Simon emerged from the examination hall.
The last subject for the Senior High School Entrance Examination was a foreign language. He finished it in an hour, but the invigilator wouldn't let him submit his paper early. Even if he did, he could only wait in the lounge. So, he sat idly in the examination room for an hour and a half, even taking a nap in between.
There were two invigilators in each examination room, both from other schools, one at the front and one at the back, with surveillance cameras pointed at everyone.
After finishing his English exam, Simon leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed. Although he was in the last row, his imposing posture made it seem as if he was sitting in the chief's chair in the Liangshan Gathering Hall. The invigilator at the back of the classroom would occasionally come and stand by his desk, seemingly mistaking him for a hopeless student who had given up.
The male teacher at the front of the classroom had a sour expression and spoke in a harsh tone. He stood rigidly at the podium, staring with wide eyes like a refined and gentle corpse. Many students were intimidated by him, making them somewhat distracted.
Simon stared at him the entire time after finishing his paper. The man, bothered by the death glare, frowned and felt uncomfortable. After a stalemate, he silently walked to the back of the classroom to switch shifts.
Simon was never afraid of anyone. When that guy walked to the back of the classroom, Someone Lu, also in the last row, simply turned his head and continued to glare.
At the end of the exam, the refined and gentle invigilator was driven mad. He collected the papers at the fastest speed of his life, glaring fiercely at Simon, but ultimately dared not say anything.
Simon swaggered towards the bus stop. On the way, he met some of his friends from Ninghu F4, including Zhou Ping. The boys laughed heartily, shouting about their liberation. Seeing Someone Lu, the top student in the entire school, they all gathered around him. Zhang Yingxuan even feigned a sigh, remarking that the foreign language reading comprehension this time was quite strange. Everyone knew this brat's Russian was already top-notch; he always got full marks without fail.
As soon as Zhang Yingxuan spoke, everyone else started clamoring. One said that Chinese Language ancient poetry and classical prose were the death of him, another said that his mind recursively went to tan90° whenever he saw a math problem. History and politics left them dizzy, engineering and geography filled their eyes with desolation, not to mention the three graves of examinees: physics, chemistry, and biology. For a moment, there were cries of woe, drawing sighs and headshakes from those around them.
The naive underachievers gathered around Ninghu F4, discussing the exam questions together.
"What! The last fill-in-the-blank question in math requires a square root?"
"What! The last physics problem also requires calculating magnetic flux?"
"Why haven't I heard of this question you're talking about? Oh, it's the last multiple-choice question. Never mind then."
Zhou Ping stood silently at the edge of the crowd, watching the continuous stream of junior students coming to complain. The ill-intentioned Ninghu F4 blended in with them seamlessly. Perhaps those guys thought everyone had underperformed?
Little did they know, half of the crowd were moles.
Tsk, this bunch, all show-offs.
Zhou Ping recalled the two months leading up to the exam. Ninghu F4 had forced him to study every day. Although he said no, he was genuinely grateful in his heart.
Perhaps it was such a group of enthusiastic, pure, and upright youths who were the true future of the motherland.
Just as the teachers often said: a group of rising suns, like those at eight or nine in the morning.
I, too, should be like them, radiating light and warmth. Not seeking to make great contributions, but to shed the coldness from my body, and as Mr. Zhou Shuren said, just to walk upwards, even like a firefly, I can emit a little light in the darkness.
This light and warmth, for people today, is nothing else but happiness.
While it's true that there is no eternal happiness in the world, such beautiful emotions will not disappear. A strong creative urge arose in Zhou Ping's heart. He wanted to record those moments of joyful expression during his days of drifting like duckweed and wild grass, not with words, not with a camera, but as a game developer.
With a goal in his heart, this once lifeless youth finally let go of the burdens in his chest. Looking at everything around him again, it was clearly still the familiar scene, yet it now held a completely different perspective!
The people and things he disliked, the sweat he shed on the track of the sports field, the hardships he endured in the teaching building, the national flag fluttering in the wind, the empty seats on the podium and spectator stands—everything that happened in the past seemed vivid, yet also blurred when he tried to recall it. He would have few opportunities to return to this campus in this life; even if he went to the high school division, it would be difficult to come back to Chunhua District to see it.
Therefore, the stubborn, rebellious child made peace with himself and with the world today.
The day the Senior High School Entrance Examination ended was July 4th, a Friday. The weather was overcast, turning partly cloudy. In the evening, the sky's dome was Gray (hūiméngméng, hazy gray), and the scattered clouds, high and low, resembled floating islands. In the northwest, where the sun was, brilliant afterglow traversed deep space and the atmosphere, slipping through the gaps in the cloud islands, landing in the jungle of the human city. The tall grass on the sports field's green expanse swayed in the wind, boiling the golden sunset into a frenzy.
Simon squeezed out of the crowd and stood still, opening his arms towards the southeast. The twilight sprouted wings at the edge of his slender silhouette. In the distance, Su Xiangli ran over gracefully, her agile legs striding across the green grass, also opening her arms like a flying swan.
The students on the large sports field all turned to watch them, as if observing a joyous play, a triumphant man embracing the woman who had waited so eagerly for him.
When Simon actually picked up Su Xiangli and spun her around, everyone applauded and cheered.
Su Xiangli pressed her forehead against his, her hands resting straight on Simon's shoulders. Her left leg was straight, her right leg bent, allowing Simon to encircle her waist and lift her, a gentle press of his arm suspending her in mid-air.
They spun symbolically for a while, then Su Xiangli relaxed and stood back on the ground.
"How was the exam?" Simon affectionately touched her nose. Su Xiangli had a thin layer of sweat on her face, dampening the fine down on her cheeks, making them glisten.
"It was alright, the foreign language was quite easy."
"What's your estimated score?"
"For the total score, probably around seven hundred and sixty."
For an art specialist student, a combined cultural and physical education score of seven hundred and sixty meant she could choose any high school in the country.
"Have you decided which school to go to?"
"I like National Arts High School Attached; it's more specialized."
"The one in Zhenjiang?"
"Yes."
Simon pondered which good high schools were in Zhenjiang. There was indeed one, a provincial key school, better than Ninghu High School Division, called Yonghang No. 1 High School. Speaking of Zhenjiang, wasn't there a city-wide top talent from there? There might be a chance to compete in high school.
He took out his earphones and put them on, just about to ask faust to check how far National Arts High School Attached was from Yonghang No. 1 High School, when an email coincidentally arrived.
Simon asked faust to read the email aloud.
"Sender: China National Internet Intelligent Audit Bureau."
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