Chapter 27 Midterm Exam: Rotten Vegetable Leaves Fall from the Sky
The days passed quietly and a new week began. Chen Bin announced in the class meeting that the midterm exams would be held on Thursday and Friday of this week.
The class was filled with wailing sounds, and everyone complained in a dragging voice:
"That's too sudden, teacher!"
"Can't it be a few days later?"
“I haven’t even started reviewing yet.”
"Quiet!" Chen Bin knocked on the blackboard without much authority. "You didn't listen carefully before, and now you're worried? The other teachers and I will review the key points for you in class over the next few days. Those of you who haven't reviewed yet must pay extra attention."
The reactions of the students in the class were similar to those of Xu Sirui's previous class. He found it a little funny. It seemed that no student liked taking exams, and this was regardless of region.
Thinking carefully, his former school was about to hold its midterm exams at this time. He was just pondering this when he heard Zhu Yingning whisper beside him, "I've come up with an idea."
He glanced at her sideways: "What can we do? Protest the midterm exam with the teacher?"
"How is that possible!" She held up a small notebook, waved it in front of him, covered her lips with hers, and whispered mysteriously to his ear, "Have you forgotten? Didn't several girls write to you before... I have a solution."
Xu Sirui didn't expect that she was still thinking about this matter. He sneered, took the notebook from her hand and glanced through it.
There was only the following written on it:
You're an outstanding girl, and I'm so glad to receive your appreciation and affirmation. It's normal for adolescents to develop vague feelings for the opposite sex, but we're all still young, and right now, we should focus on our studies. Liang Qichao once said, "A strong youth makes a strong country; a wealthy youth makes a wealthy country; and an independent youth makes an independent country." We shoulder the hopes of our motherland, and we should do the right thing at the right time. The future holds endless possibilities for you.
...What a mess.
He was so shocked that he couldn't read any further after just a few lines and threw the notebook back to her.
Complimenting her on being an excellent girl was fine, though it was a bit cheesy and contrived, but at least it made sense. But what the hell was "A strong youth means a strong nation"? Main theme essay? Just imagining himself, hands clasped behind his back like a fifty-year-old veteran, reciting those words to someone with a stern air gave him goosebumps.
"This is a reply." Zhu Yingning didn't notice anything wrong and explained clearly, "Copy it as I wrote and give it to them. I think they will be able to study with peace of mind."
“…”
Xu Sirui didn't think other girls' mindsets were as strange and devious as hers. If he really replied to someone according to what she wrote, he would definitely become a weirdo who would be repeatedly ridiculed and mocked years later. To prevent this possibility, he could only vaguely refuse, "No."
To avoid her asking further questions, he lied: "I have already replied to them."
"Really? When did it happen?" She was surprised, her expression a little nervous, and she asked in a low voice, "How did you respond? You didn't curse anyone, did you? Did you communicate with them properly? Did you make anyone cry?"
"...How could I be so vicious?" He continued, "I just... Anyway, I just encouraged them to study hard, which is similar to what you wrote."
In fact, he couldn't even remember what those girls who confessed their love to him looked like.
Fortunately, the idiot next to him was foolish and easy to fool. After listening, he finally nodded with satisfaction: "That's good."
**
Midterm exams were looming, and Zhu Yingning had been going to bed later and later these past few days. Every time Xu Sirui lay down to sleep, he could see the light of the desk lamp on through the curtains.
Calling it a desk lamp isn't quite accurate; it's just a small lightbulb. To prevent the light from flashing and disturbing her family's sleep, Zhu Yingning covered the bulb with several layers of scratch paper. In hot weather, the bright light inevitably attracts phototactic insects, and the bodies of small flying mosquitoes can often be found in the gaps between the scratch paper.
She was very quiet when she studied, and Xu Sirui could not hear any other noise except the occasional sound of turning pages.
In the past, he would have probably studied just as hard as she did during the period leading up to the midterm exam. Although Xu Sirui had always maintained a perpetually lax attitude towards studying—he disliked doing his homework step by step, at most picking out difficult problems he found valuable to practice on from the pile—he didn't deny the importance of reviewing before exams. On the contrary, he always believed that his ability to maintain good grades was due to his intensive and efficient review before exams.
But the situation is special now.
Educational resources in the mountains lag far behind those in big cities. After nearly a month here, the teacher's teachings were all the same things he'd learned in his after-school tutoring classes in his first year of junior high. He didn't think it was worth wasting his time preparing specifically for this midterm exam.
Zhu Yingning advised him several times to study hard, but he ignored her.
She was too busy to handle everything herself, so she simply stopped caring about him.
I counted the days until the day of the exam.
On her way to school that day, Zhu Yingning was memorizing her lessons with a notebook in hand, nearly falling several times over stones on the road. Xu Sirui thought her studying to such an extent was exaggerated and asked her why it was so necessary: "If you had a clear mind for the exam, you might have done better."
But she said, "You don't understand. I can't go back from who I was before."
"How much did you get on the test last time?"
"First."
Xu Sirui uttered a "yo" and raised his eyebrows teasingly.
When I arrived at school, the school was also filled with the tense atmosphere before the exam.
As everyone was moving tables and chairs and packing their bags, Chen Bin came over and patted Xu Sirui on the shoulder, repeatedly urging him, "Do well on the test. At least finish all the papers."
In the month since arriving here, he's been taking tests of all sizes. However, with the exception of the first math test, Xu Sirui never finished a single one from beginning to end—he thought the questions were too easy. He never shared this reason with anyone else, so Chen Bin and Zhu Yingning simply assumed he didn't enjoy studying.
A few minutes before the exam started, Zhu Yingning came to him and said exactly the same thing as Chen Bin: "Xu Sirui, the midterm exam is a big test. You have to study hard and at least finish the test paper."
"I know." He waved his hand, annoyed that she was nagging.
Xu Sirui could still distinguish between the important and the unimportant, and although he looked down on the teaching level here, he also hoped that there would be a major test to test whether he had regressed in recent times.
So during the two days of the midterm exam, he managed to get through several exams for the first time ever.
After the exam, the students went home, some checked their answers, and some cleaned the classroom. Xu Sirui had thought Zhu Yingning would be among those checking answers, but she came over to him, motherly and said with relief, "You actually persevered! Xu Sirui, you're amazing."
"?"
The surrounding students all cast subtle glances at him, and Xu Sirui blushed. He didn't understand what image he held in her mind. A troubled teenager with ADHD? The kind who couldn't even make it through two days of midterm exams? He angrily changed the subject, "Stop talking nonsense! Didn't you say you had something to do tonight?"
"Oh, yes."
Zhu Yingning quickly opened the diary she carried with her.
A boy in the class was absent from the midterm exam without giving a reason. Chen Bin was busy grading papers and couldn't get away, so he asked Zhu Yingning to visit his boy's home after the exam to inquire about the reason and see if he could help.
The boy's name was Gu Hui, and the village he lived in was located on the road they had to pass on their way back to Zhujia Village from school, so it was considered a neighboring village of Zhujia Village. When they arrived at the place, Zhu Yingning stopped and asked Xu Sirui whether he wanted to go home first or go with her to take a look.
Xu Sirui didn't have the leisure to save others, but he also didn't want to go back to be alone with Liu Guifang or face Yang Ji's rage. He hadn't finished reading "The Brothers Karamazov," which he could use to pass the time, but he'd been busy with exams the past few days and hadn't read much. He'd almost forgotten the characters and plot, and probably had to start over again. He thought for a moment that following Zhu Yingning to show his love might be more fun.
Just as he was about to enter the village, Zhu Yingning stopped him and the photographer and said with an unnatural smile: "...We won't go in through the main gate."
The photographer asked curiously, "If not through the main entrance, then where should we go?"
“There’s a path next to it.”
She led them to sneak through the small path. When Xu Sirui asked her in confusion why she had to take the small path instead of the main entrance, she tried to cover up the truth by saying, "Because... because of some reasons."
It's the same as not saying anything.
When they walked in, Gu Hui just came out to pour the dishwater. When he saw them, he was stunned for a moment.
Zhu Yingning stepped forward and took the lead in explaining her purpose: "Gu Hui, you didn't come to take the midterm exam, so Teacher Chen sent me here to check on you."
He was usually rather reserved, shy, and quiet in class. He softly said "oh" and let them in. Only when he saw the photographer was about to follow him in did he say, "I don't want to be photographed."
The photographer had to stay outside the door.
Xu Sirui followed Zhu Yingning in. He noticed that Gu Hui glanced at him several times, seemed to want to say something but stopped himself several times, and obviously didn't want him to come in, but he ignored it and walked into the room with a swagger.
Gu Hui's family had more people than Zhu Yingning's. Besides him, there were his grandparents, his mother, and his two younger sisters, yet the space wasn't much bigger than Zhu Yingning's. Everyone in his family was sitting on the kang, and when they saw Zhu Yingning coming, they enthusiastically tried to make room for her, but she refused several times before giving in.
"I just came to ask Gu Hui why he didn't take the midterm exam and left soon," she said.
Gu Hui's mother was as sullen as he was. She only uttered an "oh" and fell silent. The two elderly people, on the other hand, were quite talkative. As soon as they heard Zhu Yingning was there to inquire about Gu Hui's absence from the midterm exam, they burst into a torrent of complaints. They spoke in dialect, and Xu Sirui couldn't fully understand them. He could only half-listen and half-guess, barely piecing together the general idea.
The reason is quite ridiculous.
Like Zhu Yingning's father, Gu Hui's parents worked in the big city, supporting their family of five. However, some time ago, Gu Hui's father cheated on his wife, becoming obsessed with a divorced restaurant owner with children. He threatened to abandon his family and start a new family with her, even agreeing to the owner's condition of marrying into his wife's family.
"This bastard! He abandoned his wife and children and wanted to follow the boss in the city to enjoy the good life! He didn't even take a piss to see how filthy he looked. Zhu Bajie wants to marry a new wife! A conscienceless beast, an unfilial son, an ungrateful wolf..."
The old man scolded his son without mercy, and then scolded the restaurant owner, without caring at all about the presence of younger generations and outsiders.
Gu Hui's mother listened and began to weep. She had discovered her husband's infidelity and tried to persuade him to change his mind, but to no avail. She had no choice but to buy a ticket home to discuss matters with her family. Gu Hui had also skipped the exam because of this incident.
On the one hand, Xu Sirui was shocked that the two old people casually told such a family scandal to him and Zhu Yingning, two outsiders. On the other hand, he was shocked that after two days of discussion, there was no one who could take charge of the matter. The two younger sisters were still young and useless, the old people were addicted to scolding, and Gu Hui and Gu Hui's mother were unable to say a word.
Zhu Yingning also noticed it. She first comforted the two old people and then took the initiative to suggest: "Let Gu Hui take a car to the city to persuade his father?"
Everyone looked at her.
She faced Gu Hui's mother and said, "Auntie, don't worry. As long as you insist on not getting a divorce, this marriage won't be so easy to get divorced. If one party disagrees with the divorce, the couple must live apart for two years to prove that their relationship has broken down. You can scrape together some money and see if you can send Gu Hui to the city. Let him go and persuade his father. First, tell him that his two sisters miss him, and then tell him that children without blood ties are not as good as his own children. In the future, it will be his own children who will take care of him in his old age. Say nice things to coax him, and promise to take care of him in his old age. See if you can coax him back."
Xu Sirui was speechless, feeling this was such a pathetic way of handling the situation. The man had already cheated, so why not just go all out and get a divorce? He was the one who cheated first, and maybe even got more money? Why bother wasting time with a scumbag, begging him to change his mind?
After listening to this, the two old men nodded repeatedly and said to Gu Hui, "Hui, your squad leader is right. You should persuade your father." It was as if they were not the ones who had just been indignantly scolding their son for being ungrateful.
Seeing that they had listened, Zhu Yingning stopped talking and said, "I'm just making a suggestion. The details have to be discussed among your family members." Then he said goodbye and left, dragging Xu Sirui out with him.
When he got outside, he couldn't help but whisper his disapproval: "Why are you pushing people into the fire pit?"
"Ah? Who are you pushing into the fire?"
"There are only zero and countless times of cheating. Even if I persuade him to come back this time, he will definitely not be able to control his lower body in the future. Should I forgive him once, should I forgive him thousands of times? Cheating should not be forgiven."
The more Xu Sirui spoke, the angrier he became. This was mainly because Xu Zhengkang and Zhou Tianlan had a good relationship, but even at his age he was still imitating young people to be romantic. In his opinion, the basis for a marriage should be love, not anything else.
Zhu Yingning was stunned for a moment after hearing this, then chuckled: "Oh... so you think so."
She thought Xu Sirui's superstitious views on love and marriage were quite cute. She walked forward for a while alone before saying softly, "If their family had money, I wouldn't make that suggestion."
"What do you mean? What does this have to do with money?"
Zhu Yingning turned around and looked at him. "Gu Hui's family relies entirely on their parents' wages. Losing either one of them would be a devastating blow to them. Gu Hui might have to go out into the workforce to help earn money right after graduating from junior high school, and his two younger sisters might not even have the chance to complete their compulsory education. If they don't study, what can they do? Go to a big city and work as a worker, moving bricks, like their parents? Hang out the windows of a high-rise building in 40°C heat in the middle of summer? They can only repeat the lives of their parents' generation, and will never escape the vicious cycle of poverty."
"And then there's Gu Hui's mother. She'll either have to raise three children alone, exhausting herself, or remarry with the children. But given her circumstances, she'll probably only be able to marry a divorced man with children. Once the two families merge, the number of children will double, and she'll still be faced with endless poverty and hardship."
"Sending their children to school is the only way out for their family, and education requires money, and someone needs to earn money."
Xu Sirui was stunned. He hadn't thought about it so deeply, nor did he expect her to think so deeply.
"But the man has to pay alimony after the divorce, right? Besides, Gu Hui's father is the party at fault and has no advantage in dividing the property. Can't the three siblings finish their studies with this money?" he said.
"There's no property for people like us to divide up here," she laughed and shook her head. "Many parents divorce and don't pay child support. There was a case in our village where the man fell in love with a woman from the city, hid his marriage, and ran off with her. Guess how much child support he sent home each year?"
"...a thousand?" He carefully guessed the lower number.
"Six."
This is too outrageous.
Xu Sirui instinctively wondered why they didn't sue, but then he thought again: a lawsuit would cost money, energy, and time. How could ordinary people, busy with their daily lives, afford such resources and waste them with such scum? He hadn't expected that such a poor family wouldn't even have the right to divorce. He felt a pang of regret and wanted to say something else, but before he could open his mouth, he caught a glimpse of a shadow lunging towards them.
He naturally thought it was something like a plastic bag, and was about to avoid it when he heard a loud bang.
He felt a chill on his body and his vision went dark, and someone poured a basin of dirty water on his head.
For a full five seconds, Xu Sirui was completely stunned, his mind blank. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth, letting the liquid flow down his cheek. After five seconds, the liquid gradually subsided, and he slowly raised his hand, pinching away the object blocking his eyes. Looking closely, he found it was a rotten vegetable leaf.
Hold.
He turned his head to look at Zhu Yingning on his right. She was even wetter than him. She stood frozen in place with her neck shrunk, a carrot on her shoulder, and her eyelids were unable to open due to the water rushing over her.
Whose nerve did this?!
He stared at the vegetable leaves in his hand, and then he laughed through gritted teeth. He tore the leaves into pieces, threw them into the air, and strode towards the direction where the water was splashing.
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