Chapter 33: New Year's Day

  Although I knew it was the final exam, the atmosphere of New Year's Day holiday was still very pleasant.

  The New Year's Day is a three-day holiday, and with another three-day mini-holiday in between, people in the class are still quite distracted.

  And after New Year's Day, it is another year, and everyone is one year older.

  Although it's not a traditional New Year's celebration, classmates are still very much looking forward to the new year and can't wait to grow up.

  Mr. Jiang also said he would give them a holiday, but in the end, only let the cultural and entertainment committee issue a New Year's Day poster.

  The windows also have several patterns sprayed on them with a spray gun.

  The New Year's Eve decoration work is quite a lot, it can be compared with the National Day holiday.

  All teachers in each subject are working hard to keep students from having time to go out and play.

  Teacher Wang has assigned two test papers and a final exam from the practice book.

  Lin Jiahuan looked at the test paper and said with a bitter face to Gu Xiang: "Teacher Wang's test paper is getting harder again, I don't even know how to write it."

  Gu Xiang also felt that the difficulty had increased a lot. In fact, the questions in the practice book were already quite difficult, but compared to this test paper, the questions in the practice book seemed easy.

  "It's probably time for a final round of review, let's calm down and focus." said Gu Xiang.

  Other teachers' papers have also arrived, and they are all quite difficult.

  With such a thick stack of difficult test papers, who would still have the heart to go out and play is really strange!

  It was almost dark when school let out.

  Lin Jiahuan and Gu Xiang heard the sound of wind blowing outside the garage.

  Lin Jiahuan shrugged: "I really don't want to go out, it's blowing me a headache."

  "Huh?" Gu Xiang put on her scarf, mask and ear warmer, but still couldn't make out what she was saying.

  "This homework is killing me, can I come to your place the day after tomorrow to do it?"

  "Ah?"

  Lin Jiahuan was amused by her.

  Gu Xiang said in a muffled voice from behind his mask: "What did you say? I couldn't hear!"

  Lin Jiahuan laughed even more happily.

  The next day was New Year's Day. Two days ago, Gu's mother had already started to get busy. The store received a batch of down jackets, down pants and wool sweaters.

  When Gu Xiang returned to the store, her mother was squatting in a pile of clothes sorting goods.

  She put down her bicycle and squatted beside Mrs. Gu as well.

  Her mother looked at her wearing a cotton-padded jacket and pants, a woolen scarf, mask, earmuffs, and gloves, squatting beside her like a ball, and pushed her saying: "Go eat your dinner."

  Gu Xiang actually hadn't touched anything in the store either, and didn't know how her mother divided the goods. She just helped pick up the plastic packaging bags that had been discarded around the area and stuffed them into a snakeskin bag on the outside.

  She went to wash her hands and eat by herself.

  Mother Gu stewed a pot of radish and pork ribs soup in a clay pot today, keeping it warm on the fire.

  Gu Xiang first had a bowl of soup and drank it, and his body immediately warmed up.

  Her mother came in to help her and saw that she was still wearing a scarf, so she smiled and scolded her: "You're still wearing a scarf in the store, you must have frozen to death in your previous life."

  Gu Xiang held the soup and shrunk his neck.

  Her family's shop door is just a rolling shutter, which is only put down when the store is closed. It's usually open and doesn't block anything. Outside is an open-air courtyard, so it's freezing to sit in the store during winter.

  While having dinner together, Gu's mom asked her: "Is your homework a lot? Your grandma also wants you to go back to the countryside to play."

  "Can't go, homework is too hard. Besides, tomorrow is New Year's Day and there will definitely be a lot of people, I'll stay in the store to help you."

  "Too much homework, don't go then. You won't be needed tomorrow either. I'll find that temporary worker from last time again."

  "Temporary workers don't want money, I'm helping you save money."

  Gu's mother picked up a quick-ripening pork rib for her: "It's only 50 yuan a day, we can't save this money!"

  Gu's mother had made up her mind and wouldn't let Gu Xiang help.

  The next day, Gu Xiang got up at almost 11 o'clock. Her mother had specially cooked more dishes the day before, letting her heat them up and eat at home.

  Gu Xiang had finished dinner and was walking around at home when she found that her down jacket from before hadn't been washed yet.

  Gu Xiang's down jacket was newly bought before and after the Spring Festival last year. Her mother said that washing machines would damage them, so every time she washed them by hand with a special detergent for washing down jackets, rubbing them gently bit by bit.

  One of them is still white.

  Gu Xiang thought that if she had to wash clothes by hand, she would rather die than buy white clothes.

  Not to mention down jackets as thick as this one.

  She spent an entire afternoon washing all the clothes at home.

  Because many clothes can't be washed by machine, after washing them all her hands were frozen red and the skin was wrinkled.

  When it was around six or seven o'clock, Mrs. Gu came back.

  Gu Xiang quickly slipped into the kitchen and started cooking noodles.

  "Yaya, you're doing laundry at home again?"

  Gu Xiang calmly boiled water: "I'm also doing nothing at home, I was tired from writing homework and just relaxed."

  Mom came in, holding her purse and looking back and forth: "What if you get frostbite on your hands? Do you still want to do your homework? I'll buy you some hand cream tomorrow."

  Gu Xiang said: "No need, the abalone oil at home is pretty good."

  Nowadays, the shell oil is still packaged in natural shell shells. Gu Xiang thinks it's very interesting to look at and carries it in his bag to school every day.

  The TV is broadcasting a New Year's Eve party, although it can't be compared with the Spring Festival Gala in terms of scale, but there are also many stars.

  Gu Xiang and her mother each held a bowl of noodles, eating the leftover dishes from noon while sitting on the sofa watching the evening party, another night passed quickly.

  Because she didn't finish her homework on the first day, Gu Xiang set an alarm clock and got up early on the second day.

  She wrote all morning and only finished writing in English, Gu Xiang still thought her speed was quite fast.

  At noon, Lin Jiahuan sent a text message asking if she had finished her homework.

  Gu Xiang said that after finishing writing in English, math just started.

  Lin Jiahuan asked her if she was at home in the afternoon, Gu Xiang said yes. Lin Jiahuan said to come over and do homework together in the afternoon, so they made an appointment.

  Gu Xiang rummaged around at home and found that there were no snacks at all. She

  It's been a long time since I last had snacks.

  There are quite a few fruits, but I don't know if Lin Jiahuan will eat them or not.

  Lin Jiahuan came in the afternoon with a big bag of food.

  The desk in the bedroom can only hold one person, so Gu Xiang took two cushions and put them in the living room. The two of them sat on the cushions at the coffee table doing their homework.

  Next to it was a heater, and it wasn't cold either. The red glow cast on the two people's faces made them look rosy.

  Lin Jiahuan then took apart potato chips, Pringles, Want Want Senbei and small mantou to eat in the middle.

  Gu Xiang was writing while listening to her whispering in his ear.

  Gu Xiang: ……

  Lin Jiahuan was writing in English, with Gu Xiang's finished work spread out beside her. When she couldn't do something, she would look at Gu Xiang and ask if she didn't understand.

  Gu Xiang finished writing math at more than 4 o'clock.

  Lin Jiahuan exaggeratedly pointed at her homework and shouted: "You also wrote too fast!"

  Gu Xiang said: "I still have to check, it will take another half an hour."

  "This speed of yours is also too terrifying!" As she said that, she poured the remaining potato chips into her mouth again.

  Gu Xiang looked at the scattered potato chip crumbs and said helplessly: "If you could stop eating while writing, you would be much faster."

  Lin Jiahuan shrugged: "This won't do, I've been like this since elementary school - I have to have something in my mouth when I'm doing homework."

  Gu Xiang went to look at her own English test paper again, which had already been printed with several finger prints stained with snack residue.

  It's just as well she doesn't have obsessive cleanliness!

  When it was almost dark, Lin Jiahuan prepared to go home and left half a plastic bag of snacks for Gu Xiang, saying that he had originally brought them for him.

  Gu Xiang didn't push her back either, just reminded her to be careful on the road and sent her downstairs. He watched as she rode away before hurrying home with his head down.

  In the evening, when Gu's mother returned home, she saw Gu Xiang sweeping the floor in the living room, and there were several empty snack packaging bags on the coffee table.

  "Yaya, there's a classmate coming home today?"

  "Ah, this afternoon Lin Jiahuan came to find me to do homework."

  Gu's mother bought her a tube of Mentholatum lip balm and told her to put it in her pocket and apply it when needed, then they cleaned up the living room together.

  Gu Xiang could only admire Lin Jiahuan's ability to create a mess, with broken porcelain and pickled plum candies scattered all over the floor. Fortunately, they had ordinary ceramic tiles at home; if it were wooden flooring, cleaning up would be a nightmare.

  "Is this snack from our home?"

  "Lin Jiahuan said that she wouldn't eat anything and couldn't do her homework." As he spoke, Gu Xiang also found it a bit amusing. Being gluttonous was just being gluttonous, but to say it so seriously? "She even left a lot of food for me to eat."

  "Ah, this little girl is quite interesting. By the way, haven't we run out of food at home? I'll take you to the supermarket tomorrow, okay?"

  "There are still strawberries and apples at home, as well as sugarcane bought two days ago. There's also yogurt."

  She said so, but after her mother closed the store and came back the next day, she still took her to the supermarket.

  It has to be said that teachers are also quite hardworking in preventing students from going out to play on New Year's Day. Gu Xiang finished her homework on the third day at noon and was preparing to do extra homework.

  Open the famous school volume that Tang Lulu brought for her before and find out that many questions on the final exam are the same as those on the New Year's homework.

  No wonder this time the difficulty is so high, I guess the teachers of the three main subjects have worked hard to make it difficult for them with the real questions over the years.

  Lin Jiahuan finished writing her English homework in the afternoon at Gu Xiang's house and completed her assignment before the holiday ended.

  There was no call to Gu Xiang on the last night of the holiday like before.

  As soon as New Year's Day was over, our class officially started reviewing.

  English classes, art classes, and physical education classes had long been divided among the three main subject teachers. They began to take turns making them do dictations and pop quizzes. Of course, most of the time was still spent rehashing what they had already covered before.

  The colorful notice board that came out before New Year's Day was also erased and replaced with the progress of each subject reviewed by Teacher Jiang in white chalk.

  Gu Xiang reviews with the teacher's progress in class and also makes her own study plan privately.

  She still thinks her language foundation is quite poor and she spends a lot of time on it. But because she's the English class representative, she can't slack off in English either.

  While other students were busy with math, she spent the least amount of time on it.