Stringy Wind in the Ear - Chap 40
It was getting dark outside the window and Chu Zhi was shouting downstairs, so they didn’t discuss the topic any further.
The things on the table had been tidied up. The old couple sat in the living room drinking tea, while Song Jingshan was washing dishes in the kitchen.
Li Xun said goodbye to several elders and walked back with Chu Zhi. Under the street lights beside the park, he met Li Huiying who was coming back from taking out the trash. They nodded and greeted each other, and Li Huiying suddenly called him.
I don’t know what happened. Obviously nothing happened, but Li Xun’s heart trembled inexplicably: “What’s wrong, Auntie?”
“There is something that Song Yang has been hiding from us for a long time. I just found out today that he joined the school archery team, right?”
Li Xun’s brain was thinking a little slowly, but his body had already given the answer – he nodded reflexively.
He vaguely remembered that last time in the hotel, Song Yang said that he had not told his family about the competition, but how did Li Huiying know?
Did Song Yang admit it himself? Or was he discovered for other reasons?
Before he could figure it out, Li Huiying asked again: “When did he join the school team?”
Li Xun said: “Last October.”
This answer obviously surprised Li Huiying. Her eyes widened and her voice rose unconsciously: “Does he often skip classes to play archery?”
“That’s not the case.” Li Xun frowned slightly and corrected, “He just took time out to come to the school team for training, not for fun. During the summer vacation, he represented the school to play a friendly match with other schools in the province. His performance was pretty good.”
The truth has been revealed, and he can only try his best to restore Song Yang’s image as a good boy, but it seems to be unsuccessful, and Li Huiying still looks a little angry.
She held her hands on her waist and said angrily, “He actually lied to us that he went on a trip to Xiamen with his classmates and bought a lot of pineapple cakes. They must have been bought online! He made it look so real that he fooled the whole family. I never thought he could be so good at lying and could lie to us for so long!”
Li Xun touched his nose, not knowing how to answer. From an observer’s perspective, Song Yang’s behavior in this matter was indeed a bit outrageous.
Li Huiying complained dissatisfiedly: “No wonder his grades dropped like a waterfall when he entered college. I finally figured out the reason. Your school team should be full of people, right? Quickly fire him. He doesn’t attend classes and thinks about archery all day long.”
Li Xun didn’t expect her to say that and was a little confused for a moment. He was a child from a divorced family and had no parental control since childhood. He was used to freedom. It was the first time he heard such strong and decisive words from his parents. Even though it had nothing to do with him, he felt a sense of urgency as if his neck was being strangled.
The night wind was very cold. He held Chuzhi’s little hand tightly and put it in his pocket. He rubbed the back of his neck and could only utter an uncertain question after a long while: “Has his grades declined significantly?”
“That’s right.” Li Huiying sighed, “I know him too well. He has never been a self-disciplined child since he was young. He needs people to set goals and force him to learn those things. After entering university, he became relaxed and out of shape. He must have only wanted to have fun.”
Li Xun could understand her desire for her son to succeed, and smiled gently: “I will tell him to study hard.”
Li Huiying was quick-witted and immediately spotted the flaw in his words. She emphasized the point: “You are the coach of the school team. You can definitely take care of the turnover of players within the team, right?”
It seemed that this question could not be avoided. Li Xun nodded and tried his best to save the situation for the child: “But this is a sport he likes. His performance in the school team is pretty good. He may be able to join the provincial team in the future.”
“What’s the point of joining the provincial team? Even if he joins the national team…” Li Huiying realized that she was a little disrespectful to the person in front of her. She paused and changed her words, “He is young now, too playful, and doesn’t study hard. The more he is not allowed to do something, the more interested he is. But you are an experienced person, you must understand how important these few years in college are. A degree is a threshold. One more certificate will give you more confidence when entering the society. If he doesn’t study hard now, what will he do in the future?”
“Did you know that he only scored over 60 in his economics course? He was at the bottom of the class. My blood pressure went up when I heard the news. He was at the bottom of the class, something he had never experienced since he was a child. He even planned to hide this from us. Fortunately, Jingshan knew their major teacher.” Li Huiying became more and more angry and her words were incoherent. “He is only a freshman. If he continues like this, let alone a scholarship, I think it will not be easy to pass every course.”
Li Xun understood that Li Huiying was angry partly because Song Yang lied to his family, and partly because Song Yang’s grades had plummeted. He guessed that there was some connection between the grades and the training, and it was difficult to refute, so he had to play the role of a trash can and listen quietly.
It was also during this long criticism meeting of Li Huiying that he learned another thing. When Song Yang was a senior in high school, he filled out his application form. His original plan was to study at a medical university, but he changed his application to T University at the last minute.
In a trance, he recalled the lush camellia flowers in the school in the winter of the year before last, and Song Yang sitting opposite him, nodding and saying that he was moved by the chicken fillet.
He was not a person with a strong sense of self-awareness, and this association alone made him feel that he had committed a heinous crime. Such a serious matter as college entrance examination choice could not be changed just because of personal feelings.
He thought that Song Yang must have his own plans.
For example, if you are afraid of needles and cannot overcome your fear, or if you simply want to study finance, after all, the securities industry has always been a popular job…
“Oh, by the way, there is one more thing. I suspect he is in a relationship recently.” Li Huiying’s words disturbed his thoughts.
Li Xun was stunned. Somehow, he felt a little guilty: “Is… something wrong?”
Li Huiying, with her many years of dating experience, said with conviction: “I saw him tinkering with some paper sculptures a while ago. He refused to go to bed until three or four in the morning. After the work was completed, it was gone the next day. He must be rushing to give a gift to a female classmate at school.”
In the middle of winter, Li Xun was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.
He calmly covered Chuzhi’s little mouth and responded quickly: “I’m not sure, it may be shooting a vlog. This is quite popular among students now.” At this moment, he was glad that he had the advantage of age and could gather information quietly.
“You don’t want him to have a campus romance?”
“That’s not the case. College is the age for dating, and hormones are high. No one can control it. As long as it doesn’t affect studies, there’s no problem.”
Li Xun thought, the same logic applies, as long as practicing archery does not affect studying, then there is nothing wrong with practicing.
Before leaving, Li Huiying specifically reminded him: “If possible, please help me keep an eye on him at school. You can have fun, but know when to stop. As for competitions, if they conflict with your studies, try to arrange for someone else.”
Li Xun had no choice but to say “hmm”, which was considered as his promise.
He took Chuzhi’s hand and strolled back, and the little girl clenched his fingers with her soft hands.
“Uncle, can Brother Song Yang not go to the competition? Will he blame me?”
“Huh? Why would he blame you?”
“My godmother asked me if I had ever seen my brother go out to play with girls. I said no, he only practiced archery and played in competitions all day long…”
Although the little girl was young, she could understand most of what the adults were talking about. Her palms were sweaty and she was worried for a long time until Li Xun told her that it wouldn’t happen. Only then did she feel a little relieved.
Li Xun looked up. The moonlight was thin tonight, and no clouds or stars could be seen.
Li Chuzhi asked: “Then what godmother said was the lamp that my brother gave you?”
For the first time in his life, Li Xun lied in front of her: “Of course not, what godmother said is a paper sculpture, not a lamp.”
“Oh.” The little girl believed it and didn’t ask any more questions, but she was curious about something else, “Then what are hormones?”
Li Xun tried to explain it in a simple and understandable way: “It’s a good thing. You will have it when you grow up. It will make girls prettier and boys more handsome.”
“Oh…” Li Chuzhi said with a smile, “Do you have hormones?”
Li Xun almost laughed out loud, lowered his head and asked, “Why do you say that?”
“Hey, because you’re always handsome.”
Li Xun smiled and rubbed her little head: “You have really good taste.”
Li Chuzhi asked again: “Does the hormone have a smell? How do I know it has grown?”
Children’s questions are sometimes very annoying. It’s hard to describe what hormones smell like. Li Xun thought carefully for a moment and said, “When you think of someone, you feel warm, your heart beats fast, and you can’t help but want to laugh, then it has grown.”
“Oh.” Li Chuzhi blinked his bright eyes, “Who do you think of then?”
A silly little face appeared in front of Li Xun’s eyes, and his brain suddenly flashed with lightning and thunder, which made his internal organs burn.
What a sin you are committing, Li Xun thought with guilt.
After the Chinese New Year, schools started to reopen one after another.
Song Yang’s roommates were all students from other places, and they brought back a lot of local specialties. In just one month, Jiang Luo had gained weight and his face was rounder.
Zhou Junlin changed his look and dyed his hair a flashy gray-blue.
Yu Le’s figure hasn’t changed much, but his equipment has changed. His laptop, mobile phone and tablet have all been replaced with the latest Apple models, as well as a pair of noise-cancelling headphones that Song Yang had coveted for a long time but had never been willing to spend a lot of money to buy.
He tried it on and the sound was amazing.
“How much New Year’s money did you receive? So generous?”
Yu Le said: “I earned it myself. I took two big orders during the Chinese New Year, and with the balance paid off, I got a total of 20,000 yuan.”
When these words came out, the three of them were stunned.
Everyone knows that Yu Le often updates short comics on the website, and relies on his popularity to take on commercial manuscripts and advertisements, but he didn’t expect to make so much money.
Song Yang sighed: “Amazing, you will be the richest man in our country in the future!”
Yu Le laughed loudly and asked while packing his things: “What are you doing? Did you go out for a trip?”
Jiang Luo slumped in his chair and sighed, “Don’t mention it. I didn’t go anywhere. My parents forced me to learn English and prepare for the IELTS exam.”
Song Yang was a little shocked: “Is the exam going to be held so early?”
Jiang Luo said: “I have a bad memory, so I’ll learn it first. I’m afraid it will be too late to learn it in my sophomore year.”
Song Yang understood that Jiang Luo was so anxious to take the IELTS exam in order to study abroad. Their major had a two plus two undergraduate double degree program, which required students to stay in school for the first two years and study abroad for the next two years, so they had to take the exam in advance.
Song Yang was not very interested in going abroad for exchange, but the reality that everyone was working hard to learn new knowledge to enrich themselves did stimulate him a bit.
Looking back on the past semester, I was busy practicing archery and chasing people, and my mind gradually strayed away from my studies.
His final exam results flashed through his mind, and a strong sense of frustration eroded him bit by bit.
He sat back in the chair, covered his cheeks with his palms, and rubbed them slowly twice.
How come it’s so bad?
Although it’s a funeral, life still has to go on.
In the next few days, he went to class and practiced archery as usual, but his morning exercises were shortened. He borrowed the class notes from last semester from the monitor and focused on studying the knowledge points that deducted points. He also memorized words while running.
It was a sunny weekend with rising temperatures, so Li Xun took everyone to the outdoor archery range for practice.
This was originally a track and field field and has been here since the school was founded. It was small and old. Later, the school playground was expanded and the track and field field was connected to the football and basketball courts, which set off each other beautifully. This side then became a “suburb” overgrown with weeds and forgotten. Except for the little wild cats that occasionally come to check in and pee, there are basically no living creatures to be seen.
Li Xun had just come to the school the year before last. He had gone to great lengths to clean up this dilapidated place, and then applied to the school for permission to build a protective fence and rebuild the equipment room, which resulted in the archery team’s exclusive outdoor archery range.
He personally likes this place very much.
It was a place with green trees and quiet. When he had no training tasks, he would come here to kill time.
The distance from the shooting line to the target is 70 meters, which is the standard range for world-class archery competitions.
As soon as he arrived at the venue, Li Xun looked at the row of archery targets opposite him and his hands itched. While his classmates were warming up, he practiced twice first.
The total score of the ten arrows was ninety-two, and the crowd watching was already exclaiming and applauding.
But he himself couldn’t be happy, this was not his highest level.
While the team members were practicing, he sat beside them to give instructions and record the number of rings.
The stack of small notebooks in his hand recorded the growth trajectories of the team members. Yu Shenwei made the most progress, and A Hong was also good. He probably practiced a lot during this winter vacation.
As for Song Yang…
He flipped forward several pages.
There is no regression nor progress, but as many teachers always like to say, in this industry, no progress means regression.
When changing players, he looked up at the field and accidentally discovered a tall girl standing outside the isolation net, with waist-length hair dotted with a few dark green braids.
They looked at each other, and he vaguely remembered where he had seen her before, so he walked over and asked her who she was looking for.
Zhou You showed a shy little expression and pointed in a direction. Li Xun looked in the direction of her finger and met Song Yang’s gaze.
“Why are you here?” Song Yang said with a smile on his face, jogging over without even putting down the bow in his hand.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to go to the library with me?”
As they were talking, Li Xun noticed a small ornament hanging from the girl’s trouser pocket, which looked very familiar…
His brain automatically searched for the picture, and at a certain moment, his thoughts came into focus and his eyes changed.
This thing coincides with the photo that Song Yang received on his phone on the day of the movie.
“Coach?” Zhou You waved his hand in front of him.
Li Xun came back to his senses: “Huh? What did you just say?”
“There is a debate competition between our school and NTU, and I want to go find information with Song Yang.”
“Oh, now?”
“Well,” Zhou You’s eyes were filled with cautious exploration, “Is it okay?”
There was no reason to refuse a serious matter. Li Xun showed the demeanor of a teacher and patted Song Yang on the shoulder generously: “Go ahead, compete well, and bring honor to our school.”
Song Yang handed the bow and arrow in his hand to him: “Then please help me collect them.” After that, he and Zhou You walked towards the library.
Li Xun’s gaze lingered on the two figures for a long time. Both of them were tall and slender, dressed in casual style, one in black and the other in white. They were very close to each other, probably chatting about something interesting. Song Yang turned his head and smiled from time to time.
Li Xun remembered something and shouted, “When will you come back?”
However, the person had already gone far away, and the only response he received was the dull sound of the arrow hitting the target, which made his question seem so unnecessary.
Wu Jianian also stared at the two figures from behind for a long time and expressed his opinion as a passerby: “What a talented man and beautiful woman.”
Li Xun put Song Yang’s bow and arrow on the shelf, his expression indifferent: “I think it’s just so-so.”
