Chapter 543: True to Their Name

"Don’t even mention it, Zhang Guilan insisted that their strawberries were for sale, and actually asked for fifty cents a pound."

"Fifty cents a pound," Ma Suyun almost dropped the strawberries in her hand, "how much are apples per pound? Is she out of her mind?"

Qin Wen snorted coldly, "Isn’t she just crazy? I can see it clearly now; in their eyes, they only recognize money. My mom went over and didn’t even get any face. My mom is Qin Han’s real aunt. How can you ask for money from your aunt for eating a few strawberries? Aren’t they afraid of being laughed at if this gets out?"

"Did you give it to her when she asked?"

These strawberries must weigh nearly two pounds, and that’s one yuan?

"What else could I do if I didn’t give it? Didn’t you insist on eating strawberries?" Qin Wen also felt the pain of spending money, "You’re the one; what’s wrong with eating something else? You insisted on eating those few lousy strawberries, making me have to beg around. I don’t want to see them one bit."

"It’s not me who wanted to eat; it was your son who wanted it. What could I do?" Ma Suyun stroked her still unchanged belly, looking tender, "My son is obviously smart, knowing that winter strawberries are the best even while still in the womb."

Hearing the word ’smart’ about their son, Qin Wen looked hopeful.

"It’s just a few cents; I don’t intend to owe them. When my son succeeds in the future, will there be a shortage of opportunities to turn things around? Qin Han’s family, Zhuangzhuang, lives up to his name, just like Qin Han, dull as can be. Qin Yang is even more hopeless. Look at our house. Big brother Jianjun, Construction, second brother Jianye. And in the future, there’s our family’s..."

"Congcong," Ma Suyun interjected, "I’ve decided; our son’s name will be Congcong, clever and smart."

The name suits the person; her son must be very smart too.

Qin Wen nodded, "Yes, Congcong, Qin Jiancong. We have four boys in this house. If they don’t cozy up to us in the future, we won’t play with them and will embarrass them when need arises."

..................

As the sunset fades, the howling north wind blows, with the afterglow swaying through the gaps between trees and dancing on the ground.

A few leaves couldn’t withstand the ordeal of the fierce wind and finally left the branches, leaving behind thin twigs stretching their posture.

A group of youths walked against the wind, slumping their shoulders and tucking their necks despite the thick cotton clothes.

The sound of quick footsteps ran up from behind, quickly catching up with the youth pushing a bicycle in front.

"Hey, Lin Jiadong, wait for me."

Lin Jiadong stopped and looked at Li Youmin who caught up.

Li Youmin stopped to catch his breath once he reached Lin Jiadong, walked beside him, "Are you still going back to your sister’s place? Why not come to the guesthouse with me tonight? We can share a bed; it’s enough for the two of us. Otherwise, it’s quite awkward to leave me with Teacher Tian all the time."

"No, my second sister is still at home waiting for me to have dinner. If I don’t go back, she’ll get worried," Lin Jiadong blandly replied, then thought for a moment and added, "It’s not a bad thing to be with Teacher Tian. You can take the opportunity to ask him about the problems you don’t understand."

"You say it like it’s easy; I dare not ask him. Last time I asked him a question, I almost didn’t sleep half the night. If you think it’s good, come to the guesthouse with me. By the way, you have questions you don’t understand, right? You can just ask Teacher Tian."

"I’ll go back and think about it slowly first; if I don’t figure it out, I’ll find Teacher tomorrow."

While they were talking, a bicycle passed by. Li Youmin tugged at Lin Jiadong’s clothes and looked at the figure, asking, "Hey, how do you know that female classmate? You’ve got some secrets you’re hiding from me, haven’t you? That’s really not fair; I’ve always considered you a brother."

Lin Jiadong glanced at the distant Hu Yaping and directly responded, "I don’t know her."

Li Youmin clearly didn’t believe him, "If you don’t know her, why does she keep asking you questions? You’re not the top scorer, I’ve checked, the first place is at City No.1 Middle School, she leaves aside asking her school’s top scorer but asks you, the second who came from the countryside. It makes no sense."

Recently, they’ve been busy with practice sessions. Today, they finally had a bit of free time.

It was shocking when they saw the province’s third place, whom everyone kept at a distance, approach Lin Jiadong for questions. Li Youmin almost dropped his jaw.

Everyone knew that in private, topics about the few girls in class came up most often.

The other two were okay; after becoming familiar, they’d say hello.

But this third place in the province, the prettiest and the most aloof, others didn’t dare to try approaching her. Privately, they called her the ice queen.

It’s said that she’s from the city, with exceptionally good family conditions, and her father is an official too.

Lin Jiadong frowned upon hearing this.

"Li Youmin, if you want others to respect you, first respect yourself. You always say ’countryside’ and ’countryside,’ but actually, people don’t care if you’re from the city or the countryside. What matters is whether your grades can be their competition. If you can’t understand this, I really don’t know what you’re doing here."

He had long wanted to say these words.

Ever since they came to the city for the competition, Li Youmin has always been bringing up his identity in his words.

He really didn’t understand what was worth mentioning.

Their identity is as students, and the primary goal is learning.

So what if you’re from the countryside? Does being a country person make you inferior? Does it affect your grades?

If you think so, then more reason to study hard and strive to escape this circle.

After Lin Jiadong finished speaking, he no longer paid attention to Li Youmin and rode away on his bicycle.

Li Youmin stood there, finally curling his lips.

A hand draped over his shoulder; Xu Cheng caught up, "So, did you find out anything? What’s the deal with your classmate and that girl?"

"No, he even lectured me," Li Youmin shrugged.

"What did he lecture you about?"

Speaking of it made Li Youmin almost laugh from anger, "You couldn’t guess. He lectured me not to look down on myself, saying city and countryside are the same. Are they the same? You tell me, are they the same? Everyone knows city folks look down on us country people. Look at Lin Zhi, he’s just from a small county and looks down on us farmer kids. Lin Jiadong talking like this is merely because he has an official brother-in-law."

Xu Cheng also chuckled; these days, they’d formed circles of their own.

Even Lin Zhi, who they initially knew, no longer played with them.

"Your classmate is a bit aloof, but they indeed have the ability. I overheard the teacher today say that among our students, the ones most likely to get a rank include your classmate. If in this national math competition they get ranked, they’re really on a different level than us. It’s said this national math competition offers university admission slots."

"Are you serious?" Li Youmin widened his eyes.

Wouldn’t that mean doing well would make them a college student?