Monday, September 2nd, clear skies.
The visibly tired faces of the senior high school students appeared in the classroom.
However, no matter how tired they were, they had to give their all in their studies. At some point, making Class Six’s average score surpass that of Class Two downstairs became a collective obsession for the students in Class Six.
As their homeroom teacher, Lai Jing was naturally delighted with this unexpected outcome.
“The National Day holiday has been confirmed, three days off. After returning, you’ll have twelve consecutive days of classes. Before the holiday, there will be a C City joint exam, and your school-wide and city-wide rankings will be printed out and posted on the blackboard.”
Before Lai Jing could finish speaking, a wail erupted in the classroom.
“Director Lai~ Will the joint exam results come out after we return?”
Lai Jing chuckled and nodded, “What Director Lai? You brats, the joint exam results are very important, remember to work hard.”
“We know!”
Compared to most senior high school students’ nervousness about the first city-wide joint exam, Liu Chen was more excited.
She had always wanted to take a brand-new set of mock exam questions to see her current strength. After all, she had already done the previous college entrance examination papers, so she didn't take the results to heart.
Perhaps because of the news of the joint exam, the learning atmosphere in Senior High Class Six was particularly strong today. During every break, apart from a trip to the restroom, most students chose to stand in the classroom if they were too tired, and then continued to do practice questions.
And so it was until noon when school ended. Liu Chen and her three companions planned to go outside the school to eat claypot rice, and then bring back more than twenty cups of milk tea for everyone when they returned to school.
“Liu Chen!”
Liu Chen was discussing what dishes to add to their claypot rice with Mi Zhuzhu when she heard someone call her name.
Looking up, she saw Hu Qian.
Liu Chen raised an eyebrow. Was Hu Qian actually willing to lower herself to apologize to her? Given Hu Qian’s personality, wouldn’t she have brought her mother to resolve the issue?
Thinking of this, Liu Chen scanned the area around Hu Qian, not seeing Zhang Lili’s figure.
At this moment, Hu Qian had already walked up to Liu Chen and her three companions.
“Liu Chen, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have easily believed rumors from others and become an accomplice to the rumors. I’m sorry!”
After speaking, Hu Qian gritted her back teeth and bowed towards Liu Chen.
At the school gate, a girl bowed to another girl.
It looked like a bullying incident…
However, because of the senior student’s apology in front of the entire school during the flag-raising ceremony, the surrounding students were more rational when they saw such a scene, and no chuunibyou youngsters rushed forward to accuse Liu Chen of bullying her classmates.
Liu Chen looked at Hu Qian, who was bowing to her, with a complicated gaze. She pursed her lips; Hu Qian was more resilient than she was in her previous life.
“I will withdraw the lawyer’s letter.”
Seeing Hu Qian’s relieved smile, Liu Chen said indifferently,
“If I catch you pulling any more tricks behind my back, we’ll meet in court.”
After saying that, Liu Chen, with a cold face, took Mi Zhuzhu’s hand and left the school gate. Lai Jielun and Ren Mo followed behind, not daring to make a sound.
Mi Zhuzhu mumbled that she shouldn’t have forgiven Hu Qian so easily, and as she spoke, she became angrier and angrier, finally snatching the spoon from Liu Chen’s hand in anger and asking,
“Chen Chen, why did you forgive her? She forced you to transfer schools and still didn’t let you go. I can’t understand it!”
Seeing Mi Zhuzhu angrier than herself, Liu Chen couldn’t help but laugh. Seeing Mi Zhuzhu’s eyes about to spit fire, she quickly explained, “Don’t worry, Hu Qian won’t stop. Her personality will only make her think that I forgave her because I was afraid of her reporting me. Next time, she’ll do it again, and even worse.”
Hearing this, Mi Zhuzhu’s eyes lit up,
“You mean, you deliberately let her go, wanting to catch a bigger handle on her?”
“Something like that. Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. Didn’t Seven Cups of Tea just say that collecting five stamps gets you a free milk tea?”
“Huh? Really?”
The topic was quickly diverted by Liu Chen, and the other three also excitedly started discussing milk tea.
—
Hu Qian walked aimlessly on the street. The scene of apologizing just now kept replaying in her mind. She actually bowed to Liu Chen.
Why did this happen?
Liu Chen always used to be in the corner, looking at her with envy. How did things become like this now?
Her mother had also changed. If it were before, her mother would definitely have helped her apologize.
Her grandmother had also changed. She only knew how to sleep and eat, and she cursed people frequently. She was nothing like before.
Her father had also changed. He had become so scary. She always worried that her father’s fists and kicks would fall on her next time.
Why?
Tired from walking, Hu Qian entered a milk tea shop, ordered a cup of milk tea by herself, and sat there playing QQ. She had recently met a new netizen who said he was a student from Tsinghua Affiliated High School in Beijing and lived in a villa in Beijing.
If he were her boyfriend, he would definitely be more impressive than Liu Chen’s boyfriend.
—
As the intense studies continued, the leaves outside the window gradually began to turn yellow from the tips, and some leaves even turned completely yellow, hanging outside the window, a brilliant golden color.
Liu Chen glanced at her lottery tickets, four hundred and eighty of them, still half the distance to one thousand.
“Chen Chen, are you ready? Let’s go!”
Liu Fang had also dressed up today. Since using the facial cream Liu Chen bought, the dullness and yellowing on Liu Fang’s face had gradually faded, and even the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes had become less noticeable. Her entire face looked much younger.
Now, with a simple eyebrow pencil and lipstick, she looked nothing like someone in her forties, more like someone in her early thirties.
Liu Chen was wearing a denim dress today, a rare occasion, with a pair of black leather boots. Before leaving, Liu Fang insisted on her wearing a hooded sweatshirt jacket over it.
The mother and daughter were going to the Ren family’s house today to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and Ren Yu’s birthday.
Along the way, Liu Fang drove and said enviously,
“Ren Yu is such a remarkable child. Not only is he good at studies, but he’s also starting his own business, and even his birthday is a good day.”
“What’s this, Mom? Just wait and see, I’ll be even more amazing than him in the future!”
“Hahahaha, oh my, my Chen Chen has a big ambition!”
After joking with her mother, Liu Chen turned her head to look out the car window. The golden leaves hung on the branches, swaying in the breeze. Most of the shops on the pedestrian street were already locked. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival, after all, so they had to eat lunch together.
Most of the pedestrians on the road were carrying boxes of mooncakes, all sorts of them, but the constant thing was the joy of returning home on their faces.
An autumn breeze blew, and the golden fallen leaves on the trees slowly drifted down, landing on the pedestrians returning home, on the glass windows of the speeding cars.
They fell,
in front of Ren Yu.