Chapter 54: Sprinting Towards the Monthly Exam ⑥
The next morning, Nie Qiu emerged from her space early. She checked the clock; it was past five. Summer days dawned early, and it was already dim light past five. Nie Qiu put on her school uniform, walked out of her room, and saw Nie Aifang making breakfast in the kitchen.
“I’m using the leftover vegetables from the day before yesterday to make steamed buns. I ground some soy milk with a small stone mill. It’s just finished boiling. Put some white sugar in the pot and stir it a couple of times, then scoop it into a bowl. It can be drunk once it cools down a bit,” Nie Aifang said as she placed the wrapped steamed buns into the steamer and then covered the pot lid.
Nie Qiu nodded with a smile, “I’ll eat after I wash up.” Nowadays, people in the city all have soy milk machines, but their family has a small stone mill, about fifteen inches in size, small and very cute. Every day, Nie Aifang would grind some pure, original soy milk for her to drink.
After Nie Qiu had washed up, Nie Aifang used a disposable food container meant for barbecues to pack a few small steamed buns for Nie Qiu. Then, she grabbed a large steamed bun with her hand and handed it to Nie Qiu, “I hung your schoolbag behind the door. I remember you said last night you wanted to be at school by six, so don’t be late.”
Nie Qiu took the steamed bun, nodded with a smile, took her schoolbag from the nail on the back of the door, and looked at Nie Aifang, “Okay, Mom, I’m leaving now.”
“Go ahead!” Nie Aifang stood at the entrance of the makeshift kitchen on the balcony and waved to Nie Qiu, who was standing at the doorway.
Nie Qiu walked towards the school while eating the steamed bun. By the time she neared the school, she had finally finished the steamed bun in her hand. When she arrived at school, not many students from various classes had arrived yet. However, as she walked into her own classroom, Nie Qiu was surprised to find that everyone in the class had arrived, even those who hadn’t registered to attend morning self-study yesterday.
She had originally thought that some of those who had registered might not be able to get out of bed and wouldn’t come to morning self-study!
As Nie Qiu walked into the classroom, a few classmates greeted her. She smiled and walked to her seat, took out her mathematics book from her schoolbag, walked to the lectern, and wrote ‘Quadratic Function’ in large characters on the blackboard. Then she looked at the students in the classroom and said, “Yesterday we finished discussing linear functions, and today we will talk about quadratic functions. What differentiates our quadratic functions from linear functions is…”
She continued lecturing until her throat became hoarse. Although her throat was very uncomfortable, seeing that all the students were actively studying and actively asking questions when they didn’t understand, making progress bit by bit, she felt it was all worth it. If her appearance could change some people, she would still feel happy, after all, she could find her true value.
“The five problems I’ve written on the blackboard represent five different types of quadratic function problems. Everyone write them down in your notebooks and do them as practice questions. Complete them by this morning. At noon, I will have student Huang Yan collect the notebooks. Those who make mistakes will have to redo the same type of problem ten times.” Huang Yan was the girl who came to ask her questions yesterday morning. Although a bit shy, she was indeed a serious and responsible person. After speaking, Nie Qiu walked down from the lectern. Returning to her seat, Nie Qiu looked around. The students in the classroom were copying the problems from the blackboard, and the only sound was the rustling of pen tips against paper, with no other noise.
Nie Qiu watched, and then she started to smile.
Li Kai nervously took a bottle of imported milk from his desk and placed it on Nie Qiu’s desk in front of her. “Nie Qiu, thank you.”
Nie Qiu looked down at the milk on her desk in surprise and then at Li Kai. “You…” As soon as the words left her mouth, she could feel her throat was dry and sore.
Li Kai smiled and said, “This is compound milk; it has a throat-soothing effect.”
Nie Qiu picked up the milk, removed the straw, then took the straw out of the milk box and held it to Li Kai’s mouth. “You drink first; I’m afraid you might have put laxatives in it.”
Li Kai was somewhat amused and exasperated. He took a sip of milk from the straw of the milk bottle Nie Qiu was holding.
Seeing this, Nie Qiu put the milk straw into her own mouth with relief and began to drink slowly. She indeed needed to soothe her throat. She was someone who wouldn’t mistreat herself, nor did she want to mistreat herself because of a small grievance.
Li Kai watched Nie Qiu drink the milk, his lips biting the spot where he had drunk from. He couldn’t help but swallow, and with some difficulty, he shifted his gaze to the window. He saw Nie Qiu’s reflection on the windowpane, and his gaze gradually became lost in it. He didn’t have to worry about being discovered; this must be what his elder sister called an indirect kiss in the idol dramas she watched at home, right? He touched his lips; they felt tingly, as if an electric current had passed through them.
“A Kai, aren’t you copying the problems on the blackboard? Huang Yan is going to erase them soon.” Zhang Haiyang, who was sitting in front of Nie Qiu and Li Kai, turned around and saw Li Kai staring blankly at the window. He was somewhat confused and waved his hand in front of Li Kai’s eyes. “A Kai? A Kai? What are you looking at?”
Li Kai snapped back to reality and, somewhat annoyed, slapped his notebook into Zhang Haiyang’s hand. “You copy the problems for me and give them to me when you’re done.” Once the problems were copied, he could do them himself.
Nie Qiu glanced at Li Kai and lowered her head with some disappointment. She had originally thought Li Kai would also want to study, but she didn’t expect him to still have others copy for him. She sighed and suddenly felt the milk still in her hand was an eyesore. She closed her eyes and threw the unfinished milk into the trash can behind her.
Li Kai caught a glimpse of Nie Qiu’s action out of the corner of his eye. The corner of his mouth twitched. Nie Qiu… did she also know the term ‘indirect kiss’? Did she think of it, know it, and therefore dislike it? Was she disgusted? Did she find it disgusting? Did she… hate him?
At 8:05, the bell for the first class rang. Teacher Yang walked into the classroom right on time, placed the prepared textbook on the lectern, and smiled at the students in the classroom.
Li Kai stood up and said loudly, “Attention!”
The students all stood up obediently, bowed, and said, “Good morning, Teacher!”
“Good morning, students. Please sit down.” Teacher Yang was very happy. He looked at the students in the classroom and said with a smile, “I have some good news to tell you all. Our application for make-up classes on Saturdays and Sundays has been approved. You all need to remember to come to school on Saturdays and Sundays, understand?”
“Understood!” Those who genuinely wanted to learn answered loudly.
“There’s a monthly exam in two weeks. I hope everyone can achieve good grades. Not necessarily surpassing Class 1, but at least surpassing Class 9. Do you all have confidence?” Teacher Yang asked with a smile again.
“We have confidence!”
Speaking of the monthly exam, Li Kai looked at Nie Qiu and hesitantly asked, “Nie Qiu, if you do well in the monthly exam, are you really going to leave Class 10 and go to Class 1?”
