The Long Gown That Kong Yiji Could Not Take Off

Chapter 63

The young girl's bedroom.

Ye Zhenzhen was sitting at her desk studying. Hearing a noise from the balcony door, she immediately turned her head and glared over in flustered annoyance.

Seeing the fierce, almost man-eating look in the girl's eyes, Gu Ran shrank his neck.

"Wh-why are you looking at me like that?"

Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen's slender eyebrows arched up; she wanted to smack the test paper in her hand right onto his face!

Why am I looking at you like that? You tell me!

At the thought of what happened that morning, a blush uncontrollably crept up her face.

Feeling like she could barely maintain her dignity as an older sister, she quickly gave a light cough, rolled her eyes at him, and said, "What are you standing there for? Come over and study!"

"Oh..."

Gu Ran, holding his notebook, walked over cautiously, leaving himself an escape route with every step.

His eyes were full of vigilance.

The moment he noticed any sudden movement from the girl, he would immediately turn and run. There was no way he'd let her trick him into a trap!

It wasn't until he sat down next to her and his calf was kicked by a small foot wrapped in a pure white cotton sock that he finally relaxed.

Because according to his past experience, no matter how angry the Aloof Sister got, as long as she kicked him, the forgiving girl's anger would dissipate.

This was also the reason why he always made Ye Zhenzhen angry but was never afraid of getting beaten up.

Oh, wait, he just remembered that if this girl was pushed too far, she would bite...

"Why are you looking at me? Are there test questions on my face?"

Taking another kick to the calf, Gu Ran quickly and obediently took out his notebook, ready to study seriously.

Rolling her eyes at him again in exasperation, Ye Zhenzhen began to tidy up her desk.

For the sake of convenience, this lazy guy had put all his test papers, exercise books, and extracurricular reading materials in her room, making the area around her desk look like a bookstore.

Kicking off her slipper, she stepped on the top of his foot, her beautiful eyes narrowing as she glared at him again.

She couldn't understand why this guy, who clearly didn't like studying, had so many books.

They were all hardcover editions of essays and novels by authors from various countries, each costing dozens of yuan, and she had never even seen him open one!

Bah, what a spendthrift!

Would he ever be able to save enough money to marry a wife in the future?

The Motherly Sister started to worry again, breaking her heart over this younger brother.

She thought about everything she should and shouldn't think about, which was why Gu Ran privately said she was overflowing with maternal love.

She completely treated him like a son. What kind of stepsister worries about her stepbrother saving money for a wife?

Since she was so worried, should she just offer herself to him?

"We're not studying this today. I'm going to tutor you in Chinese."

Seeing Gu Ran pull out a math workbook, Ye Zhenzhen shook her head.

She picked up her silver-framed glasses and put them on, instantly giving off that specific vibe.

"Chinese?!"

Gu Ran blinked, earning himself another eye roll.

Gu Ran: "..."

Fine, fine, you just love rolling your eyes, don't you?

Just you wait!

"What else? Look at your Chinese answer sheet. Before, you actually had the nerve to brag that you didn't need tutoring in Chinese and that it definitely wouldn't drag your score down. Is this your idea of not dragging your score down?"

Putting on her glasses, Ye Zhenzhen, who had successfully transformed into a Stoic Sister, cleared her throat and gave him a scolding while holding his answer sheet with a score of 102.

Gu Ran: "..." x2

Who could have expected this result? He could only say that these Chinese teachers were overthinking things and being unreasonable.

What gave them the right to decide what the original author was thinking when writing that passage?

Even Yu Hua said that his works can be read but not comprehended, and had even roared, "Your father is the scarecrow, your whole family are scarecrows!"

The Tutor Sister then earnestly began reading his essay, her pretty brows gradually furrowing as she did.

The prompt was open-ended, requiring an essay about reaching the shore. It was clearly meant to be an inspirational, argumentative essay, so how did this guy end up writing prose?

...

"I came across a pond in the park, and there were many turtles in it.

Some of them looked calm and composed; it turned out they had already reached the shore.

Some were still probing the water, looking for the easiest place to get ashore.

I sighed, feeling that reaching the shore was quite perilous. In the blink of an eye, I saw a small turtle in the corner of the pond, struggling hard to claw at the edge.

I told him, 'You seem to be trying to get onto the wrong shore.'

'Everyone else is basking in the sun on the platform, while this is just the edge of the pond.'

But he replied that his ambitions were extraordinarily high.

Others only wanted to reach the platform, but he wanted to climb out of this fiercely competitive circle entirely.

I looked at him and smiled, saying: 'You are so clumsy with that turtle shell on your back. How long will it take you to climb up?'

But he smiled too, saying: 'I may have a shell on my back, but many of you wear long gowns. Even though you stand on the shore, you are more narrow-minded than a frog in a well.'

I was lost in thought, so I looked around. It seemed that many people were blinded by the halos around them, forgetting to walk toward their own mountains.

As we spoke, I looked down. Before I knew it, the little turtle had reached his shore.

And when would the people around him ever take off their long gowns?

I looked away and then down again, only to find the little turtle was no longer on his shore.

It turned out that once he reached the shore, he realized he was surrounded by insurmountable mountains.

He was kicked down, and someone told him, 'This is a circle you don't belong in.'

But he never gave up, because unlike the turtles around him, he now knew about the mountains outside.

However, seeing another turtle simply scooped up to the top, he finally realized that the mountain that was forever out of his reach was nothing compared to the casual gesture of a privileged person.

...

You read a lot of books and learned that there is a big world outside the village.

If you didn't know, you could marry and have children like the people in the village, becoming an excellent farmer.

But because you know too much and think too much, you suffer the distress of not being understood by those around you.

Academic qualifications are not just a stepping stone; they are also a high pedestal I cannot step down from, and even more so, the long gown that Kong Yiji cannot take off..."

Reading it carefully from the beginning, Ye Zhenzhen's beautiful brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

After finishing it, she let out a long sigh, unsure whether to be happy or worried. She just felt the essay was incredibly oppressive and uncomfortable to read.

Judged as prose, it could definitely get a high score, but the central theme wasn't positive or uplifting enough; it was a bit too dark.

But what cost him the most points was the word count.

It was simply too short!

Each sentence started a new line, and there were barely any words on a line. With this layout, he hadn't even reached the 800-word mark. How many words could there possibly be in the entire piece?

If it weren't for the fact that the writing itself was genuinely good, even giving this essay ten points would be too much!

"Why... did you write something so depressing?"

Hearing this, Gu Ran raised an eyebrow, unable to help but think of things from the past. His eyes darkened for a moment before he smiled again.

"I was just writing blindly. As I wrote, I started overthinking..."

The smile on his face was relaxed, but the light in his eyes was somewhat dim.

If not forced by life, who would truly taste the hardships of society?

With a monthly salary of three thousand yuan, you can't hire a migrant worker, but you can hire a college graduate.

It was what they called sending away cheap manual labor, only to bring in cheap college students.

The most terrifying part was that many of these college students had been painstakingly raised for over a decade by those very migrant workers before being sent out into society.

They thought they could escape their current circumstances, only to find out in the end that their children were worse off than they were...