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Chapter 60
Thursday.
Sunny day.
In Lvshan City, the late summer and early autumn are mostly sunny days, which feels very comfortable.
Today, Xiaoqi Su has a big class to teach in the afternoon, with seven students, so her plan for the morning is to go swimming early, and then go to the library after finishing swimming.
However, at breakfast, her auntie was very quiet. After finishing eating, she rushed to wash the dishes. Before Xiaoqi went out, she asked if Xiaoqi had anything on her mind recently.
Xiaoqi looked completely puzzled, saying she didn’t have anything particular on her mind.
"It's just that I feel you are especially serious today, making your auntie not even dare to look at you."
Su Xiaoqi: ...
Thinking back, it seemed that she had somehow gained an inexplicable aura of being unapproachable.
She looked at herself in the mirror but couldn’t see any difference at all.
Today, the memory buff was gone, the linguistic sensibility buff was also gone, and the grace and confidence buff only had one day left. Then there still remained the swimming talent buff and this new unapproachable aura...
Without the memory buff, she adapted yesterday and found it acceptable. Based on the learning method she had tested, she could still remember things by spending more than twice the effort learning. She just needed to be careful with reinforcement and it was also easier to forget.
With the linguistic sensibility buff gone, on her way to the gym this morning, she listened to English while reading aloud at the same time. She felt a little awkward, but still much better than she was before the college entrance examination. It was just that she was slightly constrained and couldn't fully let go. But it would slowly get better once she got used to reading aloud, and gradually regain some sense for the language.
She realized that although these buffs were gone, the impact they had on her did not disappear. The more buffs she used, the more deeply things were engraved in her memory. Now without the buffs, things were not as smooth, but she could still feel her own progress.
This was actually something she couldn’t appreciate when she had the buffs, because the buffs let her maintain a constant level. Now with the absence of buffs, she could clearly feel her own progress and deficiencies.
She used to feel that the buff duration was too short, thinking it would be so much better if the rewards lasted longer. But now she realized that without the buffs, she could better sense her own progress and differences. If she purely relied on the buffs, she might have become useless.
With this new thinking, her mood improved by a lot, and she went swimming diligently in the morning.
However, she also felt her coach Peirong Wu behaved a bit strangely today, even saying to her: "Xiaoqi, you are truly outstanding now. Don't put so much pressure on yourself and try to relax more."
For Su Xiaoqi, who felt quite relaxed practicing swimming and thought she was doing fine...
Coach Wu Peirong was also under great pressure. She was quite satisfied with this student of hers who was hardworking and self-disciplined. But seeing her jump into the pool today somehow gave Wu a solemn and respectful feeling, making her feel Xiaoqi was about to attend the Olympics. That leap was just like diving off an Olympic platform, automatically triggering a solemn and respectful bgm in her mind. She even briefly had the illusion that she was an Olympic athlete's coach, strangely feeling a heavy responsibility on her own shoulders.
After seeing Xiaoqi swim for a while, Wu finally snapped out of it and felt she was going crazy.
After finishing swimming, Xiaoqi headed to the library.
The library was relatively quiet, convenient for preparing lessons, and she could find necessary materials on site if needed.
Since shooting some Douyin videos in the library which gained quite some likes, Qi Wei had slowly figured out the patterns. That girl comes to the library often, definitely on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and may come in the morning or afternoon on other days, possibly taking 1-2 days break.
Recently, he had become addicted to Douyin. Even when his buddy asked him to go travelling in Japan, he rejected it.
He felt the two library girls he filmed were much better than those coquettish cheap girls on Douyin. They were natural and innocent. He had watched his own videos countless times without getting bored.
His mother was the deputy curator of the library. And his father runs three Fortune Plaza supermarkets in downtown Lvshan.
He was a student at No.1 Middle School, tall and handsome, quite an outstanding youth in Lvshan by all means.
Coming from a well-off family, excellent grades, and good looks - a model student with three virtues.
Today, Qi Wei came very early. He used some hair wax to style his hair in the morning. The hairdresser had cut both sides short and kept some in the middle. With hair wax, his hair could stand straight up, looking quite stylish. Although not as delicate as those little fresh meat idols on TV, he was still a handsome little guy.
He had secretly tried quite a few clothes in his room in the morning, and finally chose a relatively reliable black among all the colors. There was a very cool pattern on the back. He wore sports pants, brand new sneakers with striking colors. But after going out, he felt a bit cold and put on a grey jacket with purple trim.
He went to the library early with his mother. After taking off his jacket, he sat there and soon got goosebumps from the cold. He had to put his jacket back on. Fortunately, it got much better after the sun came out. He dressed up carefully today not just for shooting Douyin videos, but also hoping to chat up that girl to at least get her contact information.
He had secretly checked her identity, taking a little advantage of his mother being the deputy curator.
Because with a student card, one could borrow two more books from the library.
He wanted to check based on her student card, only to find out that she had graduated from No.1 Middle School this year.
It was a pity, but it didn’t matter.
For a boy Qi Wei's age, compared to girls slightly older than himself, he somehow felt a vague restlessness and emotional stirring that he couldn’t put in words.
He was too embarrassed to admit it, but over the past few days at home, he had even watched fewer adult videos. Just watching the girl in his Douyin videos - her lips, chin, neck, he would somehow feel a strange indescribable sensation.
So today, he plucked up his courage and was determined to go chat her up and at least get her contact information.
However, in the beginning he felt a bit nervous. After sitting for a long time the girl still didn't show up, and he even wondered if she wasn't coming today at all.
He had a small group with only four people, a few buddies he got along super well with, practically lifelong friends since their parents were friends. Qi Wei was the youngest among them.
Qi Wei was from No.1 Middle School, Linzi from No. 2 Middle School, held back for one year in middle school and another year in high school, a seasoned veteran from No.2 Middle School. Shen Hao was studying abroad in the UK, and hadn’t come back this vacation. He was one grade above Qi Wei, very mysterious and didn’t talk much at all. Da Dong was preparing to study abroad in Australia.
They originally planned to travel to Japan during summer vacation, but since Qi Wei didn't go, the other guys kept asking him why, pestering him to confess after questioning many times. Finally he admitted it, being lovesick...
The few guys went all out in their group chat, yelling and shouting, even more excited than Qi Wei himself.
Because they had all watched that Douyin video. If not for the beautifying filters when shooting, that girl’s looks should be around 80 points. Not the kind of shocking beauty, but very decent. Judging from her clothes and belongings, her family background was probably very average. But she was undoubtedly a top student. Her handwriting with a fountain pen looked so beautiful. And she read foreign language original books.
She would also smile when reading books and liked spending time in the library, seemingly a girl with a very sweet personality who should be easy to get along with. She probably didn't have a boyfriend and went to the library alone every day. This kind of girl would be easy to chase. With Qi Wei’s handsome looks and family wealth, getting her would be a piece of cake.
Da Dong analyzed it very confidently. He also liked this kind of innocent-looking girl at the beginning, but after dating three or four, he found they really lacked common topics and sometimes had a bit of shabby aura due to poverty. Real life wasn't like the idol dramas Meteor Garden where the rich guy always falls for the very poor but independent girl. That simply wasn't realistic. It would actually be quite awkward being together in reality.
"Listen to Brother Dong, flowers, bags, meals at fancy restaurants, and going for rides in his car if necessary. 10 days, no, 5 days to get her, guaranteed she will give you WeChat messages every day after that, so annoying you’d wanna block her."
"Go for it, Little Qi."
"Remember to record a video and report on your progress, haha," said one of Qi Wei's friends.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just turn on the video and let your brothers advise you and provide on-site guidance," added another.
Qi Wei only half-listened to his friends' analysis. At the moment, he was more focused on appreciating the view.
It had taken a great deal of lively chatter in their group chat before things finally started blossoming around 10 PM, when someone at last sat down in the previously vacant seat across from Qi Wei.
When Qi Wei glanced up and saw the figure in the doorway, he scrambled to set up his phone stand and hit record on the video, pretending to look at his book.
Xiao Qi entered just as she always did, sitting in her usual spot with an armful of books which she set down before beginning to prepare for class, utterly engrossed in her work.
Qi Wei stole a glance at his brothers' chat group, only to find that, for some inexplicable reason, it had suddenly fallen silent with no one saying a word.