The flow of water on the paper, the transparency of the watercolors, the distant haze blended into the water, the stark contrast of deep and light colors in the foreground, and the highlights not made with white paint but rather the gaps left by the avoidance of the brush.
These breathable white spaces made the painting, veiled in mist, breathe.
The colors seemed to roll in the flowing water, trickling into her heart.
Hua Jie suddenly smiled.
She stared at the painting and laughed for a while, then hurriedly sat back down and began to copy the second painting.
Immersed in the beautiful imagery, the techniques she had momentarily forgotten naturally manifested under her brush, the soft brush sometimes soaked with water, sometimes dry, just touching the paint, sweeping broadly and outlining silently in fine detail.
When she looked up again, 45 minutes had passed.
Thus, what was supposed to be an hour of drawing time extended into two hours.
Hua’s mother had just prepared the filling for the buns, and the dough had risen, ready to be shaped into buns for her daughter’s breakfast the next morning.
Seeing Hua Jie immersed in her studies and painting, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of heartache.
Before high school, when she came home from school, she would dawdle over her homework and then cling to watching TV.
Suddenly grown up, she was putting in hard work to study, and her mother was still not quite used to it.
Not only that…
Even her husband, who usually fought with her over the TV remote, had been busy all day doing carpentry at home, and continued working in the yard at night without rest.
She placed a plate of fried potato balls on the table, untouched.
Sitting in front of the TV, she nibbled on sunflower seeds for a while, feeling suddenly lonely, she turned off the TV and got up to start cleaning the house and doing laundry.
So, when Hua Jie took a break to go to the restroom and get some water, she found her dad making furniture and her mom tidying up the house.
Standing by the kettle, a smile unconsciously spread across her face.
Everyone was putting in their effort for a more comfortable present and a better future.
After fetching her dad’s water bottle from the yard and refilling it with warm water, she wrapped herself in her down jacket and went out again.
Crouching down, she began to play with the components her father had prepared.
Many pieces were already very smooth, having been sanded down multiple times.
“Tomorrow we can start painting,” her father said as he assembled several tenon-and-mortise structure components, sanded them down again, processed the parts he had meticulously carved during the day, and then set them aside.
“So beautiful,” Hua Jie stroked the carved auspicious clouds, loving them immensely.
“Don’t mess around,” her father rearranged several components and assembled them into a solid wood double sofa, “Tomorrow we’ll reinforce and paint it, and then it’ll be finished. This piece with carvings is the most difficult one; the others are simpler and will go faster.”
“Dad is really amazing,” Hua Jie smiled as she stood up. In this era in small towns, secure jobs are revered, but her dad really had a talent for carpentry and could potentially earn much more.
“Heh,” her father smiled modestly, but it was evident he was in high spirits.
Everyone has a need to realize their self-worth.
Engaging in what one is good at, continuously receiving positive feedback from society, experiencing a sense of achievement, and succeeding—these are what truly bring inner happiness.
She still remembered in her previous life, when she graduated from college, her father’s eyes had already lost their youthful sparkle.
Worn down by life, he had lost the spirit of his youth, believing he was strong and unique. His vitality drained away along the wrinkles on his face, turning him into a somber middle-aged man.
In this life, she hoped her father would retain his childlike innocence, still possessing the playfulness of a young man.
Smiling when praised, spending the night not watching TV or sleeping, but enthusiastically working with wood in the yard, his face radiating satisfaction with himself and the joy of having successfully made a solid wood sofa.
Suddenly feeling tender-hearted, as if possessed, she actually reached out and touched her father’s head.
When she touched his somewhat naturally curly short hair and felt the cool, soft texture, she was startled.
!!!
What was she doing?
Sure enough, the next moment her father glared at her.
Brushing away her unruly hand, he stood up straight and glared fiercely at her.
“…” Driven by a long-standing instinctive reverence for her father, Hua Jie tensed up.
Her father raised his hand but didn’t strike her arm. After glaring at her for a while, he suddenly let out a resigned, bitter smile, “It’s only because you’re my daughter. If it were anyone else, I would’ve killed them.”
After saying this, he stroked his short hair and muttered, “My head, even your grandmother isn’t allowed to touch it.”
“…” Hua Jie was stunned.
A few seconds later, she suddenly started laughing, louder and louder.
Then she couldn’t hold back anymore and threw herself onto her father’s back, hugging his neck.
Just as her father was bending down to continue working, he was startled, dropped the wood, and slapped his daughter’s back twice.
“We’re working here! What kind of behavior is this, go stand by the wall, behave!”
Hua Jie was forcibly pushed away by her father and made to stand in the corner.
But she still couldn’t stop laughing; her dad was just too adorable.
Her father worked for a while longer, then turned around to see his daughter still not leaving. He took a drink of water and casually asked her:
“How much are you paying a month to learn painting with Shen Mo’s father?”
“The teacher thinks I paint well, so he doesn’t charge me,” Hua Jie proudly said.
“Tsks, my daughter is quite impressive,” Hua’s father commented as he continued to work on the wood strip.
“Hehe,” Hua Jie chuckled. That was certainly the case.
“Shen Mo’s dad is really a nice person, isn’t he? How many students does he have?”
“Including me, four.”
“That doesn’t sound like much money per month; must be tough,” Hua’s father glanced at her, viewing Shen Jiaru as someone who loved teaching so much he’d do it for little to no income, a truly benevolent person willing to live modestly.
“No wonder Shen Mo enjoys eating at our place so much; he probably doesn’t get to eat well normally,” Hua’s mother joined the conversation as she came out to see what the father and daughter were up to.
“Exactly,” Hua’s father set aside the strip he was working on and began cutting another piece.
“…” Hua Jie.
How could she explain to her parents that the teacher was only not charging her?
He still charges the other students, and supposedly, the fees are quite high.
Moreover, he doesn’t need to teach apprentices; just selling his paintings alone makes Shen’s family extremely wealthy…
…
After chatting with her parents for a while, she returned to her room. It was already 11 PM.
She spread out her physics test paper and started her second subject of the closed-book exam.
Hua’s parents were getting ready to sleep, and upon seeing their daughter still studying, they couldn’t help but feel a bit heartbroken.
Hua’s mother knocked on the door, suggesting she go to sleep earlier since she had classes the next day.
Hua Jie, without looking up, said she would sleep soon and continued writing.
Hua’s mother had no choice but to close her daughter’s door and boiled a pot of water for her before going to sleep herself.
“If she doesn’t study well, I get angry. But when she works this hard, I feel pained,” Hua’s mother sighed as she undressed and climbed into bed.
“It’s good she’s diligent. A young person who doesn’t strive hard will end up a carpenter when old,” Hua’s father quickly undressed, pulling off his sweater, undershirt, and vest in one go, then pushing down his trousers, long johns, and thermal pants altogether.
In a matter of moments, he was stripped down and slid under the covers.
Hua’s mother was still methodically unbuttoning her trousers.
“She’s really capable now, not only selling paintings to classmates to make money, but some are even ordering furniture from her. I don’t know which classmate trusts her so much,” Hua’s mother finally finished undressing and slid into the warm bed heated by the stove below—so comfortable.
“Probably they saw the picture frame I made for her desk mate. Your daughter must have bragged quite a bit. But it’s fine, my work is good, so those who buy the furniture won’t be at a loss,” Hua’s father turned over, ready to start snoring.
Hua’s mother hummed in response, stretched out her arm, and clicked off the light.
…
Hua Jie found the physics test paper slower to complete than the math one. In her past life, her main subjects had been language, math, and foreign languages, which she excelled in, so it was relatively easier for her to pick these back up after being reborn.
But other subjects were not so easy. Despite putting in a lot of effort in physics and having Shen Mo help with tutoring, she was still not quite satisfied with her performance.
Completing the test paper took longer than the planned one hour.
After a short break, she set aside her test paper and spent another 45 minutes copying a drawing, then organized and summarized her work, finding it improved over the last attempt.
At 1:15 AM, Hua Jie drank some water and, gritting her teeth, washed her face with cold water to keep awake and continued with the Chinese language paper.
The test papers for these subjects, which she had selected from the exercises distributed at school, were not easy and covered a comprehensive range of knowledge points.
Doing them well would essentially reflect her learning progress over the past two months, so they required serious effort.
The Chinese paper went smoother than expected.
She had discovered that using her adult cognitive abilities to study humanities subjects made things easier.
For all poetry and textbook content, her approach was to first understand, read through, analyze, clarify the logic, then recount it as if telling a story before correcting the details for memorization.
She also discovered a learning method that suited her better—
Integrating all the content into visual images in her mind, using these visual memories to support textual recall.
This approach made it much easier to tackle easily confused geography topics, memorization of Chinese texts, and more.
Chinese language multiple-choice questions, including phonetics, idioms, sentence formation, and translation, were surprisingly easy for her.
She was confident about getting the grammar basics correct right away, filling in poetry blanks was no issue, and she excelled at reading comprehension.
She left the essay section blank for now, but that part wouldn’t be a problem either.
The moment she finished, she felt she could score perfectly.
After a short break, she decided to press on while she was ahead. She moved her scheduled hour of drawing to later and picked up her English exam paper to continue.
English was her strong suit. Over the past two months, she had solidified her vocabulary, and she left the listening section blank for now, which was not a problem. After all, having watched countless American TV shows, her ears were quite attuned to English phrases.
Reading comprehension was also not much of an issue. In her previous life, English was perhaps the only subject she hadn’t fallen behind in, and she had even purchased online courses to tackle raw shows directly.
Judgment questions, analysis questions, and anything logic-related were her strengths; her adult comprehension was an advantage.
Leveraging the knowledge from her previous life to make up for any gaps, her results over these two months were quite commendable.
It was almost 3 AM now. Despite feeling exhausted, she was inexplicably exhilarated.
Rubbing her temples, she wrote swiftly.
By the time she finished the English paper, it was 3:25 AM.
After wandering around the room, drinking some water, and visiting the bathroom, she returned to her desk to mark her papers.
Check, check, check, wrong, check, check…
Out of a possible 150 points for mathematics, she scored 129.
Out of 100 points for physics, she scored 89.
For Chinese, with a total of 150 points minus 60 for the essay, giving a maximum of 90 points, she scored 81.
For English, out of a total of 150 points minus 30 for listening, giving a maximum of 120 points, she scored 114.
A few careless mistakes in mathematics, a normal performance in physics, surprisingly not a perfect score in Chinese, and English could still be improved…
Hua Jie looked at her four test papers and suddenly laughed.
No matter what, she had passed them all!
Haha!
Standing up, she spun around the room with her papers, nearly stumbling but managing to steady herself on the chair.
She circled the mistakes, folded the papers neatly into her backpack, and after tidying up, saw it was already 4:10 AM.
Rushing to change and get into bed, she could still manage two hours of sleep—every second counted.
Curling under the blanket, she found the most comfortable position, hummed contentedly, and couldn’t help but laugh again.
Though she had only tested herself with four papers, and even though the midterm exams might be harder, and even though her scores weren’t spectacular, but…
In just two months, using her adult logic, greater self-discipline, focus, and perseverance, she had achieved scores she hardly dared dream of!
She was already very happy!
But… she wondered if she could make it into the top 10 of her class.
With less than 10 days left, she had to keep pushing herself.
She needed to maximize her grades and make her drawings the best they could be.
When sprinting towards a goal one has chosen, moving in the direction one loves, it turns out one can be filled with so much power.
Wearing a weary but gentle smile, the girl gradually drifted into sleep.
…
It felt like Hua Jie had only just touched her pillow when the alarm woke her up.
She turned over in her bed several times, continuously encouraging and convincing herself, before finally struggling out of the cozy warmth.
Rubbing her eyes painfully, she suppressed the urge to cry and complain as she dressed in the slightly chilly air.
While brushing her teeth, she washed her face with cold water to feel a bit more awake.
The bitter fruits of staying up late and the pains of striving arrived, albeit late.
It wasn’t until she ate the large meat buns her mother had steamed that she felt healed.
So delicious!
So tasty!
A culinary delight!
How could it be so fantastic?!
They were so good that she ate three large buns, feeling so full that she waddled a bit as she put on her backpack and headed out the door.
Hugging her backpack, she thought about the test papers inside and couldn’t help but laugh again.
Does one forget pain once they’ve had their fill?
With her Lei Feng hat on and her scarf wrapped tightly, securing her backpack on the back of her bicycle, she followed Bian Hong, facing the wind on the way to school.
The sun shines overhead, Bian Hong smiles at me, the sound of crushing snow says “good morning,” I wear my backpack for my dreams…
That day, Hua Jie went to school with dark circles under her eyes. Despite looking somewhat haggard, she was still cheerfully attending classes.
That day, Bian Ying took a leave of absence.
A few days later, everyone found out that Bian Ying had transferred schools.
Reportedly, she paid a hefty school choice fee to transfer to City No. 2 High School.
Hua Jie’s days at school became even more peaceful.