Chapter 99
AS SOON AS VALENTINE’S DAY was over, the last trace of lightheartedness in the classroom air disappeared along with it.
Without being able to gossip about which of their peers were dating or which couples might go out and celebrate the day together, even the idle chatter felt a lot emptier.
The atmosphere gradually grew heavier. The overachievers were studying, the mid-range students who wanted to seize this final opportunity were gritting their teeth and paying attention, and the ones who wanted to give up but couldn’t quite resign themselves to it spent equal time listening and sleeping in class. A few students who had given up entirely weren’t even showing up to school anymore.
Jiang Cheng saw Lao-Xu hovering around outside the classroom all day long. His face appeared at the front door, the back door, and the windows—eight out of ten times he looked outside, Lao-Xu’s face would be there. People talked about overachievers losing weight, but Jiang Cheng thought that Lao-Xu had, too. His face was looking a little gaunt.
“Did Lao-Xu get a face-slimming shot or something?” Jiang Cheng said quietly. “He looks like he’s lost a bunch of weight.”
“It’s from all that worrying he does,” said Gu Fei, glancing toward the front door. “He’s been busy chasing down slackers for chats and home visits. Soon it’ll be the overachievers’ turn.”
“There’s nothing to chat about with me,” Jiang Cheng replied. “Hardly anyone in this whole city is grinding as hard as I am.”
“He’s under even more pressure than you right now,” said Gu Fei, smiling. “He’s just short of following you into the exam hall himself.”
Jiang Cheng glanced at the half of Lao-Xu’s face peeking in at the front door. Sensing his gaze, Lao-Xu cocked his head and gave him a nod, suddenly overtaken by feverish enthusiasm. Jiang Cheng immediately nodded back, afraid that if he took any longer to respond Lao-Xu would throw himself against the doorframe in a frenzy, flailing his arms and hooting and hollering at him.
About a week before the first practice exam at Fourth High, Pan Zhi had sent him the questions from the first practice exam at his old school. To make absolutely sure that Jiang Cheng could take the test the proper way without accidentally seeing the questions beforehand, this time Pan Zhi sent them to Gu Fei’s phone.
His old high school had created their own questions for the first practice exam. Even though Jiang Cheng felt he was putting in enough effort at studying, he still wanted a comparison.
“Should I go print them out, then?” said Gu Fei.
“Yeah.” Jiang Cheng nodded. “I’ll start on them in the next couple of days.”
“Will it be too much pressure to do so many tests in a row, from our school and your old school?” Gu Fei asked. “Besides…if your two scores are different, will it affect your mindset?”
“Are you afraid I’ll be upset if my scores for the tests from my old school are lower than my scores here?” Jiang Cheng smiled.
“Yeah.” Gu Fei glanced at his phone. “I skimmed the geography one—it looks pretty hard.”
“That’s fine.” Jiang Cheng stretched. “At this hour, it’s time to face the difference head-on. How can I strive for the best if I don’t know how much further I have to go?”
Gu Fei turned to face him. “Aren’t you already striving?”
“My biggest strength has always been my ability to work hard.” Jiang Cheng patted Gu Fei’s shoulders. “Cheng-ge will show you what striving looks like.”
Gu Fei smiled wordlessly. Perhaps because he had lived his whole life in this city, he had honestly never met anyone like Jiang Cheng before. It wasn’t just that he was an academic overachiever, it was his entire being—his courage to charge forward, to look straight ahead and face whatever came at him, and the powerful air about him when he threw his entire self into a task. Like the blaze of the hottest summer sun, he had an aura that set everything alight.
Gu Fei had never seen someone like this before, nor had he thought that he would ever meet someone like this. More than that, he’d never expected someone like this to come into his life and leave such a profound mark.
Jiang Cheng didn’t leave school after class ended. In the run-up to the exams, teachers would sit in the classroom during the evening self-study periods to explain the questions on the worksheets. Even though Jiang Cheng never asked any questions himself, he would still sit there until the end of the self-study sessions every single evening.
He studied from the end of the last class to the end of the last self-study session, then went back home and continued studying until around two in the morning.
Gu Fei went to print out the practice exam for him after school. When he passed by the pharmacy, he stopped in to buy a few boxes of ginseng tea. Quite a few of the class’s more hardworking students had fallen sick recently, with fevers or colds. Jiang Cheng might have had a good constitution, but he’d been in a constant state of battle since this semester started—he was too tense.
As soon as he walked into the pharmacy, Gu Fei heard a familiar name.
“Mr. Xu, I’d still recommend that you get more rest. It’s important to pay attention to your health.”
He turned to see Lao-Xu standing by the traditional Chinese medicine counter.
“Well, I’m teaching senior-year students right now,” Lao-Xu replied. “Just a few more months left. I can relax once they finish their exams.”
“Pardon my nagging, but… It’s Fourth High. Even with you worrying yourself sick like this, not many of them are gonna make it,” the pharmacy owner said as he prepared the herbs for Lao-Xu. “Just look at the score my son brought home last year—and he doesn’t even want to retake it.”
“Ahh, you can’t force it with some kids.” Lao-Xu smiled. “But I have a good seedling in my class this year who’s definitely going to make it into one of the top universities. He’ll place first in the city for sure—maybe even the province.”
“That’s big talk, Mr. Xu!” the owner remarked, handing the packed herbs to Lao-Xu.
“I’m not talking big.” Lao-Xu waved his hand. “You just wait and see.”
“If that’s true, then he’ll be the first in Fourth High history to make it into a key university, huh?”
“Absolutely!” Lao-Xu lifted his chin proudly and walked toward the door with his medicine.
Gu Fei hesitated for a moment before he walked after Lao-Xu and called out, “Xu-zong.”
“Yeah,” Lao-Xu answered, turning around. “Gu Fei? What are you doing here… Are you sick?”
“No, I’m here to buy some Shi Quan Da Bu.”9 Gu Fei looked at the herbs in Lao-Xu’s hands. “Is that for you?”
“Ah, I’m fine.” Lao-Xu smiled. “There’s always something or another when you’re getting old.”
“You’re barely past fifty, and you’re calling yourself old?” said Gu Fei.
“It’s just a little insomnia,” Lao-Xu sighed. “It’s my nerves. A bit of stress and I can’t get to sleep, so I’m getting some herbs for a little tune-up.”
“The ones who can make it will make it, and the ones who can’t won’t get in no matter how much sleep you lose over it,” Gu Fei told him. “Why are you such a worrywart?”
“It’s not like I want to worry. Take you, for example…” Lao-Xu looked at him and sighed. “You kids, you never understand what your teachers go through. I’d give anything to take the exams for you, but none of you want to do better at all.”
“Hurry up and go home,” Gu Fei urged him as he turned to go into the pharmacy. “Go take your medicine.”
“Ah, Gu Fei,” Lao-Xu called out to him. “Are you still studying with Jiang Cheng?”
“…Mm,” Gu Fei answered.
“How’s he doing right now? I’m planning to talk to him after his first practice exam scores are out. Otherwise I’m afraid it’ll put too much pressure on him,” Lao-Xu said.
“He’s been working pretty hard this whole time, so don’t worry,” Gu Fei said. “Just…try to relax, okay? You’ve lost so much weight lately that it looks like you got face-slimming shots.”
“Face-slimming shots?” Lao-Xu blinked. “What are those?”
“You get an injection in your face, and then your face will go poof and look one size smaller,” Gu Fei said.
“That powerful, huh?” Lao-Xu chuckled. “Then I should tell Mr. Lu to go get jabbed. He’s been putting on some weight lately.”
“Go home and eat your dinner,” Gu Fei told him, walking into the store.
“A face-slimming shot? I can’t believe such an incredible thing exists,” Lao-Xu muttered, laughing to himself as he walked away.
After buying the Shi Quan Da Bu tincture, Gu Fei had the practice exams printed out and bound by subject. Then he went to get takeout from Wang Xu’s meat pie shop.
“You gotta ride back as fast as you can,” Wang Xu told him. “Otherwise the crust will get soggy and it won’t taste as good.”
“All right,” said Gu Fei.
Ever since Valentine’s Day, Wang Xu suddenly seemed to have become a lot more mature, steadfast, and reticent—as if he’d been injected with industrial-strength growth hormones. Even when he talked, it was without the flagrant boasting tone he used to use. Gu Fei couldn’t tell if this was a sign of growth or a crushing setback.
“Want to take some mutton soup too?” Wang Xu asked. “I’ll put it in a thermos for you.”
“Sure.” Gu Fei nodded, and Wang Xu handed the soup to him. “Are you…” Gu Fei hesitated for a moment. “…coming to self-study?”
“Da-Fei.” Wang Xu looked at him somberly. “Isn’t that a cruel question to ask?”
“…Oh.” Gu Fei looked back at him; he had the feeling that Wang Xu might pull a poem out of his broken heart in the next second, so he quickly grabbed the food. “See you later.”
Behind him, Wang Xu heaved a sigh.