Chapter 44 Forty-three, the face of the unfavorable palace lady, falls to the ground and lifts people's hearts

In early summer, the light and soft branches quickly settle into an oily and heavy green after a few days of exposure. Summer comes quickly, but it is not as sudden as winter, perhaps because it is expected. Students in the third year of senior high school have to participate in the summer school group make-up classes, and try to catch up with the course progress within one and a half months. When the school starts in September, the whole grade will start the first round of review together. I am happy to see Xia.Compared to going back to the county to feel the atmosphere where the whole family quarrels every day because her younger brother is entering the stressful third year of junior high school, she prefers to lie on the table in the summer afternoon while reviewing the questions, while watching the ice lemon tea cup that Li Ran secretly sent over is full of condensation. The full water drops formed a pool at the corner of the table, and flowed slowly towards her along with the cool wind that happened to blow in.

After the second class in the afternoon, Chen Jianxia walked alone through the flag-raising square in the harsh sunlight, and walked towards the small supermarket in the diagonal direction.From a distance, a tall and thin boy could be seen squatting at the door with a piece of ice cream in his mouth, silently watching her approach step by step. Without looking sideways, she walked to the door and stomped her feet inexplicably, as if she had been covered with snow all over her shoes along the way.Chen Jianxia touched her sunburned cheeks with one hand, and opened the glass door of the freezer outside the corridor with the other, looking for ice cream.

"Boss, are there any colorful spinners?" Jian Xia shouted in the room. "I've eaten the last one." Li Ran said softly, raised his head and stuck out his tongue that was dyed orange, looking more and more like a dog. Jian Xia suppressed a smile, with a tense "I don't know you well" face, and closed the freezer. There are only a few students among the shelves in the small supermarket, and the boss rests his chin on the small portable TV in front of the checkout counter.Li Ran got up suddenly, and surrounded Chen Jianxia condescendingly, trapping her between the freezer and himself.

"Want to eat colorful spin?" He asked with a smile. Jian Xia's eyes widened, her waist leaned against the freezer, and she raised her face to look at him. Before she could react, her lips were covered with cold sweetness. He kissed lightly, but he didn't leave with a light peck like before. In the quiet afternoon, the teaching building was quietly melting; the bright sunlight on the square was like a dazzling enchantment, separating them from another tightly fitting and cold world.Chen Jianxia gently closed his eyes, and did not dodge any more. "Is it sweet?" he asked.

She lowered her head, licked her lips, and smiled. "sweet." Together they sat eating ice cream on the shady late-autumn heights.Chen Jian Xia Xuxu was talking about the current situation in the class. Except for the prenatal check-up, Yu Dan comes to work as usual every day, just "going to work" sitting - the language is originally accumulated by myself, and there are few people who ask for advice; not to mention, who dares to go to the office frequently to work on a pregnant woman? Chu Tiankuo suffered.While preparing for the National Mathematics League, which is related to recommendation, he also has to deal with more and more frequent monthly exams. At the same time, he handles all the class affairs that Yu Dan doesn't care about... But he is so skillful that everyone can only admire him.

This also made Jian Xia even more puzzled.Since he can do such troublesome things, and he is not afraid of affecting his grades and delaying his future, why did he break up to solve Ling Xiangqian?A strong man who can carry a huge boulder on his back says that the feathers falling from his head are too heavy to bear? But she didn't tell Li Ran about this.Li Rangou can't spit out ivory, so he will definitely scold Chu Tiankuo very badly.Jian Xia didn't like to listen, and didn't want to make Li Ran angry by arguing. She was worried about his directness, but she also deeply liked him for this.

The results of the league were announced, and Chu Tiankuo won the national first prize in mathematics and chemistry, and was eligible for recommendation. This also means that another war has started quietly. Jian Xia explained the complicated rules to Li Ran while biting the popsicle stick: "They are now eligible to be recommended, but they still have to participate in the selection held by the colleges and universities separately. If you want to apply for extra points for self-enrollment, you also have to pick three layers of skin. The school’s recommendation is mainly based on the accumulation of usual scores, and those with high scores will get it.”

Li Ran's brows were already frowned, and Xia Xia was amused: "I said it a long time ago, you must not understand." "So which school do you want to get extra points for? Can't you apply for a few more?" Jian Xia shook his head: "The head teacher has to be balanced. It is impossible to allow one person to occupy the places of several schools. As for me, Peking University and Tsinghua University don't want to. The whole school only has 20 recommended places, and my usual grades can't be ranked at all. Fudan University People's Congress, Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University are all popular, and I plan to give up."

"Then where are you going? I will also prepare as soon as possible." Li Ran was as relaxed as if he was asking about the destination of his excursion. As long as Xia Xia mentioned a place, he could go home and pack his luggage immediately. What happened a year later seemed as close as tomorrow. absurd.Seeing Xia smiled, she was so moved that she wanted to cry again.Wherever she was going, he would follow her unconditionally.One year is coming soon, and soon they will be able to fly away, holding hands and walking under the sun openly. She felt a surge of strength in her heart.

"I've lined up a few schools, Zhongshan, Nankai, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Wuhan University...it's good to win any one, anyway, I don't want to stay in our province, the farther the better," she wrung her fingers and turned suddenly. asked him, "Do you like Nanjing?" "I went there once when I was a kid, but I don't remember exactly. Do you like it?" "When I was in elementary school, I was stored in the reading room of my dad's work unit, and my aunt watched me. At that time, I read a lot of novels that happened in Nanjing. Some were written by great writers during the Republic of China, and some were about catching beautiful Kuomintang female spies after the founding of the People's Republic of China. , "An Embroidered Shoe", "Plum Blossom Party" and so on." Seeing Xia Xiao couldn't see her eyes, showing a row of neat little white teeth, "I have never been to Nanjing, but I think I will like it. How about I apply for Nanjing University Bonus points, okay?"

Li Ran blinked.Volunteering is not an area where he can give effective advice. "Duck blood vermicelli soup is delicious." After holding back for a long time, he said. His flushed face made Xia Man feel tender. "Then it's settled." Jian Xia said. She suddenly leaned over and kissed the corner of his mouth lightly. She was caught off guard and kissed the surprised face of the young man. "Sweet?" She asked with a smile. At the end of the third grade of elementary school, Chen Jianxia once experienced the harshness of the "college entrance examination" for a while. In 1998, colleges and universities across the country had not yet begun to expand enrollment, and the status of college students was still very precious, and the college entrance examination was a real "one-plank bridge".Brother Dahui from the second uncle's family has entered the third year of high school, and he is still diligent and hardworking, but his grades are only average even in the ordinary middle schools in the county. The family's expectation of him is that he can be admitted to a junior college. On New Year's Eve in January 1999, when Xia's family went to grandma's house to celebrate the New Year, Brother Dahui withdrew from the dinner table early and went to study in his room with the papers.Jian Xia stood at the open door of the room, looking at Dahui's hunched back, feeling that he was about to be eaten by the shadow monster named "Gao San" behind the desk lamp.At this time, the younger brother Xiaowei ran over and jumped onto Brother Dahui's single bed to make trouble with him. Chen Jianxia couldn't stop him, and the two of them were yelled at by Brother Dahui so that they dared not move, and Xiaowei cried in fright on the spot. The follow-up is naturally the second aunt and Jian Xia's mother fighting for their son. The college entrance examination is a major event, and Jian Xia's mother also feels wronged, so she has to transfer the conflict to Chen Jianxia, ​​blaming her for not being optimistic about her brother and being ignorant. Mother chattered aside, Chen Jianxia didn't take it to heart for the first time.She silently looked at Brother Dahui's back under the desk lamp, and was suddenly fascinated by this thing named Gao San.Standing against the wall, fighting for the ideal, full and tense, everyone makes way for it. In the ordinary teenage years of Chinese children, this is the only battle. In the summer of 1999, Brother Dahui caught up with the first expansion of Chinese colleges and universities, and the number of students enrolled increased by 48%.The second aunt was ecstatic, and when she saw Xia's mother, she could only curl her lips and say that she was lucky. Of course, when these expanded students graduate and look for jobs four years later, they will no longer have the good luck to arrange assignments.Parents once thought that it would be completely easy for their children to go to college, but they didn't expect to continue to worry about their career after graduation. Seven years later, it is no longer a rare thing to go to college, and the "senior year" is no longer the awe-inspiring beast in the night in Chen Jianxia's eyes.It lurks faintly in the air, but it does not show up in an exaggerated manner. The teacher has never held a swearing-in meeting for everyone with alarmist talk and heartbroken like the one shown on TV. Maybe because this is Zhenhua, Jian Xia thought. In the last semester of the third year of high school, not only did everyone not study hard, but they were more impetuous than usual.The Eight Immortals cross the sea, each showing their magical powers, and almost everyone is trying to find a way for themselves. Those who are good at art strive for extra points in the art class, and those who don’t want to take the college entrance examination grit their teeth and compete for early admission in small languages. Chu Tiankuo and the others prepare to be recommended for interviews in order to go straight to the university... After the third class in the afternoon, more than a dozen students went to Yu Dan's office together, and received the application forms for self-enrollment extra points, which were used for the selection and review of the school's recommended places. Because of her pregnancy, Yu Dan has not put on makeup for a long time, and her slightly swollen face is shining with the brilliance of motherhood. She is sitting on a chair with four cushions, gently stroking her bulging belly, and looking at the students with eyes full of Is absent-minded. I'm afraid it's just a monk hitting the clock for a day. Chen Jianxia was a little scared to see Yu Dan.Although he didn't say a bad word about Yu Dan to the vice-principal, he always felt that the melon field was under the sun, and he was not very down-to-earth.She stood behind Lu Linlin, stretched her hand under his arm, pulled a form, and tried hard to keep Yu Dan from noticing her, until she walked out of the office, she still felt the back of her head numb, as if a line of sight had scorched herself like. However, the real worry is yet to come. If it wasn't for Yu Dan asking everyone to hand in the form before school, Chen Jianxia planned to go back to the dormitory and fill it out slowly. During this sensitive period, everyone kept each other alone, and no one wanted to write "the reason for self-recommendation" loudly in the classroom. ".Chen Jianxia deliberately left the column of the target university blank, and wrote other things first, accidentally—maybe on purpose—squinted, and saw that the first line on Yu Sisi's form read, "Nanjing University". Chen Jianxia looked away, feeling as uncomfortable as eating a fly. She would not regard Yu Sisi as a threat - the difference between the total scores of the two previous major exams was more than 500 points, and they were not in the same echelon at all. No matter how biased Yu Dan was, it was impossible to go beyond the rules to operate .The school recommended this pass, and she was confident. But after all, I don't want to meet this person again at this juncture. In extraordinary times, even good friends are a little delicate with each other, not to mention classmates like Yu Sisi and Chen Jianxia who already have festivals. Why fill in a school with me.Seeing Xia complaining unreasonably, he simply wrote the words Nanjing University on the first line. Maybe Yu Sisi saw it, maybe she didn't. Seeing that Xia Xia was full of fighting spirit, he wrote the pen with the help of a god, and filled out the form neatly, and closed the pen with a click. At this moment, Yu Sisi bumped her elbow, and the full cup of warm water on the corner of her table poured towards Chen Jianxia. "Are you done yet?!" Chen Jianxia suddenly got up and almost overturned Chu Tiankuo's table behind him. Her clothes weren't stained with anything, but the volunteer watch had been soaked in water and turned translucent, and the pen marks were smeared, and it was firmly attached to the table. Because it was a class break, Chu Tiankuo was not in his seat, and not many people paid attention to this side, so Yu Sisi no longer pretended to apologize, but smiled and challenged softly: "What's wrong, just copy it again." Chen Jianxia didn't hold back any longer: "What do you mean? What do you want to do? Asking for another copy of the form will only waste my time, and it won't give you a few more points when accumulating your grades. Why bother?" Yu Sisi snorted coldly: "It's as if if you sign up, the bonus points from Nantah University will be yours." Chen Jianxia smiled. "Not necessarily mine, but certainly not yours." After seeing Xia finished speaking, she turned her head and went to the window sill to wipe the table with a rag, without even looking at Yu Sisi's pale face. "Ms. Yu won't let you get extra points," Yu Sisi said angrily, "You know the immoral things you did." "What's wrong with me?" Jian Xia was surprised. Yu Sisi just raised the corners of her mouth strangely, and stopped talking. "Even if she doesn't like me anymore, the school's rules have been set, and it's not so easy for her to operate in secret. What's more," Jian Xia sneered, "even if she wants to give the shady spot to someone else, it won't be you. The gap between us is too big She's grown up, she's so blatant, and she's not stupid." Yu Sisi clenched her fists. "Chen Jianxia, ​​you wait." She went out after finishing speaking. Seeing Xia glance at Yu Sisi's back, she felt a little pleased. Li Ran has said many times that Xia has made progress.Two full years have passed, she used to be a cowardly and timid country girl who dared not speak back in the infirmary, but now she can tell Yu Sisi to run away in despair, it is a qualitative leap. Chen Jianxia wiped the table dry, gently lifted the volunteer form, hung it on the window sill, got up and walked into Yu Dan's office again, and took another application form. Yu Dan's absent-mindedness has subsided since the moment he saw Chen Jianxia.She raised her eyebrows, stood up with her waist supported, and went to open the iron cabinet to get the form. The movements were exaggeratedly difficult, as if Chen Jianxia had done something particularly troublesome for her. Jian Xia was silent.She just uttered bold words to Yu Sisi, which can be regarded as emboldening herself. But why do you dislike me so much?Chen Jianxia planned to ask Yu Dan personally when he graduated. Yu Dan handed out the form, and Chen Jianxia reached out to pick it up. Unexpectedly, she let go of her hand in advance, and the form fluttered to the ground, flying behind Chen Jianxia. Chen Jianxia bent down to pick it up, and suddenly wanted to laugh. On purpose?A woman of this age is childish, and she is no different from 18-year-old Yu Si. She picked up the form, turned around and looked directly into Yu Dan's eyes. "Thank you, teacher." I will be free for more than half a year.she told herself silently. At the end of the evening self-study, Chu Tiankuo collected the volunteer forms one by one.After getting the two cards of Jian Xia and Yu Sisi, he rarely looked at Xia in surprise. Chen Jianxia smiled and winked at him. Since then, there is nothing to doubt, the future is like this, let's run over in one breath. It's just that she ran a little too hard for the first few steps. Before the third monthly exam in the third year of high school, Jian Xia studied until two o'clock in the middle of the night every day, and his lack of energy caused a line to be strewn on the answer sheet. He lost more than 30 points in vain, and his grade fell to the top 20 in the class.Although she didn't do very well in the exam, if she added back the scores from the wrong cards, she could still rank thirteenth in the class, which was very stable. Yu Sisi has been very happy these days. During her evening self-study, the papers were clattering, and she squinted at her happily.Seeing Xia Bujue couldn't help laughing—the school's total score statistics work was completed before this exam, and it didn't affect the overall situation, so there's nothing to gloat about. But on Saturday afternoon, she sat on the sofa seat of Pizza Hut and chewed on her straw. Thinking of the report card, she still gritted her teeth in depression. "As the old saying goes, if you take too many steps, you will easily get caught. If you speak harshly, you should take it easy." Sure enough, Li Ran can't spit out ivory from a dog's mouth.Seeing Xia Bai glance at him, he smiled. "Do you not study at all? Does it matter what you pass the exam?" "As long as there are universities in Nanjing that you can go to with money, I don't care." "Okay...if it goes well, I will take the self-enrollment selection exam at the beginning of next month. I hope the questions are not too difficult." She lay on the table, her cheek pressed against the cool surface. "Persevere, you will be free soon." Li Ran also lowered his body, resting his chin on the table. Jian Xia lowered his eyes: "I've always wanted to leave home. Now the idea of ​​leaving is stronger. I must study hard. Let's go to Nanjing." us. Li Ran pouted his chin, moved closer to her, and touched the tip of her nose with the tip of his nose, like two dogs going for a run together. Monday morning, the sky was overcast.Chen Jianxia stood on the flag-raising square and yawned. Looking up, he saw the national flag hanging down in the windless sky, backed by a depressing leaden gray sky. When the bell rang for the first class, Yu Sisi suddenly turned her head to look at Chen Jianxia, ​​with a bright smile on her face. Seeing that Xia hadn't had time to react, he saw Yu Dan appearing at the front door with his waist supported, nodded to the physics teacher on the podium, and then turned to himself. "Chen Jianxia, ​​come to my office." Seeing Xia Meng get up in a daze, and took a few steps, for some reason, he turned back and grabbed the down jacket from the back of the chair. The animal intuition left in her body made her feel that she would need this dress. Yu Dan didn't wait for her.The classroom door was closed behind, and Chen Jianxia was the only one in the empty corridor. The window at the end revealed a light gray light, which stretched her shadow very long. Seeing Xia walking slowly, he suddenly called Li Ran. Li Ran didn't answer. She picked up her phone, took a deep breath, and strode forward. There are four people sitting in the office.Yu Dan sat on one side with a female teacher who looked a little familiar, and on the opposite side of the desk were two parents. See Xia Leng standing at the door. "mom?" Mom turned her head and glanced at Chen Jianxia. That's a complicated look.The veins on the mother's cheeks trembled, as if she had exhausted all her strength to suppress her anger, so that she could barely maintain her demeanor, and did not act in public as she did when she caught Xiaosan; this glance was quick, like a snake crawling across the instep, and disappeared suddenly However, the thick disgust sticks to his body like mucus, leaving traces of shame. Until many years later, Jian Xia still remembered the look in his eyes at this moment, like a close-up slow motion replayed over and over again, frame by frame, unavoidable, so clear to despair. Chen Jianxia only heard the sound of her heart beating, it was the beating of drums amidst the noise, which made her almost unable to stand. Why now?Obviously, as long as they persist, they will win. Why now. Yu Dan slowly raised his eyes from the desk, and smiled gently at Chen Jianxia: "Oh, Jianxia, ​​come here." There are several photos and two transcripts on the table.The photo was taken through the window, and it showed the intimate moment between Chen Jianxia and Li Ran at Pizza Hut a week ago. The person who took the photo was afraid that he might not be able to capture it, so he took a lot of photos in a row, and there was almost no difference between each one.Needless to say, the report card was the evidence that Chen Jianxia dropped from 12th in the class to 25th in just one month because of his puppy love. Sitting next to Yu Dan, the female teacher kept squinting her eyes, trying to see Chen Jianxia's face clearly.Jian Xia suddenly remembered that Li Ran's head teacher didn't like wearing myopia glasses very much, and she couldn't even tell Xu Hui mixed into their class's chorus. "Li Ran skipped class again in our class, and I couldn't find him. Li Ran's mother knew about it. As a teacher, I am also very caring, and I never hide it from your parents..." Seeing that the lady next to Xia's mother looks like she is only in her early thirties, she looks extremely young.Hearing the embarrassment of the head teacher, she smiled gracefully: "It's not a day or two. I used to know that he was skipping class. I didn't expect that now... go back and ask his father to teach him. Teacher, you have to worry about it. As parents, we know that , how could I blame you." Speaking of this, Li Ran's mother nodded to Xia's mother to express her apology: "This kid has been messing around. My family is in good condition and I have never wronged him. There are always little girls jumping on him. They are all parents, and I am not good at it." Blame those girls. But your child seems to be studying well, so he must have led him to spoil it. This kind of thing... In the end, it is the girls who suffer." Seeing that Xia's mother's face suddenly changed color. Yu Dan picked up the teacup, blew on it gently, took a sip leisurely, and then said to Chen Jianxia with a pleasant face: "I called you here today, I think you know why. Children of your age don't care if you put a little extra thought into it." Strange, especially you are a girl alone in the provincial capital..." Seeing Mama Xia standing up suddenly, almost knocking over the table, Yu Dan was startled, and subconsciously protected her lower abdomen. The gentle face of being a teacher finally broke, and she couldn't help staring at Mama Xia with disgusted eyes. "Ms. Yu, you don't need to talk about it. Anyway, in the last year, I don't need to study here. I will take her back to educate her now." Seeing Xia's mother pinching the photo of the kiss, her face was flushed and her voice was trembling. Shaking, "Stop talking, I'll take her away now! I'm ashamed of myself, I'm so ashamed for her..." "Actually," Li Ran's mother interjected, the unhurried and calm tone in her tone was in stark contrast to Jian Xia's mother, "Don't worry, don't delay your daughter's future because of this, how important is the third year of high school It’s easy to cut off contact with the two children. My family has already prepared for him to go to the UK to study for preparatory studies. Anyway, he won’t be able to pass the university entrance exam. We should just send him abroad as soon as possible and leave early. This child also knows We have paved the way for him, so we have nothing to worry about. I will make amends to you. It is the same sentence, this kind of thing is the girl's disadvantage, and we are very sorry." Chen Jianxia suddenly smiled. Puppy love is sinful.She has imagined the scene of being caught countless times, and she has dreamed of fear, being carried up to the flag platform in front of the whole school during inter-class exercises, and running naked on the street... Every time she wakes up from the morning light, she can always Feel the dense cold sweat on the back. A second ago, she was still trembling, her brain lacked oxygen, her vision was full of noise, and her ears could only hear the sound of gurgling blood.However, at this moment, Li Ran's mother's words were like a sharp sword, and the cowardly and frightened little white rabbit in Chen Jianxia's heart was blocked by a sword. Chen Jianxia never thought that this timid little white rabbit would die so quickly.A terrifying calm swept over her, she was clearly the meat on the cutting board, but her heart was filled with the madness of an executioner. She even smiled. "You still have a smile? I raised you for nothing, you just came out to embarrass me, didn't you? What are you doing? See for yourself, see for yourself..." Chen Jianxia's mother said Throwing the photo on her face, like hysteria, the index finger kept poking her temple, again and again, "Look at it yourself, look at it yourself..." Seeing Xia in the shaky field of vision, seeing Li Ran's homeroom teacher rushing over to stop him in panic; seeing Yu Dan standing aside with his still belly protected, expressionless; seeing Li Ran saying "girls suffer in this kind of thing" Ran's mother frowned, looked at the mother and daughter in disgust, and hurriedly backed away to the radiator. "It's enough." Jian Xia pushed her mother away, pushed her mother staggered, and landed on the ground with her buttocks crooked. Zheng Yuqing looked up at his frost-faced daughter and was stunned. Two seconds later, a sharp cry rang through the office.Just then, the office door was pushed open. See Xia turned around. It wasn't who she thought appeared at the door. "Teacher, we want to come and ask a question...it's not convenient, we'll come back later..." Yu Sisi had a half-smile, and Lu Linlin and Li Zhenping stood behind them with curious faces. Everyone has the worst moment in their life.Chen Jianxia doesn't need to live to be eighty years old to be able to vote for this second with certainty. She laughed again, when she wanted to cry. The first class has just started, what questions are you here to ask? Chen Jianxia walked forward with a smile like this, and raised her hand to slap Yu Sisi resoundingly. Yu Sisi was stunned. This slap ended the screaming of Xia's mother, and the office was silent. Even Lu Linlin, who was always excited by this kind of scene, didn't expect the plot to progress so quickly, and she stayed in the corner.On the other hand, Yu Dan clutched his stomach and hid very far away, wishing he could pass through the wall and escape to the next room. In the silence, Chen Jianxia strode away. He heard the noise in the office behind him as he walked, heard the sound of footsteps following, and started running without looking back. She ran out of the hall, out of the teaching building, out of the school gate, and into the vast dark gray sky.