Chapter 49: The Passionate College Entrance Examination

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Chapter 49: The Fervent College Entrance Examination

Bai Li held the card, read the black text printed on it, and blinked her eyes.

He Suisui was overjoyed because she guessed this secret would have something to do with that handsome older brother from Jiang University.

The rule of this game was that cheating was strictly prohibited. Before drawing the cards, the girls had all sworn an oath that whoever drew the truth card must honestly confess, otherwise, they would suffer terrible misfortune, and anyone who leaked someone else's secret would also meet with bad luck.

Beneath the spring scenery of April, a strong breeze carried the fragrance from the balcony into the room.

Caught between suffering bad luck and telling the truth to her good friend, Bai Li chose to tell the truth.

Only...

She lowered her gaze. What kind of secret should she tell? For her, what secret carried the most weight?

He Suisui hugged her pillow, poked Bai Li's cheek, and kept her eyes fixed on her.

A faint scent of potted mint drifted into the tip of Bai Li's nose, but her mind was entirely filled with Fang Ye's exquisite yet wild face.

After a moment.

The young girl's voice carried a faint gentleness: "My secret is... that older brother at the entrance of Jiang University that day is not my biological brother."

"Ah..."

He Suisui froze for a moment, then awkwardly scratched her head. "What kind of secret is that? Anyone could guess that just by looking. The two of you don't look alike at all, I knew that ages ago. Change it! Otherwise bad luck!"

?

The fingertips of Bai Li's palms curled inward. Under the threat of the oath, her heart pounded violently. Stunned into silence for a moment, she finally spoke in a low voice:

"I like him."

The air fell into an unbearable, heavy silence.

The moment those words left her lips, even Bai Li herself felt astonished.

Seeing the shock in He Suisui's eyes, she lowered her head.

Yes.

In those anxious and unsettled days, she had actually fallen in love with her older brother.

This was the first time she had admitted such a fact aloud.

Yet, while these words were not entirely difficult to speak, she found them overwhelmingly despairing, because she figured she would probably never say them to Fang Ye.

She only wanted to honestly and obediently remain his younger sister.

She was terrified that this hidden affection would be discovered, bringing such humiliation that even their sibling bond would be shattered.

Perhaps sensing Bai Li's panic—since only two people with equally delicate and sensitive personalities could truly become friends—He Suisui tossed aside the pillow in her arms and reached out to take Bai Li's hand. "Li, don't worry, I'll keep your secret for you. My mom says that at our age, liking someone is the most normal thing in the world. Besides, your brother is indeed very handsome, and he seems to treat you very well."

With that, she peeled a mandarin orange and placed it in Bai Li's palm. "I used to have someone I liked too; he was a senior at our school. I liked him since my first year of high school, but unfortunately, he failed the college entrance exam. I have no idea where he went, and it's impossible for me to go looking for him. Liking someone is completely normal; it's just that people don't talk about it openly because everyone is busy trying to become a better version of themselves."

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Holding the mandarin orange, Bai Li realized her friend was exchanging secrets with her.

Someone once said that once young girls exchange their innermost thoughts, the foundation of their friendship becomes unbreakable and rarely changes.

That night, the two girls lay side by side on the same bed, chatting and laughing until deep into the night before finally falling asleep.

There were only two months left until the college entrance examination.

Bai Li never proactively disturbed Fang Ye again.

Fang Ye was just as busy as he had claimed, and hadn't contacted her in a long time. Coupled with the school's ban on mobile phones, the number of times Bai Li turned on her phone could be counted on one hand. Every day, she buried her head in memorizing textbooks and practicing problem sets.

Everyone studied the same material, and in the end, the competition came down to who could master the knowledge more thoroughly and skillfully.

Private No. 1 High School cared deeply about its college admission rates. It adopted a competitive education model, encouraging students to view everyone around them as rivals and using the sharpest language to push students so hard that they never stopped for even a second.

The elite class where Bai Li was placed was even more fiercely competitive. Under this high-pressure state, some students whose psychological endurance reached its limit would suddenly burst into tears, burying their heads in their desks at random moments.

In the dead silence of the classroom, the muffled sound of suppressed sobbing and pages turning could be distinctly heard. Whenever this happened, Bai Li would also ask herself: Can I pass the exam?

A voice deep inside her heart would answer:

"I don't know, but no matter what, I must pass. In that distant Qing University, there is a wonderful person waiting for her."

Then she would get up to hand a tissue to the breakdown-stricken classmate, gently placing a candy on their desk as a silent comfort.

Her endurance was fairly decent, and she had put in more than enough hard work.

During the final mock exam, her scores reached the top two in her grade.

She didn't dare let down her guard, nor did she have anyone to share her joy with.

She simply borrowed a mobile phone from a classmate.

She had no idea how the phone had been smuggled in; let's just say where there's a will, there's a way.

She typed a sentence into that pinned chat window she hadn't opened in a long time:

【Brother, I ranked second in my grade.】

Then, regardless of how Fang Ye might reply, she rushed right back to her non-stop studying.

The next day, the security office at the school gate notified her to pick up a delivery.

Someone had sent her a strawberry cake and a bouquet of "Breathtaking Blue" roses.

The roses were gorgeous, still glistening with water droplets, and when she inhaled lightly, a delicate and elegant fragrance drifted over.

Bai Li hugged the bouquet tightly, lowering her gaze to catch sight of the attached card.

【Little White Pear, go conquer the sea of stars in your heart.】

This neat handwriting was easy to recognize; only one person called her by that name.

His response hadn't come through her phone.

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Instead, it had been genuinely and truly delivered right into her hands.

Beyond that, Bai Li felt a deep sense of emotional stirring.

Her brother was truly an exceptional person.

He had suffered far too much hardship.

Yet he still knew how to cherish and care for someone.

Even if that care was nothing more than doting on a younger sister.

Bai Li felt deeply satisfied. She carefully hugged the bouquet back to the dormitory, removed the card from the stems, tucked it safely into her school bag, and sliced up the cake to share with her roommates. Everyone was desperately pushing themselves in their studies, and it was a rare moment for them to gather together and laugh.

The strawberries of this season were slightly tart and sweet, neutralizing the greasiness of the cream, making them exceptionally delicious. Gradually, the smiles in the Room 302 girls' dormitory widened, and their weary faces came back to life.

One week after the final mock exam came to a close, the college entrance examination arrived.

Students from each class were assigned to different testing sites.

Watching her familiar classmates leave on the school bus, Bai Li took a deep breath, double-checked her exam tool pouch and admission ticket, and joined the main crowd entering the test center.

For three full days.

The scorching sun beat down on the earth, and the entire city made way for these crucial days. There were no honking horns and no construction noises; all that remained were the head teachers standing outside after each exam ended, holding large megaphones to cheer the students on and boost their morale.

The exam questions for this year were quite difficult.

Many of them adopted highly complex problem types.

When the teachers first got their hands on the papers, they furrowed their brows, worried about the students' psychological endurance.

However.

Bai Li felt that she had performed quite well.

Yet, facing the answer sheets, she still couldn't be one hundred percent certain whether she could achieve her goal.

It wasn't until the final exam ended and parents waited anxiously at the gates, watching the students rushing out of the test sites with tears of joy,

that Bai Li quietly slipped away from the side by herself.

She knew.

No one would be coming to pick her up.

Madam Hu simply didn't have the time to spare.

And what's more!
(End of this chapter)
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