Li Yingqiao hadn’t left the house for nearly half a month since returning.
Except for a trip to the cemetery last week, she had been holed up at home binge-watching shows, making up for the years of anime and dramas she missed because of work.
After pulling two consecutive all-nighters, she finally got heatstroke.
She had actually been quite healthy as a child and rarely suffered from heatstroke, while Yu Jinyang was the one who often ended up with red, swollen patches from her beating him up.
But ever since high school, the intense academic pressure made her neglect exercise, and she started getting heatstroke frequently—especially in senior year when even scraping therapy didn’t help.
In contrast, Yu Jinyang, who kept up with dance practice, hardly got heatstroke anymore.
So she secretly vowed to herself: she must get out of here, must get out of here, and must get out by getting into a prestigious university.
The 2016 S Province college entrance exam results were quite the buzz.
Besides the unexpected dark horse Qingyi from Rui Jun High School, who single-handedly boosted the school’s enrollment rates for several years, and the genius from Qingyi No.1 High School who scored a perfect 700 but almost got sent abroad by his parents due to missing a subject test—
Fengtan High School shocked everyone by producing its own dark horse that year, who even surpassed all the top liberal arts students from Qingyi and Zongshan, clinching the provincial top spot in the liberal arts category—the only provincial champion in Fengtan and the entire Nanlai City to date.
That person was Li Yingqiao’s deskmate, Fang Yue, who was also a hometown girl from the same batch of relocated families back in the town.
Unlike Li Yingqiao, who was lucky to move into Xiao Hua City, Fang Yue followed her grandfather to study in the countryside and worked her way into Fengtan High all by herself.
Fang Yue was usually quiet and reserved, but on the day the exam ended, she broke character and left Li Yingqiao her ID card and exam number to help check her results—and then went silent.
On the release day, Li Yingqiao couldn’t find Fang Yue’s score; it had been withheld.
All they knew was that her rank was within the top fifty in the province.
Four days later, after the scores were released, Li Yingqiao learned from their homeroom teacher, Old Mi, what Fang Yue’s results were. But Fang Yue herself remained unreachable.
Afraid she’d miss the best time to fill in her college preferences, Li Yingqiao grabbed Yu Jinyang and a few others and went to the countryside to find Fang Yue that night.
Fang Yue hadn’t left any phone number or even her exact address.
But after hearing this, Yu Jinyang was silent for a moment, then said he might know where Fang Yue’s home was.
That night, light rain fell as they got off the minibus and stepped onto the muddy yellow dirt path toward Fang Yue’s house.
The drizzle was fine and dense, and soon their shoes were splattered with mud.
Zheng Miaojia and Gao Dian had never been to such a remote countryside before; the pitch-black fields stretched endlessly, not a single household in sight.
They tread carefully, asking Yu Jinyang every few steps how much farther it was.
He always replied in a measured tone, “Almost there.”
Eventually, Li Yingqiao couldn’t help but ask again, “How much farther?”
Yu Jinyang still answered casually, “Two minutes.”
So they kept walking, coaxed and deceived along the way, surrounded by the chorus of frogs croaking in waves, stumbling and tripping down that endless country lane.
Li Yingqiao had never been here before.
Looking down at her newly bought white sneakers, she felt a sudden pang of sadness.
Who would’ve thought finding Fang Yue would lead them to such a godforsaken place?
She was a bit annoyed and thought she should’ve changed her shoes before coming.
But Fang Yue wasn’t home.
The earthen house held only a woman with messy hair and apparent leg troubles, sitting on a low stool coaxing a child with a corn cob.
When she heard they were looking for Fang Yue, she grabbed a broom nearby, ready to chase them away.
Gao Dian, being the tallest and most targeted, got chased around the house by Fang Yue’s mother with the broom.
Finally, Li Yingqiao raised her voice, “We’re just Fang Yue’s classmates! The exam results are out!”
Only then did Fang Yue’s mother stop, staring intently at Yu Jinyang beside Li Yingqiao for a few seconds.
Suddenly, she turned and went inside, returning with a red plastic bag stuffed with money.
She tossed it to Yu Jinyang and said, “I know you. Don’t come here again. Don’t come again!”
Ignoring their protests, she pushed them out the door with the money.
Left with no choice, they retraced their steps along the quiet, pitch-dark country path.
This time they weren’t as afraid; the frog calls even seemed a little friendly.
The rain had just stopped, and the moon was slowly outlining the mountain ridges.
Under the pale light of the waning moon, it seemed to gently caress the mountain’s silhouette, but the once majestic ridges now looked gaunt and barren in the clear moonlight.
The group all looked up at the sky and sighed together—
“Ah.”
On the way back, Gao Dian finally couldn’t help but ask Yu Jinyang, “Miaozi, how did you know Fang Yue’s house was out here? Does she owe you guys money or something?”
“Her dad used to work at my dad’s factory, and when the factory went on strike, her dad led it. My dad and I went to their place a few times. Only after arriving did we realize this was Fang Yue’s home. Once, my dad wanted to show off his driving skills and tried to drive up to Fang Yue’s door, but the wheels got stuck in a ditch right there. The grass hasn’t grown back even now.”
Yu Jinyang strolled slowly, glancing toward the roadside.
The others followed his gaze and sure enough, by a ravine was a patch of barren land where weeds lay flat, resembling a hereditary and incurable bald spot.
“Such bad luck,” Gao Dian sighed.
“Hey, did you ever replant the tree you knocked over at school? That one?”
“Planted it. We wanted to plant an apple tree but got scolded by the traffic police. So we obediently swapped it for a parasol tree.”
“What did your dad think? That road’s already congested. If an apple tree bears fruit, anyone passing by would stop to pick some.”
“He said it’s to keep us from getting hungry in class.”
They had walked nearly halfway in silence when Li Yingqiao finally spoke, still deep in thought.
Yu Jinyang glanced at her and slowed his pace, saying, “Still thinking about Fang Yue? You spend all day running around doing other people’s business—don’t end up neglecting your own.”
“No way,” Li Yingqiao replied without looking up, carefully stepping around muddy puddles.
“Teacher Liang and Zhu Xiaoliang both analyzed it for me. I can’t afford to fall behind.”
“That’s true. You’re the tenth in the province. Hats off. When Zhu Xiaoliang and Hu Zheng called each other, their hands were shaking. I’ve known them for ages but never seen them so excited.”
Li Yingqiao shot him a glance and suddenly remembered, “No wonder you stood motionless by the fish tank back then, protecting the little goldfish?”
Yu Jinyang chuckled and slipped his hands into his pockets, teasing, “Honestly, I was totally against Teacher Liang raising goldfish from the start.”
Li Yingqiao laughed.
“So every time you came into tutoring, the first thing you did was count the goldfish? Fang Yue said you have issues. She doesn’t believe Zhu Xiaoliang would eat them.”
“Then do you think I have issues?”
Yu Jinyang asked.
“A little,” Li Yingqiao said without hesitation.
He frowned, glaring at her.
Li Yingqiao smiled, “Not that bad, Miao. You’re so picky now.”
“Picky?”
He said, “Li Yingqiao, don’t forget you owe me 338,250 words in that self-criticism essay.”
“Still owe it, come collect it in Beijing if you can.”
She said it with the playful attitude of someone unfazed by debt, like lice that don’t itch.
“Miao, remember to come visit me in Beijing.”
“No way, I don’t hang out with people who have credit problems. You’re on my blacklist.”
“Then get me off it.”
“Three hundred thirty-eight thousand—”
“Stay blacklisted, stay blacklisted, never contact me again.”
“You said that.”
“I said it!”
“You talk like you’re farting,” he said.
“Not just farting, your farts come with a UA too!”
Li Yingqiao retorted sharply into his ear.
“Yes yes, Yu Miaomiao, your farts are the most A! Happy now?”
Yu Jinyang:
Fang Yue joined them in senior year.
Honestly, if it weren’t for Fang Yue’s shocking breakthrough that year, Li Yingqiao’s scores in 2016 would have been surprisingly bright as well—she had bought her way into Fengtan High, but after the sophomore class exam surprised everyone by placing her directly in the top ten of the key liberal arts class, she stayed steadily in the top ten of the grade.
At that time, Fang Yue’s scores hadn’t yet surpassed hers.
Fang Yue was placed in the same liberal arts class as Li Yingqiao after the sophomore year split between science and liberal arts.
Fang Yue was introverted and avoided most class activities, largely because a large dark birthmark covered half of her left cheek, leading to ostracization by classmates in the countryside during middle school.
After getting into Fengtan High, Fang Yue felt even less fitting in and asked the teacher to sit her in the back corner by the window, so her birthmark would face outside and no one would notice.
She passed her entire junior year this way without incident.