Chapter 16

Evening.

The sky had a big half moon with few clouds.

Su Xiaoqi washed the clothes and prepared dinner. The dishes were stir-fried by her aunt. She just cooked the rice.

Her aunt's stir-fry was not very tasty, it was coarse. The greens were just boiled with water. The meat was also boiled with water, quite tough.

Of course it was still much better than the school cafeteria food.

And it was much cleaner than the school food.

Su Xiaoqi watched her aunt rush home from work to stir-fry the dishes.

Then they ate and drank hurriedly together before her aunt was called away urgently by a patient to work again.

Xiaoqi was responsible for washing the dishes.

After washing the dishes, the sun had just set. The early dinner time was because her aunt accommodated her school dismissal time. She would be starving every time right after school dismissal, so they ate earlier.

After the meal, she looked at the interface in front of her. She still had not completed her 20,000 steps for today. She planned to go out for a walk.

At the same time she also brought along the New Concept English Book 2, she had read most of it, with only one third left.

She planned to go to No.1 Middle School. Although it was during the holidays, there were still many teachers living there, so the school gate was open. She could go under the streetlights on the school grounds to read her book. That was what she did frequently when she was studying there. Walking circles around the track while reading under the dim lights was quite efficient for memorizing.

She could walk and read at the same time, killing two birds with one stone.

She just didn't expect there would still be so many people on the school track even during the holidays, because when it was hot, residents nearby would come to take walks and stay cool, and young people would come to play basketball. Unlike during classes when night study hall prohibited playing ball, there were no restrictions during the holidays, so the track was quite lively.

Su Xiaoqi hugged her book and walked along the edge of the track. She walked to the area of the track closest to the lab building. The basketball hoops there were the most broken, and there was a part of uneven ground. There probably wouldn't be people there.

Sure enough when she walked over, there were no people playing ball, although there were a few people strolling occasionally.

That didn't matter, it wouldn't affect her. She just hugged her book and wandered around reading it there.

When she finished reciting the remaining one third of the book, she realized the step count for today had already exceeded 20,000 steps. The money amount had paused at 7160 yuan without increasing further.

This was the third day.

She now had this much money herself. She felt her whole psychological state was different now.

At this moment, she suddenly understood a little, the text she had studied before in her textbook, the story "The Necklace" written by Maupassant. A woman borrowed a diamond necklace and accidentally lost it. As a result, she worked hard for most of her remaining life to repay the necklace. She lived frugally and worked hard, only to find out in the end that the necklace she had borrowed was fake.

The woman in the story was burdened by debt all the time, even though the debt did not exist. The burden bent her over.

While she herself now, was increasing her account all the time. Even though she did not use the money, it straightened her back.

But this was just the beginning of the money. How to spend this money, Su Xiaoqi felt was also not an easy thing.

She had never thought spending money would not be easy before, but now she truly felt this way.

She planned to go home tomorrow. This time she could buy some new clothes for her dad too. Her dad was actually quite envious of others who could ride motorcycles. Although her dad was lame, when riding a motorcycle it didn't show at all. He looked quite stylish. But she had only been away for two days, it was not quite suitable to buy a vehicle yet.

As for what else she could buy, she had not thought it through yet. She would take a look tomorrow.

Go home first, tell her parents she found a tutoring job, ease their worries first.

Regarding the future, Su Xiaoqi thought about it and decided not to repeat senior year.

The most difficult money problem was solved, everything else was not an issue.

After finishing reciting, completing her steps, it was late at night. The big half moon in the sky had moved quite a distance.

She went back to the hospital, said goodnight to her aunt in the ward, then went back to her aunt's dorm room.

The Lin family next door seemed rather quiet today. No one was there, she wondered where they went.

She would sleep alone tonight again. She was thinking to wash up and sleep, and then remembered the calligraphy diamond card she obtained today. It was a card that allowed her to level up. As long as she wrote for 100 hours total, she could move up one level.

And with her years of writing experience, she was still only at entry level.

She looked forward to what the next level above would be like.

At night, the room was very cool. Xiaoqi tidied up the desk a bit, pressed some receipts under the glass desktop, straightened the radio, aligned the stool, and turned on the lights in the room and the desk lamp. She also filled up the fountain pen with ink. After doing all this, she changed into loose pajamas and sat properly to practice her penmanship.

Today she had specifically borrowed a book of fountain pen copybook of Wenzhengming Small Regular Script from the library, and also the latest English dictionary.

They were practical reference books.

Her handwriting was neat and well-behaved, but lacked some vitality, with strokes that seemed to be missing something.

At the beginning when she was writing, she could still hear the traffic sounds from the street, the noise outside the window, footsteps upstairs, occasional cat meows outside.

Gradually, the outside world seemed to become quiet.

In front of her, there was only a pen, a paper, a world composed of strokes.

For Xiaoqi who had just experienced the high intensity of studying for the college entrance exam, practicing calligraphy was really a leisurely activity.

She was very serious. With the etiquette buff, although she wrote for quite a while, she surprisingly did not feel tired like before. She sat properly, held the pen appropriately, and wrote very smoothly.

When she stopped writing, she noticed a string of data had appeared in front of her.

Host: Su Xiaoqi

Calligraphy: Entry level + (1.5/100)

Strength: Strong ordinary human level

Bamboo weaving: Entry level

Memory buff (3/10)

Language sense buff (2/10)

Etiquette buff (1/10)

She stretched lazily, planning to go out to the bathroom and wash up before going to bed to sleep.

At this time, the entire hallway was quiet. She then noticed Lin Min was reading a book at the dining table in the hallway. The table was quite short, and the light was also dim. He was tall, bending his neck very low to read.

It looked uncomfortable.

On her side there was just her and her aunt, and her aunt slept in the ward at night, so reading and writing was very convenient.

But it was more difficult for the Lin family. Their family of four occupied the corner of the hallway. Other than the bedroom, they had also cleared up the adjacent utility room, which was Lin Min and his sister Lin Qingqing's room. There was a curtain separating the two's spaces, with two beds.

There was no space to put a desk. But when she did not live at her aunt's place before, just coming to eat meals, she rarely saw Lin Min studying. Lin Min also usually came back quite late, often missing each other.

She did not expect he was studying like this.

She thought about it, and took the desk lamp from her room out and put in on the table, saying "Brother Lin Min, I'm done studying. Let me give you the desk lamp first. I'm going to sleep first. Turn it off after you're done."

Lin Min blanked for a moment, and gave her a smile. He did not say much, just nodded.

Tomorrow he still had to prepare lessons for three tutoring students.

Earlier, when he saw Su Xiaoqi writing in her room, because the basement was stuffy when not sleeping, the doors were kept open with just a curtain hung up. He saw the shadow inside through the curtain.

He saw her writing very properly for a long time.

He bid her goodnight, and continued studying.

Su Xiaoqi closed her door, didn't lock it since her aunt may come back later.

It was another fulfilling day. Sleep.

Outside the door, Lin Min's pen scratched heavily on the notebook, almost piercing through the pages. He was a little glad Su Xiaoqi was not here when his parents were arguing earlier.

That scene was very awkward and upsetting.

It started with his dad saying a dish his mom cooked was too salty. His mom suddenly blew up, complaining his dad was not ambitious enough, going out drinking and gambling. His dad angrily stormed out and slammed the door.

His sister was making a fuss wanting to buy headphones. She happened to get slapped by the angry mom, and hid in her room angry, slamming her door shut too.

What could he do?

What could he do to make his mom not angry? To make his dad not drink and gamble? To make his sister not buy headphones?

He seemed to be useless.

His usual calm and composure could not cover up that he was just an 18-year-old teen. He had tried very hard, yet seemed useless.

In the silent hallway, tears of the youth dropped onto his lesson plan notebook.

In the vast world, at this moment he only had an oily table in a dimly lit tunnel, there was no desk.

There was an extra table lamp in front of him, and the lamplight became much brighter.

What was in front of his eyes also became much brighter.

He stared blankly at the table lamp for a while, and suddenly thought of Su Xiaoqi's crying appearance that day, then continued writing.

In the room, Xiaoqi was almost asleep, but suddenly there was a sound: "The host has taken the initiative to help others improve their learning conditions, bringing a ray of positivity to the darkened teenager, reducing the other party's negative emotions. Reward: teeth straightening once. The straightened teeth will make the host's smile sweeter and her face more elegant."

Su Xiaoqi: ???

Darkened teenager? Lin Min looks very friendly!

What's more, teeth straightening is nonsense. Her teeth are quite neat, only her front teeth are a little big, and her canine teeth a little sharp.

She took out a mirror and bared her teeth at the mirror...