Dazzling

After leaving Kuangren, Quan Ya called Xing Wu to go see Boss Cao, the former owner of Shunyi. It was their annual tradition to pay him a New Year's visit. Xing Wu told Qing Ye to go back first with Pang Hu and the others, saying he'd return soon.

Huang Mao chimed in, "Qing Ye, don't go back. Come to my place for dinner. Wu Ge, just come straight to my place when you're done."

Xing Wu looked at Qing Ye, who nodded indifferently. Since she'd just be alone at home anyway, she might as well hang out with Huang Mao and the others while waiting for him.

Pang Hu, Lang Dai, and the rest all went to Huang Mao's house. Huang Mao's mom was very enthusiastic when she saw his classmates. Qing Ye was the last to enter, and Huang Mao's mom immediately approached her, asking, "You must be Qing Ye, right?"

It was Qing Ye's first time meeting Huang Mao's mom. She smiled and said, "Hello, Auntie."

Huang Mao's mom looked Qing Ye up and down, exclaiming, "Our Xiao Gongzi often talks about you. You're really beautiful."

"..." What the heck is Xiao Gongzi?

Huang Mao, somewhat embarrassed, pulled his mom away. They all went into the room, where Huang Mao turned on the TV and said to Qing Ye, "Make yourself at home, no need to be polite." Then he brought her some snacks.

The others were regular visitors to Huang Mao's house and felt completely at ease. They chatted while watching TV, waiting for dinner.

When the topic turned to the county sports meet, Huang Mao suddenly said, "Do you think Da Cao insisting that Wu Ge participate in the county sports meet has something to do with what happened three years ago?"

Everyone fell silent. Qing Ye looked up at them and asked, "What happened three years ago?"

Lang Dai cut in, "Back in junior high, Cao Ping was on his school's track and field team and represented the school in many competitions. I never saw it myself, but I heard he was quite impressive back then. Even coaches from the city sports school came to see him, telling him that if he achieved good results in the county sports meet, he could be directly admitted to the city sports school for focused training."

This was the first time Qing Ye had heard that the usually sloppy-looking Da Cao was once a promising athlete. She couldn't help asking, "Then what happened?"

Huang Mao continued, "But right before the competition, he got into a fight and was disqualified. The person he fought with was Wu Ge's classmate, who also got disqualified. The coach had to pull Wu in as a last-minute substitute. Who would have thought Wu Ge would win first place in all five track and field events that year? Because of this, Da Cao missed his chance to get into the sports school and had to settle for a vocational high school. He's definitely never gotten over it."

Pang Hu sighed, "The, the thing is, Da Cao believes, believes that Wu Ge's people deliberately provoked him, making, making him lose his qualification."

Huang Mao immediately retorted, "What does that have to do with Wu Ge? He was just pulled in as a substitute last minute. He didn't even care about winning. In the following years, Lao Dong tried every year to persuade him, but Wu Ge still refused to participate."

Qing Ye fell silent. It seemed Xing Wu had stopped participating to avoid suspicion. If she remembered correctly, not only did he avoid these sports events, he usually skipped PE class altogether. He seemed particularly averse to anything sports-related.

Yet Qing Ye had seen him throw shot put, witnessed his agility when driving to the basket, and observed his performance in that obstacle race with Jin Zhong. He clearly had the ability, but he never wanted to show off in this area.If what they said was true—that Da Cao and Xing Wu had such a history—then it seemed Da Cao had been planning this county sports meet for a long time. For him, it might have become an obsession, which was why he was willing to use any means necessary to force Xing Wu to compete again.

Given their age, this year would be their last chance to participate in the county sports meet. Once they graduated from high school, they would no longer be eligible. So Da Cao wouldn’t miss this opportunity to completely defeat Xing Wu and redeem his pride.

Qing Ye asked, "How do Xing Wu and Da Cao compare in terms of skill?"

The group exchanged glances, and Huang Mao honestly told her, "They’ve never competed head-to-head properly. But Da Cao’s records in the county have never been broken. Even Xing Wu’s performance that year fell a bit short of Da Cao’s. That’s why Da Cao has always felt resentful, believing all these years that Xing Wu cheated him somehow."

When they returned from dinner at Huang Mao’s place that evening, Xing Wu asked Qing Ye for the Kamen Rider toy she had picked up at the fire scene, though he didn’t explain why he wanted it.

Back at the inn, Qing Ye couldn’t help feeling anxious and asked Xing Wu how confident he was about the county sports meet. Xing Wu, however, seemed distracted and said, "Neither of us has trained in years. It’s hard to say."

"What happens if you lose?"

Xing Wu turned to look at her, his brow furrowing briefly before relaxing. "The outcome doesn’t really matter," he replied.

At the time, Qing Ye didn’t understand what he meant, and Xing Wu didn’t explain why he didn’t care about the result. But soon, their lives grew increasingly busy as the New Year festivities drew to a close.

Xing Guodong, unwilling to take care of the elderly woman, insisted even before the New Year was over that he had to return to work. This genuinely angered Xing Wu.

Although Li Lanfang had struggled to accept the idea of divorce at first, Xing Wu’s attitude over the past few days had sobered her up. She realized that if she didn’t agree to the divorce, her son might truly abandon her. In the end, Xing Guodong and Li Lanfang reached a divorce agreement.

The moment the papers were signed, Xing Guodong left Zhazha Pavilion the very next day. Shortly after, Xing Wu told Li Lanfang about his plan to build a house. Li Lanfang, who had been down for just a day, immediately perked up and even scolded Xing Wu for not discussing it with her earlier. Had she known about the construction plans, she wouldn’t have given Xing Guodong any chance to interfere. Xing Wu just looked at his mom and chuckled without saying a word.

After all these years, he knew exactly how she was. If he had told her earlier, she would have bragged about it so much that not only Xing Guodong but the entire Zhazha Pavilion would have known about their plans to rebuild.

…

After the seventh day of the New Year, Xing Wu mentioned that the driving school had reopened, so he had to commute back and forth during the day. He would leave early in the morning, return at noon to bring Qing Ye food, and sometimes they would spend a little time together—though it was only for an hour before he had to rush off again.

Meanwhile, Qing Ye shook off her lazy mood and threw herself back into studying and solving practice problems.

Grandpa Xie returned on the eighth day of the New Year. Qing Ye didn’t know how Xing Wu had negotiated it, but not only did he secure the factory equipment and management rights for 50,000 yuan, Grandpa Xie also promised to provide a batch of raw materials and offer free guidance and support during the initial phase.

To Qing Ye, it felt like they had stumbled upon a fantastic deal. But then she thought again—no, this crafty old man was shrewd. Since the raw materials and food sources were his own, if Qing Ye managed to get the factory running successfully, he would still profit from it in the long run.Xing Wu called Liu Nian and Du Qiyan back to the factory to familiarize themselves with the procedures on the ninth day of the lunar new year. Qing Ye, being more cautious, began checking the accounts on the tenth. Fortunately, the factory was quite small with no bad debts or liabilities, so after verifying everything, Qing Ye urged Grandpa Xie to proceed with the transfer formalities.

She had initially wanted to ask Xing Wu to accompany her, but he was swamped with tasks these days—arranging construction matters, visiting building material markets, attending driving school, and consulting at the county hospital about his grandmother’s hospitalization. So, when it came to handling the registration changes, Qing Ye had to go with Grandpa Xie alone.

The process involved a lot of paperwork, and it was Qing Ye’s first time dealing with it. To save on agency fees, she made several trips back and forth to the industrial and commercial bureau before finally getting it done.

When she stepped out with the updated documents in hand, the sun was shining brightly overhead. She paused at the entrance of the bureau, took a deep breath of the warm, dry air that carried a crisp chill. Having been here for over half a year, she seemed to have grown accustomed to this scent—from initial resistance to now feeling at ease, all because she had found a sense of belonging here. Her restless heart no longer had to drift.

In high spirits, Qing Ye video-called Xing Wu. As soon as he answered, she proudly waved the freshly issued business license in front of the camera and said with a laugh, "I’m the legal representative now!"

Sensing her excitement, Xing Wu smiled back at her through the screen. "Congratulations, Boss Qing. You’re one step closer to making loads of money."

Qing Ye giggled over the phone, but her laughter soon faded as she noticed something off. Nurses hurried back and forth behind Xing Wu, and the surroundings seemed noisy. She asked him, "Where are you?"

Xing Wu told her, "At the hospital. Grandma hasn’t eaten anything since yesterday, so I brought her here."

Qing Ye asked which hospital it was. Luckily, it wasn’t too far from her, so she hailed a taxi and went straight there.

When she found Xing Wu at the hospital, he was in the doctor’s office of the inpatient department, speaking seriously with his grandmother’s attending physician. Qing Ye quietly waited by the door, not wanting to interrupt.

Even so, she overheard some of the conversation. According to the middle-aged doctor, Grandma’s intestinal function had deteriorated severely and she could only be fed temporarily through a nasogastric tube. For Alzheimer’s patients, refusing to eat was generally a sign of the late stage, and there were no specific treatments available—only hospitalization for maintenance and enhanced care.

Finally, Xing Wu asked the doctor about the hospitalization costs. With nursing care included, it would amount to at least four thousand yuan a month. He thanked the doctor and stood up to leave.

As they walked out of the hospital, Qing Ye held his hand along the path beside the inpatient building. Because it was still within the New Year period, the area felt somewhat deserted. Though today was supposed to be a joyous milestone for Qing Ye, neither of them spoke.

Four thousand yuan a month was a significant burden for high school students like them. Although Qing Ye felt the price was quite reasonable given the nursing care included, the sad truth was, they couldn’t afford it.Grandma hadn't eaten for two days. Taking her out of the hospital would be equivalent to sentencing her to death directly. Not only was Xing Wu incapable of doing such a thing, but even Qing Ye couldn't bear it. Although they both knew that Grandma's illness was likely incurable, they couldn't bring her home from the hospital just to wait for death.

So she turned her head to look at Xing Wu and said, "We can't give up. There will always be a way."

Xing Wu stopped and looked at her. The pale golden glow shone on her fair face, her eyes bright and intense like the midday sun, blazing and dazzling. She might not have known how much strength her words gave Xing Wu at that moment. He simply pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly. All words melted into that embrace, immersed in the warm winter sunlight.

...

After the tenth day of the lunar new year, Qing Ye had Xiao Ling Tong spread the word that her intensive college entrance exam study group was about to officially begin. Qing Ye couldn't remember which meal she had mentioned it to Xing Wu, and although Xing Wu hadn't had time to go to the factory recently, on the evening before the class started, he surprisingly managed to get her a movable blackboard. However, he only found time to assemble it late at night. By the time he returned to the inn, Qing Ye was already asleep. After showering, he got into bed and held her without waking her up.

The next day, when Qing Ye went to the factory, she discovered the large blackboard. She stood in front of it, excited for quite a while. With the blackboard, the tutoring class suddenly began to look somewhat formal.

She stood before the blank blackboard for a long time, suddenly feeling she should write something. So on the far right side of the blackboard, she raised her hand and wrote six beautiful three-dimensional hollow characters: "Charge to Peking University, Seize Tsinghua University.After writing it, she finally felt the class had taken on the atmosphere of an intensive sprint class. At the top of the blackboard, she wrote: Countdown to College Entrance Exam: 105 days.

Staring at those 105 days, her mood suddenly grew heavy. Would she have to leave this place after 105 days? She suddenly felt afraid of that number.

The first day of class was still during the New Year period. Qing Ye thought not many people would come. She arrived at the factory early and discussed production process issues with Liu Nian and Yan Yan. Just after eight o'clock, people started arriving one after another.

To Qing Ye's surprise, more and more people came. By the official start at 8:30, over thirty people were sitting in front of the workshop. Some of these people Qing Ye had met during the previous Winter Camp, while others were from different classes whom Qing Ye didn't recognize at all. Fortunately, Xiao Ling Tong had notified everyone properly, telling them to bring their own stools; otherwise, there wouldn't have been enough seating.

Qing Ye stood somewhat stunned at the front, looking at the dense crowd, and realized these were basically the top-performing students from various classes of Anzhong High School's third year.

In other words, these were people who genuinely wanted to achieve good exam results and were willing to sacrifice their New Year holiday, coming immediately after hearing the news. After the school canceled evening self-study sessions, these were the ones who suffered the most. Among them, there might not be many with exceptionally high scores, but the vast majority had solid foundations - they were all the top students from their respective classes. Qing Ye silently observed these people and quietly folded up the test paper she had prepared.

Standing at the front, she suddenly smiled at them, raised her hand and pointed to the six large characters on the right side of the blackboard, asking, "Do you understand what these six words mean?"Everyone below, regardless of their academic performance, looked somewhat bewildered at the six large characters: Peking University, Tsinghua University—the dream of every senior high school student.

And dreams seemed far out of reach.

Qing Ye walked directly up to the six large characters, her eyes shining brightly as she gazed at them: "These six characters don't just represent the names of universities—they're a reminder of the gap between you and the finish line. I know some of you are only a few dozen points away from this goal, while others are over three hundred points behind. From now on, every day when you step in here, take a look at how much you've shortened that distance.

No matter what your target university was before you came here, starting today, everyone's goal is these six characters."

Qing Ye waved the test papers in her hand: "To be honest, I prepared a relatively simple test today. My initial idea was to drag your scores up point by point, starting from the basics."

"But I've changed my mind now."

After saying this, she tossed the test papers aside and walked directly up to that daunting number, telling everyone: "105 days—we're racing against time. We no longer have the luxury of starting from the basics to consolidate. From now on, I'll directly focus on key problems. Don't tell me you don't understand—even if you don't, grit your teeth and listen. I know you're scared of difficult problems, but no problem is more terrifying than survival. Think about it—is eating dirt in the future scarier, or is a stupid problem scarier?

I can't guarantee that every one of you will get into your ideal university, but I can absolutely guarantee that the vast majority of you will break into the first-tier universities within this limited time."

Faced with Qing Ye's determined gaze, most people still looked confused. Qing Ye found their expressions amusing and walked directly to the table, leaning on it with both hands: "Are you dumbstruck? I'm not Old Zhu—give me some reaction!"

Everyone laughed, and Pang Hu took the lead in applauding and hyping everyone up. Then, for some reason, everyone felt inexplicably energized early in the morning, as if they were about to accomplish something great.

Actually, most people who came initially did so with a mindset of joining in the fun—figuring that since they had to study at home anyway, they might as well find a crowded place to gather.

But after a few days, those with slightly better grades began to see the method in Qing Ye's approach. The types of problems she selected were highly targeted, covering a wide range of knowledge points. The problems she chose weren't tricky, difficult questions, nor were they basic ones—they were intermediate-level problems. In the process of explaining them, she naturally incorporated fundamental knowledge points, allowing weaker students to continuously reinforce their foundations while simultaneously increasing the difficulty to help those with better grades improve their problem-solving skills.

Old Zhu somehow heard about this and would often ride his old bicycle over during the day to check things out. Teacher Zhu Fen's home wasn't far from the shooting range, and when he came, he often brought some snacks from home to share with the students.

At first, Qing Ye was quite surprised and somewhat uncomfortable with Teacher Zhu Fen's sudden visits, wondering if she should invite Old Zhu to come up and offer some guidance.

However, Old Zhu told them not to mind him—he found his home too noisy and crowded, so he came here for some peace and quiet.The other students simply felt that listening to Qing Ye explain problems was effortless. For instance, questions they would have previously avoided now seemed not so difficult to understand after her analysis. Her confidence and calmness were powerfully infectious, transforming the once aimless group of reviewers into a tightly united force.

However, Old Zhu, a mathematics teacher with years of experience, noticed something astonishing after attending a few sessions.

Qing Ye systematically deconstructed scoring points into specific test points, then tackled them by dividing them into modular sections. She would integrate each module’s test points into practice problems, break them down for analysis, and ultimately reclaim each scoring point one by one.

Her mind was supported by a robust mental map, enabling her to pinpoint key knowledge areas accurately. The most challenging part of this process was the deconstruction itself. Without extensive practice and mastery of a vast question bank, such precision would be impossible. Some of her deconstruction methods even left Old Zhu in awe, and at times, he found himself as captivated as the students.

A week later, the original thirty-student crash course expanded to over forty participants. Old Zhu secretly collaborated with several senior-year teachers to procure extra desks and chairs for these students. Qing Ye never imagined that a modest crash course would, with everyone’s support, gradually take on a more formal shape. And so, these high school seniors officially embarked on their legendary journey of late-night cramming.