Chapter 6

The twenty yuan note in her hand was crumpled.

Her mom had stuffed one hundred yuan into her pocket last night when she said she wanted to find a summer job.

This morning when she parted ways with her dad, he had given her fifty yuan and told her to go buy some food. And now he had given her another twenty yuan, so she had a total of one hundred and seventy yuan.

The app showed she had 1160 yuan, so she didn't add any more.

The money the system had given her today had reached the limit. After walking ten thousand steps this morning,

Su Xiaoqi only confirmed that this system really existed and wasn't just imagined when she spent the money.

If she got one thousand yuan per day, and there were thirty days in a month, that would be thirty thousand yuan.

Then she wouldn't have any pressure paying her tuition fees; half a month would be enough.

But paying tuition wasn't the same as buying clothes. She couldn't cheat. She still needed a source of income.

She had only casually mentioned wanting to tutor yesterday, but today she decided to really find a tutoring job.

She could temporarily stay at her aunt's house.

She used to care more about appearances.

She felt working part-time jobs was embarrassing, but after going home this time, she experienced that while other families were sleeping in the middle of the night, her parents were still working hard, doing tiring labor to earn meager wages, and then giving all of it to her.

Compared to that, her going out to work should be something to be proud of, not embarrassing at all.

There was another thing: she had money now, and it made her feel different.

If she didn't have money and went to work, it would be just to survive.

Just surviving was always carefully treading, afraid of making a wrong step and losing her livelihood.

But with money in her pocket, she inexplicably had more confidence. Even if she lost her job, she could still live.

Going to work was to gain more than just money, but also experience in dealing with people and the world.

Su Xiaoqi walked all the way to her aunt's house.

Her aunt's house was actually just the hospital dormitory.

The hospital was right next to her high school. Her aunt was a janitor at the hospital, responsible for the hygiene on the first floor of the inpatient department, practically working 24 hours a day, so the hospital provided dormitories.

But the conditions were very crude. It was different from where the doctors and nurses rested. It was in the basement of the hospital, dark when you went in, with windows on one side, and not far away was the hospital morgue.

Her aunt lived next to a family of four from another province, a husband and wife with two children.

And the man in that family was a janitor on the second floor of the hospital. His son was one year older than Su Xiaoqi but in the same grade. He went to another high school.

Su Xiaoqi looked down on him a bit, since he went to an average public high school while she went to a top key high school. And there was another feeling, that the boy was quite good looking, thin and tall.

Even though they were both janitors, there was still a hierarchy. Her aunt was probably the worst off in this dark basement hallway, divorced and living alone, working all day, seriously overweight at around 150 pounds, looking dull and stupid.

But her aunt had a very good personality, treating Su Xiaoqi like her own daughter. No matter how tired she was every day, she always prepared meals on time for her to eat.

Her aunt's only entertainment was lying in this dark little room, turning on the radio, and listening to a recording of Dream of the Red Chamber, listening to the singsong voices.

Su Xiaoqi had a deep memory of this. There had been a relevant question about Dream of the Red Chamber on the college entrance exam, and she had answered it smoothly.

Thinking about all these things along the way, when she passed a cake shop, she paused and went inside to buy a small cake, a birthday cake cut into a small slice, for twelve yuan.

Her aunt often brought her all kinds of fruit, gifts from patients.

So she didn't lack fruit, but there were no pastries or cakes. She remembered her aunt really liked sweets...which was also part of the reason she was overweight.

She had never bought anything for her aunt before, because her own pocket money was too tight.

Her aunt really liked her. Su Xiaoqi understood that feeling a bit. Her aunt was divorced, her daughter was not around, while the families next door were intimate, living together. Her niece who went to a top high school coming to eat with her every day had somehow become one of her emotional needs.

While Su Xiaoqi was grateful for her aunt's kindness, she would also feel some contempt for her aunt's inadequacy.

Those vain, complex emotions were hard for the 17-year-old Su Xiaoqi to articulate.

Carrying the cake, she ran into her aunt at the hospital entrance. Her aunt had just come out to take out the trash.

At noon, it was hot, and she was sweating, her face flushed red. Seeing Su Xiaoqi come, her face lit up like flowers blooming.

"Xiaoqi, you came! I thought you wouldn't come anymore." She quickly took out the trash and came over.

In the past, Xiaoqi had not wanted to chat with her aunt at the hospital entrance, afraid her schoolmates would see.

But now she was much more nonchalant.

"Auntie, I bought you a cake. I want to find a summer job, tutoring or something, so I'll have to trouble you these days."

Hearing Xiaoqi had actually bought her cake, her aunt was very happy of course. She vigorously rubbed her hands on her clothes before taking it.

"These last few days you were gone, so many patients gave fruit, longan, and dragonfruit you like, I saved them and didn't eat them, just in time for you to come."

Her aunt was fat and loud. All the way, she greeted patients, family members, and hospital staff. Su Xiaoqi obediently followed her aunt downstairs.

Unexpectedly, as soon as they came out of the stairwell, she saw the boy living next door. Su Xiaoqi pushed up her glasses awkwardly.

It was awkward because on the day they got their college acceptance letters, she had run into Liu Shaowei.

The boy she had promised before the college entrance exam to go to the same university with.

Then Su Xiaoqi didn't test well, getting into a private university, while Liu Shaowei performed decently, getting into a top public university.

Su Xiaoqi went south to another city, while Liu Shaowei went north.

Their lives diverged from here, seeming worlds apart, like a huge ravine, insurmountable.

That day, standing in front of Liu Shaowei, he had just smiled awkwardly before leaving surrounded by a group of classmates. She heard they were going to celebrate getting into college at KTV.

She stood there, crying like a dog.

Very sad about not testing well for college, and the boy she liked was gone too. Hard to say which made her sadder.

To make things worse, she had cried so hard her glasses fell off, and it was this boy living next door who had picked them up and returned them to her.

She had cried until her eyes were blurry, snot running down her nose.

Very embarrassing.

"Xiao Lin, I heard you got into Alliance University. My niece Xiaoqi also got into Alliance University. You'll have to look after each other there." Her aunt greeted him loudly.

Su Xiaoqi could only stand aside awkwardly smiling.

Very awkward.

Although he was at an average high school, he had tested into the best university in the city, while she was at a top high school but only got into some unknown private school in the city. There was no comparison.

"Okay Aunt Su, I'm off to a part-time job. Let's chat later." He smiled appropriately and walked out.

"Um, Lin, wait a moment." Su Xiaoqi called out to him, her face a little red.

She had only been a student before, with pitifully little social experience, let alone working part-time jobs. Hearing him so calmly talk about going to a part-time job, she thought she could ask him about it.

"You guys chat, I'm going to make dinner." Her aunt walked away blithely.

Leaving Su Xiaoqi standing there, pushing up her glasses again, trying her best to stand upright and look him in the eye.

"Um, I also want to find a part-time job, tutoring or something. Could you tell me how to find one?"

On the narrow stairwell, Lin Min did not expect Su Xiaoqi to actually take the initiative to talk to him. Seeing her standing in front of him, cheeks fair with some baby fat, eyes curved, lips red, most of her face obscured by big black glasses, actually she looked much prettier without them. Because he often saw her with a towel on her head after washing her hair, glasses off, looking soft and cute.

But with glasses on, she became a bit fierce, a bit arrogant, not very easy to get along with.

He smiled and said, "Sure, let's go together. I have a tutoring interview today."