Chapter 365 – Xie Guifang Returns to Class
After the first class, Lu Xia and Chu Liangchen were called to the teacher’s office by Teacher Li.
Upon entering the office, Teacher Li handed each of them an envelope.
“The magazine has reviewed the documents you translated earlier, and they are very satisfied. This is your payment.”
Lu Xia was happy to hear this news and breathed a sigh of relief. She was finally getting paid for her work, and her face involuntarily lit up with a smile.
Teacher Li also smiled when he saw her so happy.
He then handed them some documents for their next assignment. “These are your tasks for the next time. Please submit them to me once you have completed them, following the previous requirements.”
“Thank you, Teacher Li,” they both said.
After leaving the office, Lu Xia still had a smile on her face as she touched the envelope in her pocket. She already knew how much money was inside, but earning money through her own efforts in this new world brought her a sense of joy.
Chu Liangchen, on the other hand, thought she was happy because of the magazine’s approval of their work.
Thinking for a moment, he said, “Let’s submit our translations together this time. When you finish yours, just let me know.”
Lu Xia nodded and replied, “Sure, Classmate Chu, I got it.”
They then headed back to the classroom together. On their way, Chu Liangchen couldn’t resist asking, “Is it true about that girl, Xie Guifang?”
Lu Xia glanced at him, a bit surprised by his curiosity about this proud young lady.
“What’s the matter?” Chu Liangchen felt a bit embarrassed under her gaze.
Lu Xia shook her head and said, “It’s nothing. I don’t know the details, but I think the school will give a result later.”
Chu Liangchen seemed disappointed by her response but nodded without asking further questions.
When they returned to the classroom, they noticed a somewhat tense atmosphere. Lu Xia was unaware of what had happened, but she raised an eyebrow inquisitively and then silently took her seat.
Yu Wan saw the documents in her hands and guessed what they were for. “Teacher Li gave you more translation work?”
“Yes,” Lu Xia replied, nodding. “It looks like I’ll be busy again.”
Yu Wan looked at her with a touch of envy. “I’d be happy to be busy if I could take on such assignments.”
Lu Xia smiled and reassured her, “Don’t worry, with your progress in studying, you’ll be able to take on assignments like this soon.”
As they were chatting, the bell rang for the next class, and they stopped their conversation.
It wasn’t until the end of the class and the dismissal for lunch that Xie Guifang swiftly packed her belongings and left the classroom first. After she left, Yu Wan seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Lu Xia noticed and raised an eyebrow in question.
Yu Wan explained, “I don’t know what’s wrong with her today, but she had a sour expression on her face the entire morning, as if someone owed her something. It made me uncomfortable sitting next to her.”
Lu Xia remained silent for a moment, then asked the question she had been thinking about, “How did she come back to class today?”
With Xie Guifang absent, Yu Wan answered openly, “She came back last night. Li Hua brought her back. I don’t know where she had been before, but when she returned, I happened to be coming back from home, and I saw them together downstairs.”
Lu Xia was surprised. “She’s still with Li Hua?”
Yu Wan nodded. “Not only are they still together, but they also seemed even closer. They lingered downstairs for quite a while before parting ways.”
Lu Xia fell silent, and her impression of Li Hua improved slightly. Despite the incident, he hadn’t given up on Xie Guifang, displaying a sense of loyalty.
“So, what happened earlier in the morning? I noticed something was off when we entered the classroom,” Lu Xia asked.
Yu Wan sighed. “It’s related to Xie Guifang. When the boys in the class saw her back, they assumed that everything had been resolved and asked her what happened. I don’t know if it was embarrassment or what, but she lashed out at them with harsh words. The boys couldn’t retort, but they were clearly upset. That’s why you sensed the tense atmosphere when you came in.”
*
Chapter 366 – The Second College Entrance Examination
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Lu Xia was surprised when she heard, “Is she… really so blunt? Isn’t she afraid of offending people?”
Yu Wan didn’t quite understand the meaning of “blunt.”
But she could guess the general idea.
“Well, I think she’s already gone off the deep end. Her language was really harsh, calling people names left and right. She had a sharp tongue, and she couldn’t stop talking. I couldn’t bear to listen to it, let alone the guys.”
Lu Xia also listened in silence. “So, what was she like before this? It couldn’t be that the school didn’t allow her to attend classes, right?”
Yu Wan shook her head, “Definitely not. Before the results came out, she was still a student at Peking University. The school wouldn’t have stopped her from attending classes.”
So, it was her own doing.
Lu Xia didn’t want to discuss this any further. She always felt that this person could subvert their lower limit every time.
After having dinner and returning to the dormitory, Lu Xia didn’t rush to study the translation materials.
Previously, it was because she was not very skilled at first, and there was a lot of adjustment required, making time tight. But now she was proficient, so there was no need to hurry…
Today, her roommates were not sleepy, and they lay down and talked about recent events.
Just this past weekend, the second round of college entrance exams had concluded.
Some of their relatives and friends had also taken the exam, and everyone was discussing the difficulty level of the test.
“My sister-in-law’s younger brother also took the exam. He said the questions this time were exceptionally tough, and he couldn’t answer many of them, much harder than the last time,” Yu Wan said.
Tang Yunfang listened with confusion. “Could it be that during the first round of exams, they were afraid we didn’t have enough time to review, so they made the questions easier?”
Lu Xia thought for a moment and said, “It’s also possible that there were too many people applying this time, so they had to use this method to filter out some candidates.”
Ye Nan also agreed with this explanation. “I heard that there were 5.7 million people who registered for the first round of exams, but only about 270,000 were admitted. This time, the number of applicants is even higher, reaching 6.1 million. I wonder how many people will be admitted!”
“Oh my! That many?” The others were quite surprised.
“Did we have so many applicants back then?”
“Yes!” Ye Nan nodded. “The admission rate was only 5%, but I heard that many universities are admitting more students this time, so maybe the admission rate will be a bit higher.”
“But the number of applicants has also increased.”
“That’s true.”
As Lu Xia heard this, she thought about the future and suddenly understood why there were so many applicants this time.
“Now, with the increased number of applicants, it might be because of the previous stagnation that the national restrictions on applicants’ age and education level have temporarily eased. This may not happen again in the future.”
Ye Nan agreed, saying, “Yes, I think so too. Right now, the age range of applicants is too diverse, with some new students even older than the teachers. In the future, the country will probably impose stricter controls, and it won’t happen anymore.”
Tang Yunfang felt relieved but also a bit worried. “Doesn’t that mean these people will only have a few chances?”
“That’s already pretty good. Several chances are better than none. Those who can pass have already passed, and those who can’t probably won’t get another chance.”
“That makes sense.”
As they talked, Lu Xia thought about the educated youths in the countryside. By now, they should have taken the exam. She wondered how they did and whether they were able to seize this opportunity.
She also thought about “Xie Guifang” at the inn. If she missed this opportunity, she wondered if she would regret it.
