21 Chapter Twenty
I'll write you a love letter.
"Huh? Five points short?" Li Shuli understood from Zhu Xiaoliang's words that there was still a chance to get a spot as a temporary student at Tanzhong High School, as long as you spent some money. However, the tuition fees at Tanzhong High School were the same for everyone, and ridiculously expensive. Even if you were one point short, it would still cost 40,000 yuan; even if you were fifty points short, it would still cost 40,000 yuan. What was most infuriating was that you had to go through a lottery. If you didn't get in, it just meant you were unlucky, and even if you had a mountain of gold and silver, you still wouldn't get in.
"Then forget it. It's not necessary to go to the one in the pond. We can just go to Ximing Middle School nearby," Li Shuli said without turning her head as she was intently scaling fish with a kitchen knife.
"..."
Zhu Xiaoliang nearly vomited blood upon hearing this. Even if Li Yingqiao hadn't gotten into Tanzhong High School, she would have been only five points short. With her grades in Fengtan, aside from Tanzhong, Ruijiang High School was barely an option. However, Ruijiang was an international private high school that had only been established in Fengtan a couple of years ago. Its teaching staff was comparable to Tanzhong's, but the tuition was indeed expensive, and it was exclusively for the children of business owners like Yu Renjie.
The educational resources in this small county town are insurmountable, and Tanzhong is the only way out that ordinary students can see and reach.
Those who can get into Tanzhong High School are naturally beyond reproach, but those who can't, especially those in Li Yingqiao's class, either have to sell everything they own to send them to Ruijiang High School, or grit their teeth and send them to a regular high school in the city.
How could they possibly send them to Ximing Middle School in the countryside? That would be utterly self-destructive; all their previous efforts would have been in vain.
Did Li Shuli genuinely not know how important studying was, or was she pretending not to know? Zhu Xiaoliang initially thought it was the former. Liang Mei had told him that Li Shuli was the most inhuman parent she had ever met. She had said that as long as Li Yingqiao was happy and healthy, she wouldn't force her to study to any extent.
Zhu Xiaoliang thought that if Li Yingqiao had been born into another family, she would already be a member of the Tan family by now. But she was Li Shuli's daughter, and it has to be said that Li Shuli's love nurtured her laziness.
He was amazed that such a promising young woman had emerged in such a short time. In the last kidnapping case, she was able to come up with so many ideas in such a short time, eliminate them one by one, and then quickly recall the bus timetable. All these reactions demonstrated the girl's intelligence.
Zhu Xiaoliang firmly believed that given a little time, Li Yingqiao would have a real chance of getting into not only Tanzhong High School, but also the top high school in Qingyi High School next door. The more Zhu Xiaoliang thought about it, the more unwilling he became. Leaning against the kitchen door, he felt awkward going in alone with Li Shuli, but he was also afraid that Li Shuli wouldn't hear him. So he stood at the door and patiently explained the teaching staff of the schools in Fengtan to her.
"Xi Ming's teachers were all assigned to the worst students in our class. Sister Li, just imagine, you go to the hospital with a high fever, and when you open the door you see Er Gouzi, the dumbest guy in your village, sitting there prescribing medicine for you. Do you think you'd dare to take it or not?"
Li Shuli pretended not to hear and went to turn on the range hood.
Zhu Xiaoliang raised his voice: "There's also a Chinese teacher named Wang Lin, who is Liang Mei's ex-boyfriend. He's a complete scumbag. When you write lesson plans with him, it's like sitting across from a giant chimney, with smoke constantly billowing from his head. His teeth are even blacker and thicker than the grime on a range hood. Wow, it would be quite a sight if Li Yingqiao were teaching his class."
"Bang—" Li Shuli threw the fish back into the pond, turned around and glared at him, as if to say, "Don't you have any dark history?"
"..." Zhu Xiaoliang coughed. That look reminded him of the days when he pretended to be crazy in Mad Harbor. Yes, even Li Yingqiao learned math from him, a guy who ate goldfish raw. People like Wang Lin never sounded as scary as him.
"How about that? Isn't it amazing? As soon as I finished my exams, my mom bought me this year's most popular gold one!" As soon as she entered the door, before even sitting down, Li Yingqiao couldn't wait to show off her phone to Yu Jinyang, swiping the screen to show him. "My mom even got me a membership. I'm planning not to go anywhere this summer vacation; I'll just stay home and read novels."
"..." He was clearly not listening, and replied casually, "Oh, that's fine."
Yu Jinyang was visiting her home for the first time. When Zhu Xiaoliang called him, he had just come out of the dance studio, his T-shirt soaked with sweat. He realized he couldn't go home to shower first, so he decided to take the bus, which would also dry out most of his sweat.
He just felt like he still smelled of chicken, duck and goose from the car, and while talking to her, he couldn't help but pull up his t-shirt and smell it again and again, like a cat that felt dirty but couldn't lick its fur in front of people.
Seeing his absent-mindedness, Li Yingqiao sat down at the coffee table, deliberately drawing out her words as she looked him up and down and suggested, "Why don't you go take a shower, Young Master Miao Miao—"
Yu Jinyang stopped sniffing and sat obediently on the sofa. He hadn't moved since entering the house. After all, it was a home for a single mother and daughter. Zhu Xiaoliang didn't dare to go into the kitchen, and he didn't dare to look around. His gaze was either in her eyes or on the opposite wall. After a moment, he suppressed the urge to sniff himself and looked at her, asking, "Then what about the pool?"
"Don't be a spoilsport, okay?" Li Yingqiao said, engrossed in playing on her phone. "I've said it two hundred times already, if you can pass the exam, then go for it; if you can't, what can I do?"
"Zheng Miaojia and Gao Dian also passed the exam; you were only five points short."
“Meow, we’re just friends, not Siamese twins. We don’t have to be tied together all the time. You go to your pond, and I go to school somewhere else. Why do we all have to go to the pond together?” Li Yingqiao patted his shoulder to comfort him. “Besides, we’ll all go our separate ways after the college entrance exam. Be good, you need to get used to life without me.”
"...Gao Dian and I have already agreed on this."
"What?" Li Yingqiao looked at him curiously.
“You saved us, and we went to high school—” Yu Jinyang coughed, reluctant to say it, but Gao Dianfei said that if he said it, Li Yingqiao would definitely agree.
"Then what?"
"...Gao Dian and I have agreed that once we get to high school, we'll be your dogs. It's not very convenient for us if you're not in the pool."
Li Yingqiao burst out laughing and collapsed onto the coffee table the next second.
Yu Jinyang was unhappy. She saw her head buried in the coffee table, laughing like a roly-poly toy, falling over and then standing up again. After standing up for a short while, she would giggle and fall over again.
"..."
"Li Yingqiao, Teacher Tan has passed away."
Yu Jinyang sat on the sofa, elbows resting on his knees, his back a taut arc. He looked down at Li Yingqiao, who was sitting on the floor with her head on the coffee table. He stared directly into her eyes, allowing her no room to look away. The boy, still somewhat immature, inexplicably gave Li Yingqiao a sense of pressure beyond his years.
"It's the day we get our results, so Ms. Zhu is here today. Ms. Liang, she's not disappointed in you. She didn't come because she's dealing with her teacher's funeral arrangements."
Li Yingqiao knew Tan Xiuyun, knew about the bet between them, and knew that she was the bargaining chip. Initially, when Zhu Xiaoliang accidentally let it slip, she wasn't happy. Who would be happy to be used as a bargaining chip, as part of a bet? But after Zhu Xiaoliang told her a lot about Teacher Tan, she suddenly became curious about this stern-faced teacher who had taught for over forty years. Liang Mei promised to take her to meet Tan Xiuyun after the exams.
Li Yingqiao wasn't ungrateful; she saw Liang Mei's efforts. But since the results were announced, Liang Mei hadn't called her once. From Li Yingqiao's perspective, she felt that she, as Liang Mei's bargaining chip, had lost her value, and she was very disappointed in her.
“I don’t care if she’s disappointed in me or not,” she said, her neck stiff.
Yu Jinyang let out a cold laugh, picked up a bag of walnuts that was still hanging loose on the coffee table, and solemnly held it to her mouth. For the first time, he was so determined to argue with her, saying, "Li Yingqiao, if you're going to be so stubborn, come on, open your mouth and go crack some walnuts, okay?"
Li Yingqiao couldn't help but kick him.
He didn't dodge, taking the blow head-on. He leaned back against the sofa without uttering a sound, looking down at her with an expressionless face, as if he was letting her torment him however she wanted.
Unexpectedly, Li Yingqiao went too far, kicking him several times in succession, repeatedly striking his shinbone.
"Stop kicking, tell me your thoughts," he said calmly, turning his foot away. "Do you want to go into the pool?"
She got up from the ground and sat down next to him, then frankly admitted, "Of course! But you just heard Teacher Zhu say that it costs 40,000. We can't come up with that much money, and I don't want to put my mother in a difficult position."
Yu Jinyang leaned back on the sofa and turned to look at her. Suddenly, he reached out and handed her his hand, flipping her wrists upwards as if she were being held captive. "There's another way. You can tie me up, and you don't need much, just 40,000. My dad can definitely give it to me."
Li Yingqiao glanced at him and said, "...What's the difference between that and your dad saying he'd give you a Conan set to ransom you?"
“…What should I do? But I still have some New Year’s money left, and I’ve spent it all, so I have 30,000 yuan left. I can lend it to you. I was planning to buy a stereo for my great-grandmother, but I’ll lend it to you first.” Yu Jinyang said after much deliberation.
Li Yingqiao leaned against the back of the sofa, her elbow propped up on her side, her fist supporting her temple. She squinted at him with a mischievous expression: "...Meow, huh?"
Yu Jinyang felt that her expression was quite meaningful.
What are you trying to say?
"I didn't say anything," she said with a nonchalant smile.
"Do you want my New Year's money?" he asked again.
"don't want."
"Why."
"Yu Jinyang, I promise you, even if I'm at Ximing Middle School, I will work hard to get into a good university, okay?"
"It's only 40,000 yuan, Li Yingqiao, you don't need to..."
Li Yingqiao was about to say, "Young Master, 40,000 yuan is your New Year's money for a year, but it's my mother's hard-earned money that she couldn't save up in three years of working from dawn till dusk."
Li Shuli came out of the kitchen carrying dishes and called out, "You two, come and eat."
She shook her head, pulled Yu Jinyang up from the sofa, and said, "Let's go eat and try my mom's cooking." She dragged him a few steps, then whispered in his ear, "If you dare mention money, you'd better watch your precious back of the head."
Zhu Xiaoliang, being so impulsive, didn't even consider that it was mealtime. Although Li Shuli didn't ask, she came over at this time and automatically started cooking for the two of them.
The meal was rather dull. Only Li Yingqiao was racking her brains to liven things up, winking at Zhu Xiaoliang and Yu Jinyang, and with their help, she praised every dish on the table highly, even giving high marks to the pickled vegetables she usually disliked. Li Shuli remained silent, only focusing on her food. Zhu Xiaoliang began to blame himself for his rashness.
Little did they know that Li Shuli was just feeling a bit annoyed because she hadn't eaten with a man in a long time. She just wanted to finish her meal quickly and wash the dishes. Zhu Xiaoliang also noticed her embarrassment, so he hurriedly finished his rice and then pulled Yu Jinyang to get up and say goodbye.
"Please reconsider the matter in the pool," he urged as he left.
Li Shuli was washing dishes, the water splashing in the sink. She turned around and glanced through the kitchen door at Li Yingqiao, who was about to say goodbye to the two of them. "Do you want to go into the pool?"
Li Yingqiao was taken aback and was about to speak.
Yu Jinyang had just changed her shoes and stood up straight when she immediately shouted, "She wants to!"
Li Yingqiao nodded and said, "Mom, I really want to."
Li Shuli turned around and continued washing the dishes silently. After a while, the sound of water in the kitchen stopped, and the room suddenly became quiet as the last bowl was turned upside down in the drain basket.
"Then we'll buy it."
***
That year, the start of the new school year at Fengtan Middle School was particularly lively, with a long banner hanging at the entrance—Welcome to the Class of 2013 Fengtan Middle School.
Li Yingqiao got up, tidied herself up, put on the new schoolbag that Li Shuli had bought for her, grabbed a fried dough stick, and went downstairs early to the farmers' market to wait for the bus.
As she left, Li Shuli stuffed two eggs and twenty yuan into her schoolbag, patted her bulging bag, and saw her daughter off. She then glanced at her watch and said, "Let's see what time you get home from school this time. If you're still like you were in elementary school, all this money will be wasted."
"I can't run as fast as I used to. I'm getting old." Before Li Yingqiao finished speaking, she had already disappeared into the stairwell. Only a series of footsteps could be heard, but they quickly faded away after a few steps.
Li Shuli: "..."
Did she give birth to a bouncy ball, which just bounced off like that?
Zheng Miaojia chose to board at high school, so she waited for the three of them at the school gate. Gao Dian and Yu Jinyang arrived in a yellow, secondhand car that Yu Renjie had recently bought; it looked like a bumblebee. Li Yingqiao and Zheng Miaojia watched from afar as a car slowly rolled towards them, its speed almost matching that of the bicycles beside it. Because it was driving so slowly, the bicycles beside it sped ahead of it, not bothering to keep up.
The two sat in the back row with the windows wide open, looking like mascots on a Disney sightseeing bus, attracting the attention of every student who passed by.
Gao Dian: "...What does Brother Jie think?"
Yu Jinyang: "...I don't know, I just told him not to drive that Maybach."
Yu Renjie was very anxious, sweating profusely, but he remained calm and turned to the two men, saying, "Son, quick, I'll open the car door now, you two jump out. At this speed, you'll only get a minor scrape, nothing will happen. Trust your dad. Damn it, I told you we shouldn't buy this kind of used car, the brake pads are broken."
Yu Jinyang and Gao Dian: "…………"
So the Bumblebee kept circling in front of Li Yingqiao and Zheng Miaojia.
Each time, Gao Dian pressed his face against the car window, crying, "Idol, help me!!!"
Li Yingqiao: "..."
How can we save her? She's not Superman.
Fortunately, the traffic police arrived and rescued them from their predicament. Gao Dian got out of the car and checked himself from head to toe, bowing repeatedly to them. He kept turning back to bow as he walked away, still shaken even after a long distance, vowing never to ride in Brother Jie's car again. Li Yingqiao seized the opportunity to say, "Don't call me your idol anymore, Gao Dian. We're in high school now. The police officers are your idols."
"Alright, alright, class is about to start. Because of your dad, all four of us are going to be late!"
"Quickly, 40,000 yuan, get moving."
"Come here, Yu Jinyang, turn your head over here."
"Just a heads-up, Teacher Liang said that for every time you touch the back of my head during our three years of high school, you'll be punished by having to write a self-criticism using the Fibonacci sequence. The first time you'll get a free trial, the second time it'll be 50 words, the third time it'll also be 50 words, the fourth time it'll be 100 words, and so on..."
"Is Liang Mei biased towards you? Why is she only punishing me?"
"I'm not as promiscuous as some people."
"Okay, so it's a self-criticism, right? Yu Miaomiao, you wait, I'll write you a love letter."
"...Li Yingqiao!"
"What are you yelling for? Go back to your honors class. Let's go! Don't forget to visit Teacher Tan after school today."
***
Tan Xiuyun was much younger than they had imagined, and didn't look like a black-faced demon at all—at least not like the photo on the tombstone. Instead, she looked very gentle. Looking at her now, her features were like a calm lake, and her smile was like ripples gently spreading across the water, carrying the warmth of a spring breeze. Li Yingqiao could also imagine that when her temper flared up, she would be like Liang Mei, her forehead tightly furrowed, like the most turbulent eddy in a lake.
Li Yingqiao had always felt that older women were like rivers; most of the time they were calm and undisturbed, yet they could also be turbulent and magnificent. They rushed swiftly towards a wider ocean, yet also flowed quietly among the majestic mountains. Li Shuli was like that, and Tan Xiujun seemed to be like that as well.
She and she gazed at each other silently—
"Hello, Teacher Tan. It's great to finally meet you. I hope we can see each other often in the future."
"My name is Li Yingqiao."
"He was the student that Teacher Liang Mei disliked the most."
"But I will get into my dream university and then come back to bring you lots and lots of fruit that you can't possibly eat. I heard that you love fruit the most."
———End of Volume One———————
[Author's Note]
Volume One concludes here.
Because I wrote too many similar campus-themed stories in high school, I won't write them in this book. I will directly start the adult reunion chapter. If there are any plot-related parts, I will use interludes.
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