“Ah? Just five points short?”
Li Shuli understood from Zhu Xiaoliang’s tone that there was still a chance to secure a spot as a transfer student at Tancheng, as long as they were willing to pay some money.
But the transfer fee at Tancheng was the same for everyone, and outrageously expensive.
Whether you missed the mark by one point or fifty points, it was still forty thousand yuan.
What was even more infuriating was the lottery system—if you didn’t win, it meant your luck wasn’t good enough, and no amount of money could get you in.
“Then forget it. It’s not like she has to go to Tancheng. We can just send her to Ximing Middle School nearby.”
Li Shuli was in the kitchen, focused on scraping fish scales with a kitchen knife, speaking without turning her head.
Zhu Xiaoliang felt like spitting blood.
Even if Li Yingqiao hadn’t gotten into Tancheng, she was only five points short.
With her grades in Fengtan, excluding Tancheng, only Ruijiang Middle School was barely an option.
But Ruijiang was a newly established international private high school in Fengtan for the past two years, with faculty not on par with Tancheng but tuition that was indeed expensive, catering mainly to the children of bosses like Yu Renjie.
The educational resources in a small county town were a huge gulf.
Tancheng was the only visible and attainable path for ordinary students.
If you got into Tancheng, no one would say a word.
If you didn’t, especially someone with Li Yingqiao’s scores, parents either sold everything they had to send them to Ruijiang High School or bit the bullet and boarded them into a regular city high school.
There was no way they would send her to the countryside school, Ximing Middle School.
That would be self-destruction, and all their previous efforts would be wasted.
Li Shuli either truly didn’t understand how important education was or was pretending not to.
At first, Zhu Xiaoliang thought it was the former.
Liang Mei had told him that Li Shuli was the most unreasonable parent she had ever met.
She said as long as Li Yingqiao was happy and healthy, she didn’t push her about academics.
Zhu Xiaoliang thought that if Li Yingqiao was born into any other family, she would already be a student at Tancheng by now.
But since she was Li Shuli’s daughter, one had to admit that Li Shuli’s love had nurtured her laziness.
Such a promising seedling, and in such a short time, he found it astonishing—during the last kidnapping case, she was able to come up with so many ideas in such a short span, eliminate them one by one, and then recall the bus schedule.
All these reactions proved how smart this girl was.
Zhu Xiaoliang firmly believed that if given a little more time, Li Yingqiao wouldn’t just get into Tancheng; even the top high school next door in Qingyi would be well within her reach.
The more he thought about it, the more reluctant he felt.
Leaning at the kitchen door, as a single man with a woman, he dared not enter but feared Li Shuli wouldn’t hear him clearly, so he stood by the door and earnestly explained the faculty strengths of Fengtan’s few schools to her in a loud voice.
“Ximing’s teachers are just the worst students from our class reassigned there. Li Jie, think about it—if you were feverish and went to the hospital, and when you opened the door, you saw the dumbest guy in your village, Er Gouzi, sitting there prescribing medicine, would you dare to take it?”
Li Shuli pretended not to hear and turned on the range hood.
Zhu Xiaoliang raised his voice: “And the Chinese teacher there, Wang Lin, was Liang Mei’s ex-boyfriend, a total scumbag.
He co-writes teaching materials with him, and sitting across is like a big chimney, smoke constantly puffing from his head.
His teeth are darker and thicker with grime than the filter in the range hood.
If Li Yingqiao ended up in his class, that would be something.”
“Bang—”
Li Shuli threw the fish back into the sink and glared at him, as if to say, “Don’t you have a shady past yourself?”
Zhu Xiaoliang cleared his throat.
That look reminded him of his days pretending to be a madman in Fengzi Gang.
Yes, Li Yingqiao learned math from him, a guy who literally munched on live goldfish.
A person like Wang Lin sounded far less scary.
“How’s that, impressive or what? As soon as the exam was over, my mom bought me the hottest ‘nouveau riche’ gold phone this year!”
Before even sitting down, Li Yingqiao eagerly showed Yu Jinyang her phone, swiping the screen, “My mom even got me a membership. This summer break, I’m not going anywhere. Just gonna stay home and read novels.”
He clearly wasn’t paying attention, casually replied, “Oh, nice.”
It was Yu Jinyang’s first time at her house.
When Zhu Xiaoliang called him, he had just come out of the dance studio, sweat-drenched and clinging to his T-shirt.
With no time to go home and shower, he squeezed onto a crowded bus, and the heat steamed the sweat unevenly.
He kept feeling like the smell of chicken, duck, and goose from the bus still clung to him.
Talking to her, he couldn’t help but tug at his T-shirt at his chest, sniffing again and again, like a cat who disliked being dirty but couldn’t lick itself in front of others.
Li Yingqiao noticed his absent-mindedness and deliberately dragged out her voice, looking him up and down as she suggested, “Why don’t you go take a shower, Master Meow-Meow—”
Yu Jinyang finally stopped sniffing and obediently sat on the sofa, not moving since he entered.
It was a single mother and daughter’s home; Zhu Xiaoliang didn’t dare enter the kitchen, and Yu Jinyang didn’t dare look around.
His gaze was either locked on her eyes or fixed on the opposite wall.
After a moment, he suppressed the urge to sniff himself again and asked, “So, what about Tancheng?”
“Don’t kill the mood, okay?”
Li Yingqiao played on her phone, “I’ve said it two hundred times.
If I get in, I get in.
If not, what can I do?”
“Zheng Miaojia and Gao Dian got in too. You’re just five points short.”
“Meow-meow, we’re just friends, not Siamese twins.
We don’t have to stick together all the time.
You go to Tancheng, I go somewhere else.
What’s wrong with that?”
She patted his shoulder comfortingly.
“Besides, after the college entrance exam, we’ll all go our separate ways anyway.
You should get used to life without me early.”
“Gao Dian and I already agreed on this.”
“What?”
Li Yingqiao looked at him curiously.
“You saved us.
Once we get into high school—”
Yu Jinyang cleared his throat, reluctant to say more, but Gao Dian insisted that telling her might make Li Yingqiao agree.
“And then?”
“Gao Dian and I agreed that once we get into high school, we’ll be your dogs.
If you’re not at Tancheng, it’ll be inconvenient for us.”
Li Yingqiao burst out laughing, collapsing onto the coffee table.
Yu Jinyang frowned, unhappy seeing her bury her whole head in laughter on the table like a wobbly roly-poly toy that falls and rights itself over and over, then giggles again and falls back.
***
“Li Yingqiao, Tan Laoshi has passed away.”
Yu Jinyang sat on the sofa, elbows on his knees, his back a taut curve.
He looked down at Li Yingqiao, sitting on the floor with her head resting on the coffee table.
He held her gaze firmly, not letting her avoid it.
Though still youthful, there was an inexplicable pressure in his stare, not fitting for his age.
“It was on the day our results came out.
That’s why Zhu Laoshi came today.
Liang Laoshi isn’t disappointed in you.
She just couldn’t come because she’s dealing with her teacher’s funeral.”
Li Yingqiao knew Tan Xiujun and was aware of the bet between her and Liang Mei.
She knew she herself was the pawn.
When she first overheard Zhu Xiaoliang accidentally spill the secret, she was unhappy being treated as a wager.
Who would be happy about that?
But Zhu Xiaoliang told her many stories about Tan Laoshi, a fierce teacher with over forty years of experience.
Suddenly, she grew curious about this “black-faced ogre.”
Liang Mei promised her that after the exam, she would take her to meet Tan Xiujun.
Li Yingqiao wasn’t ungrateful; she appreciated Liang Mei’s efforts.
But since the results came out, Liang Mei hadn’t called her once.
From Li Yingqiao’s perspective, she felt like a used pawn, no longer of any value to Liang Mei.
She was disappointed in her.
“I don’t care if she’s disappointed,” she said stiffly.
Yu Jinyang snorted from his nose, picked up a walnut whose bag had come undone on the coffee table, and deliberately held it up to her mouth.
For the first time, he broke his usual casual tone and said firmly, “Li Yingqiao, if you’re going to be so stubborn, come on, open your mouth, let’s crack this walnut, okay?”
Li Yingqiao couldn’t help but kick him.
He didn’t dodge, took the hit, and leaned back on the sofa without a word, expression unchanged as he looked down at her, as if allowing her to do whatever she wanted.
Unexpectedly, Li Yingqiao took it further and kicked him several times on his shin.
“Stop kicking. Just tell me what you think,” he said calmly, brushing her foot aside.
“Do you want to get into Tancheng or not?”
She got up from the floor and sat next to him, finally admitting, “Of course I do!
But you just heard Zhu Laoshi say it costs forty thousand yuan.
We can’t afford that.
I don’t want to put my mom in a tough spot.”
Yu Jinyang leaned back on the sofa, turned to her, and suddenly held out his hands, turning his wrists upward as if surrendering.
“There’s another way.
You tie me up.
You don’t need much, just forty thousand.
My dad can definitely provide it.”
Li Yingqiao glared at him.
“That’s no different from asking your dad to ransom you with a whole set of Detective Conan.”
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