Eighteen

Throughout her second year of high school, Huang Chengzhu's interactions with Xiaoying remained unchanged. They still exchanged letters about their daily lives and studies, and occasionally, Sasha would invite her to visit Xiaoying together, the three of them finding a cheap little restaurant to share a meal.

But her mindset had shifted—she was now more positive and determined. With an environment vastly superior to Xiaoying's, what excuse did she have to slack off in her studies? Excelling academically meant she could help Xiaoying even more. Xiaoying had once told her, "Holding the advantage means you have control. The more options you have, the less likely you'll be forced to compromise against your will."

Huang Qi found this deeply persuasive. They were both seventeen, yet Xiaoying—half a year younger—seemed so much more mature. She no longer dreamed of attending the same university as Xiaoying. The country was vast, universities many, and the college entrance exam riddled with uncertainties—ending up together at the same school was unlikely. But at the very least, she could choose to apply to universities within the same city. Cities like Shanghai, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Hangzhou all boasted a variety of universities. Attending different schools in the same city, seeing each other every so often, wasn't that good enough?

Motivated by Xiaoying, Huang Chengzhu's grades steadily improved throughout her second year, eventually stabilizing within the top ten of her grade. As the final year approached, neighbors praised her as "a sure candidate for a prestigious university." Although her parents, Mr. Huang and Ms. Ding, never pressured her, she could sense their expectations.

As Huang Chengzhu's grueling final year of high school began, Sasha successfully moved from Experimental Elementary School to Experimental Middle School. The young girl excitedly invited Huang Qi and Sha Zhouyin out—their first city gathering. Together, they visited the free Lanling Park downtown, finally fulfilling Sasha's wish to go boating.

Then came the relentless darkness of senior year. Each day began with early reading at seven in the morning, and self-study stretched until ten at night. Four classes each in the morning, afternoon, and evening, plus supplementary lessons during meal breaks—altogether, she attended fourteen or fifteen classes a day.

Mock exams every two months, diagnostic tests monthly, and endless real and practice papers every day: past national college entrance exams from every province, mock exams, and practice sets from renowned schools like Huanggang and Qidong. Piles upon piles of test papers seemed never-ending.

Time passed in this unceasing whirlwind. Over two months had gone by before Huang Qi realized she hadn't received a letter from Xiaoying in quite some time. At first, she assumed Xiaoying was just as busy with senior year, perhaps too occupied to write, and wondered if he was still working part-time.

Another two months passed—a full semester—and still nothing arrived.

The winter break of senior year lasted barely more than ten days. After the new year, upon returning to school, Sasha sought out Huang Qi and asked, "Xiaoying came home for the holiday. He asked me to find out—are you too busy to reply to his letters? He said he asked you a very important question in one of them!" The little girl grinned mischievously.

Huang Qi was surprised. "I didn't get anything. When did he send the letters?"

"Ah?" Sasha was taken aback. "I forgot to ask, but it should have been a while ago. He said he wrote several."

Huang Qi sensed something was wrong. Ordinary mail rarely gets lost within the city, and she and Xiaoying had exchanged letters for so long without a single one going missing. During the lunch break, she went to the mailroom to check, but found nothing addressed to her. Rifling through the pile, she noticed that every letter was for first- or second-year students—not a single one for seniors. She asked the doorman, "Uncle, why aren't there any letters for seniors? Are they delivered elsewhere?"

The doorman glanced at her and replied perfunctorily, "There just aren't any, I guess."

The odds of dozens of letters with not a single one for seniors were implausible. Growing suspicious, she lied, "I'm in Senior 3, Class 8. The college entrance exam is coming up and my family mailed me my old award certificates for bonus points. It's been more than ten days and I haven't received them. Could you please keep an eye out?"

The doorman grew anxious. "Important documents like that shouldn't be sent by regular mail! They're easily lost! If it's been ten days, they would've arrived already!" He lowered his voice, "I'll let you in on a secret—all letters for seniors go directly to your homeroom teachers. You'd better go ask your homeroom teacher so those important letters don't get tossed out as junk!"

Huang Qi had heard of teachers confiscating students' mail, and it was hardly surprising for this to happen in senior year. She reasoned that her correspondence with Xiaoying focused mostly on academic questions—entirely wholesome—so she should be able to retrieve them.

Back at the school building, she was about to head to the teachers' office when she noticed Yu Weiwei peering suspiciously through the back window of their classroom. Amused, she crept up and tapped Yu Weiwei on the shoulder.

Yu Weiwei, startled by her own guilty conscience, nearly screamed. Realizing it was Huang Qi teasing her, she pounded her with her little fists in protest.

Fending off the assault, Huang Qi said, "All right, all right. I’ll call out whoever you’re looking for, okay?”

Since the first year, Yu Weiwei often came to Huang Qi with questions. On a few occasions, when Huang Qi was absent, she encountered their class’s math representative, Liang Zhenyu. After several such meetings, the two developed feelings for each other and began dating. Liang Zhenyu’s grades were even better than Huang Qi’s, and with his help, Yu Weiwei’s academic performance improved, freeing Huang Qi from tutoring duties.

Huang Qi went into the classroom, tapped Liang Zhenyu’s desk, and pointed to Yu Weiwei’s head peeking through the window. Liang Zhenyu understood immediately, dropped the test paper he was working on, and hurried out to meet his girlfriend.

Huang Qi wandered through the classroom for a bit, then decided to continue her quest for the homeroom teacher.

It was lunchtime; the teachers were resting in their offices, students were either studying or relaxing in classrooms, and the hallways were deserted. Liang Zhenyu and Yu Weiwei walked ahead—having not seen each other all winter break, longing and emboldened by the empty corridors, Liang Zhenyu wrapped his arm around Yu Weiwei and stole a kiss.

By unfortunate coincidence, homeroom teacher Ms. Li emerged from her office just in time to witness the scene. She was instantly furious. "Liang Zhenyu! And you, young lady—aren’t you from the branch campus’s liberal arts class? Both of you, come to my office!"

Yu Weiwei, timid by nature, was stunned with fright. Liang Zhenyu pulled her along into the office. Huang Qi, on her way to request her letters, followed but thought better of interrupting, so she waited outside the door.

The office door was wide open, and Ms. Li's admonitions carried clearly to Huang Qi standing in the hallway. "I’ve known about you two for a while now. You're both seventeen or eighteen—it's normal for teenagers to have feelings for the opposite sex. As long as you maintain propriety and keep your relationship within the bounds of pure friendship, I won’t interfere. But dating in high school is absolutely forbidden; that’s a line you cannot cross. Especially now, with only half a year left before the college entrance exam—this is the crucial sprint, and everyone must focus all their energy on preparing. How can you afford distractions? Liang Zhenyu, you’re the math class rep and have always ranked in the top five. Yet last semester you slipped to twelfth—was it because of this?"

Liang Zhenyu hastily replied, "No, Ms. Li. I messed up on my own last semester. I misread the last physics problem and lost twenty points. The scores were all very close, so I fell to twelfth. It had nothing to do with Weiwei. Please don't blame her."

Ms. Li continued, "With only a few months before the exam and plenty of mock tests behind you, you should know your capabilities by now. You know what your teachers and parents expect of you. Every year for the past few years, a dozen of our students have been admitted to the nation’s top three universities. If you keep your rank, those schools are within reach. But if you fall to the teens, you’ll miss them entirely and drop to a lower tier. Do you understand?"

Liang Zhenyu muttered, "I understand, Ms. Li."

Ms. Li paused, then turned to Yu Weiwei. "And you, young lady. I know you’re in the branch campus’s liberal arts class, and your grades are average. You know what Liang Zhenyu’s aiming for. Don’t you want to go to college with him? Then you could date openly—wouldn’t that be nice? Even if you can’t get into the same school, at least try to be in the same city. Out-of-province schools have high cut-off scores; shouldn’t you work harder? You wouldn’t want him to be a top student at T University or P University while his girlfriend only gets into a third-tier college or vocational school, would you? That would be embarrassing. Or do you want him to lower his standards to accommodate you?"

Yu Weiwei had already started to cry. "Ms. Li, I don’t... I want him to do well, and I want to be better too... I’m trying my best..."

"Then why distract him at this critical moment?"

"I’m sorry, Ms. Li. I won’t come looking for him again..."

Hearing Yu Weiwei sobbing, Huang Qi wanted to go in and help her. Just then, a teacher from the neighboring class returned to the office, saw her standing at the door, and asked, "Huang Qi, are you looking for Ms. Li? Why are you waiting out here? Go in."

Ms. Li looked up and saw Huang Qi, so she went in and stood behind Yu Weiwei, gently patting her on the back. "Ms. Li, Yu Weiwei was my classmate in junior high. She’s always been diligent and motivated, and ever since she met Liang Zhenyu, her grades have improved a lot. I believe they encourage each other to improve, so please don’t scold them."

Ms. Li’s expression darkened. "Don’t defend them—you can’t even manage your own affairs. In fact, I was about to speak to you." She turned back to further admonish Liang Zhenyu and Yu Weiwei, extracting promises from them to devote themselves to their studies, prepare wholeheartedly for the exam, avoid meeting frequently, and never repeat such inappropriate behavior. Only then did she let them leave.

With the two gone, only Huang Qi remained in the office. Ms. Li looked displeased. Huang Qi asked, "Ms. Li, what did you want to speak to me about?"

Ms. Li sat down at her desk, her face stern. "Huang Qi, tell me honestly—are you also involved in a puppy love affair with a boy from another school?"

Huang Chengzhu blushed, but recalling Ms. Li’s earlier words about innocent friendships, she replied, "No."

Ms. Li opened a drawer, pulled out a stack of letters, and slapped them on the desk. "No? Then what’s this?"

There were seven or eight letters in total, most of them from Sha Zhouyin, written in his familiar neat handwriting, with identical addresses and signatures. Two or three were letters Huang Qi herself had sent out, also intercepted. The envelopes had all been opened—Ms. Li had clearly read them.

"You’ve been corresponding with this boy from Vocational School No. 3 since your first year. I let it go, but it’s gotten worse in your final year! I don’t know what you top students are thinking—do you find someone different exciting or thrilling? A poor student from the branch campus is one thing, but even a boy from Vocational School No. 3? Don’t you know what those boys are like?"

Ms. Li’s experience chaperoning the infamous Bai Luyao incident had left her with a strong prejudice against the vocational school. Huang Qi, not wanting to argue, simply said, "You’ve read our letters. They’re all about studying. Surely you can see there’s nothing inappropriate."

"Nothing inappropriate? Would ordinary classmates say this kind of thing?" Ms. Li, worked up, pulled out the top letter, opened it, and pointed to the closing lines. "Is this what normal classmates write?"

The letter drifted onto Huang Qi's face. The paper was pure white, the characters written in black ink, crisp and clear. Xiaoying’s handwriting was neat and precise, as if one could sense the care and seriousness with which he wrote.

At the end of the letter, it read: "Xiao Qi, I have never given up on you."

It was lunchtime. Students were resting or studying in their classrooms; the hallways were quiet, every sound carrying down the corridor. Hearing the commotion, some students poked their heads out to see what was happening, whispering among themselves.

One of Class Eight’s top students, last semester ranked in the top ten, Huang Qi, was actually being scolded to tears by the homeroom teacher in the office.

The resolute and indomitable Huang Chengzhu was crying. With those words from Xiaoying, all the waiting and patience were worth it.