Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

Old Li is right. Coming-of-age ceremonies are a once-in-a-lifetime event, but so is the college entrance examination.

On the day Xie Wang finished reading his last sentence on the podium at the 100-day countdown rally, he looked up at the red electronic banner hanging on the roof of the teaching building opposite the playground.

Although it was called a 100-day countdown rally, there were actually only eighty-odd days left until the college entrance examination.

The number jumping above is 083.

Eighty-three days.

It wasn't a long time, but it wasn't short either. However, when the number actually started to drop day by day, everyone realized that those days filled with test papers and red pens had actually passed by faster than anyone else.

Every day, Old Li would stand on the podium on time, holding a piece of chalk, forcefully erasing the countdown number in the lower right corner of the blackboard, and then writing a new number on it.

Shen Hao cleared a small space on his desk. On his right was a stack of science test papers, and on his left was a notebook of wrong answers that Xu You had helped him organize. On the cover of the notebook, a fist with a cheer was drawn in highlighter.

He silently recited the key points of the exam every day.

Xu You sat diagonally behind him, quietly working on her English cloze test with her head down. Every ten minutes or so, she would look up at Shen Hao's progress to make sure he wasn't distracted before lowering her head again.

Lin Lu's desk was covered with colorful sticky notes, each with key points and mnemonic devices written on it in a different colored pen.

She was frowning at a challenging problem involving the summation of a sequence. She had already torn three sheets of scratch paper, and the fourth sheet was covered with crooked recursive formulas.

Lu left his camera at home.

A math mock exam paper was spread out in front of him, and his brows were furrowed in a deep frown.

Days passed by like this, one after another.

The countdown numbers jumped from 058 to 042, and then from 042 to 027.

The trash cans at the back of the classroom are overflowing with used pen refills and draft paper every day, and the piles of test papers on the teacher's desk are taller than the chalk box.

Xie Wang turned on his phone during a break in an ordinary evening study session.

A WeChat message from Kangping popped up on the screen.

There is only one photo.

Xie Wang clicked on the picture.

The photo shows an interrogation room.

Gu Nan sat on the iron interrogation chair, his hands fixed in the metal rings on the armrests.

He was wearing a wrinkled, dark blue detention center vest, and his hair was disheveled and plastered to his forehead.

Those eyes that once held Ru kiln teacups and chatted merrily in the Tingyuxuan Teahouse were now bloodshot, sunken, and the whole person exuded a sense of dejection, as if all their energy had been drained away.

Below the photo was a line of text sent by Kang Ping.

The transfer in Vancouver has been completed, and the person has been brought back to China and is currently being held in Beijing.

Xie Wang stared at the photo for a few seconds, and the corners of his mouth slowly curved up.

He turned his phone screen towards the back of the desk so that Su Qinghe could see it.

Su Qinghe's gaze fell on the photo, lingered for two or three seconds, and then he looked up.

"Did you catch them?"

"We caught them."

Xie Wang put his phone away and sent Kang Ping a voice call request on WeChat.

Kang Ping answered quickly, his voice filled with an undisguised cheerfulness.

"Xiao Xie, you've seen the photos, haven't you? This kid has been hiding really well in Vancouver. It took a lot of effort from the people at the consulate to drag him out of a basement in a Chinese community."

Xie Wang exclaimed in delight, "Wow, Uncle Kang, you're amazing! I was planning to deal with him after the college entrance exam, but I didn't expect Tianqi to be this powerful!"

"Uncle Kang, could you help me set up a video call? I'd like to have a chat with Young Master Gu."

Kang Ping chuckled on the other end of the line.

"I knew you'd make this request. Fine, here you go. Consider it a good opportunity for him to get used to being interrogated in the future."

The scene changed.

The gray interrogation room appeared on the screen. Gu Nan sat in the center of the screen. He looked up and saw Xie Wang's face on the opposite screen. His whole body visibly tensed up.

Xie Wang held up his phone and pointed it at him.

"Young Master Gu, it's been a long time."

Gu Nan stared at Xie Wang on the screen without saying a word.

Xie Wang continued speaking:

"What did you say to me last time? You said you were abroad, that our laws couldn't touch you, and that all I could do was hide behind a screen and make threats."

He paused for a moment.

"Gu Nan, is the chair you're sitting in not very comfortable?"

Gu Nan's lips twitched, and he finally managed to squeeze out a sound from his chapped lips.

"Xie Wang, don't get too cocky."

Xie Wang couldn't help but laugh when he heard this.

"I'm not being smug; I'm stating the facts."

He tilted his head slightly, allowing Su Qinghe to also be in the phone's camera frame.

Su Qinghe looked at the person on the screen who had once looked down on them from a superior position in the teahouse with two overseas doctoral degrees, and said something.

"Gu Nan, your father's death sentence has been handed down, and your own case will probably be over soon as well."

The last shred of dignity that Gu Nan had been maintaining finally crumbled completely. He turned his head away from the screen, his shoulders trembling.

Xie Wang put his phone away and ended the video call.

He put his phone back in his pocket and picked up the pen from the table again.

Su Qinghe gently kicked the leg of his chair from behind.

"Alright, now that all the enemies have been apprehended, let's do our Chinese reading."

Xie Wang responded and lowered his head to write the first line on the paper.

The sycamore trees outside the window are already lush and green, people are running laps on the playground, and the sound of the next class reading English texts aloud can be heard from the distant teaching building.

The countdown jumped from 027 to 005.

The numbers on the blackboard show only five days left.

Old Li stood on the podium, holding half a piece of chalk in his hand, looking down at the group of children who had been with him for a whole year.

"There are only five days left. I've reviewed everything I needed to review and memorized everything I needed to memorize. My task for these last few days is to maintain my skills, my mindset, and my routine."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across everyone's face.

"Stop trying to get into the tricky or unusual questions. Focus on getting all the basic points. Each and every one of you is already the best student I've ever seen."

The classroom was quiet.

Shen Hao put down his pen and glanced at Xu You, who was flipping through her notebook of wrong answers.

Lin Lu took a deep breath and flattened the last sticky note on the table.

Lu Yi closed the "Five-Year College Entrance Examination, Three-Year Simulation" book and tapped the cover twice with his fingers.

Xie Wang leaned back in his chair and glanced at Su Qinghe at the table behind him.

Su Qinghe was also looking at him.

Their eyes met in mid-air, and without speaking, they said everything.

The sunlight outside the window was lovely, and the June breeze blew in through the half-open window, turning over the last few pages of the unfinished test paper on the desk.