Chapter 9

The autumn of 2022 was a time of chaos, irritability, and confusion for Zhang Xiyu.

No matter from which aspect, Zhang Xiyu is an ordinary girl, with an ordinary family background, ordinary grades, ordinary personality, and ordinary popularity. Only her appearance can score 85 points. She was admitted to No. Middle School with a score just above the ordinary high school entrance line, and she was always in the bottom ten in the class in every exam.

Before Zhang Xiyu could react, the first year of high school was over and she entered the more stressful second year. According to the cold and straightforward conclusion of her class teacher Fang Chenyu: only 20% of the students in the class could go to a key university, and the remaining 30% could not even go to a junior college - it was meaningless for these people to go to high school. Zhang Xiyu then realized that he might not be able to go to college.

This made her a little upset. If she had known that she could go to a vocational high school after graduating from junior high school, she would not only not have to go through the hard life of high school, but at least she would have a skill that would allow her to find a job. But as soon as she expressed this idea, she was beaten by her father who came home drunk from a social event.

Zhang Liangwei used a ruler to spank her back and arms, and he was very skilled at it. He bought this ruler when she was in elementary school, and it has become shiny. Zhang Liangwei was busy with work, so he didn't discipline her very often, but he always used the ruler.

Zhang Xiyu felt that her father was very hypocritical: he was also a vocational school graduate, and wore glasses because he played too many games when he was in school, but he was a financial supervisor at a construction site, but he always acted like an intellectual. When he beat her, his true nature was exposed: rude, violent, and unreasonable.

"Vocational school!" The hard and cold ruler hit the girl's thin back fiercely. "Why do I work so hard and drink with others every day? Isn't it just for you two? Eating, drinking, defecating, and urinating, which of them doesn't require me to make money? You don't study hard and always want to give up. Can you have a little perseverance? Others can do it, why can't you! You always rank among the top 40 or 50 in the exams for me, and you have lost face! The son of Mr. Huang, who is sweeping the floor at the construction site, was admitted to Zhejiang University last year! Damn it, don't eat dinner! Go to your room and reflect on yourself all night!"

With a "bang", the door was closed and the key was locked from the outside. The last thing that appeared in Zhang Xiyu's tearful eyes was her mother's face.

She stood more than a meter behind her father, looking at Zhang Xiyu, with neither heartache nor anger in her eyes, she just looked at her daughter calmly. Then Zhang Xiyu understood that her mother also felt that her father was right to teach her a lesson and beat her.

They were all very tired and disappointed with her, but they had to discipline her. They didn't care what she was thinking or whether she encountered difficulties. They just wanted one result, that is, to get into college.

Zhang Xiyu endured the hunger and pain, lying on the bed like a dead fish, crying for an unknown amount of time, and suddenly she didn't feel so sad anymore.

They just treated her as a tool to save face, and had to support her just because of blood relationship, so why should she care about them?
The next morning, Zhang Xiyu hid her makeup tools in her school bag and put on a short skirt under her school uniform pants. She didn't feel hungry and walked out of the room calmly. Her mother came up to her and said with regret, "I made your favorite wontons. Eat them before you leave."

"No." Zhang Xiyu didn't even look at her mother. "It's too late. I'll go out and buy some."

Today is still a day when I don’t want to attend class.

Because of the weak foundation in junior high school, many knowledge points were not memorized, and Zhang Xiyu slacked off for another year in high school, how could she have expected that the knowledge system of high school would be so closely intertwined and progress so fast? It's like an accelerating subway train. Once you miss the first door, the next door will only get farther and farther away from you.

She couldn't understand several classes, which had never happened before. Zhang Xiyu didn't know that this was actually the same dilemma faced by many children in high school. At certain critical stages in life, no one would clearly tell children where the key points are. They just missed the train without knowing it.

Zhang Xiyu simply stopped attending class, secretly took out her phone, hid it in a drawer and played with it, hiding it and pretending to be so. She was not discovered during class after class, which was exciting and relaxing. Her deskmate Li Ziyan was her good friend, and their grades were similar. They used to take notes together with scowls and biting the pen. Li Ziyan bumped her with her arm several times: "Why don't you pay attention to the class? You are so idle."

Zhang Xiyu didn't even raise his head: "Don't worry about it."

During the break, Li Ziyan asked again: "Did you put on makeup? You look so beautiful today."

Zhang Xiyu smiled but didn't answer. The wounds on his arms and back were still burning, but he would bear with it until it would pass.

In Fang Chenyu's class, Zhang Xiyu was punished to stand in the corridor because she couldn't answer any questions about the knowledge points taught yesterday. Zhang Xiyu felt that Fang Chenyu was quite realistic. He only had eyes for those students with good grades. He wouldn't even look at people like her. But it was fine this way. She was happy and at ease.

Zhang Xiyu leaned against the wall of the corridor, untied her hair tie, let her long hair fall on her shoulders, and looked at the mountains and sky in the distance with her hands behind her back.

When she passed by the class next door during their PE class, a few boys at the end of the team whistled at her. Zhang Xiyu was very proud and just glanced at them without paying any attention.

In the class with only one person, Zhang Xiyu neither played with her phone nor was distracted. She listened attentively and took notes as usual. Although she would not raise her hand to answer questions, the person always noticed her focused eyes. During the class, he met her eyes several times and called her name twice, once to ask her to read the text aloud and once to ask her to answer a question, and praised her both times.

When Zhang Xiyu finished answering the question and sat down, Li Ziyan winked at her: "I thought you were going to play with your phone in this class, you are really his good girl!"

Zhang Xiyu's heart skipped a beat and she subconsciously looked towards the thin and tall figure on the podium. Her eyes fell on his fingers holding the chalk, and suddenly a thought popped into her mind: What would it feel like if those hands touched her face?
This bold idea made her feel as if she was floating all over, and even the pain in her back was not so severe anymore.

-

After lunch, most people took a nap. Most of them lay on the table, while a few chatted in the corridor and walked around the campus. Zhang Xiyu's back hurt so much that she couldn't sleep. Li Ziyan next to her was snoring softly. Zhang Xiyu held back his laughter and took a video of her, then tiptoed out of the classroom.

She went to the top floor.

The door leading to the top floor is usually closed, but the door lock is actually broken and can be pushed open with a little force.

The weather was very pleasant that day, not too sunny, not too cold, and not too windy. Zhang Xiyu took off her school uniform pants and jacket and stuffed them in the corner of the rooftop, wearing only a white T-shirt and a short skirt that showed off her chest and waist. It was a little cold, but she felt very comfortable. She lay on the edge of the rooftop beautifully, looking at the blue sky and the jungle-like buildings. She wanted to shout, but she didn't dare. She closed her eyes and let the wind blow on her cheeks.

(End of this chapter)