Chapter 103: Walking Home

Chapter 103

The scene was a room that looked a bit like a lecture hall, with the backdrop of high-rise buildings in the city. Anyone who watched Lvshan Channel One would be very familiar with this backdrop.

As the interview began, Jiang Yiru quickly found her home ground. She chatted casually with several people for a few sentences about this competition, and then started to focus her interview on Su Xiaoqi.

"I heard that you were a top student when you were in school, with excellent grades."

Su Xiaoqi: ...

Her scalp tingled. Although this was not a live broadcast, hearing the beautiful hostess saying this in her sweet voice made Xiaoqi feel it wasn't right.

Today's interview was supposed to praise her more, after all it was an interview about her recent victory in the Jingnan Provincial Women's 200m Freestyle competition, and also to publicize herself and Lvshan City's own swimming team.

But who told her this?

Seeing the hostess professionally holding information in her hands, Xiaoqi did not feel dizzy with the idea that she really was a top student. Although she was at Lvshan No. 1 Middle School and her usual grades were decent, upper middle level, she did poorly on the college entrance exam and was almost bottom of the class - she was nowhere near being a top student.

Xiaoqi did not yet understand the concept of an "image", but her instinct told her that the accolades the hostess was piling on her did not feel right. The old Xiaoqi might have just smiled awkwardly, which could be taken as acquiescing. Th.ê most uptodate novels are published on n(0)velbj)n(.)co/m

In an instant she felt it was inappropriate. Without much hesitation she answered, "No, the competition at No. 1 Middle School was intense. My grades were only average in class."

After all, there was one student from her class who made it into Tsinghua University or Peking University. Calling her a top student would be too cheap.

Jiang Yiru paused slightly, her smile still present. She did not expect the young girl to explicitly reject this.

Jiang Yiru's subsequent questions became more conventional. There were two more ambiguous questions, trying to push Xiaoqi closer to the image of a top student, but Xiaoqi firmly denied it each time.

Jiang looked at the information in her hands again, wondering if her assistant had gotten the data wrong - could this girl without background really be such an unexaggerated and direct village student?

Besides, the girl had great camera presence, seeming very unconstrained while sitting close by. Jiang noticed she had very little make-up on her naturally pale face. Although not shockingly beautiful, she had very long lashes. Occasionally laughing to reveal a mouth of straight teeth, wearing clothes with a hint of professionalism, she was a budding young woman far from the impoverished mountain prodigy Jiang had envisioned.

Jiang felt that while the girl did not seem to like to speak much, she was not insecure at all.

They started to talk about swimming.

Xiaoqi did not want to say much, often deflecting the conversation to Coach Wu or Captain Zhao.

Captain Zhao revealed a kindly smile, feeling inwardly that the young lady handled things very adroitly - rather than just sitting on the side as a potted plant, it was better she did not come.

Elderly people's clothing was not too expensive, only about 100 RMB each.

She bought Granny a bottle of liquor over 100 RMB - Granny loved to drink liquor, insisting on a cup of white wine before meals to stimulate her appetite.

Xiaoqi also went to buy Mom a pair of leather shoes, red, soft leather, rounded toes with shoelaces like athletic shoes, the sole made from cow tendon, very comfortable for walking. Xiaoqi tried them on too. Her skin was as pale as Mom's, Mom was just more tanned from working outside more. Her hands and feet were still especially white, red leather shoes would definitely look good on her. The shoes were slightly expensive, over 400 RMB.

Xiaoqi did not buy anything for Dad. He probably would not have borne to wear the new clothes she got last time either, so buying more would lead to real complaints of wasting money.

In all, buying bits and pieces still added up to a large package. Fortunately Xiaoqi's school bag was big, able to stuff everything into it.

She first took an express bus from the bus station to Huanghe Town. After arriving at Huanghe Town she alighted and started walking.

She walked a segment along the highway, then turned in at a village along the roadside, entering the mountain from a small path at the edge of the village.

It was around 4 pm, before sunset.

Xiaoqi found a dead branch in the path and cleared it up as a walking stick. Some parts of the path were narrower, so having a stick helped.

Xiaoqi felt her physical fitness was much better now. Carrying a heavy load for a long time did not make her pant too badly. It was just extremely tranquil in the mid-afternoon mountain, even birds calling out were scarce, occasionally hearing some insect cries, or the sound of wind shaking the branches.

And the sound of dry branches crunching underfoot.

Xiaoqi took out her phone to check and found she had entered deep into the mountains already, no signal.

After walking for over half an hour more, she finally felt the scenery becoming more familiar.

Because she spotted paddy fields.

Where there were paddy fields meant there were people. These fields belonged to Gumula Village, Xiaoqi remembered her Second Uncle's family had fields here.

Compared to the deep mountains, walking in the open paddy fields felt completely different.

It would be the autumn harvest soon. The setting sun shone the fields all golden-orange, a very beautiful sight.

The setting sun stretched Xiaoqi's silhouette out long, a bead of sweat appearing on her forehead. The wind carried the smell of the paddies, seemingly entering deep into her lungs.

Still no people encountered, but the scarecrows in the paddy fields swayed in the wind as if waving hello to Little Seven.