Chapter 673 Not Nervous“Today, the college entrance examination just ended. The people in our factory talked about it. A few of our employees have children taking the examination this year. They said that after their children finished taking the examinations, all of them became so skinny. It’s too tough. Nan Nan, don’t give yourself too much pressure during this time of the year next year. I think you’ve been studying consistently. Next year, you should relax more when the college entrance examination approaches. Read less if you can.”
His colleague’s child studied so much that he contracted a bad headache and was admitted to the hospital directly. Qiao Dongliang shuddered at the thought of it.
Qiao Nan nodded and accepted Qiao Dongliang’s good intention.
Qiao Dongliang had been eating and drinking normally these few days. He did not behave oddly at all. Qiao Nan could not help but remind him. “Dad, sister also took the college entrance examination this year.” Hence, they also had a student taking the college entrance examination in the family this year.
Today was the last day of the college entrance examination. Was her father not worried and concerned about Qiao Zijin’s situation?
“Your sister…” Qiao Dongliang smiled. “Since a young age, your sister has never felt nervous during the examinations. This is quite a good thing too. Regardless of whether she’s nervous or not, her results wouldn’t change.”
It was not that Qiao Dongliang was not nervous, but there was nothing for him to be nervous about.
There were so many students who took the college entrance examination every year. Only those parents who cared very much about their children’s studies and those whose children had been doing well would feel anxious and place so much emphasis on this.
Toward Qiao Zijin, this daughter of his, Qiao Dongliang only adopted one mindset: The opportunities in this society favored the educated. As long as Qiao Zijin was willing to, a woman would definitely not be disadvantaged if she studied more. Nevertheless, he did not have expectations for Qiao Zijin’s grades. It would be fine no matter how the grades she received were.
The Qiao family no longer had another sum of money to enroll Qiao Zijin into another school.
The less psychological burden he had, naturally, Qiao Dongliang was able to let it go.
s.h.i.+ Qing secretly gave Qiao Nan a thumbs-up. She felt that Qiao Nan’s influence on Qiao Dongliang was too great. His daughter was having the college entrance examination. Could he not be worried just because he said so?
Qiao Nan slapped away s.h.i.+ Qing’s thumb. Her father wanted to show concern but could he do
so?
Besides the usual festive occasions, Qiao Zijin basically would not appear or come back. It had been almost two years. Qiao Zijin had never informed his father of her specific address.
Even if her father had the intention to visit Qiao Zijin and her mother and see if they had been doing well, her father did not even know where to look for them. He did not even know the phone number that could reach Qiao Zijin.
Whenever her father felt a little concern for Qiao Zijin, there was no avenue for him to show his concern at all.
After a long time, her father was used to not thinking about Qiao Zijin’s matters. This did not have anything to do with her.
Two years ago, she had clearly told her father that, regardless of her father’s decision, he had to follow his own heart. He did not even need to care about her opinions.
If her father wished to show concern for Qiao Zijin or send her money, she would not utter a word, and neither would she interfere.
As such, she should not be blamed for her father’s att.i.tude toward Qiao Zijin, and neither could she take any ‘credit’ for this.
She would not utter a single word regarding anything that had to do with her mother and Qiao Zijin. She just wanted to wash her hands off their matters. It was best that they did not have anything to do with each other.
s.h.i.+ Qing was stunned. She shook her head continuously.
One could rub others the wrong way. Qiao Zijin and that Auntie Ding whom she had not met before was simply Qiao Nan’s Achilles heel. One should not touch it. If they did, Qiao Nan would explode as if she had consumed a bomb.
However, when she recalled the information that she had gathered about the Qiao family before, she could completely empathize with Qiao Nan.
“s.h.i.+ Qing, the same goes for you. Don’t give yourself too much pressure. Both of your grades are usually quite good. You don’t even need to perform beyond expectations. It will do if you just perform as you usually do. The two of you can attend the universities in the capital together. Your future will definitely be quite good.”
“Uncle Qiao, you’re so relaxed. Don’t you know that all the teachers in our school said that for the college entrance examination next year, it’s highly possible that Qiao Nan will be the top humanities scorer in the province for Ping Cheng High School?” She still needed to perform exceptionally if she wanted to be the top scorer. As for her own situation, s.h.i.+ Qing was a little embarra.s.sed to say anything. After all, comparing to Qiao Nan, there was nothing great about her.
If not for the fact that the college entrance examination for the humanities and science subjects were held concurrently, given Qiao Nan’s ability, she could, in fact, take part in both.
If Qiao Nan was involved, she did not know for certain what would happen to the science department’s results.
The fifth position in the cohort that Qiao Nan clinched previously was not counted. After all, there was still one whole year for Qiao Nan to pick up the knowledge.
“Top scorer?” Qiao Dongliang first laughed and then resumed his normal self immediately after. “Don’t talk about the top scorer. It’ll be best if she can do it. If not, it’s not considered a misstep either. Nan Nan, please don’t give yourself too much pressure just because of the a.s.sessment that the teachers gave you or aim for first place in the province. Actually… Really, it will suffice that s.h.i.+ Qing and you maintain your current standards.”
That said, was Nan Nan working so hard as she was aiming to be the top scorer of the province?
Nan Nan was giving herself so much pressure and had to make herself so outstanding. At the end of the day, it was because of the Zhai family, right?
If not for Zhai Sheng, it would not be so tough for Nan Nan.
From this perspective, Qiao Dongliang actually did not quite favor Zhai Sheng, this future son-in-law.
“The teachers in your school are too much. Nothing tangible is yet in sight. Why are they spreading this without any basis?” At the thought of what happened to his colleague’s child this year, Qiao Dongliang felt anxious.
If Nan Nan was under too much pressure, would she also suffer the same fate as those children and had to be hospitalized due to a headache that resulted from too much studying?
“Dad, don’t be anxious. I’m not nervous. Really.” Within a short time and a few words, Qiao Nan saw that s.h.i.+ Qing had successfully made her father panic. Qiao Nan quickly consoled him. “I won’t give myself so much pressure. I’ve never set such a feat as a goal. My thinking is quite simple. I just wish to attend a good college, complete my studies, and find a good job in the future.”
“Yes, Uncle Qiao, relax. We know all this. However, the teachers have never said it in front of Qiao Nan or made her promise that she’ll clinch first place in humanities for the school next year. The teachers are just purely pinning their high hopes on Qiao Nan. How will the teachers in the school not know the logic about pulling up a seedling and mistakenly think that they’re helping it grow?”
Having known that she had got herself into trouble, s.h.i.+ Qing quickly made amends.
If the teacher kept telling the student every day that the latter had to clinch the top place, the student would either perform badly because of the huge pressure or become too proud and complacent because he had gained too much teachers’ affirmation. In the end, the student would not do well.
The probability of this happening was very high.
Hence, the teachers would not possibly do that. It would backfire and make a mess of the situation.