Chapter 179 Zhiyi's Private Tutor
The sun has not yet risen, but the sky is already bright.
Accompanied by a steady and powerful sound of footsteps, a young man in a vest, shorts and running shoes ran out of the village along the country road.
With an upright posture and steady steps, he runs at a fairly fast pace yet still manages to maintain a relaxed attitude, as if this intensity is just a part of his daily routine.
As he ran along the way, he enthusiastically greeted the villagers who got up early. Over the years, everyone has become accustomed to his habit of getting up early to run. If he didn't run one day, they would feel strange!
"Master Li! Good morning!"
"Ha ha……"
Under the litchi tree, the old man sitting in a rattan chair smiled and nodded slightly in response.
Mr. Li is already 100 years old this year!
He is the only centenarian on Pineapple Island, perhaps the only one in the entire town. He can be said to be a real antique.
Naturally, his physique is not as good as that of the young boy. Let alone running like this, in the past two years, even walking has become difficult for him. But he still walks slowly every day, using the shiny rattan chair as a crutch, coming under the tree to enjoy the cool, and watching the passers-by at the entrance of the village.
Time always flies fast. It felt like Fang Wei, who ran past him a second ago, was still a child. But when he turned around, his back had turned into a young man...
……
The mornings in early autumn are very cool.
The cool autumn breeze, carrying the unique salty smell of sea water, blows through the village, bringing the first breath of freshness in the morning.
Fang Wei ran along the country road at a leisurely pace. Occasionally, he could see a few wisps of smoke rising slowly from the chimneys. In the fields, the rice was almost ripe, and the golden rice ears swayed in the wind. The farmers were busy, some carrying bamboo baskets and walking through the fields, while others were sorting tools. In the distance, between the ridges, the yellow cattle were leisurely eating grass, stopping from time to time to look up, and the birds on the cattle's backs were flying up and down...
The entire island village appears exceptionally peaceful yet vibrant in the early autumn morning.
As he ran to Shayang Village, he raised his hand and waved towards the gate of the courtyard. Another young and beautiful girl with a ponytail trotted out and followed him. The two of them ran forward together.
"It's a lot cooler this morning. Will you feel cold running in shorts?"
Fang Wei turned his head to look at Liu Zhiyi's outfit. She was wearing the same T-shirt as in summer, a pair of running shoes, and sports shorts. Extending from under her trouser legs were her pair of fair and smooth legs. Even though the sun hadn't come out yet, their whiteness was dazzling, and even her knees were tender.
She would only wear shorts when she went jogging with him in the morning. At other times, she wore long pants. By covering herself like this every day, her skin became white even though it wasn't white.
"It's not cold. You'll be warm after running for a while."
Liu Zhiyi raised his eyes and looked at him while running. Fang Wei was jogging with his eyes fixed straight ahead. His sweaty profile looked very handsome.
"You and Cai Ling are going to participate in a competition next month?"
"Yes, the Saturday after National Day."
"Where are you going to compete?"
"It's held in the county, at Qingxi Middle School. Teacher Niu will take us there. Why, do you want to join the competition too?"
"Haha, I definitely can't do that~"
The so-called county refers to Qingxi County, which is also composed of hundreds of islands of various sizes. Of course, there are only more than a dozen inhabited islands. Island such as Pineapple Island and Baitan Island are under the jurisdiction of Qingxi County.
There are boat trips to the county from Pineapple Island and Baitan Island. Liu Zhiyi has lived here for such a long time, and Fang Wei has taken her to the county before. It is closer than the city, and it only takes less than an hour by boat to get there.
"But I think you and Cai Ling will be fine, you will definitely get good grades!"
"Well, it's not easy. How about you? Did you practice long jump at home at night?"
"without……"
"Don't you want to practice? Don't you want to get a higher score?"
"Yes. I am busy writing the manuscript..."
"What's the next masterpiece?"
"I won't tell you~"
"When we get to the beach, I'll teach you how to long jump. How about you let me see your masterpiece?"
"it is good!"
Soon, the two ran to the beach.
After admiring the sunrise as scheduled and taking a short rest, Fang Wei accompanied Liu Zhiyi to practice standing long jump.
I first found a place with flat and solid ground as the starting point. There was sand in front of me, so I was not afraid of falling.
Fang Wei took a dead branch and drew a starting line on the spot. Then he used his thumb and index finger to open the palm of his hand and measured the length of the branch first. Then he used the length of the branch to measure the distance on the sand.
"At this position... that's your excellent score line, meters. At this position... that's your perfect score line, meters!"
As he spoke, Fang Wei drew two long lines.
Liu Zhiyi was surprised: "Fang Wei, you can measure the distance without a ruler?"
"My eyes are the ruler."
"Bragging~!"
"There is a standard. I have measured it a long time ago. Usually, when I open my palm as wide as possible, the maximum distance from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my index finger is about 18 centimeters. If you don't have a ruler, you can just open your hand and measure it, and it will be roughly accurate."
"Eighteen centimeters! That long?"
"How much is yours?"
“I haven’t measured it…”
As he spoke, Liu Zhiyi also imitated him, opened his palms wide and measured the distance between the tip of his thumb and the tip of his index finger.
The girl's hands were small, no way they could compare to Fang Wei's big hands.
Fang Wei also opened his hand, and the tips of their thumbs touched each other. It could be seen that the tip of Liu Zhiyi's index finger was still a long distance away from his index finger.
"Your hands are so big..."
Liu Zhiyi calmly grabbed his big hand, comparing the size of his palm with him, and the thickness and length of his fingers with him.
When their skin touched, it was as if an electric current passed through her. Her expression was calm, but her heart was pounding. A strange thought popped up in her mind. She wanted to try what it felt like to hold hands with him...
Before she could try secretly, Fang Wei suddenly turned over his palm and grabbed her naughty little hand.
"Don't take advantage of me on purpose!"
"...!"
Liu Zhiyi was startled, and her pretty face flushed.
The girl reacted and pulled back her hand. She blushed and stammered, "Who, who took advantage of you? Shame on you..."
"Practice now."
"Uh-huh……"
Fang Wei demonstrated it to her first, and then let her do it.
"The movements must be coordinated. When you jump, when your arms are raised forward, you should start to squat... Don't squat too low, otherwise it will be difficult to exert force... Don't stand too straight, otherwise you will not be able to exert force..."
"Then what should we do..."
Liu Zhiyi was confused. She really couldn't figure out what the so-called standard action indicators were.
Fang Wei had no choice but to do it himself. He held her slender wrist and taught her how to adjust the height and amplitude of her arm swing; he pointed at her knees with his fingers and taught her how to squat; he also had to support her back so that she could find the right angle to move her center of gravity forward.
Liu Zhiyi was extremely shy, and she didn't know if she was shy because she was so stupid and couldn't learn it, or because she was shy about being so close and touching him...
Although it was not a strenuous exercise, the girl's heartbeat maintained a very fast frequency, so that the little ears hidden in her hair turned pink.
The frustration of not being able to jump well was diluted by some kind of wonderful little joy, and she suddenly felt that practicing long jump was not such a troublesome thing.
At the seaside, on the beach, in the quiet and deserted early morning, bathing in the warm rising sun, the two practiced over and over again.
Finally, there is some progress.
After becoming more proficient in the movements, Liu Zhiyi successfully jumped a distance of meters, reaching the excellent line for the first time.
Looking back at where his legs landed, he was right on the edge of the excellent line. Liu Zhiyi was so happy, as if he had passed the exam.
Fang Wei was so tired. He obviously didn't jump. His body wasn't tired, but his heart was tired!
"Have you found some feeling yet?"
"found it!"
"Then you should practice a few more times to consolidate your knowledge."
"Uh-huh!"
Liu Zhiyi was excited. Without Fang Wei's instruction, she ran back to the starting line and practiced again and again. Fang Wei squatted on the sand and watched her jump like a little frog in front of him.
The brilliant sea and sky, the girl's profile, and the bouncing ponytail are truly a rare and beautiful scenery.
"Great practice! Applause!"
Fang Wei started clapping his hands.
"whee."
Liu Zhiyi took a breath, used her little finger to hook the hair that fell on her cheeks behind her ears, and smiled brightly.
"Let's go, it's almost time, we'll continue practicing tomorrow."
"it is good!"
The two left the beach and trotted back along the way they came.
The sound of the tide and the two lines of footprints left on the beach are particularly clear in the sun...
……
The third year of junior high school is different from the third year of high school. If it is the third year of high school, the whole year will probably be mainly review and exams, while the third year of junior high school will still be mainly normal classes. It is estimated that the periodic review will not begin until halfway through the next semester.
Today's classrooms are on the fourth floor, and there is no more noise from students older than them on the floor. The advantage is that it has become quieter, but the disadvantage is that the way to the cafeteria has become farther.
In order to avoid waiting in line for a long time, Fang Wei and the other three simply went downstairs later for lunch.
Taking advantage of this time, Liu Zhiyi opened his schoolbag, took out a neat stack of manuscript paper, and placed it respectfully on Fang Wei's desk.
"what is this?"
"That's what I said this morning..."
She is a person of integrity! Since Fang Wei has already taught her how to long jump, then according to the agreement, she naturally has to show him her new work.
In fact, she didn't mind showing it to him. After all, Fang Wei was the only person she could share common topics with regarding writing and reading. If she had to choose someone to review her work before submitting it, it could only be him.
All in all, she has published six articles under the pen name Nanfeng, making her a relatively well-known author in Mengya magazine.
But she was very low-key. Not only did her classmates not know that she was secretly writing and submitting articles, even the editor Bai Yun didn't know that she was actually a junior high school student!
Picking up the manuscript she handed over, Fang Wei became interested and opened it with a chuckle.
"Why is it so thick this time? My great writer Miss Nanfeng, what article did you write this time?"
"You, keep your voice down!"
Liu Zhiyi's pretty face turned red, and she pinched him secretly in annoyance.
"The south wind is the south wind, and I am me... and I am not a great writer... and this time I am not writing an article..."
"what?"
"It's a novel."
"what?"
Fang was surprised. She had always submitted articles, but this time she finally started to try writing a novel?
"Then I must read it carefully!"
"..."
"Chasing Summer, author: Nan Feng, introduction...hiss!"
Before Fang Wei finished reading, she pinched his waist again. He turned around and saw the girl's red face and warning look.
“Don’t read it out loud!!”
"..."
Okay, Fang Wei, just be quiet.
The title of the book is still quite literary. If it were placed in an online novel in later generations, such a literary title would definitely fail. However, as a physical publication, this literary title is still quite popular.
Just looking at the title of the book, Fang Wei was completely confused. After reading the introduction and the opening story, he roughly knew what her new work was about.
The story describes the growth story of a little girl named Xu Wanwan, who was born in the late 1980s, from her kindergarten to her junior high school graduation. Through her delicate brushstrokes, the growth process of children of this era is shown through Xu Wanwan, a little girl with mild delusions, such as the worries about going to school, family changes, childhood sweethearts, and daydreaming in class, etc.
Silence passed between the two of them, and the sound of the fan turning in the classroom was particularly clear.
While Fang Wei was reading, Liu Zhiyi seemed restless. She would curl her hair with her fingers, then turn her head to look at him, and frequently change her sitting position to look at his expression while he was reading, or to look at the scenery outside the fourth-floor window.
Occasionally, when Fang Wei looked up at her with amusement, she would pinch him.
"Why are you looking at me? Just concentrate on reading the manuscript."
"...good good."
The manuscript she handed over was not long, and Fang Wei finished reading it quickly.
"How, how is it?"
Liu Zhiyi turned around and asked him with a look of nervous anticipation.
"…You haven't finished writing this yet? Only 20,000 words? It feels like I've only just read the beginning!"
"I still have tens of thousands of words of manuscripts at home..."
"Show it to me!"
"No."
Liu Zhiyi said: "Tell me how it started first, and then I'll show you the rest..."
"Are you still playing with the fragments?"
"So what's going on?"
Seeing that she was anxious, Fang Wei had no choice but to give an evaluation on this beginning.
"Very good. I can see a lot of myself in Xu Wanwan. It's a wonderful youth experience. Your writing is also good. It's fresh, bright and delicate. It shows growth, persistence, loneliness and transformation. It may still be immature in some places, but it is precisely this immaturity that makes the sincerity in the text more touching."
"Really?"
"real!"
Fang Wei gave her novel a very warm affirmation, which was of course not a compliment. Although it was not as profound as those traditional literary novels, as far as youth novels were concerned, she wrote it really well. You know, this was her debut work. It can be seen that although the protagonist of the story is Xu Wanwan, a large part of the plot in the story was adapted from her personal experience.
After getting Fang Wei's affirmation, Liu Zhiyi seemed quite happy.
“Zhiyi, you really are a writer now!”
"How can there be..."
She took out her little buckwheat pillow from the drawer and buried her face in it. She laughed and couldn't help but hit him gently with her little hands.
Every movement and reaction of hers seemed so adorable, which was a huge contrast to her usual cold and serious demeanor in front of outsiders...
"Does the editor know that your next work is a novel?"
"do not know yet."
Liu Zhiyi sat up straight, hugging the pillow and leaning against the wall: "I, I just want to give it a try first. I'll see if it passes the manuscript or not. After all, this is my first book, and my expectations are very low..."
"Ah? Have you started stacking armor so early? It's obviously very good to read, especially for female readers. Your book will definitely be very popular!"
"~~~"
She lifted the pillow to cover her face, and her ears turned red with embarrassment.
“So how many words have you written now?”
"Eighty thousand words~"
"Just show me 20,000 words?"
"I'll let you watch the rest next time... If you teach me how to long jump once, I'll let you watch it once..."
"hehe."
Fang Wei rolled his eyes and asked curiously, "How many words do you plan to write in this book?"
She stretched out two tender fingers... then popped out another, making it three.
"At least 300,000 words!! Isn't that too long?"
"Um……"
Indeed, a novel of 300,000 words can definitely be called a long masterpiece...
(End of this chapter)
