Chapter Twenty-Six: The Kailai Inn

  The small grocery store at the entrance still has a snack stall with fried potatoes, and the sunlight still shines down at an angle of 75 degrees every day during this time period. The newly built teaching building stands in front of me, and the grandeur that I remembered is now ordinary in my eyes. It's like when you return to your elementary school after graduating from high school, you feel that the walls that seemed so tall when you were young are now just a jump away.

  This is my alma mater, where I spent my junior and senior high school years. However, after the new semester starts, it's likely that he won't show up here again.

  Back in the classroom, many people were already absent. Teacher Xiao Zhou was distributing report cards and Su Can seemed to have arrived relatively late. There were only a few people scattered around the room. As soon as he appeared, Teacher Xiao Zhou couldn't help but pull him over and gave his neck a heavy slap, causing Su Can to grimace in pain. However, he knew his young teacher's temperament - although rough around the edges, with a tendency to use corporal punishment on students who didn't hand in their homework or caused trouble, at heart he was still kind.

  Teacher Xiao Zhou now has a look of measuring the monster, looking up and down at Su Can, then handing over the transcript in his hand. "Wow! How did you do it, 645! In my opinion, you are the biggest dark horse in our class for three years!"

  Mr. Xiao Zhou was not surprised, and even when he first got this transcript, he was shocked to the core. The highest score in the class was Tang Wei, 670 points, followed by the student who ranked tenth in the usual ranking, with only 610 points, while Su Can, this kid, scored an astonishing 645 points in one go, which put him in fifth place in the class. It's hard to imagine that a student who usually ranks around 30 or 40 in the class suddenly made it into the top five with one effort. Mr. Xiao Zhou was busy rubbing the back of Su Can's neck, which he had slapped earlier, and in his eyes, Su Can was now incredibly talented, those ordinary-looking eyes now seemed to be full of wisdom and vitality. He was very worried that his earlier excitement might have damaged this brilliant brain.

  At this moment, Su Can knew that among the few classmates who had just arrived at the classroom to receive their report cards and were usually hovering around the middle level of grades, there was one who had just stepped out of the door but immediately froze. Su Can could feel the gaze of these classmates in the classroom, all of whom regarded him as a monster.

  Regardless of gender, everyone who came to take photos wore white shirts with school uniforms. Su Can was extremely nostalgic for this scene. The girls' faces all had a few points of tender redness. Tang Yu was undoubtedly the focus of the audience, and she was also the center point of all the girls in the class. According to memories after picking up the notification book after graduating from junior high school, Tang Yu actually went out to dinner with some girls in the class for the last time. That was also Tang Yu's last gathering with her junior high school classmates. At that time, many boys were drunk and knew that their three-year pursuit of Tang Yu had also fallen through.

  Even some people went straight to No. 1 Middle School after high school, which is already a legendary sequel to Tang Yu's story.

  When taking pictures, Tang Yu was just in front of him, and Teacher Xiao Zhou's excitement about Su Can, the black horse, was also dampened by the fact that a top student he valued highly performed poorly this time, so most of his thoughts were on this, and he didn't promote Su Can to others. However, when assigning photo positions, he still arranged for Su Can to be in the center of the lens.

  This was unexpected, in the impression of Su Can's junior high school graduation photo, he was still on the edge of the photo, inconspicuous, and when the lights flashed, he even closed his eyes, so that later countless junior high school classmates opened the photo one by one to match the names, Su Can's appearance always made people forget who he was.

  And at this moment, Su Can's eyes were wide open, with a confident smile. When the shutter closed, the swaying tree shadows had just swept across his white shirt. On the film negative, a handsome and sunny boy with bright big eyes was frozen in time.

  Got the graduation certificate and set a date to return to school to pick up the composite photo with Xiao Zhou teacher, the last days of junior high school also ended in disappointment.

  Tang Yu, walking ahead of herself, was chatting with the beautiful twin sisters Cheng Yun and Cheng Lan. At this moment, she turned her head around, and those perfectly arched eyes scanned towards Su Can before calmly saying, "There's a dinner gathering later, aren't you coming?"

  Cheng Yun and Cheng Lan looked at Tang Yu in surprise, this dinner was originally organized by the two of them, they had already persuaded Tang Yu to join with great difficulty, so naturally the atmosphere would be more lively. Just now, several core male students in the class had asked to add Tang Yu, but before she could respond, she suddenly turned around and asked about Su Can who was walking behind them.

  Su Can usually stays on the edge of their circle, with poor grades and not being a sports-type boy popular among girls. But this time, he unexpectedly received an invitation from Tang Yu, leaving Cheng Yun and Cheng Lan speechless for quite some time. However, the two women were secretly relieved, as it seemed that Tang Yu had indirectly acknowledged her attendance at their organized graduation dinner.

  They can't think too much, if it's said that Tang Yu has taken a liking to Su Can, it's almost impossible. Tang Yu is the kind of girl with extremely high standards, let alone she will definitely attend First Middle School in the new semester, and whether Su Can can stay at Third Middle School is unknown. The gap between the two people is huge, if it's said that Tang Yu has a crush on Su Can, they estimate that they would immediately go jump into the river.

  Su Can looked at Tang Yu's bright eyes, his heart skipped a beat. The class leader, who was originally cold and proud, actually invited him to dinner voluntarily. This was undoubtedly a fantasy that he didn't dare to think about before. However, Su Can knew that Tang Yu's inner thoughts were delicate, far from being as cold as her appearance. She probably thought that they would really not see each other again in the future, and felt slightly reluctant. This made Su Can feel amused. He shook his head and said politely, "I still have things to do at home, you guys go ahead, have fun, congratulations on your graduation!"

  The three girls were stunned, especially Cheng Lan and Cheng Yun, their mouths agape in incredulity. This graduation dinner had many star-level boys from the class, such as Dong Qingyun, Gao Xiaoshan, Liao Hai, and others, all vying to attend, let alone a personal invitation from Tang Yu. And yet, Su Can actually refused, this kid was really quite different from the rest.

  Tang Yu's soft "oh" was accompanied by no discernible emotional fluctuations, only a hint of discontent and slight loss in the depths of her eyes.

  Perhaps this graduation represents different destinies and paths for people in the future, scattered all over the world, never to be seen again.

  Life is often like this, no time to be sorrowful.

  ····

  Kailai Hotel. At that time, BMW and Mercedes-Benz were not common in Xia Hai City, and slightly better cars were just Honda Accord, Buick, Volkswagen, Ford, etc., even the top-level Kailai Hotel in Xia Hai City had only Accords and Passat B4s parked at the entrance.

  This morning, my parents, Zeng Ke and Su Licheng, moved the containers in front of the door. The interior decoration of the door is also ready, the hardware facilities are complete, and the rest is just waiting for the goods to enter, and the day when the official business operation starts.

  The old couple, full of energy and vitality, entered the Kayla Hotel with Su Can. The doorman's expression was particularly rich, clearly thinking that the two were some kind of big shots.

  The hotel lobby was grand and luxurious, and at a table in the hall, relatives were already seated. There were Second Uncle, Second Aunt, Younger Brother Zeng Yuan, Older Sister Zeng Na, and Aunt-in-law were all present. As soon as Su Can's family arrived, everyone immediately showed a smiling face. Usually, their tardiness would inevitably make Second Aunt-in-law and Older Sister frown, but today they seemed to be in high spirits. Aunt Yin Shuying even walked out from the table, welcoming Older Mother Zeng Ke, "Ah, now you two can finally relax! Oh, your son Su Can is a good kid, he's quite impressive for a young man!"

  The small family of Zao Ding, who had just arrived at the table, looked a bit puzzled by the enthusiastic and excited behavior of their sister-in-law, Yin Shuying. They didn't understand what was going on either - what exactly made Zeng Ke and Su Licheng feel relieved?

  Su Can's college entrance examination, Zeng Ke only called his eldest uncle's family to report the good news at that time. As for his younger uncle, he might hope to hear more about how much profit his company made and distributed.

  The little brother on the table still has a mentality of being used as a shield by his older brother, and this time's final exam results are extremely poor. Today, he came here relying on Xuzhan to back him up, believing that Xuzhan's grades wouldn't be much better either. If others were to criticize, they would probably just take it out on him, so he was quite interested, but looking at the situation, it seemed not quite right.

  How could Jeon Na, who had always looked down on Soo Chan with disdain, have such a strange expression on her face at this time, sizing him up and down as if she was seeing him for the first time.

  Xiao Shu's husband, Zeng Zhao Ding, was extremely good at observing people's expressions. He took a glance at his aunt and Su Can's family, whose attitudes had changed greatly, and said, "What's going on? The shop is opening up so soon?"

  "It's all small matters!" Aunt smiled with excitement, looking genuinely happy for Su Can, "Su Can's middle school exam results are out, you won't believe how high she scored!"

  Xiao Shu's husband, Zeng Zhao Ding, hummed softly, "Oh, no, it's come down to this, has it? You've taken so many exams, and now you're taking the third middle school exam?" He too was moved by the celebratory atmosphere at this moment, and his tone became somewhat more relaxed.

  "It's not just about getting into the third best school, with this score, even the first best school is no problem." The big uncle who had been silent all along lost his usual composure and spoke up first, then muttered to himself, "645 points, your score is more than 20 points higher than Zeng Na's back then..."

  =====

  I hope brothers will recommend and collect more! Auburg is grateful!