Shen Liguang's face carried a smile as he gently nodded. "Mm, then rush back home and think about how to write the self-reflection."
When she said "rush back home," she really meant it.
She remembered that it took her elder brother half an hour to drive here, but Shen Liguang, somehow finding a shortcut, brought her back in just over ten minutes.
Fu Ying felt a sense of loss when she got out of the car.
"Brother, be, be careful on the road."
Shen Liguang looked up, slightly surprised. The only other person who said these kinds of words to him was his mother.
"Mm." He looked away and replied indifferently, "Go inside."
Her heart told her to wait until his car was out of sight before she went inside.
But her reserve told her to quickly run upstairs and then stand at the window, watching him leave.
Her modest and shy personality made her choose the latter.
She waved at Shen Liguang and turned to run into the house.
She heard the car start again and hastened her steps, nearly missing the steps several times.
Nanny Wu saw this and was horrified: "Miss, slow down."
It was a very short distance, just twenty meters, yet she ran until she was out of breath.
Reaching the window, she leaned on the windowsill to look down.
Shen Liguang sat in the car, lighting a cigarette, resting his arm on the window, flicking off the ash. Perhaps sensing her gaze, Shen Liguang looked up towards her direction.
Fu Ying hurriedly squatted down, her knee hitting a potted plant beside her, causing her eyes to well up with pain immediately.
She covered her knee, endured the pain, and her eyes welled with tears, but never fell.
Compared to the pain, she was even more afraid that he would discover her secretly watching him.
He was so vigilant; she was caught every time she tried to peek at him.
Seeing no one by the window, Shen Liguang frowned, feeling that his nerves had become somewhat weak lately.
He put the cigarette in his mouth, fastened his seatbelt, and drove away.
Fu Ying stared at her bruised knee, feeling that she had gone mad, fallen ill, and it was no minor ailment, quite severe.
She wasn't like this, no matter how fond she was of someone, she always had restraint, always held back her emotions.
But her actions today were not the slightest bit restrained.
It was just a fervent affection that he couldn't see.
Fu Ying didn't even clearly know when she had started to become like this.
It was probably that evening twilight when she accidentally bumped into him, and with a smile in his eyes, he told her: Children should apologize when they bump into someone.
Or perhaps when she discovered he was the one who had saved her life.
In any case, Fu Ying was acutely aware that the accelerated heartbeat at this moment was because she liked him.
Liked this brother who was nine years her senior.
Fu Ying got up and found that his car had long vanished without a trace.
She breathed a sigh of relief and turned to limp back to her room.
...
Monday, the flag-raising ceremony.
Fu Ying was petite, so she stood at the very front. With nobody in front of her, she felt particularly uneasy, always feeling insecure.
After the flag-raising ceremony ended, the principal went up on stage and spoke into the microphone: "The weather is getting hotter and hotter now, and fires are more likely to occur. During the summer vacation, there were students who experienced fires, which were particularly dangerous."
"In order to enhance the students' ability to prevent and control school fires and improve the fire safety awareness and escape ability of teachers and students, on the morning of September 19th, Captain Shen Liguang of the Z City Guancheng Fire Brigade will lead the firefighters into the school to carry out a fire drill and fire safety training for all teachers and students."
"That is, tomorrow afternoon, students should bring their own stools to assemble on the playground."
The early morning sun was particularly scorching, and Fu Ying, in a daze, could only make out three words... Shen Li Guang...
For some reason, hearing his name always made her heart race.
Both anticipative and nervous.
The first lesson in the morning was Tan Ruonian's.
As soon as Tan Ruonian entered the classroom, he asked Fu Ying for her reflection paper.
Fu Ying had chewed on her pen last night, pondering deeply, before she squeezed out five hundred words.
Tan Ruonian thought that such a poor student like Fu Ying would have only written the reflection as a formality. Without looking closely, he glanced over it.
Seeing her neat handwriting, probably a few hundred words, his face relaxed a lot.
"Alright, students, quiet down. Let's start the lesson."
Tan Ruonian took a sip of tea and began his lecture with enthusiasm.
Fu Ying didn't quite understand, but she tried hard to listen and immediately took notes on any points of knowledge.
Li Hanyi saw her burying her head, listening and taking notes so seriously, and was a bit surprised: "Boss, aren't you a little too earnest?"
"I want to go to college." Fu Ying thought it over and remembered that Shen Liguang graduated from B University. Unaware of the situation, she said in all seriousness, "I want to get into B University."
"B University?" Li Hanyi couldn't believe his ears, thinking he must have heard wrong.
He thought Fu Ying's serious little face was making a joke.
B University was a key university in the country, and maybe the top three in their grade could get in.
For a poor student like Fu Ying, it would be quite an achievement just to get into a university, let alone B University – wasn't that wishful thinking?
"What's wrong with B University?"
Li Hanyi couldn't help but laugh: "Boss, give up on B University. It's a key national university. You need at least 660 for arts and 680 for science. You scored a total of 80 in the final exams. Are you serious?"
"..." Fu Ying was stunned.
She felt that the seriousness on her face just now seemed so ludicrous.
She hadn't even looked into B University, and just because she remembered he graduated from there, she also wanted to apply to B University.
To her, it was as absurd as a fantastical tale, laughable to anyone who heard.
It hadn't occurred to her that Shen Liguang's grades were that good.
Seeing her look dejected, Li Hanyi tried to comfort her: "Don't worry, boss; with some effort, you can still get into a tier-3 university."
Fu Ying pondered as she looked out the window.
It was only April, and the weather was already heating up, the temperature fluctuating between morning and evening.
When everyone came to school, they wore thick coats, while the classroom was filled with a warm current, heating the students during the lesson to the point of lethargy.
"This weather is fucking crazy, cold without the coat, hot with it on."
In the afternoon, the class monitor Wen Tian generously bought a mung bean ice for each of the fifty students in the class, one yuan each, which amounted to a considerable sum of pocket money.
However, there were always a few more outspoken classmates who looked down on the one-yuan treat and mocked Wen Tian as a pauper.
Wen Tian had a similar personality to Fu Ying, shy and reserved. Although his mother was the boss of a listed company, he was too inhibited to retort even a single word.
Wen Tian walked up shyly and gently nudged Fu Ying, who was leaning on her desk; his voice was very soft, "Fu Ying, this is for you."
When handing over the mung bean ice to Fu Ying, he was afraid she would also disdain his one-yuan item, and his face couldn't help but turn red.
However, the girl smiled at him, bending her eyes into crescents, and took the mung bean ice from his hand, then politely said, "Thank you."
Wen Tian scratched his head and smiled reservedly: "No, no need."
Fu Ying did not care about her menstrual pains, tearing open the packaging and taking a bite.
Wen Tian watched her eyes curve into crescents, his face suddenly turned red, and he pretended to be calm as he turned around to return to his seat, but his back betrayed his panic.