Chapter 4 (1)

  Four months later.

  The day before the high school entrance exam.

  Lin Yuxiang was still reciting "The Outgoing Inspector's Report". The characteristic of this kind of ancient text is that after memorizing the front part, you forget the back part; after memorizing the back part, you forget the front part; and after memorizing the middle part, both the front and back parts are completely forgotten. Yuxiang remembered that before dinner he could recite it fluently, but after dinner, he couldn't even remember the first sentence.

  I've forgotten. Lin's mother had just praised the effectiveness of her supplements, but now she's scolding Rain Xiang for being too stupid. Rain Xiang is getting anxious, with the mid-term exam tomorrow and having forgotten most of what he prepared in the past few days. In desperation, Rain Xiang decided to use the "11th kill law" used by ancient Romans on prisoners of war - every 10th item would be skipped, reducing the burden a bit. Lin's mother, worried about Rain Xiang, brought over a cup of water and two pills, which looked like they were for forgetting. After drinking the water, Rain Xiang couldn't even remember who wrote "The Outpost".

  Lin's mother wanted to calm Lin down, so she dialed a psychological counseling hotline. The old man on the other end was too careless and fell into a passive state, allowing Lin to ask him questions that left him speechless. Lin asked how he could stabilize his pre-exam mood, and the old man went on and on for half a day, with the sound of rustling papers coming from the receiver. In the end, the old man was even more forgetful and concluded by saying, "So, the most important thing is to have a calm mind." After Lin hung up the phone, his mother anxiously asked, "Did you understand?"

  I don't understand.

  "You didn't listen carefully, you don't even listen to what experts say."

  "But he didn't say anything."

  “Wha...” Lin's mother didn't finish her sentence, and the six ellipses weren't a sign of extreme anger, but rather that she really didn't know what was wrong with "you". The two glared at each other as the phone rang again. Lin's mother wanted to answer it, but Yu Xiang beat her to it. Lin's mother could only stand by and listen to see if the person on the phone was male or female. After Yu Xiang responded, the person on the other end asked him to guess who he was. Yu Xiang hated hearing this kind of thing over the phone, as the voice was unfamiliar, and he couldn't get a clear impression of the speaker after thinking for a long time. He didn't dare to hastily try to figure it out, so he just awkwardly waited for the person on the other end to satisfy their curiosity, vanity, and conscience, and slowly reveal their name. Yu Xiang could only respond with a surprised and delighted cry. But today was different - the voice on the phone was male, and Yu Xiang was ready to give up. However, the person on the other end couldn't hold it in and said, "I'm Liang Yangjun, you little scoundrel!"

  Yu Xiang suddenly let out a loud "ah" from his heart and asked: "Liang Yangjun, I didn't expect it! Where are you now?"

  Liang Yangjun's education at the private middle school was indeed different from that of traditional Chinese schools, and his way of thinking about problems was also different. He replied casually: "I'm by the phone."

  Yu Xiang was taken aback for a moment, thinking that this was right, and then asked: "What are you doing?" "Calling you."

  "You have your college entrance exam tomorrow."

  "Yes, and also to put on a show." The implication is that he should sacrifice his body to the examination hall. Yǔ Xiǎng also understood: Liáng Yàng Jūn must have already chosen which high school to attend with money, even if he scored zero in math like Wú Hàn did back then, a first-rate school would still accept him.

  Liang Yangjun and Yu Xiangkuan met for a while, lowering their voices, saying: "I'll tell you a secret, I already know the composition topic of this year's Chinese language exam."

  Yu Xiang smiled faintly and thought it was impossible. But on the surface, he had to cooperate with Liang Yangjun, so he pretended to be urgent and asked: "What is it?"

  "Shh, listen, yes, yes, listen to 'A Magical Night'."

  "What, hahaha! The first three 'ha's were to express the desire to laugh in my heart. By the fourth 'ha', I had already laughed at what was laughable and added it to increase the absurdity and ridiculousness of this topic. The fifth 'ha' was out of habit."

  Li Yangjun was a bit anxious on the other end: "Really, don't talk nonsense, I've only told you this, it's true that my dad found out about this topic."

  "How do I write this topic?"

  "Ah, it's precisely because it's hard to write, so that nobody can copy the topic this year, that's why it came out."

  Yu Xiang still didn't believe it, because in previous years they also said they would prevent plagiarism, but every year people plagiarized and the exam creators seemed to have no shame, the topics were scolded by people every year, their confidence should be lost, and they wouldn't dare to come up with this topic. Moreover, this topic is very difficult to write about, writing about it can't even get a pencil case or push a cart or give up one's seat, all the so-called essay experts in the city would collapse. Think about "A Magical Night", this topic is easy to make people think of going out and telling the truth, China would suddenly have many more Li Bai Chuan, although China is "opening up", it wouldn't open up to this extent.

  Thinking so deeply, Yu Xiang was certain that Liang Yangjun must have gotten the date of Valentine's Day wrong. After expressing his gratitude, he hung up the phone and didn't take it to heart. As soon as the phone hung up, the ringing started again, and Yu Xiang thought it was Liang Yangjun causing trouble again, so he absent-mindedly responded with a single word, but the other end fell silent. A thought seemed to flash before Yu Xiang's eyes, and this silence felt familiar. Yu Xiang suddenly tensed up. It turned out to be Su Sa, Yu Xiang gripped the receiver tightly, turning his back on his mother. On the other end, Su Sa asked: "Do you have confidence in getting into which school?"

  "I think I'll get into county key school, municipal key school, hum"

  "Alright, county key is also good, study hard and take your exam smoothly! Goodbye!"

  On the eve of the exam, Yuxiang couldn't fall asleep for a long time. It's said that this is pre-exam excitement, and the consequence of pre-exam excitement is not being excited during the exam. Yuxiang usually sleeps well in class like the good sleeper in "Idle Thoughts", but when it's time to sleep, his eyelids just can't close. A forced melon isn't sweet, and a forced sleep won't be fragrant either. Yuxiang got up and flipped through his books with his hands, trying to boost his confidence. His pen pal also sent him an encouraging letter, but in fact, when someone is at the critical moment of life and death, encouragement can only increase their pressure. In his reply, Yuxiang boasted that he had reviewed so much that he could answer questions even with his eyes closed and using his knees. As soon as he said this, it became a do-or-die battle. For several months, Yuxiang took supplementary classes everywhere. Every time summer was approaching, private tutors were hard to find like plum blossoms in winter, and as rare as giant pandas. Lin's father spent over 5,000 yuan on tutoring, which pushed Yuxiang to the edge of a cliff.

  Under the lamp, those ten or so exercise books were still on the most eye-catching part of the table. Lin Yuxiang had done almost all the questions, and his heart was filled with unshakeable confidence. Lin Yuxiang felt grateful to Susa. Half a year ago, he couldn't even count the number of stars on the American flag, but now he was confident and ambitious, aiming to get into the city's key high school.

  When people want to sleep, they will naturally fall asleep. That night, Yuexiang slept for six hours and woke up with a start when he thought of the college entrance exam, his heart racing with anxiety. He seized the last moment to recite a few sentences of classical Chinese, tidied up his pen box, and headed towards the examination hall.

  The weather outside was unusually hot, and although it was early morning, the wind blowing in people's faces was already making them feel annoyed. There were more parents than examinees at the school gate, all of whom were giving extra reminders. Yu Xiang found the examination room, which was located on the lowest floor with poor ventilation. As soon as he entered, he was hit by a wave of stench. His seat was in the last row, in a corner where all sorts of smells gathered, making people's hearts and lungs feel suffocated. The smell was so bad that it made people want to cut off their noses. In this vast world, there are all kinds of smells, but Yu Xiang had never been to a place with such overwhelming stench before. Compared to the smell at the entrance, this was like comparing a small hill to Mount Everest. However, the worst part was not the smell, but the desk, which was as uneven as the surface of the moon. No matter how many sheets of paper were placed on it, it still couldn't be made flat and straight. What was even more astonishing was that there were actually people who could write on such a desk.

  Two proctors furrowed their brows as soon as they entered the room, and before they even began to distribute the test papers, a girl had already fainted. The proctor patrolling outside the door was sweating profusely and exclaimed, "Another one!" It's truly heartbreaking that after nine years of hard studying, some students collapse just when it's time to showcase their talents. And often, those who collapse are actually the ones who can get high scores - whether they're book-smart but physically weak or have poor physical health. As soon as the test papers were distributed and Yu Xiang received his copy, he became as calm as still water in an instant.

  After answering the questions in class with ease, there was a translation question of an ancient text from "Mengzi - Gaozi Shang": "Qin sang, gu suo zi jin ye." This question aimed to test students' understanding ability. The phrase "zi jin" here means to do one's best and fulfill one's duties. A boy sitting next to Yuxiang scratched his head for a long time, unable to understand, and saw two proctors looking at the scenery outside the door. He poked the person in front of him with his pen. The two were familiar with each other, so the person leaned back in his chair. The boy behind had not spoken for a long time and wanted to whisper, but his voice was out of control and spread outside. Yuxiang ignored him and continued to answer questions. The person who was asked looked like he came from a wealthy family and spoke loudly, "This means 'Qin sang, gu suo zi jin ye', 'gu suo' is correct, it means that when a loved one dies, I will also die." The boy in the back row quickly took notes after being enlightened.

  Then there was another silence. Suddenly someone whispered softly "Ah", muttering: "This composition topic..."

  Yu Xiang was reminded to turn over the test paper and look at the composition topic. After taking a look, he felt his blood rushing to his head and his body became numb. It turned out that the topic was "A Strange Night". Yu Xiang regretted it endlessly, hating himself for not listening to Liang Yangjun's advice, otherwise he would have prepared early. Thinking about this, his thoughts were in disarray again, every question of the analysis was not done smoothly, with a fire burning in his heart, making mistakes repeatedly, writing one word and revising two or three times.

  Dazed and confused, I finished writing the essay as the bell rang. Yu Xiang sat stupidly in his seat, thinking that this time he was done for. His strongest subject had been ruined, and even if he didn't die from it, he'd be crippled. As he walked out, he felt disheartened and distracted, listening to a group of people discussing how to write the essay. A female voice was shrieking: "For language arts essays, you have to combine what we memorized in politics class with Marx, copy some content from the politics textbook, and they won't dare deduct points from you. Who knows, you might even get high marks!"

  A group of people around him complained: "Why are you saying this now? You...?"

  The second physics exam, Raining is unclear whether it's good or bad. If he says it's good, a perfect score is possible; if he says it's bad, failing is also possible. He feels like he's on the borderline between good and bad. As soon as he gets home, Lin's mother keeps asking him, and Raining says it's okay. Lin's mother slaps her thigh and stands up: "If you say it's okay, then it must be bad!"

  "That's okay."

  "You, I told you to pay attention in class all the time, but you didn't listen. Who knows what's on your mind!"

  That night, Yu Xiang slept very soundly, but was woken up once in the middle of the night by the heat. Compared to cold, heat is more difficult to deal with. Because when it's cold, you can add clothes, and wearing a thousand layers is no problem; but when it's hot, you can only take off one or two pieces of clothing, and you can't peel off your skin, so it takes a while to cool down. Saying "a calm mind naturally cools" is a lie, even corpses sweat. Yu Xiang thought about how he did poorly on the language exam, his intestines were all knotted up with worry, sweat seeped out of his pores, wetting his head and neck, and whenever he moved his head, it was like a dripping faucet, his body hot in waves. But as he lay there feeling hot, he eventually fell asleep again.

  Three days passed in a flash. After finishing the chemistry exam, Yu Xiang couldn't tell whether he felt heavy-hearted or relieved. He walked alone on the road, calculating his scores, and concluded that getting into the county's key school shouldn't be a problem, but getting into the city's key school was basically hopeless. Yet people often believe in miracles when they're at their most desperate. It's said that miracles won't happen to those who don't believe in them, so Yu Xiang fully believed in miracles.

  Maybe a miracle will happen, the teacher who graded the papers got dizzy and added 10 to 20 points more. But there are too many people believing in miracles, and miracles can't cater to everyone, Yuxiang made the worst plan, going to the county key school is also possible, distance produces beauty.

  Yu Xiang didn't know that the beauty and nostalgia born from distance were all temporary, stemming from the unfamiliarity of one side not being by his side. Once this unfamiliarity became familiar, distance would play its true role in estrangement. So the beauty born from distance was like the first hit single on a popular music cassette tape - after listening to that song, the rest tended towards blandness.

  The days of waiting for the scores are the most contradictory. In the first few days, I always hope that the days will pass quickly and know the scores as soon as possible. Once the waiting days have passed halfway, I always regret that time cannot flow backwards. However, at that time, the days also fly by even faster. These days, Yu Xiang has been calculating his scores back and forth, not willing to let go of a single point, and would like to learn from Zu Chongzhi to calculate pi accurately to the seventh decimal place.

  At 5 o'clock in the evening, Lin's father told Yuxiang that the scores were released a day earlier and could be known tonight. Yuxiang's heart skipped a beat. The scores had become a reality, and his fantasies disappeared instantly. He wanted to go see the scores but didn't want to at the same time; whenever one courage was about to take shape, another would always come out on top, repeating this process. Lin's father said: "You can ask about your own exam results yourself."

  The sentence lingered in Yuexiang's mind. At this time, Luo Tiancheng made a phone call to ask Yuexiang if he knew the score. Upon hearing "no", he said: "I don't know either, but I really want to know. How about this? Have you heard that a girl from Class 4 committed suicide because of poor grades? You didn't know? It's really news blackout, are you in a deep mountain or old forest? I'll go ask about the score..."

  Yu Xiang hung up the phone in a daze, thinking that China's education system is really formidable. Not only do students read books to death, but they also die from reading books. No wonder there are fewer people committing suicide over lost love in recent years - those with poor mental endurance have already been weeded out by the high school and college entrance exams. This kind of training that toughens one's heart is a full manifestation of Chinese wisdom, and the whole world will be proud of it!

  But then I thought, this idea is biased, Shanghai's education system does not represent all of China.

  Thinking again, if even the vanguard of national openness is like this, what about other places outside of Shanghai? Saying that all crows under the sky are black is an exaggeration, but Chinese crows are indeed generally black.

  But then I thought again, and it's still not right. Nowadays, the crappy quality education has been blown up to seem successful, so China's crows are not only not generally black, but also generally white.

  Yu Xiang hesitated in the room, wondering if he should go ask about his score. He wasn't worried about not getting into the county's key school, because no matter who you were, as long as you paid some universally accepted renminbi, the originally strict score line would suddenly become flexible. But getting into the city's key school was a different story. It wasn't that the city's key school had stricter controls in this regard, but rather that it required more money to get in, to ensure that only the sons of influential people could enter. In terms of scores, Yu Xiang had already given up most hope of getting into the city's key school, but even in a sealed room, there was still a place for air to circulate. Yu Xiang still held onto a thread of hope. After thinking about it three times, Yu Xiang felt that since his score was already set in stone, looking at it tomorrow wouldn't make much difference, so he might as well put an end to the suspense early on.

  The wind on the street was surprisingly cool, it was a chill that flowed from my heart. Thinking about how I had been studying hard for several months, but still couldn't achieve my goal, it's really regrettable.

  The lights in the school's staff room were shining brightly, but only a few people knew the news, and they just slightly parted to make way. In front of them, a father was tall and majestic, but when he saw the score, his smile froze, his cheeks puffed out, and his eyes couldn't hide his disappointment. After thanking the teacher politely, he ordered his son to leave, and on their way out, the father's ominous voice kept echoing: "You're not living up to your name, you... Ah!"

  These few sentences were like the horror music in a horror movie, deepening Yu Xiang's anxiety. Yu Xiang's face was icy cold, but his fingers were already sweating profusely, and his palms felt as if they had just caught a fish.

  The female teacher in charge of checking scores knew Yu Xiang, she often heard Ma Debao praise him, and hurriedly called out to Yu Xiang: "Hey, the language genius is here! I'll help you check, what's your test number?"

  Yu Xiang reported a score and waited quietly for the verdict. The female teacher buried her head to check for half a day, pushed her glasses up: "Oh" in a loud voice, making Yu Xiang's heart jump with fright, almost fainting. After the "oh", the teacher pushed her glasses again, bent down to take another look. Yu Xiang didn't dare ask anything. The female teacher diagnosed and widened her eyes, made an astonished gesture, as if she had seen Tang Seng eating meat. She said: "How did you score, Chinese is only 94 points, but the others are okay, 47 points, enough for county key self-payment, let your parents pay some money, it's okay."

  Yu Xiang couldn't tell whether he was sad or happy. He was sad that a miracle hadn't occurred, but he was also happy because this score would have been considered a miracle just half a year ago. On his way home, Yu Hui's face was expressionless, not daring to guess how his parents would react to this score - they could either be overjoyed or extremely disappointed. In recent years, getting into a top high school had become the norm, but now it had become crazy. Yu Xiang's score was still something that many people couldn't even hope to achieve. After comforting himself, he steeled himself and stepped through the front door.

  "Lin's father and Lin's mother at the same time: "What time is it?" Both of them pretended to be calm, their voices trembling slightly."

  "47 minutes."

  Silence.

  Lin's father slowly unfolded his smile and said, "Alright, the county key school has been admitted." Lin's mother felt a stone in her heart fall to the ground, but still showed dissatisfaction, throwing out an unanswerable question: "Then why didn't you get more scores?" She had a habit of not solving things after they happened, but instead endlessly "what if" and "suppose", extending or distorting the matter. These were all manifestations of not daring to face reality, so she hid in her imagination.

  At this time, Lin's mother's friend and town mayor Zhao Zhi-liang called to ask about Yu Xiang's score. After inquiring clearly, he praised him. Lin's mother said casually: "What's good? We all want him to go to the municipal key school, but this kid only got into the county key school and still has to pay tuition fees."

  "The county key school is good, no pressure in the county key school, boys are fine, the potential will burst out in high school, and will be admitted to Tsinghua University in the future!"

  Zhao Zhi-liang was drinking outside when a voice came from behind, overpowering his: "Key middle school in the city, Municipal South Third Middle School, haha, this is easy. Isn't that place recruiting sports students? What? Rain Athletics isn't good enough? You don't understand, they say it's for sports students and lower scores, but actually, it's just an excuse to let people get in through the back door. As long as the physical education committee issues a certificate, you can pay some money and guarantee admission. Did you fill out the application for Municipal South Third Middle School? If it's your first choice, that's easy to say."

  Lin's mother was drunk and said: "How can we get proof of his death?"

  Zhao Zhiliang answered this question and said "hmm" twice: "I wonder who was speaking just now?"

  "Who?"

  "Director of Physical Education Committee, Kim Bok-hwan."

  "Ah! This... Director Jin..."

  "You want to enter the city's key school, just say one sentence, Director Jin will take care of it."

  Lin and his mother remained silent, deciding to consider how much truth was in those words. After analyzing it, half of it was due to drunkenness and the other half was due to bragging, so they just laughed it off, lest they would be disappointed after holding onto hope. Lin's mother said lightly: "Thanks."

  The noise on Zhao Zhi Liang's end grew louder, and Zhao Zhi Liang said: "Director Jin has something to say to you." These six words gradually faded away, indicating that the phone was moving further away from Zhao Zhi Liang. Jin Bo Huan let out a thunderous "Hello", which shocked Rui Xiang's small phone to the point where it couldn't withstand the vibration and started buzzing loudly.