Leaving Kuang Ren, Quan Ya called Xing Wu to visit Boss Cao, the former owner of Shun Yi. As was their yearly custom during New Year’s, they would visit him. Xing Wu told Qing Ye to go back first with Fat Tiger and the others, saying he’d return soon.

Huang Mao interjected: “Qing Ye, don’t go back. Come and have dinner at my place. Brother Wu, you can come directly there when you’re done.”

Xing Wu looked at Qing Ye, and she nodded indifferently. She’d be alone if she went back anyway, so she might as well wait for him with Huang Mao and the others.

Fat Tiger, Lang Dai, and the group all went to Huang Mao’s house. Seeing his classmates arrive, Huang Mao’s mother welcomed them warmly. Qing Ye entered last, and as soon as Huang Mao’s mother saw her, she came forward asking: “You must be Qing Ye?”

This was Qing Ye’s first time meeting Huang Mao’s mother. She smiled and said: “Hello, Auntie.”

Huang Mao’s mother looked Qing Ye up and down, remarking: “Our little Gong Zi mentions you often. You’re really pretty.”

“…” What was with this ‘little Gong Zi’?

Huang Mao embarrassedly pulled his mother away. They all went into the room, where Huang Mao turned on the TV and told Qing Ye: “Sit anywhere, make yourself at home,” then brought her some snacks.

The others were regulars at Huang Mao’s house and felt completely at ease. The group watched TV and chatted while waiting for dinner.

When the conversation turned to the County Sports Meet, Huang Mao suddenly said: “Do you think Da Cao insisting Brother Wu participate in the County Sports Meet has something to do with what happened three years ago?”

Everyone fell silent. Qing Ye looked up at them and asked: “What happened three years ago?”

Lang Dai cut in: “Back when Cao Ping was in junior high, he was on their school’s track and field team, representing the school in many competitions. I never saw it myself, but people say he was quite impressive then. Even teachers from the city sports school came to recruit him, saying if he placed well in the County Sports Meet, he could get direct admission to their key training program.”

This was the first time Qing Ye had heard that the lackadaisical Da Cao was once a promising athlete. She couldn’t help asking: “Then what happened?”

Huang Mao continued: “Before the competition, he got into a fight and was disqualified. The person he fought with was Brother Wu’s classmate, who was also disqualified. The coach then asked Brother Wu to be a substitute. Who would have thought that year Brother Wu would win first place in five track and field events? Because of this, Da Cao couldn’t get into the sports school and had to settle for vocational school. He definitely couldn’t swallow this.”

Fat Tiger sighed: “The k-key is, Da Cao thinks Brother Wu’s people deliberately provoked him to get him d-disqualified.”

Huang Mao immediately retorted: “What does it have to do with Brother Wu? He was just asked to fill in at the last minute. He didn’t even care about the rankings. In the years since Old Dong has tried to get him to participate every year, but Brother Wu wouldn’t bother.”

Qing Ye fell silent. Looking at it this way, Xing Wu’s later refusal to participate was probably to avoid controversy. If she remembered correctly, forget these sports events, Xing Wu didn’t even attend regular PE classes, and he seemed particularly averse to anything sports-related.

But she had seen him throw the shot put, seen his agility when making layups, and his performance in the obstacle race against Jin Zhong. He had the ability, but he never wanted to show it in this arena.

If what they said was true, and Da Cao and Xing Wu had this history, then Da Cao must have been planning this County Sports Meet for a long time. For him, it was perhaps an obsession, which was why he would use any means necessary to force Xing Wu to participate again.

At their age, this was the last year they could participate in the County Sports Meet. After graduating high school, they would no longer be eligible. So Da Cao wouldn’t miss this chance to thoroughly defeat Xing Wu and avenge himself.

Qing Ye asked: “How do Xing Wu and Da Cao’s abilities compare?”

They all looked at each other, and Huang Mao told her honestly: “They’ve never properly competed, but no one in the county has broken Da Cao’s records. Even Brother Wu’s performance that year was slightly behind Da Cao’s, which is why Da Cao isn’t convinced and has felt for all these years that Brother Wu sabotaged him.”

That evening, when returning from Huang Mao’s house after dinner, Xing Wu asked Qing Ye for the Kamen Rider pendant she had picked up at the fire scene, though he didn’t say what he wanted it for.

Back at the hotel, Qing Ye anxiously asked Xing Wu how confident he was about the County Sports Meet. Xing Wu replied distractedly: “Neither of us has trained for several years, it’s hard to say.”

“What happens if you can’t win?”

Xing Wu turned to look at her, his brows knitting briefly before suddenly relaxing as he said: “The competition result isn’t important.”

At the time, Qing Ye didn’t understand what Xing Wu meant by this, and he didn’t explain why he didn’t care about the outcome. But soon their lives became increasingly busy as the New Year drew to a close.

To avoid taking care of the elderly grandmother, Xing Guo Dong insisted on returning to work before the New Year celebrations were even over, which angered Xing Wu.

Although Li Lan Fang had been unable to accept the divorce a few days ago, Xing Wu’s attitude over these days had sobered her considerably. She also realized that if she didn’t agree to the divorce, her son might abandon her, so ultimately Xing Guo Dong and Li Lan Fang agreed to divorce.

The day after the papers were signed, Xing Guo Dong left Zha Zha Ting. Then Xing Wu told Li Lan Fang about the plans to build a house, so after just one day of feeling down, she perked up again. She even complained to Xing Wu about why he hadn’t told her earlier – if she had known about the house building, she definitely wouldn’t have given Xing Guo Dong the chance to interfere. Xing Wu just looked at his mother and chuckled without saying anything.

After all these years, he knew his mother’s character well. If he had told her earlier, once she started showing off, not just Xing Guo Dong but the whole of Zha Zha Ting would have known about their plans to rebuild the house.

…

After the seventh day of the New Year, Xing Wu said the driving school had reopened, so he had to commute during the day. He would leave early in the morning, and return at noon to bring Qing Ye food, sometimes they would cuddle for a while, but after just an hour he would have to rush out again.

Meanwhile, Qing Ye shook off her lazy holiday mood and returned to practicing exam questions.

Old Xie returned on the eighth day. Qing Ye didn’t know how Xing Wu negotiated with him, but for fifty thousand yuan, they not only got the operating rights to the factory equipment, but Old Xie also promised to provide a batch of raw materials and offer free guidance and transition support initially.

To Qing Ye, this seemed like an incredible bargain. But thinking again, she realized this crafty old man was quite cunning – these raw materials and food sources were from his supply, so if Qing Ye could get the factory running, he would still profit in the future.

Xing Wu called back Liu Nian and Du Qi Yan, and they started familiarizing themselves with the processes at the factory on the ninth day. Qing Ye was more cautious – she started checking the accounts on the tenth day. Fortunately, the factory was so small that there weren’t many bad accounts or debts, so after completing the verification, Qing Ye urged Old Xie to proceed with the transfer procedures.

She had wanted to ask Xing Wu to come along, but he had too many things to handle these days – arranging the house construction, visiting building material markets, going to driving school and consulting with the county hospital about his grandmother’s hospitalization. So when it came time to handle the registration changes, Qing Ye could only go with Old Xie by herself.

There was a lot of paperwork involved, and this was Qing Ye’s first time dealing with it. To save on agency fees, she made several trips to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau herself before finally getting everything done.

When she emerged with the changed documents, it was a bright sunny day. She stopped at the entrance of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau and took a deep breath in the warm sunlight. The air was dry with a crisp taste – after nearly half a year here, she seemed to have grown accustomed to this flavor, from initial rejection to current contentment, simply because she had found her belonging here, and her restless heart no longer needed to drift.

In high spirits, Qing Ye made a video call to Xing Wu. As soon as he answered, she proudly waved the fresh business license in front of the camera, saying with a smile: “I’m now the legal representative!”

Sensing her excitement, Xing Wu smiled back through the video: “Congratulations, CEO Qing, you’re one step closer to making lots of money.”

Qing Ye giggled over the phone, but as she laughed, she noticed something wasn’t right. Behind Xing Wu, nurses were hurrying back and forth, and it seemed very noisy. She asked him: “Where are you?”

Xing Wu told her: “At the hospital. Grandmother hasn’t eaten anything since yesterday, so I brought her here.”

Qing Ye asked which hospital. Fortunately, it wasn’t far from her, so she immediately hailed a taxi and went over.

When she found Xing Wu at the hospital, he was in the inpatient department’s doctor’s office, talking seriously with his grandmother’s attending physician. Qing Ye quietly stood at the door, not wanting to disturb them.

Even so, she heard some of their conversation. From what the middle-aged doctor was saying, grandmother’s intestinal function had severely deteriorated, and they could only temporarily use a nasogastric tube to help her eat. For elderly patients with dementia, refusing to eat was typically a late-stage symptom. There was no particularly effective treatment method at present; they could only hospitalize her for maintenance and enhanced care.

Finally, Xing Wu asked the doctor about hospitalization costs. Including nursing care, it would cost at least four thousand yuan per month. He thanked the doctor and left.

Leaving the hospital, Qing Ye and he walked hand in hand along the small path beside the inpatient department. Being still during the New Year period, the inpatient department was somewhat quiet. Although this should have been a joyous day for Qing Ye, neither of them spoke.

Four thousand yuan a month was a significant burden for high school students like them. Although Qing Ye felt this price was quite reasonable including nursing care, the sad reality was they couldn’t afford it.

Grandmother hadn’t eaten for two days already. Taking her out of the hospital would be equivalent to a death sentence. Not only could Xing Wu not do such a thing, but even Qing Ye couldn’t bear it. Although they both knew grandmother’s condition probably couldn’t be cured, they couldn’t take her home from the hospital to wait for death.

So she turned her head to look at Xing Wu and said: “We can’t give up. There must be a way.”

Xing Wu stopped walking and looked at her. The golden light fell on her fair face, her gaze so bright as the sun at its zenith, blazing and dazzling. She perhaps didn’t know how much strength these words gave Xing Wu at that moment. He simply pulled her into his arms and held her tight, all words dissolving into this embrace, immersed in the winter’s warm sunlight.

…

After the tenth day, Qing Ye had Xiao Ling Tong spread the word that her college entrance exam intensive study class was officially starting. Qing Ye couldn’t remember which meal it was when she mentioned this to Xing Wu, and although he hadn’t had time to visit the factory lately, the night before classes started, he somehow managed to bring her a mobile blackboard. However, he only had time to assemble it at night, and when he returned to the hotel, Qing Ye was already asleep. After his shower, he got into bed and held her without waking her up.

The next day when Qing Ye went to the factory, she discovered the large blackboard. She stood before it, excited for quite a while. With the blackboard, the tutoring class suddenly felt more legitimate.

She stood before the bare blackboard for a long while, suddenly feeling she should write something. So on the far right of the blackboard, she wrote six beautiful hollow block letters: “Charge for Peking U, Occupy Tsinghua.”

After writing this, she finally felt it had the flavor of an intensive prep class. At the top of the blackboard, she wrote the countdown to the college entrance exam: 105 days.

Looking at these 105 days, her mood suddenly grew heavy. After these 105 days, would she have to leave this place? She suddenly felt afraid of this number.

The first day of class was still during the New Year period. Qing Ye thought not many people would come. She arrived at the factory early and discussed production processes with Liu Nian and Yan Yan. People started arriving just after eight o’clock.

To Qing Ye’s surprise, more and more people came. By eight-thirty when class officially started, there were over thirty people seated in front of the factory. Some she had seen at the winter camp, others were from different classes whom Qing Ye didn’t know at all. Fortunately, Xiao Ling Tong had properly notified everyone to bring their own stools, otherwise there wouldn’t have been anywhere to sit.

Qing Ye stood at the front, somewhat dazed as she looked at the dense crowd, realizing they were mostly the better-performing students from various classes in An Zhong’s third year.

In other words, these were the people who genuinely wanted to achieve good scores and were willing to sacrifice their New Year holiday. As soon as they got the news, they rushed over. After the school canceled evening self-study, these were the people who suffered the most. Among them, there might not be many extremely high scorers, but the vast majority had solid foundations – they were all top students from their classes. Qing Ye silently observed these people and quietly folded up the test paper she had prepared.

Standing at the front, she suddenly smiled at them and pointed to the six large characters on the right side of the blackboard, asking: “Do you understand what these six characters mean?”

Below, regardless of their grades, everyone looked somewhat bewilderedly at those six characters. Peking University, Tsinghua University – the dream of all third-year students.

And dreams seemed so out of reach.

Qing Ye walked directly to those six characters, her gaze bright as she looked at them: “These six characters don’t just represent school names, they remind you of the distance to the finish line. I know some of you are only tens of points away from this goal, while others might be over three hundred points away. From now on, please look at how much you’ve shortened your distance every time you step in here.

No matter what your target school was before coming here, from today on, everyone’s goal is these six characters.”

Qing Ye waved the test papers in her hand: “To be honest, I prepared a relatively simple test today. Originally, I thought I’d help pull up your scores bit by bit, starting from the basics.”

“But I’ve changed my mind.”

Saying this, she threw aside the papers in her hand and walked directly to that intimidating number, telling everyone: “105 days. We’re racing against time. We no longer have time to consolidate basics. From now on, I’ll directly tackle key problems. Don’t tell me you don’t understand – even if you don’t understand, grit your teeth and listen. I know you’re scared when you see complex problems, but no problem is scarier than survival. Think about what’s scarier – eating dirt in the future or one tough problem!

I can’t guarantee everyone will get into their dream school, but I can guarantee that most of you will make it to first-tier universities in the limited time we have.”

Faced with Qing Ye’s confident gaze, most people still looked confused. Qing Ye found their expressions amusing and walked straight to the desk, placing both hands on it: “Are you stunned? I’m not Teacher Zhu – give me some reaction!”

Everyone laughed, with Fat Tiger leading the applause and pumping up the energy. Somehow, early in the morning, everyone became mysteriously energized, feeling like they were about to do something big.

People who came initially had a casual attitude, thinking they’d be studying anyway, and might as well do it in a crowd.

But after a few days, the better-performing students started to see the method to it. Qing Ye’s choice of problems was extremely targeted, basically covering numerous knowledge points. She didn’t choose tricky difficult problems, nor basic ones, but rather complex problems at the intermediate level. While explaining problems, she imperceptibly incorporated basic knowledge points, allowing weaker students to continuously consolidate while simultaneously raising the difficulty level, letting better-performing students constantly improve their problem-solving abilities.

Teacher Zhu somehow heard about this and often rode his old bicycle over during the day to look around. His home wasn’t far from Target Factory, and he often brought food from home to share with the students.

At first, Qing Ye felt quite awkward about Teacher Zhu’s grand presence, feeling somewhat unnatural, wondering if she should invite him up to guide them.

However, Teacher Zhu told them not to mind him, saying his home was too noisy with people, and he came here for some peace.

Other students just felt that listening to Qing Ye explain problems wasn’t taxing. For example, problems they would have previously avoided, after Qing Ye’s analysis, didn’t seem so difficult to understand. Her confidence and composure had a powerful infectious quality, suddenly uniting a group of students who had been studying like headless flies.

But Teacher Zhu, as a math teacher with many years of experience, discovered something shocking after listening a few times.

Qing Ye broke down all scoring points into test points, then divided regions into modules for targeted attacks based on these points, integrated test points into problems, and then broke them down for analysis, ultimately reclaiming each scoring point.

She had an extremely powerful mental map supporting her, able to precisely extract key knowledge points. The most difficult step in this process was the breakdown – without solving countless problems and mastering an enormous question bank, it would be impossible to achieve such precision. Some of her breakdown methods even left Teacher Zhu in awe, and sometimes he would become as absorbed as the students while listening.

After a week, the intensive class expanded from thirty to over forty people. Teacher Zhu secretly coordinated with several third-year teachers to get a batch of desks and chairs for these students. Qing Ye never imagined that a humble intensive class would become increasingly legitimate with everyone’s help, and these third-year students officially began their legendary night-cramming life.