Three days of exams left every student wilted like over-soaked pickles, eyes hollow and listless.
No wonder people say, exams are like battlefields: it’s a do or die situation.
Lan Tian felt unaffected, erging from the exam hall refreshed. Now that her exams were over, the next step was the most important of her life.
Foundation Establishnt. Without succeeding in that, she wouldn’t truly step into the threshold of Cultivation, where the sky is the limit.
In the scorching sumr, the temperature soared. Along the streets, shop owners sat at their doorways, frantically waving their palm-leaf fans as cicadas buzzed drowsily.
At the school gate, Mo Yuanle leaned on his bike, eyes pinned to the entrance. The sun was harsh, and soon his forehead glistened with sweat that trickled past his temples.
Lan Tian stepped out and spotted him at once, smiling broadly as she walked over.
"Uncle, why have you co? Now that the exams are over, I could have co back by myself. The sun is murderous; you should have stayed in the shade."
Seeing him drenched in sweat, foolishly waiting under the sun, she noticed other parents standing in the shade.
"I’ve just arrived, no worries. Co on, get on, your grandma and others are waiting at ho."
Mo Yuanle turned the bike around as Lan Tian hopped on; once she was settled, they slowly pushed off, chatting as they walked.
"How did the exams go?"
"Hmm, pretty good. The questions were not hard. All were covered by our teachers before. I think I should score enough for direct admission to university," Lan Tian explained.
Mo Yuanle, expressionless, couldn’t help but let his eyes brim with laughter. Lan Tian’s words ant she would surely get into university, allowing the family to finally breathe easy, after days of anxious concern over her exams.
Approaching an intersection, they encountered Granny Lin and Lin Guofu.
"Granny Lin, how co you’re here?"
"It’s the last day of her exams, my grandma specially ca over to see you," Lin Guofu sighed heavily, winking at Lan Tian, "In our family, girls are prized over boys. Ever since you arrived, I’ve had to step aside. Back when my brothers and I had exams, grandma was never this worried—sigh, we must have been picked up from the fields."
Granny Lin couldn’t help but laugh and scold, rubbing her grandson’s arm. "Go on, stop your mischief," she said, then turned to Lan Tian, "How did it go? Are you tired? Grandma made so ginseng soup, drink it while it’s hot and have a good rest, I haven’t been free these days to stay with you." Granny Lin took a thermos from her grandson, opened it, and poured for Lan Tian to drink.
"Mo Yuanle is picking up Miss Lan Tian!"
Mo Yuanle heaved a sigh, calling out, "Auntie, thank you for your concern for our girl. The sun is harsh, please take care of yourself and co over here in the shade."
While Lan Tian enjoyed Granny Lin’s lovingly prepared soup, Lin Guofu watched her sip with relish, eyes coveting the thermos, which made Lan Tian chuckle.
Granny Lin could not stand his eager looks, and seeing Lan Tian nearly finishing, tried to pour more, but Lan Tian shook her head, "Granny Lin, it’s enough, I have to eat dinner at ho. If I drink too much, I won’t have space for food. Let my Third Brother have so, it tastes great."
Granny Lin handed over the entire thermos to him, her mouth expressing distaste but her eyes filled with amusent, "Look how eager you are, go on, drink!"
"Grandma loves the most." Lin Guofu, holding a bottle, grinned with a mouthful of white teeth, shalessly hugging Granny Lin while giving Lan Tian a flirty look with pride.
Granny Lin pushed him a few tis but let him be in the end. Lan Tian could clearly see that Granny Lin really enjoyed Lin Guofu’s act of coquetry.
"How did the exam go?" Miss Lan Tian usually scores well, so logically Granny Lin shouldn’t worry. However, the granddaughter of a neighbor across the street, Huanhuan, ca over and said that so people who usually do well could get nervous during exams and not perform to their usual standards, easily ssing up.
"It was okay, I should have reached the guaranteed entry score for Jingli University."
Lin Guofu glanced over with a sidelong look. After several years of being together, if not completely understanding Lan Tian, he got a good asure of her; confident in ten parts, she’d say five, and confident in eight parts she’d claim three; often, for three parts, she might just say "hard to say."
If she said she reached the guaranteed score for Jingli University, given her usual performance, being top-ranked was a must.
One thing, Lan Tian never lies (when Lan Tian lies, words flow effortlessly, her skill having reached perfection; how would her family know, thinking she is innocent and honest), receiving true words from Lan Tian, Granny Lin’s heart settled.
"That’s good."
After sending Granny Lin off, the uncle and niece rushed ho.
"I’m tired, gonna sleep for a bit." After leaving the intersection, Mo Yuanle got on his bicycle and instructed Lan Tian, who sat on the back seat.
...
As soon as Mo Yuanle left, Grandma Sun couldn’t sit still in the hall, grabbing her fan and simply went to sit in the yard, continually looking towards the gate to see if people were returning.
Zhao Li, who ca out from picking vegetables in the backyard, also looked towards the yard gate, then turned around and told Grandma Sun, "Auntie, the sun’s strong outside, you should wait in the hall. Tiantian won’t be back so soon, and he’ll nag you again for basking in the sun like this."
Grandma Sun fanned herself with her palm-leaf fan; the moving air was just hot wind, making one sweat profusely. In just this short while, she had sweated all over—it was almost better not to fan at all.
"This year’s weather is much hotter than previous years, sweating just by sitting," Grandma Sun remarked.
Zhao Li listened and laughed, thinking about the vegetable garden at the back of the house where Tiantian always tinkered around; cool in winter and warm in sumr, how was it hotter than last year? She was just heated up with worry.
"Old Wang’s daughter, just like our girl, is also taking the college entrance exam today. You didn’t see how nervous she was. Old Wang’s wife said that the girl constantly recited her books while eating, walking, even in the restroom without stopping. Unlike our girl, who eats and sleeps as usual, never seen her worried or anxious, not sure how she did on the test either," Grandma Sun expressed her concerns.
"Just ask her when she cos back then," Zhao Li said. After a few days of worry, these last couple of days Zhao Li was actually not worried anymore; with the girl’s results, if she couldn’t make it into university, hardly anyone from their school could.
"If only there were still guaranteed spots like before, it wouldn’t matter how well she did in the exams, going straight to school would be so much easier," Grandma Sun rely said this in passing. After all, guaranteed spots from primary to secondary school weren’t the sa, and things in a small place were different from the big cities with their rules.
"That Old Wang’s daughter, I think it’s doubtful," Zhao Li comnted as she picked vegetables, holding the basket, "Yesterday I saw her looking haggard, no energy or spirit, sitting on the village bridge for half a day without speaking or interacting with anyone, wondering what she was up to; she seed under a lot of pressure. Hopefully, she passes; otherwise..." Zhao Li didn’t finish her sentence, but Grandma Sun understood— that girl wouldn’t handle failure well.
"Sister-in-law Mo, are you ho? You have visitors."
As they were chatting, soone outside called out; among the few neighbors nearby, only Grandma Sun’s family bore the surna Mo.
Visitors?
What visitors?
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