Chapter 26 Counseling
An Yuan is in a good mood.
Fang Ziwei, her best friend sitting opposite her, said slowly, "Are you happy about something?"
An Yuan pursed her lips and shook her head. Fang Ziwei put down her teacup and said, "You must have some good news, tell me."
"No." An Yuan replied.
"Let me guess. Could it be that you have finally tamed your cat?" Fang Ziwei is the relative with the ID Tuan Tuan Cat and one of An Yuan's closest girlfriends.
"Don't mention it." An Yuan felt a little unhappy when she thought of the arrogant cat at home.
Fang Ziwei stopped asking questions and talked about what An Yuan had said before: "Let's get back to business. I've investigated. Luo Qingxi's mother-in-law was defrauded of her money, or it was her third son who did it. Her investment went bankrupt, the money went down the drain, and she still owes a lot of money to people in the village."
"So she set her sights on Luo Qingxi."
"Yes. Luo has already paid half of the pension. Her mother-in-law can't get the rest of the money even if she files a lawsuit. The problem is that people are shameless. No one can stop people from coming to the door every day to make trouble. I heard that Luo Qingxi went to find a job a while ago, but after only working for a few days, her mother-in-law came to the door and made a scene and ruined it."
“…”
"So you really have to open your eyes and see clearly when you are looking for a man to marry. Most of the time, a woman does not marry a man alone, but his family." Fang Ziwei shrugged, "Your driver Liu is a good person, but his family is really not good."
"..." An Yuan said softly, "Then I'll leave the rest to you."
"It's no big deal to stop that awful old lady from coming to our house." Fang Ziwei said with a smile, "I'm curious, why do you care so much about your driver's wife?"
An Yuan was stunned for a moment and said, "I am concerned about the families of former employees. Old Liu is a good person, Luo Qingxi is also a good person, and we had a good relationship in the past. Besides, my Xiaozhen and Liu Xingquan have always been good friends."
"Liu Xingquan..." Fang Ziwei read the name. "Did he participate in a TV competition last year?"
"Yes." An Yuan nodded. "When he was competing, Xiao Zhen was very excited. She would cheer for Xing Quan in front of the TV on time every day."
"My niece has been talking about this name since she watched the TV competition. It's a small world. I thought the name sounded familiar, but I didn't expect it to be the son of your driver. It's a pity that he missed that game."
"It's a pity. Xiaozhen was so angry after watching TV that she refused to eat dinner."
"Look, my niece is still resentful and keeps talking about her idol Liu Xingquan. I think Liu Xingquan will definitely have a great future. You see, human destiny is really amazing. Luo Qingxi had a hard life, but she has such an outstanding son."
"Yes. He has always had good grades and is a well-behaved boy. I've watched him grow up, so I'll help him if I can." An Yuan put down her teacup and said, "By the way, Xiao Zhen actually did well in the exam this time, scoring 93 points."
"I say, this is the happy event you've been holding back for a long time. It wasn't easy, but you finally couldn't hold it back."
"…I was trying to say it more naturally. Is it that obvious?"
"Yes, the corners of your mouth are about to curl up to the sky."
"That's 93 points! My Xiaozhen got sixth place in the class this time!"
"I suggest you just go to the TV station and buy a full-day rolling subtitle broadcast to celebrate Yan Zhen for getting sixth place in the class in the English test. Even though his friends always get first place."
"…Are you really my best friend?"
Luo Qingxi looked at her report card. She only got a passing score in math, and she got most of the multiple-choice questions wrong. She got a mediocre score in Chinese, and her best subject, English, was 123. For admission to a top university, this total score was really not good enough.
She could imagine her father's expression when he saw this result. In elementary school and junior high school, she was the pride of her family and an excellent student in her class. Since entering this highly competitive high school, her grades have become unstable, rising and falling like waves. Luo Qingxi spent a lot of time studying, but still couldn't keep her grades at the top like she did in junior high school.
Now Luo Qingxi's grades have dropped from the top student in her freshman year to the middle level. She can sense the subtle change in the teacher's attitude. Students with excellent grades are always the teacher's favorites, but once their grades continue to decline, even the teacher seems to smile less.
Yan An was different. He was not very impressive in elementary school, but his grades suddenly jumped up when he entered junior high school. At first, his grades were behind Luo Qingxi, but in the second year of junior high school, he and Luo Qingxi took turns to be the top student in the class. Now in high school, Yan An has firmly taken the top spot in his class and even in his grade, becoming the "other people's child" in the eyes of parents.
Yan An and she have a strange fate. They went to the same elementary school, the same junior high school, the same high school and were in the same class.
She still remembers Yan An in elementary school. Back then, Yan An was thin and small, with messy black hair. At that time, she hadn't moved yet, and Yan An lived across the street. Luo Qingxi often saw a group of children playing in the open space outside the window, and Yan An was among them.
She never spoke to him during those years. She thought he was a bad boy who was annoying. Her father said that only children without family discipline would waste their precious time outside.
She often lay on the windowsill, watching the children laughing and making noises below. Perhaps it was because Yan An, although small, was always the first to grab the ball. When he scored a goal, he would grin and show his white teeth. Out of rebellious psychology, Luo Qingxi always stood on Yan An's opponent team, praying that they would win and not let Yan An, the bad boy, laugh so arrogantly.
Yan An always wins. No matter how many people are on the other side, even if the children on the other side are taller and stronger than him, he is as agile as a monkey, jumping left and right, fighting his way out. There are times when he loses, but he always fights unyieldingly to the last moment. Looking down from Luo Qingxi's window sill, she should not be able to see his eyes clearly. But Luo Qingxi felt the burning fighting spirit and silent declaration from his posture and every move: he will not give up, even if he loses this time, he will definitely win back next time.
They might never have spoken. Until that day.
Luo Qingxi often saw two older children from the neighbor's house stealing fruits from Ding Muli's fruit stand. These two older children had never learned to be good and were the objects of fear for the surrounding children.
After school one day, she met the mother of one of the older children, and she suddenly became excited and told him what she had seen. That night, the crying of children and the roar of neighbors could be heard in the building.
The next day, Luo Qingxi was blocked in the corridor by the two older children. They said a lot of ugly things to her and spit on her skirt. She tried hard to control herself from crying and clenched her fists to stop herself from shaking.
At this moment, Yan An suddenly rushed over and started a fight with the two older kids. The two older kids were already in junior high school, tall and strong. Yan An, who was still a primary school student, was hit many times, but he was not afraid at all, and became more and more courageous. It was not until Luo Qingxi yelled and attracted the neighbors that the three kids were separated.
In the following days , Yan An began to fight with the two older kids. Whenever Yan An got home from school, the two rascals would block him, insult him with foul language, or throw stones and spit at him on the roadside. When Yan An fought back in anger, it became two against one. Yan An's arms, forehead and knees were constantly covered with scars. He still looked nonchalant, as if he was determined to fight this completely unequal fight to the end. In the end, the fight was barely stopped until the parents of both parties came forward.
After school, Luo Qingxi caught up with Yan An and said, "Thank you."
Yan An seemed startled, then he smiled, his eyes as bright as silver coins.
This was the first time she spoke to Yan An. They didn't have much chance to talk afterwards. In elementary school, boys and girls would automatically separate and mark their own areas.
In junior high school, he and she were in the same class again. At that time, Luo Qingxi was praised by the teacher. Her handwriting was beautiful and neat. She had already prepared for most of the courses in this semester. Her test scores were always the goal of others. Suddenly one day, Yan An became the object of praise in the teacher's mouth.
As if overnight, Luo Qingxi was no longer the teacher's only favorite. Yan An began to show his talent in learning. During a junior high school math test, the teacher added an extra geometry question. This was actually a competition question, which was quite difficult. Normally, even if given enough time, it would be difficult for students to solve it.
Luo Qingxi's clearest memory began on a sleepy afternoon when the math teacher announced the test results and excitedly showed Yan An's answer sheet. Yan An got full marks, and not only that, he also solved the additional questions in a clever way. In the entire grade, only Yan An could perfectly answer this question.
The math teacher was very happy, and Yan An became his favorite student. After that, Yan An also proved that he was indeed the top student in the whole grade. There was no subject that he could not master, including math, Chinese, English, physics, geography, history, etc.
Luo Qingxi admitted that she was jealous of him, jealous of the proud tone of the teacher when talking about him, and also jealous of his carefree smile. She was the class monitor in junior high school, but she was not the best student in the class. In everyone's eyes, the only shining student was Yan An. Luo Qingxi had to force herself to study hard, just to not be left too far behind by him.
Yan An was the first, but if she was left behind by too many places and let others come in, Luo Qingxi would feel an unbearable suffocation every time she thought of this. At that time, she always had a kind of arrogant self-judgment. She might be able to lose to Yan An, but she couldn't lose to others.
At least in the class hierarchy, she should be on the same level as Yan An.
Maybe it was because she worked too hard. In junior high school, she sometimes beat Yan An and took first place. Whenever this happened, she would secretly look at Yan An. Yan An was still smiling, and there was no change in his mood. Maybe the ranking didn't matter to him at all. But this was Luo Qingxi's battle, a battle she didn't want to lose.
Later, she lost her best friend Ding Muli. She was sure that a part of her heart was missing. After a long period of confusion and grief, all she could do was to focus all her attention on studying. After the high school entrance examination, Luo Qingxi was admitted to the high school department of her school, the best high school in the city. Yan An was also admitted to the same class as her.
After that long summer vacation, Yan An changed. He began to grow taller and taller. The wild boy suddenly became another kind of creature, a species called man. At the opening ceremony, he stood quietly in the front row of the class, like a handsome cypress tree.
After the principal finished his opening speech, Yan An walked up to the podium as a student representative. He stood up and stepped onto the steps. The boy's straight face looked solemn and his eyes were shining. Luo Qingxi raised her head. This was the first time she saw Yan An speaking in public. At that moment, she felt as if she was meeting this boy for the first time. His previous passionate and dangerous wild child aura had completely disappeared, and only occasionally revealed a sharp and brisk edge.
He glanced at the students below, as if he was used to it. He gave a speech without a script, and his clear voice echoed in the auditorium full of people. Luo Qingxi had completely forgotten what he said that day. She only remembered Yan An's bright eyes and the silver light leaking from the zipper on his school uniform.
Luo Qingxi knew that she was not the only one who noticed the change in Yan An. Since he entered school, he had caused ripples in the hearts of all the freshmen in the school. Many girls were secretly discussing him and calling him the school hunk.
She and Yan An still hardly talked. Now Yan An became the class monitor with the highest number of votes. She began to avoid eye contact with Yan An. He had proven that he was truly outstanding, a shining star in the school. Luo Qingxi was just an ordinary mediocre person who was struggling with mathematics.
The failure of the comprehensive mock exam made her feel very bad. She also lost face in class when her math teacher asked her to solve a problem on the blackboard. She got stuck while doing it, holding the chalk in the air, staring at the equation on the blackboard with a blank mind.
The teacher sighed and let her go.
Luo Qingxi's face flushed red. The teacher's sigh made her feel so ashamed that she wanted to commit suicide on the spot. She turned back to her desk. Yan An was sitting upright and looking at her, with a clear and sharp gaze that carried a certain scrutiny.
The atmosphere at home made her feel worse than death. Her father and mother had a big fight over her grades. Her mother blamed her father for being too busy with work and not caring enough about his daughter. Her father blamed her mother for always complaining too much and doing too little. Later, her mother lost control of her emotions and yelled out all the troubles at work and housework. Her father, with a gloomy face, smashed things at home.
Luo Qingxi covered her ears and fled from home to a nearby KFC. She spread the teaching materials on the table and stared blankly at the numbers on them, but she couldn't write a single word.
"Luo Qingxi?" Yan An stood outside the glass window of KFC and looked at her. He walked into the store and sat opposite her. Then he also took out the tutoring workbook and asked her if she had any questions.
Luo Qingxi had always heard that Yan An was working as a tutor. It turned out that he was an excellent teacher. He had his own ideas about solving problems. After some communication, he found that Luo Qingxi was concentrating on calculating all the math problems.
"Why do you interpret it this way?"
"Because the teacher said so."
Yan An thought for a while and said, "In fact, different questions have their own routines. They can be roughly divided into several categories. Just figure out the routines." Then he picked up Luo Qingxi's tutorial book and began to unceremoniously outline the unit she was working on. Some were triangles, some were five-pointed stars, and some were circles.
"Okay, now that the question types have been divided, let's study the first routine first." Yan An said cunningly, and her long eyelashes trembled a little annoyingly.
He told her that math exams don't test students' math abilities, but their test-taking abilities. Mastering test-taking techniques often works wonders, and he listed several ways to slack off that would make the teacher furious, including simply guessing.
Because some options look obviously wrong, he said innocently, it would save time if you just substitute the one that you think is correct and check it out.
During those weeks, they often met at KFC.
Luo Qingxi simulated a set of papers by herself, and her accuracy rate was greatly improved . Yan An taught her purposeful induction and summary. After some practice, she began to feel that mathematics was no longer as troublesome as before.
It would be nice if we could study together forever, she thought.
She looked up and saw a small green-winged bird flying over to the windowsill. It tilted its head and called out to her.
Her father announced to her that he had found a famous tutor for Luo Qingxi, and Luo Qingxi would go directly to the tutor after school to receive tutoring.
Thus, her short after-school study session with Yan An came to an end.
The after-school tutor her father hired was a well-known special-grade teacher in the city. She knew that her father had spent a lot of money to fit her into his small class. There were five students in the tutor's small class, all of whom had paid a price to come. One of them was a classmate she knew, Wei Hongzhuo.
She could keenly sense that the tutor was very attentive and patient with Wei Hongzhuo, because Wei Hongzhuo was the son of a well-known industrialist in the province. No matter where he went, he was the focus of the adults.
After their tutoring class that day, Luo Qingxi stood at the entrance of the corridor, feeling worried. It was raining heavily outside. She didn't bring an umbrella.
"Luo Qingxi, get in the car. We're on our way. I'll ask the driver to take you." Wei Hongzhuo said to her with a smile. She thanked him, opened the door and got in.
There was a faint fragrance in the car. Wei Hongzhuo chatted with her casually along the way. At an intersection, the car stopped.
The bean-sized raindrops stirred up foam on the ground. It was a heavy rain, and white rain was everywhere. A small green-winged bird landed on the front of the car, and the driver turned on the wipers to scare it away. Wei Hongzhuo suddenly stopped talking and looked straight out the window. Luo Qingxi followed his gaze.
A boy was riding a bicycle in the pouring rain. He passed by the car. Luo Qingxi saw the upright and indifferent face. He seemed to glance inside the car, or maybe it was Luo Qingxi's illusion.
Yan An's slender figure went away in the heavy rain and gradually disappeared in the mist.
