During dinner, Su Simei picked up a few chopsticks of food for her niece.
"Eat more. I've noticed that you've been looking paler recently. Is it because you're not getting enough nutrition?"
Su Xiaoqi, holding her second bowl of rice, remained silent.
It wasn't because of a lack of nutrition. It was probably because of the trouble caused by that incident earlier.
Su Xiaoqi was naturally fair-skinned, and they say that the water in Gumula Village produces beautiful women.
The men in the village were dark and thin, while the women were mostly fair and beautiful.
There's even a local folk song in Lvshan City: "Aunt from Gumula, sugar from sugarcane fields, water from West Mountain Spring..."
So, the women in Gumula Village had no trouble finding husbands, but it was difficult for the men to get married.
All the girls in the village had married and the girls from other villages didn't want to come here.
The young men had to go out to work and deceive girls into coming back...
Xiaoqi was already quite fair, but after studying in Lvshan City for a few years, she had become slightly tanned. However, if she became any fairer, she would probably be on par with Guan Jing.
Xiaoqi looked at her arm as she reached out to pick up the food, and she could see the faint blue veins on her fair skin... She inexplicably felt a bit fragile.
"It's probably because I've been swimming a lot lately, spending too much time in the swimming pool," Xiaoqi quickly withdrew her hand and said, feeling guilty.
When Su Simei heard this, she felt it was possible. Although Su Simei was plump and had a sunburned face, her skin was extremely fair.
"I know how to swim now. Feifei said she'll come at the end of the month, and I'll take her swimming then," Su Simei seemed to be in a good mood today.
Xiaoqi seemed to have to go to her uncle's house at the end of the month to attend her cousin's wedding.
Also, according to her father's suggestion, they wanted to have a celebration for her academic achievement. Xiaoqi didn't think it was necessary. The university she attended was just an ordinary one, and there wasn't much to celebrate. But she understood that her parents took pride in it. In their village, families with only daughters were rare, and not having a son was a matter of great embarrassment. Her parents were proud of her and wanted to show off.
They would probably end up having the celebration, inviting relatives and friends to eat and drink.
After dinner, Xiaoqi tidied up while her aunt went swimming. Once everything was in order, Xiaoqi prepared to study.
She had finished studying all the books in the New Concept English series. She bought a stack of past papers from the bookstore, including those for the College English Test Band 4 and 6. After going through the ordeal of the college entrance examination, doing exam papers was a breeze for her.
She spent half an hour practicing calligraphy and looked at her progress: beginner level (72/100). Unknowingly, she had been practicing for so many hours. She realized that she hadn't consciously practiced calligraphy every day; she just made use of fragments of time. Time was indeed like that ditch, if you squeezed, it would be there.
After practicing calligraphy, she took out a College English Test Band 4 paper to do.
She spent over an hour on the paper, including the listening section. Her essay writing had improved compared to before, but she didn't know how to evaluate herself. She could check the answers for the listening and reading comprehension sections. Xiaoqi took a look and saw that she had passed, but she still made quite a few mistakes. It was probably because it was her first time doing this kind of test, and she wasn't used to the question format.
It had been a long time since she had done an exam paper.
In any case, it wasn't very good, just a pass or above.
After finishing her self-corrections, Xiaoqi prepared to start learning Japanese.
She was full of enthusiasm for learning Japanese, and she studied very diligently. She often felt that what the teacher taught was too simple and not enough. After reciting a few times, she didn't feel like there was anything left to memorize.
Even though it was a new language, she didn't dare to be lazy. She faithfully copied the text, wrote it down, and then found Japanese audio materials to listen to while carefully comparing them.
She could also preview the content that the teacher hadn't taught yet. It would make her learning more efficient.
There was actually quite a lot of time between finishing dinner and going to bed.
Xiaoqi couldn't sit still from studying and went for a run in the neighboring school.
Although it was nighttime, the school's streetlights were bright, and it didn't feel dark at all. Running inside the campus was quite safe. She came almost every day, and even the old security guard recognized her.
After running about thirty thousand steps, she decided to stop. However, when she reached the school gate, she saw a bunch of snacks and felt hungry again.
Checking the time, it was already close to eleven at night. It wasn't a good idea to eat at this hour, so she resisted the temptation.
She went back to wash up and sleep.
The next day was Saturday, and it was rare for Xiaoqi to not have to teach or attend classes. She allowed herself to sleep in.
She woke up at six, turned over, and fell back asleep. When she opened her eyes again, it was already past eight.
Aunt Su Simei had prepared breakfast.
Su Simei was a very kind woman. Even though Xiaoqi was her niece, she didn't force her to do chores. Seeing that she was still asleep, she didn't disturb her and left a note for her to have breakfast on her own.
Xiaoqi leisurely ate the warm porridge, steamed buns, and perfectly pickled vegetables.
After finishing, she still went to the swimming pool because today was Saturday, the 17th. The competition would be held on the following Tuesday, and the day before the competition, the pool would be closed for maintenance. That meant she only had two days left to practice swimming.
Moreover, on Tuesday, she also had tutoring sessions with her students. She needed to ask if it was possible to reschedule them for Monday.
The official competition would be quite serious, and it definitely wouldn't be over in just half a day.
Today, she planned to spend more time at the swimming pool and have a final intensive training session with Coach Wu.
Coach Wu also agreed to this plan since there were only two days left.
Xiaoqi believed that she had great talent as a student, but she lacked competition experience. These two days of intensive training were necessary.
Xiaoqi thought that today's training would be quite intense, so she brought along the illustrated book "A Day in Edo" as well.
She could also read the book during breaks.
During the weekend, Coach Wu rescheduled his private lessons just to focus on teaching Xiaoqi.
Swimming was not something that could be accomplished overnight. That's why before, he mainly focused on Xiaoqi's practice, allowing her to become skilled and familiar with the water, to develop an affinity with it, before pursuing speed.
As soon as today's training began after the warm-up, Coach Wu asked Xiaoqi to swim quickly, to use her fastest speed, simulating a competition scenario.
The coach held a stopwatch and closely observed.
Glancing at the time, Wu Peirong was taken aback. Little Seven had clocked in at 1 minute, 57 seconds, and 19 milliseconds, a significant improvement compared to her previous qualifying time. The champion of the 200-meter freestyle at the National Games had a time of 1 minute, 56 seconds, and 21 milliseconds, so Little Seven's progress was remarkable.
Wu Peirong thought it might have been an error on her part when timing with the stopwatch. After all, there's always some margin of error when translating the swimmers' speed from visual observation to the stopwatch.
She was thrilled nevertheless because even with some error, it still indicated Little Seven's rapid improvement. However, Wu Peirong restrained herself and only praised Little Seven's progress without going overboard. She didn't want to affect the young girl's competitive mindset, considering her tender age.
But Wu Peirong wasn't one to hide her emotions. She couldn't conceal the smile on her face.
After finishing her lap, Little Seven noticed that Coach Wu seemed to be in a good mood. Curiosity got the better of her, and she asked her aunt about it when she got home. It turned out that Coach Wu considered her a student, while her aunt was only a student in her private lessons. Moreover, her aunt was outgoing, carefree, and older, so she would often chat with Coach Wu about various things.
That's why her aunt knew more about Coach Wu.
Little Seven casually asked her aunt a question and was surprised to find out that her aunt actually knew. Her aunt said that Coach Wu had good grades back in school and could have gone to college, but due to their family's poor financial situation, they sent her to a sports school on a full scholarship. However, her younger brother didn't do well academically, so their family had to pay a hefty fee for him to attend No. 2 Middle School.
Little Seven was familiar with the concept of "borrowing study fees." In her own No. 1 Middle School class, there were many students who paid such fees, which were rumored to be several tens of thousands, with certain academic requirements.
But Coach Wu's brother had to pay the fee even for attending No. 2 Middle School, indicating his average academic performance.
Life's unfairness and favoritism are likely the greatest harm to children.
Although Little Seven knew the reason, she could only pretend not to know. However, she genuinely sympathized with Coach Wu. But seeing Coach Wu's bright and sunny demeanor now, she felt that the coach didn't need her sympathy. Hardworking people like her could thrive anywhere.
She swiftly finished her swim, got up to stretch and rest, and then continued swimming.
The morning went on like this—sprint swimming, resting, stretching, and more sprint swimming.
It felt like participating in several competitions in a single morning. However, Little Seven felt that she was making progress. When comparing her watch and the time displayed on the interface, she clearly felt that her speed had increased.
Previously, the coach hadn't specifically trained her for speed, but now, with just one practice session, the results were showing.
The same routine continued over the weekend, and Little Seven spent both days at the swimming pool.
She felt that she was no longer a novice swimmer... at the very least, she was a little shark.
