When the school bell rang, Cheng Che folded his test papers and put them in his schoolbag along with the overall score report.
The score report was a little creased. Guo Xin had gotten so excited while taking it to "admire" that his trembling hands had crumpled it.
Cheng Che didn't mind. Everyone who needed to see it had already seen it anyway.
He left the school gates with his bag on his back. Instead of running along his usual route, he headed straight for the bus stop.
He had already run today and completed his task. Besides, he was in a good mood and wanted to get home sooner, so he decided to take public transportation.
Spring City's evening breeze was gentle, brushing his face with a mild warmth.
Cheng Che sat by the window, watching the streets slide backward outside, and unconsciously began humming.
It was an old song, wildly off-key, but he didn't care in the slightest.
When the bus reached his stop, he got off and turned into the alley leading to Clearwater Bay Residential Complex.
He had barely taken a few steps when a black Audi glided up slowly from behind. The window rolled down, and Wang Xiumei poked her head out.
"Little Che, why aren't you running home today?"
Her smile was friendly, but her voice carried that familiar, affected concern:
"You have to keep at this exercise business, you know. I saw you running and sweating buckets just the other day. Don't tell me you've already given up?"
Cheng Che glanced at her and smiled. "The mock exam results came out today. I wanted to get home sooner."
"Oh, the results are out?" Wang Xiumei's eyes lit up slightly, as though she had caught a scent. "Did you improve or slip backward? Tell your auntie. It's all right, one mock exam doesn't prove anything. Even if you can't get into a good university, at least it's still a university."
As she spoke, she glanced back at her son in the rear seat. "You could learn a thing or two from Haohao. He makes steady progress with every exam. This time..."
"Mom."
Zhou Hao suddenly interrupted her from the back seat, his eyes still on his phone and his voice languid. "Cheng Che did better than me."
Wang Xiumei's smile froze on her face.
"What did you say?"
Zhou Hao looked up, glanced at Cheng Che outside the car, and repeated:
"He did better than me."
Wang Xiumei turned toward Cheng Che and sized him up for a long while, as though seeing him for the first time.
Then she froze.
She had seen what Cheng Che used to look like.
Always hunched over, his complexion sallow and dull, his whole body shrinking into his school uniform. He even walked with his head down, and his greetings to her were no louder than a mosquito's hum.
Wang Xiumei had always thought Jiang Xue's son didn't look like he would amount to anything.
But the boy standing outside her car window now stood tall and straight, his complexion fair and clear, his features as bright and fresh as if washed with water. Even his height had shot up a little.
His school uniform actually looked rather good on him.
Wang Xiumei opened and closed her mouth. Only after a long while did she squeeze out a response:
"Oh... oh, I see. Well, Little Che... you really have worked hard. Keep it up."
With that, as though something were chasing her, she slowly rolled up the window, and the Audi sped away with a press of the accelerator.
Cheng Che stood there watching the taillights disappear, then shook his head with a chuckle.
Inside the car, Wang Xiumei was silent for a long while before suddenly asking, "Haohao, didn't you rank two hundred and thirtieth?"
"Mm." Zhou Hao didn't even look up.
"Cheng Che did better than you?"
"He ranked two hundredth," Zhou Hao said. "His total was 508, over thirty points higher than mine."
Wang Xiumei's grip tightened on the steering wheel, and she almost lost control of the steering.
She hurriedly tapped the brakes, just managing to avoid crossing the solid line ahead.
"Two hundredth? Cheng Che?" Her voice rose a couple of notches. "Wasn't he below four hundredth last time? How did he jump over two hundred places all at once? That's just too..."
She didn't finish, but her meaning was already obvious.
"He didn't cheat." As though anticipating her suspicion, Zhou Hao spoke calmly. "Our teacher even praised him in class. There was a math problem where he was the only person in the entire grade to use the optimal solution. How could that be cheating?"
Wang Xiumei fell silent.
Only after a long while did she glance at her son in the rearview mirror, her tone turning cold. "Hand over your phone."
Zhou Hao's fingers stiffened. "I..."
"Hand it over. Stop playing. Spending too much time on that phone is exactly why you've barely improved."
Zhou Hao watched his phone get snatched away. He opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing, swallowing this bitter fruit and turning his head toward the window to let the wind carry away his sorrow.
Meanwhile, Cheng Che pushed open his front door.
In the living room, Cheng Jianguo was sitting on the sofa, one hand reaching behind him to rub his lower back in an awkward motion.
Seeing Cheng Che come in, he immediately withdrew his hand, shifted position, and asked with a cheerful smile:
"You're back? How did the exam go?"
Cheng Che set his schoolbag on a chair without saying anything. He walked straight behind Cheng Jianguo, placed his hands against his lower back, and began massaging with just the right pressure.
"I didn't bomb it," he said. "I did pretty well."
"Oh, how good must it be for our son to call it pretty well?" Jiang Xue poked her head out of the kitchen, flour still on her hands. "Got a shot at a second-tier university?"
Cheng Che didn't explain, only tipping his chin toward his schoolbag. "The score report's inside. See for yourself."
Jiang Xue rolled her eyes at him. "Keeping us in suspense, are you?"
She washed her hands, came over, opened his schoolbag, and pulled out the crumpled score report.
As she unfolded it and looked, her expression shifted from curiosity to surprise, then to delight.
"Cheche... you scored 508?!"
Cheng Jianguo froze, then reached out and snatched the score report. He squinted at it for a long while before slapping his thigh. "That's my boy! 508! Over a hundred points more than I got on my college entrance exam!"
"How can you compare yourself to our son?" Jiang Xue rolled her eyes at him, but an irrepressible smile filled her eyes and brows. "What do you want for dinner? I'll make you some extra dishes!"
"Drinks." Cheng Jianguo stood up, his back no longer hurting. "I have to have a couple of drinks to celebrate tonight!"
"All you ever think about is your little tipple." Though Jiang Xue said that, she was already heading toward the kitchen. "Wait here, I'll get it. That bottle your younger sister gave us last time hasn't been opened yet."
Watching his parents bustle about, Cheng Che felt a slight sting in his nose.
At school, his teacher's first reaction upon seeing his score had been to look for his test papers. When his classmates saw his ranking, some cheered, while others muttered in private.
On the way home, when Wang Xiumei heard he had scored 508, she couldn't hide the doubt in her eyes.
But his parents hadn't asked a single question.
No "Did you copy someone?" No "How did you suddenly score so high?" And no "Can you keep it up next time?"
They simply saw the score and began celebrating, their happiness so natural, as though they had always believed their son was capable of scoring this much.
That trust was light, so light that they didn't even notice it themselves.
But to Cheng Che, it carried great weight.
Dinner that evening was lavish.
Jiang Xue stir-fried two extra dishes and even took out the piece of beef that had been frozen in the fridge for half a month to braise it.
Cheng Jianguo had three drinks, his face turning red as he rambled about his younger days. Jiang Xue complained about how much he talked while putting more food into his bowl.
Cheng Che kept his head down and shoveled rice into his mouth, his eyes a little hot.
He ate in great mouthfuls, swallowing all his emotions along with the food.
At ten that night, he lay down in bed right on time.
His phone vibrated. He reached for it and saw that it was a reply from someone in yesterday's part-time jobs group.
The group was called "Spring City Daily-Pay Part-Time Jobs Group."
Messages flew through the group, mostly things like "Need five people to hand out flyers at the convention center tomorrow, eighty a day" and "Bubble tea shop hiring weekend staff, long-term applicants preferred."
But the job sent to Cheng Che in a private message was one he had never considered.
[Tennis Court Old Chen: Hello, are you a student? I saw you were looking for part-time work?]
Cheng Che sat up and carefully typed a reply.
[Yes, hello. Are you hiring part-time staff?]
The reply came quickly:
[Yes. I've just opened a tennis court beside Spring City Sports Center, and I need a few part-time students on weekends. Mainly picking up balls, tidying the courts, and helping out at the front desk. Are you free tomorrow? You can come take a look.]
Cheng Che's eyes lit up.
Tomorrow was Saturday.
[I'm free. What time tomorrow?]
[Nine in the morning. Message me when you arrive.]
[All right, thank you.]
Cheng Che put down his phone and lay back down.
He stared at the ceiling, the corners of his mouth unconsciously lifting.
Running, studying, skincare, and tomorrow, a part-time job too. Life really did seem to be getting better, little by little.