Read Novel Full Chapter 75.1 – Growth and Strength (I)
Chapter 75.1 – Growth and Strength (I)
There has been a mass release last Sunday (10 chapters!) If you missed them, you can read it here
On the day the midterm results were announced, the entire first-year was shaken by the name at the very top of the honor roll. Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen were even more excited than when they saw their own scores.
As the exams approached, more and more rumors had spread from Class 1-7. Apparently, Tian Xueya was working extremely hard—so hard, in fact, that she had once fainted from exhaustion. The reasons for her class transfer kept being brought up. The stories that Xia Mian was bullying her and boasting she’d outscore Gu Zhou grew louder and more exaggerated.
Because of the transfer incident and her report to the police, Xia Mian had already become the focus of attention. With the rumors, most students outside of Class 1-3 had formed a negative opinion of her, thinking she was arrogant, overbearing, and liked picking on the weak. Everyone was waiting for her to embarrass herself on this exam.
If she couldn’t outperform Gu Zhou, they would mock her endlessly. And if she couldn’t even beat Tian Xueya, it would be a total humiliation.
But there was no way to confront Tian Xueya or explain things, so Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen could only grit their teeth in frustration and study even harder. They figured if Xia Mian didn’t beat Tian Xueya, they could at least help her save some face.
That said, neither of them genuinely thought Xia Mian could beat Gu Zhou. He was a top student with half a semester of consistent high scores. Except for slightly weaker writing skills in Chinese and English essays, he was excellent across all subjects.
Although the homeroom teacher had mentioned that Xia Mian was a good student when she joined the class, this was Yan University Affiliated High—there were plenty of good students here.
Plus, she hung out all day with Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen in the back row and didn’t seem particularly diligent, so most people assumed her academic level was probably just above average.
Tian Xueya had clearly thought so too, which was why she dared to pull her stunt. But no one had expected Xia Mian to shine so brilliantly—she not only came first but beat Gu Zhou by ten points, missing a perfect score by only five.
Forget Tian Xueya—even Gu Zhou couldn’t believe the results when he saw them. He stared at the score list several times, then went back and rechecked his own papers. He even borrowed Xia Mian’s to review—not clear if he was trying to learn or to compare.
Xia Mian didn’t care; she just looked on as Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen rejoiced.
“Hahahaha!” Sun Yuexin laughed triumphantly. “Serves her right!”
“Tian Xueya really went all out this time. I think she came in fifth across the entire grade. If it weren’t for you, she’d have ranked fourth. This was her best score ever—but too bad… hahahaha.”
Li Lizhen rested her chin on her hand, eyes gleaming. “I cannot wait to see the look on her face. Must be great!”
Sun Yuexin immediately said, “Wanna take a walk past Class 1-7?”
“Better not,” said Li Ming, who had just returned from spying. Just as Class 1-7 rallied around Tian Xueya, Class 1-3 stood firmly with Xia Mian.
Being a nosy type, Li Ming had rushed to Class 1-7 to catch the show as soon as the scores came out. “Tian Xueya cried pitifully, saying she didn’t work hard enough, that she’s too dumb, and deserved to be disliked. That made a bunch of Class 1-7 students start cursing Xia Mian for being a bully.”
He sighed. “How come we never noticed how good Tian Xueya is at playing the victim?”
Sun Yuexin rolled her eyes. “And you weren’t exactly innocent either, huh?”
“Hey hey hey, let’s let bygones be bygones, okay? I was young and foolish,” Li Ming said, then added in a low voice, “But don’t just worry about Tian Xueya—I don’t think Gu Zhou’s taking it well either.”
Sun Yuexin glanced at Li Lizhen and said cautiously, “Well, makes sense. He’s never been second before. It’s normal that he can’t accept it right away.”
Li Lizhen looked over at Gu Zhou and quickly averted her eyes after seeing him flip through Xia Mian’s test paper repeatedly.
“But you two did amazing this time too!” Li Ming gave them a thumbs-up. “Jumped up 300 spots across the whole grade. That’s impressive!”
No matter how much they tried to hide it, Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen couldn’t suppress their pride. No one disliked being praised—especially when it came from genuine effort. The harder the process, the sweeter the reward.
In fact, almost every subject teacher had publicly praised them, which boosted their motivation even more.
Even Zhao Cheng had been relentlessly bragged about by their parents, and after getting scolded once because of it, he started to feel the itch to try harder too. He didn’t care about beating Tian Xueya or being outshone by his childhood friends, but he still didn’t forget the impulsive dream of becoming a police officer.
The former number-one student buried himself in studying, while those who used to slack off now started wondering how many ranks they could climb next time. Seeing this, everyone else felt a creeping sense of urgency, as if slacking off even a little would drop them to the bottom.
For a while, the entire first-year cohort at Yan University Affiliated High was swept up in a fervent wave of learning.
The grade director was grinning from ear to ear: this is the most driven batch of students yet!
…
The second Saturday after the midterm exams, school let out early. Xia Mian, as promised, took Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen to eat her family’s skewers.
The Xia family’s stall wasn’t as crowded as usual. Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen lit up with excitement. “Hurry, there are seats!”
Xia Mian had been about to leave, but after glancing at the stall, she suddenly stopped in surprise. “Second Aunt? What are you doing here?”
Because the orders for fish tofu were growing, Xia Wenyue needed to focus on managing that operation, so she hired someone to run the stall. Since the skewers were prepared in set quantities and the daily earnings were fairly predictable, Xia Wenyue decided to try hiring someone to manage the stall.
Old Jia from the neighboring tenement had recommended a relative when he heard she was hiring. Ever since he got a commission from the fish tofu orders back in the New Year, he had been introducing other friends and relatives to help with sales, and Xia Wenyue’s order volume had steadily grown. The machines for making fish tofu and fish balls were now nearly running full days.
As a result, her relationship with Old Jia’s family had become quite good. So when she needed someone for the stall, he recommended a rural relative of theirs.
Xia Wenyue saw that the woman was clean, efficient, and honest-looking, so she hired her. They agreed she’d run the stall at lunchtime and in the evening, paid based on how many skewers were sold.
“You’re back?” Xia Wenyue continued cheerfully serving customers, her face betraying nothing. “Everything at home is ready. Go ahead and take your friends back.”
Thinking the stall employee must’ve had something come up, Xia Mian didn’t dwell on it and called Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen to head home.
“We’re not eating here?” Sun Yuexin asked, then realized something. “Wait—so the famous Xinsheng is your family’s stall?”
Li Lizhen was excited. “So today I can really eat as much as I want?”
Xia Mian laughed. “Don’t worry, eat your fill.”
When they got home, Mao Huilan—who had arrived earlier—had already laid out the hotpot on the table.
Li Lizhen looked at the big pot and the mountain of skewers in the center of the table and swallowed hard. “I never thought there’d be a day I could eat skewered hotpot until I was full. This is pure happiness.”
“Don’t be shy, take your seats.”
As the three of them were eating, Mao Huizhu, along with Chenchen and Xiao Feng, came running in—even though the kids could have the dish every day, they could never get enough of it.
Sun Yuexin said, “My parents were over the moon about my grades. They said they’d buy me the shoes I wanted.”
Li Lizhen added, “My mom agreed to get me a new dress.”
Xia Mian smiled. “Congratulations! Let’s keep working hard from now on!”
“It’s thanks to your great tutoring,” said Sun Yuexin. “Please keep coaching us!”
Xiao Feng nibbled on a piece of fish tofu that Xia Mian had placed in his bowl, occasionally sneaking glances at Sun Yuexin and Li Lizhen.
The two girls thought he didn’t recognize them and introduced themselves again.
After shyly greeting them, Xiao Feng leaned against Xia Mian, quietly observing.
Xia Mian couldn’t shake the feeling that something was odd about the way this boy was looking at them. It wasn’t until everyone had eaten their fill, the sky darkened, and she saw her guests off that he finally spoke.
Still holding her hand, Xiao Feng looked up and asked, “Auntie, can those two aunties earn five million too?”
Xia Mian: “…”
That look in his eyes was the same one he’d had back when studying the antique catalog at the auction…
Xia Mian rubbed her face helplessly and couldn’t help suspecting: Once I become a teacher, will all my students be five-million-dollar prospects in this child’s eyes?
Well, how am I supposed to explain now?
Before she could figure out how to respond, Xia Wenyue returned, followed by Mao Huimei, who had just finished work. Both of them looked upset—Xia Wenyue expressionless, Mao Huimei clearly angry.
Xia Mian finally found out that the woman who had been running the stall wasn’t suddenly called away—she’d been fired by Xia Wenyue.
Turns out, something had gone wrong with the business the day before. The root of the problem lay with Old Jia’s family.
After listening to Mao Huimei’s story, Mao Huilan was stunned. “Sis, you’re saying Sister Li and Auntie Wang are both related to Old Jia? But I thought they didn’t get along?”