Chapter 66: Four Joys Arrive at the Door

  Happy days always pass quickly, and before you know it, the day to check grades has arrived. At 8 o'clock in the evening, it's time to check scores. During dinner, my mother was muttering there, "Baby, Zhanfeng, you can check your scores tonight, don't forget, okay?"

  I didn't say anything to my cousin, although I felt pretty good about myself. But exams really do require luck, and I deeply experienced that in the past - I had a bad performance in the junior high school entrance exam, a bad performance in the high school entrance exam, and I thought to myself, "Can't heaven be kinder to me?" I should at least perform normally in the college entrance exam, but unfortunately, it was still abnormal. All of these are nothing now, as I thought I could bid farewell to my bad luck with exams after entering university, but it turned out that I just changed from failing exams to failing courses and certifications. Not even "hanging on" worked. However, things have been much better since I was reborn, but there's no guarantee that I won't mess up at critical moments again, so my heart is still a bit nervous. My cousin isn't doing much better than me either - he's usually good at math, but not great at Chinese and English. This time, the difficult part of the Chinese exam was the essay, with the topic "Seeking", which really left him bewildered. And then there's the English listening section... In short, he privately told me that he's worried about whether he can get into First Middle School.

  Dad saw that my cousin and I weren't talking, so he said: "Wife, haven't they already taken the exam? The results are already set, it doesn't matter if we check them a bit late or early. Now is dinner time, let's not talk about such heavy topics. Let's talk about buying a computer instead." Mom's eyes widened, and Dad immediately stopped talking too. All I heard was Mom saying: "Actually, it's not that I want to keep an eye on you two all the time. It's just that if we don't stop, we'll keep thinking about it. Forget it, let's talk about something else." Dad quickly agreed. With a very accomplished tone, Mom said: "Okay, now I have some good news to share with everyone - I've officially become a partner of Niang Yi Ren! How about that? Be happy for me!"

  My dad applauded first, and my cousin and I also clapped our hands and said "good" repeatedly. At this time, we couldn't say anything bad or depressing, otherwise it would be asking for trouble. My uncle continued: "Sister, since you mentioned that, I also have a piece of good news to share with everyone. My building has been completed, and the company is about to open. However, not all the stores on other floors have been rented out yet. I have an idea - why don't you expand your store, Niuniu, into a brand fashion store in N City? Right now, it's just a regular specialty store in N City. You can make it a flagship store, and your current specialty store can be the entrance. What do you think?"

  Mom's eyes lit up as soon as she heard, and said: "Mao Di, this is a great idea! Tomorrow I'll call the boss's wife and discuss this idea. If it works out, I can finally design my own clothes! I've been waiting for this day for so long!" Dad happily said: "Wife, I fully support you, just let me know if there's anything I can help with. The hotel business is still going smoothly, we can handle it."

  "Brother-in-law, don't just focus on helping your sister, don't forget that you are the largest shareholder of this Zhujing Building, and also the chairman. You should also make an effort to hurry up and advertise, we need to rent out the remaining shops as soon as possible. And have you ever thought about opening a hotel yourself? You're doing well in management, so managing your own hotel shouldn't be a problem either."

  "Dad was silent for a moment, then said: 'I'll do my best to help with the shop rental, but as for leaving and starting my own business, I need to think about it some more. After all, Lu Pengfei has been good to me, and if I leave now and start my own hotel, there are two possibilities: one is that my employees will follow me and we can make a success of the new hotel, and become competitors with him; the other is that they won't want to leave, and I'll have to find new people, which may not work out. I really think Lu Pengfei cares about our family's affairs, he doesn't seem like a bad person, and I don't want to stab him in the back. Of course, when I do decide to leave, I'll give him advance notice, I won't just leave without warning.' It turns out Dad had his own little plan all along! Uncle saw that Dad's mind was made up, so he didn't say anything else."

  By 7:30 in the evening, we all sat on the sofa ready to make a call at 8 o'clock. Of course, my father and uncle let us make the call ourselves and listen to the results, saying that if we can't even bear this much, how will we face the pressure of the middle school entrance examination and high school entrance examination in the future? My cousin and I were polite to each other, letting the other side go first. Uncle said "boys should be boys", so my cousin was forced to make the call first.

  At one to eight o'clock, my brother picked up the phone. I saw his hand slightly shaking as he carefully pressed each key until he finished pressing the last key. He clenched his fist and waited for the score announcement. However, unexpectedly, a busy tone came from the phone, asking him to wait a while before calling again.

  Brother let out a sigh of relief, hung up the phone, and his mother complained: "Why is it busy? We're not fast enough, really, did someone press the redial button?" Dad comforted Mom: "At this time, many parents are checking their scores, it's inevitable. Let's wait until 8:30 to check again, we'll definitely be able to get through. Calm down, our baby and Zhan Feng are the last ones, so they're coming out last."

  Time is passing so slowly, at 8:20, my brother couldn't bear it anymore. He said a phrase I usually say "early death and early birth", then he went to make another call. This time, surprisingly, the call was answered. A voice inside asked him to enter his admission ticket number. My brother trembled as he entered the number, then asked me to double-check if there were any mistakes. After confirming that everything was correct, he pressed the "#" key to confirm. The score announcement started: Chinese 89 points, Math 98 points, English 90 points, total 277 points.

  Older brother was overjoyed and jumped up, saying: "I scored exceptionally high, even higher than my usual highest score! Haha, I'm a cabbage, cabbage, cabbage, cabbage...!" Older brother was so excited that he couldn't express himself in words, and started singing. Grandma laughed and said: "What's with the cabbage? You're like a winter melon, getting carried away with excitement! Alright, alright, let's not get ahead of ourselves, we still need to check the scores for Little Sis, she definitely won't be lower than you, calm down for now."

  I heard my brother's score and knew he would definitely get into the best high school, because I clearly remembered that this year's admission line was 265 points, which is lower than previous years. I pretended to be calm, but actually my heart was racing, and quickly connected the phone call, entered the test number. The voice on the phone said: Chinese 98 points, math 100 points, English 100 points, total score 298 points, ranking first in the city. When I heard this result, I was stunned, my mom jumped up and said: "Honey, did I hear it wrong? Our daughter got the first place?" My dad pulled my mom down to sit and said: "It seems not wrong, I also heard the same result, let's call again to confirm."

  My mom dialed the phone again with trembling hands, and the result was still the same. My mom happily hugged me and said: "Baby, you're so great! You really made a big splash!"

  Cousin brother smiled and said: "Cousin sister, you're so amazing! Just now I was thinking that this time I could get a little closer to you, but unexpectedly you scored the first place in the whole city. You made me feel ashamed. However, since my cousin sister is the first, I also have face now, so we should be able to attend No. 1 Middle School together..."

  I was naturally overjoyed, but on the surface I remained pretty calm, not jumping three feet high or anything that exaggerated, but think about it, someone from a previous generation who usually doesn't do well in exams suddenly becoming the top scorer in the whole city, they must have been so excited they couldn't take it.

  Dad suggested we celebrate tomorrow, the whole family was filled with joy. Grandma laughed so hard that she couldn't close her mouth and said: "I'm the grandma of a champion! I'm so happy! And our grandson got into No. 1 Middle School, my daughter is going to open her own store, and my son is going to start his own company. It's really four joys coming together! Zheng Gang was right, we must celebrate well tomorrow!"

  My brother and I exchanged a glance, and in unison said: "And our computer can be cashed out too." Dad smiled and said: "Okay okay." Uncle made an OK gesture with his hand and said: "No problem, you guys just relax."

  Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night for me, I guess I'll be "sticking bread" on the bed in excitement until midnight.

  Dear readers, if you think the article is still readable and pleasing to the eye, please give some comments. It won't take too much time, just a light click of the mouse. You are the greatest motivation for me, thank you o(∩_∩)o

  I highly recommend it, others' new works with only 20-30 thousand words have already been recommended to be cute, can't "cute" really be that bad? My heart is chilled. Readers, where are you? Give some recommendations...