278 Senior Year (Ten)
Overnight, An Xiulan’s popularity grew by leaps and bounds. It was not that she was not popular before but now her social media followers were equal to that of an A-list celebrity. When the media was expecting her to give interviews after interviews, the girl left the contest venue silently and even after a week there was no less of her.
Netizens were worried about this. It was only later that someone clarified that she was a senior year student and she needed to appear for a college entrance test. After this, the citizens began showering her with a lot of blessings.
“Xiulan, have some milk, ” An Qinyan said.
“Thank you, mom, ” An Xiulan smiled at her mother and gulped down a glass of milk.
“Take rest and study later, ” An Qinyan advised.
“I wish I could do that, ” An Xiulan muttered. “I only have one week to revise the syllabus once again.”
“Don’t wake up too late. I don’t want you to be sick, ” An Qinyan said as she left the room to let her daughter study.
“Okay mom, ” An Xiulan lied.
For the contest, she had to wake up for a longer interval of time. It wasn’t easy for her to win. For a whole month, she had been surviving on just four hours of sleep. She was afraid that she would not be able to catch up much sleep until her exams ended.
Truly, for the next week, she was getting a little over four hours of sleep every night. She has to spend her days and nights studying because she missed too much because of the contest. If she didn’t perform well, her parents would be disappointed and she didn’t want to do this.
The day of the National College Entrance Examination.
“Children, all the best!”
An Xiulan, Lu Xuan, Gu Shangyan and Han Zixin were going together to appear for their examination. The responsibility to drop children at school was divided between the parents. On the first day, An Qinyan and Gu Yanxi dropped the children off at the examination centre that was in another high school.
“Once again, all the best!” An Qinyan and Gu Yanxi said as they dropped the kids at the examination centre. More than the children, the parents were scared and nervous.
Unfortunately, none of them was in the same room. After seeing their roll no on the admit card, they began looking for their class. They had to enter the examination centre ten minutes before the examination started.
“Fighting!” The kids said and went to their classrooms.
In the class where An Xiulan was seated, there were only girls and none of them was from Jingyuan High. As soon as she entered, people recognised her and almost swarmed her. In the end, a teacher had to intervene or the excited girls had almost killed her with their enthusiasm.
“Thank you, ” An Xiulan heaved a sigh when she was made to sit in the last. Finally, no one could bother her and she could write the exam without any worry.
Outside, An Qinyan and Gu Yanxi didn’t leave even after dropping them. They were just too nervous to go to work. They decided to wait until the children finished their exams. After three hours, the students came out.
“How was your exam?” An Qinyan and Gu Shangyan asked as they saw Gu Shangyan and Lu Xuan first.
“Tough but we did our best, ” Lu Xuan said.
Gu Shangyan didn’t even have to appear for this exam as he was already selected for a university abroad but he decided to appear any way for his brother and sister to give them support.
“May the lord blesses you with a fruitful result, ” An Qinyan prayed for the two of them. “Sit inside the car. It’s too hot here. Yanxi, give kids something to drink.”
A few minutes later, An Xiulan and Han Zixin came. From the shine in Han Zixin’s eyes, anyone could tell that his exam went better than expected.
“Mom, it was so hard that I’m sure my cells are half fried, ” An Xiulan hugged her mother and acted spoiled. “Can you believe that in just a month I will be off to university? I’m so excited as well as scared.”
An Qinyan laughed at her antics. “Ah-Xin, how was your exam?”
“It was okay, ” Han Zixin smiled at her.
“Don’t worry, you are a good boy and god will surely give you good results, ” An Qinyan ruffled her hair lovingly. “Sit in the car. Your Uncle and I will take all of you to eat something. You have an exam for two more consecutive days.”
“Thank you, Auntie, ” Han Zixin smiled.
“Silly boy, you are one of us, “An Qinyan said. “Bring your best friend with you. Oh god, where did the girl disappear to?”
“She went to see Xueyun and Shen Yue, ” Han Zixin guessed correctly.
“Hello Auntie, ” Song Xueyun and Shen Yue greeted her.
“How was the exam, girls?” An Qinyan asked.
“Mom, they are toppers. I can bet, ” An Xiulan said, proudly.
Both the girls blushed.
“Girls, how about you follow us? I will feed you something, ” An Qinyan suggested. “Yue, your mom will be busy with work and Xueyun, we will drop you home on the way. Both of you must be tired.”
“Thank you, Auntie, ” The girls were grateful for the invitation. They were hungry and tired. None of them was able to eat anything in the morning because of nervousness.
Now seated at the restaurant, Shen Yue said, “I can’t believe that today was our National College entrance exam. It feels as if it was yesterday when we entered Jingyuan high and today we are leaving it. It’s just bizarre to me.”
“I can feel you, ” An Xiulan said.
“I have no other wish just this one that we always remain friends, ” Song Xueyun said with a smile.
Lu Xuan draped an arm around her shoulder and said, “I made a mistake once. I am not committing the same mistake again. Let’s attend the same college, Xueyun. We will be best friends for life.”