After the winter camp, there were three unexpected developments. First, they heard from Teacher Zhu Min that after the school leaders of Anzhong made two visits to the education department, starting next year, the hosting rights for the David Cup would change from Jinlong Middle School to a joint hosting arrangement between Anzhong and Jin Middle School. All competition questions would follow principles of fairness and transparency, with both schools participating and supervising each other.

Although this no longer concerned the current senior class, they still felt excited upon hearing the news. As Tiger put it, they had built a Great Wall for future generations with their flesh and blood. While his words gave everyone goosebumps, they did mean something to help their junior schoolmates. Making a mathematics competition return to its essence made Qing Ye feel the eighty yuan was worth it.

The second surprise left both Xing Wu and Qing Ye stunned. Sun Guangquan from Jin Middle School had tracked down Xing Wu through various channels and called to inform him about suspected recent network security issues at the school, hoping he could come to Jin Middle School for maintenance.

Qing Ye laughingly asked Xing Wu if he would go. Xing Wu calmly replied that he would – why not earn some money?

Then he seriously went to Jin Middle School to fix their server vulnerabilities, even responsibly telling their staff that the servers needed regular upgrades and maintenance. The teachers earnestly accepted his advice, and each one kept Xing Wu’s phone number, saying they would contact him if any issues arose.

So he spent half a day there and earned a thousand yuan, returning quite leisurely. Qing Ye then realized that she and Xing Wu had already recovered their winter camp fee of 160 yuan – this venture wasn’t a loss at all.

She specifically asked Xing Wu if he had fixed their vulnerabilities. Xing Wu nodded.

She then asked if he had left any backdoors just in case. Xing Wu gave her a look of disdain and said he had to stay true to his profession.

Qing Ye wanted to ask what profession exactly. Universal repairman? The kind who digs holes just to fill them?

The third unexpected development was that their after-school study group, which originally had only six people, grew to over ten members in less than ten days before the final exams. Almost everyone in Class Two who had university aspirations joined.

The old man was quite thoughtful – seeing so many students studying so diligently, he specially moved the large round table from the courtyard into the factory building, cleaned it, and let them use it.

When the final exam results came out, Fang Lei cried hard looking at her scores. She had only improved by twenty-some points from the last exam, not even reaching 350 points. The Xiamen University admission line seemed unreachable for her.

Shi Min made slight progress – from being last in class in the previous exam, she now could score over 300, which was difficult for her.

Tiger showed the most improvement. Although he wasn’t articulate in daily conversation, he was quite clever and quick to understand. This time his total score approached 400. At this rate, with another half year of hard work, getting into a technical college would be stable. But once you get closer to your goal, you want even more.

After receiving his scores, Tiger thought for an entire evening before messaging Qing Ye to ask if he had any hope of reaching second-tier university standards.

Qing Ye quickly replied: “Definitely possible.”

She responded almost without thinking. Based on the province’s previous second-tier university admission lines, she felt it wouldn’t be a problem for Tiger to gain another 50 points in half a year.

Qing Ye went to sleep after sending that message, not knowing that Tiger was moved to tears reading it. He immediately put on his clothes and started attacking practice problems as if injected with chicken blood.

What amazed everyone was that Qing Ye scored 702 on this final exam, breaking the 700-point barrier. This was the highest score ever achieved in Anzi County. The school leadership, for whatever reason, even made a red poster with Qing Ye’s portrait and hung it in the display window. Whoever designed that poster had added golden shining effects around her face, making it look bizarrely like she was about to ascend to heaven.

Qing Ye only looked at it once before wanting to take an iron pick to smash the display window. Putting up a poster was one thing, but why did they have to write “Star of Hope” above her head, making her look like some kind of charity case?

So after her strong protest, the school took it down after a week, worried about causing her a psychological burden. Principal Zhong even personally consoled her, telling her not to feel pressured.

What pressure – she purely thought the poster was hideously ugly. If they wanted to hang her photo next time, couldn’t they consult with her first and find a prettier one? Although she considered herself photogenic from all angles, they should at least change the graphic designer – that five-cent special effect could be dispensed with.

During this period, Qing Ye studied with her friends at the food factory after school. Xing Wu was also very busy, and rarely seen in the evenings. Sometimes he would only leisurely ride his motorcycle to pick her up after she finished.

She asked what he had been busy with in the evenings, and Xing Wu said he was getting his driver’s license with Huang Mao. She found it strange – taking driving tests at night? Xing Wu just told her they had no time during the day because of classes, so they enrolled in night classes to practice driving.

Sure enough, while they were preparing for final exams, Xing Wu and Huang Mao would go practice driving as soon as school ended and were too busy to be seen.

Right after the final exams came the long-awaited winter break. Time had passed quickly – without realizing it, Qing Ye had already transitioned from summer break to winter break here. Although it had only been half a year, she felt like she had been here for a long time, met many friends, and experienced many things she thought she would never encounter in her life, like having a boyfriend before the college entrance exam.

When she called Uncle Sun again to ask about her father’s situation, Uncle Sun brought her good news. The witness had been contacted, but due to the approaching Spring Festival, the appeal would have to wait until after the new year. If things went smoothly, he would personally bring the witness back to China after the new year.

Although it was good news, thinking about her father having to spend the holiday inside made Qing Ye very dejected. This was the first time in her life she would spend the new year separated from her family, alone in a strange place. During normal busy days, she didn’t feel anything, but as winter break approached and everyone was preparing for the new year, even Li Lanfang was shopping for New Year goods these days, she began to feel a bit lonely.

So perhaps the only thing she could still do was occasionally help Tiger and others with problems. Regarding the college entrance exam, she had never slacked off in all her years of studying, and at this point, there was limited room for improvement. She would spend some time preparing language skills and pre-university soft skills content for studying abroad.

After the final exam, Fang Lei was very depressed, so Qing Ye and others didn’t call her. But unexpectedly, on the second day of break, when she thought few people would come, everyone showed up without exception. Even Fang Lei had sorted out her emotions and started anew.

Their spirit was subtly influencing Qing Ye as well, so she would leave Xuandao early every day and return late. She had a whole day to help them sort through basics, and with her years of practice problem experience, she could precisely identify key problems. At this point, every day was like racing for points – who knew how one point’s difference might affect their fate?

One day, Xiao Lingtong mentioned to Qing Ye that some people from Class One had heard about it and wanted to come, asking if that was okay.

Qing Ye had no objections, so after a week of winter break, the number gradually increased from over ten to nearly twenty people. With more people, it became more difficult for her to explain problems, and written materials had to be passed around, inevitably reducing efficiency.

However, the New Year was approaching, and the old man also needed to close the factory and return home for the holiday, so they had to temporarily disperse. As for when the old man would return, he hadn’t given a definite answer.

Therefore, the next day Qing Ye could only practice problems alone at home, look at materials and check some study abroad information online. Xing Wu returned before dinner – perhaps because of the cold weather, his grandmother’s appetite had decreased recently, and she often threw tantrums refusing to eat, so Xing Wu had been returning before mealtimes these days.

Qing Ye often saw him having to patiently coax his grandmother, and only then would she stop making those strange noises, although she didn’t know if his grandmother could understand what he was saying.

Sometimes his grandmother simply refused to eat, making Xing Wu sweat anxiously. Even Li Lanfang would angrily curse, “Just starve to death then, you old thing!” But Xing Wu would still patiently persist in feeding her.

Sometimes Qing Ye couldn’t bear to watch. She felt that dealing with such a difficult elderly person day after day would have made her break down long ago. When she first arrived, she thought Li Lanfang was too harsh with her grandmother, but after so long, she gradually began to understand Li Lanfang’s frustration.

Facing such an elderly person with no blood relation, who occasionally caused problems and needed help with toileting and bathing, even the most patient person would wear thin over time.

Sometimes seeing Xing Wu so tired, she wanted to help, but Xing Wu wouldn’t let Qing Ye assist. Over so many years, he had grown accustomed to bearing this burden alone.

Qing Ye would return to her room after eating, not wanting to continue seeing her grandmother in that state, but she also didn’t know when such days would end.

Soon after, Xing Wu came up. She turned and asked him, “Did grandmother eat?”

Xing Wu tiredly took off his coat and pulled up a chair by the window: “She ate a little, and went back to her room to sleep.”

Only then did Qing Ye let out a sigh of relief and ask, “Why has she been like this so often recently?”

Xing Wu seemed already used to it, looking down and turning the lighter in his hand: “It’s normal, the doctor said it’s caused by cerebrovascular disease.”

What seemed very tiring to Qing Ye, Xing Wu just brushed off lightly. Qing Ye looked at him and suddenly asked, “Are you tired?”

Xing Wu, eyes half-lowered, continued turning the lighter and said quietly: “When I was little, I was naughty and never sat still to eat properly, always running around. She fed me just like this. Do you think she was tired?”

Qing Ye fell silent and said no more. Seeing he had no intention of leaving, she put down her pen and looked at him: “Aren’t you going to practice driving tonight?”

“Not going, the driving school is on break.”

“How’s your practice going?”

Xing Wu looked up with a half-smile and said: “I have no flaws, except for being naturally gifted.”

Qing Ye finally smiled too. Xing Wu took her hand, looking at her clean, slender fingers, and said, “Let’s go to the county town tomorrow to buy new clothes. Children here all wear new clothes for the New Year.”

Qing Ye’s eyes gradually curved into crescents: “I’m not a child.”

Xing Wu’s rough fingertips slowly caressed the back of her hand as he smiled and said, “Child, your birthday is coming up.”

“Little brother, your birthday is coming up too.”

They looked at each other and started laughing, but just then a voice suddenly came from the doorway: “Wu Zi, go buy some Spring Festival couplets from the county town tomorrow, and also…”

Li Lanfang froze at the doorway, seeing their hands on the table, and changed course: “What are you doing?”

Qing Ye instantly turned pale with fright, but Xing Wu calmly turned Qing Ye’s palm over and replied steadily: “Reading her palm.”

“…Reading your mother’s head, talking nonsense all day, get out here and stop bothering Qing Ye.”

Xing Wu leisurely let go of Qing Ye and stood up. As he reached the door, he turned back and quirked his lips at her, leaving Qing Ye’s heart still pounding.