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“Oh my heavens, oh merciful Bodhisattva, bless us!”
Grandmother Lin clasped her hands together and muttered under her breath.
“As long as everything is fine, as long as everything is fine, from now on, everything will be peaceful and smooth.”
Lin Nanye nodded.
He turned his gaze toward his third younger sister and met her tear-filled eyes. A comforting smile appeared on his lips. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt that his gradual recovery was somehow connected to her.
Perhaps it was the nourishing soup she made for him every day.
Lin Nanzhi blinked away her tears and finally felt the weight in her heart lift. Now, all that remained was to focus on their grandmother’s legs.
Grandmother’s legs had already regained some mobility. With proper rest and some spiritual spring water, she would surely recover completely within a year.
She finally felt relieved!
The family’s situation was improving day by day. With the orchard in place, their parents no longer had to work so hard. Now, she and her siblings could focus on pursuing their own goals.
With Lin Nanye’s condition stabilizing, everyone felt at ease. The atmosphere at home had brightened significantly in the past few days. During this joyful period, it was also time for Lin Nanzhi to collect her admission notice.
—-
Early in the morning, after breakfast, her father drove her to school in their newly purchased second-hand car.
Upon arrival, she immediately noticed the large banner at the school entrance, displaying the number of students admitted to the city’s top high schools.
Several students’ names and photos were posted on the school gate, listing their class, exam scores, and the schools they were admitted to. Lin Nanzhi’s name was also among them—ranked fifth in the first row.
Although she was ranked fifth, her score was still impressive—665 points in total, just 10 points behind the top scorer.
The admission notice was distributed alongside the score report. Lin Nanzhi reviewed her results:
Her chemistry score had slightly dragged down her total. Otherwise, she might have taken first place.
Still, she was satisfied with her chemistry score, given that she had never formally studied the subject before. She had only picked it up in her spare time or asked her academically gifted older brother for help. With that in mind, her score was decent.
She was just 10 points behind first place and 23 points away from a perfect score. With that 23-point gap, many students had surpassed her. However, her 665 points exceeded the admission cutoff for the city’s top high school by 100 points, securing her a spot there.
Even though she had already seen her score, she still needed to head to her class.
Inside the classroom, many students were gathered, discussing the banner outside.
Class 1 had performed exceptionally well, with most of the top students coming from their class. Two of the top three students were from Class 1, and six out of the top ten were from their class. It was a moment of great pride for them.
When Lin Nanzhi entered the room, all eyes turned to her. Those who were familiar with her showered her with praise.
“Lin Nanzhi only studied here for half a semester and still managed to rank fifth! If she hadn’t skipped a grade, she might have been the top scorer in the entire school!”
“Amazing! A terrifying genius!”
“The teachers from her old class really had no foresight.”
Lin Nanzhi was unaware of their thoughts and simply smiled in response.
She had grown significantly over the past year, and during her vision test, she had scored perfectly. As a result, her seat was in the second-to-last row of the classroom.
She entered through the back door, greeted a few classmates, and took her seat before pulling out her phone to book her tickets.
Now that Lin Nanye was doing well, she could proceed with her plans.
About ten minutes later, at 2:00 PM—the designated class meeting time—all students had arrived, and their homeroom teacher entered.
After offering some words of praise, the teacher distributed graduation certificates and admission notices, then gave a few reminders before saying:
“Now that we’ve graduated, everyone will go their separate ways. Who knows if we’ll ever meet again?
Cherish the time you have left together.
We still have over 2,000 yuan remaining in the class fund, which we won’t be able to use in the future. Instead of refunding it to everyone, I’ve booked a restaurant for next Monday. Let’s meet at school first to take a group photo, then we’ll have a meal together. Sound good?”
Of course, no one objected.
Even though Lin Nanzhi had only transferred in recently, she had contributed to the class fund. After her old class (Class 2-1) was dissolved, the remaining funds had been evenly distributed among the students, and she had then paid into her new class’s fund.
Each student had only paid about 20 yuan per semester, but with 40-50 students per class, the total added up. The money was used for replacing broken desks and chairs, buying cleaning supplies, and covering expenses for class events like Youth Day celebrations and class uniforms. The remaining funds were partly due to fines collected from students who were late or violated class rules.
After discussing these matters, the class was officially dismissed.
Checking the time, Lin Nanzhi noted that today was Saturday, and Monday was just two days away, so it wouldn’t interfere with her schedule. She decided to keep her plans unchanged.
“Lin Nanzhi!”
Hearing someone call her name, she turned to see a few classmates approaching with their phones.
“Hey, can we add you as a friend?”
WeChat had existed since 2011 but only recently became popular. Most students still preferred using QQ over WeChat.
Her classmates’ phone screens all displayed QQ.
Lin Nanzhi nodded and recited her QQ number.
She had registered early enough to have a seven-digit account number, which stood out among the more common eight- or nine-digit numbers.
She recalled that she had lost this account later on, and when she registered a new one, it had already reached ten digits, starting with a ‘3’.
Her profile picture was a dog, and her username was “南风知我意” (“The Southern Wind Knows My Heart”). Compared to usernames filled with special characters and flashy symbols like “贝贝戋の女子” or “爱上葵の影子,” hers was refreshingly simple.
Her classmates suddenly felt a bit self-conscious for some reason.
—-
After sending her friend requests, they watched as she accepted them one by one and even added their names to her contacts.
Seeing that she didn’t reject anyone, more classmates rushed over to add her.
Since it was a rare occasion where they were allowed to use their phones openly, they took the chance to connect with their class goddess.
By the time she finished adding friends, she finally left the school.
“Why did it take you so long? I saw many of your classmates come out earlier,” her father asked.
“I was chatting with some classmates,” she replied while getting into the car.
Her father didn’t say much and started the engine, driving them home.