He turned off his phone and sat on the stone path downstairs for a long time.
People who used to brag about passing exams for ages now find themselves with no one to share their success with, even if they get first place in the grade. It's quite ridiculous.
He reached the summit he desired, only to find that the white lotus he longed to pluck was long gone. In that instant, no matter how magnificent the scenery before him was, he no longer wanted to look at it.
——
Chen Hang wasn't so lucky. Starting this semester, as the pressure gradually increased, his grades plummeted. He was extremely anxious about his scores every day and studied day and night, but he just couldn't improve. He Qing and Chen Yuanyuan had to help him review for several days before he finally improved a little bit.
One day, Su Jinning fell asleep at his desk because he was too tired and didn't have time to go to the cafeteria for lunch. Chen Yuanyuan bought him chicken legs, cola, and a whole table of snacks.
Su Jinning was quite grateful, but he didn't know why Chen Yuanyuan and He Qing were watching him eat with smiles on their faces.
"Is it delicious?" Chen Yuanyuan asked.
Her smile was so sweet and innocent that it easily aroused suspicion. Su Jinning choked for a moment and said, "Delicious."
"If you want to eat it, we'll bring it for you next time," He Qing said.
These two young girls don't seem like good people, Su Jinning thought.
It's said that women have a good sixth sense, and Su Jinning is no exception.
"Since we're friends, I won't take your money. How about you tutor Chen Hang a little?"
"Pfft...cough cough!" Su Jinning cut her losses in time, spitting out the last bite and stuffing all the snacks back in: "I can't take responsibility for that smart guy, you can find whoever you want!"
"Oh dear, sports committee member! You can't just stand by and watch us die!" Chen Yuanyuan tugged at his sleeve, sobbing and wiping away tears exaggeratedly. "My boyfriend has been mentally ill since he was little, a hopeless case. He's driving us both crazy! Only you, the eighth in the city for math, one of the top five overall in the city, and first in Zhengde grade..."
"Stop, stop, stop!!" Su Jinning couldn't stand the flattery anymore. He was being taken advantage of, so he took the job.
After all, he couldn't just watch his good brother become a freeloader in the future.
Since he couldn't sleep anyway, he would call Chen Hang to tutor him whenever he had free time. Sometimes they would both be yawning and neither of them would complain of being tired.
Chen Hang felt guilty several times when he saw Su Jinning's heavy dark circles under his eyes, and told him to rest, or maybe just let it go. Su Jinning waved his hand and said it was okay, anyway, he didn't want to sleep.
Chen Hang was a little confused. He had been working himself to the bone every day since his senior year of high school. He had heard of people who couldn't sleep, but he had never heard of people who didn't want to sleep.
"Just learn from yours, you get free tutoring and all that trouble, otherwise you'll charge 88,000 per question later."
Chen Hang immediately shut up.
After Su Jinning's intensive teaching, Chen Hang finally managed to climb into the top twenty of the class. He was so happy that he stayed up half the night holding his phone. The next day, he received praise from Jin Shuoshuo, which made him feel like a typical male god.
Jin Shuoshuo was extremely disgusted and publicly punished him in class: "If this roof didn't have a roof, you could have gone to explore the moon by now! Can't you learn from Su Jinning? She's in the top five in the city and she hasn't said anything."
Laughter filled the classroom. Chen Hang, feeling utterly embarrassed, tried to save face: "Can I even compare to the top student?"
Su Jinning chuckled a few times. She realized that without even noticing, she had become a role model in the class and had been labeled a top student.
This feeling is so strange.
He turned around and looked at the empty space next to him. There were still a few books in the desk drawer that he hadn't had time to take with him. They were placed crookedly. Shen Moyu was always very tidy, so it was obvious that he had put them away in a hurry.
Su Jinning suddenly remembered that after the final exam that day, she said she would take him out to eat fish balls, and Shen Moyu rushed over without stopping. She even jokingly called him a little glutton.
But Shen Moyu wasn't angry that time; instead, he laughed very happily. He remembered it all too clearly.
So clear it feels like it just happened...
The surrounding noise was too loud, but it seemed to have nothing to do with him. He lowered his head and gently stroked the table that had been empty for a long time with his left hand.
"I stole your first place, aren't you going to come back and beat me up?"
But thinking about it, I find it funny.
Didn't I let go first?
He kept saying he wanted light, but he pushed his own sun away with his own hands.
---
The sunset was beautiful that day. He stood by the window and looked out for a long time until someone stood next to him, at which point he turned his head away.
"Fiery clouds in spring?" Song Wenmiao was a little incredulous, then laughed: "And so beautiful?"
Su Jinning smiled and took a picture with his phone. Looking at the album titled "Heartbeat," a pang of sadness welled up inside him, and his finger hovered over it for a long time without pressing the button.
He deleted the last photo of the fiery sunset clouds.
Perhaps it was because the addition of a different photo to the album was unusual, or perhaps there was nothing else worth keeping in it.
"It is said that the fiery clouds at sunset are the summer's fingertips crushing the world's heat and hiding it in the twilight clouds."
Su Jinning was stunned, as if she had experienced a powerful flow of time in an instant, and been thrown into a very strange space... In her memory, it should have been late summer, with fiery clouds...
He looked up, only to meet Song Wenmiao's gaze.
"What's wrong?" Song Wenmiao looked at him in confusion.
Su Jinning took a long time to react before shaking his head and saying casually, "I just think the meaning of your sentence is quite good..." He turned around and asked seriously, "Where did you hear it?"
“There are plenty online,” Song Wenmiao shrugged.
Are there many? But it seems he's only heard it from one person.
Su Jinning smiled and turned off her phone, then slumped wearily onto her desk.
When life is too chaotic, it's easy to get things mixed up.
For example, it's early spring now, not late summer of that year.
——
That day, Chen Hang officially "graduated" from his apprenticeship. He knelt down and thanked Su Jinning for a long time, and said wildly that Su Jinning was his second parent. Song Wenmiao and the others laughed uncontrollably.
Su Jinning seemed to have accomplished a great task and felt quite accomplished.