I'm a scientist, why can't I have faith?

Faced with his only day off, Wang Dong chose to sleep until he naturally woke up.

On the one hand, Ms. Fang deserves special praise. She must have known that her son was having a tough time in his senior year of high school, so she didn't force Wang Dong to turn on the phone in the morning.

When Wang Dong opened his eyes, it was already nine o'clock in the morning.

"Even on vacation, you can't slack off..."

Instead of staying in bed any longer, Wang Dong got up quickly and washed up.

Mr. Wang Hua should be busy competing in the vegetable market right now, while Ms. Fang Meili has already started preparing for the New Year's Eve dinner.

"Get up, Dongdong. Help Mom put up the hanging paper in a bit."

Wang Dong nodded, a fried dough stick that Mr. Wang Hua had bought that morning still dangling from his mouth, and turned to go back to his room to put on his down jacket.

Under Ms. Fang Meili's guidance, Wang Dong opened the window, crawled inside the security bars, and pasted bright red paper money decorations on every window in his house.

Hanging money is a traditional paper-cutting artwork displayed during the Spring Festival in northern China. It is long and narrow, and usually has auspicious blessings such as "May wealth roll in" and "May wealth and treasures come to you".

The traditional custom in Tianhai City is to paste hanging money on windows on New Year's Eve. The money doesn't need to be pasted very firmly. After New Year's Eve, when the first month of the lunar calendar begins, the east wind will blow the money down naturally, which is a symbol of warding off evil spirits and bringing good fortune and wealth.

Wang Dong's New Year's Eve was actually quite monotonous, consisting only of his family of three.

Wang Dong spent the entire afternoon in his room continuing his arduous task of studying.

The two elderly people were silently scrolling through their phones in the living room outside.

When the time was almost up, it was time for Mr. Wang Hua to show his skills.

Although Ms. Fang Meili usually does the cooking, Mr. Wang Hua's culinary skills are actually superior, but he is usually too busy with work to have many opportunities to demonstrate them.

Halal turbot, braised prawns, braised lion's head meatballs, crab and mantis shrimp...

Although there were only three people, the table was laden with delicious food.

According to local custom, no cooking is done before the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, so extra food is prepared on New Year's Eve, with leftovers symbolizing abundance year after year.

Although Mr. and Mrs. Wang are both atheists, they have always adhered to the principle of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do."

"How is it? It tastes good, right?"

As the last dish was served, Mr. Wang Hua waited with a smile for his wife and son's praise.

"Dad's cooking is still amazing! It just seems a little bland..."

Mr. Wang Hua took a bite and it did seem bland.

As mentioned earlier, Mr. Wang Hua has superb culinary skills, but even the best skills will become rusty if not used for a long time, especially in controlling the saltiness.

"Your dad just wants you to eat less salt; it's good for your health!"

Ms. Fang Meili smoothed things over for the family's chef, and the whole family enjoyed their New Year's Eve dinner together in harmony.

Friends in the south might not understand, but in the north, the Spring Festival Gala follows the New Year's Eve dinner.

Although it is indeed getting worse year by year, Wang Dong's parents still watch it every year; for them, it is a unique memory.

Wang Dong stayed with the two elders for a while, then quietly opened his phone and started scrolling through his WeChat Moments.

The WeChat Moments were still quite lively on New Year's Eve.

The first message that appeared after refreshing was Li Lei's complaint.

[Li Lei: Who understands the feeling of just getting out of class on New Year's Eve (I'm going crazy)]

Li Lei is very diligent; he even has to attend classes on New Year's Eve.

Next up is a sharing of various New Year's Eve dinners.

Wang Dong turned off his phone after watching for a short while.

I feel like I'll get hungrier the more I watch.

Without fireworks, the festive atmosphere of the New Year was somewhat diminished.

As the clock struck midnight, the new year arrived.

......

Waking up early is the first lesson of the new year.

For Wang Dong, the second lesson of the new year was Chinese.

Although it was the first day of the Lunar New Year, public transportation in Tianhai City was still operating.

For high school seniors who are still striving for success, yesterday was just a minor incident.

The battle continues, and this winter break will be the last chance to overtake on the curve.

Wang Dong attended classes from the first day of the Lunar New Year until the day before school started.

Under the guidance of his two teachers, his humanities skills improved significantly.

There are too many subjective factors in Chinese, so I won't comment on that for now, but his English has definitely improved a lot.

It's not just about listening exercises and learning writing skills in class, but also about appreciating audio and excellent works every day.

Every day, the English teacher plays a clip from an original American TV series to help students get used to the audio, along with news commentary from foreign newspapers.

Wang Dong is now experiencing a strange feeling.

Sometimes when doing exercises, even if he doesn't know why, his intuition tells him that "in" should be used instead of "on" in this context, and that the clause modifies the preceding action rather than indicating cause and effect.

That's right. In just one month of study, Wang Dong successfully mastered the ability that every English master dreams of: "language sense".

"Language sense" is a domineering and unreasonable ability, even more abnormal than Gauss's "mathematical intuition".

In the realm of language, there are some questions whose answers cannot be explained by logic; you cannot provide a reasonable explanation for why it must be used in this way.

But "language sense" can.

All inexplicable problems can be attributed to "language sense".

It is both a skill and a talent.

Thanks to Mr. Lu Xun's reward of "the power of words," Wang Dong was able to unlock this wonderful talent.

In addition to improving his humanities skills, Wang Dong also continued his intensive study.

Wang Dong had already finished studying "Basic Organic Chemistry" and "General Biology" before New Year's Eve. His only remaining task for this round of study was the second half of "Inorganic Chemistry," which he believed would be completed soon.

Then he can consider his plan for the third round of studying.

For high school seniors, there is never enough time.

It feels like just yesterday that we were on holiday, and tomorrow school starts again.

Today is the last class for the small group.

The students in this class have all gained something, more or less, during this month of study.

Wang Dong reaped the greatest rewards among them.

Although he hasn't undergone a concrete test yet, he's already quite confident about getting into Tsinghua or Peking University.

Wang Dong found today's English class particularly easy; English is no longer a headache for him.

As usual, Wang Dong packed up his things after class and was about to leave.

Shangguan Sihan suddenly called out to him.

"Wang Dong, it seems you haven't registered for spring semester courses?"

This small group class isn't just limited to the winter break; it's also held every weekend after the start of the new semester. Most students in the class have chosen to continue, as the results are truly excellent.

However, it is no longer of much use to Wang Dong, especially since the "betting agreement" will still be in effect even if he does not continue to register.

"Oh, I don't really need that anymore."

Wang Dong said naturally, "I've pretty much mastered the material for the college entrance exam."

After saying that, he turned and left, completely unaware that Shangguan Sihan was staring at his back the whole time.

Wang Dong is indeed a very interesting person...

The first half of the senior year long-distance race has ended, and Wang Dong has gradually moved from the back of the group to the first group.

The second half is about to begin; the real competition is about to start.

This also marks the beginning of Wang Dong's sprint towards the championship.