CH 40

Villainous Poor Student (35)

The coast of Huacheng was the first area to develop, so the economy is naturally much more developed than inland. However, after coming out of the village, He Siyu has seen the world, and although she feels amazed at the tall buildings and wide asphalt roads in the city, she has not lost her composure.

He Siyu remembered what Xu Yi had told her: “Learn well, learning is the fastest power that can make you strong. Learning allows you to look at your own shortcomings and see the widest world, what you learn will be in your blood and bones for the rest of your life…”

He Siyu only had a vague idea of knowledge at the moment, but she believed Song Xu Yi’s words: if Xu Yi had said so, then studying must be of great benefit to her!

Moreover, He Siyu doesn’t hate studying.

The world outside was more prosperous than she could have imagined, and she already had opportunities that many girls in the mountains could not grasp, and all she had to do was to hold on to them and integrate into this different world.

Song Xu Yi went home with her parents, while He Siyu followed Officer He back home.

Song father knew that Officer He lacked the money to treat his wife’s illness and wanted to give him money, but he refused: “My decision to adopt Siyu is my own business, it has nothing to do with your Song family, and the child I adopted should be looked after by us…”

Song father had no choice but to understand the character of police officer He, thinking that He Siyu will continue to develop in such a family, her character will certainly not be too bad, and secretly asked Song mother to send a copy of any good food to He Siyu in the future, after all, He Siyu and his family’s Xu Yi are friends who have been through thick and thin, and should be good sisters for life.

And He Siyu followed Officer He to a unit building from the small villa with a garden without changing her expression.

Officer He’s wife had also received a phone call from Officer He and knew that her husband had found a child in the countryside who looked a bit like her daughter who had died young, so she had cleaned the house early in the morning and couldn’t help but get teary-eyed when she saw He Siyu——

Such a beautiful girl was almost ruined by a beast, fortunately the heavens are watching…

“This is your Auntie Wang,” Officer He introduced, “Good girl, from now on you will consider this your home.”

Auntie Wang had a kind face and was looking over with eyes full of compassion. He Siyu didn’t know what was up with her, but she was suddenly a little embarrassed to meet Auntie Wang’s gaze, so she bit her lower lip and lowered her head.

Song Xu Yi had long ago taught He Siyu to call them uncle and aunt, so He Siyu bowed her head and called out softly to them, and then Auntie Wang pulled He Siyu in and asked her some questions. She was a veteran teacher who had retired for health reasons and had a wealth of experience in communicating with children, and her gestures were calm and cordial.

He Siyu answered questions in stumbling Mandarin, and shook her head if she didn’t understand them. After a few questions, Auntie Wang realised that this was a smart child who had been held back, and felt even more compassionate.

Auntie Wang opened up to He Siyu and went into her later room, thoughtfully leaving He Siyu time alone, before going into the kitchen to start cooking.

The room is small, but extremely clean and tidy. The window is open and the sunlight pours in. There are pink floral curtains hanging next to the window, a desk in front of the window, a bookshelf full of books next to it, a small one meter double bed with bedding that smells of sunlight and has obviously just been hung out to dry, and then next to it is a wardrobe with several sets of clothes and a full-length mirror on it.

He Siyu looked at the little girl in the mirror.

It was the first time she had looked at herself so closely, the person in the mirror was familiar and unfamiliar: the little girl in the mirror had an extremely small face with big eyes, her hair was neatly combed and tied up in a ponytail, and for the first time He Siyu realised——she seemed… a bit good looking.

The reflection in the water in the mountain ravine was always hazy, and she was sick of looking at her dirty reflection in the stream, thinking that she would spend the rest of her life in the ravine, but she never thought that she would one day escape from the devil’s lair and have a… home.

He Siyu felt inexplicably happy, curled her lips and smiled at herself in the mirror.

……

At the same time, Song Xu Yi returned to the Song family.

Song Han, the female lead, hears the news that Song Xu Yi is coming back and apprehensively guards the door early in the morning, wondering what Song Xu Yi will think of this new sister, while Song brother reassures her that “Xu Yi will not be so ignorant”, but he is a bit apprehensive in his heart, because he remembers that his younger sister was extremely territorial when he was a child and especially did not like others to touch her things…

If it had been himself, and another person had been pampered at home in his place when he was suffering so much——

Song brother lowered his head.

Not only Song brother, but Song parents also had some apprehension in their hearts as they introduced her to Song Xu Yi with a strong smile, “Xu… Xu Yi, this is your sister Song Han-“

Yet Song Xu Yi did not resist Song Han’s presence as they had expected.

Song Xu Yi looked at Song Han and smiled, meeting Song Han’s bewildered eyes and offering her hand——

“Hello, sister!”

Song Xu Yi is now 11 years old and is already in the fifth grade of primary school, but her previous primary school education was lacking, so Song father held off sending her to school for a year, hiring tutors to help her with her lessons at home, and then officially entering school after a year of gaining some grounding in learning.

Thinking that teaching one child is also teaching, and two children is also teaching, and thinking that Song Xu Yi needs someone to accompany her now, Song father also let He Siyu attend school with her everyday.

Song Xu Yi is very glad to have He Siyu as a study partner, Song Xu Yi is after all an adult at heart, and before that she was still an excellent learner, so it was a bit too difficult for her to learn all this primary school knowledge again, and now that she has already determined the direction of her development in this world, Song Xu Yi was too lazy to waste time, at the beginning it was fine, after Song parents started to go out to work and no one was watching, Song Xu Yi would go upstairs and open her brother’s computer and start surfing the internet after half an hour of pretend study, and would even sneak out and buy a whole bunch of programming books and come back…

At this time, computers were still a new thing and had not long been introduced to the country. Song brother had to beg his mother and father to buy a computer, and he used to practice typing and play basic minesweeper and poker games, but recently he started chatting with friends and grocerie shopping on a software called Ostrich.

Song Xu Yi knew that this was a time of rapid development, especially in the computer field, which would advance by leaps and bounds in the next ten years, and that many people in the social field had already smelled the business opportunities and started to develop various platforms, but today’s shopping websites were not taking shape, so Song Xu Yi had a plan in mind and started to want to build a convenient and fast shopping platform.

But the population of this country is simply too large and it would take untold amounts of money to help so many children…

And Song Xu Yi understands better than anyone else: how crazy the wave of networking will be in the future! Standing on top of the wind of the times, Song Xu Yi wants to take a chance!

……

Song brother is very protective of this computer, even his parents are not allowed to touch it, Song Han and Song Xu Yi are the only people he will let touch his precious computer apart from himself.

Song Han was a good girl who seldom played on the computer, following her teachers’ advice not to play computer games, but Song Xu Yi was different. Song brother often came back from school and saw Song Xu Yi playing on the computer, sometimes seeing her tapping some symbols on certain pages that he didn’t understand.

Song brother didn’t know what his sister was doing, but it was a bit bad for her to be playing on the computer during tutoring time, so Song brother subtly mentioned the word to her, only to receive a sentence from her: “How about brother testing me on primary school topics?”

After unbelievingly taking three tests on Song Xu Yi, Song brother, who is in his second year of secondary school, decides that his sister is a genius and is seriously inspired by her sisterly attributes, not only does he not tell on her, but he even starts to help cover up with his parents after his sister begs him to do so.

The female lead, Song Han, also noticed something different, but she wanted her sister to like her and didn’t want conflict to break out between her family. After thinking about it, Song Han also sided with Song Xu Yi. But perhaps it was because she was not at peace in her heart that Song Han gave all her old study materials to Song Xu Yi. Song Xu Yi knew Song Han’s struggles and occasionally asked Song Han to accompany her in her homework. Song Han was relieved to see that Song Xu Yi really knew many of the questions…

As for Song Xu Yi’s tutors, at first they subtly warned Song Xu Yi: “Even if you are smart, you have to study hard…” However, after Song Xu Yi learnt the lessons so quickly and scored full marks on the class tests, the tutors had nothing more to say. If they had known how fast Song Xu Yi was learning, her parents would have dismissed them early. The tutors didn’t want to lose their jobs early because of the high salary in the Song family, so they started to turn a blind eye to the situation and let Song Xu Yi play as long as she grasped the lessons.

The tutors focused their energies on He Siyu, a girl born and raised in the mountains, who worked very hard and was one of the best girls in the world compared to Song Xu Yi’s unbelievable learning speed, although she was a little less fast, learning to communicate in Mandarin in a month or so, recognising words almost instantly, and grasping knowledge very quickly… but she was not as bright as Song Xu Yi.

“You have to believe in yourself,” the tutors, fearing that He Siyu would be discouraged by Song Xu Yi’s excellence, often enlightened He Siyu: “Hard work can make up for your mistakes, and you are naturally smart, don’t compare yourself to Xu Yi, her kind of learning speed is one in a million, compare yourself to…”

Whenever this happened, He Siyu always bowed her head and smiled, and the tutors thought she was forcing a smile because she was upset by the blow, but they didn’t know that she was really happy——praising Song Xu Yi made He Siyu feel happier than praising her personally.

How could she compare herself to Xu Yi?

Everything she has is a gift from Xu Yi, who is her god: she is smart, powerful and omnipotent, who performs countless miracles and deserves the best of everything in this world…

The Chinese New Year arrived at the end of February.

In the old days, New Year was celebrated in the mountain villages, but it had never been celebrated since He Siyu could remember, and even during the New Year, the mother and daughter were disliked for their bad luck and received a severe beating…

This is the first time that He Siyu has celebrated New Year.

He Siyu loved the home that Officer He had given her, and she was so diligent and obedient at home that Auntie Wang had come to regard her as her own daughter.

The villagers don’t eat dumplings on New Year’s Eve, but Auntie Wang, who is from the north, started teaching He Siyu how to make dumplings on New Year’s Eve.

While Officer He was on duty, He Siyu accompanied Auntie Wang to wrap a large pile of dumplings. The first dumpling He Siyu wrapped was not very good, but the subsequent ones were as neat as a work of art.

He Siyu actually wanted Song Xu Yi to try the dumplings she had made. Song Xu Yi had shared so many things with her, everything she had she was willing to share with Song Xu Yi.

But the bus service stopped on New Year’s Eve, so He Siyu couldn’t bring it to Song Xu Yi.

……

He Siyu didn’t know what was wrong with her. Originally, she should have felt content, but perhaps because Xu Yi was not here, He Siyu inexplicably felt a little anxious inside.

He Siyu followed Auntie Wang to the police station and gave dumplings to the police officers on duty.

There was no ban on firecrackers at this time and some people on their way back had already set off firecrackers.

The weather has warmed up on the coast in February, and the streets are lined with flowers and crowded with visitors. Amidst the crackling of firecrackers, children play in the streets, neighbours meet and greet each other with smiles and “congratulations on your fortune”…

There was a soft “click”.

He Siyu felt something and looked ahead, then saw Song Xu Yi in front of her with a camera.

Song parents are entrepreneurs and believe in luck, so they come out on New Year’s Eve to walk through the streets of Huacheng…

Seeing that it was still early, Auntie Wang followed the Song family for a stroll.

Song Xu Yi pulled He Siyu aside, patting her chest and vowing, “This picture I took of you will definitely come out very nice…”

He Siyu glanced at Song Xu Yi, but there was some unusual frustration on her face, “I ran out of dumplings, I didn’t expect to see you and didn’t save them for you…”

“It’s okay, you can make them for me later!”

Song Xu Yi really liked the way He Siyu was behaving, if she wasn’t physically younger than He Siyu, she would have wanted to give He Siyu a big red envelope, but the red envelope couldn’t be stuffed, so Song Xu Yi ended up giving He Siyu a big bouquet of flowers and a pot of kumquats: “Blossoming flowers, good luck and prosperity!”

After seeing Song Xu Yi, the anxiety in He Siyu’s heart has been extremely calmed down.

She carefully returned home with the flowers and kumquats in her arms, reverently lit three lamps with oil in the hall, door and stove, and kept the lamps unblinkingly until dawn.

She has been given so much this year.

She is doing exceptionally well now and has no other wish but to light the New Year’s fire for Xu Yi along with the sound of firecrackers all night long and to pray reverently.

“May Xu Yi’s years be peaceful and prosperous.”