The Scorching Sun - 54
After a week away, Fang Zhuo's desk was buried beneath a mountain of worksheets.
Yan Lie helped her sort through them, gathering the answer sheets and notes and organizing the assignments for each subject together.
Fang Zhuo had managed to finish some of the papers in her spare moments, but the rest still sat there in a thick stack, enough to crush anyone's will to live.
Zhao Jiayou and the others still had visible marks from their earlier fight. When they saw her, they looked up and smiled before lowering their heads and going back to their questions.
The second mock exam was fast approaching, and the teachers for every subject had begun assigning workloads designed to test the limits of human endurance.
Senior year was so relentlessly busy that any absurdity or upheaval was nothing more than a splash on the surface of the sea. It might stir things up for a moment, but soon enough, everything settled back into silence.
Fang Zhuo placed the straw figure she'd brought home beside the window, then checked on the other potted plants. Just as Yan Lie had said, the soil was still damp. Who knew how many times they'd watered it out of the goodness of their hearts over the past week? It would take a little longer before she could tell whether the plants had actually survived.
She unzipped her backpack and pulled out a large bag of apples and another bag of milk. Following the names the young policeman had given her, she handed them out one by one.
She didn't have much to offer as thanks. Although Ye Yuncheng had been discharged, he still needed some time to recover, and money was tight. All she could afford was a little fruit. Besides, she suspected this bunch wouldn't accept anything too expensive.
Zhao Jiayou and the others took their gifts with delighted surprise.
When it was Shen Musi's turn, Fang Zhuo handed him a strawberry cake.
Shen Musi instantly lit up. He shot to his feet and announced, "I'm the most special! See that?"
"She means you're the only one who still needs to be bottle-fed," Zhao Jiayou snorted. "And what exactly did you contribute? You needed two people just to help you climb a wall!"
Shen Musi snapped, "Mind your own business!"
When Fang Zhuo returned, Yan Lie held out both hands expectantly. "Deskmate, what about me?"
"Don't be spoiled." Fang Zhuo picked out the reddest apple for him. "Eat it slowly."
Yan Lie beamed. "Thanks, deskmate!"
Fang Zhuo took the remaining fruit and went to the neighboring class to deliver their gifts.
She hadn't even figured out what she was going to say to Bai Lufei and the others when she walked out of the classroom and ran into one of Bai Lufei's friends in the corridor.
The boy froze when he saw her, then turned around and hollered into the classroom, "Bai Lufei! Your goddess is here!"
Bai Lufei immediately rushed out. "Damn it! Don't make things up!"
Of the group, Bai Lufei had suffered the worst injuries. The bruising around his eyes still hadn't faded, making his already-small eyes look even more dazed.
Fang Zhuo stared at his face in silence for two seconds before handing him the apples and milk. "Pass these along to the others for me."
"Thanks."
She said it simply, then stood there for a moment, trying to think of something else to say. Nothing came to her, so she simply turned around to leave.
Bai Lufei hurriedly called after her, "I'm sorry."
Fang Zhuo looked back, tugged lightly at the corner of her mouth, and said casually, "It's fine."
Bai Lufei stared at her in a daze. This was probably the first time he'd ever seen Fang Zhuo give him anything resembling a friendly expression. Before he could stop himself, he asked, "Do we still have a chance?"
"No." Afraid he'd start getting ideas again, Fang Zhuo answered with absolute finality. "Not even if you live to be a hundred."
Bai Lufei's face flushed red. "I get it! You didn't have to emphasize the second part!"
Fang Zhuo gave a quiet "Mm," perfectly at ease. "Goodbye. I'm going back to study."
As soon as evening self-study began, Fang Zhuo was summoned by the teachers for each subject to the office, where they put her through a round of practice papers to see how much ground she'd lost during the past week.
Fang Zhuo had kept up with her science subjects all along. When Yan Lie came to the hospital to tutor her, he had also prioritized explaining new question types and approaches to solving them. Combined with Fang Zhuo's quick mind, she hadn't fallen very far behind.
The humanities were another matter. Being away from school had left Fang Zhuo with intense sense of urgency, an almost hollow feeling that wouldn't let her relax for even a moment. Even when she went outside with Ye Yuncheng for some fresh air, she'd keep a few flash cards in her pocket and pull them out from time to time for a quick look. She shouldn't have missed too much there either.
The teachers selected several representative questions to test her. Fang Zhuo worked through them one by one, and everything went smoothly enough that she gradually relaxed.
Aside from chemistry and biology, where there were a few points she hadn’t completely memorized and had left two blanks on her papers, everything had gone smoothly. She even felt a little more at ease with English than before.
"You always make the most mistakes on the experimental questions." The chemistry teacher went over her paper. "Tomorrow, go through the complete experiment presentation on my computer. It has videos."
Fang Zhuo nodded.
Two teachers beside them were putting together questions and looking up reference material. When they came across a piece of news online, one of them clicked his tongue and said, "Every time I see the phrase 'raising a chicken baby' now, my heart actually hurts. Whoever came up with that expression was a genius."
"You mean the one in the 'chicken baby' section?"
Fang Zhuo had already put down her pen and was waiting for the teacher to finish marking her paper. Hearing this, she asked, "What's a 'chicken baby'?"
The teacher laughed. "Someone like you is a 'chicken baby.' Half the teachers in the senior-year group are constantly trying to inject you with motivation."
The math teacher marked several checks beside her completely correct answers and smiled. "No, someone like her is a 'genius baby.' She's actually excellent at math."
The homeroom teacher sighed. "'Raising a child is less useful than raising yourself.' I spent half an hour trying to motivate Huang Yao from the neighboring class, and she didn't take in a single word."
Fang Zhuo was completely loss.
The old class monitor laughed. "It's just the latest internet slang. It won't be on the exam, so don't worry."
By the time all the subject teachers had taken turns marking her papers, evening self-study was nearly over.
After going over her mistakes with her one by one, the homeroom teacher said, "Go back. Keep it up. Your teacher believes you'll be fine."
Fang Zhuo asked, "Is A University still within reach?"
"If we don't consider your choice of major, then based on the momentum you're showing now, I don't see a problem." The homeroom teacher grew serious. "But we'll still have to see how you perform in the humanities. Promise me you won't fall behind in English and Chinese! And make your handwriting a little neater! Your handwriting is terrible!"
Fang Zhuo ignored the complaint about her handwriting and returned to the classroom full of renewed determination.
Yan Lie was sitting sideways against the wall in his usual lazy posture, a textbook in his hands as he looked through the summary notes. The moment he saw his deskmate return, the blank expression on his face came alive. He broke into a smile. "How'd it go, deskmate?"
"Not bad." Fang Zhuo pulled out her chair. "Thanks to my deskmate's tutoring."
Yan Lie closed his book and looked at her. "Everyone's been worried about you, but I wasn't worried about you at all."
Fang Zhuo shot him a sideways glance, thinking, Who are you trying to fool?
Yan Lie sat up straight, resting his left arm on the desk. His voice was serious. "Because I know that eighteen-year-old Fang Zhuo is unbeatable. I'm not worried that you'll fail. I'm only worried that you'll be hurt by it."
It was deep into the night, and the only light came from the fluorescent lamps overhead. The shadows cast by Yan Lie's thick eyelashes fell halfway across his eyes, leaving his pupils looking dark and fathomless from straight on.
Fang Zhuo's heartbeat quickened, her blood seemed to rush faster through her veins. She looked away and lowered her head, thinking for a moment. In the quiet of the night, she wanted to talk to Yan Lie about life, so she asked, "What university do you want to go to?"
"A University," Yan Lie answered without hesitation.
"Why?" Fang Zhuo asked. "You could go somewhere better, couldn't you?"
"I want to stay in this province." Yan Lie spoke with confidence. "Every province has its own strengths. Most of the country's leading internet companies are based here, and the local government offers a lot of support and resources to emerging businesses. I want to study programming, then stay here and start my own business. I'll open a game studio. You know how much money a successful game company can make?"
Fang Zhuo envied how clearly he could see his future, how firmly he understood his place in the world. He knew what he wanted, and he knew what society could offer him.
She knew none of that. She didn't even know which universities besides A University were considered good, which majors had promising prospects, or which ones might suit her.
"I don't know," Fang Zhuo said. "Then I'll apply to A University too. I'll take whatever major I can get into. If it isn't useful for finding a job, I'll go into academia and continue on to graduate school. I've heard university life is relatively free. I can work part-time while I study."
Yan Lie couldn't help laughing. "Could you stop saying heartbreaking things like that so casually?"
Fang Zhuo was actually serious.
Compared with finding a job, she seemed better suited to studying.
The constant sense of urgency that had surrounded her since childhood had left a deep-rooted mark on her. If she wasn't studying, she easily became anxious.
She didn't like the tedious process of studying, but she loved absorbing knowledge. Learning gave her an overwhelming sense of security.
She was frugal and didn't spend much. She could even earn her own tuition.
"I want to study." Fang Zhuo searched for words to describe the feeling but couldn't find any, so she repeated herself. "As long as I can keep studying, that's enough."
"Mm." Yan Lie listened patiently, a soft light settling over his face. "But eventually, you'll graduate, won't you? Do you want to stay at the university and become a teacher?"
"Probably not."
She wasn't good at dealing with people and didn't particularly like talking. She probably wouldn't know how to handle all kinds of students, nor could she devote herself to them the way their homeroom teacher did. She would feel terribly guilty if she couldn't.
"Maybe I'll take the civil service exam." Fang Zhuo sounded a little embarrassed. "Or become a scientist. Does being a scientist sound too far-fetched?"
Scientists were one of the most common yet mysterious professions in her textbooks. She had always thought there was something impressive about being one.
Yan Lie smiled gently. "Of course you can. There's nothing far-fetched about becoming a scientist. You have so much perseverance, and your reasons for wanting it are so pure. I think you can definitely do it. Being a civil servant would be good too. You could be like Uncle Liu someday."
Encouraged by his confidence in her, Fang Zhuo nodded and continued imagining her future. "When I was at the hospital, I asked around. University students can get paid to write papers, run for other people, attend classes in their place, make group presentations... There are lots of wealthy students at university. Running and doing assignments are things I'm good at. I should be able to make a side business out of helping them."
Yan Lie hadn't expected her to have her future part-time jobs planned out before she'd even entered university. He rolled up a worksheet and tapped her on the head with it. "You don't even have a computer, and you're already planning to make money doing presentations?"
Reminded of that, Fang Zhuo replied with great seriousness, "Right. I need to work first and save up for a computer. Speaking of which, can students pay for computers in installments? How much is the down payment? Do they charge more if you pay late?"
Yan Lie burst out laughing. "Then why don't you do my assignments for me? I'll pay you double!"
Fang Zhuo was generous about it. "You don't have to pay me. I'll do your assignments for you anyway. Of course, I'd still rather you work hard yourself. You're so smart. It'd be a shame not to study."
Yan Lie thought this was quite possibly the most valuable promise he'd ever heard.
"Thanks, my good deskmate." He leaned closer and looked into Fang Zhuo's eyes. "So you're going to university with me?"
Fang Zhuo nodded firmly. "Yes. I'm going to A University with you."
Yan Lie didn't know whether he appeared on Fang Zhuo's map of the future as a clearly marked destination of his own, or merely as a note attached to one of her goals.
As long as Fang Zhuo didn't explain, he was happy to believe there was something beautiful in those words, like he had somehow become part of another person's life, something she couldn't bring herself to leave behind.
And given Fang Zhuo's inability to put such things into words, he thought it was enough for all the reckless impulses of youth to pause here, suspended in this ambiguous declaration. The button that would make the story continue would not appear until the height of summer that year.
After May passed, the weather in A City grew increasingly hot.
With the college entrance examination approaching, more than half a month passed without a drop of rain. The temperature climbed steadily past thirty-five degrees Celsius, the early arrival of summer made students already on edge even more irritable.
Ye Yuncheng's stall reopened, but not wanting Fang Zhuo to worry about him, he changed his hours from serving breakfast to dinner, only going out to work after the sun had set. He also made sure to eat properly every day.
Liu Qiaohong recommended a short-video app to him, saying that his appearance suited the platform and that handsome men tended to attract views more easily these days. Ye Yuncheng was considered one of the best-looking young men in their village, so he persuaded him to cooperate in filming a few short clips and uploaded them online.
Fang Zhuo had no idea what they were talking about, nor did she have any time to spare for distractions. She hadn’t been home once since May began. It seemed she’d only looked away for a moment before the calendar caught her off guard and leapt straight into June.
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