Shuangling: Braving the Rapids

In the science teaching and research office of Grade 11 at Yanghe No.1 High School, Qin Yuechuan walked up to his homeroom teacher with his head down and said in a hoarse voice, "Teacher Guo, I would like to ask for leave. My nose has been bothering me for the past few days."

Guo Xiaogang was grading papers at his desk when he finally looked up after finishing the last stroke with his red pen. He glanced at the student through the gap between his glasses and nose, noticing the student's puffy eyes and two wads of cotton stuffed in their nostrils. He frowned and said, "What's wrong? Is your rhinitis acting up again?"

The newly appointed young homeroom teacher didn't interact with Yue Chuan much. If Zhou Wenyao hadn't specifically instructed him before retiring due to illness, he wouldn't have known that the student in front of him had rhinitis.

"I don't know, it might be a cold..." Yue Chuan replied in a muffled voice.

"Wait a moment, I'll get you something." After saying that, Guo Xiaogang rummaged through the drawer for a while. "Teacher Zhou left a bottle of special medicine before he left, saying to use it when you have an attack."

Clutching the cold medicine bottle, Yue Chuan's throat tightened slightly. Even in his advanced age, Teacher Zhou still cared for him; how could he not be moved?

Seeing that the student was still not moving, Guo Xiaogang tapped the mountain of homework: "Take your medicine twice a day on time. The National Mathematical Olympiad is just around the corner. If you can keep it up, don't take leave. Good results in the preliminary round don't guarantee a win in the final. There's no room for luck on this path to university admission."

Although he had promised Teacher Zhou to focus on nurturing Yue Chuan, Guo Xiaogang was simply overwhelmed with his heavy teaching load and numerous students. His superiors all urged him to learn from Teacher Zhou, but he knew full well that if he treated every student like Zhou Wenyao did, he'd probably end up in the ICU too.

Seemingly remembering Teacher Zhou's advice, Guo Xiaogang pushed the homework aside and earnestly advised, "I know you're under a lot of pressure. How about this, I'll talk to the other teachers later and temporarily suspend all classes except math, including physical education. You need to be prepared to burn your bridges. Only by achieving a good ranking in the National Olympiad can you get into a top university without taking the college entrance exam. You should understand these principles, right?"

Compared to Teacher Zhou's tutoring strategy of balancing work and rest and promoting all-round development, Teacher Guo's approach was much more aggressive. To be fair, his initial intention wasn't wrong; he simply wanted to increase Yue Chuan's chances of being recommended for university admission by applying pressure.

Throughout high school, students can only participate in the National Mathematical Olympiad a maximum of two times. If they miss the opportunity and fail to win a medal, they can only take the national unified examination like ordinary students. In a province like Anhui, where the college entrance examination is highly competitive, even with excellent grades, failing to rank among the top 300 in the province basically guarantees a place in a top university—and being among the top students out of hundreds of thousands is no easy feat!

Comparatively, leveraging his strengths to gain admission through competitions would be more suitable for Yue Chuan. However, everything has its advantages and disadvantages. Sacrificing other subjects to prepare for the International Mathematical Olympiad is a risky, all-or-nothing strategy. Although he boasts the title of mathematical genius, Yue Chuan is not a machine. Even a bowstring stretched too taut will break, let alone a living person.

From childhood, Yue Chuan had always trusted his homeroom teacher implicitly, but this time, he couldn't fully accept Mr. Guo's advice. Perhaps due to his rebellious phase, he suddenly felt manipulated. How to put it? He felt like a wind-up toy, a thought that made the boy feel increasingly depressed.

As Yue Chuan walked out of the teaching and research office, he shook his head vigorously to try to dispel distracting thoughts, but the increasingly severe headache made it impossible for him to continue studying, so he simply returned to his dormitory early.

He swallowed the pills his teacher gave him, pulled the covers over his head, and lay down, but the churning stomach made him restless. Feeling unwell, he couldn't sleep soundly. He dreamt again of the madwoman on the back mountain who had lost her only son. This time, she not only had a mouthful of yellow teeth and looked like a ghost, but she also relentlessly pursued him, screaming the name "Ding Zhiyuan." In the end, cornered at the edge of a cliff, he had no choice but to jump, barely escaping death.

He woke up from the dream, his whole body soaked in sweat. Yue Chuan wiped the sweat from his face and found more than a dozen small bumps. Acne was nothing unusual, but it was the first time so many had appeared overnight.

After searching the entire dormitory, he finally found a small mirror. The dark, thin face covered in acne scars in the mirror seemed unfamiliar even to Yue Chuan. At that moment, the boy inexplicably thought of the handsome Kong Tao, and the comparison made him feel even more ashamed of himself.

If he hadn't met that rich young man driving a Crown sedan, he might still be dreaming of "a toad wanting to eat swan meat." But ever since he understood his relationship with Li Baihui, his fantasy was completely shattered. He was inferior to her in appearance and knowledge, and now that Li Baihui had transferred to the South Campus to major in humanities, even his advantage of being "close to the source" had vanished.

Pshaw, what advantage do they have? There's a huge chasm between them.

Perhaps due to excessive mental stress, or perhaps due to the chaotic thoughts arising from illness, Yue Chuan, for the first time ever, wanted to chat with someone. He naturally thought of his cousin, but ultimately dismissed the idea: ever since his uncle partnered with Lao Chengxi in the mining business, the relationship between the two families had become increasingly strained. Qin Laishun's deliberate distancing from his two younger cousins ​​had also affected Yue Chuan's friendship with Qin Shoufeng. Furthermore, witnessing his second cousin's secret rendezvous with her lover at a car wash had left him resentful. Now, the two cousins, living on different campuses and no longer eating together, were no longer as close as they once were.

Illness eroded his spirits, and his depressed mood worsened his condition. Unexpectedly, a common cold completely overwhelmed the boy. With a high fever, Yue Chuan had no choice but to ask Teacher Guo for leave again. After several transfers, he dragged his exhausted body onto a bumpy minibus back to his hometown…

Seeing her son's haggard appearance, Ding Lingfang felt extremely distressed, but she herself was also chronically ill and didn't even have the strength to take her child to the hospital. In desperation, she found some traditional Chinese medicine to dispel the cold for her son. Although it didn't cure his illness completely, Yuechuan's symptoms were somewhat relieved.

During his recovery at home, Yue Shan, the younger sister, only "bothered" Yue Chuan once, and was yelled at half to death by her brother for that one time. Yue Shan cried bitterly and could only run to her mother while shouting "bad brother".

This time, Ding Lingfang didn't stand up for her youngest daughter. She knew her son was unwell and in a bad mood, so why would she scold him at this critical moment?

"Chuan'er, although I'm worried you'll catch a cold, it's not good for you to stay at home all the time. Here's what we'll do: wear something warm and go deliver food to Huang Er. If you don't mind getting dirty, play with it for a while, just to clear your head."

Huang Er is a puppy born to Ah Huang and Ma Xiangju's dog, Xiao Hei. It is about six or seven months old by dog ​​age. It inherited Ah Huang's yellowish-brown fur, except for a raindrop-shaped black hair between its eyebrows, which adds to its cuteness.

They say love extends to everything connected to someone, but Yue Chuan was unusually cold towards Huang Er. Perhaps it was because he remembered Ah Huang's tragic death; he dared not invest any more feelings in Huang Er, fearing that he might suddenly lose her again one day. If this was destined to be the case, then it was better to keep his distance to avoid another heartbreak.