When the evening training finally came to an end, Li Jia led a few people in carrying in a large stainless steel bucket, which contained noodles for supper. 'These young people are really energetic!' Li Jia praised, looking at the tired but full of spirit teenagers.
'It's good to be energetic, otherwise if you stood here every night, you would look even more beautiful,' Feng Yiping said with a smile.
The impression someone gives when they stand with their head held high, their buttocks lifted and their stomach pulled in is very different from the impression someone gives when they slouch and stand with their shoulders hunched and their body slack.
'Forget it, I'm not going to suffer like that!' Li Jia had experienced it for a while during military training at university. It was still quite uncomfortable when she thought about it now, even though it was summer at the time. Having said that, she did straighten her back a little.
The smell of the noodles was very familiar, and Feng Yiping went up and scooped up a bowl. He knew at once that it tasted the same as the ones in his restaurant. He supposed it was bought from Brother Zhi Ming, who ran a noodle restaurant in the city.
He took the bowl, walked over to the group of people, and struck up a conversation with them.
They had been curious when they saw a school uniform-wearing peer of the same age mix in in the afternoon, but because of the strict training discipline, no one spoke to him. Now that they heard that he was Feng Yiping, one of them immediately said, 'You are the one who ranked first in the 1995 county entrance exam?'
Many of them had originally entered secondary vocational school in 1995, and they all felt a sense of familiarity when they saw Feng Yiping.
'Hang in there, show your best side, and the manager of the first four or five stores to be opened will be chosen from among you.'
Hearing these words from Feng Yiping, the girls and boys became excited. They were about to start working, and who wouldn't want their first step to be better than others'.
'Will the boys be considered first?' a slightly plump girl asked.
'No, it will definitely be based on merit,' Feng Yiping assured them. In fact, in this position, girls generally have an advantage over boys because they are more attentive.
By the playground of the teacher training college, Huang Jingping was wearing a down jacket, a hat and gloves, holding a notebook and sitting on a bench under a big tree, as if she were watching the boys playing football on the playground.
Zhang Qiuling ran over, waved her hand in front of her face, and saw that she was still staring straight ahead. 'Hey, lost your mind!'
Huang Jingping snapped out of it, smiled at her, moved aside, and said, 'Sit!'
As Zhang Qiuling sat down, she took the notebook in her hands and asked, 'Have you finished writing the letter? Let me have a look.'
Huang Jingping of course refused, 'What are you doing?'
'Did he reply to the last letter?'
'Yes, he said his parents didn't agree to his skipping a grade.'
'That's good, there's more time, and the chances of getting into a top university are greater. He is by far the best student at our school, and every time I go back, the headmaster and others still ask about him.'
Huang Jingping was silent again, and Zhang Qiuling touched her, 'What's wrong with you? Is there a handsome guy playing football?'
'What are you talking about?' Huang Jingping gave her a blank look.
'Oh no, it's over, don't look at me like that, if you look at me like that, I'll lose my mind,' Zhang Qiuling teased her.
Indeed, as she grew older year after year, in recent years, Huang Jingping has blossomed more and more, and her temperament is even more quiet and refined. No matter where she goes in school, she attracts a lot of attention.
However, she seems gentle, but she has always been unyielding to those admirers in and out of school, and has never given them any hope. Even now, although there are still a lot of people who admire her, only a few are still persevering.
Because these days she always sits here at this time, the animals playing football on the playground are also working harder and harder.
Zhang Qiuling teased and touched her face, 'Gee, you really are pitiful to see, how can Feng Yiping rest assured leaving you here? For such a long time, he hasn't even come to see you.'
'He'll be here next week,' Huang Jingping said sweetly, her words absolutely sugar-coated.
'No wonder you've been acting so strangely these past few days, it turns out you've been here alone... hehe!'
'What are you talking about! Tell me, the night before last, did you go out to meet Xiao Zhijie?'
'No!'
'No? I don't believe you!' The two girls started to fight on the bench.
One of the guys on the field was a little dazed and forgot about the ball flying at him. As a result, the ball hit him firmly in his vulnerable area. He came to his senses, put his hands over his crotch, and squatted down on the ground in a disconcerted manner.
After the fun was over, Huang Jingping leaned her head on Zhang Qiuling's shoulder and said softly, 'Qiuling, I don't want to teach according to the school's assignment.'
Zhang Qiuling played with the two small balls on her red velvet hat, and her hand paused upon hearing this. 'Have you thought it over?'
'Yes,' Huang Jingping's voice was small but firm, "I've thought about it. I want to go to the city, no matter what kind of work I do, I just want to be close to him.'
Zhang Qiuling put her arms around her and patted her shoulder, "I understand, but what about your parents, do they agree?'
'I don't care about that.' Huang Jingping leaned into her arms and shook her head. 'I know he has feelings for me, but I always feel like he resists me. Every step we take forward is so difficult, as if he already has someone in his heart.'
'How is that possible?' Zhang Qiuling turned her face around. 'We all know him well. We were classmates in elementary school, and we only had dealings with that girl Liu Fei a few times. We all knew each other in junior high school. Now, apart from Xiao Zhijie and Wang Changning, we also have more dealings with you and me. Could it be that he met someone in high school?'
'No, it has nothing to do with high school. I sensed it in junior high school.' Huang Jingping still buried her face in her chest, so Zhang Qiuling couldn't see the blush on her face. "Once I took the initiative to hug him, and I could feel that he was a little bit fond of it and a little bit resistant.'
Zhang Qiuling heard such a big piece of gossip, and unusually, she didn't pursue the details, "That's strange. What is the reason?'
'I don't know either, but I understand that sometimes the more I give, the more he will withdraw. But if I do nothing, then we will definitely drift apart. I now understand a little bit. He probably had this in mind from the beginning.'
'But I really can't live without him, you know? Sometimes I dream that he and I have become strangers, and I wake up crying. He is all I can think about now. I really can't imagine what would happen to me if I didn't have him in my life.'
As Huang Jingping spoke, she began to cry softly. She had suppressed her feelings for too long, and she felt that if she continued to be so worried and insecure, she would go crazy. Finally, she could no longer hold back, and she told her best friend what was in her heart.
'It's okay, don't worry,' Zhang Qiuling patted her on the head like a child, 'Feng Yiping is not blind. You are such an outstanding girl, how could he bear to let you go? Don't worry, you two will definitely get together!'
As she is about to graduate and embark on a new journey in life, Huang Jingping knows more than ever what she wants, and everything else pales in comparison.
So, she has decided that, even if it means disobeying her parents for once, she is going to do what she wants to do.
Meanwhile, in a middle school not far from the normal school, Zhang Yan, who had grown taller but still had some baby fat on her face, was already studying hard in the classroom with her classmates in preparation for the high school entrance exam a few months later.
She wondered why, occasionally, she thought about that brother surnamed Feng, whom she had only met a few times. Was he also, like her, buried in his studies in high school?