At the end of March, Pang Qian successfully completed her second round exam. The heavy stone hanging on her heart for the past year finally fell off.

She wasn’t at peace while waiting for her admittance letter though. Every day, she would help Gu Mingxi with his arts and culture lessons review.

Teacher Dai helped Gu Mingxi find a prep academy, and without hesitation, Pang Qian decided to study with him all day. Under his daughter’s instruction, Pang Shuisheng went to the carpenter to have a custom desk made for Gu Mingxi, which they then moved into the prep academy cla.s.sroom. Pang Qian and Gu Mingxi once again became glorious students studying to take the college entrance exam.

In the final months before the exam, Gu Mingxi worked on a lot of practice problems. This time, he didn’t need to score more than 600 points. He only really needed to score more than 400 points to make the cutoff, but he felt since he was disabled, there would be more of a guarantee to score a bit higher. So then, he made his personal goal to get more than 500 points.

Pang Qian went with him to cla.s.s, worked on practice questions, and took mock exams with him. She ate food, drank water, and went to the restroom with him. The students in the cla.s.s didn’t interact with each other much, so Pang Qian and Gu Mingxi sat together at the back of the cla.s.s, not disturbing anyone else.

The weather started getting hotter, and they two of them sat in the corner where the breeze of the electric fan couldn’t reach. Pang Qian brought along a handheld fan and would fan Gu Mingxi from morning until night.

During break times in cla.s.s, she would insist Gu Mingxi stop working. Then she would ma.s.sage his legs or stand behind him to ma.s.sage his shoulders.

She even brought along snacks and soup in a thermos. Occasionally, a fragrant smell would drift across the room from their corner, causing the students snacking on cookies to (figuratively) collapse.

At the prep school, sometimes Gu Mingxi’s heart would ache to see Pang Qian spending all day in the cla.s.sroom with him. When he tried to convince her to go home, she didn’t agree. She said, “Here I was thinking that it’s not long enough. You don’t know how much I miss those days when we sat in the cla.s.sroom together. There’s just one more month. I’ll definitely work hard together with you!”

They were the most peculiar students at the prep academy, a pair of older lovers. The male was disabled and the female came along to help him study. Every day, they walked side by side into the school. They didn’t leave all day, until 9 o’clock in the evening, when they would finally head home exhausted.

In those few months, Gu Mingxi had been drowning in a sea of study questions. He was tortured by all the now-unfamiliar English, math, and science. For him, the best comfort was being able to ‘do homework’ together with Pang Qian at night.

But sometimes, after he washed up and happily returned to the bedroom, he’d find that Pang Qian had already fallen asleep from exhaustion.

Like a kitten, she curled up on the bed. Gu Mingxi sat down beside her and lowered his head to look at her face.

In this quiet and peaceful moment, his heart stopped beating restlessly. Instead, it became much more calm and warm. He looked around the room, at the light beige walls, the mahogany floors, the white furniture, the warm glow of the light… The TV was still on, broadcasting some predictions for the 2012 European cup. On the TV stand were a few picture frames filled with images of him and Pang Qian. Next to that, there were some potato chips and candied fruit, the things Pang Qian loved eating when she watched TV.

The dresser was covered with Pang Qian’s makeup and skincare products, as if exclaiming that a woman lived in this room.

Their room had a bay window with a white wool pad and a large flower patterned pillow on top. When the sun s.h.i.+ned in during the winter, Pang Qian would often sit there together with Gu Mingxi. They listened to music together, read books together, and drank fragrant coffee together.

Over and over again, he felt bursts of joy inside. This was his and her home.

He quietly climbed onto the bed and picked up the remote with his foot to turn off the TV. He turned off the light and kissed Pang Qian’s cheek. “Pang Pang, goodnight.”

In June, Gu Mingxi’s second college entrance exam came. He wasn’t anxious though. When he woke up, Pang Qian helped him put on a white s.h.i.+rt and a pair of loose, beige pants.

She said, “Wearing beige will help stay cool a bit.”

She sent him to the testing center and, as expected, he attracted many curious eyes. Sitting at the door to the exam center were also some reporters who wanted to interview him. Pang Qian declined, protecting Gu Mingxi until he walked inside. As he was about to head inside, Pang Qian suddenly called out to him.

She pulled out a red necklace from her pocket. The necklace had a small silver pendant on it. Gu Mingxi took a closer look, and it was a ‘100 points’ image (?).

His mouth twitched as he watched Pang Qian seriously tie it around his neck and tuck it into his s.h.i.+rt. She pat his chest and said, “They say its a test charm, and it will lend you blessing to pa.s.s the exam.”

Gu Mingxi, “…”

Pang Qian waved her fist enthusiastically. “Gu Mingxi, you can do it!”

Under the sun, his forehead started sweating, but there was a bright smile on his face. He couldn’t help kissing her. “I promise that we’ll see each other in Shanghai in September.”

In the days leading up to the entrance exam, the temperatures had risen. Pang Qian felt like a parent, sweating in front of the examination center, waiting for her Gu Mingxi to come out.

Finally, the bell signaling the end of the exam rang. Pang Qian let out a deep breath. Not long after, she saw Gu Mingxi’s shoulders walking towards her. He was walking pretty quickly so his s.h.i.+rt sleeves swayed about. As he walked, a smile came onto his face and his eyes curved up. His eyes were clear and bright and his smile was warm enough to melt her heart.

She couldn’t help it and she ran towards him with her arms open, throwing herself into his warm chest.

About half a month later, the scores were announced. Gu Mingxi pa.s.sed the cutoff for his exams for first tier arts and culture students by 130 points. There was no doubt that he’d done well enough.