Six o'clock in the morning on June 3rd.
Ai Liang got up on time as usual and didn't make any changes because of the exam.
Ordinary turning on the faucet, ordinary applying toothpaste, ordinary brushing your teeth.
Except for the fact that his hands didn't move, he was no different from an ordinary boy.
The heavy rain outside the house didn't get any better. It was worse than last night.
Moreover, there was a strong wind today. In this kind of weather, it is difficult to protect the whole body with just an umbrella. At least the pants are bound to get wet.
Ai Liang stood on the balcony and watched for a while, then returned to the bedroom and took out a black raincoat and put it on.
Many pedestrians chose to wear raincoats.
At half past six, Ai Liang walked into a familiar breakfast shop.
"Good morning, Ai Liang, I haven't seen you here for more than half a month. I thought you were tired of my steamed buns."
The boss complained but his attitude remained the same as before, and he greeted Ai Liang warmly.
"The exam is coming soon, I've been quite busy recently." Ai Liang sat down near the counter.
Affected by the heavy rain, there were far fewer customers in the store than before. Because there was no parking space in front of the store, most parents chose to cook at home or take the buns home, and not many people ate in the store.
The boss put the tofu buns and steamed buns on the table: "Today seems to be the day of the high school entrance examination. Have you decided which school to go to?"
"A relatively far school." Ai Liang said.
"Does that mean you can't come here to have breakfast anymore?" The boss's expression changed slightly and he said with emotion: "I'm really not used to it when I have to leave suddenly after so many years."
Ai Liang smiled and said, "If you're not used to it, you can deliver takeout to me."
"Has your boy changed his gender?" The boss looked at Ai Liang in surprise, "In the past, he was like a cicada in winter. Why are you talking so much today? Have you got a girlfriend?"
"No, I just want to try to change my image recently."
"It's good that you've changed. You used to be like a little old man with a cold face all day long. If you keep that character, you won't be able to make friends in high school." The boss said while nodding.
He looked outside the store and saw that no customers were coming in. The boss simply walked out of the counter and sat down opposite Ai Liang.
There are not many customers, so there is no need to be busy making noodles and preparing raw materials. The buns made in the early morning are enough to sell.
"Are you planning to live on campus?" he asked.
"Rent a house outside." Ai Liang picked up a bun and put it directly into his mouth without caring about the temperature of the bun.
The boss propped his elbows on the table and looked outside the store: "The school is far away, so it's better to live on campus. If you encounter any trouble, there will be someone around to help."
"It's all the same." Ai Liang said vaguely: "It's just a different place to live. We are all alone. There is no difference from our current life."
The boss was speechless after hearing this.
He had asked about Ai Liang's family situation when chatting with guests before. Maybe for this child, it was really just a change of place to live.
The boss didn't know what to say, so he sat quietly across from him and watched Ai Liang eat.
When Ai Liang was about to check out, the boss waved his hand and said, "The exam is coming soon, so this is my treat, just to celebrate your good grades in advance."
Ai Liang was not polite to the boss, said thank you, put on his raincoat and left.
"It's really changed a lot." The boss said to himself as he cleared the table.
If it were the former Ai Liang, he would scan the QR code to pay even if the boss said he didn't need to pay. He would not accept other people's kindness at all, just like he didn't want to interact with anyone.
With this change, the boss who watched Ai Liang grow up was sincerely happy for him and hummed a ditty.
...
On the bus, Ai Liang looked out the window.
The once deserted motorway is now crowded with candidates and parents rushing to the examination room, seriously affecting traffic.
Most of these candidates are taking exams in their own school, because the school will organize collective actions for candidates who are not in the school's examination room. They must gather at the school at six in the morning and take a bus to the examination center. After all, some examination centers are a bit far away. Taking into account factors such as weather and traffic, it is necessary to Leave early.
Of course, many parents insist on sending their children to the examination center in person, which is the main cause of traffic jams.
When the bus arrived, Ai Liang silently got off the bus from the back door and squeezed into the crowd.
The rain was so heavy that people's faces could hardly be seen clearly, as if a big hand from the sky was holding a showerhead to water the city.
Wearing a raincoat is a very wise decision. There are crowds of people near the school, and the height of the umbrellas varies due to different heights. The rain falls along the edge of the umbrella and falls on shorter people, regardless of whether they have an umbrella or not.
It doesn't matter if you have to look up at other people's nostrils to speak. Even if you hold an umbrella when it rains, you will suffer a loss. This allows the dwarfs to fully feel the malice of the world.
Ai Liang squeezed to the school gate. There were many unfamiliar faces in front of the familiar school gate. These were candidates from other schools. They were either accompanied by their parents or gathered in twos and threes under the leadership of the teacher, surrounding the school gate. The water is blocked.
Ai Liang saw Yue Qihua and others in the crowd, but he did not choose to go up to say hello but chose to lean on the fence alone.
Yang Xingguo stood next to the two of them and chatted with Ma Yu's father. Ai Liang didn't want to meet that paranoid at all.
I'd better return the umbrella tomorrow.
Ai Liang thought as he looked at the folding umbrella in his hand.
Not long after, the security guard finally opened the school's main door, and the crowd swarmed in like sardines.
Ai Liang had already seen his examination room outside the school. He did not follow the crowd and rush to the notice board but went straight into the teaching building.
After going through security check and fingerprint verification, Ai Liang sat on the seat with his name tag.
All the extra tables, chairs and benches in the classroom have been stored in the corners. It seems that the teachers at the school were busy after school last night.
The first test was Chinese. As long as the basic skills were solid, Ai Liang had already finished it all.
This is because writing too many Chinese words is a waste of time. If you switch to subjects such as mathematics and foreign languages, the battle can be solved in half an hour.
After finishing the test paper, Ai Liang memorized the answer sheet and began to hold his chin in a daze with nothing to do, much like the invigilator on the podium who looked serious but was actually distracted.
The expressionless invigilator looked majestic, with an air of the Inquisition, as if he would be kicked out of the examination room if he was offended.
In fact, they don't know what expression they should make.
The high school entrance exam is not like the usual monthly exams, mid-term exams, and final exams in your own school. In normal exams, you can wander around to see how the students did on the test papers, or put your phone on silent and watch videos and read novels to pass the time.
For this kind of large-scale exam, the invigilator can do nothing but stare at the students one after another in a daze. It is so boring. The key is that there are cameras watching and you can't even sleep on your stomach.
The invigilator on the podium scanned the classroom with dead fish eyes, and then discovered Ai Liang, an alien.
