As midnight approached, Aunt Ying had no choice but to take Song Langqing away. When they reached the stairwell, Aunt Ying looked up and said earnestly, "Langqing, don't let out any information about Jinran. I'm afraid rumors might target her."
"Mom, don't worry. I'm not a gossip. Besides, she's my elder sister! Who would harm their own sister? I'll never breathe a word."
Song Langqing knew that Lin Jinran was going to take the college entrance examination in a few days. With this sudden change, she was in a daze. If rumors were added to the mix, it would be like a sharp sword stabbing at her.
...
The next afternoon, Lin Jinran walked out of her home with her schoolbag on her back. The stuffy summer wind, carrying a faint fragrance of grass and trees, blew towards her. The sky was a deep, vivid blue. Lin Jinran walked slowly, bathed in the dazzling light.
It was a bit blinding, but it didn't matter.
The scorching heat seemed to be driving away the coldness in her heart.
As usual, she walked into the classroom. Lu Youchuan was chasing and joking with his classmates from the corridor. When he saw Lin Jinran, he was slightly stunned and immediately shouted at the top of his voice, "Hey, Lin Jinran! You're finally back!"
Lin Jinran nervously grabbed the straps of her schoolbag. Panic welled up in her heart. She turned around and walked into the classroom.
Lu Youchuan stood not far away, rubbing the back of his head in confusion. "What's wrong? Didn't she see me?"
When she sat down, her friends gathered around one after another, chattering away.
"Lin Jinran, I heard you were sick these days. How do you feel? Will it affect the exam?"
"It's so hot. Even though the air - conditioner is on in the classroom, you're still wearing long - sleeves. Aren't you hot?"
"Monitor, Lin Jinran's finally back. Now you can study with peace of mind, right?"
"... "
"Ranran, aren't you feeling better? Why aren't you saying a word?" A deep voice came from beside her. Su Qinian asked with a worried look on his face.
"Huh? What... did everyone just say?" Lin Jinran blinked slowly, trying hard to recall what had happened a few minutes ago. But after thinking for a long time, she couldn't remember.
"Lin Jinran must be too tired. I think you guys should stop chattering around. Can't you see she has heavy dark circles under her eyes and has lost weight?" Tao Wan pointed out sharply.
Lin Jinran was silent. Indeed, she hadn't had a good sleep for a long time. Her dreams were all full of nightmares of people trying to drag her to hell.
"Then you must have a good rest. I won't bother you anymore." Xie Wanyu hesitated. She had a lot to say, but seeing Lin Jinran's state, she could only shake her head and leave.
The others also left one after another.
"Ranran, why didn't you tell me when you came to school? Have you forgotten our agreement?" The boy gently tapped her forehead and looked at her helplessly.
Agreement? What agreement?
Seeing her look so confused, Su Qinian rubbed his forehead and smiled bitterly. Then he changed the topic. He took out a notebook and handed it to her. "Ranran, this is the notes I took when you were away. You can take a look when you're free. A lot of test papers have been handed out in the past two days. You can choose not to do them. The teachers don't force you anymore."
Lin Jinran took it and opened it. The densely written words were like ants crawling on it. She felt dizzy. Her mind seemed to be rusted like a machine and couldn't think properly.
She stared at a certain formula for a long time before she recognized that it was just the most common uniformly variable linear motion formula in physics, with speed v, time t, acceleration a and so on.
How to solve problems related to uniformly variable linear motion? What specific knowledge points would be tested in the college entrance examination, and what were the key scoring points?
Her eyebrows gradually frowned. Lin Jinran tried hard to recall, but found that the relevant knowledge points in the depths of her brain seemed to be covered in thick fog and she couldn't see clearly.
She bit her lip and forced herself to remember. Suddenly, her hand trembled and the notebook she was holding fell on the hard desk. With the wind in the classroom, it flipped a few more pages. She found that she couldn't understand any of it.
The college entrance examination was just a few days away. Lin Jinran was drowning in a boundless ocean. She gave up struggling, closed her eyes and slowly sank. As time passed, her limbs became heavier and heavier, and it became more and more difficult to breathe.
Finally, she drowned in this cold sea.
"Ranran, take your time. Don't be in a hurry. There are still a few days. You don't need to finish reading it all at once." Lin Jinran suddenly woke up, covered in cold sweat. When she looked down, she saw the densely written words.
"I..." Lin Jinran's lips trembled slightly. She looked at the strange questions, formulas and problem - solving steps with a trembling look.
When she looked up, she saw Su Qinian's gentle smile. The words "I don't understand" were swallowed back.
No, she couldn't. How could she let Su Qinian worry about her again? They were all about to take the college entrance examination. How could she be so selfish as to let Su Qinian worry about her and thus affect his college entrance examination results?
Later, she changed her words and said in a low voice, "Okay, I'll take my time."
During the three afternoon classes, Lin Jinran looked up and tried hard to listen to the teachers writing the key types of examination questions on the podium. She painfully lowered her head and looked at her untouched draft paper. Her heart was as dead as ashes, and her face became even paler.
Su Qinian beside her keenly noticed that something was wrong with Lin Jinran. She seemed to be unwell. Her eyes were often listless when listening to the teacher.
Su Qinian took away the draft paper and homework on her desk and only left her the review materials. "Ranran, you're under too much pressure. You'll be okay in a few days."
"You know, you just came back today. You won't have become a fool after being away from school for two days, right?" Su Qinian joked with her and gently tapped Lin Jinran's forehead with his pen.
It was a bit cold. Lin Jinran turned her head and looked at him. "No, I haven't."
"That's right. Don't listen to the teacher in class today. Just do your own thing. Study the questions you want to study and check for knowledge gaps."
The closer it got to the college entrance examination, the greater the pressure on the senior three students. Every minute and second was a race against the score.
Su Qinian's eyes darkened slightly. He hoped that Lin Jinran could adjust her state of mind as soon as possible and catch up with everyone again.
Two days passed in a blink of an eye. Maybe there would be a graduation party tonight, so the teachers hardly left any homework. As soon as school was over in the afternoon, a large number of senior three students ran outside the school to buy all kinds of snacks, waiting for the carnival tonight.
After two more days of school, they would be heading to the battlefield called the college entrance examination.
Starting small and ending with greatness, the end of the trial is a field of blooming flowers.
Lin Jinran didn't eat again that night. She carried a stool and came to the playground with her classmates. Compared with the noisy atmosphere of her friends, she was very quiet.
She only said one word for every ten words her friends said.
Her friends thought it was because the college entrance examination was approaching that she was so silent. They didn't think much about it.