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

On June 7th, at 6:08 AM, Xie Wang woke up before the alarm clock even went off.

He lay on the bed, his face bare, but he looked very energetic.

She sat down next to Xie Wang, lowered her head and took a sip of porridge, her voice flat.

Are you nervous?

"I'm not nervous."

"That's a lie."

Xie Wang turned to look at her, and Su Qinghe also turned to look at him; their eyes met briefly in the air.

Su Qinghe's lips curved slightly, very faintly.

"I'm not nervous."

Lin Wanyi pushed the red date soup between the two of them, her tone carrying an undeniable gentleness.

"Don't be nervous. We'll set off after dinner. Your dad and I will drive you today."

After finishing breakfast, Su Chengyun drove his car out of the garage.

"Today, the soldiers will sit in the back."

Xie Wang responded, opened the back door for Su Qinghe to get in first, and then sat down next to her.

There were far fewer cars on the road than usual, but every so often you could see traffic police wearing reflective vests standing at intersections, gesturing to direct traffic.

All other vehicles were directed to the right lane, leaving the middle fast lane empty, where only vehicles displaying signs for transporting students to the college entrance examination could drive unimpeded.

When the car stopped at the temporary parking area in front of Jiangcheng No. 2 Middle School, a large crowd had already gathered outside the school gate.

Parents stood in twos and threes by the flower bed across the street.

A red banner with large gold lettering was hung at the school gate, and security guards and teachers were maintaining order at the entrance.

Xie Wang got out of the car and stood by the roadside, glancing at the crowd across the street.

Then he saw Xie Zhengyang.

Xie Zhengyang stood at the very edge of the flower bed, his gaze fixed on Xie Wang, never wavering from the moment Xie Wang got out of the car.

Xie Zhengyang nodded at him.

Su Qinghe got out of the car from the other side, walked to his side, and glanced at his profile.

"What's wrong?"

"fine."

Xie Wang turned around and reached out to straighten the strap of her pencil case that had slipped off her shoulder.

"Let's go, Teacher Su."

The two people passed through the security gate at the school gate one after the other. The screen displaying the facial recognition showed a green "pass" sign, and a security guard behind them politely said, "Please come in."

Old Li was already standing under the sycamore tree in the square in front of the teaching building.

Seeing Xie Wang and Su Qinghe approaching, Shen Hao was the first to greet them.

"Here it comes, are you nervous? My palms are sweating like crazy."

Xie Wang glanced at him.

"Why are you so nervous? You've already gone from being ranked 200th to the top 100, so it's perfectly normal for you to improve further."

Shen Hao rubbed his palms together, chuckled, and then took a nervous breath.

Xu You took a mint out of her pocket and handed it to him.

"Have one to cool down."

Old Li cleared his throat and took out the envelope containing the exam admission ticket from his pocket.

"Come here, everyone. This is the last time we'll be handing out admission tickets. Check them carefully once you get them. Make sure you see your name and admission ticket number clearly."

He handed out the cards one by one, calling out a name and handing over a card.

"Thank you for your vain."

"Su Qinghe".

"Shen Hao."

"Xu You".

"Lin Lu".

"Road One".

After receiving it, Xie Wang glanced down at it. The name was correct, the number was correct, and the photo was his own casual ID photo.

Old Li put the envelope away and glanced at the group of students in front of him.

"Okay, I've got them all."

He paused, looked around at the young faces, and pursed his lips.

"I don't have much to say, you are the best class I have ever taught."

He raised his hand, palm down, and stretched it out in the middle.

"Come on, stack them up."

Old Li's hands were at the bottom, supporting everyone.

"come on."

"come on!"

After their hands separated, they each walked towards their respective examination rooms.

On the first floor of Building 3, Xie Wang found his examination room at the end of the corridor.

The facial recognition machine was flashing a green light at the door; he had already swiped his face when he came in.

The proctors were a man and a woman. The woman looked to be in her forties, wearing gold-rimmed glasses. She seemed quite kind and used a metal detector to scan each examinee.

The detector swept from Xie Wang's shoulder to his ankle without making a sound.

The female teacher nodded at him.

"Sit still."

Xie Wang sat down in his chair, placed two pens and a pencil on the table, and looked up at the clock above the blackboard.

8:35.

Twenty-five minutes left.

He leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping unconsciously twice on the table.

Damn, this is way more stressful than the high school entrance exam.

The year he took the high school entrance exam, he rode a broken bicycle with a rusty chain to the exam hall alone. At that time, he was not afraid of anything because he had nothing to lose.

But it is different now.

The radio started playing instrumental music for the exam, a very soothing piano piece, probably to help the test takers relax.

As Xie Wang listened to that melody, he felt even more uneasy.

The first subject is Chinese.

He was confident about all the other subjects, except for Chinese.

But he also knew that he had done everything he could.

At 8:55, the test papers and answer sheets were distributed to everyone's desks.

Xie Wang flipped the test paper face down on the table and waited for the bell to ring.

At exactly nine o'clock, the bell rang on time.

Xie Wang flipped through the exam paper.

The first question in the modern Chinese reading section is about informational texts.

He read the question from beginning to end, scanned options A through D twice, and kept writing without pausing when choosing the answer.

He could clearly identify the distractors in every option of the second and third questions.

In literary text reading, specifically novel excerpts, the questions focus on character portrayal and narrative perspective.

Wow! The feel is almost unreal.

In the classical Chinese reading section, I didn't get stuck on either the punctuation or translation questions for a historical biography, and I understood the usage of both content words and function words clearly.

Teacher Su had indeed increased the intensity of her training.

He turned to the section on language and writing, finished the three questions, looked up at the clock, and realized that only one hour and ten minutes had passed.

The rest is the essay.

Xie Wang looked at the essay topic and read the passage twice.

Everyone needs to learn how to get along with others. Sometimes we are unwilling to express our thoughts in order to avoid conflict, but honest communication is the only way to have a real encounter.

What associations and thoughts does this evoke in you? Please write an essay.

Yes, that's fine. The essay is quite simple.

Xie Wang put pen to paper.

When he finished writing the last character, he looked up at the clock.

Thirty minutes left.

Xie Wang put down his pen, checked the answer sheet from beginning to end to make sure it was filled in correctly, and then turned the test paper over and placed it face down on the table.

He leaned back in his chair, his gaze fixed on the sky outside the window.

The June sunlight streamed through the window, casting its rays on the floor.

There was an exam room on the sixth floor, where a girl with a low ponytail was sitting. She had probably finished writing long ago.

At 11:30, the bell rang.

Xie Wang handed in his exam paper and answer sheet and left the examination room.

Although he was very happy, he didn't show it.

No one asked for the answer; everyone remained silent.

A few minutes later, Su Qinghe walked out of the main entrance of the teaching building.

The two people spotted each other in the crowd.

Xie Wang stood at the bottom of the steps waiting for her to come over. Su Qinghe walked past several unfamiliar examinees walking side by side, her pace neither fast nor slow.

When Xie Wang walked up to him, he extended his hand.

"How did the exam go, Ms. Su?"

Su Qinghe glanced at him and placed her hand in his palm.

"No correct answer."

"Okay, no, that's not right."

I went home for lunch, took a 40-minute nap, and then took a math exam in the afternoon.

When Xie Wang walked into the examination room and sat down, there was a boy with slightly dyed yellow hair sitting in the seat to his right. Judging from his school uniform, he was not from No. 1 Middle School. He sat loosely and his face was full of despair.

The boy nudged Xie Wang with his elbow.

"Hey bro, are you good at math?"

Xie Wang turned his head and glanced at him.

"I've never attended a math class, so I probably only got a score in the teens."

The boy's expression fell.

"Hey bro, I was actually thinking of copying yours."

Xie Wang raised an eyebrow.

"Dude, are you still cheating on the college entrance exam?"

The boy said it with a straight face.

"Our teacher said that cheating is not allowed during normal times, but it's a skill to cheat during the college entrance examination."

Xie Wang almost burst out laughing, but he turned his head back and stared ahead, suppressing his laughter.

The bell rang.

The moment the curls came out, Xie Wang flipped to the first page and glanced at it for two seconds.

Then he began to write.

He didn't hesitate on any of the multiple-choice questions, and every step of the calculation for the fill-in-the-blank questions flowed from his pen like water. He even had the thought process for the next question in his mind while writing the derivation process for the long-answer questions.

One hour and seven minutes.

After finishing the last step of the final, most challenging problem, Xie Wang put down his pen.

He checked it from beginning to end the first time, and changed the position of one decimal point.

I checked it a second time.

I checked it for the third time.

Full marks.

He was absolutely certain.

The science exam was on the morning of the second day.

He finished scanning the physics problems in forty minutes. The number of chemistry and biology problems was less than in the practice tests. He spent an hour and a half completing the whole paper.

During the inspection, he recalculated the numbers for every physics calculation problem, checked the balancing of the chemical equations twice, and drew a pedigree chart to confirm the probability for the biology genetics problem.

No problem.

The last subject was at 2:30 PM.

English.

Before entering the examination room, Lao Li stopped everyone in his class in the corridor.

He pushed up his glasses, his expression serious.

"It's the last exam. I know you're all excited, but don't get carried away."

His gaze lingered on each person's face for a moment.

"Once you finish, you'll be free, but during the exam, make sure you read each word carefully before choosing. When you're listening, follow along with the questions and don't think about how to celebrate when you get out."

"Did you hear me?"

"I heard you."

"Okay, let's go in."

The bell rang, and the audio started playing.

After the listening section comes the reading and cloze test.

An hour and a half later, he put down his pen.

For the remaining half hour, he sat in his seat, watching the sunlight outside the window.

At four o'clock in the afternoon in June, the sun had already begun to set in the west, and the light shone obliquely through the window, falling on the answer sheet in his hand.

He will be standing up from this seat in thirty minutes.

Then he would walk out of the building, down the corridor, open the door, and stand on the steps.

The sunlight would shine on his face.

What would that feel like?

It's probably like welcoming a new life.

The bell rang.

The sound of chairs being moved echoed in the examination room, and everyone stood up.

Xie Wang tidied up the test paper and answer sheet, handed them in, and turned to walk towards the door.

He pushed open the door to the examination room, and the corridor was full of people.

A dense crowd surged toward the school gate, with parents holding bouquets and banners standing outside the cordon. Some were calling out names, some were waving, some were crying, and some were laughing.

Xie Wang's gaze passed over the heads of those people and landed in the direction of the main entrance of the teaching building.

Su Qinghe walked out of the gate.

She was still wearing the same white T-shirt as in the morning, her ponytail swaying gently behind her head, her face expressionless, but she walked a little faster than in the morning.

The two of them quickened their pace at the same time.

Xie Wang walked down the steps, and Su Qinghe walked over from the other end of the square. The crowd parted to create a gap between them.

Su Qinghe walked up to him, said nothing, and simply raised her arms to wrap around his neck.

Xie Wang pulled her closer, encircling her completely in his arms.

After a long while, the two walked out of the school gate.

The school gate was even more lively.

Lu Wen had somehow joined the parents' group chat, holding a large bouquet of red roses and sunflowers, and was chatting and laughing with Lin Lu's parents.

Upon seeing her, Lu Wen immediately raised the flowers high.

"Lin Lu, congratulations on finishing your exam!"

Lin Lu ran over and snatched the flowers, using them to cover her flushed face.

Shen Hao rushed out of the other exam building at a speed comparable to a 100-meter sprint.

He saw his parents standing by the roadside from afar, but instead of running towards them, he turned around and searched the crowd for two seconds, accurately pinpointing Xu You's location.

Xu Yougang came out of the examination room and stood quietly by the flower bed, still clutching the transparent pencil case in his hand.

Shen Hao rushed over in three steps, grabbed Xu You's wrist, and dragged her towards his parents.

When he got closer, Shen Hao's voice was so loud that it could be heard halfway down the street.

"Dad, Mom, this is my girlfriend, Xu You!"

Xu You's face instantly turned tomato red. She lowered her head and covered her face with her pencil case, her voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz.

Hello, Uncle and Aunt.

Shen Hao's mother paused for a second, then smiled and gently patted Xu You's arm twice.

"Good, good, good. I've heard Shen Hao mention you before. You're really handsome."

Shen Hao grinned foolishly beside him.

Xie Wang and Su Qinghe walked out of the school gate hand in hand.

The crowd outside the cordon was still surging, with bouquets and hugs everywhere.

Xie Wang spotted Xie Zhengyang at the edge of the crowd.

He was still standing in that spot, at the very edge of the flowerbed, holding a bunch of flowers in his hand—a bunch of yellow sunflowers.

Xie Wang walked over, stopped in front of him, and reached out to take the flowers.

"Thanks."

Xie Zhengyang nodded, his eyes reddening, but he didn't cry. He just stood there looking at Xie Wang for a long time.

Su Qinghe stood beside Xie Wang and gave Xie Zhengyang a slight bow.

"Thank you, Uncle Xie."

Xie Zhengyang smiled at her; that smile contained gratitude, relief, and many other unspoken feelings.

"Qinghe, thank you."

Just then, a sharp child's voice pierced through the noise of the crowd.

"Brother-in-law!"

Xie Wang turned his head away.

Su Yu darted out from behind Lin Wanyi, her short legs moving swiftly, clutching a corner of a red banner that fluttered in the wind.

Lin Wanyi wore a burgundy cheongsam and low-heeled leather shoes, holding the other corner of the banner in her hand as she walked behind.

The banner was fully unfurled in the June wind, with eight characters printed on it in large gold letters.

May you achieve great success and be listed among the successful candidates.

Su Yu ran to Xie Wang's feet and tilted his head back:

"Brother-in-law! How did you do on the test?"

Xie Wang bent down, scooped Su Yu up with one hand, and let him ride on his shoulders.

Su Yu sat on it, holding Xie Wang's hair with both hands, and happily swung her legs.

Sunlight streamed down overhead, and the June wind blew past the gate of Jiangcheng No. 2 Middle School, fluttering the edges of the banner, ruffling Su Qinghe's stray hairs, and stirring the lingering chalk dust on Xie Wang's school uniform.

Lu Yi stood on the steps behind the flower bed with his parents. The usually melancholy poet burst into laughter.

It's a pity he didn't bring his camera today.