Mu Ziyu was excited to eat as well. He prepared a piece of roast duck and lovingly fed it to Shuishui. She did not mind it, but she was aware that it was an uncommon public display of affection.
Mu Zilin held back his laughter. "Shuishui, you're really getting cuter."
"Thank you," Shuishui said to Mu Zilin.
"No need to thank me," Mu Zilin replied naturally.
Mu Ziyu loved to dote on Shuishui. He found it quite endearing to prepare food for her. He looked at her bulging mouth. She was as cute as a rabbit. "Do you want to drink corn juice?" Ziyu asked.
"Yes, yes." Shuishui wanted to eat everything.
"Brother, you spoil Shuishui too much. Shuishui will bully you in the future," Mu Zilin said. He felt that Ziyu would experience being bullied by Shuishui very soon.
Mu Ziyu smiled gently. "It's not bad to be bullied by her."
"Oh my god. There's no way to save you. You've gone mad," Mu Zilin muttered and shook his head.
Shuishui grabbed Mu Ziyu's ears. "I'll really bully you."
"I'd love to be bullied by you," Mu Ziyu said as he closed his eyes and laughed.
Shuishui gently let go of Ziyu's ear. "It'll be boring if you'll just let me. You know that I will never bully you. After all, seeing you like this, I can't do anything to you."
"Whenever you want to bully me, just do it. Anyway, how was the competition?" Mu Ziyu remembered that Zilin said he saw Shuishui at the venue. Zilin didn't specifically mention Shuishui, but Mu Zilin had uploaded a picture of a girl's back. Ziyu immediately knew it was Shuishui.
Shuishui shook her head. "I don't know. I don't want to talk about it anymore."
Mu Zilin quickly said, "It was a very abnormal competition."
Shuishui ate in big mouthfuls. She was still quite angry. Mu Ziyu didn't ask any more questions. He picked up some food for Shuishui. "These are stir-fried garlic sprouts. It tastes pretty good," he said.
"Okay." Shuishui wasn't picky.
Because Shuishui had classes the next day, Mu Ziyu sent her home after dinner. Shuishui also ordered takeout food for Qian Anzhi. She almost forgot about him.
"What are you going to do this weekend?" Mu Zilin asked Shuishui in the car.
"I'm going to the bookstore to buy some books." Shuishui planned to buy some books, but she decided to go to the school library first to look if there were copies she could borrow from there. If there were copies there of the books she liked, she could save money by just borrowing from the library.
"I'm going with you. I just want to buy some materials." Mu Zilin was really annoyed that the school had not provided them the materials they needed. They had to buy everything themselves.
"Okay. We can go together." Shuishui didn't mind. Mu Ziyu suddenly said, "I'll send you there."
He had to get involved in everything. Anyway, he liked spending time with Shuishui.
Mu Zilin knew that his brother would go with them. It would have been strange if Ziyu didn't say anything.
Shuishui got out of the car and waved goodbye to them.
After dinner, her unhappy mood disappeared. As she walked to the door and brought the food packages in, she saw Qian Anzhi in the living room with Jiang Li. "Have you had dinner?" she asked.
The two boys shook their heads. Shuishui brought the food to them and said, "I've brought food. You can eat together. Stop playing games every night."
"Sis, do we have to study at night too?" Qian Anzhi asked.
Shuishui nodded and said, "Yes. It's good to study at night too. That will keep you from cramming."
The two boys had been playing together every night since they went to school together. They didn't know what to say.
"If we study more, then we can leave school together with Sister Qian." Jiang Li felt that it was a good idea. At least they could go home with Shuishui every day.
Shuishui put down her bag. "You guys eat first. I'll go back to my room to take a shower."
After an exhausting day and a long shower, she felt that her mind and body were finally able to relax. She dried her hair with her hair dryer and flipped open her desk drawer with her other hand. She took out her little notebook and sat down. Then, she picked up her phone and saw the video that Mu Zilin had sent to her. It was a funny minute-long video. She laughed as she watched it and sent Zilin a reply: "It's very funny, but study harder. You have to catch up with your lessons and studies, so you have to work harder."
"Eh, why are you saying such discouraging words at this time? You're here already, so I'm not worried." He felt that he was becoming less fond of studying. He missed his junior high school life, and he couldn't bring himself to study regularly.
"I'm worried about you."
These four words made Mu Zilin happy. "Since you're worried about me, then you should supervise me properly. I realized that I only improve when you're the one supervising me. I don't improve under anyone else's supervision."
Shuishui replied with a smile.
Mu Ziyu had also been texting with Shuishui as soon as they arrived home.
After drying her hair, she threw her phone aside and started practicing the erhu.
Downstairs, the boys heard the sound of the erhu. "My sister is practicing the erhu," Anzhi said.
"I feel like Sister Qian knows a lot of things," Jiang Li exclaimed.
Anzhi laughed. He said, "Yes. Just don't offend her. Otherwise, with one punch, you'll know how strong she is. She practices martial arts." Qian Anzhi remembered the sounds Shuishui made when she practiced boxing on the punching bags. He couldn't imagine how painful that would've been if she had hit a person.
Jiang Li was a little surprised. "No way. Tae kwon do?"
"Not really. Boxing. Anyway, she has never hit anyone before. I'm not too sure." Anzhi had only seen Shuishui practicing boxing at Teacher Li's place.
The two boys smiled at the thought of it. They felt proud of Shuishui. After eating, they continued to play games.
When Jiang Yuan arrived home, he saw that his son was not there. "Jiang Li is at Shuishui's place again?"
"Yes, that's right. You should watch over your son. He's always causing trouble for Shuishui." Auntie Jiang could not persuade Jiang Li to stop going there, so she could only ask Jiang Yuan to talk to Jiang Li.
"Qian Anzhi and Xiao Li are about the same age. It's okay if they like to play together. They go to the same school anyway. I don't know how the school arranged it, but they are also in the same class. Their performance is actually getting better and better." Jiang Yuan loosened his tie and threw it to the side. He wasn't bothered by Jiang Li being at Shuishui's place often.
"But we can't always let him disturb Shuishui. She is already a sophomore. We can just prepare food for them instead. Can't you see that he doesn't even come home for dinner? Shuishui and Anzhi are just children. It's not appropriate for Xiao Li to keep going there." Auntie Jiang felt that it wasn't easy for Shuishui to supervise two children.
Jiang Yuan waved his hand. "Don't worry. Shuishui is very mature. She knows what to do. Besides, she's also a top student. We can only hope that Xiao Li becomes as studious as Shuishui. That would be good. His performance has been improving recently. Don't worry too much about it. He got into a good school anyway. We should stop worrying about him," Jiang Yuan said.
Auntie Jiang sighed and said, "It's all my fault." She shook her head and picked up Jiang Yuan's tie to wash it.
In fact, Shuishui was okay with Jiang Li visiting their home every day. It wasn't too troublesome for her. She was actually very happy that Qian Anzhi and Jiang Li got along very well. She was initially worried that Anzhi wouldn't find a friend. Having Jiang Li around helped Anzhi adjust to the environment.
Shuishui also bought a treadmill. Every day after she would practice playing the erhu, she would walk on the treadmill with a reference book in each hand. It would take a while before Teacher Li and Teacher Hu would arrive at the capital because they had many things to attend to.
She could only study on her own. Her calligraphy teacher was still in City A, so she had no choice but to self-study. She didn't really notice any drastic change. The only difference was that she was learning at her own pace.
That night, she stopped the treadmill and walked downstairs. She saw that the two boys were still playing games. She felt they were quite undisciplined. "Don't you have any homework to do?" she asked them.
"No." The two boys shook their heads.
"No? You've been going to school for a few days, but you weren't assigned any homework?" Shuishui asked in an incredulous tone.
"There isn't much homework to do. Actually, I finished my homework at school," Jiang Li explained. He did so so they could directly play once they arrived home.
Shuishui looked at them and said, "As you wish. We'll just have to wait for your scores in the monthly exam. Study hard for it. I hope you get good scores."
She went to the kitchen and prepared the ingredients she would cook the next day. Then, she took out some dry goods and soaked them in water. She went upstairs to rest, confident that the boys would look after themselves.
As the boys continued to play games, they weren't really conscious of the time. Shuishui made it a point to always sleep on time. She had just fallen asleep when she woke up again to a rustling sound that came from downstairs. She got up and walked down. She then saw Anzhi and Jiang Li eating barbecue and drinking beer. The sound that woke Shuishui up was the the sound of beer bottles being knocked over. Shuishui held up her hand to her forehead in surprise. The two boys saw Shushui and were worried she would scold them.
Qian Anzhi looked at Shuishui awkwardly. "Sister, do you want to eat?"
Shuishui shook her head as she glared at the two brats. "No. You guys can eat by yourselves. In the future, eat less barbecue, especially at night, and don't drink beer. Have you forgotten that you have a class tomorrow?"
"Sister, we have a class tomorrow, but we're not worried because the semester has just started. Don't worry, we won't be doing this when classes get more serious," Qian Anzhi promised.
Shuishui looked at the two of them and said, "Hurry up and clean up after yourselves. I'm going to sleep."
"Okay." The two boys nodded.
When Shuishui returned to her room, Jiang Li said, "Sister Qian sleeps quite early every day."
"Yes. Sometimes, she goes to bed a little late, but she makes it a point to sleep by eleven. Fortunately, you brought an extra set of clothes. You can just sleep here tonight," Qian Anzhi said.
Jiang Li nodded. "Okay."
Although their two families were very close, the two boys were cautious. They knew they would be scolded if Jiang Li went home in the middle of the night. Anzhi thought that he might as well stay there so they can go to school together the next day.
When Shuishui woke up the next morning, she saw that the boys had cleaned up their mess. However, she heard the sound of snoring. She walked further downstairs and saw the two boys sleeping on the sofas. She went forward to wake them up. "Wake up, or you'll be late for class."
When they woke up, Shuishui urged them to quickly wash up. She went to the kitchen to start making breakfast. She looked at the time and took out the leftovers. She took out a pot, added water, and put it on the stove. As the water boiled, she first put in the shiitake mushrooms and then let it simmer for about ten minutes. She added the minced meat, chopped green onions, and salt. She added a few seasonings and lifted the pot from the stove. She filled their bowls and carried them out. Qian Anzhi and Jiang Li had already washed up and were waiting at the dining table.
"Are the evening self-study sessions starting next week?" Jiang Li asked Qian Anzhi. He had forgotten to take note of what the teacher said.
"It should be," Anzhi said. Clearly, they both didn't pay attention in class.
Shuishui handed them their spoons. "Eat your breakfast, and then we'll go to class together."
She grabbed her schoolbag and waited for the boys as they gathered their things. They walked to the public bus station together. Because it was quite a distance from the house, Shuishui walked in front of them and walked a little fast.
Qian Anzhi and Jiang Li could still keep up at the beginning, but they found it difficult after a while. "Sister, slow down," Anzhi said.
Soon, they arrived in school and went their separate ways. Shuishui rushed to her classroom to prepare for the morning reading.
After the morning reading sessions, He Xiaoying curiously asked, "Shuishui, we saw a boy from another school walking with you yesterday. Was that your boyfriend?"
"Ah, uh, my friend is here." She directly removed the word "boy," but Xiaoying and the others who had heard had already assumed that that boy was Shuishui's boyfriend.
Someone had told Qin Huai to give up because Qian Shuishui already had a boyfriend. He was told that Shuishui's boyfriend was quite handsome and tall.
Very soon, the news of Shuishui having a boyfriend spread among everyone in class. Basically, everyone knew about it. Shuishui knew that they were talking about her, but she did not say much because she had nothing to say.
On Friday afternoon, Shuishui and the other participants were brought to the venue for the English competition. Most of the participants were senior students, and she was the only one from her class.
She realized that there were only three other participants from her school. Including her, there were only four of them. It was such a low count.
However, the teacher was still very enthusiastic. She began to give tips about proper composition. She advised them to write as simply as possible and to not make too many grammatical mistakes.
"You don't have to be nervous. This competition is not very difficult. Because the scores of the previous year's winners were low, the officials made adjustments. Compared to the previous years, this competition will be much simpler. I hope that you will all do well, but even if you don't, it doesn't matter. You can take this as a good learning experience." The teacher was very cheerful and assured them that they were not being pressured to win.
Shuishui looked out of the window as they arrived at a key high school. When they arrived at the examination venue, they were directed to the gymnasium. When Shuishui entered the examination venue, she looked around. She felt that the total number of audience members and participants were about half the number of people at the mathematics competition.
She calmly found a seat, sat down, and quietly waited for the papers to be handed out.
Inside the gymnasium, the air-conditioning was quite unstable. It was neither hot nor cold. Shuishui was very proficient in English. When she received the paper, she started writing very quickly. There were many questions in the test sheet, and she used her rich vocabulary and knowledge of proper grammar to breeze through the test. She found the competition much more enjoyable than the math competition.
She finished answering the test twenty minutes ahead of the allotted time. She was able to review her work. She had written an essay about her interesting experiences.
She wrote about her love for books and how she would go out of her way to look for books that she found very interesting.
Of course, she also emphasized in the beginning of her composition that she had an unquenchable thirst for reading books. She handed in her papers in advance and left the examination room to look for her teacher. She asked if she could leave and directly go home. There was no need to go back to school as classes for the day were done.
The teacher allowed Shuishui to go. She left the school gate and hailed a taxi.