Chapter 77

Fu Qingshan had no choice but to go next door and tell Aunt Feng that they wouldn’t be home for lunch, so she didn’t need to wait for him and Qiao Xinyi to eat. He also mentioned borrowing a bicycle to go to town. When Aunt Feng heard it was for an exam, she immediately said it was a good thing, “You just go and take care of your business. I’ll save some dishes for you. If you’re not too late, you can still eat; if you come back late, then you’ll eat dinner instead.” Aunt Feng waved at the two kids still following Qiao Xinyi, “Come to Grandma Feng’s house for some meat.”

The two kids instantly ran to Qiao Xinyi, one hugging her left leg and the other hugging her right leg. “We want to go to the city with Uncle and Aunt Qiao.”

“Your uncle has a girlfriend now and is getting married. He won’t take you along. You’re just baggage to your uncle~” Zheng Dajiang said nastily, trying to sow discord, “If you follow your uncle, you won’t even have enough to eat. Your aunt won’t even give you porridge!”

“That’s nonsense! Aunt Qiao is great! She buys us popsicles and toys!” Fu Linzhou and Fu Zeyu weren’t fooled.

“Zheng Dajiang, if your mouth keeps running, I’ll help you tear it off,” Qiao Xinyi shot him a cold look.

Fu Qingshan was even more direct. He walked over and kicked Zheng Dajiang in the butt, sending him bumping his head against the doorframe with a yelp. Holding his butt and leaning against the corner, Zheng Dajiang dared not make another sound.

“Don’t listen to your third uncle’s nonsense,” Aunt Feng comforted the two kids.

Qiao Xinyi bent down to be eye-level with the two children and patiently explained, “Your uncle and I are going to the county seat today on some business. You heard just now, right? I’m going to take an exam, so your uncle and I can’t really take care of little kids.”

“When your uncle buys the tickets, we’ll return to the provincial city tomorrow. After we get there, I’ll take you to the zoo, okay?” Qiao Xinyi coaxed them, patting her chest and mimicking a gorilla to entertain the kids, “There are chimpanzees, big tigers, and big pythons at the zoo~”

“We want to go! We want to go!” The two kids excitedly jumped on the spot and immediately pushed Qiao Xinyi toward the bicycle, even urging Fu Qingshan on.

“Uncle, hurry up and take Aunt Qiao to the exam! Aunt Qiao is taking the exam, and you go buy the train tickets! My brother and I will clean up at home, and tomorrow we’re going to the provincial city to see the gorillas!” After urging Fu Qingshan, the kids encouraged Qiao Xinyi, “Aunt Qiao, do well on your exam! Don’t be nervous! Write well and get 100 points to make my brother and me proud!” This phrasing was obviously learned from Zhang Zao, who often talked like this to Zheng Dahe.

Aunt Feng took the two bouncing kids back home. Feng Zhenzhu rushed out and stuffed her pencil case into Qiao Xinyi’s hands, also finding her elementary school textbooks and giving them to Qiao Xinyi, reminding her she could read on the way.

Qiao Xinyi took the pencil case but only needed two Chinese language textbooks. These days, elementary schools only tested Chinese and math; math was no problem for her, so she could just flip through the fifth-grade Chinese textbooks on the trip.

The canned food factory elementary school in the county seat wasn’t exactly close from town, and since Qiao Xinyi was reading in the back, Fu Qingshan rode slower than usual. After an hour and a bit, the two arrived at the school gate.

Liu Yun was even slower than them. After waiting at the school gate for more than ten minutes, Liu Yun finally arrived and led them straight into the school principal’s office.

“Uncle, I brought my friend with me,” Liu Yun said, pushing the door open and walking inside.

Principal Yang adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked at the three who entered, nodding, “I checked all the test papers for this year’s graduating class. Only the Chinese test papers have blank ones left. The math ones were all taken by another school’s director a few days ago, unfortunately.”

“You take the Chinese test papers next door to the office to write it there. There are two teachers in the next office who can help supervise. I’ll copy a new math test paper on blank sheets. After you finish the Chinese test, the teacher can bring it to me and continue with the math test here.”

Principal Yang looked at Liu Yun and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure your friend is well arranged.”

Qiao Xinyi took the test papers and went to the next office. Liu Yun was really thoughtful — she even prepared draft paper and pens for her.

Fu Qingshan stood outside the classroom, looking in through the glass. He stayed in the corridor with Qiao Xinyi for more than ten minutes. Seeing that she was writing quickly and looked relaxed, he then followed their earlier plan: she would stay there to finish the exam while he went to the train station to buy tickets.

The elementary school graduation Chinese exam had already included the essay. Qiao Xinyi hadn’t spent much time on the earlier parts but took more time on the essay. When she said she was finished and ready to submit, the two teachers who had been watching her the entire time immediately came over to collect her test paper.

“Wait here a moment, I’ll go get your math test paper,” one teacher said with a smile to Qiao Xinyi, then took the completed exam and began reviewing it as she walked away. Seeing the high accuracy of the answers, her expression relaxed and her mood lifted. Teachers always liked to see well-done papers.

After about three minutes, Qiao Xinyi received a math test paper copied by hand onto a sheet of white paper the same size as the original test. She didn’t rush to start writing but first glanced over the questions to get an overview, then began working.

One teacher stayed in the office to continue supervising, while another went to the office to grade Qiao Xinyi’s test papers on the spot with Principal Yang. This teacher happened to be the Chinese teacher for the graduating class, so the grading was very fast.

“The points lost are all from the fill-in-the-blank questions,” the teacher commented while grading and praising, “But this student has never had formal schooling and it’s been a long time since she was exposed to elementary school knowledge, so this is normal.” She continued, “Her handwriting is really beautiful. Has she really never gone to school? This writing doesn’t look like someone without formal schooling. Hmm, the essay is also well written. I can’t find any point to deduct— I can give it full marks.”

Her writing was good, neat, and clear; indeed, there was no reason to deduct points. Principal Yang also couldn’t find any excuse and glanced at Liu Yun, noticing her slightly displeased expression. He said, “For a young woman, Chinese is usually easier; math is not so certain.” After looking at the teacher’s final score tally, the Chinese score was 89 points.

Principal Yang said, “The requirement for the diploma is to pass both subjects. Scoring 89 in Chinese alone won’t get you the diploma if you fail math.”

Liu Yun’s expression improved somewhat.

But to their surprise, half an hour later another teacher came in holding the test paper and led Qiao Xinyi back.

“This student has also finished the math exam,” the teacher said. “She works really fast.”

“Quick, bring it here for grading,” the teacher inside quickly gave up the spot, saying, “I’ll go find the math answer key for this year’s graduation exam.”

Just as that teacher reached the office door, three or four people arrived.

“It’s already vacation time. What’s going on here to make it so lively?” The person in charge asked cheerfully while praising those around him, “The teachers at the canned food factory elementary school have great spirit. The students are on vacation but the teachers on duty at the school are still so cheerful.”

The teacher didn’t recognize the speaker but did recognize the official standing next to him.

“Minister Wu, what brings you here?” The teacher quickly greeted.

He recognized this official as the Minister of Education of Tong’an County. The fact that this minister had come accompanied by a higher-ranking city-level education official, who was walking to the side, indicated that the city education department leadership had come down to inspect the education work.