Li Zhiyuan stood on the podium, looking down at Tan Wenbin sitting below. He had already reached the analytical questions and was continuously writing with fewer pauses, no nail-biting.
Returning to his desk to pick up a book, Li Zhiyuan walked out of the examination room and headed straight for the principal’s office.
When he was about to reach the door, he heard some loud voices inside. His initial thought was to leave and look for some other office.
But among those voices, he recognized Li Sanjiang, Li Weihan, and Cui Guiying.
He knew why the grandmaster and his grandparents came today, because he mentioned that he was in his third year of high school, and Tan Wenbin had also testified to that, even Leizi, Panzi, and Yingzi had confirmed it.
But for the elderly, it was still too hard to understand, so they formed a group, intent on seeing for themselves today.
They must have been invited into the office by Principal Wu as soon as they arrived.
No wonder the grandmaster was so quiet at breakfast this morning.
Instinctively, Li Zhiyuan wanted to turn around and leave because he knew what would happen once he pushed the door to enter: the old folks’ joy and relief, Principal Wu’s praise and encouragement.
He longed to avoid this predictable routine.
But at this moment, the sound of Li Lan’s footsteps on the other end of the phone came to his mind - he and she were ultimately different.
This type of conditioned response wasn’t hard to overcome.
Li Zhiyuan pushed open the door to the principal’s office. The grandmaster and grandparents all stood up and looked at the child; Li Zhiyuan walked over with a smile and was embraced by them.
Principal Wu said a lot of encouraging words, and Li Zhiyuan bowed his head, showing just the right amount of bashfulness and shyness.
After confirming this, the grandmaster and the rest swiftly departed. Li Zhiyuan went to the corridor, looking down at the three elders walking towards the school gate.
The grandmaster strutted with the proud pace of an imperial envoy on the stage.
Li Weihan, carrying a water pipe on his back, had a usually calm and steady demeanor, but now, even his shoulders were shaking.
Cui Guiying was holding a handkerchief, constantly laughing and wiping tears from her eyes.
Li Zhiyuan was so glad that he hadn’t chosen to turn away and leave just now.
Thinking of the essay he had just written, he realized emulating Li Lan might have been a mistake; he should have used her as a counter-example to avoid sooner.
Had he realized that earlier, his condition wouldn’t have developed so severely at such a young age.
"Xiao Yuan, your grandparents just couldn’t believe you’re in high school now, haha."
Wu Xinhao pulled the boy back into the office, gave up his desk for him to study, and took out some beverages and chocolates from the drawer.
He knew the boy had taken the monthly test, which was a good thing, a regular reassurance for everyone.
At the same time, he knew that the boy was acting as a teaching assistant in the olympiad math class.
Li Zhiyuan picked up Wei Zhengdao and started reading.
The principal sat opposite of him, looking at documents, stepping outside to light a cigarette whenever he felt the urge, and then coming back after smoking.
As the bell for the end of the second examination in the morning rang, Li Zhiyuan declined Principal Wu’s invitation to enjoy a special meal in the canteen.
He walked to the school gate and waited for Tan Wenbin, who was still accompanied by Zheng Haiyang.
The three of them usually ate out a lot, but they didn’t always dine lavishly, mainly sticking to noodles and egg fried rice, which, of course, were already luxuries only children from dual-income families could afford.
Most of the school’s students were from rural families; many didn’t even go to the cafeteria but returned to their dorms to eat dry food brought from home.
They brought their own pickles and bean paste, and they would often share and taste each other’s mothers’ cooking.
Tan Wenbin was quite wealthy; ever since he started following Li Zhiyuan, his parents increased his allowance significantly. Zheng Haiyang was even richer; otherwise, those thugs wouldn’t have tried to extort money from him.
In these times, being a sailor was already a well-paid job, with lots of additional income from abroad. In terms of pocket money alone, Tan Wenbin could only be considered poor compared to Zheng Haiyang.
Tan Wenbin ordered five bowls of noodles; he ate one bowl, and his mind consumed two.
Zheng Haiyang first bought three bottles of soda, then added three poached eggs, three lion’s head meatballs, and three drumsticks.
He was happy to be with them; last time Run Sheng gave those bullies a miserable beating, and no one dared to trouble him these days, especially now that Li Zhiyuan’s status in school meant that no one would foolishly provoke him.
"Brother Yuan, Brother Bin, I had a dream last night."
Zheng Haiyang also started calling Xiao Yuan "brother", like Tan Wenbin did.
"What dream?" asked Tan Wenbin, biting into a chicken drumstick.
"I dreamed that my dad took me treasure hunting, and the dream felt very real."
"Isn’t your dad at sea?"
"Yeah, diving for treasure. There were several sunken ships on the seabed, full of gold, silver, and jewels."
"Huh, so how much did you get?"
"Not much, I was about to grab them, but then I woke up."
"What kind of dream is that? At least you could have gotten the gold, silver, and jewelry, and after getting to shore, you should have come to look for me in the dream to live it up properly."
"Hehehe." Zheng Haiyang scratched his head.
Tan Wenbin then turned to Li Zhiyuan: "Brother Xiao Yuan, can this dream be interpreted?"
Li Zhiyuan shook his head and took a sip of the noodle soup: "I don’t interpret dreams."
"Oh, right, this dream is too fanciful. You, you just want to get rich so badly. With your family’s condition being so good, why are you still so eager for money?"
"Maybe I was frightened from being extorted before, afraid of getting beaten if I couldn’t come up with money."
Li Zhiyuan continued to eat his noodles, head low. Actually, he could interpret dreams. Compared to face reading and fortune-telling, dream interpretation was just a basic and low-end task.
Because most "daytime thoughts lead to nighttime dreams," it was easy to follow and interpret.
Apart from a very few cases, those were genuinely heartfelt.