Chapter 56: Growing Pains
Chapter 56: Growing Pains
Fang Yuenian fell into an unprecedented emotional low.
He and Meng Xiaoyang lay silently on their respective beds, one on top of the other, and didn't participate in their roommates' conversations or laughter all night.
After the dormitory lights were turned off at 11 p.m., everyone didn't chat much and instead used flashlights to study—preparing for the midterm exams.
Fang Yuenian nestled in her blankets, editing and deleting the text message, racking her brains, unsure of how to bring it up.
However, Cheng Bing's text message arrived first.
Without even introducing themselves, they simply asked, "Fang Yuenian, are you asleep?"
Fang Yuenian saved the number as "Brother Cheng" and then replied, "I'm not asleep."
Cheng Bing sent a phone number and said, "This is your number. Remember to pay your phone bill on time."
"knew."
Fang Yuenian buried her face in the pillow, her head throbbing terribly.
Seeing that it was already very late, he finally finished editing a message and sent it to Cheng Xiaoxiao.
"Sister Xiaoxiao, this is Niannian. Thank you for the phone; I love it and will cherish it. But buying two phones must have cost you a lot of money, right? I'd like to do something for you. What can I do?"
A moment later, Cheng Xiaoxiao replied to the text message: "Let me think about it, I'll call you when I have an idea. Focus on your studies, and if anything happens at school, discuss it with Cheng Bing. Remember to save your sister Jun's number."
Fang Yuenian held her phone to her chest, unable to sleep.
The next morning, when they were washing up, he and Meng Xiaoyang were brushing their teeth in the sink like two ghosts. They glanced at each other and were both startled.
"Why are your eyes so dark?!"
Meng Xiaoyang said, "Oh, I had insomnia last night."
Fang Yuenian nodded weakly: "Yeah, me too last night."
Remembering his promise to Li Peixiang yesterday, he asked with his toothbrush in his mouth, "Are you alright? I heard from Li Peixiang."
Meng Xiaoyang spat out the foam, washed her face with water, and said with her eyes downcast, "I told Aunt Fen... I mean He Linjie's mother. She was surprised and a little embarrassed, but she didn't ask any more questions."
Fang Yuenian wasn't too surprised. He splashed water on his face haphazardly. The weather was getting cooler, and it was actually a bit cold. After washing up, he felt refreshed and much more awake.
It's actually quite strange, for some reason, he always sees certain things he's experienced reflected in Meng Xiaoyang, and the current situation is no exception—which makes him very conflicted. He used to live so carelessly, truly indebted to Cheng Bing's family, yet he had a clear conscience and no ulterior motives. Now, however, he always feels inexplicably ashamed.
He thought of the text "Growing Pains" from his previous English class. Could this be the kind of growing pains he was experiencing now?
However, if we're really talking about growing pains, Fang Yuenian is definitely not the only one who has experienced them.
It seems like everyone is troubled, troubled by all sorts of things.
Endless homework, feeling drowsy in class but having to force yourself to stay awake, music exam looming but unable to play the recorder smoothly no matter what, being publicly shamed by the dorm supervisor for forgetting to take out the trash one day, or finally arriving at the teaching building only to realize you forgot your school badge the moment you saw the student on duty...
Of course, there are also exams, scores, rankings, and the future.
However, the way to get rid of troubles is usually that the next trouble appears, and so on and so forth.
Fang Yuenian's next worry was the midterm exam. Until the night before the exam rankings were released, he didn't realize how much he cared about his grades.
Evening self-study is about to begin. Everything in the classroom is normal, except for the rustling of writing and turning pages. Tonight we have a biology quiz. The class representative just brought back the test papers to distribute. Everyone is sighing quietly.
Li Peixiang's face turned ashen as he looked at the biology class representative handing out test papers. "How cruel! Can't we at least have a moment to process this?"
Fang Yuenian looked up and saw Sun Ning, who was on duty today, sitting on the podium. She was holding a duty logbook with a one-day time limit.
"Did our class do poorly on the test this time?" he asked softly.
"It's not as good as last time, but it should be alright. You and Meng Xiaoyang both got pretty good scores. By the way, do you think you can make it into the top three?"
"No," Fang Yuenian took the test paper handed to her by the student in front of her, and noticed that Sun Ning was scanning the entire room. "Don't talk, Sun Ning is looking over here."
“What are you afraid of if she looks over here? She doesn’t always like looking at you,” Li Peixiang said, pursing his lips. “I’m tired of being your deskmate.”
"Stop messing around with me..."
Before he could utter a single word, the classroom door was suddenly knocked twice and pushed open. The biology representative from Class 2 hurriedly poked his head in and shouted:
"Does your class have any extra living organisms?"
The entire room fell silent.
Sun Ning, standing on the podium, turned her head slightly to look at the newcomer and said coldly, "Who here is superfluous?"
After a two-second pause, the whole class burst into laughter.
This was probably the most lively moment of the entire exam week.
Li Peixiang laughed so hard he almost fell over, dropping his pen. Fang Yuenian buried her head in her book, her shoulders shaking as she tried to hold it in.
Someone chimed in, "I think this biological monster is superfluous. Tell me what I'm supposed to do!"
"Yes, yes, I feel like I'm pretty redundant too!"
Even Sun Ning on the podium gave up on controlling the situation, and everyone made the students from Class 2 at the door laugh until their faces turned red, and they turned around and ran away.
The class representative chased after her with the test papers. Sun Ning finally managed to control her expression, stood up, pounded on the podium, and shouted, "Quiet! Quiet!"
Li Peixiang scratched his head and sighed, both amused and exasperated, "My God, how can I possibly be amused at a time like this?"
Fang Yuenian: "Haven't you made progress?"
Li Peixiang: "That's not enough! I promised my dad I'd get into the top 300!"
Sun Ning: "Quiet!"
During the break, Fang Yuenian went downstairs to the small supermarket. Passing by the first floor, she noticed that the classrooms of Class 17 and Class 18 were still deserted. "Aren't they afraid of getting sick from being cooped up in the classroom?" Fang Yuenian thought rather unkindly.
Meng Xiaoyang, who had a cold these past two days, mumbled a reminder from the side: "Can't you just text him back later?"
That's true. Since we got cell phones, communication has obviously become much more convenient. But it seems that Fang Yuenian hasn't had a chance to have a proper conversation with Cheng Bing since she got her phone. In the past two weeks, because of exam preparation and the release of results, even if they bumped into each other, they only exchanged a few words before going their separate ways.
“Why do you think the experimental class has to keep everyone so close together?” Fang Yuenian said, unable to accept it. “They even said they would stagger meal times, but they have to keep them for an extra half hour. Cheng Bing has been eating leftovers from the cafeteria for a long time, and the boarding students don’t have parents bringing them food. Besides, the school already staggers the dismissal times of the senior students with other grades. Keeping them for an extra half hour just clashes with the senior students’ mealtime, so there are still too many people.”
Meng Xiaoyang said slowly, "There are even fewer boarding students in the senior year of high school."
Fang Yue Nian thought for a moment, wondering if Aunt Qiu Yan would come to accompany them to school like other parents in the village when they reached their senior year of high school? If she did, would Brother Cheng not have to live on campus or eat in the school cafeteria?
I'll ask tonight.
He glanced at Meng Xiaoyang, "But why are you recovering so slowly? Did you take your medicine properly?"
Meng Xiaoyang had been suffering from a cold for a week. He was already thin, and now he looked particularly listless. A couple of days ago, after managing to finish his exams, Li Peixiang accompanied him to the hospital. They confirmed that it wasn't the highly contagious flu that was happening these days, but just a chill.
Thinking about the flu, Meng Xiaoyang said, "The class monitor said that the school will be carrying out disinfection this weekend, and everyone will have their temperature checked every day starting next week. Some people in the city have already gotten the flu."
I've heard a lot of news these past few days, and with the weather getting colder and everyone more susceptible to catching a cold, there's a lot of anxiety at school.
“Oh, I remember now, the class monitor mentioned this this morning,” Fang Yuenian said.
Meng Xiaoyang asked, "Our class is on duty next week, have you signed up?"
This is the first time that the first-year high school students are on duty at the school. Although the specific duty schedule has not yet been released, the students have already started vying for their preferred positions.
Fang Yuenian raised an eyebrow: "I feel like I was born to manage others. No job is suitable for me. I should go and inspect the sanitation responsibility area. I heard that you only need to check once a day and then give a score."
Meng Xiaoyang smiled and said, "Is that so? I thought you would want to stand guard at the school gate to check discipline and appearance, or go to other classes to check eye exercises."
He emphasized the words "other classes," which startled Fang Yuenian, who then realized: "That's right, how come I didn't think of that!"
“If taking temperatures is also handled by the duty team, then our whole class will probably have to go, since there are so many classes in the whole school.” Meng Xiaoyang fiddled with the snacks on the supermarket shelf. “But the Yifu Building for senior students is so far away, I don’t know if they will let us go.”
Fang Yuenian was lost in her own daydreams: If I went to Class 18... just thinking about it makes me excited, and by the way... I could also take a look at Cheng Bing's two female deskmates... I'll just take a look, I don't have any other thoughts, hmm.
Once back in the classroom, he couldn't wait to ask the class monitor about the duty roster.
The class monitor, a chubby and imposing guy, immediately understood when he asked, "Fang Yuenian, do you want to go on duty at the school gate? I was originally thinking of having you and Meng Xiaoyang go too; you two are the face of our class."
Fang Yuenian: "No, no, no, I don't want to go. I want to check our grade's eye exercises."
"Huh?" The class monitor was confused. Wouldn't it be more impressive to go to the school gate? He thought for a moment, "It's fine, but the homeroom teacher said that a post can't be too fixed. You'll definitely be assigned to other tasks. Otherwise, I'll assign you a morning guard duty."
Li Peixiang rushed over upon hearing the news and sighed, "Hey, class monitor, are you giving Nian Ge special privileges? You can't be unfair just because he's handsome, can you?"
Fang Yuenian nudged him with her elbow, "Don't talk."
The class monitor said, "I'm going to assign you to score the senior students' morning exercises. If you don't do well, the angry senior students will come to the classroom to question you."
Li Peixiang chickened out: "No, no, no, spare me."
Fang Yuenian: "Hahaha, yes, let him go."
However, the final duty roster was extremely complicated, likely the result of the homeroom teacher's painstaking efforts, as every student was assigned more than two positions, leading to a chorus of groans when it was handed out. But that's another story.
That evening, back in her dorm, Fang Yuenian texted Cheng Bing as usual, asking how many points she'd scored on her last exam, politics. Cheng Bing gave her an absurdly low number, so Fang Yuenian soberly nipped her smugness at the bud and asked, "It's a bit early to ask now, but may I ask, when you're in your senior year, will Aunt Qiuyan be tutoring you?"
Cheng Bing replied, "? Why are you suddenly asking this? I don't think so."
"It's nothing, I just thought of something. Tomorrow is Friday, so could we have lunch together on Saturday? Breakfast, lunch, or dinner are all fine."
"Call me when you wake up, or come find me."
"Okay!"
The next day, the grade rankings were announced. Fang Yuenian was much calmer this time. After lunch, she returned and casually mingled in the crowd, listening to them talk:
"Class 18 is terrifying! Last time they had six in the top ten, and this time they have seven!"
"Zhang Qing got first place again! That's insane!"
"Hey, look at Cheng Bing, isn't he the super handsome guy from Class 18? I think he didn't even make the top ten last time, but he's eighth this time..."
Fang Yuenian tried hard to control the corners of her mouth, not wanting herself to appear too sick.
His own grades were in a strange state, still hovering at the bottom of the top 50, this time at 44, which seemed to be a slight improvement. Meng Xiaoyang's grades dropped slightly, after all, he was sick and dizzy for the past two days, and this time he also fell to 40, but he was still first in the class, which proved that Class 1 did not perform as well as last time.
Li Peixiang looked at the honor roll of the top ten in the class and angrily shouted, "Fang Yuenian, are you trying to kill me with humility? Didn't you say you couldn't even get into the top three?"
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