Restart life

Chapter 53 0052 [The Apple Is Hard to Deliver]

Wednesday is Christmas Eve.

The night before, the girls in room 205 started talking about it.

Xiong Xiaoying, from bed number 3, was the first to bring up the topic: "Did you know that you should give apples on Christmas Eve to ensure peace and safety?"

"Who told you that?" Zhu Yun, the chubby girl in bed number 4, asked while chewing on potato chips.

Xiong Xiaoying said, "The senior students in the second year of high school all say so. It has been popular abroad for many years."

Tao Xue said, "The English words for 'apple' and 'peace' don't sound like each other, do they?"

“People in foreign countries don’t give apples because of the homonym,” Xiong Xiaoying said seriously. “In the West, apples symbolize health, longevity and rebirth. It seems that it was originally related to religion and has been passed down from generation to generation.”

"Really?" Tao Xue was starting to believe it.

In this era of limited information access and diverse channels for obtaining information, various urban legends are passed down by word of mouth.

Moreover, it is unified nationwide.

For example, Wang Jie's voice was poisoned and he lost his voice, Zhuo Yiting unfortunately died in a car accident, and Wong Ka Kui was deliberately killed by a mistress...

"Sweetie, what do you give as gifts on Christmas Eve?" Zhu Yun asked Yu Tian, ​​who was in bed number 2.

Yu Tian comes from the neighboring wine city, the place where Wuliangye is produced.

Her accent was very different from Long's, and she was occasionally teased and ridiculed, so she gradually stopped liking to talk.

"I don't know, it seems like they're giving apples too," Yu Tian guessed.

Xiong Xiaoying mustered her courage and asked, "I want to give Wang Haochuan some apples. Will he accept them?"

"Oh my~~~"

Tao Xue and Zhu Yun both prolonged the tone.

“What do you mean, ‘oh’? I just like him,” Xiong Xiaoying said, her words bold and straightforward. “Wang Haochuan is handsome, plays basketball well, and has good grades.”

Zhu Yun joked, "Go for it! Take him as your sugar daddy!"

"What do you mean by 'keeping someone as a mistress'? That's a really awful way to put it," Xiong Xiaoying said angrily.

Those who can afford to live in a four-person girls' dormitory all come from wealthy families.

But Wang Haochuan was a boy from the countryside.

Xiong Xiaoying continued, "I'll bring him apples tomorrow, and if he's willing to accept them, I'll bring him a scarf on New Year's Day. And it'll be a scarf I knitted myself!"

"You can knit?" Tao Xue asked in surprise.

Xiong Xiaoying said proudly, "I knew how to do it when I was little. I learned it from my mom."

Tao Xue wondered to herself: Should I learn to knit too?

She took out her phone as if possessed and texted Bian Guanyue: "Senior, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, what gift are you going to give my nephew?"

Bian Guanyue was doing her test papers at home when she received the text message and was taken aback.

She hadn't paid any attention to this and didn't know that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were approaching.

After thinking for a moment, Bian Guanyue replied, "I wasn't planning on giving a gift. Do you want to?"

“I’m his elder, shouldn’t he be the one to give me a gift?” Tao Xue sent a text message, and quickly added, “I’m not giving him one.”

That's it for exchanging text messages.

Bian Guanyue lost interest in doing her homework and took out the pebble to play with again.

After a long while, Bian Guanyue picked up her phone again and sent a text message to her old friend in Rongcheng: "What's a good gift to give on Christmas Eve?"

"Male and female?"

"male."

"No way? You actually gave a gift to a boy! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god..."

What was your reaction?

"We've been classmates since junior high and high school. We've known each other for so many years, and you've never given a boy a gift. Are you dating someone?"

"Just friends."

"Scattering peppercorns on a grave, you little devil!"

"Forget it if you don't tell me."

"Just give him an apple, and see what he gives you in return for Christmas."

"Thanks. I'll stop here."

"Love comes before friendship."

Bian Guanyue put down her phone and lay on her desk, lost in thought.

She wanted to buy an apple tomorrow, but then told Tao Xue that she wouldn't deliver it.

It would be so embarrassing if Tao Xue found out.

Alas, forget it!

Let's buy some small potatoes for Chen Guiliang instead.

……

The next day, noon.

Tao Xue casually strolled past Class 11 of Senior Three, carrying an apple in her pocket.

She stood at the door and peeked out, noticing that Chen Guiliang was studying, while Bian Guanyue had not yet arrived at school.

Hesitating as she walked, Tao Xue ultimately did not go in.

Walking from the front door to the back door, Tao Xue took out an apple from her pocket, took a big bite, and strolled back to her classroom as if nothing had happened.

"Hey, have you sent out your apples?" Tao Xue asked.

Xiong Xiaoying asked nervously, "Not yet. What if Wang Haochuan refuses to accept it?"

Tao Xue feigned nonchalance: "If he doesn't want to accept it, he doesn't have to. Just think of him as blind. What are you afraid of?"

"Never mind, I'll just eat it myself." Xiong Xiaoying backed down at the last minute.

Although her family was wealthy, she wasn't particularly beautiful, while Wang Haochuan was so outstanding.

Feeling inferior.

Tao Xue touched the half-eaten apple in her pocket and said angrily, "Don't be afraid, take the first step bravely. I support you!"

Xiong Xiaoying shook her head repeatedly: "Forget it, forget it."

"Then you should knit a scarf for him. I'll help you knit it," Tao Xue suggested.

Xiong Xiaoying asked, "You can knit too?"

Tao Xue said, "I don't know how, but you can teach me."

Xiong Xiaoying looked puzzled: "You don't mean you want to learn how to knit, do you?"

"Where?" Tao Xue denied it outright.

……

Class monitor Li Rui is also a day student. He comes to school every day at noon and checks the mailboxes when he passes by.

There is a row of dark green mailboxes against the wall, which are then divided into individual mailboxes according to class.

Li Rui took out his key, opened the door, and found three letters inside. He then took them and headed to the classroom.

"Wang Lei, here's your letter." Li Rui took out a letter and placed it on Wang Lei's desk.

"Thank you monitor."

Wang Lei was overjoyed to receive the letter; it was from his pen pal, with whom he had been corresponding for a year. He had even made a pact with his pen pal to apply to universities in the same city.

The recipient of another letter has not yet arrived at the classroom.

Li Rui walked up to Chen Guiliang in front of him, plopped down, and said, "Master Chen, here's your letter."

"Thanks." Chen Guiliang glanced at the envelope; the sender was the New Concept Writing Competition Organizing Committee.

Invitation to the semi-finals!

Li Rui was quite curious and urged, "Let's open it and take a look. We don't know what the invitation to the New Concept Writing Competition looks like yet."

"Invitation card?"

Chen Guiliang's deskmate, Qin Shanshan, was even more surprised than Chen Guiliang: "Master Chen, you passed the preliminary round?"

Chen Guiliang opened the letter, and Li Rui and Qin Shanshan immediately gathered around.

Qin Shanshan read aloud: "Dear contestant Chen Guiliang: Congratulations on passing the preliminary round and advancing to the semi-finals of the 6th National New Concept Writing Competition. The semi-final time is..."

Before the invitation was even finished being read, several classmates had already been drawn over.

"Master Chen, you're awesome!" Guan Zhiqiang exclaimed.

Chen Guiliang thought to himself: You're pretty awesome too. In another month, you'll pass the art academy's painting exam without anyone noticing.

Guan Zhiqiang's family doesn't really have any powerful connections; they're just private business owners in a small city.

These days, as long as you find the right approach, a few tens of thousands of yuan can solve the problem.

That's insane.

Next year, a bizarre case may even be exposed: a homeroom teacher at a certain school led dozens of second-year high school students to illegally participate in the official college entrance examination. Just to let the students experience it in advance... God knows how they managed to do it.

"I'll see, I'll see!"

Then another classmate ran over.

Xu Haibo, as if he himself were participating in the competition, shouted at the top of his lungs, "Master Chen has passed the preliminary round of the New Concept Writing Competition!"

None of them had ever seen the invitation to the New Concept Writing Competition semi-finals, so they all rushed over to watch the excitement. It was passed around and eventually ended up in someone's hands.

If it were a normal high school student, they would probably be panicking by now, fearing that the invitation letter might be damaged or lost.

Chen Guiliang simply smiled as he answered everyone's questions.

As for the invitation, it doesn't matter if it's lost; I'll just go to the competition empty-handed.

Even if you lose your university acceptance letter, you can still register empty-handed.

It's no big deal.

"Master Chen, if you can win first prize, can you get a guaranteed admission to Tsinghua or Peking University?"

"Those who were admitted to universities in the third year were no longer eligible for direct admission. The universities changed their minds at the last minute, and many people were taken advantage of. Guo Xiaosi had to repeat a year, didn't he?"

"So what happened with the subsequent guaranteed admission?"

"It's similar to independent admissions; it depends on how the universities specifically arrange it."

"Then you can definitely get admitted with a lower score."

"hope so."

"If you become famous in the future, remember to give me your autograph."

"must."

"Haha, I want your autograph now. Once you become famous, I'll sell the autographs to your fans."

"..."

Many students returned to their seats after reading the invitation to the semi-finals.

There were also more than ten people surrounding Chen Guiliang, laughing and joking.

Xie Yang carefully examined the invitation and reminded him, "You need to bring your ID card and a photocopy. Have you applied for an ID card?"

“It was held last summer vacation,” Chen Guiliang said.

Xie Yang then exclaimed, "Damn, the New Concept Writing Competition is so stingy! They don't even provide accommodation. You have to pay for your own hotel room when you go to compete!"

"Business is business, it's not shameful at all," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

During the competition, although participants are responsible for their own food and accommodation, staff members will recommend hotels and earn a small referral fee on the side.

Sometimes things go very badly, and the hotel might suddenly raise the price!
Bian Guanyue walked into the classroom, holding a "candied apple" in her hand, which is the apple version of candied hawthorn.

She didn't buy it; Zheng Feng gave it to her. She refused, but he insisted on giving it to her.

"Wu Meng, here you go." Bian Guanyue handed the rock sugar apple to Wu Meng.

Zheng Feng: "..."

"Thank you," Wu Meng said with a smile as she accepted the gift.

Bian Guanyue looked behind her: "How did Chen Guiliang get surrounded?"

Wu Meng explained, "The invitation to the New Concept Writing Competition semi-finals arrived, and they're all over there watching the excitement."

Zheng Feng's heart skipped a beat. Could Chen Guiliang have become a writer?
He pretended to chat with a friend, walked to the edge of the crowd and tiptoed to peek, then returned to his seat dejectedly.

so hard.

What if you can't compete?
A short while later, Li Jun returned to the classroom carrying a basketball, still wearing a thin jersey despite the freezing winter weather.

He put the basketball down, wiped the sweat from his brow, and asked, "What's the situation over there?"

Guan Zhiqiang said, "Master Chen is going to participate in the New Concept Writing Competition semi-finals."

"cut!"

Li Jun curled his lip and said sarcastically, "Participating in the semi-finals doesn't guarantee an award. To surround him like a celebrity now is truly naive and ignorant!"

"Hoo ho."

Guan Zhiqiang chuckled and continued reading his novel, but his lips were lip-syncing as he cursed "idiot."

Given his personality, he was already getting fed up with Li Jun and had considered physically assaulting him several times.

"Bang bang bang!"

The political science teacher, Gao Zhan, slammed the blackboard eraser on the lectern and scolded, "Class is about to start, what are you all doing huddled together?"

The students returned to their seats one after another.

Xu Haibo said, "Teacher Gao, Chen Guiliang has passed the preliminary round of the New Concept English competition."

"Oh?"

Gao Zhan became interested: "Let me see it."

Chen Guiliang walked to the podium.

Gao Zhan carefully read the invitation letter for the semi-finals, nodding in approval repeatedly. He then cautioned, "When you get to Shanghai, you must compete well and not get into fights again. Because you violated the rules, your teacher, Mr. Liu, has pleaded with the principal and the dean of students countless times. I even got scolded along with you twice."

"Thank you, Teacher Liu. Thank you, Teacher Gao," Chen Guiliang said.

This political science teacher, who likes to praise Europe and America and complain about the quality of their citizens, got up and walked towards the classroom door after reading the invitation to the semi-finals: "Come here for a moment."

Chen Guiliang immediately followed.

Once in the hallway outside the classroom, Gao Zhan asked in a low voice, "The invitation says that you need to arrange your own food and accommodation. Hotels and restaurants in Shanghai are very expensive. Are you sure you have the funds?"

“No problem,” Chen Guiliang said.

"Just say you need money. I know a bit about your family situation." Gao Zhan was already taking out his wallet.

Upon opening his wallet, Gao Zhan looked somewhat embarrassed: "Ahem... I didn't bring enough cash. After school, stay in the classroom and I'll drive you to the bank to withdraw some money."

He didn't actually have much savings, so he needed to talk to his wife, Liu Shuying, first.

My wife has the bank card.

Chen Guiliang said, "Really, no need. My parents have already paid off the debts; they recently took on a small construction project. But I still want to thank Teacher Gao."

Chen Guiliang bowed respectfully.

“Okay, just say so if you need money. Don’t feel embarrassed.” Gao Zhan put his empty wallet back in his pocket.

(End of this chapter)