Xiao Qi held the house purchase contract in her arms like a little thief, lying in bed giggling for a long time.
For some reason, probably due to her Chinese nature, she felt that having a house meant having a nest, a place to stay.
Although Auntie had been very kind, Xiao Qi still felt bad staying at her dormitory since Auntie had to sleep in the hospital ward for fear of disturbing her. After all, this was Auntie's staff quarters for work.
Her hometown was also nice, surrounded by beautiful mountains and clear waters, but transportation was too inconvenient, with the two-hour drive on a rickety bus making it feel like a whole day trip whenever going out.
As long as her parents were there, Xiao Qi felt that home would always be warm wherever she was.
She was going to treat Zhou Teacher to dinner after buying the house, but Zhou Teacher said she had plans for the evening so she just went home.
At this moment, Xiao Qi still felt a little silly with happiness.
She carefully put the documents away after sneaking another look at the contract, then rolled happily in bed, envisioning what the little house would look like furnished and lived in.
Sunshine coming in through the window, very nice.
"Host has purchased her first property with money, adding a safeguard to her assets. Host is rewarded with an additional 340,000 yuan. Host is required to spend it within 10 days. The reward money cannot be reinvested," the familiar mechanical voice rang in her ears as she rolled to the edge of the bed.
The content was a bit surprising, and Xiao Qi saw that a separate reward column for 340,000 yuan had indeed appeared on the interface.
The money left on the interface was just over 20,000 yuan. Xiao Qi had paid the house purchase amount this afternoon.
Spend hundreds of thousands in 10 days??
Xiao Qi was a little dumbfounded.
But she was still immersed in the excitement of buying a house, so she temporarily put this matter aside.
After dinner, Xiao Qi went to the gym with Auntie. Auntie went swimming while Xiao Qi went straight to the gym area, starting with a run to warm up.
She had only run for over an hour when the coach came looking for her.
Seeing the data on the treadmill, Li Dan couldn't help twitching.
During training, she increased the intensity even more, otherwise it would be too embarrassing.
Xiao Qi's butt had hurt yesterday, and though it felt slightly better, after being tormented by the coach, she now felt pain in the muscles on both sides of her thighs.
The flesh on both sides of her waist also hurt a bit.
Her chest was fine, no feeling there.
By the time the training was over, Xiao Qi was quite tired, but thinking of the house purchase contract today, she persisted and ran on the treadmill for almost another hour until completing 30,000 steps before going to stretch, relax and shower.
Coach Li Dan secretly went to look at the data again...
What kind of freak student had she taught? Frightening. Even she didn't work out that much every day.
Xiao Qi left later while Auntie left earlier since the hospital might have things going on at night.
Returning to Auntie’s dorm, Xiao Qi saw that Lin Min next door was actually packing.
"Going to Meng City so early?" Xiao Qi asked in surprise.
Today was only the 26th. Enrollment didn't start until September 1st. August had 31 days, so there was still a week left.
"Yeah, I've got nothing to do anyway so I want to check out the place first," Lin Min said.
Although unwilling to continue with An Sister and the others, he still didn't want to be mediocre and hoped to familiarize himself with Meng City early.
"Since I'm going early, I can pick you up when you get there later," Lin Min generously offered.
Xiao Qi was very reluctant to part.
When Lin Min was around, she would get all sorts of rewards from the system from time to time. Once he left...
If not for her reserved emotional expression, she would have clung to Lin Min's leg at this moment, begging him not to leave and to take her along if he must go.
"That's good. Be safe, Lin Min," Xiao Qi said. Although Meng City was still in Jingnan Province, without even leaving the province, and the journey that used to take 10 hours by slow train now only took over 4 hours by high-speed rail, it was still unfamiliar territory.
She wondered if she should have her father accompany her when it was time for her to go study.
Lin Min seemed to be going alone.
Xiao Qi had been excited all afternoon about buying the house. Now, seeing Lin Min pack, she suddenly felt reluctant and apprehensive about soon heading off to Meng City herself.
Leaving her parents, aunt and the others behind, she wondered how things would turn out.
Returning to her room, Xiao Qi flipped through her stuff, thinking she should give Lin Min a gift, but strangely could not find anything suitable among her piles of books.
She simply gave up on the idea.
Xiao Qi quietly sat down to practice calligraphy for a while, preparing for bed.
Unexpectedly, before falling asleep, she received a copybook as a gift from Lin Min.
Without having prepared a gift herself, she somehow received one instead, sincerely thanking him while feeling a lump in her throat. As an only child, she had often envied Lin Qingqing despite the girl's constant bickering with her brother, who she nevertheless doted on and clung to all the time.
The next morning, Xiao Qi went to the library as usual to prepare lessons and read. Her last two home tutoring sessions were mainly for summarizing and concluding.
She suddenly felt time flying by, as though there was not enough of it.
In the afternoon class, when Xiao Qi mentioned an exam, the chattering girls fell uncharacteristically silent instead of their usual noisy behavior, reluctant to part ways with watery eyes all around.
Especially Bertha Liang, who had previously hated English due to her father being an English teacher, often rebelling by refusing to study. Now she was the most reluctant to part with Teacher Xiao, wishing they could have lessons every week.
But of course that wouldn't be possible with the teacher going off to university.
Moreover, not only had her English improved over the summer, she had also gained some fame on TikTok, unexpectedly nurturing a new interest. She felt it had been a very fulfilling summer.
After learning English with the teacher, she somehow became much better behaved than before, no longer throwing tantrums with her mother on a whim. Even when visiting Grandma or seeing Dad again, she was far more well-behaved than before, no longer arbitrarily losing face, leaving her own father feeling embarrassed instead.
The girls quietly took an exam and summarized what they had learned during the lesson.
Xiao Qi was reluctant to part as well, realizing that being a teacher had taught her a lot too, not just the students.
She handled herself much better now when interacting with others.
Initially, she had shuddered at the thought of stepping on the new carpet when first visiting Mrs. Liang's home. But now she could sit calmly in front of the camera chatting away at her seven female students, even conversing casually with Mrs. Liang without nervousness or timidity.
Xiao Qi felt this was too important.
Having grown up in the countryside, she lacked experience and her father's disability had led to her being mocked since childhood, leaving her with a deeply ingrained inferiority complex. This was not easy to change. But taking a step forward made all the difference.
