Han Jiaojiao and the boys explored Lugu Mountain for two days under the leadership of Zhi Ying. On the third morning, Father Zhi drove them home, and Zhi Ying followed.
New Years was soon about to come, and there were still many things at home that were not yet ready. Mother Zhi asked Zhi Ying to buy some New Year's goods, and the list was also written for her.
In order to save time, Father Zhi dropped Zhi Ying off as soon as he arrived in the city, and then he went to take the other three home.
Zhi Ying was not familiar with many other things, however she was very familiar with the purchase of goods. She walked to the wholesale market, where everyone knew her.
This wholesale market was not large, and it did not sell the same kinds of goods throughout the entire year. This market was based on the marketing situation in Quan City and the demand on Lugu Mountain's side.
Zhi Ying used to come here with the adults on Lugu Mountain to do some wholesale, and she was familiar with it. All the old merchants here knew her. At first, everyone thought that Zhi Ying was a child of some family who came to help her parents buy goods.
She was a small child that came here alone with the money in her pocket. After buying things, she didn't know how to transport them up the mountain. In the end, she went up with someone else's truck.
At first, the merchants here just sold Zhi Ying some small things with a joking attitude. Later, they found out that she was actually very skilled. She calculated the accounts better than anyone else, and they all began to take her seriously. Some even asked Zhi Ying to help settle accounts.
"What is Xiao Zhi coming to buy today? It's almost New Year's, and there should be fewer tourists at Lugu Mountain." A middle-aged auntie smiled.
"Mhm, there are very few tourists there now, they have all gone home for the New Year." Zhi Ying perused the stall to find what she wanted.
They didn't have many family members, so the amount of New Year's goods was not large. Zhi Ying was a regular customer here, the merchants took good care of her, and the price was always the same as other wholesale prices.
After all, the old merchants basically watched Zhi Ying grow up.
The middle-aged auntie looked over Zhi Ying's New Year's goods list, pointed to two things and told her, "These two kinds of dry goods weren't delivered here this year. There is a newly opened shop not far ahead, and they should have them in stock."
Zhi Ying thanked the aunt and walked forward to find the store while holding a lot of things in her arms. The signs on the stores that have been opened for a long time have either fallen off or were tattered, while the newly opened stores could be recognized at a glance.
The store was not big, it was a bit smaller than the normal wholesale stores around it, and the location was much more remote.
A boy of the same age as Zhi Ying sat in front of the store, looking down at a journal.
Zhi Ying was about to ask the boy if they had these two kinds of dry goods. However she suddenly saw that the boy turned a page in the journal in his hand and showed the cover: Annals of Mathematics.
It was the top math journal that she had been thinking about all the time. Zhi Ying could only search it up and look at some pages from the Internet, she didn't expect to see the real thing today.
Zhi Ying couldn't help but move over and stuck her head out to look at the contents from above. The boy sitting there didn't notice her and continued looking down at his journal.
Out of the two, one did not buy and the other did not sell. The boy sat while Zhi Ying stood there, leaning over and reading for nearly half an hour. Until the owner of the store came back, he was a little dumbfounded to see this scene.
"A Zai, what are you doing?" The store owner glanced at the potential customers lingering around the front entrance, and then at Zhi Ying, a little angry at his son's carelessness while watching the store.
The boy finally raised his head at this time, saw Zhi Ying beside him and paused, and then stood up: "Do you want to buy something?"
It was only at this time that Zhi Ying remembered that she was here to buy some dry goods. The shop owner did not want his son to greet the guests at this time, and waved him to leave to greet Zhi Ying himself.
Taking back her regretful look, Zhi Ying asked the shop owner if he had the two kinds of New Year's goods on her list.
Ten minutes later, Zhi Ying successfully bought all the items on the New Year's list. Soon after, Father Zhi called to ask her if she had finished shopping. The two discussed meeting at the place where she got dropped off.
After buying the New Year's goods, the New Year will follow. This year was the first time that Zhi Ying stayed on Lugu Mountain for the New Year. In the past, she lived in her house in the urban area.
There were no neighbors around, and their only neighbor had already returned to the capital. After Zhi Ying quietly ate a bountiful lunch in her villa, Father Zhi said that he would accompany Mother Zhi to watch the sunset.
"It's only one o'clock in the afternoon." Zhi Ying glanced at her watch and expressed her confusion at her parents leaving so early.
"The sun will set soon, it'll be fine after a while." Mother Zhi's pale face had turned slightly red, and she didn't know how to tell her daughter.
"Even if it gets dark quicker in winter, it will still take four hours to see the sunset. Don't you worry about catching a cold if you go out so early in the wind?" Zhi Ying worried about her parents' computing ability.
Father Zhi glanced at his confused daughter that did not understand amorous feelings: "You are still young and don't understand. Stay at home and watch more TV, don't be immersed in those numbers all day long."
"Oh." Zhi Ying replied aggrievedly.
Although Zhi Ying didn't know what she didn't understand, she still keenly felt that if she said any more, her father might become angry.
As soon as her parents left, the whole villa became cold and cheerless. Zhi Ying went back to her room alone. She was still thinking about the math journal in the boy's hand that day, and she was jealous.
Although the Zhi family had a wide network of contacts, Zhi Ying has never been outgoing and familiar with them, which also caused her not only to be short of money but also with relationships. She couldn't even see the entity of a foreign language math journal.
Sitting in a chair with a bit of melancholy, Zhi Ying's phone suddenly received a blessing text message from a neighbor far away in country M.
[Xiao Zhi is one year older, I hope you can be happy every day ^_^]
Zhi Ying stared at the text message for a while, and then dismissed the idea of asking her neighbor to subscribe for her to a foreign language periodical. This neighbor was often too busy in country Miradonia, and it was not good for her to disturb him all the time.
After replying to the neighbor's text message, Zhi Ying suddenly realized that she should send a blessing text message to her friends.
[Happy New Year!]
Zhi Ying sent the same content to Han Jiaojiao and the others, adding everyone's name at the back of the message, and soon Han Jiaojiao replied to the message.
[Ying Ying, why did you start texting so early? I planned to send it to you at 0:00, but let me say happiness to you in advance~]
Then Li Ge and Zhao Qian also replied with similar content.
Zhi Ying sat in front of her desk, propping her chin. She always felt that there was something wrong with her blessing text message, but she would already be in bed at midnight. After thinking about it, she thought it was better to send it early.
Zhi Ying looked for a name in the contacts list, and then sent a message to that person.
Jiang Wei, who was far away in the capital, was listening to his parents' conversations and noticed that his phone suddenly lit up. He subconsciously took it over and glanced at it, and the corners of his mouth twitched.
When his appearance fell in the eyes of his parents, it caused a frenzy. The two looked at each other and stopped talking.
"Xiao Wei, what's the matter, are you very happy today?" Ruo Lan asked tentatively.
Jiang Wei put away his smile and said lightly, "It's okay."
Having said that, Jiang Wei soon found an excuse to leave.
Ten minutes later, Zhi Ying finally realized her mistake when she received a reply.
[Today is New Year's Eve, you should say Happy New Year's Eve, and you can say Happy New Year tomorrow.]
[Oh, then… Happy New Year's Eve.]
Zhi Ying re-edited a text message and sent it to Jiang Wei, not realizing that the message that Jiang Wei just sent was the longest message he had ever sent.
[We will be classmates in the future, I hope we can make progress together, classmate Zhi Ying.]
Jiang Wei sent a polite remark, but it was very pleasing to Zhi Ying, she liked classmates who studied hard.
…
In the more than ten days of Chinese New Year Celebrations , Zhi Ying, who was immersed in the sea of books, almost forgot the date where she would return back to school. It was Han Jiaojiao who called and asked her what time she would go to school tomorrow, and Zhi Ying then remembered.
Zhi Ying's mother quickly went to prepare new equipment, schoolbags, suitcases, and new clothes. However, the old straw mat was still carried by Zhi Ying stubbornly.
"But we wear school uniforms, what do we need new clothes for?" Zhi Ying looked at the new clothes that took up her book space and tried to eliminate them with her eyes.
"School uniforms are worn on the outside, don't you wear clothes inside?" Mother Zhi looked at her stupid daughter with a nonchalant look, "After a new year, who wouldn't wear new clothes?"
Mother Zhi didn't want to listen to Zhi Ying's words anymore, so she drove Zhi Ying down and packed her things by herself.
Therefore, on the day of students returning to school, Zhi Ying almost caused a sensation. There were rumors that the school had transferred a new student, a tall and pale girl who looked very temperamental, but her hair was a little short.
"The classroom for Class Two has been changed?" Zhi Ying asked, standing behind Zhao Qian, looking at the class schedule on the bulletin board.
"Changed." Zhao Qian replied subconsciously as the voice was familiar. He turned his head but was startled, "You are… Zhi Ying?"
Zhi Ying nodded: "Are you also face blind?"
"…Did you have plastic surgery?" Zhao Qian stayed with Zhi Ying for a semester, and he couldn't see any changes in her. There were no changes even after being classmates with her for a semester, she was still: dark skinned, skinny, and earthy. His thoughts weren't really racist or anything, it was purely due to Asian cultural beauty standards. Having pale and light skin is considered beautiful in some parts of Asia such as China, Korea, and many more.
The last time he went to Lugu Mountain, he didn't find such a big difference. After a year, Zhi Ying changed into new clothes, and he just realized that she had become a lot paler.
Zhi Ying did not answer the questions she did not understand. She glanced at the distribution of the classrooms, then looked at the list of students in Class Two above, and found that there were more than half of the people she didn't know.
"Ah, ah! Ying Ying, you've become pretty~" Han Jiaojiao recognized Zhi Ying's back from afar. However she was a little reluctant to recognize her brand-name clothes at first: her friend Ying Ying couldn't be this fashionable.
Han Jiaojiao still had two braids tied up, and they swayed as she walked.
"Where's Xiao Pang?" Zhi Ying looked around and couldn't find Li Ge.
Zhao Qian glanced at the small group of four people: "He went upstairs to save a seat first, and had us hurry up."
According to Lao Han's personality, there may be no seating arrangement, but seatings will be based on a first-come-first-served basis.
Li Ge broadcasted live news in the group chat, saying that he found four seats in the corner, which was similar to last semester!
"Let's go, I'll take you there." Han Jiaojiao led the way.
When it came to the structure of the school, Han Jiaojiao and Li Ge were definitely the most familiar. They had been running around here almost since they were young, but they actually didn't know each other before.
In the classroom, the scene from the first day of last semester was recreated, the only difference was that there were more crowds.
"Here!" Li Ge stood up and waved from the far right corner of the classroom.
The three hurried over and sat down.
Li Ge looked a little thinner, and his face was puffed up.
"Xiao Pang, are you losing weight?" Han Jiaojiao looked at her deskmate with interest.
Li Ge didn't care about these trivial matters, he was only interested in gossip, and greeted the three of them to get closer, wanting to share the latest news about him.
"Have you found any difference?" Li Ge whispered.
"Half of the people are different." Zhao Qian was speechless, not knowing what Xiao Pang's question meant.
Li Ge also didn't mind that they didn't understand. Sharing gossip was only interesting if they said things that others didn't know.
"Did you see the one on the left?" Li Ge pouted his lips as a signal.
The three immediately looked in one direction in unison.