CHAPTER 55: CHAPTER 55 SCHOLAR DUODUO

On Teacher’s Day, September 10th, the junior high students gathered on the playground at 8 o’clock sharp.

Zhen Yu, with a pair of rubber gloves in her left hand and a sickle in her right, stood at the front of the queue, occasionally sizing up the female class genius beside her.

This girl was the very "someone else’s child" often spoken about by adults, always ranking first from childhood, a life seemingly on cheat mode, crushing everyone all the way through.

After graduating from Qinghua, she went abroad to study in Australia, and then emigrated.

Of course, all of this was something Zhen Yu heard about later in the alumni group; after she and Qian Duoduo graduated from junior high, they had no further contact, their life paths as different as chalk from cheese.

If there must be something said about Qian Duoduo’s rough patches during her growth, it would be a rumor Zhen Yu heard at the time of graduating from junior high.

According to the rumor, in her senior year, the girl secretly had a puppy love affair with the male class genius of the class next door.

The rumored male class genius was the one who placed second between Qian Duoduo and Qiao Xian in the entrance exams for junior high, the current class president of the first year, second class-----Lu Wei.

As a result, after the middle school exams, she got into Qi City No.1 High School as she wished, but he missed both Ne City and Qi City’s First High Schools.

Since both of Qian Duoduo’s parents were school teachers, the boy, under persistent questioning from his parents, revealed the reason for not passing, and his parents went straight to the school and made a big fuss about it.

Afterward, this female class genius remained single, and from time to time, the alumni in the group would bring up her past to talk about it, and by the way, pity her a little.

As if by doing so, they could seem much stronger than Qian Duoduo.

-

While Zhen Yu was sizing up Qian Duoduo, the female class genius was also secretly observing Zhen Yu.

Since the first English class of the school year, Dad would occasionally praise this girl in front of her, something Qian Duoduo couldn’t accept.

The name ’Qian Duoduo’ used to be the one Mr. Qian mentioned most frequently; she was his pride.

But in less than half a month since the start of the school year, the name Zhen Yu had already surpassed Qian Duoduo in the frequency with which Mr. Qian mentioned it.

Qian Duoduo thought, she agreed that Dad’s praise for Zhen Yu being good at English was fine, but as for compliments about her character and personality, they were still to be observed; how could one understand a person in less than half a month~

Looking at her now, she’s at most just a little smart!

-

The students lined up by class, slowly passing through the small iron gate Zhen Yu took when she went to pick mushrooms, then were led by their class teachers to the areas assigned by the school.

Teacher Cao had everyone line up at the end of the field, one person per ridge, starting from the end and beginning to cut.

Every student put on their gloves and took hold of their sickles.

With a command from Teacher Cao, the first person bent down, placing their hand beneath the heavy wheat ears, and started reaping.

The sound of sickles cutting wheat straw rose in unison, and the line began to slowly advance forward.

Harvesting wheat is tiresome work, and in this era of single-child families with over-coddled children, almost eighty percent of students do not participate in labor at home, or even in household chores.

It wasn’t long before there was a significant difference in the harvesting speed of the students, and the distance between individuals gradually widened.

The diligent students kept moving forward without a pause, while those not accustomed to labor, lazy, or just more laid-back would occasionally stand up to rub their lower backs, taking the opportunity to check on others’ progress.

Before putting on her gloves, Zhen Yu took out a silk scarf from her school uniform pocket and wrapped her face tightly with it.

Although it made seeing things a red blur and didn’t block out UV rays, Zhen Yu didn’t want a face-to-face encounter with the dust, wheat awns, or the scorching sun.

She kept moving forward, bent over and reaping with determination.

When the discomfort in her lower back increased, Zhen Yu put down her sickle and straightened up, stretching her arms far back like a lazy stretch and leaning as far back as she could.

If it weren’t for so many people being present, she would have much preferred to bend over...

After doing a few body rotation exercises and glancing around, Zhen Yu found that she was one of the few students in the class who were cutting the fastest.

Beside her, the furrow belonged to Qian Duoduo, who had already fallen far behind the main group.

-

Zhen Yu rested for less than a minute before she threw herself back into the labor.

Since it was the school’s reserved land, each furrow wasn’t too long.

When Zhen Yu finished her task, Teacher Cao and a few male classmates were already sitting under a big tree, drinking water and cooling off.

"Zhen Yu, come over and have some water."

"Ah~ Thank you, teacher." Zhen Yu answered while untying her scarf and sitting down.

Teacher Cao’s face was also red and sweaty.

"I thought the first ones to finish would all be boys~ I didn’t expect you to be so capable! Do you often help your parents with chores at home?"

"Just occasionally cook."

"That’s great already! Not many kids your age know how to cook for themselves these days~"

Despite being praised by the teacher, Zhen Yu’s expression remained as calm as water.

After resting for a while, she stood up and asked, "Teacher, how many furrows does each person have to cut?"

"Five," Teacher Cao replied and looked up at Zhen Yu, asking, "Why? Do you want to finish cutting soon?"

"Yes! I’ll go now, teacher."

-

While Teacher Cao was speaking, nobody dared to interject.

Now, as Teacher Cao gazed distantly at Zhen Yu’s departing figure, the boys around him began whispering amongst themselves.

"That Zhen Yu! She barely rested before she went back to cutting? Is she trying to show off in front of Teacher Cao?"

"Who knows? But she really cuts quite fast."

"Indeed~ Several of the boys haven’t even finished one furrow yet~ and she’s already onto the second!"

"Shall we go too? We can’t let her be the first in the class to finish cutting. Where would that leave our pride as boys?"

"Let’s go!"

The boys got up whooshingly and went to cut their second furrow.

Five furrows were not something a junior high school student could finish in one morning. Zhen Yu planned to cut more in the morning, then ask others about their progress at noon, so she could save time to help out in the afternoon.

Perhaps it was because Zhen Yu had endured various hardships in her previous life and had recently been diligent in exercising, her tenacious willpower combined with a strong physique allowed her to finish cutting four furrows in one morning.

Those boys who had thought about not falling behind Zhen Yu while cutting the second furrow had given up resisting by the time they finished the third.

At noon, when the group assembled, the whole class looked at Zhen Yu as if she were a wonder, not understanding why she was so desperate to finish a day’s work in half the time.

Zhen Yu was so calmly composed as though she wasn’t the person being stared at, standing in the line and walking out of the little iron gate with her classmates back to the playground.

Without much fuss, everyone was simply informed to gather at 2 PM and then dismissed.

Qian Duoduo stood on the playground, watching Zhen Yu’s still erect figure, and although she didn’t want to admit it, she was actually admiring this person.

Even if it was just in terms of labor.

But it was precisely through labor that Qian Duoduo deeply felt that her new deskmate had a strong will, like the wild grass growing through cracks in the rock, willing to exert all her effort for the sake of survival.