OEBSAS |Chapter 31

After winter break, the ninth grade of No. 9 Middle School was about to迎接 an even heavier course load.

Papers fluttered about like white snow, and the students wrote furiously, leaving black marks on the papers as they waited for the teachers to grade them.

Shao Xian finished the math paper in half an hour, and Chen Baizhou also put down his pen at the same time.

The two of them could not help but look at each other for a second, then they both stood up and handed in their papers.

Anyway, the last two classes in the afternoon were for exams. Once they finished the paper, they could go home from school, and staying in the classroom for the remaining time would just be a waste.

The classmates in the class had long been used to this, and even thought that in a moment Qian Wenjie and Hao Lu should also be leaving the classroom.

Sure enough, not long after, the two of them also handed in their papers and left the classroom.

It was not yet time to get out of school, and the school gate was not open, so the four of them had no choice but to sit on a bench beside the playground and read books and do problems together.

Not long after, the bell for class rang, and the quiet school instantly became noisy.

There was still one last class left. Some students, carrying their schoolbags, walked toward the playground. They should be going to PE class.

Shao Xian and the others were rather famous at school after all. After all, they were good-looking, had skipped grades, and had been at the top of the class in terms of grades, so most people at the school knew them.

Seeing them sitting here reading and doing problems, they could not help but take a few more looks.

Not far away, two resentful looks flashed by in an instant.

“Cui Hang, want to get revenge?” Chen Yu tugged at the faded school uniform on his body and asked with a cold snort.

After Chen Changjian was imprisoned, the Chen family rapidly fell into decline and moved out of the villa district.

In the legal sense, Chen Yu was raised by Bai Meijuan. But Bai Meijuan did not have much ability to survive herself, and she was even worse than Chen Yu.

Two people with twisted psyches were crammed under one roof, and one could imagine what would happen.

Chen Yu was tall and strong, and Bai Meijuan simply could not beat him. She could only suffer his torment all day long.

It was not that she did not want to resist, but every time Chen Yu threatened her, she caved.

After all, Chen Changjian’s prison term was only a few years. After he got out in a few years, perhaps she would still have to rely on the Chen father and son, so she had no choice but to submit.

Having lost her life of wealth and luxury, Bai Meijuan was no longer as glamorous as before, and no one could look up to her anymore.

After all, there were plenty of young and beautiful female college students. Who would care about an old, faded woman with no substance?

She could no longer find someone like Chen Changjian, so she could only endure in silence.

The Cui family had also gone downhill after that incident. Cui Hang had gone from a rich second generation to a poor kid, and the hatred in his heart was no less than Chen Yu’s.

But he was very aware of his place. To put it plainly, he was cowardly.

“No.” He answered decisively.

Because Shao Xian and the others had skipped grades, the two of them were now one year below Shao Xian and the others, and were currently in Class 4 of the second year of junior high.

The last class for Class 4 of the second year of junior high was PE class. If not for this kind of opportunity, they almost never got to see Shao Xian and the others.

Chen Yu felt that this was a good opportunity, so he continued to coax him: “You really don’t hate the Shao family? Don’t hate Shao Xian?”

Although Cui Hang had once whipped himself, Chen Yu could not find any allies now, so he could only settle for the next best thing. Anyway, Cui Hang had also been threatened by Shao Xian at the time.

Just thinking of this made hatred rise in Chen Yu’s heart.

He did not hate Cui Hang. He only hated Shao Xian, Qian Wenjie, and Chen Baizhou.

“Chen Yu, class is about to start. The PE teacher is going to call the roll.” Cui Hang still wanted to keep his own life and was unwilling to be dragged down by Chen Yu.

Seeing Cui Hang run off quickly, Chen Yu had no choice but to endure his hatred and leave.

There would be plenty of time. No matter what, he would always have a chance to get revenge.

The two turned and headed toward the playground, but they did not notice a cold, gloomy gaze behind them.

“Baizhou, what are you looking at?”

On the bench, Qian Wenjie curiously followed his gaze.

Shao Xian also looked up from his problem and asked Chen Baizhou with his eyes.

“Nothing, I just saw two mice go by.” Chen Baizhou withdrew his gaze and continued to lower his head to do the problem.

Qian Wenjie muttered, “How could there be mice here?”

Shao Xian looked at Chen Baizhou, but in the end did not ask anything.

Spring gave way to summer, the weather gradually became hot, the sun was scorching the earth, and the college entrance exam gradually drew near.

On this day, Shao Xian and the other two walked into the classroom and found that it was a little noisy inside.

Just after sitting down, Qian Wenjie’s deskmate in front turned around and put two sheets of paper on Shao Xian and Chen Baizhou’s desks.

Qian Wenjie also received one, and asked curiously, “What is this?”

“A classmate booklet!” His deskmate pushed up his glasses. “Can you help me write in it? Please!”

For this kind of new trend, Qian Wenjie had always accepted it well.

After carefully studying the paper, he started to lean over the desk and write.

Qian Wenjie’s deskmate looked hopefully at Shao Xian and Chen Baizhou, very worried that they would refuse.

Although Shao Xian was usually rather friendly, after all, he was the study god and class belle[1] who seemed so far out of reach, and he still did not dare to get too close.

As for Chen Baizhou’s classmate, there was even less need to mention it.

“Sure, I’ll give it to you before school is over.” Shao Xian took the classmate booklet and agreed very readily.

Since he agreed, Chen Baizhou of course would not refuse either.

With Qian Wenjie’s deskmate taking the lead, on this day, whenever class ended, a few more sheets of paper would appear on Shao Xian and the others’ desks, all of them asking to have classmate booklets written.

Shao Xian stuffed them all into his schoolbag, planning to take them home at night and write them slowly.

Graduating classes always had an air of parting and lingering sorrow. Whether it was real or not, they were going to separate soon after all. As Shao Xian wrote, he could also recover some of the feelings from back then.

Chen Baizhou did not understand the meaning of writing classmate booklets, but seeing that Shao Xian was writing seriously, he also did not treat it carelessly.

The students who got their classmate booklets back the next day were all overjoyed.

They had originally thought that at most the three top students would only coldly write down a sentence of blessing, but they had not expected them to be this serious.

After the news spread, some students who had originally not dared to disturb Shao Xian and the others all left behind classmate booklets, and there were even some from other classes.

Shao Xian: “…”

Although saying this was a bit ungracious, writing this really took a lot of time!

In order not to delay his study progress, for the later classmate booklets, he tried his best to make them concise and to the point.

Gradually, no one came to disturb him anymore.

On the day of the entrance exam, Shao Boyuan and Shao Yun specially took a day off to personally send Shao Xian and Chen Baizhou to the exam site.

They were very reassured about the two children’s studies, and after the two finished the exam, they never asked about it.

Cai Yalan personally simmered soup at home, saying that she wanted to nourish the children’s bodies.

During those two days of the entrance exam, Shao Xian and Chen Baizhou actually lived quite relaxed and at ease. The questions were really not difficult for them.

After Qian Wenjie finished the exam, he could not wait to compare answers with them.

After comparing answers, he let out a long breath. “Getting into No. 1 High School won’t be a problem!”

Shao Xian nodded. “No. 1 High School has strict management, and students need to live on campus. Will Aunt Wang be willing to let you stay at school?”

“As long as I’m with the two of you, my mom is very reassured.” Qian Wenjie said without any worries.

Shao Xian nodded and continued, “The No. 1 High School dorms are four-person rooms. Let’s see then whether the three of us can live together.”

Chen Baizhou and Qian Wenjie both thought the same.

The exam was over, and Cai Yalan and Wang Shufen discussed bringing the three children out to play and relax.

“A farmstay?” Shao Xian could not help but freeze, looking in surprise at his own mother.

In his previous life, after the entrance exam, his mother had clearly not taken him to a farmstay to have fun.

“Xianxian doesn’t like it?” Cai Yalan explained patiently, “Actually, this was also your grandfather’s idea. It’s both to have fun and to broaden your horizons.”

Shao Qingshan had come up through hardship. He had always warned the younger generation of the Shao family not to forget the hardship of the past just because they were wealthy.

He did not want to see the phenomenon of “three generations of wealth” disappearing from the Shao family.

Shao Xian was his little grandson whom he doted on, but he never spoiled him. He hoped that this grandson, who had always had smooth sailing, could step out of the big city, go see the pastoral scenery, and experience the taste of keeping company with the earth.

But in the end, he was unwilling for Shao Xian to truly suffer, so he proposed the “farmstay” trip.

“It’s not that I don’t like it,” Shao Xian shook his head and said. “Mom, how many days are we going for? I’ll see what I need to pack.”

Seeing that he was not repelled, Cai Yalan also let go of her worries.

The next day, the group went together to the farm.

It was called a farm, but in fact it was an ecological tourism scenic area that provided some farmstay services.

The scenic area and the local farmers were in a mutually beneficial cooperative relationship.

After Shao Xian and the others arrived, they were all attracted by the pastoral splendor before their eyes.

“The air here is really fresh!” Qian Wenjie was delighted.

What met the eye were basically low-rise homes, with no high-rise buildings blocking the view, so they could see far into the distance.

It was simply refreshing.

The house where the five of them stayed was very spacious, and could be considered a large household. The courtyard was somewhat similar in shape to the siheyuan[2] in Yan City.

There were a total of four rooms. Cai Yalan and Wang Shufen shared one room, and Shao Xian and the other two squeezed into one room.

Since this was an experience of life, the conditions naturally would not be too comfortable.

The owner of the house warmly led them to the room, and while walking, introduced, “A lot of fruit is ripe this season, so you can bring the children to pick some fruit yourselves to eat.”

The farmstay had a picking activity, just to experience the sense of accomplishment of personally picking and harvesting fruit.

Cai Yalan asked Shao Xian and Chen Baizhou, “Do Xianxian and Xiao Zhou want to go pick fruit?”

“Sure.” Shao Xian answered crisply. Anyway, he was fine with anything.

Chen Baizhou and Qian Wenjie had no objections either.

So after lunch, Cai Yalan and Wang Shufen led the three children, brought the picking tools, and went together to the picking area.

There were already some tourists there having a lively time.

Some were holding melons in the fields, some were picking fruit from the trees, and it was rather interesting.

“What is this?” Shao Xian looked up at a tree and pointed at the fruit on it as he asked.

Forgive his ignorance, but he really had never seen this kind of fruit.

Qian Wenjie could answer this one. He immediately explained, “This is called mulberries. They’re sweet, but I feel like the taste is a bit like cherries.”

Shao Xian had a pretty good impression of cherries, so he said, “I want to try this. Mom, Aunt Wang, let’s pick some.”

Cai Yalan and Wang Shufen naturally smiled and agreed.

The three boys were tall and did not need the help of the two women at all. Chen Baizhou and Qian Wenjie lowered the branches so that Shao Xian could pick the mulberries and put them into the bamboo basket that Cai Yalan was holding.

There were vermilion ones and purple-red ones, and they looked very pretty.

Chen Baizhou had originally worried that Shao Xian would have a hard time picking them, but seeing that he was full of enthusiasm, he did not disturb him and let him pick to his heart’s content.

Of course, Shao Xian did not forget his two little partners either.

The three took turns picking, and soon they had filled half a bamboo basket.

After reaping a full harvest, the five of them looked for the next target.

There were cantaloupes planted in the field, with a pale yellow skin and a very fresh taste. They planned to pick five, one for each of them to eat when they got back at night.

Qian Wenjie had sharp eyes. Just as he spotted one that looked proper, and was about to excitedly go over to pick it, someone else got there first.

“Wait!” He took three steps in two and quickly ran over.

The one holding the melon was a boy. He was very handsome, and a little familiar too.

Qian Wenjie was still puzzled when he saw the boy looking behind him and revealing a handsome smile.

“What a coincidence, we meet again.”

Shao Xian and Chen Baizhou walked over together and greeted him.

“Zhao Siqin, you’re here to have fun too?”

Zhao Siqin could not help but glance at Chen Baizhou, then replied to Shao Xian, “I’m here playing at a classmate’s house. His family lives here.”

As he spoke, he called out to a boy several meters away.

“Du Ze, come over. I found a melon!”

Shao Xian was startled in his heart, and could not help but follow his gaze to look over.

He saw a boy straighten up, face this way, and reveal a slightly shy smile. His features were very delicate.

If he remembered correctly, in his previous life, Zhao Siqin had a same-sex lover, and it seemed that his surname was Du.