Chapter 365 Life Outside the Well
After the Waking of Insects, warm spring comes.

Chunlan is sixteen years old and a sophomore in high school.

In the eyes of others, this outstanding girl is probably a carefree rich girl living in the clouds.

However, if we were to describe her real life, it would probably be that her life was both happy and somewhat unsatisfactory. She did not have any major worries, but her young heart was often restless. A day was filled with small successes and joys, but also filled with the worries and sorrows of a young girl.

Things in life are never as we wish.

Perhaps, no matter how sincerely we face life, we can never reach the end of happiness. So-called growth is to have a philosophical perseverance in life.

At noon that day, Chunlan was returning to school after lunch. When she passed the tree-lined path at the football field, she saw her second brother Yunqi and sister Chujian sitting on the lawn of the football field basking in the sun.

Sister Chu Jian was holding a book in her arms. She had no idea what her second brother said. The spring was bright and beautiful, everything was facing the sun, and Sister Chu Jian was smiling happily.

She was looking at it in a trance.

Then, she felt sad again.

In recent days, something has been stirring in her heart.

This was caused by Wang Jinshan.

When she was in junior high school in Longwan Town, she had a special relationship with Wang Jinshan, but their relationship was indeed very simple at that time. It was only later, when they went to Jiangchuan No. 1 Middle School, as the only two students from Longwan Town Middle School who were admitted to the No. 1 Middle School, their relationship naturally deepened.

In Chunlan's heart, she always thought that this kind of relationship was just a deeper friendship beyond classmates. At their age, this was normal. It was just not normal in the eyes of others. Even her second brother thought so vulgarly, and often joked with her about this matter, making her blush.

At the moment, Wang Jinshan’s situation is not very good.

I remember that when Wang Jinshan was in junior high school in Longwan Town, his grades were very good, otherwise he would not have been able to skip the school in Fengyang County and be admitted to the best middle school in the city, Jiangchuan No. 1 Middle School. More importantly, or what really attracted people to this boy was that he not only had good grades, but also played basketball well. He was tall and big, with a sunny and positive personality, and he was considered a celebrity in the town's middle school.

Of course, perhaps this statement is a little ridiculous.

If outstanding students in the small town of Longwan can be called celebrities, then the number of celebrities in No. 1 Middle School is probably too great to be contained even with a basket.

Jiangchuan No. 1 Middle School is not Longwan Town Middle School. Poor students like them who came here from remote areas to study are inferior to their peers in many aspects, not to mention food and clothing. Even the academic performance that they were proud of before seems insignificant in the city's No. 1 Middle School which is full of masters. Not to mention that the teachers in the town have a strong accent, which makes them speak Mandarin poorly and are often ridiculed by their peers in the city.

When the things that you were once proud of become insignificant in the eyes of others, such a huge sense of gap can easily destroy a young person's sensitive and self-respecting heart.

Chunlan could understand Wang Jinshan's change in mentality.

Because they had the same poor background, and her previous poor family was even more miserable, difficult and desperate, she deeply felt the harm that poverty brought to people. But now her life is better, because of her powerful second brother, her family is a wealthy family that everyone envied in Jiangchuan No. 1 Middle School.

Sometimes, she would feel a little vain because of this.

In fact, young men and women of their generation, who grew up in the era of reform and opening up, with rapidly changing ideas and integration with the international community, would not yearn for a petty-bourgeois life?
However, Wang Jinshan is still the poor boy wearing worn-out shoes and tattered clothes.

What is commendable is that Wang Jinshan is a bit like his second brother Zhang Yunqi in some ways. He is very self-respecting and strong-willed. He did not degenerate because of the contempt of his peers. Or perhaps, the reality does not allow him to degenerate.

When he first came to No. 1 Middle School in the city, this young man worked very hard.

Every day before dawn, Wang Jinshan would get up and go to the classroom to study. Except for eating, going to the toilet, and sleeping, he would spend almost the entire day studying hard in his seat. He was oblivious to the world outside and focused on reading the books of sages. This was the standard for a poor student who was working hard to improve himself.

Moreover, apart from Chunlan, Wang Jinshan has no friends in this school. He stays away from all kinds of fun, is not anxious, and lives a simple and pure life.

This is the best state for a person to learn.

Although Wang Jinshan's foundation and learning resources are not as good as those of city students, he has a strong understanding of learning. This understanding is a kind of talent, a strong logical talent that can quickly bypass complex data and equations and see the essence of things.

In fact, there is no shortage of students in schools who study hard but have average grades, because the small number of people who really stand out are often a combination of learning savvy, a pure learning attitude, and diligence.

This is the kind of person I first met.

She was too, and so was Wang Jinshan, who was admitted to Longwan Town Middle School like her.

Therefore, it did not take long for Wang Jinshan's grades to improve. By the end of last year, his grades were already among the top 50 in the school. This should be considered quite rare. As long as he keeps up the good work and keeps working hard, it will not be a big problem for him to pass the college entrance examination and get into a key university.

At that time Chunlan was happy for Wang Jinshan.

The classmates also looked at him with new eyes and began to get close to him. Compared with food and clothing, academic performance is still the most important thing in high school. As long as the grades are good, they will be favored by teachers and classmates. Naturally, Wang Jinshan became more and more popular with the male classmates around him, and he came into contact with more and more people. The classmates who got along well with him would take him out to play on weekends, visiting large shopping malls, billiard rooms, ice rinks, and game halls...

He began to see the colorful world of this city.

There has always been such a prejudice in the world that people who live in a well are very pathetic and ridiculous. What they really don’t know is that a frog in a well can live a very comfortable life.

Rural people have their own happy world. However, for these rural children, the attraction outside the well is huge. There is a bright sun, but also a bottomless quagmire.

Wang Jinshan became addicted to playing games.

At the beginning, he just felt bored staying in the dormitory on weekends, so he went to play with his classmates. Later, he became addicted to it. Whenever he had free time, he would follow a few boys in his class to the game hall near the school. Sometimes, he didn't even come to the evening self-study. This kind of behavior is actually nothing in the No. 1 Middle School in the city. The school is mainly for general students, and the remaining boarding students rely entirely on their own self-discipline, and the teachers basically don't care much. Rural students who have never seen the world and know nothing, and who don't have parents to take care of them, find it difficult to resist the temptations of the city that they have never seen before. Inevitably, Wang Jinshan's grades declined.

Chunlan knew all these things.

This also made her slowly understand a truth: what defeats a young person is never poverty or setbacks, but the envious eyes of peers and the glamorous world of feasting and drinking that she has never been exposed to.

However, she didn't want to see her good friend fall into depravity like this.

This statement may not be quite right. There are many boys in the class who play games. It can be just a part of boys' hobbies, just like basketball and football. It may be too serious to say that it is decadent. However, the reality is cruel. Compared with other students in the school, Wang Jinshan's situation seems to be destined that he cannot have such hobbies.

He needs to study hard. This is his way.

Chunlan has always been a girl with her own ideas. She often knows what she should do. She and Wang Jinshan are good friends, but they are just friends. It seems that all she can do is to give him some kind advice.

However, what Wang Xiaokai said that day made her nervous.

Why did Wang Xiaokai say that? Why did he ask her to stay away from Wang Jinshan?
In class that day, Chunlan was having a hard time concentrating on the lesson. She glanced towards Wang Jinshan's desk. At that moment, Wang Jinshan happened to be looking at her as well.

He saw her looking at him and he smiled.

It was early summer and the sun was shining brightly.

Chunlan's heart skipped a beat and she subconsciously looked away.

After a while, she couldn't help but secretly turn her head to look at Wang Jinshan, and found that Wang Jinshan was already holding a pen and buried in his homework book, writing and calculating, as if he was studying hard.

Chunlan breathed a sigh of relief.

After school in the afternoon, the students dispersed quickly.

The students were rushing home, and the boarders were rushing to the canteen for dinner. Everyone was growing up, and the food in the canteen was bland. After an afternoon of classes, most students were already hungry, and if they went to the canteen late, they would have to wait in line for a long time.

Chunlan hasn't left yet.

She usually goes home after finishing her afternoon homework.

"Chunlan."

Chunlan heard someone calling her, looked up, and saw Wang Jinshan coming over with a math workbook. She was stunned for a moment, a little surprised: "What's wrong?"

Wang Jinshan sat down on the chair in front of Chunlan, turned around and spread out the exercise book, and said with a smile: "There is a question I can't answer, can you explain it to me?"

Chunlan was a little uncomfortable. Wang Jinshan hadn't talked to her about study for a long time. Sometimes when they had the chance to chat, Chunlan advised him to focus on his studies, but he just went along with it.

Chunlan asked, "What's the question?" After a pause, she said, "By the way, why don't you go to dinner?"

"I'm not hungry now. Let's go after I finish my homework." Wang Jinshan pointed to the questions in the exercise book with a pen.

Chunlan looked at the exercise book. This was a trigonometric function problem that she had just finished in self-study class. She picked up a pen and wrote on the paper while explaining it. Wang Jinshan listened very carefully. He was also very comprehensible in learning and understood it quickly. However, he did not leave after asking the question. Instead, he sat next to him and started doing his homework.

Chunlan didn't say much, but she would occasionally look up at Wang Jinshan who was sitting in front of her while doing her homework.

About half an hour later, Wang Jinshan suddenly turned around and asked, "Have you finished your homework?"

Chunlan nodded: "Almost."

Wang Jinshan smiled and said, "Well, do you want to go to the cafeteria to eat together?"

Chunlan was stunned for a moment.

At this time, she remembered Wang Xiaokai's words: Stay away from Wang Jinshan.

After a while, she nodded to Wang Jinshan.

******
pls. Sort out your thoughts, start over, the curtain will rise.

(End of this chapter)