breathing, and movements made him feel like he was about to ascend to heaven and disappear on the spot in the narrow shower room.
—Watching a movie with normal content, or at least normal content in other countries, has already caused some serious consequences.
Fang Yuenian then tried every means to hide those few sheets, hiding them layer upon layer. However, after several days, he couldn't sleep at night, constantly thinking about them.
No, it's not that you absolutely can't watch it...
I'll just take a look; no one will know anyway.
Cheng Bing has seen it, so why can't I?
And then one day, he finally reached out his evil hand.
After reading it, he didn't go to see Cheng Bing that night.
I can't face him calmly.
I spent several days in a daze, doing all sorts of random things, until my college entrance exam scores finally came out.
The cut-off scores for undergraduate and vocational college programs in each batch were also released at the same time.
On the day the scores were checked, Fang Yuenian and Cheng Bing were in front of the computer at the Cheng family home, with no adults around. Cheng Qiuyan was relatively calm, just staying downstairs and calling them upstairs to check the scores themselves. Wang Jing was much more nervous, as she couldn't come to the Cheng family home, so she paced back and forth in her own living room.
The computer screen displays a webpage for entering information. Once you've filled in the required fields, you can check your score with a single click.
Cheng Bing flexed her fingers and asked Fang Yuenian beside her, "Are you nervous?"
“Mmm, mmm, mmm,” Fang Yuenian nodded frantically, “No, wait a little longer, let me prepare a bit more.”
Cheng Bing smiled and said, "Okay."
They had talked several times before the exam about universities and majors, and discussed it repeatedly after the exam, basically taking all kinds of situations into account. They were practically fully prepared, and now they were just one step away from the exam, but they were still incredibly nervous.
Fang Yuenian insisted on checking Cheng Bing's score first—they already knew the cutoff score for first-tier universities, and to be on the safe side when choosing their desired school and major, the more above the cutoff, the better.
He was muttering to himself, and Cheng Bing, finding it rather unclear, asked, "What?"
Fang Yuenian: "Six hundred and eighty-six hundred and eighty-six hundred and eighty..."
Cheng Bing: "..."
Is this person aiming to be the top scorer in the entire city?
He placed his hands on the keyboard. "I'm starting to look it up."
"Wait, wait!" Fang Yuenian stopped her, pulling a lucky charm from her neck.
After the exam, he took apart the little things that were tied together to ensure his studies and safety, leaving only the one Cheng Bing had given him.
“Let me do one last ritual,” he said, then thought for a moment and felt something was wrong. He reached out and pulled the one around Cheng Bing’s neck out as well. “I feel like I need to do both at the same time.”
This classmate never shook off his superstitious habit. Cheng Bing recalled that year, on the morning of the entrance exam for the top high school's direct admission class, Fang Yuenian squatted at the village entrance early in the morning, just to give him this talisman that was said to ensure academic success. Looking back now, it really did work. During his three years of high school, at least academically, he did have a smooth year. Although he never ranked first in the overall score, he never fell behind either.
"Are you done?" Cheng Bing asked patiently after waiting for a while.
Fang Yuenian released the peace charm, "Alright, alright, that's enough, enter the number."
Cheng Bing quickly entered the number, and without hesitation, clicked "Search." Author's Note: Thank you to my mentor 9492239 (9492239) for your support! For more exciting content, please leave a message for this book on Liancheng Reading.
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