Volume 5: Qingming Chapter 37 Niece
Jiang You talked for a long time, and he noticed that Tang Butian's eyes were a little empty.
"Look here." Jiang You tapped the tree trunk with the index finger of his right hand.
Tang Butian came back to her senses. She looked carefully at the place Jiang You pointed to. There was a small crack on the bark, and the color didn't look very uniform. She looked at other parts of the trunk, and there was nothing special. She looked at the neighboring trees, and there was not much difference either. So she said, "I can't see anything unusual."
Jiang You reached out and grabbed Tang Butian's wrist.
Tang Butian saw the tip of the blue-gray flower bud carefully emerge from the tiny crack, and the petals slowly and laboriously opened layer by layer...
Trembling, struggling...
The yellow core of the flower had just appeared a little bit when a gust of wind blew by, and the dust on the ground was lifted up and then fell down.
The petals stopped moving.
It turned into blue-gray sand and fell into the dust.
Just before it blooms.
"What is this?" Tang Butian asked.
"Door," Jiang You pressed the index finger of his left hand on the tiny crack and slowly moved it downwards. The crack was covered with a layer of transparent film. "Everyone who came in from here smuggled in by circumventing the agreement."
The film was absorbed into the crack little by little, and Tang Butian noticed that the crack was getting smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared.
She asked, "Did you close the door?"
"I don't have that ability," Jiang You denied, "It was almost gone anyway."
"Something has come in here in the past?"
"I guess so."
"The monster in Lin Yu's body?"
"Maybe."
Tang Butian asked directly: "What did you find?"
"It's a lot, but not enough. After the complete ceremony, the passage will be opened and the summoned being will descend. We all know this." Jiang You released his hand that was holding Tang Butian's wrist. He turned around and said, "When the passage is opened, some things may sneak in, such as me."
Tang Butian’s eyes widened.
"So when we were in Thailand, I didn't want to get involved in Lin Yu's affairs."
"Because they are the same kind?"
"Who wants to be in the same species as something that is ugly and unpalatable?" Jiang You said with disdain, "I just think it's not easy for it. I don't know how many hardships it has gone through. It finally sneaked in. It has been in this bead, unable to eat or drink. It has occupied the body with untold hardships. The first meal it ate was Thai food, which is only suitable for taking pictures and posting on WeChat Moments. Moreover," he looked into Tang Butian's eyes, "in China, my part-time identity is a bit unreasonable, but I was in Thailand at the time. Although we are compatriots, Duan Rui is also my compatriot, don't you think?"
“Wrong logic.”
"It's all about the deeds, not the heart. Didn't I still take care of it in the end?"
"Why did you design Zhuang Zekun to send him to the research institute?"
"Curious, maybe." Jiang You took out a candy box from his bag and gave two to Tang Butian as usual. "Ten years ago, the one from the Mirror Lake Society descended on Jiujin Mountain. The passage was opened, and it sneaked in."
"This place is far from Jiujin Mountain."
"That's the problem," Jiang You put the bead in Tang Butian's hand, "This bead is sensitive to the spirit of the mountain. Ten years ago, that night, here, in an abandoned factory, perhaps something happened that we don't know about."
Tang Butian thought for a moment and said, "We need to find Zheng Yuantai."
"There were two others present at the time."
"who?"
Jiang You pointed at the beads and said, "They are all collected here, the monster and Qiaoqiao."
Tang Butian looked down at the beads in her hand.
Jiang You stretched his body and said, "Let's go find my son."
They walked out of the factory's back door, crossed two streets, and then crossed an intersection. They saw the fence of the No. 1 Middle School playground. There were more shops on the street, including stationery stores, copy shops, convenience stores, and snack bars...
"Here!" Lin Yu and Jiang Mo stood at the gate of No. 1 Middle School and waved at them.
It was just the end of get out of class time and the campus was very noisy.
Jiang You walked over to Jiang Mo and said, "How about it? I'll use my connections to help you get to school this September?"
At this time, a security guard came out of the security room next to the gate and asked, "What can I do for you? Are you looking for someone?"
"It's okay, I just stopped by to take a look," Jiang You picked up Jiang Mo and walked to the security guard. "I went to Qiming Middle School this morning and needed accommodation there, so I wanted to come to No. 1 Middle School to take a look."
"Who's reading?" asked the security guard.
Jiang You pointed at Tang Butian and said, "My niece is in the first year of high school in my hometown. Her parents are doing business here. She is very rebellious without them around."
The security guard looked at the wooden sword in Tang Butian's hand and said, "Parents and children should communicate more."
"It just so happens that I have some connections," Jiang You took over the conversation, "so I wanted to come here and find a better high school to study in."
"Then we have to go back for the college entrance examination, right?"
"We are going back. We originally wanted to go to Qiming. It just so happens that an old classmate of mine is a teacher at Qiming, teaching English. We went there this morning to take a look. Students are required to stay in the dormitory, and there are two evening self-study sessions every night with teachers watching over them. My niece thinks it is not good, too depressing. She was used to being wild at home... I heard that all the students at No. 1 Middle School are day students, so I wanted to come and take a look."
"Qiming can't do that. In order to make the numbers look good, they forced some students who couldn't keep up to sign an agreement with them to give up the college entrance examination in their second year of high school."
"Give up the college entrance examination? Do the students' parents agree?"
"Some took the academic exam and were admitted, and others were advised to take the spring college entrance exam. We can't just look at the undergraduate rate," the security guard and Jiang You explained the ins and outs. "Now that enrollment is expanding, three-year colleges are also undergraduates. It still depends on what university and what major it is."
"That's right, my classmates didn't tell me this."
"Which teacher?"
"Yes, he told me that the air pollution around No. 1 Middle School is quite serious and several students have cancer. I just walked over there and saw an old factory..."
"Nonsense..."
The bell for class rang, and students scattered around the campus hurried to the teaching building.
After the bell stopped ringing, the campus returned to silence.
The security guard said angrily: "The factory moved away more than ten years ago. The government invited environmental experts to come and do the inspection."
"So it's okay?"
"That plastic factory was closed because of complaints from parents. Those who were admitted to No. 1 Middle School are all top students, and their families love them very much. If there is a problem with the air, they will definitely not let the school off."
"Is that so..." There was still some disbelief in Jiang You's tone.
“Just ask the locals and you’ll know.”
Jiang You nodded, "Yes, it's a matter of children, so I have to think about it a lot. Thank you, we will go back and discuss it."
"Oh, okay."
