Chapter 1
In the evening sky of early July, a streak of purple mist half-covered the setting sun. In the old classroom, the creaking iron fan barely blew away some of the pervasive summer heat.
It was already three days away from the final county entrance examination. The students in the rocket class of the first grade of Qingshui County No. 1 Middle School had long been eager to start their summer vacation, but the teacher was sitting on the stage, staring at them eagerly. They had no choice but to look up at the live broadcast screen on the podium absent-mindedly.
On the screen was another classroom more than a thousand kilometers away. The math teacher of Class 1, Grade 1, Wenhua No. 1 Middle School was passionately explaining math problems. The blackboard was already filled with densely packed formulas. The teacher spoke very quickly, and no students raised any questions during the entire process, as if the questions were extremely simple.
However, these questions were considered S-level difficult questions for the students of Qingshui No. 1 Middle School. They were used by the abnormal geniuses of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School to improve themselves. They were beyond the scope of these students from poor counties, so they did not listen very seriously.
Because I simply can't understand it.
Only one male student listened attentively from beginning to end, and wrote down the problem-solving process on the blackboard neatly in his notebook. A large area of his white T-shirt on his thin shoulders was soaked with sweat. He casually wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand to prevent it from dripping onto his notebook.
"I heard that the final exam rankings will be announced tomorrow." Liu Rui glanced at the teacher who was correcting homework on the stage, and quietly reported the gossip to his deskmate Tao Xi who was writing furiously nearby.
When Tao Xi finished copying the last line, the teacher on the screen just finished the get out of class. He put down his gel pen, closed his notebook, and said "oh" calmly without even looking at Liu Rui.
Seeing Tao Xi lowering his head and picking up the gel pen, unscrewing and closing the pen cap, Liu Rui knew that this person was pretending to be calm and was probably so nervous that he wanted to dig his toes into the ground, so he said, "Brother Xi, you are so smart and you study so hard, I bet you will definitely be the best in the county."
The whole class knew how much Tao Xi wanted to get first place in the county in the final joint examination. In the past year, Tao Xi had been studying day and night like crazy, and his grades had soared like a rocket to the top three.
Perhaps it is because the first place in the county this time will be sent to Wenhua No. 1 Middle School to "study abroad" for one year.
Since last year, Qingshui County, a national poverty-stricken county located in the southwestern mountainous area, has cooperated with the nationally renowned Wenhua No. 1 Middle School in the "remote live classroom". With funding from the government and enterprises, all classrooms in Qingshui No. 1 Middle School have been equipped with live broadcast equipment, and students attend classes synchronously with students from Wenhua No. 1 Middle School. The county magistrate dreams of washing away the shame of "zero first-tier" college entrance examination students in the county through this cooperation.
However, the gap between students in the two schools is too big. Students in the parallel classes simply cannot keep up with the learning progress of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School. Many students are deeply hit by the sharp contrast and simply give up, and their grades actually decline sharply.
After half a year of running-in, Qingshui No. 1 Middle School decided to allow only the top half of the students to continue to study with the parallel class of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School. The other students will still be taught by teachers from the school, while the top 50 students will study with the best class of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School, which is the rocket class with the greatest hope of getting into a good university in the entire county.
Tao Xi was a student in this rocket class. He closed the cap of the gel pen for the last time, took a deep breath, and said nothing.
Only he himself knew that he was so nervous these days that he felt like he was suffocating.
The next class was English class. As the bell rang, the lazy students suddenly perked up.
Tao Xi also straightened his back and stared at the screen with wide eyes.
A young and beautiful female teacher appeared on the screen. As soon as she appeared, the students in the audience began to whisper. The girls enviously discussed the female teacher's beautiful new dress, and the boys smiled and winked at each other.
The school’s English teacher coughed loudly and said, “Pay attention in class!” Only then did the students quiet down.
During this year's distance learning, their Rocket Class was like the invisible classmates of Wenhua Class 1. They knew the names of the teachers and many students in Class 1. For example, the beautiful teacher who was giving a lecture on the screen was named Bi Aoxue, and they even knew that her nickname was Aunt Bi.
But they also knew that the teachers and students of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School didn't know them at all.
They look at the screen as if they are looking at another world.
Tao Xi was also staring at the screen. He was not looking at the English teacher, but seemed to be waiting for someone to appear.
"Lin Qinhe, are you addicted to being late?" Bi Aoxue on the screen suddenly turned her head and looked at the door and said. Her tone was not harsh accusation, but rather a helpless teasing.
Tao Xi's eyelashes trembled, she clenched the pen in her hand, and stared at the screen motionlessly.
"As usual, read this passage of prose aloud before continuing." Bi Aoxue took out a book, flipped a page at random, and handed it to the tall boy who walked up to the podium.
The classroom of the Rocket Class of Qingshui No. 1 Middle School suddenly became noisy, and the girls could not contain their surprise and whispered about the name Lin Qinhe.
The handsome young man in the white shirt uniform of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School took the book from the English teacher with an indifferent look and read the English paragraph on it without emotion.
The girls from Qingshui County didn’t understand what he was saying at all, nor did they know how authentic his spoken English was. They just looked at the boy’s face.
Because it’s so beautiful.
Tao Xi stared at the screen without blinking, and quickly wrote down the English words the boy read on the screen on the draft paper with the pen in her hand. When she came across unfamiliar words, she simply wrote down the approximate phonetic symbols.
He has a good memory and can remember the general idea even if the speech is read very fast.
Soon the young man on the screen finished reading, and after Bi Aoxue nodded, he walked down the podium and disappeared from the screen.
"Brother Xi, you should write this down as well. There's no need. This is what Aunt Bi uses to punish students for being late." Liu Rui liked to call Bi Aoxue by her nickname, as if he was also sitting in the classroom on the screen.
Tao Xi withdrew his eyes from the screen, looked at the brief notes on the draft paper, and said nonsense: "I'll practice my listening skills."
"You're awesome." Liu Rui gave a thumbs up.
The last class ended quickly, and the moment the bell rang, the students rushed to the cafeteria to save time queuing for food. Just as Tao Xi was about to take off with Liu Rui, they were intercepted by their head teacher Feng Yuan who suddenly appeared at the door.
Liu Rui slipped away without any loyalty. Tao Xi complained inwardly that he was sorry for his precious time, and asked with a sweet smile, "Teacher Feng, what do you want to talk to me about?"
Feng Yuan is the head teacher of the Rocket Class and the most experienced math teacher in Qingshui No. 1 Middle School. He has a strict and old-fashioned personality. Students would rather offend the principal than offend this head teacher. He is wearing an old blue shirt that is mostly soaked with sweat. Although he has a stern face, there is a hint of joy between his eyebrows. He coughed lightly and said, "Come with me."
The rosy sunset was obscured by the mountain mist. In the dark purple sky, the flattened dirt playground was covered in dust due to the flying footsteps and basketballs.
Tao Xi walked aimlessly around the playground. His heart was beating violently in his chest with no sign of calming down. He was unaware of the sound of hunger in his stomach. It was not until a basketball suddenly hit him that he stopped.
"Hey, classmate, are you okay?" A sophomore boy who was playing basketball shouted and ran over to pick up the basketball. He saw that the guy standing in front of him was Tao Xi from the Rocket Class of the first year of high school, the skinny and pretty one who looked like a show-off, but with abnormal grades, and abnormal fighting and basketball skills.
The younger brother of their class's sports committee member is in the same junior high school as Tao Xi's sister Tao Le. Last month, he bullied Tao Le and was scolded by Tao Xi. He didn't dare to go to school for several days. Unfortunately, the junior high school teachers still protected Tao Xi, who had already graduated.
The high school sophomore didn't dare to provoke this plague god who had all the teachers in the school as his backers. He said sorry several times, but saw that Tao Xi's face was calm, there was no emotion in his dark eyes, but there was a strange smile at the corner of his mouth.
"Did this guy get hit silly?" the high school student muttered quietly and quickly ran away with the basketball.
Tao Xi glanced at the electronic watch on his wrist and saw that it was almost time for evening self-study, so he turned around and walked quickly towards the classroom, without even having time to buy a piece of bread to fill his stomach.
As soon as we entered the classroom, the classmates came up to us with cheers, and shouted loudly, "Don't forget each other when you become rich and powerful."
"Am I right? Brother Xi will definitely get first place!" Liu Rui hugged Tao Xi, feeling as happy as if he had got first place himself.
"Tao Xi, don't forget us when you go to Wenhua No. 1 Middle School!"
"You'll only be gone for one year. You'll have to come back for your senior year."
"I'm so envious. I haven't even left the county yet."
"But the pressure of going there is too great. The geniuses at Wenhua No. 1 Middle School are not human beings at all!"
"Alas, the only handsome guy in our school has also been dedicated to Wenhua No. 1 Middle School."
The noise ended only when the evening self-study bell rang. Tao Xi had no way to calm down and study. He opened a brown-covered notebook. On the first page was the English words he had written with his only fountain pen:
"iwon'ttrytopickthemoon.iwantthemoontoetome."
"I won't try to pick the moon, I want the moon to come to me."
He will always remember the day when he first saw Lin Qinhe on the screen. It was at the end of last summer, when dusk was approaching.
At that time, he was in a daze because of family affairs and had no interest in the so-called remote live broadcast class. After the start of the first year of high school, he always hid in the back of the classroom to sleep.
The head teacher Feng Yuan originally considered Tao Xi a key student because he had outstanding grades in junior high school. However, he did not expect that he would be so absent-minded after school started and would not listen to any scolding.
A few days after school started, the principal rushed back from Wenhua City, and under the scorching sun, he shouted to all the students in the school that the remote live classroom would change their destiny.
"You will have the same educational resources as the best high schools in the country, and you will have the best teachers and classmates in the country! As long as you study hard and follow the teachers of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School, you will also be able to get into college, get into a top university, and get into Tsinghua University or Peking University!"
The principal's impassioned speech moved and inspired many students, some of whom even shed tears on the spot.
At that time, Tao Xi was standing on the dusty playground, looking up at the mountain opposite the school with boredom. His home was behind the mountain, in a village called Taoxi Bay.
This county town in the mountains is so poor that even birds are unwilling to fly in, and its education is so backward that not a single student has been admitted to a top university in all these years.
Everyone is full of hope for the remote live broadcast class, as if a rope has finally fallen from a deep well that has been closed for many years, and they can reach the sky by just grabbing the rope and climbing up.
But Tao Xi had just experienced the toy-playing of fate. He looked at the mountain and felt that he would never be able to get out.
The bell rang for class, but Tao Xi was still sleeping on the wooden table. The English teacher adjusted the screen equipment carefully and awkwardly, then looked up and suddenly called out to Tao Xi.
He sat up reluctantly, leaned back on the desk, and stared with boredom through half-closed eyes at the brand new screen on the podium that didn't fit in with the shabby classroom.
A beautiful young woman entered the screen and immediately attracted the attention of all the students. She was wearing an exquisitely cut dress and spoke fluent and authentic English that they had never heard before, like someone in a listening tape. The school's English teacher, who was in charge of discipline and sitting on the podium, was staring at the screen intently.
That was a teaching method that neither the teachers nor the students had ever encountered before. Bi Aoxue did not recite the contents of the textbook verbatim. Instead, she had a conversation with the students in English. Wenhua students answered questions enthusiastically, and the atmosphere was as relaxed and lively as a salon at a foreign university.
The students of Qingshui No. 1 Middle School gradually became silent. They found that they could not understand what they were saying at all. Those unfamiliar words and sentences were tacitly understood among the teachers and students of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School, but seemed like a fairy tale to them.
Silence spread in the classroom of Qingshui No. 1 Middle School until Bi Aoxue was halfway through the class when she suddenly smiled and said, "Then let's invite Lin Qinhe, who skipped my English class yesterday, to come up to the stage and give an impromptu English speech to our classmates at Qingshui No. 1 Middle School."
The students of Qingshui suddenly became agitated. For the first time, they were pleasantly surprised to find that the teachers and classmates on the screen knew of their existence. This agitation became even stronger when they saw the young man walking onto the stage.
Tao Xi never liked English. He was about to fall asleep out of boredom while nodding his head, but was suddenly awakened by a noise in the classroom. He yawned lazily, wiped his eyes with his hand, and looked at the screen again.
He saw a tall boy in a white shirt standing on the podium. He was much taller than the already tall Bi Aoxue. He had no expression on his face. He did not seem impatient at being suddenly called, nor was he nervous before the speech. His handsome features were like snow-capped peaks in the sunlight under the bright lights.
"The students in the distant places are all waiting here. Please start, Lin. You can talk about anything." Bi Aoxue said with a smile.
The boy named Lin Qinhe raised his eyes to the camera at the end of the classroom when he heard it. On the clear screen, one could even see the changing shadows under his long eyelashes when he raised his eyes.
The girls in the classroom took a deep breath in unison. Tao Xi looked at the pair of eyes that suddenly looked at her through the screen, and she felt a sudden palpitation inexplicably.
Lin Qinhe began to give an English speech. Even Qingshui's students could understand the conventional beginning. They listened very carefully, but the more they listened, the more shocked they became, because they found that they still couldn't understand. Moreover, the spoken English of this boy named Lin Qinhe was not inferior to Bi Aoxue at all, as if he was a natural English speaker.
These are the students of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School. They fully realize how big the gap is between them.
They didn't know at that time that Lin Qinhe was not an ordinary student of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School.
It was rare for Tao Xi to watch the live broadcast screen seriously. In fact, he could not understand many of the sentences. He could barely understand what Lin Qinhe said about dreams and the future.
There was a simplest sentence that he inexplicably remembered for a long time.
"iwon'ttrytopickthemoon.iwantthemoontoetome."
Since then, Feng Yuan, who had been worrying about how to deal with Tao Xi, suddenly found that this student seemed to have taken a panacea overnight. He no longer dozed off in class or delayed handing in homework, and was so serious that he seemed to want to stare two holes in the live broadcast screen.
The author has something to say:
Long time no see, looking for a collection of starfish~
English sentence from Audrey Hepburn's "Sabrina"
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