Chapter 57

Early in the morning, the door of the east room was opened from the inside, and A Li, wearing a lotus-patterned jacket, walked out.

In the past, she was always the first one in this house to wake up, but today was not the case.

On the terrace, Runsheng and Tan Wenbin sat facing each other, heads lowered, sharpening the sickles in their hands.

When A Li passed by, Runsheng looked up and smiled at the girl: "Morning."

The girl stopped, then moved back into the house and went upstairs.

Although she didn't speak, the earlier pause counted as the greatest response.

Pushing open the room door and walking in, the boy was not yet awake, and the girl began to admire the paintings the boy had hung on the wall on her own.

There were three completed ones, and the first one was Xiao Huang Ying.

The woman in the painting did not have a green face and fangs; instead, she appeared restrained and subtle. Her posture swayed as she moved, her lips and teeth seemed to be whispering, as if she were about to step out of the scroll to sing and dance.

The second one was a kind-hearted, white-haired old woman sitting in the courtyard basking in the sun, with a black cat sleeping on her lap.

The third one was a middle-aged man; it seemed the boy had deliberately blurred his image, painting only his back. However, the ancient copper coin hanging at his waist was depicted in great detail, with extremely clear texture.

The boy had put a lot of thought into the background treatment of the three paintings.

The first one carried a sense of illusion, the second one was warm yet carried a sense of desolation, and the surroundings of the third one were very oppressive.

Just as A Li was looking at them intently, Li Zhuiyuan woke up.

The boy walked to the girl's side and accompanied her to look for a while.

After washing up, he played chess with the girl as usual. Now he played three games at once, which greatly improved Li Zhuiyuan's efficiency in losing games.

"Breakfast is ready!"

Every day, it was this shout from Liu Yi that kicked off the start of the day.

Runsheng and Tan Wenbin returned from the fields together. It was the autumn harvest, and the fields had been busy these past few days; Tan Wenbin had specifically gotten up early to help.

He had never suffered hardship, and doing this had caused blisters to form on his hands, but he didn't care, picking them off with a needle on his own.

Even Li Sanjiang told him to stop working, but Tan Wenbin responded with a smile:

"It's fine, Zhuangzhuang is sturdy."

When morning study ended, Li Zhuiyuan and Tan Wenbin walked into the classroom.

A pot of flowers was placed on Zheng Haiyang's desk.

His family's affair was defined as home invasion, robbery, and murder. Tan Yunlong didn't tell Li Zhuiyuan directly whether people from above had arrived, nor did he continue to follow up on the details of the investigation with Li Zhuiyuan, but sometimes, no news is also a kind of news.

This meant that the three of them were considered to have been cleared from this matter.

Although they had been there and left quite a few traces, a careful investigation would certainly be able to find them. But there is a specialty in every field; Li Zhuiyuan didn't know if Yu Shu had returned or if others had been replaced, but they were not professionals in criminal investigation after all, and their perspectives would instinctively ignore the existence and role of "ordinary people" in it.

During this period, Tan Wenbin studied very seriously. During breaks, other than accompanying Li Zhuiyuan to the restroom, he was doing problems on his own.

"Zhuiyuan Secret Scrolls" were now being printed and sold by the school, which saved Tan Wenbin a lot of trivial matters. However, his current exercise collection was specially made, designed by Li Zhuiyuan individually for his own learning progress and situation.

After Li Zhuiyuan entered high school, he hadn't really studied textbook knowledge; if his memory hadn't been much better than an ordinary person's, his "academic performance" might have regressed.

But his ability to teach others had greatly improved, as if he weren't attending high school, but a normal university.

Binbin was still cheerful, would crack jokes, would be glib, and would also play off Li Sanjiang to liven up the atmosphere while eating at home.

But in the time that belonged solely to him, he would be relatively silent, because he seemed to always have things to do on hand.

He did problems in class at school, learned the basics from Runsheng at home, and every once in a while, he would bring the learning problems and 'dead-fallen' problems he had summarized to Li Zhuiyuan for solutions.

Li Zhuiyuan could feel that these problems were truly difficult for Tan Wenbin to understand; he must have done rounds of screening and conquering them himself.

Slow growth is, after all, a kind of happiness.

And overnight maturity is often not something to be envied.

Before, Tan Wenbin shouting that he also wanted to get into "Haihe University" was more of a wish; now, he was truly and realistically realizing it step by step, and he had become very focused.

A retired philosophy professor in the residential compound had once said this to Li Zhuiyuan: he said that there are two kinds of smart people in this world; one is the kind of smart person with a sharp brain like Li Zhuiyuan, and the other is the smart person with a clear understanding of reality.

The former is just that their brain is too good; they learn everything quickly. No matter how much outsiders envy them, they cannot imitate them. This is innate, brought along in their genes.

But the latter is no worse than the former; it is just that at a certain age in their life growth, they know what to do in the next stage and can formulate plans and implement them diligently.

The competitive pressure of society and life is great, but the vast majority of people are pushed into the next stage of life to participate in the competition in a state of confusion and helplessness. But what if you could start planning and preparing two or three years in advance?

At that time, the competitors around you would actually be few and far between.

Xue Liangliang was a genius among the latter, because his vision could see not only two or three years ahead, but even twenty or thirty years ahead.

Even Li Zhuiyuan would often unconsciously treat Brother Liangliang's words as a prediction of the future. This wasn't shamanism, nor was it prophecy; it was that the man truly had the ability to see the main contradictions and grasp the objective laws.

Although they had phones, making calls wasn't that convenient after all, and there really wasn't much to talk about directly, so the two were still used to communicating by letter.

Last time, Li Zhuiyuan mentioned the matter of publishing the exercise collection in his letter, and incidentally told Xue Liangliang about Tan Wenbin's train of thought.

In his reply, Xue Liangliang said that Tan Wenbin was a business genius. He was certain that this industry would definitely be a vast blue ocean in the future, with broad commercial prospects, because the Chinese people's emphasis on education is a cultural instinct; the vast majority of families, no matter how frugal they are, will not be stingy about investing in education.

Xue Liangliang also said that if Tan Wenbin wanted to continue doing this in the future, he could invest a sum of money, and suggested not to be limited to personal brand influence; it would be best to use the label of Nantong education examinations to negotiate cooperation with those famous middle schools, and then build it up using the entire city as a big brand name.

Li Zhuiyuan told Tan Wenbin what Xue Liangliang had said. After hearing it, Tan Wenbin was stunned for a long while, then slapped his thigh:

"Damn, this is a brilliant man!"

But when Li Zhuiyuan asked Tan Wenbin if he was willing to pursue this career, Tan Wenbin shook his head; he was not willing.

He wanted to get into university; he wanted to continue learning things.

Since he was already on this boat, he wanted to sail far, truly and realistically see the scenery in the distance, and then go to that destination.

For this reason, he also added enthusiastically: "My parents are both in public units, so I don't need to worry about their retirement."

That's true; people who have seen the great terror of life and death but can still maintain an optimistic and positive attitude are indeed very difficult to go back to being single-mindedly obsessed with making money.

At lunch, Li Zhuiyuan didn't go to eat with Tan Wenbin; he got on a bus parked on campus, where various foods and drinks were prepared.

It was still Principal Wu leading the team, with Teacher Yan as an assistant. The bus set off, driving toward Jin Ling to battle in the provincial Math Olympiad.

The other six students on the bus ate and drank non-stop along the way, very happy.

Li Zhuiyuan just ate a little casually to pad his stomach, then leaned against the window, watching the scenery outside.

Wu Xinhan noticed and specifically sat over to ask if the preparations were not to his taste.

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head and said very straightforwardly that it was because his living conditions had been quite good before.

This answer made Principal Wu freeze for a moment, then a smile appeared on his face. Outsiders might think it was showing off, but those who were familiar with him could hear the sincerity.

Anyone who could become a principal wouldn't be bad at dealing with people; the difference lay in who was worth it for him to use that on.

Therefore, he actually quite liked this simple and straightforward boy; being with him, there was no need to put on an act, and it wasn't tiring.

Wu Xinhan helped Li Zhuiyuan put down the back seat so he could lie down and rest.

The school renting a bus to send them to the exam was also considering this point, to let the candidates reduce travel fatigue as much as possible.

Arriving in Jin Ling, they checked into a hotel.

Everyone else was in double rooms, while Li Zhuiyuan was in a single room.

No one felt this was unfair; the six students also knew that they were able to pass the city-level selection thanks to the boy's help.

At this moment, Li Zhuiyuan was lying on the bed, holding *Wei Zhengdao*.

The door was knocked on.

Li Zhuiyuan got out of bed, ready to open the door, and heard Principal Wu's questioning voice coming from outside first: "Who are you?"

"I am Xiaoyuan's brother."

"Brother?"

Wu Xinhan and Teacher Yan's double room was right across from Li Zhuiyuan's.

At this moment, Teacher Yan was in another room, taking the six students through Math Olympiad papers. The exam was tomorrow, and doing it today wasn't to cram for the exam, but just to let everyone keep their feel for it.

Wu Xinhan's door was always open to conveniently keep an eye on Li Zhuiyuan's situation; he was like the giant python guarding the treasure in a myth.

Li Zhuiyuan opened the door and saw the visitor, and he smiled.

The visitor was Xue Liangliang.

Haihe University was right in Jin Ling.

Only after Xue Liangliang handed his student ID to Principal Wu for inspection was he able to pass the giant python's security check and be allowed to meet with his treasure.

Closing the door, Xue Liangliang laughed: "Xiaoyuan, your principal really treasures you tightly."

As he spoke, Xue Liangliang bent down and reached out to pinch the boy's face.

"Come, let me absorb the spiritual energy of the prodigy to help me cultivate the Dao and ascend to the immortal ranks sooner."

"Then Brother Liangliang, you shouldn't be absorbing mine."

Xue Liangliang: "..."

"Brother Liangliang, what are you carrying in your hand?"

"Some Jin Ling specialties. I know you're too lazy to carry big and small bags home, so I prepared some food for us to taste together."

He took out quite a few snacks from the bag, one of which was salted duck.

Li Zhuiyuan picked up his chopsticks, picked up a piece, and tasted it.

"How is it?"

"Delicious."

"I'm not used to this stuff." Xue Liangliang shrugged, "But whether it's public or private enterprises here, they all like to give out salted duck during holidays."

"Personal tastes differ, I guess. I like light food."

This duck, other than the salty taste, was basically bland.

"Hey, do you know, the first time I saw in your letter that you were in your third year of high school, I thought I had misread it, and then I wondered if you had written the wrong character. Why didn't you tell me earlier that you were in a gifted class before?"

"I told you."

"Did I?" Xue Liangliang pondered for a moment, "That must have been when I was distracted. So you're taking the college entrance exam next year?"

"Mm."

"So, want to be an alumnus?"

"Okay."

"Really?"

"Mm, really."

Xue Liangliang's face revealed joy, and then he took a letter out of his pocket:

"You make me, this lobbyist, feel very unaccomplished; here, this is a letter from Engineer Luo entrusted to me for you. You've met him; he wanted me to persuade you in advance to apply to our school."

The college entrance exam was still far off, but the battle for him had already begun.

Although the provincial exam was tomorrow, when the city-level results came out, the werewolves had already smelled the blood.

This mainly depended on the gold content of the small competition area, plus Li Zhuiyuan's exaggerated age.

Principal Wu had mentioned to Li Zhuiyuan that many universities had recently been making contact, just waiting for the provincial exam to end before starting their real hunting actions.

Wu Xinhan was quite happy because his middle school didn't have recommendation qualifications yet.

Although teaching quality is an overall matter, in specific circles or even industries, the effect of producing a leading horse is also very considerable, which can bring more attention and resources to the school.

"Okay." Li Zhuiyuan accepted the letter, "When will you admit me in advance?"

"Pfft..." Xue Liangliang had just raised his cup to drink water and almost spat out half of it. He wiped the corner of his mouth, "So impatient?"

"Yeah."

"Your attitude makes me feel like there's a treasure hidden under our school."

"No treasure needed, having 'dead-fallen' is enough."

"Don't, don't, don't, I'm most afraid of Xiaoyuan's ghost stories."

"Mm?"

"Campus ghost stories."

"Oh, really? I don't believe it."

"I'm very timid."

Li Zhuiyuan just looked at him like that, without blinking.

Xue Liangliang shrank his neck: "That's different, she's not a ghost, nor is she a 'dead-fallen', she's warm."

Li Zhuiyuan asked suspiciously: "Are there warm things under the river water?"

"Wait until the provincial exam results come out, and we can go through the process. I think you can get a perfect score in the city exam, and getting an award in the provincial exam definitely won't be a problem. You'll definitely meet the conditions for early admission."

Actually, what Xue Liangliang said wasn't accurate; the conditions weren't calculated that way, but the setting of conditions was originally to save screening costs. When someone's ability and talent were enough to break the constraints, those conditions could also be flexible and changeable.

"Anyway, I've asked for leave. When you guys go back, I'll be thick-skinned and go on the same vehicle as you."

"Ah?"

"My internship and employment have been settled, and I'm going to the mountain city early next month."

"Oh, you want to go see your sister-in-law before you leave."

"You call her sister-in-law quite smoothly; I thought you would be afraid and repulsed by them."

"I hate the Bai family, but she can make the Bai family return to the water; I think that's not bad. That was originally the position they should stay in."

Xue Liangliang took a deep breath and let it out all at once, muttering in a low voice: "Isn't that still my contribution."

"Then should I write that into the local gazetteer for you, Brother Liangliang? After all, you also made a great contribution to protecting the realm and the people."

"Hahaha, that would be too embarrassing. In the future, when people see this, they'll probably curse me and the person who recorded this as a little idiot."

"Then you still want to go see her?" "After going to the mountain city, I don't know when I'll be able to come back, so I'll go take a look first. This is a fixed task after all."

"Like my grandfather and great-grandfather paying the public grain?"

"Hey, you brat, don't think I can't tell, you're pretending to be innocent!"

Xue Liangliang directly tackled Li Zhuiyuan onto the bed and began to tickle him.

Only after Li Zhuiyuan kept begging for mercy did he let the boy go.

After chatting for a while longer, Xue Liangliang prepared to leave:

"You do your best, take the exam well tomorrow, I'll wait for you guys outside the exam hall."

"Mm."

At this moment, the knocking on the door sounded again.

"Who are you?" Principal Wu across the hall stuck out his tongue again.

"I'm looking for Xiaoyuan, I'm his brother."

"Another brother? Xiaoyuan has so many brothers in Jin Ling?"

Li Zhuiyuan opened the room door and saw the visitor.

The visitor was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. Although he was wearing plain clothes, standing there, he looked like a sharp knife.

"Principal Grandpa, he is my brother."

"Oh, okay, you brothers have your meeting."

Wu Xinhan waved his hand and swam back to his room.

The visitor stood at the doorway, not coming in, and said very straightforwardly:

"Grandma wants you to return to the capital."

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head: "Not returning."

"Your mother used that kind of application report to make a request to the higher-ups. Grandpa doesn't allow the family to interfere, but you can make choices for your own life."

"This is my choice."

"Although your parents are divorced, you are still a member of our family."

"I am surnamed Li now."

"No room for negotiation?"

"None."

"Mm."

The visitor turned around quite decisively and left.

Xue Liangliang asked with some surprise: "Who is he?"

"My father's older brother's son."

It wasn't that Li Zhuiyuan deliberately called him that coldly, but that he was also a bit unable to distinguish between paternal and maternal cousins for a moment.

"Do your relatives on your father's side always get along like this?"

"Not really. It should be that Grandpa North gave orders to the family."

"Gave orders? Don't say, that man really looks like a soldier."

"He is."

"But, even if your parents are divorced, how did you get along like this? It's not like your mother changed your surname, right?"

"Mm, she did indeed do that."

"Oh, no wonder."

"But that's not the main reason."

Li Zhuiyuan knew that his Grandpa North was a person of great principle. Li Lan had used a special application to arrange for her son, so Grandpa North could only choose to accept it, and he didn't allow family members to interfere with or influence this arrangement.

The boy now suspected that what Li Lan was doing was the same thing as Zhu Changyong, although not in the sea.

And the person who could come here to find him was actually already considered to be defying his grandfather's will. This was very hard to imagine in the family in the north; if his grandfather knew, he would truly have his legs broken.

Therefore, the other party's cold attitude was just because he was used to it, and his own coldness was because he didn't want to convey any misunderstandings, fearing that they would think there was room for maneuver.

Otherwise, if he reported it wrongly to Grandma North, and they took action, Grandpa North would be furious.

In Grandpa North's eyes, Li Lan's arrangement for him was like a "comrade-in-arms' dying wish."

"Oh, by the way, if you get early admission, will you still go to school for classes?"

"I will go for the college entrance exam."

"Then do you want to accompany me to the mountain city to play?"

"Hmm..."

Li Zhuiyuan didn't really want to go far, at least not now.

"Forget it, there's nothing fun anyway. My workplace is definitely not in the city, but in those mountain gullies; other than mountains, there's water."

"Okay."

"Mm?"

"I can go play."

Mainly because recently, the frequency of 'dead-fallen' in his hometown had greatly decreased.

At the beginning, he wished one would appear every few days; now, he didn't see one for a month or two. Theory seriously deviating from practice would also cause problems.

"Fine, I'll make arrangements then."

"Can I bring a friend?"

"Is that even a thing?"

"Thank you, Brother Liangliang."

"Then you take the exam well, I'm leaving."

"Goodbye, Brother Liangliang."

At night, Li Zhuiyuan went to sleep early.

When he woke up in the morning, Wu Xinhan and Teacher Yan took everyone to the exam hall.

Coincidentally, Li Zhuiyuan's seat was still in the row by the window; looking out, he could still see a patch of ginkgo trees.

But this time, after the exam bell rang, he didn't continue to stare blankly at the scenery, but lowered his head to answer the questions.

The questions were much harder than the city exam. The intention of the question-setter was purely to make things difficult for people; you could even see their grim smiles within the numbers and symbols.

Li Zhuiyuan empathized with it; it felt just like the feeling when he gave Tan Wenbin advanced questions.

After finishing the questions, Li Zhuiyuan handed in his paper early. He walked under the ginkgo trees again, looking at the yellowing leaves above.

He really wanted to suggest that Principal Grandpa plant some in the school, but then he thought about it and felt there was no great necessity; he probably wouldn't have many opportunities to see them.

Walking out of the exam hall, Wu Xinhan and Teacher Yan immediately ran over, one handing him a towel and the other handing him water.

"How was it, Xiaoyuan?"

"Were the questions hard?"

"I did them all."

Hearing this, the stone that had been in their hearts was pressed down even more firmly.

The second day after returning from the exam was the midterm exam.

Originally, Wu Xinhan thought Xiaoyuan would be like the last monthly exam, coming to his office to rest after the first session ended. For this, he even brought a thermos, which contained chicken soup boiled by his wife.

But waiting and waiting, he didn't see the boy come.

He couldn't sit still; it wasn't that he was worried about the chicken soup being wasted, but he was afraid the boy would go to other places to rest and catch a cold from the wind.

He went to Sun Qing's office first.

Sun Qing had just finished invigilating a session and was sharing persimmon cakes with the teachers in the office.

The current Sun Qing was already much more confident and composed than when she first became a head teacher; after all, only those without results would get involved in the whirlpool of grinding out seniority and tormenting and struggling with each other.

This seniority that fell from the sky was also seniority.

In the future, when it was mentioned, people would only say she had taught "so-and-so" before; who would really dig deep and care about what she had actually taught him?

You could even cover your mouth and say: "Actually, he is very smart; we head teachers don't need to worry about anything at all, just let him develop freely."

What you said was the truth, but the listeners would only feel you were truly humble.

Just like Principal Wu being as sarcastic as he wanted during meetings, everyone had inner spiritual needs. The thing Sun Qing liked to do most now was to close her eyes and fantasize about this scene before falling asleep in bed.

"Teacher Sun, come out for a moment."

"Okay, Principal." Sun Qing walked out and handed Wu Xinhan a persimmon cake.

Wu Xinhan took a bite and asked: "Where is Xiaoyuan?"

"He is taking the exam."

"Ah, not finished yet? Weren't the papers printed long ago? Didn't anyone give them to him?"

"No, Xiaoyuan said this time he wanted to take the exam according to the normal process to get familiar with the college entrance exam process."

The midterm exam was different from the monthly exam; it didn't compress time so extremely, but was taken over two days, simulating the frequency of the college entrance exam as much as possible.

"Truly a good child."

"Teacher Su is quite happy."

"Hehe."

Teacher Su taught English. Chinese and Math could be swapped for the first session, but she had never seen an exam where English was taken first. She didn't want to have a "flaw" in her English teaching when she recalled her glorious resume in the future; that would make her look very incompetent, unable to even teach a prodigy well.

After every exam session, Tan Wenbin didn't go to check the answers, but sat back in his seat, either doing problems or warming up for the next exam.

Recently, in the mornings, some food would appear under his drawer.

It was sent by the class monitor, Zhou Yunyun.

No matter how slow Tan Wenbin was, he knew what the class monitor meant. He would return the favor, buying some small snacks to send back.

But other than discussing problems during breaks, he didn't have much contact with Zhou Yunyun. As soon as school was over, he would ride his bicycle to follow Runsheng's tricycle home.

Zhou Yunyun didn't continue to be proactive either; the two just occasionally sent small gifts like this, and neither crossed the line.

Perhaps, this is the most beautiful heartbeat of youth, and also the warm arc that will still rise at the corners of the mouth when searching through memories in the future.

When harvesting rice, he told Runsheng about this.

Runsheng turned his head and asked: "When are you having kids?"

If it weren't for the fact that Runsheng was holding a sickle, Tan Wenbin would have wanted to duel with him.

Coming out along with the midterm exam results were the Math Olympiad competition results. Although they were still ranked by grade, universities had their own channels to know the real scores.

The happiest thing for Wu Xinhan recently was sitting in his office answering the phone.

"Hello, I am Wu Xinhan, Principal of Shigang Middle School."

Then he would wait quietly for the person on the other end to introduce themselves.

Isn't this more fulfilling than a military training review?

It's a pity that Xiaoyuan had long told him his target university, which made him lose the room to open up more happiness through beating around the bush.

On the night the midterm exam rankings came out, Tan Wenbin returned home.

After handing the report card to his mother, she wept with joy.

When Tan Yunlong returned, his wife excitedly shared the joy with him, which made Tan Yunlong himself feel a bit dazed and unreal.

He walked to the door of his son's room, wanting to push the door open directly, but still knocked on the door.

His son didn't act big and say "come in," but walked over to open the door.

"Go to the balcony, let's talk."

"Mm."

The father and son came to the balcony.

Tan Yunlong: "You did well this time."

"Still lacking, need to continue working hard."

Tan Yunlong wanted to touch his son's head, but after raising his hand, it turned into patting his son on the shoulder.

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself either."

"Mm, I understand."

Tan Yunlong took out a cigarette case, pulled out a cigarette, bit it in his mouth, hesitated for a moment, then pulled out another one and handed it to his son.

Tan Wenbin suddenly felt his eyes moisten, instinctively lowering his head to avoid his father's gaze.

It was ridiculous that when the scene he had dreamed of truly appeared, what he thought of in his heart was hoping to turn back time and run back.

He reached out and pushed away his father's hand holding the cigarette, saying:

"Dad, I've quit."

——

Not feeling well today, in a bad state, padding a chapter, sorry.

(End of chapter)