Chapter 2 The Exam Day
The second day's exam was in the morning. As Xia Qingtian saw Xia Qingyu and the others off in the car for the exam, Miao Tong was still fast asleep, but Shi Xingwu was his usual playful self, jumping and shouting under the car, amusing everyone and making Li Xiaozhong feel like he wanted to cut ties.
“Li Xiaozhong! Li Xiaozhong! The bes~~t!” Shi Xingwu shouted slogans. “Goddess! Goddess! Go~~! Nie Qingkong! Nie Qingkong! Charge~~!”
“Can someone please make him shut up?” Li Xiaozhong lightly bumped the front seat with his head, feeling utterly defeated.
“Don’t know her, don’t know her, pretending not to know her.” Nie Qingkong, sitting in the front, looked down at her phone, speechless.
“Sister…” Xia Qingyu, leaning against the window, blushed and looked helplessly at Xia Qingtian next to Shi Xingwu. “Can you ask him to stop shouting?”
“What’s the big deal? Just cheering you guys on~” Xia Qingtian smiled and immediately waved her arms, joining Shi Xingwu’s ranks. “Li Xiaozhong! Li Xiaozhong! The bes~~t!…”
“…” Xia Qingyu helplessly held her forehead, shrunk her neck, her cheeks flushing even more intensely.
“Is she your sister?” the girl sitting next to Xia Qingyu asked softly.
“Yes.” Xia Qingyu looked at the girl and nodded.
“Your sisters have such good feelings for each other, I’m so envious…” The girl glanced out the window, then smiled and retracted her gaze, extending her hand to Xia Qingyu. “My name is Lei Xirui, I’m a student from Kyoto Imperial High.”
“Hello, I’m Xia Qingyu, from Z City No. 1 High.” Xia Qingyu thought this girl’s smile was sweet and she was quite cute. She reached out and shook the girl’s hand.
“I know you, the speech competition last time, you got first place, I got sixth.” Lei Xirui smiled shyly. “My personality is quite introverted, I get nervous easily, so it’s always not very smooth, but last time the competition my script was well-prepared, plus some other reasons, it was considered normal performance. Before that, it was hard for me to even get into the top ten.”
“Was it about the protection and inheritance of ancient cultural relics? I really liked that one.” Xia Qingyu thought the script was brilliant at the time, and she had listened very attentively. “The viewpoint broke away from the clichés of historical inheritance, re-analyzing it with modern aesthetic thinking and a political view of power alternation, it was excellent!”
“You still remember!” Lei Xirui hadn’t expected anyone to appreciate her speech and remember it. She immediately blushed. “That’s so good… I, I didn’t know…”
“You are very outstanding.” Xia Qingyu looked at Lei Xirui and smiled, saying, “I wish you success in this competition.”
“Thank you.” Lei Xirui smiled and said, “I wish you success too.”
After speaking, Lei Xirui looked out the window at the people enthusiastically cheering, a look of envy in her eyes. She turned to Xia Qingyu and said, “Someone is genuinely cheering for you, you will definitely succeed.”
“We will all be successful.” Xia Qingyu and Lei Xirui exchanged smiles.
At this moment, Li Xiaozhong could not stand it anymore. “It’s this time, why haven’t we set off yet?”
If it was going to take a long time to depart, could he get off the bus and beat up Shi Xingwu first?
This guy who was afraid of nothing was corrupting Xia Qingtian too!
“Yes, why haven’t we set off at this time? We’re going to be late…” everyone came back from watching the show and said.
“Please wait a moment, we are still missing one student.” The teacher in charge of the team also looked distressed.
“Who is it?” everyone began to whisper.
“Liao Tingting.” Xia Qingyu looked around and noticed Liao Tingting was not on the bus.
Yesterday, Liao Tingting had provoked her and was outmaneuvered by Xia Qingtian. Afterwards, she had cried incessantly, and her condition in the exam yesterday was not good either.
When they returned by bus, as they got off, Liao Tingting had glared fiercely at Xia Qingyu.
She probably didn’t do well on the exam.
But today… where was she?
Just as everyone was whispering, Liao Tingting walked out of the hotel and went straight onto the bus.
When everyone saw Liao Tingting, they fell silent.
Their eyes were filled with shock, and the team leader was also stunned. “Liao, Liao Tingting?”
“Yes.” Liao Tingting responded, sat down, crossed her arms, and had a gloomy expression.
Lei Xirui looked at Liao Tingting and then back at Xia Qingyu, who was also surprised. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She probably cracked…” Xia Qingyu withdrew her gaze and looked out the bus window, only to find that Xia Qingtian and Shi Xingwu were also stunned.
“Then, let’s set off. Uncle driver, thank you for your hard work.” The team leader, after recovering, immediately said to the driver, “We’re going to be late, please hurry.”
That bus was exceptionally quiet.
After watching the bus drive away completely, Shi Xingwu turned to Xia Qingtian and said, “Goddess sister, she… is she the girl from the restaurant yesterday… who you scolded until she cried?”
“Who scolded her? I was just stating facts, who asked her to provoke Qingyu’s emotions first?” Xia Qingtian withdrew her gaze and also reflected a little. “Did I say too much? Did I make her completely blacken?”
“It looks like she’s blackened completely!” Shi Xingwu raised his hand and touched his hair. “What kind of courage did she have to dye it green? If she wasn’t wearing those round glasses, I wouldn’t have recognized her!”
“To be precise, it’s blue-green.” Xia Qingtian said, “She also had it trimmed, but this color isn’t something everyone can pull off. It makes her skin look dull and sallow, not pretty.”
“Hmm…” Shi Xingwu took out his phone, opened the front camera, looked at his face, and said, “Goddess sister, what hair color do you think would suit me?”
“You’re dyeing your hair?” Xia Qingtian looked at Shi Xingwu and said, “No. 1 High has many rules, and your grades aren’t good. Dyeing your hair is equivalent to being expelled. Are you sure you want to risk it?”
“Not very sure…” Shi Xingwu immediately put away his phone at the sound of her voice, and grinned at Xia Qingtian. “Then I’ll wait until university.”
“Alright, when you get to university, if you still want to dye your hair, I’ll introduce you to a top-tier stylist.” Xia Qingtian placed her hand on Shi Xingwu’s shoulder. “How about that?”
“Really!” Shi Xingwu’s eyes lit up, then quickly dimmed. “A top-tier stylist, wouldn’t they also have top-tier fees?”
“Tch, look at your ambition. Do you think I’d let you spend money?” Xia Qingtian patted her chest with her other hand. “Goddess sister will treat you~”
“That would be too embarrassing~” Shi Xingwu chuckled and fidgeted coyly. “I actually have a bit of pocket money, and if mine isn’t enough, my dad has some, anyway, I…”
“What’s the difference?” Xia Qingtian curved her lips, smiling gently. “Having friends like you around Qingyu is not easy. You, remember to take good care of her for me. She’s tough on the outside but soft on the inside, strong yet fragile. Sometimes, friends are more reliable than me, her sister.”
“I’ll have to trouble you more in the future.” Xia Qingtian looked at Shi Xingwu and said with a light smile.