Chapter 24: Youth Never Fades, Blood Never Dries

  Gu Xiang wore a deep smoky gray sportswear that day, with the autumn school uniform he had just received recently on top.

  The school uniform is loose and breathable, originally wearing it just right, but after the pants get wet and the wind blows, the whole person feels cold.

  But it was almost time for assembly, so the students all rushed back to the side of Mirror Lake.

  Mr. Jiang has been waiting for them. The last one to arrive was surprisingly Zhao Lei, who had just sent them back.

  Gu Xiang thought that she would climb a mountain later, and she had been insisting on running for half a month. Her physical strength had gradually increased, so this was a good opportunity to test it out.

  When the result came out and she was standing in the shade of a tree, she started shivering as soon as the wind blew.

  Gu Xiang felt a slight pain in her stomach, and suddenly she felt a warmth beneath her.

  No way!

  Gu Xiang hastily went to the toilet, pulled down her pants and took a look, and indeed there was a patch of blood red.

  Got it, Auntie is here!

  Lin Jiahuan followed Xiang Yi into the bathroom without saying a word.

  "What's Gu Xiang doing? Teacher Jiang has lined up, hurry up!"

  "Don't rush me! My aunt is coming!"

  Lin Jiahuan exclaimed "huh" and said: "Don't worry, I'll go out and borrow one for you!"

  Gu Xiang was squatting there with his pants held up, waiting for her.

  Before long, Lin Jiahuan handed in a sanitary napkin. Gu Xiang quickly used it.

  "Is that all? Teacher Jiang is urging." Tang Lulu came in and asked through the door, "Can you use it? Do you want me to teach you?"

  Gu Xiang has already pulled up his pants and his face is red with shame.

  Tang Lu looked at her pants for a while and said: "Fortunately you found out early, there are no prints on the pants."

  Mr. Jiang took them mountain climbing, along the way were tall and straight bamboo, sunny and beautiful, gentle breeze swaying, the bamboo forest rustling. Rare good scenery.

  Gu Xiang's attention was not on that, she started having cramps, covering her stomach, her face turned pale.

  She had severe dysmenorrhea in her previous life, and it didn't improve until she passed puberty.

  It took half an hour of climbing to reach the pavilion at the foot of the mountain.

  Most of the students lack physical exercise, and many people are panting heavily.

  Mr. Jiang didn't force them either, he just said that those who were willing could continue to follow him up, and those who weren't would stay here and wait.

  Most of the girls chose to stay behind. Lin Jiahuan wanted to follow them to climb the mountain, but looked at Gu Xiang with a bad expression and hesitated.

  Tang Lulu didn't like mountain climbing and would definitely not go. So she said to her: "You go ahead, I'll be here."

  Gu Xiang also said: "I just have a little stomachache, it will be fine in a while."

  The girl came out with a bit of discomfort in her stomach, but it wasn't a big deal. It was rare to go out, and Gu Xiang didn't want to ruin Lin Jiahuan's mood either.

  All the boys followed Mr. Jiang.

  It's Zhao Le who can't even lift her legs anymore, yet she still follows Jiang Laoshi.

  Lian Gu was even impressed by her.

  Tang Lulu leaned against Gu Xiang and they chatted intermittently.

  Gu Xiang's stomach still hurts quite a bit, but it hasn't reached the unbearable pain she had imagined.

  The warm sunshine made her feel drowsy, and she soon fell asleep in a haze.

  I don't know how long I slept, anyway, when I opened my eyes again, it was because the classmates who had finished climbing the mountain woke me up.

  She quickly got up and massaged Tang Lulu's shoulders: "Why didn't you call me earlier."

  Tang Lulu said: "I shouted loudly, you slept too soundly and couldn't hear it at all!"

  Gu Xiang blushed again.

  Li Wei covered her mouth and smiled slyly: "Don't listen to her nonsense, she didn't call you at all!"

  Tang Lulu also burst out laughing.

  Gu Xiang was both moved and amused, she had no idea that Tang Lulu had such a cunning side before.

  After climbing the mountain, there wasn't much time left. Teacher Jiang let them rest for a while in the pavilion and then assemble to go down the mountain.

  Lin Jiahuan was sweating profusely and said with a bitter face: "I know what it means to go up the mountain easily and down the mountain difficultly, my two legs don't feel like mine anymore."

  Gu Xiang teased her, saying "Don't worry, you'll feel even more pain after a good sleep!" which made Lin Jiahuan want to hit her, but seeing that she wasn't feeling well, she just pretended to hit her without actually doing so.

  On their way back, Lin Jiahuan felt that leaving Gu Xiang behind to climb the mountain was not right, so she took the initiative to offer her own shoulder for Gu Xiang to lean on.

  On the way back, classmates were all tired and spoke little, Gu Xiang fell asleep again.

  When school was over, Gu Xiang didn't ride her bike back home and instead took her mom's electric scooter.

  Her mother thought her daughter was tired from playing outside and didn't think much of it.

  Back at the store, Gu Xiang finally told her about her aunt's visit.

  Gu's mother saw that she was listless and stretched out her hand to touch her back, which felt icy cold, and her heart ached with pity.

  Gu's mother went to the supermarket and bought her some brown sugar and sanitary napkins. She first made a bowl of brown sugar water for her.

  Gu Xiang lay on the recliner with a thick cushion, not wanting to move. Her mother tried to feed her with a spoon, but Gu Xiang held the bowl and gulped it down quickly, swallowing all the ginger shreds.

  My stomach finally feels warm and I can eat a few mouthfuls of rice now.

  At night when she got home, Gu Xiang took a bath and then lay down on the bed.

  She wanted to sleep, but actually wasn't really sleepy, it's just that her stomach still hurt, thinking that sleeping would make her feel better.

  Gu's mother brought a glass of cold boiled water into the room and had Gu Xiang drink it.

  Gu Xiang's eyes widened in surprise.

  "Gu's mom explained: 'I heard from your aunt that the first time you come, drink a glass of cold water, and after that, there are no taboos!'"

  Gu Xiang naturally refused to drink it and said: "Where did this remedy come from? If drinking a cup of cold water could really be useful, would there still be so many painful experiences?"

  Gu's mother didn't actually understand either, she herself came without any feeling, and only asked people after seeing Gu Xiang in so much pain.

  Gu Xiang felt that her mother was still too soft-hearted, believing whatever her aunt said. She thought that sooner or later she had to correct her mother's bad habit.

  The next day, Gu Xiang's menstrual cramps finally subsided and she perked up.

  It really fulfilled an advertising slogan: no pain, just easy every month.

  Gu Xiang just wanted her mother to take her to the Chinese hospital for a check-up. This kind of illness is best treated early on.

  The next afternoon, Gu's mother didn't do business and took her to the Chinese hospital.

  The specialist clinic in the Chinese hospital requires queuing, they went temporarily and definitely couldn't get a number, so they made an appointment for a regular one.

  That old Chinese doctor looked quite old too, his hair was all white, and he seemed to be about the same age as Grandpa Gu Xiang.

  The old Chinese doctor felt Gu Xiang's pulse for a while and said, "It's not serious, just a bit of spleen dampness and body weakness. The little girl has a heavy cold air on her body. Take some warm palace medicine to supplement it."

  "My mom said I don't need to take medicine, just drink some cool water and it'll be fine."

  The old Chinese doctor was writing a prescription, and upon hearing this, he looked up at Mrs. Gu who was standing beside him and said: "What nonsense! She has a cold body and you still let her drink cold water? You parents are just pretending to know what's good for your child, playing with their health!"

  One sentence made Mrs. Gu's face turn red.

  After going home, Gu's mother felt quite guilty, she didn't know that folk remedies could be fatal.

  Even Gu Xiang wasn't sure if her severe dysmenorrhea was caused by a past life, or if it was just because of the cold water her mother had forced her to drink.

  Gu Xiang looked at her mom's face, which was quite unsightly, and advised her: "I know you won't harm me, but don't just believe whatever people say. This time it's just a cup of cold water, next time when it comes to reporting high school or university, if others casually talk about it and you casually listen, isn't that really harming me?"

  Gu's mother heard and hugged Gu Xiang without saying a word.

  The current Chinese medicine is not the later vacuum packaging of good stew, nor is it powdered instant, but the real medicine to take back and stew.

  Gu's mother even bought a clay pot back to decoct medicine.

  Gu Xiang really didn't like drinking that stuff, and after taking a bowl of medicine she wouldn't think about eating for the whole day.

  But the old Chinese doctor said that every time her period came, she had to drink it for seven days in a row, and she couldn't do anything about it, so she just gritted her teeth.

  Due to Auntie's episode, Gu Xiang only finished her homework this weekend.

  Extracurricular homework hasn't been touched.

  Her mother also asked her if she wanted to take a leave on Monday.

  Menstrual cramps only hurt on the first day, and it's not necessary to take time off afterwards. Besides, considering the timing, the semester is almost halfway through, and I estimate that mid-term exams will be coming up soon.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, on Monday's class meeting, Teacher Jiang announced that there would be a final exam next Friday.

  Those fleeting thoughts in class that were stirred up by the autumn outing have all been submerged again.

  The classmates who were still very lively a few days ago have now started to study hard with their heads down again.

  Gu Xiang has been writing an essay every day in school's self-study class since she lost the monthly exam composition.

  It's not a full draft, just a detailed outline of about 300-400 words. Then, every week, I'll take it to show Teacher Ren.

  Teacher Ren is quite happy to see her working so hard and occasionally gives her two composition topics.

  Teacher Ren's assignment, Gu Xiang would write a composition seriously according to the examination standards.

  After nearly a month of hard work, Gu Xiang has written almost 20 essays, big and small, and he is still confident that this time he will not go off topic.

  Lin Jiahuan borrowed Gu Xiang's notes for the monthly exam and felt that reviewing was particularly effective, so she came to borrow her notes again.

  Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

  Gu Xiang took out her notes and looked at them, feeling that she had also taken a lot of notes, but the key points were not accurate.

  The result is a notebook filled with words that encompasses all book knowledge, which is almost as good as having no notes at all.

  "It's not right to take notes like this," said Gu Xiang. "It's not that you write down everything the teacher says, and don't copy everything from the blackboard. The teacher's blackboard is sometimes for their own convenience when teaching, so they will list out the entire framework of the lesson. Some things the teacher writes on the blackboard are just mentioned in passing during class, so there's no need to take note of those. Take note of what she repeatedly emphasizes verbally, some of which may not even appear on the blackboard, especially when she calls on someone to answer a question, and make sure to mark those out."

  Gu Xiang flipped through it again, and Lin Jiahuan's notes had become much more detailed since the monthly exam. Before the monthly exam, her notes were almost empty. It can be seen that her learning attitude has improved a lot.

  "Are you taking notes so seriously that you can still listen in class?"

  Lin Jiahuan scratched his head and said: "Right, I often feel that it's not enough time, just focusing on taking notes."

  Gu Xiang could only lend her his notes again and go over all the methods of memorizing them with her in detail once more.

  She actually thinks her notes are more suitable for her own review, because everyone has a different grasp of the material, and she has marked hers with five-pointed stars, triangles, and circles.

  Some need to be looked at carefully, while others can be glanced over briefly.

  But Lin Jiahuan knew she was coming to borrow her notes from the start of reviewing, Gu Xiang was still quite happy for her. Finally knowing what's good!