It's been half a month since Shen Hua returned to his dormitory before 9 o'clock at night for the first time.

  After passing by Chen Dan's house, Shen Hui walked over and knocked on the door of a house that was still lit up inside.

  Xiao Li opened the door, Chen Dan was sitting in the room washing her feet, her slender and delicate jade-like feet were soaking in the foot basin, she had already put on her pajamas, with the pant legs rolled up, revealing her ankles and calves which were extremely beautiful.

  As Chen Dan usually dresses conservatively, Shen Hua hadn't had many chances to see her slender legs. His gaze lingered on them for a few seconds before turning back to look at the exercise book Xiao Li had spread out on the table.

  Washing feet was a trivial matter, but in front of Shen Hua, Chen Dan felt like she was exposing her private parts to him. Her face flushed slightly as she quickly wiped her feet and put on her slippers.

  Shen Huai asked her to help buy shaving cream two days ago, but the supply and marketing cooperative in the town didn't sell this stuff, so she only had the chance to go to the city today.

  It had been several days since they last met, and Shen Huan's lips and chin were covered in a thick beard; he hadn't shaved properly for many days. His blue overalls reeked of sweat and machine oil. If you didn't know Shen Huan's identity, you would have thought he was just an ordinary worker at the steel plant.

  Chen Dan liked to see Shen Huan's appearance at this time, her father was a worker in a machinery factory in He Tang Town, and every day when he came back from work, he looked like Shen Huan, with a dense beard on his chin.

  If it weren't for her father's early death, she and her brother wouldn't have had to endure these hardships over the years. The smell of sweat mixed with engine oil seemed to bring back memories of her childhood. Chen Dan subconsciously reached out to touch the stubble on Shen Huai's chin.

  She also felt that she was thinking about it, Chen Dan's mouth was smiling, poured the foot washing water, and went to the inner room to get shaving cream for Shen Hua, and brought out a large bundle of clean and dry clothes.

  Chen Dan turned around and saw Shen Huan pick up Xiao Li's homework book and lean against the table to read it.

  "This question was answered incorrectly..."

  Chen Dan thought Shen Huan picked up Xiao Li's homework just to pretend to be busy, but unexpectedly he actually looked at it seriously.

  Xiao Li opened her innocent big eyes and looked at Shen Huan with some uncertainty.

  Xiao Li had just leaned over to take a closer look at where he went wrong, when Shen Huan found two more mistakes, furrowed his brow and pointed them out one by one, saying:

  "This one and this one are both wrong. Such a simple question, you got three questions wrong, how did you study in school? Bring me a pen, I'll show you..."

  Looking at Xiao Li standing there motionless, with a somewhat unusual expression on her face, Chen Dan secretly stuck out her tongue. She couldn't say that Shen Hua was being too controlling, so she walked over and helped take out a pen from the pencil case, handing it to her.

  Seeing Chen Dan hand over the pen, Shen Hui finally came to his senses and turned back to see Xiao Li's eyes with a hint of grievance. He hated himself so much that he wanted to slap himself, forgetting that he was still not very familiar with Xiao Li, an "outsider". Why did Xiao Li call him out for being too serious?

  Shen Huai rubbed his nose and apologized to Little Li, "Sorry, sorry. These past few days I've been busy helping employees with training at the factory and haven't had a chance to rest yet, so I thought it was an employee assessment test. You got these three questions wrong, probably because you still don't fully understand some basic concepts. If you don't want to listen, just kick me out?"

  Xiao Li felt a bit stifled in her heart, but seeing him turn back and apologize with a smile on his face, she felt a little embarrassed, lowered her head and said: "If you don't behave well, I'll kick you out..."

  Shen Huai made a begging gesture with his hands, explaining the concept of action and reaction forces in physics, fearing that Little Li wouldn't understand. He stretched out his palm and said: "You try pushing my hand, feel if there's any reaction force..."

  Xiao Li stretched out her hand, and her small hands were slender and soft, white and delicate. She put them together with Shen Hua's palm, gently pushed it once, and then felt embarrassed to withdraw it. She turned back to grab Chen Dan's hand, standing beside him demonstrating and saying: "Our physics teacher reads from the textbook during class, but not as detailed as you..."

  Before 1990, the financial situation of Meixi Town was good. In addition to the county's allocation, there were also subsidies in the town, and the education funds in the town were relatively sufficient. In previous years, the teacher resources among primary and secondary schools within the county were relatively balanced, and the teaching quality of Meixi Middle School was also acceptable.

  In recent years, Meixi Town has been thinking of taking away resources from the county due to its planned separation. Last year, the county and Meixi Town signed a "big package" agreement, which stipulated that all additional industrial and commercial taxes and non-tax revenue would be retained by the town, but the county would no longer provide financial support to Meixi Town.

  Mei Xi Middle School has been receiving less and less education funding every year since 1990. The limited funds can only barely guarantee the investment in compulsory education stages below junior high school, let alone senior high school.

  No funding, teachers' salaries are often in arrears, and excellent teachers have been transferred to key middle schools one after another. The remaining teachers do not have the heart to teach well. The educational quality of Meixi Middle School and the actual college entrance examination admission rate have been declining year by year.

  Xiao Li had been a good student since childhood, but when his mother passed away in the third year of junior high school due to illness, he was greatly affected and failed to get into a key middle school, so he could only attend high school in Meixi Town. Of course, Shen Hua also knew that his "death" had a great impact on Xiao Li's studies.

  Shen Huai didn't know when the steel plant's situation would thoroughly improve, and for now, he couldn't care about Meixi Middle School. However, if Xiao Li's studies were delayed for half a year, she might completely lose interest in learning from then on.

  Shen Huai didn't want to see this situation, and asked Xiao Li: "Apart from physics, what other subjects are you not good at? Anyway, I'm a pretty boring person, high school courses and all that, I can help you review them..."

  "Really?" Little Li said with delight, "Chen Tong said you were very fierce when teaching workers, if you're not that fierce, I'll let you tutor..."

  "You little scamp," Chen Dan reached out and pinched Xiao Li's neck, leaving a red mark on her fair skin. "You were just talking to me a moment ago, your eyes were blinking back tears, and now you're chattering away like nobody owes you anything! Secretary Shen is so busy with work, how can he possibly have time to tutor you?"

  "I was just thinking of my brother, in the past when I did something wrong, he would say this to me," Little Li suddenly said gloomily, "I used to be quite annoyed with him for saying that, but it's been a long time since someone last said that to me..."

  Looking at Xiao Li's red eyes, Shen Hui's heart was also sour. He lowered his head to review the previous homework, but there were no corrections in front of him. Suppressing his emotions, he turned back to Chen Dan and said: "Xiao Li's studies need to be strengthened a bit. Sometimes I'll come over for half an hour to help her with her homework. If one day I come back late, Xiao Li can leave any questions she's unsure about in my room, and when I get back, I'll go through them with her..."

  Chen Dan felt warm and fuzzy inside, although she had been wary of Shen Hui at first, worried that he would use Xiao Li and Chen Tong to get close to her with ulterior motives. But after really getting to know him, she could feel that Shen Hui was genuinely looking out for Xiao Li and Chen Tong's well-being. At this point, she thought: even if he did have some other motive, what of it?

  "You're always so busy," Chen Dan said, having hardly seen Shen Huan in recent days. Every now and then, she would hear from Chen Tong about some things going on at the factory, and could tell how hard Shen Huan was working there. Looking at his disheveled appearance, she said, "How can I take up more of your time? I can also help with Little Li's homework..."

  Shen Huai knew that Chen Dan was only in vocational school and wasn't familiar with high school curriculum, so the effect would be much worse. He said: "I'm not as busy as you think I am, tomorrow is my day off. Often a pile of dirty clothes are brought over for you to wash, and you're asked to help clean the house, and freeload food and drink. If I had to do all these things myself, who knows how much time it would take every day? Helping Xiao Li with her homework can be considered repayment..."

  Taking advantage of the fact that it was still early, Shen Huan helped Xiao Li tidy up the mechanics principles she had just learned, and Chen Dan sat beside her listening with great interest.

  By ten o'clock, Little Li started to feel drowsy and went to sleep in the inner room first.

  There were clothes, thermoses, shaving cream and other things, and Jinzi was running back and forth making a ruckus. Shen Hua's two hands couldn't hold everything. Chen Dan took the clean clothes with the lingering scent of soap from her arms and handed them to him, just in time for Shen Hua to change out of his dirty clothes.

  Shen Hua put the thermos on the ground and prepared to take out the key to open the door.

  "Are you being too harsh on the workers?" Chen Dan said, looking at Yue Xia Shen Huai's shadow under the moonlight.

  "What did Chen Tong say?" Shen Huan stopped and turned back to Chen Dan, smiling and saying, "Those bastards in the steel factory, they're too lazy to run to the toilet even when they need to pee. On my first day in the workshop, besides the cigarette butts all over the floor, there was an overwhelming smell of urine that couldn't be covered up. Tell me, how can I be gentle with these bastards?"

  Chen Dan stopped half a step away from Shen Hui, wearing slippers, her forehead almost reaching Shen Hui's nose tip, her eyes fixed on his dense stubble under the chin, saying: "I don't understand this, but you don't look that scary either. I wonder why Chen Tong said that as soon as you entered the workshop, the workers below held their breath."

  "Really not scary?" Shen Huan stroked his chin stubble and said exaggeratedly, "Then my beard is not left in vain?"

  Chen Dan burst out laughing, then suddenly realized that the people next door were still sleeping, so she quickly covered her mouth and hid her smile, saying: "You're not a mighty beard, you've just got a little mustache, but at heart you're still a pretty boy."

  Chen Dan's big eyes with long eyelashes blinked, still staring at his chin. Shen Hua's mind wavered and he said: "Nonsense, I can feel it myself, it's like a steel needle pricking people. If you don't believe me, touch it..." He reached out to grab Chen Dan's hand to touch his own chin.

  He took the initiative to hold Chen Dan's hand, and Shen Hui's heart was also lifted to the extreme, not knowing how she would react. The touch of her hand felt like a soft jade, with an indescribable tenderness and a hint of coolness.

  Chen Dan did not expect Shen Huan to take the initiative to grab her hand and touch his chin. The touch was rough and hard, but what followed was an unconscious urge to withdraw her hand, as she murmured: "Don't..."

  Shen Huai knew the right steps, next should be to firmly grasp her soft and delicate hand, test her reaction, or more directly pull her into his arms - this was Shen Huai's previous way of dealing with women, but seeing Chen Dan's panicked eyes made him soften in his heart, so he let go, thinking of saying something else to ease the awkwardness between them.

  "Your stubble is really hard, just like my dad's..." Chen Dan withdrew her hand, still feeling the sensation Shen Hui had given her. Shen Hui's hands didn't have the delicate and tender skin his face suggested, but instead had thick calluses.

  "Really? Or should I touch you some more?" Shen Huai said with a smile.

  Chen Dan didn't want to be unclear with others, but in her heart, she also didn't want to part with Shen Huai Sheng. She looked into his eyes, bit her lip, and smiled coquettishly, saying: "Don't you dare make a move..."

  Shen Huai closed his eyes.

  Chen Dan looked at his softly lined face under the moonlight and couldn't help but think: If only I had met you earlier, it wouldn't matter even if you were a flirt... She simply reached out to gently touch his chin and said, "Alright."

  Shen Huai opened the door, and Chen Dan leaned against the doorway without entering. She handed him the clean clothes she had washed, waiting for him to take off his dirty ones...