Chapter 248

Over the next two days, Xiao Qi stayed at school and did not go out.

She led a very earnest life during the holiday.

Liang Jiajia did not feel bored either, following the teacher around. Her temper seemed much more steady than when she first arrived.

She just kept taking pictures with her camera all day long.

In the dormitory, she even set up a tripod for her camera.

Xiao Qi was used to Liang Jiajia's quirk. When she was a home tutor, the little girl was like this too, with a video camera set up in the study room.

During the holiday, Xiao Qi went jogging, worked at the stables, practiced horse riding, went to the library to read, practiced calligraphy every day, listened to English speeches, studied Japanese, and since there was more time during the holiday, she also squeezed out a little time to paint.

Her classmate Liang Jiajia was thrilled to model for her.

Xiao Qi felt that she liked painting people from the beginning, it seemed that people attracted her more than scenery, probably because there were more changing details and emotions.

During the holidays, teachers were still on duty at night as usual.

Xiao Qi also went to evening self-study as usual. It was more motivating to study in the classroom. She reviewed and consolidated what she had learned in class, and previewed what she was going to learn next.

So although it was during the holidays, Xiao Qi's schedule was very full.

Meanwhile, Liang Jiajia, the faithful recorder, was recording the teacher's daily life and she was very shocked.

Previously she only knew that Teacher Xiao Qi was a hardworking student. Her mother also told her to learn from Teacher Xiao Qi. But seeing it in person and just hearing about it were different after all.

From morning to night, without deliberate arrangement, eating, napping and sleeping on time, but basically no time was wasted. Jogging, horse riding training, studying - all fragmentary time was fully arranged. Whether it was learning or exercising, it was very fulfilling, yet she didn't seem tired at all. Really, even just watching, Liang Jiajia didn't feel too tired.

On the contrary, sometimes when she inadvertently played mobile games or scrolled through Douyin, one or two hours would pass by, and she felt quite tired playing them - sometimes her eyes felt sore, sometimes her hands were sore from tapping, encountering bad teammates made her frustrated, she couldn't help but spew some foul language and ask if the other person was a pig.

But Teacher Xiao Qi had always been like this, arranging her life diligently and meticulously without slacking off at all.

Teacher Xiao Qi also had Douyin on her phone, but she had set it to teen mode, which locked automatically after an hour. She didn't even know the password, she just let her roommate set it randomly.

This showed that the teacher sometimes lacked self-control as well, she just kept herself in check.

After spending two days with the teacher steadily, Liang Jiajia felt like she had grown up a lot.

The teacher didn't tell her any words of wisdom, but somehow she thought of her mother, who was also very busy, leaving early and returning late every day.

Actually, before her parents got divorced, she liked her dad more. Even after the divorce, she still couldn't forget him. She thought her dad was more carefree and had more joie de vivre, unlike her mom who only knew about working. Sometimes she even resented in her heart that if her mom had been more fun-loving like her dad, fishing and drinking tea, maybe her dad wouldn't have fooled around with other women.

But after seeing Teacher Xiao Qi's life, she had other thoughts. Her dad was a teacher too, but he always complained that his talent was wasted, that the teaching and research group leader had no insight, and the principal only valued those who flattered him. But did her dad work hard himself? No, at least from what she saw, her dad rarely worked at home. He often went out with friends driving and fishing, or went out for tea. At home he also carefully set up a tea room, inviting three or five good friends to chat.

A teacher's salary wasn't high, but her family was quite well-off, much better off than other teachers' families of the same level. She never considered back then where the money came from - it was earned by her mom working hard outside every day.

Now occasionally her dad would pick her up to stay at his place. Her dad no longer went fishing and drinking tea every day. It seemed that he even secretly did tutoring on the side to earn money. Once when her dad was driving her, she actually saw that her dad had turned on a ride-hailing app to earn money by picking up passengers on the way back. She felt her dad was so pathetic.

All this was very confusing to Liang Jiajia. She felt her dad's new family life outside was not going well.

Her mom was still busy as always, and when she came home the house was empty.

Now after seeing Teacher Xiao Qi's life, she seemed to understand something.

Maybe her dad was just now starting to realize he had to work hard. In the past he just relied on her mom and lived freely and merrily.

What about herself then? She was also relying on her mom, very willful, and didn't want to study hard either. She knew her mom would spoil her and indulge her in the end no matter what.

But what about the future?

Liang Jiajia thought about her future for the first time.

Xiao Qi didn't know the little head beside her was thinking so much. She just kept her routine as usual, only without classes since it was the holidays.

She felt she had a lot of rest time. Drawing and calligraphy practice felt like rest to her, very relaxing, tranquil and casual. Riding horses and working in the stables washing horses - Xiao Qi also felt that was rest. Being with animals was comfortable, and it exercised her body while her mind relaxed. Counting it this way, she was resting most of the day, which was already very comfortable. The people in her hometown Guyumu Village were busy with labor all the time, and it was meaningless mechanical labor.

The remaining time she spent studying wasn't long either, because she had a memory buff, studying for too long would also give her a headache and overwork her brain. She could only improve efficiency and generally study for about an hour, then take a break and walk around.

As for jogging, it was part of her daily routine. If she didn't have a competition coming up, Xiao Qi would take it easier.

Xiao Qi was determined to study hard and improve herself, keep a low profile in life, and just steadily run the marathon to complete her initial goal, which also gave her a good excuse for running every day.

She didn't expect that many people were still paying attention to her.

Previously, the class monitor Cai Yu asked who was staying at school during the holidays, and Xiao Qi said she was staying to run a marathon, which was just a minor matter she mentioned casually at the time.

Now the competition was happening tomorrow, and the class monitor rallied classmates in the group chat to go watch the marathon and cheer for their classmate if they were in Meng City.

Of course everyone was joking and teasing playfully. In the eyes of classmates, she was a textbook nerd. Now the vice class monitor Mao Wenshu who was also the deputy academic affairs commissioner had also silently shrunk into the corner. He had been a little dissatisfied at first, but after failing to collect assignments completely several times, and seeing the learning commissioner's enthusiasm for studying - breezing through the CET 4 and 6 tests, and easily winning first place in English speeches - he silently stopped jumping around and admitted defeat.

The nerd participating in a marathon was just about taking part for the courage. Being able to finish would be admirable.

The class monitor was very excited to introduce the marathon route to everyone in the group. Part of it went past the building he lived in, which also indirectly proved the class monitor's family was quite well-off. That stretch was along the seaside. Even if it wasn't a seaside villa, it was at least a sea view apartment.

Xiao Qi saw the class group was very lively. A bunch of people were stirring things up. But not many people stayed in Meng City, most still went back home. Her roommates were not around either. Across the hallway, Chu Yu and Lin Dongqing had both gone back home. Su Li was a local and had naturally gone back too. She probably wasn't interested in lively events like this.

It was the usually quiet Nan Beichao in class who was very active in the group chat, sending out red envelopes in the group from time to time.

Red envelope rains came intermittently in the group, making it quite lively. Everyone kept up the polite reactions of thanking the boss while chatting and grabbing red envelopes.

Apart from the class group, the foreign teachers' foodie group Xiao Qi joined was also very active. The foreign teachers didn't go back home, most of them stayed at school, and some went traveling with friends, but they were quite excited that Xiao Qi was participating in the marathon competition, because two teachers among them were going as well - one was the black teacher Bruce with dreadlocks who taught in Xinqu. Xiao Qi didn't know him, but the marathon was almost the black people's turf. And Old Gallen was also going to liven things up.

Meng City's marathon was also called the International Marathon, and adding "international" meant there were many foreign contestants.

Every year it was a domestic marathon competition, but the top three places were almost always all black contestants.

Lord Garen, who was very muscular with a white beard, also wanted to participate. He looked impressive, though he was already very old.

In addition to these foreign teachers, there was also Lu Chao, the president of Xiao Qi's running club. He surprisingly did not go back home and wanted to go cheer for Xiao Qi and be her support staff.

The main reason was that for their running club, Xiao Qi was their only marathon runner, and she was a beautiful girl too. He wanted to take more photos of her. Winning or losing did not matter. The photos could be used to recruit new members and con some new people to join. Their running club was really poor.

In addition to these people, there was also the lovely Xiao Bao'er who called Xiao Qi and said he wanted to go to the scene to support her and wave little red flags for her.

There were two foreign teachers participating in the marathon. Enhua thoughtfully arranged a bus to take the teachers to the competition venue. Xiao Qi, relying on her strong (freeloading) relations, also got on the bus. She even brought along two little assistants with her - a schoolmate named Jiayi who was responsible for filming and the club president Lu Chao who was responsible for carrying water and bags.