Guan Jingzhi's English was very good. At just twelve years old, she had already seen her communicate with people in English.
Although Lvshan City was small, it had everything. The Cultural Palace had even invited some foreign children to visit last year. Guan Jingzhi was also there at that time, chatting with those foreign kids directly in English.
Meanwhile, Zhou Meiling's strengths with foreign languages were Japanese and Korean. To be honest, there should be quotation marks around Korean. She had only stayed in Korea for a little over a year and could not be said to have mastered the language. She only knew some basics and could understand simple conversations. Her Japanese, on the other hand, was quite good. After all, she had spent nearly ten years in Japan.
However, the young girl in front of her was actually Xiao Qi's English tutor...
Zhou Meiling could only feel that some people were probably geniuses who had a natural talent for languages.
Thinking this way made her feel uncomfortable about her own pettiness today. No wonder she, someone who had been to Japan and Korea, would eventually end up settling in such a small city with a meager salary.
She had taught so many students and often missed her life in Japan. Usually at the Cultural Palace, she could not find anyone to speak Japanese with, read Japanese books, or watch Japanese movies. Sometimes she would even be gossiped about, with people saying she was pretentious and aloof.
She was also afraid. She was afraid that she would forget all this, forget about her past, as if she had grown up to become a little civil servant in Lvshan who had never set foot outside.
Originally harboring utilitarian thoughts, she now truly wanted to teach well.
Her language sense was too good, as if she had stayed in Japan before.
When class was over, Zhou Meiling even added Xiao Qi's WeChat.
They made an appointment for the Friday lesson.
Xiao Qi was also very surprised. She had originally felt that Teacher Zhou gave off the impression of being a very aloof and elegant woman, a bit like her Chinese teacher from when she was in school, very petty bourgeois.
At that time, her Chinese teacher had required everyone to buy the latest edition of the Modern Chinese Dictionary, which cost 105 yuan. Xiao Qi’s weekly allowance was only 100 yuan. She didn't have time to go back and ask her parents for money, and she didn't want to ask her aunt for money either. Besides, she already had a Chinese dictionary, just not the latest edition. As a result, the next day during morning reading class, the Chinese teacher made her and two other students who hadn't bought the dictionary stand for the entire morning reading.
That sense of humiliation was deeply imprinted in Xiao Qi's mind.
So she was very careful around the Chinese teacher and would observe her very closely. At first glance, she felt that this Teacher Zhou gave her the same feeling as her Chinese teacher did – similarly well dressed and put together, very demanding of herself and also very demanding of others. Although the teacher didn't mean it intentionally, her approach was still very inconsiderate.
Unexpectedly, Teacher Zhou's attitude seemed different. She encouraged Xiao Qi to study hard, saying that she had a natural talent for languages, much more sincere than before.
Xiao Qi was deeply moved. If she worked hard and excelled, those around her would be much more tolerant, right?
Today was Wednesday the 14th, one week before the swimming competition. After class, Xiao Qi hurried to the swimming pool as usual.
But today, Guan Jingzhi went with her.
She brought a swimsuit and went to the pool to swim seriously without disturbing Xiao Qi.
While Xiao Qi was swimming, she even took some photos and videos and posted them to their Seven Fairy Sisters group chat.
The group name was a bit awkward, having been set by Liang Jiajia.
Liang Jiajia was the first to see it and immediately started shouting excitedly in the group, regretting that she hadn't gone along.
The others were also chattering curiously, not expecting that Teacher Xiao Qi could swim so well and looked so professional.
Guan Jingzhi agreed. In her life so far, there had rarely been anyone she admired, because she herself was excellent and had grown up surrounded by all kinds of praise. She had never encountered someone she felt kindred with and looked up to.
But after getting along with Teacher Xiao Qi, she realized that Teacher Xiao Qi was really great – very outstanding, diligent and hardworking.
On WeChat's fitness ranking, Teacher Xiao Qi was almost always #1 with about 30,000 steps nearly every day.
Guan Jingzhi had curiously asked about it once, and Teacher Xiao Qi had actually said that she went running every day.
She herself had tried running for a period of time as well, but gave up after running for a while and didn’t keep it up.
After swimming, a car came to pick up Guan Jingzhi. She also gave Xiao Qi a ride, which wasn't exactly along the way, but Xiao Qi didn't refuse the kind offer.
She was actually very tired after swimming.
When she got home, Aunt Su Simei had already prepared dinner and laid out the dishes. She had also braised meat, bought roast chicken pancakes, and prepared a very abundant meal.
Recently, seeing that her niece had been so busy, Aunt Su Simei would sometimes cook herself and ask her niece about stir fry techniques that differed from her own. Although it wasn't as delicious as when Xiao Qi cooked, it was much better than her previous sloppiness.
“Auntie, what's the occasion today that you made so many dishes?”
“Did you forget? Tomorrow is Ghost Festival. We celebrate it the night before. Don't go running around after dark. Remember to come burn paper offerings with me.”
Only then did Xiao Qi remember that today was Ghost Festival, also called Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. When she was little, her family would buy lots of gold foil paper, silver foil paper, and yellow spirit money a month in advance. They would fold gold and silver ingots, tear open stacks of paper money into a big broom-like bundle, and skilled households would even hand-make clothes, houses, ships, etc. On Ghost Festival eve, these would all be burned as offerings to deceased ancestors.
Xiao Qi only knew how to fold the gold and silver ingots, which was quite simple, a bit like folding little boats.
But looking at the things Aunt Su Simei had prepared to burn, there was no such trouble. Everything was store-bought and ready-made, including 100 million denomination banknotes from the underworld, paper clothes and bags, gold paper chains – probably just made of paper too.
The only elder that Xiao Qi was burning paper money for was her grandfather. She was told that her grandfather had passed away not long after she was born.
So she didn't have any impression of him, only looking at her grandfather's portrait photo of a rather handsome young man in military uniform.
After dinner, as she was washing dishes, the mother of the newlywed groom with the broken leg from upstairs unexpectedly came by with a huge bag of fresh sweet potatoes.
"Miss, we'll be discharged from the hospital soon. We don’t have anything nice, just some sweet potatoes grown at home. Please take them." The old woman was afraid she wouldn't accept them and felt embarrassed that what she had brought was worthless. She set the bag down and hurried away.
She was thankful for Nurse Su’s care and for often using their pot to cook broth in the ward. She felt it wasn’t appropriate to give it to them upstairs at the hospital, so she deliberately brought it down here.
It was a very big bag. Xiao Qi felt it was a little heavy when she picked it up. Opening the bag, inside were big sweet potatoes weighing over 1 jin (0.5 kg) each with bright red skins.
Looking up, she saw a very short figure upstairs, standing as if seated on the ground.
Behind her was a large bag of things with a small trolley cart.
After being hospitalized for a period of time, there turned out to be a lot of stuff, like moving house.
In the busy hospital, few people were actually remembered or greeted regularly.
Xiao Qi put away the sweet potatoes and went upstairs to see some patient’s family members helping to load luggage into the car for the mother and son pair.
Mother and son, both old and crippled, apparently would not have an easy life ahead, but the smile never left the young man’s face. It didn’t look forced.
The other patients gathered behind them chatting.
“This young fellow's not bad. I heard he already found a auto repair job and rented a place for him and his ma to live in the city.”
“Yeah, willing to work hard. He’ll get by.”
“I heard there's news of the driver who caused the accident. If they can get compensation money, maybe he can get prosthetics. The young man’s got spirit; he’ll land on his feet in the future.”
Listening to everyone chatter away with mostly praise, Xiao Qi felt at peace and believed this mother-son pair to be genuinely good people who had gotten along very well with those around them at the hospital.
Watching as the car drove off and left the hospital, Liu Anquan sat in the seat like an ordinary person, even waving goodbye to everyone.
Xiao Qi felt that he seemed to be looking at her. She waved back.
Her heart felt a little sad, yet also a little relieved.
Since she was little, this was the first time she had given so much money to help someone else. She hoped they would have a good life.
Just as Xiao Qi was lost in thought, her phone buzzed. She saw a friend request from a stranger and ignored it.
Then the familiar mechanical voice rang out beside her ear again: "Host, your good deed goes unnamed and is rewarded with one sincere blessing paid for with lifespan."
