The longevity peach was steamed well, giving off hot steam and a rich aroma of flour.
Sheng Juanhua took out the longevity peach and let it cool on the table, washed the pot, and cooked a pot of vegetable soup.
The couple ate a breakfast of vegetable soup and some unsightly longevity peaches.
Then they went out together.
Su Youfu picked up a basket of longevity peaches, and Sheng Juanhua also picked up a basket of fresh vegetables.
It was common in the village to pick vegetables to sell in the city. When they grew too many vegetables at home, they could pick some to sell in the city and earn a little money.
Xiaoqi's Grandma got up early and waited at the village committee auditorium. Seeing the couple coming, she looked inside Su Youfu's basket and saw it was full of pointy longevity peaches. She nodded with satisfaction.
Seeing her daughter-in-law had also come along, she frowned, wanting to scold her, but thought it would be unlucky since today was her eldest son's birthday.
Sheng Juanhua understood her mother-in-law's temper and said first, "The vegetables from the back door are done. I thought I'd sell some, at least to earn the round trip fare."
Although everyone in the village knew Li Fengjiao was a mean mother-in-law who snatched money from her son even in his 30s, she still cared about face outside. She didn't say anything.
Su Youfu's third brother Su Youqian also arrived and helped carry his elder brother and sister-in-law's loads onto the back of the truck.
The second brother Su Youcai would meet them directly there, since he worked away from home.
Xiao Qi slept very soundly and only woke up when it was barely light. It was autumn, so dawn came late.
Today was Friday, with only two morning classes: C Language Programming and PE.
There were no afternoon classes.
Xiao Qi didn't sleep in and got up early as usual.
The English speech contest semi-finals were next Friday, and time was passing quickly. Xiao Qi felt it wasn't enough time to prepare.
It was still raining this morning, so she couldn't run, but since there were morning classes, the dorm was still lively and everyone got up one after another. After Xiao Qi finished her writing practice, she started studying.
She listened again to yesterday's Japanese class recording, because Teacher Yamamoto taught the entire class in Japanese, so Xiao Qi recorded the lessons while listening, to review parts she didn't understand. Listening again to Teacher Yamamoto's class early in the morning gave her a different feeling. She didn't expect he would leave halfway through the semester; it was common for teachers to change, but leaving halfway felt very strange.
When he said he had a friend, listening again, she heard many other things, his voice trembling slightly, along with the sound of rain outside, reminiscence and summary. A person's life, sometimes summarized in just half a class.
Teacher Yamamoto spoke matter-of-factly. Perhaps he didn't expect that in this foreign land, he would speak of the pain hidden in his heart, recounting a friend's ordinary story as if it were in class.
Perhaps it was because of that girl in class, who was the same age as his daughter; he thought she was his daughter.
Although not blood related, so many years of love were not fake.
After finishing, Teacher Yamamoto felt relieved, having summarized his life's account, not as complicated as expected.
He was going to start a new life.
As he taught, he was also bidding farewell to his own life.
After listening to the class, Xiao Qi didn't delete the recording as usual, but kept it, noting down the life of Teacher Yamamoto's friend.
She felt confused internally, wondering what her own life would be like.
Some people, it seemed they knew from birth what the future held, just like most villagers of Gumu Village.
While others struggled forever, even if they didn't know what they struggled against, perhaps just unwilling to lose, unwilling for life to stay as it was.
After listening to the class, her roommates had finished getting ready, and they went to the cafeteria for breakfast together.
It was really cold in the morning. Even Mi'er who was usually impervious to cold wore an extra layer today.
Yunshu wore a plaid-collared khaki Burberry trench coat and got a quick lesson early in the morning that this was a Burberry coat, a British brand. The coat she was wearing had letters on it and was from a runway collection, costing over 20,000 RMB.
Xiao Qi also wore a similar colored trench coat, just without the plaid. It looked great on her too, but hers was from Zara, costing just over 600 RMB.
Although she still didn't understand why there was such a huge price difference, Xiao Qi thought that one day when she could wear a Burberry coat unselfconsciously, she would probably understand.
It was cold in the morning. Eating a hot bowl of noodles in the cafeteria felt great; after eating, her whole body warmed up and she felt comfortable.
Xiao Qi's favorite addition to the noodles was the crispy fried dough strips. Soaked in the noodle soup, they didn't easily soften. The aromatic, crunchy, chewy strips were very satisfying.
After the satisfying breakfast they went to class. C Language Programming was a brand new course. At first it was mostly theory which sounded simple, but once the teacher dove in, it became incomprehensible. So she had to pay close attention.
Of the four roommates, Yunshu was best at computer science and always grasped it easily.
Wei Cheng, the literature youth, would sigh at everything and persist in keeping a diary and writing articles.
Mi'er was great at math, but had an active personality and loved socializing, so her mind wasn't focused on studying.
Xiao Qi was probably best at languages.
Although others thought she was the class monitor and great at every subject, she knew herself that she only found learning foreign languages easy and effortless; her other subjects weren't outstanding.
C Language class was dry. Many students skipped the first class, probably wanting to sleep in on the rainy day. For the second class, the teacher announced there would be roll call, so everyone hurried in.
After C Language, the next class was PE.
The rain hadn't stopped, so they obviously wouldn't have class at the track and field. The PE committee notified everyone they would have theory class in the classroom.
Since the PE committee member and vice were Li Weijin and Su Li, everyone was very cooperative and no one skipped PE. There was another reason: the PE teacher had a loud, rough personality.
When girls asked for leave due to their period, he didn't let them go, saying they could rest in place, and recorded the dates. Next time they asked for leave, he would check the roll book for dates.
Chu Yu said she wasn't feeling well and wanted leave, but the PE teacher told her to bring a sick leave slip from the health center. There would be no leave without a slip, so Chu Yu reluctantly continued with class, saying it was too much trouble to go to the health center. Having been often ill since childhood, she hated the health center and infirmary most, preferring to endure PE class.
Xiao Qi actually quite liked the rough, simple personality of the PE teacher. He wasn't very tall, with well-developed muscles.
In college, other subject teachers didn't need to take over PE classes anymore. When the bell rang, the PE teacher came in holding the textbook.
Seeing the PE teacher usually felt shaggy, in shorts and T-shirt, hairy arms and legs. It was rare seeing him in long pants and a coat, almost unrecognizable.
The PE teacher actually solemnly opened the slides, then smiled and said, "Today we'll have theory class. I'll tell you about the history of marathon races, and an analysis of this session's Alliance City Marathon."
Xiao Qi: ......
