The smoke of high school
At the opening ceremony of the senior year, the principal gave an impassioned speech on the stage, but the students below all looked solemn. Lin Weixi sat in the crowd, her eyes unconsciously cast towards Chen Wang, who was sitting diagonally in front of her. He sat upright, his profile appearing particularly focused in the morning light.
"This is the most important year of our lives..." The principal's voice echoed in the auditorium, and every word hit like a hammer on the heart.
Back in the classroom, the new schedule was already posted on the blackboard. Ten classes a day, plus make-up classes on weekends, the dense schedule was overwhelming. Lin Weixi stared at the schedule in a daze until Shen Siyu nudged her: "Weixi, the teacher said to go get the new textbooks."
The textbooks filled the podium like a small mountain. Lin Weixi returned to her seat carrying a heavy pile of textbooks and found Chen Wang had already opened his physics book and was taking notes. On his desk was a detailed schedule, from six in the morning to eleven at night, with every minute clearly arranged.
When the results of the first monthly exam came out, the classroom was completely silent. Lin Weixi looked at her middle-of-the-pack ranking, then at Chen Wang's name at the top, and a feeling of powerlessness welled up in her heart. There were still more than thirty names between them.
"Starting today, we will enter a comprehensive review phase," the homeroom teacher announced at the class meeting. "Everyone should make their own review plan, and if you have any questions, please ask the teacher immediately."
After class, the study group restarted. Every Wednesday night, they would study in the library until nine o'clock. Lin Weixi always arrived early and chose a seat by the window. When Chen Wang came over with the reference book, the setting sun fell on him.
"I don't quite understand this question." Lin Weixi mustered up the courage to point to a difficult question in the physics exercise book.
Chen Wang put down his schoolbag and sat down next to her naturally: "This, we need to use the law of conservation of energy to solve it."
The tip of his pen moved smoothly on the draft paper, and his profile was particularly clear under the light while he was explaining. Lin Weixi tried hard to concentrate, but she was always distracted unconsciously. His eyelashes fluttered slightly when he spoke, his lips pursed when he was thinking, and his focused eyes when he occasionally looked at her, all made her heart beat faster.
"Do you understand?" he asked suddenly.
Lin Weixi blushed and nodded, but she only listened halfway. But Chen Wang seemed to see through her thoughts and repeated his solution, this time speaking more slowly.
In the October mock exam, Lin Weixi improved by five places. She stood in front of the report card for a long time until Chen Wang's voice rang out behind her: "That's a lot of progress."
She turned around and met his smiling eyes: "It's still a long way off."
"Take it slow," he said. "Senior year is like a long-distance race. The important thing is persistence."
This sentence became Lin Weixi's motivation for the next month. She adjusted her schedule to sync with Chen Wang's, getting up at six in the morning to memorize the lessons and studying until eleven at night. Sometimes when she was tired from doing homework late at night, she would think of his expression when he said this, and then continue to persevere.
In the cold November wind, the list of recommended students was announced. Chen Wang's name was prominently on the list. He was admitted to the physics department of a top university in advance. When the news spread, the whole class gathered around to congratulate him, but Lin Weixi quietly retreated to the corner of the classroom.
She should be happy for him, but she felt like a stone was pressing down on her heart. This meant that the time they spent together had begun to count down.
That night, Chen Wang didn't come to the study session for the first time. Lin Weixi stared blankly at the empty seat all night, not finishing any of the exercises. When school was over, she met him at the stairs.
"Why didn't you come to study?" she couldn't help but ask.
Chen Wang smiled, his eyes a little complicated: "I went to meet with the admissions teacher. What about you? Why do you look unhappy?"
"No," she lowered her head, "I'm just a little tired."
They walked side by side in the night, the streetlights stretching their shadows very long. Lin Weixi remembered the beginning of her freshman year of high school, when they would occasionally walk this road together on nights like this. But at that time, the third year of high school was still a long way off.
"After you are admitted, will you still come to school?" she asked softly.
"Of course," Chen Wang said, "I still have to take the college entrance examination, and..." He paused, "I also have to help a classmate with physics."
Lin Weixi's heart skipped a beat and she looked up at him. His eyes were exceptionally bright in the night, filled with emotions she couldn't understand.
That night, she wrote in her diary:
"He's about to leave, heading for a broader sky. And I'll have to stay here, fighting for an unknown future. But strangely, I don't feel sad. Because in these final days, we can still move forward side by side. That's enough."
Beneath the desk lamp, she flipped through her physics workbook and continued to tackle the difficult questions. The moonlight outside the window was bright, just like her peaceful mood. The smoke of senior year still hung heavy, but at least at this moment, she had found her direction.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
