Chapter Seventeen: Parents

  It's actually simple to like someone: when she's happy, you'll smile too; when she's sad, you'll be sad all day.

  "It's really fast, this semester is almost over." The day after the exam, Ouyang said to Mais, who was playing on the computer at home. "How did you do on the exam? You came back late yesterday and I didn't even ask you."

  Mais replied, still staring at the computer screen, "It's okay, anyway, I'm more confident than during the mid-term exams. How about you?"

  Ouyang walked into the kitchen, grabbed a can of Coke, and said, "I'm just so-so. What I'm really concerned about is our new house. Grandma said it's going to be at least twice as big as our current one, with three rooms."

  Mais' fingers flew across the keyboard. "That's great! Now I'll have a place to stay when I come over to play. Do you think your dad will move in there?"

  Ouyang asked nonchalantly, "I don't think so, that would be too inconvenient." Mais seemed to be afraid of his father.

  "Your house is almost done, right?" Ouyang nodded and said, "Yeah, it's almost finished. Your house probably won't be renovated until the end of next semester, but mine will be ready by the start of next semester. However, I don't think we can move in yet, it might not be good for our health."

  "Let's not talk about this, I'm going to play basketball later." Mais turned his head and said to Ouyang, who also wanted to go out for a walk, so he agreed. The two brothers went out and first went to the leisure square to stroll around, which was the location of Ouyang's original elementary school. It has been renovated and now looks quite nice. According to their mother, every evening, middle-aged and elderly people come here to dance, chat, play table tennis, and so on. However, during the day, there are still relatively few people.

  In the afternoon, Ouyang and Mais played basketball at the sports stadium in District D for a whole afternoon, sweating profusely. After returning home, Ouyang took a comfortable shower. In the evening, his mother made sugar vinegar ribs, but Ouyang thought they were not done well. Actually, Ouyang had always wanted to tell his mother that since Grandma was here, she shouldn't cook anymore, but he was afraid of hurting her enthusiasm, so he never said anything.

  Feng Hongyan, on the other hand, thought that her cooking was fine and became more interested in cooking. In fact, Ouyang's favorite food is still his eldest aunt's cooking. In previous years during Chinese New Year and other festivals, his eldest uncle's family would come to their old house, and Grandma and his mother would help out in the kitchen. His mother's cooking was too salty, Grandma's cooking had no flavor, but his eldest aunt's cooking was just right, not too salty or bland.

  However, this year they will be celebrating Chinese New Year at home, and Ouyang doesn't know how it will turn out.

  As she was thinking about these things, Feng Hongyan said to Ouyang: "How is it going? When will the school release the results? Your school's efficiency should be pretty fast, right?" Ouyang rolled his eyes and said: "It's on the 13th that we go back to school, then there's a parents' meeting on the 14th, and on the 15th, it's officially summer break. I think you should come with me to pick out a cell phone first, that goal shouldn't be a problem." Unexpectedly, Feng Hongyan said: "Alright, today is Thursday, so let's go on Saturday." "Uh, but the scores haven't come out yet, Auntie," Ma Si said with a mischievous grin after glancing at Ouyang. Ouyang had always been resentful that when Ma Si was in first grade, his uncle had bought him a cell phone, and Ouyang thought this phone was directly related to his poor grades.

  Feng Hongyan smiled and patted Ou Yang's head, saying: "He worked very hard during the finals, not just in his daily life but also during the holidays. I've seen all of this with my own eyes, so his goal should be achievable. Even if he can't achieve it, seeing how hard he's working, I'll buy it for him anyway. However, as we agreed, you only get 50 yuan of phone credit per month." Ou Yang was overjoyed when he heard his mother say this and ate two bowls of rice that night, a rare occurrence.

  That night, Ouyang eagerly logged onto QQ and told Xu Yuejie about the matter. Before Ouyang could even ask a question, Xu Yuejie listed out several phone models suitable for boys, along with their pros and cons. Ouyang suddenly felt a sense of relief and, based on Xu Yuejie's recommendation, chose a phone that wasn't too expensive but was a great value. Then, Xu Yue told Ouyang to send him a text message after buying the phone card, and Ouyang agreed.

  After chatting with Xu Yuejie, Ouyang wanted to share the good news with his friends. Wang Lin responded jokingly, "Anyway, you won't be using the phone to call me, so why tell me?" Xu Xue Mei only said congratulations before continuing to watch her movie. Classmate Chen Juan seemed to be in a bad mood, and when Ouyang asked her what was wrong, she mentioned that it was because they were going to get a new class teacher.

  Looking at the clock, it was already 8 pm. Ouyang got up and went to the kitchen to grab some fruit. As soon as he entered the kitchen, he saw his mother's silhouette on the balcony. "Mom, what are you doing?" Feng Hongyan's silhouette looked a bit worn out, but she didn't turn around when she heard Ouyang call her. Instead, she said, "Son, come here." Ouyang walked towards his mother and stood beside her. Feng Hongyan pointed to the distant hill and said, "You know, every day when you come home late from school, I stand here and watch you walk up the hill."

  Ouyang smiled and said, "I won't get lost, so don't stand here anymore; it's too cold." Feng Hongyan sighed and asked, "Do you think our current life is happy?" Ouyang was puzzled and replied, "Why ask that?" Feng Hongyan said, "It's just that your father rarely comes home, and I'm worried you might feel uncomfortable."

  Ouyang shook his head and said, "It's fine; it's been like this since primary school started. I've gotten used to it." Feng Hongyan gazed into the distance, lost in thought. In reality, Ouyang didn't know that his mother was the one who felt uncomfortable.

  Back in the room, Ouyang was still thinking about what his mother had asked him earlier. Maisie was sitting on the bed playing with her phone. Ouyang asked, "Hey, do you ever think about your parents when you're not busy?" Maisie looked up at Ouyang and said, "What's the point of thinking about them? It won't do any good, so I don't think about it. I'd rather think about my grandma." Ouyang didn't ask any more questions after hearing Maisie's response. Just then, his QQ beeped. Could there be someone else who hadn't been notified yet?

  "Hey, that's not fair! 'Ou Yang Chen Xi, you're not even telling me when you're going to buy a new phone?"

  "No, wasn't I going to tell you after I finished dealing with the phone number?"

  "This is pretty good, you seem to have done well on your exam. Your mom was so happy that she immediately bought a cell phone for you."

  "That's necessary, I'm clever now."

  "Alright, don't boast about it for two sentences and then pant, I'll wait for your message the day after tomorrow. By the way, give me my phone number..."

  "Oh, okay."

  After chatting with Mu Yuhan, Ouyang cleaned up and went to bed. He really wanted it to be Saturday immediately.

  On Saturday, Feng Hongyan took Ouyang to choose that phone. Since it was his first phone, Ouyang held onto it tightly and wouldn't let go. As for the phone number, Feng Hongyan told Ouyang that she had an unused number from before and gave it to him to use. However, she also warned Ouyang that since the SIM card was registered under her name, if he spent too much on calls, whoever made the calls would be traceable through her ID. Ouyang didn't think that far ahead and simply agreed. Feng Hongyan smiled with relief as she saw Ouyang holding the phone, looking both excited and pleased.

  Afternoon back home, Ouyang told the person who knew his number about his phone. However, a strange thing happened when he sent several text messages to Wang Lin and found that he couldn't receive any more messages. No matter what information he sent to Wang Lin, there was no response. So Ouyang made a call and later understood that the message box had limited storage capacity and some messages needed to be deleted to accept new ones. Because of this, Wang Lin teased Ouyang for not reading the manual carefully.

  Xu Yuejie's reaction was similar to Mu Yuhan's, both people seemed especially happy about having mobile phones. Of course, Ouyang still cared more about Xu Yuejie's feelings. Xu Yuejie was particularly happy and said that after Ouyang got a phone, she could find him anytime. Ouyang was also very happy.

  Just as Ouyang was chatting with Xu Yuejie, he received an inexplicable text message saying "You're quite bold, daring to scheme against me. This semester is over, let's see what happens next semester." Without thinking, this number belonged to Zhao Junyi. But how did he get his own number? Forget it, Ouyang rubbed his head and didn't think about it anymore.

  That night, Ouyang played with the phone until after 11 pm. Then Mais said it was too bright, so Ouyang reluctantly turned off the phone and went to sleep.

  Time flies, and before he knew it, the day of announcing the results had arrived. On this day, Ouyang arrived at school very early, not because he wanted to, but because the commute time was fixed, and since there were no classes that day, the arrival time was set later than usual. When Ouyang arrived at his classroom, he found that most of his classmates were already there. As expected, students from urban areas still attach great importance to academic results. Ouyang listened in on the conversations in the classroom and found that they were mainly discussing two topics: one was the results of the final exam, and the other was about Teacher Liu's departure and Teacher Luan's takeover. Ouyang caught wind of some rumors, roughly that Teacher Luan was a retired teacher from Fengmao Middle School with great prestige, belonging to the respected and revered type of old times. However, judging from his classmates' reactions, they still seemed to prefer younger teachers. "Cough." The sound of Pan's cough came from the doorway, and the classroom instantly fell silent. Pan walked up to the podium and said, "Teacher Liu is starting her maternity leave today, and before Teacher Luan takes over, I will be hosting this semester's results announcement and parent-teacher conference. Now, let's announce the results. First place... Xu Xue Mei. Math 117, Chinese 112, English 117." Classmates looked at Xu Xue Mei with admiring eyes, and Ouyang suddenly discovered that even Xu Xue Mei could be shy. She smiled slightly and then lowered her head.

  Then Mr. Pan continued to announce the ranking, and Ouyang was also estimating his score and ranking in his heart, thinking that he might not be able to get into the top 10, anyway, the phone had already been won, as long as it wasn't worse than last time.

  Ouyang was unexpectedly surprised that Zhou Feng's score was actually 7th place. Ouyang clearly remembered that during the mid-term exam, Zhou Feng was just a student outside of the top 20, it seems he also put in a lot of effort.

  As expected, Ou Yang's name was not among the top ten. He felt his heart beating faster and faster. The ranking he had promised his mother was within the top 15. What if he wasn't in the top 15? Or would his mother confiscate his phone? Then, Ou Yang listened carefully to Pan teacher announcing the rankings...