Qiao Dongliang was a traditional man. He had never stepped inside his daughters' room before.
Last time round was the first time he had stepped into his elder daughter's room; and today was the first time he went into the younger daughter's room.
Because of this, Qiao Dongliang was shocked when he saw that Nan Nan's room was only a third the size of Zijin's room. In fact, his study room was twice as big as hers.
"Dad." Qiao Nan did not answer but stared at Qiao Dongliang, wondering what was the matter.
"Nan Nan, wait a minute." The younger daughter might be used to it and have no grievances but Qiao Dongliang could not bear it.
Without a word, Qiao Dongliang went into the study room, packed everything and put it in the living room.
He then dismantled Qiao Nan's bed and brought it piece by piece to the study room.
"Old Qiao, what are you doing now?" Ding Jiayi heard noises and came out from the kitchen. She saw Qiao Dongliang bringing in Qiao Nan's bed into the study room.
Qiao Dongliang did not bother to look at Ding Jiayi, he said curtly, "Nan Nan's room is way too small, I am going to switch the study room with her bedroom."
"That will not do. That room is not big enough for a big man like you. You would be so cramped there. She is so petite, she doesn't need such a big room."
Ding Jiayi wanted to stop Qiao Dongliang. Though she disliked the younger daughter, she treated her husband fairly well. She couldn't bear to see a 1.8 meter tall man like him, cramped up to read in the room that was as small as a sparrow's nest.
"Since a big man like me might be uncomfortable, then let's have Zijin switched rooms with Nan Nan?" Qiao Dongliang was amused and angered.
Old Ding was not showing favoritism, she was treating Nan Nan like an outsider.
"That won't do. Qiao Nan is the youngest in the house. Why can't she stay in a small room?"
"A day has 24 hours, I only use the room for a few hours. But Nan Nan has to sleep in the room. She has stayed there for so many years, so why can't I?"
Qiao Dongliang just could not get through to Ding Jiayi. He harbored no hopes of Ding Jiayi coming to her senses and offering to help him. He moved the bed into the study room and assembled it.
Qiao Dongliang took out all his books. But the desk and chair had no place to go. "Nan Nan, I will leave them for you, I will think of ways to get some wood and make another set for myself."
Compared to the elder daughter's room that was well-furnished, the younger daughter's room was not only small, it was also without a desk and chair.
All these years the two daughters had been doing their studying in their rooms, Qiao Dongliang could not imagine how the younger daughter had made it through those times.
All along Ding Jiayi had kept it from him and Qiao Nan was too quiet, never uttering a word of complaint.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, the saying was very true.
Qiao Dongliang was an inattentive father and furthermore Qiao Nan never once complained. So he had no idea that the elder daughter and younger daughter were treated so differently. If any, he thought it was only a slight difference in the treatment.
"Thank you, Dad." Qiao Nan nodded and accepted her father's suggestions.
"Nan Nan, I will get you a lock later. You are a young lady now, this room will be under your care." Qiao Dongliang thought for a moment, and decided to get the lock and install it for her the next day.
Qiao Nan's eyes turned red and she felt warm inside. Her voice was choked up with tears, ''Okay."
She was such a letdown in her previous life, her mother disliked her, and her father gave up on her.
In fact, her father was a good father. She did not know how to cherish him; she had let down the few people who really cared for her once and again.
"Dad, I had tests today." Qiao Nan once gave up in despair, but now she realized that she had family love. Qiao Dongliang was a good father to Qiao Nan. She could not help but start crying. "I… I fear that I did not do well for my tests, Dad, will you be disappointed in me?" And give up on me just as in the previous life?
Qiao Dongliang was completely at a loss seeing the younger daughter in tears. He wanted to wipe away the tears. "Don't cry, I have given you my promise that you have half a year's time. Even if you did not do well this time, you can strive for better results next time. I believe that you will definitely be able to catch up."
Qiao Dongliang spoke with confidence. He truly believed that the younger daughter would be able to catch up on her studies.
When the elder daughter flunked her middle school exams, she never even cried once for her results.
"Nan Nan, no hurry. There's still half a year to go. Don't stress yourself out." Qiao Dongliang thought for a moment and added. He knew that some of the kids at the quad have always been doing well, but because they were too stressed, when it was time for the final exams, they failed to perform and fumbled the ball.
"Okay." Embarrassed, Qiao Nan wiped the tears off her face. She was no longer a fifteen-year-old kid; mentally, she was already thirty now, yet she was still crying her guts out in front of her father.
"Mom." Qiao Zijin went to the kitchen looking for Ding Jiayi. She heard Ding Jiayi ranting to herself. "Mom, don't be angry. Nan Nan is already in tears."
Ding Jiayi was startled. "What's there to cry about? I should be the one crying. Now Old Qiao treats me just like the step mother of that wretched girl. The whole world now revolves around her, what's there for her to cry about?"
"I seemed to hear Nan Nan said that she did not do well in her tests today." Qiao Zijin smirked. If Qiao Nan did not do well, did it mean that it would not take one year's time; that within half a year, she would quit school and work?
"How is that possible?" Ding Jiayi did not believe her. "She was burning with fever when she had her exams in the final year of elementary school, yet she came in fifth place in the school. She couldn't possibly have screwed it up."
When the subject was about the younger daughter's results, Ding Jiayi had no doubts at all. She trusted that she would do well for her exams.
It was another story if those were syllabi that Qiao Nan had never learned. If not, she would never flunk her exams.
Qiao Zijin was upset. Whenever she sat for exams, her mother would asked about her results anxiously. "It was definitely true. Nan Nan said it herself. She was shocked to tears. Mom, maybe she was down with fever a few days ago and it burnt her brain."
She clearly remembered that right before Qiao Nan kicked up a fuss, she went into Qiao Nan's room that morning and felt her forehead, it was burning hot.
"Burnt her brains? Yes, but she burnt her conscience not her brains. But, did she really said that she flunked it?
"Flunked it."
Ding Jiayi thought for a moment. "Don't be too happy. Your Dad promised to give her half a year's time. We would have to see if she is able to catch up on her studies by then. Maybe she has been using gimmicks all along. She might have memorized all the content in the textbooks. That's why now that I sold all the textbooks, she could not study for one whole summer break, and has finally shown her true colors.
Ding Jiayi has been through this before, so she could tell at once.
"Zijin, look at Qiao Nan, no matter how bad she is, she is very hardworking in her studies. You are as intelligent as me, if you put in more effort and time, you would definitely be better than Qiao Nan. I would do anything for you. You must strive and work hard so that I can stand up straight in front of your Dad!"
She has devoted everything into nurturing the elder daughter. She must be successful to prove that she was right all along.
"I understand, Mom. Don't worry, I will study hard. When I enter high school I will catch up on my my studies and I will definitely make you proud." Qiao Zijin felt a twinge of guilt at using up all the savings at home.
"Alright, school starts tomorrow. Remember to do more reading. Worst comes to worst, just memorize all the textbooks. If Qiao Nan can do it, so can you."
Ding Jiayi was brimming with confidence. It seemed that she could already see the day whereby the elder daughter enrolled into college.
"Okay." Qiao Zijin smiled happily. But she became depressed when she was back in her room.
It did not matter whether Ding Jiayi was unhappy or not, the study room ended up being Qiao Nan's new room, and Qiao Nan's old room now became Qiao Dongliang's study room.
Though Ding Jiayi bickered with Qiao Dongliang about this, seeing that he had made up his mind, that night she straightened and tidied up the new study room.
The next day Qiao Dongliang was home earlier than usual. As soon as he reached home, he headed for Qiao Nan's room, took a look inside and installed a lock outside her room. Ding Jiayi was boiling with anger.
What was this lock for? To guard against who?
It was definitely not to keep out thieves, it must be to guard against her!
Qiao Nan, who was at school, had no idea of this at all. Back in the classroom, people were discussing her unusual performance in the recent exams.
Teacher Chen had intended to have a talk with Qiao Nan. But when he saw how dejected she looked, he could not bear to say another word. "Qiao Nan, though you did not do well this time, you have a strong foundation, and your performance was still pretty good in the class. It's just that you did not maintain your usual standard. If you meet with any problems in your studies, feel free to come to me, understand?"
Qiao Nan had never scored below 90 points for her Maths exams, a full score was the usual case.
This time she scored 85 points; to others it was a pretty good result, but to Qiao Nan it was an unprecedented low score.
In this round of pre-testing, there were more than 240 students from secondary three. Qiao Nan used to be among the top ten, but now she was ranked at around 70th to 80th place.
If it had not been for Teacher Chen who noticed Qiao Nan's results and insisted on finding out the ranking for individual subjects, Qiao Nan would know her exact ranking among the cohort.
Teacher Chen pondered for a while and walked up to Qiao Nan. "Qiao Nan, how did you spend your summer break? Did you do some revision?"
In the past, Teacher Chen never had to worry about Qiao Nan's studies, but this time he was shocked by Qiao Nan's results.
Qiao Nan did not know if she should be sad or relieved. The best result in her class was a score of 92 points and her result of 85 points was actually considered above average.
Picking up what she used to study in school was really not an easy task. Qiao Nan could feel despair sinking in.
"All my textbooks are gone."
"Gone?" Teacher Chen looked at Qiao Nan in surprise. "Where have they gone?"
"My Mom sold them."
After the rebirth, Qiao Nan had sorted out her thoughts. She would no longer hide the deeds her mother has done. No, she did not wanted to gain sympathy, it was just that she felt it necessary for people concerned to understand her situation and to give her a helping hand when needed.
She really needed her teacher's help to give her some coaching in order for her to work on her results and to catch up to her usual standard.
Teacher Chen was rendered speechless. They would be doing revision in the second half of secondary three. There wouldn't be any new knowledge points. The middle school exams would cover a large portion of secondary one and two syllabus.
What kind of parents would sell all the textbooks when they knew that their child would be taking the exams soon? Was it intentional?
Thinking of what he overheard recently Teacher Chen asked, "Qiao Nan, I heard that your sister enrolled in the The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China?"
The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China was a good high school in the area, but it was not easy to enroll in.
"Yes, today is the enrollment, she will be starting school officially." Qiao Nan was stunned for a moment. The saying was right, good news went unnoticed while bad news travels fast.
The act of using money to buy results might not be news ten years later, but it was very rare now. Furthermore, her mother used that money to pull strings instead of buying results.
If father knew that mother went to look for that grandpa all because of Qiao Zijin, he would surely explode in anger.
Teacher Chen's countenance fell.
If one would say that Qiao Nan could enroll in the The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, he would have no doubt about it; but Qiao Zijin? He did not believe it. Besides, it was hard fact that Qiao Zijin has always been an average student, there was no way that she could make it to that high school.
Teacher Chen did not wish to speculate about how Qiao Zijin manage to enroll in that high school, let alone make wild conjectures about Qiao Nan's mother purpose in selling her textbooks.
Teacher Chen was puzzled when Qiao Nan had only scored 85 points in the exams. But now he understood and felt sorry for her instead. "It's alright if your textbooks are gone. I will come up with a solution. Your foundation is good, there's still a year to go, you can definitely catch up. You know the way to my house. Whenever you have any questions, feel free to come looking for me. Understand?"
"Thank you, teacher." Qiao Nan no longer felt dispirited. She plucked up her courage and said, "Regarding my textbooks, I have already settled the problem."
"How?"
"I went to the thrift shop to buy a set of textbooks. I have been reading up. I will definitely trouble you for areas that I am unclear of."
Teacher Chen smiled. "No troubles at all. Qiao Nan, don't give yourself too much stress. You must learn to strike a balance between work and rest, understand?"
"Alright, I will."
Maths results were out, next would be Chinese and English.
Qiao Nan's grade for Chinese was about the same as her Maths. She scored a few marks above eighty. It was an average grade. For those questions that required memorizing, she scored zero marks for them.
Those students who did not know the inside story were all shocked when they found out that Qiao Nan had not fared well for two subjects in a row. Some were gloating while some were speculating that something must have gone wrong with her, either she had become stupid or she had gone astray.
The top student that they all looked up to had fallen from grace in just one summer break's time?Top student to slacker in two months' time?
The Chinese subject was taught by a pretty and gentle female teacher. Teacher Lee was exasperated when she saw Qiao Nan's results. She did not get a good sleep last night, her mind was preoccupied with how she was going to knock some sense into Qiao Nan. She did not want her to feel that since her results has always been good, there was no need to put in hard work. She had thoroughly disappointed her with her results.
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