Chapter 6 Troubled Times

On the weekend, Sophia and Linda met at a newly opened bookstore on Flower Market Street.

"How about I go around and pick you up?" Linda suggested.

"No need, I'll just take a taxi there." Sophia responded.

"My deskmate, did you receive pocket money again?" Linda asked curiously.

"No." Sophia answered truthfully.

Mark and Susan seemed to have really forgotten, or they did it on purpose. They left early in the morning without any sign of giving her pocket money and living expenses for this month. However, this did not cause much trouble to Sophia , because she had expected it last night. She took out the pink piggy bank from the bookcase, smashed a hole in it, and took out the hundred-dollar bills inside. Although it was only a few hundred yuan, it was a huge sum of money for her. As long as she didn't spend it recklessly, the money would be enough for her to use for a while.

Sue family has four cars, ranging in value from 200,000 to 1 million, but Sophia is only 17 years old and has not yet obtained a driver's license, and the two drivers in the family are driving for Mark Susan , so she can only take a taxi.

As soon as the taxi passed through Chongwen Building, Linda sent a message, apparently she had already arrived at the bookstore: "Are all the top students from the attached high school coming to this bookstore to buy question sets? I just got off the car and I met several of them." Then, she sent a photo of the bookstore from a distance. The photo was full of people, and one figure was particularly tall. Sophia recognized it as David at a glance.

She was silent for a while, and suddenly said to the driver, "Master, please do me a favor. I don't want to go to that bookstore anymore. I have to go to Beijing City Affiliated High School for something urgent."

"Girl, are you kidding me? We're almost there." The driver said helplessly.

" Thank you, Master." Sophia insisted.

" Girl, think carefully. It's not cheap to take a taxi from Dongcheng to Xicheng back to Haidian." The driver reminded again.

Sophia didn't understand whether the driver was thinking about her or worried that she would run away, so she asked tentatively: "How about this, driver? You drop me off at the subway station and I'll take the subway to the affiliated high school? That would save a lot of money."

"Ah? Okay." Although the driver was a little surprised, he still agreed.

The subway station was just around the corner, and the taxi stopped quickly. The driver took out the payment QR code and turned to look at Sophia . Sophia looked a little embarrassed: "I'm sorry, I don't have any money in my phone ..."

The driver said, "It's okay, girl, forget about the fare. Don't go to the rich villa area in the future, because they are all cruel people. Are you a student of the affiliated high school? Study hard and get into a university, which is better than anything else ..."

However, Sophia had already pulled out a bulging pink wallet from her backpack and a hundred-dollar bill. The driver and Sophia were both stunned.

Sophia awkwardly handed over the bill: "I'll give cash."

The driver took the money stiffly and said, "...Girl, wait a moment. I'll give you the change."

"No need to change, thank you." Sophia said , and opened the door and got out of the car. She looked down at herself and found that her jeans were shorter and her white T- shirt was tighter. No wonder the driver misunderstood her.

There was a shopping district in front of the subway station, so Sophia simply found an ATM and deposited most of the cash into her card. After depositing the money, she just walked out of the ATM when Linda called her.

"Classmate, where have you been?" Linda's voice was a little noisy.

Amid the chaotic background noise, Sophia heard a familiar voice - David. He seemed to be saying to someone, "Let's go."

Sophia was immediately relieved. If David left the bookstore now, she wouldn't run into him in the past, right?

"I'm almost there. Did you find the book you wanted?" Sophia asked.

" I found one. This bookstore is really worth a visit. Hurry up, classmate. I'm waiting." Linda said excitedly.

"Yeah." Sophia responded.

Soon, Sophia arrived at the bookstore. This bookstore is large in scale, with exaggerated and fancy decoration, which is exactly the same style as the poster. The bookstore is clearly divided into different areas, and each area has a plaque, such as "Social Animal Recharge Area" and "Social Animal Relaxation Area", and high school students who are about to take the college entrance examination should be in the "Big Complainer Question Practice Area".

Sure enough, Sophia found Linda very quickly . Her academic classmate already had several books in his arms, and he was even more excited when he saw Sophia : "This is simply a treasure trove! Classmate, I love this store! The question sets here are great! I was afraid that they would be sold out, so I got you a set too."

As she spoke, Linda handed the book in her hand to Sophia.

Sophia took the book and said gratefully, "Thank you."

Relying on her vague memories of her past life, she found the ultimate mock exam papers for chemistry and biology in the bookstore, and also picked out a collection of Chinese language teacher's predictions. These were all books she had read in her past life, and she remembered that the questions in them had indeed predicted many college entrance examination questions.

After choosing the books, Sophia went to check out.

After checking out, Sophia and Linda walked out of the bookstore and ran into a group of classmates from the attached high school, both boys and girls, led by David . William next to David took the initiative to greet them: "What a coincidence, have you bought all the books?"

Sophia smiled politely in response, but her eyes were blank, not daring to look in David's direction. Linda looked over and said, "We've bought it. Didn't you just leave?"

"We're back together after a long journey! We finally met in East City, and we planned to have a meal and play together. Would you two like to come?" William invited.

"Come on, Linda, Sophia, we're all going!" other students also echoed.

"Yes, yes! It's more fun when there are more people!"

"So where are you guys going to meet up?" Linda asked.

" We're still discussing it! Xintiandi or New World? We haven't been there for a long time!" a classmate answered.

"New World!"

"I agree!"

"David, what do you think?" someone turned to David and asked.

David's eyes were slightly cold, looking across the crowd, and fell on Sophia. William understood immediately, so he turned around and asked Sophia: "Sophia, what do you think?"

Sophia was suddenly called upon. She shook the bag of books in her hand and said in a soft and distant voice, "I can't go! I just bought a new exercise book and I have to go back to school to practice!"

"Wow! You really aren't going? But our David is going!" a classmate said.

“It doesn’t matter if we practice questions for a while, right?” someone else chimed in.

Linda looked at Sophia approvingly and said with a smile, “You guys go have fun! My deskmate and I are going back to school! We bought a lot of question sets and can’t wait to go back and practice them! Have fun! See you at school!”

After saying that, Linda held the bag in her left hand, held Sophia's arm with her right hand, and walked hurriedly towards her family's white SUV.

William smiled helplessly: "......"

When he turned around, he found David standing there without moving his eyebrows or saying a word, but his white limited edition sneakers left the ground and he walked in the opposite direction. The crowd followed him in a mighty procession.

"Sophia seems to be different?" a classmate said.

" Yeah! Usually when I see David from afar , I want to sprint over to him! Why don't you go to such a good party today?"

"Don't tell me you have another goal?"

"Ahem! Stop talking nonsense!"

This group of people obviously didn't notice that David's face was so gloomy that it looked like it was going to rain, and the temperature around them was terribly low.

William smiled and tried to smooth things over: "Didn't Sophia just say that she had to go back and practice questions? Didn't you hear it?"

"Ah?" The other students expressed confusion.

"Then why does Sophia practice questions?" someone asked curiously.

"Take the entrance exam to Tsinghua University!" someone answered.

"Then why does Sophia want to apply to Tsinghua University?" someone else asked.

"Oh oh oh!! I understand!" A classmate suddenly realized.

" What do you understand?" Other students expressed dissatisfaction.

"Why don't I understand? Sophia endured the pain of doing the questions today so that she could go to the same school as David tomorrow! After all, the college entrance examination is less than a month away, and with her grades like these, she really should race against time!" the classmate explained.

"If you think about it carefully, Sophia's expression just now was indeed very forbearing!" someone echoed.

"Do you understand, David?" Someone turned and looked at David.

David suddenly stopped and looked at William: "You are such a meddlesome person." Then he continued walking forward.

William laughed in a filthy and joyful way, as if the person with the gloomy face just now was not him.