CH 23.1

Chapter 23.1 – Exams

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While filling in the essay title, Su Qin began to recall her past life and started to write the first paragraph.

“The day I left the mountain, the overcast sky weighed down that quiet mountain with heavy clouds. I will never forget the day the several girls and I were rescued by the police from the mountain.”

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Su Qin used a lot of ‘ifs’.

“If I hadn’t been abducted and sold, I ought to be a happy high school student now, with a loving mother and a doting father without others criticizing behind my back.

It was not my fault that I was abducted and sold, but why were the adults blaming me? I was being doubted as unclean and people around me used their disdained gazes and tones to tell me that I don’t deserve a better life. Weren’t those demons who should be blamed?

I did nothing wrong and I never felt ‘ashamed’ of this encounter. I will always remember this profound stroke of destiny that was added to my life and I will not give up easily either.

And I have one more motto in my life: there will be no downturn in my life hereafter. Unless I lose my life, unless my eyes cannot see, my ears cannot hear, my nose cannot smell and limbsless … otherwise, no setback can stop me from going forward.”

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The motto in the essay is also the chicken soup that she used to give herself when she encountered setbacks in her previous lifetime. Unless she is physically disabled and unable to move, hear or see … else, she will not give up.

When her business failed, she started afresh. As long as she is still alive, she will never give up.

Next, she wrote a series of ‘presumptions’ about ‘if she had not been rescued’, and wrote out her previous lifetime experiences. Those memories were like pricked thorns in her heart that stifled her.

The essay concluded with the following summation:

“Hell is empty since the devils roam the human world. How beautiful would youth be if I/we had not been abducted and sold?”

Su Qin was the second last to turn in her paper. Once she had written the last word, she raised her hand to wipe the trickled tears from her eyes.

After Su Qin left the classroom, the teacher on the podium urged Yun Fei, who was still writing, “That student, you still have 5 more minutes, and you have to hurry up.”

Yun Fei frowned and continued writing with his head buried. When the bell rang, he got up to turn in his paper.

Students standing at the door were discussing the exam paper just now and a boy asked Su Qin, “I saw your eyes reddened just now, were there any questions that you couldn’t answer?”

Pursing her lips into a line, Su Qin shook her head and said no.

When Yun Fei came out of the exam room and saw a boy chatting with Su Qin, he subconsciously frowned. He walked over and stood in front of Su Qin to obstruct the boy’s sight with his height.

Getting obstructed by him, the boy laughed, “You know each other?”

Having a slight social anxiety, Yun Fei felt uneasy staying in crowded places and talking to strangers, thus he grabbed Su Qin’s wrist and led her to the end of the corridor.

Yun Fei has grown taller after their last meeting several months ago. He should be about 1.8 meters tall and boys of this age grow really fast.

Dressed in black t-shirt, light khaki pants and a pair of comfortable sneakers, Yun Fei’s face was slightly red when he held her hand and spoke to her, “I miss you very much.”

It was precisely due to the boy’s words “I miss you very much” that Su Qin couldn’t hold back as the rims of her eyes reddened, “Sister miss you too ah.”

Standing on tiptoe, she reached out to pat the boy’s head.

Yun Fei frowned with a slightly unhappy expression, “I’m not a child.”

With his brows knitted into a ‘川’ character, the big boy retaliated by rubbing Su Qin’s hair and deliberately ruffling her ponytail.

His actions made Su Qin not know whether to laugh or be annoyed as she asked him, “How did the exam go? Was the exam paper difficult for you?”

Yun Fei nodded and acted spoiled, “It’s very difficult.”

Yun Fei had stayed in the mountains for so many years, he might not be able to keep up with the junior high studies, let alone the senior high.

She didn’t know why Mo Zongyang would send Yun Fei here. In his situation, if he couldn’t pass the passing mark, he wouldn’t be able to get into Yunzhong no matter how much money he spent.

The second exam of the English paper was about to begin and the teachers stood at the doors urging the students to enter the exam room.

Su Qin pulled Yun Fei to go in, but he stood in place.

She looked back at Yun Fei, “Feifei? What’s wrong?”

Yun Fei spread his arms and said to her, “Dad said hugs can increase good luck which enable me to pass the exam without a hitch. Su-su, I want a hug.”

Su Qin, “ ….. “ This unreliable father. Is it fun to trick children?

Su Qin didn’t hug him, but slapped the back of the boy’s head and spoke grimly, “Don’t listen to your father’s nonsense. If you can’t do it, you will still fail and it has nothing to do with hugging. Hurry up, the exam will start soon.”

Instead of getting a hug, he received a slap hence Yun Fei felt extremely aggrieved as he rubbed the back of his head and followed Su Qin into the classroom.

The two of them stepped into the classroom one after another and the students who were taking the exam in the class all stared at them. Yun Fei is very good looking and with his height, it is very difficult not to attract attention.

The teacher-in-charge then handed out the English exam papers.

Su Qin’s aural comprehension was not bad and the junior high school exam questions were not too difficult for her. She completed the exam paper very quickly and turned her head to find that Yun Fei was sleeping with the exam papers in his arms.

Su Qin, “? ? ?”

Su Qin had the impulse to slap him awake.

Although Yun Qin was a postgraduate, her spoken English was average and the English language she taught Yun Fei was some simple vocabulary only. His current English is still at the elementary school level. When the teacher turned on the tape recorder to play the aural part, he was totally muddled-headed.

He couldn’t even make sense of the following reading comprehension and some sentences.

After the English exam, the girl sitting in front of Su Qin asked her to go to the toilet together and Yun Fei called out to the two girls, stating that he wanted to go with them too.

Girl, “ ….. “ It was the first time a boy wanted to go to the toilet together and the feeling was quite subtle.

When the two girls came out of the toilet, Yun Fei was standing in front of the girls’ toilet kicking the flower beds and seeing the girls, he immediately went up to them and followed them quietly without uttering a word, like a bodyguard.

The girl asked Su Qin once they entered the exam room, “That … is your boyfriend ah? Don’t feel embarrassed, many in our school are dating early too.”

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Su Qin shook her head and gave out a laugh, “Little brother.”

The students were not allowed to leave the classroom building at noon and the teachers came to give out lunch boxes to the students.

The sun was scorching outside and parents were waiting outside the school gate.

The teacher told the parents that the students would eat in the classrooms and asked the parents not to wait outside but to come pick up their children after 4pm. Even so, no parents were willing to leave.

Mo Zongyang asked his assistant to buy two lunch boxes and ate it in the car with Li Chuan.

Li Chuan asked him, “Do you have confidence in Yun Fei?”

Mo Zongyang glanced at him and spewed rice into his lunch box as he spoke, “No confidence.”

Li Chuan, “ ….. “

Mo Zongyang stuffed a mouthful of braised pork belly into his mouth and said, “I can get Feifei in even if he scores zero on the exam. I have donated half of the newly renovated classroom building and there should be an enrollment quota with half of the building, right?”

Mo Zongyang has been doing charity work all these years and has donated a lot of money. He hopes he can accumulate more blessings and hopes that Heaven will endow him.

In order to find his wife and child, he will go to the temple to light the first 100,000 sticks of incense every year.

[T/N: 头香 (Tóu xiāng) – the first stick of incense is believed to bring good luck esp during festivities]