Chapter 8 (3)

  Two proctors furrowed their brows as soon as they entered the door, and a girl had already fainted in the classroom before they even started distributing the test papers. The examiner outside, who was checking the surroundings, stared and said, "Another one." It's indeed a very painful thing for someone who has studied hard for nine years to collapse when it's time to show off 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 high scores but poor physical health, they're the most unfortunate. After the test papers were distributed and passed down, Yu Xiang's heart became as calm as still water the moment he received his paper.

  After answering the questions in class with ease, there was a translation question of an ancient text outside of class: "亲丧，固所自尽也" from 《孟子·滕文公上》. This question aimed to test students' understanding ability, where "自尽" means to do one's best and fulfill one's duties. A boy sitting next to Rain was scratching his head for a long time, unable to understand the question. Seeing 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. Rain ignored it and continued answering questions. The person who was asked looked like he came from a wealthy family and spoke loudly: "This means - '亲丧，固所自尽也', '固所' is correct, it means that when a loved one dies, I will also die." The boy in the back row quickly took note after being enlightened.

  Then there was another silence. Suddenly someone softly went "ah" and muttered to himself: "This composition topic..."

  Yu Xiang was reminded, turned over the volume to look at the composition topic, and after taking a look, he felt his blood rushing to his head, and his body couldn't move. It turned out that the topic was "A Magical Night". Yu Xiang regretted it endlessly, hating himself for not listening to Liang Zijun's advice, otherwise he would have prepared early. Thinking about this, his thoughts became chaotic again, every analysis of the topic was done awkwardly, with a burning fire in his heart, making mistakes constantly, writing one word and revising two or three times.

  Dazed and confused, he finished writing the essay, and the bell rang. Yu Xiang sat stupidly in his seat, thinking that this time was over. His strongest subject had been ruined, and he would either die or be crippled. As he walked out, he felt disheartened and heard a group of people discussing how to write the essay. A female voice was screaming:

  "Write an article in language class - hey, listen to me - the composition in language class should be combined with what you memorized in politics class, such as Marxism. Copy some content from the politics textbook, and they won't dare deduct your points. 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, Yuexiang himself couldn't tell whether it was good or bad. If he said it was good, a perfect score was possible; if he said it was bad, failing was also possible. He felt like he was on the borderline between good and bad. When he got home, his mother kept asking him about it, and Yuexiang said it was okay. His mother jumped up and exclaimed: "If you say it's okay, that means it's not good!"

  "That's okay."

  "You, I told you to pay attention in class, but you didn't listen. Who knows what's going on in that head of yours!"

  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 not impossible; 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 deceiving, even corpses sweat. Yu Xiang thought about how he did poorly on the language exam again, his intestines were all tangled up with worry, sweat seeped out of his pores, wetting his head and neck, and whenever he moved his head it felt sticky and humid, his body feeling wave after wave of heat. But as he lay there in the heat, he eventually fell asleep.

  Three days passed in a flash. After finishing the chemistry exam, Yu Xiang couldn't tell if he felt heavy or light-hearted. He walked alone on the road, calculating his scores, and figured that getting into the county's key school shouldn't be a problem, but getting into the city's key school was basically hopeless. However, people often believe in miracles when they seem impossible. 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 would occur, and the teacher grading his exam would be dazed and add 10 or 20 points extra. But there were too many people believing in miracles, and not everyone could get a visit from one. Yu Xiang prepared for the worst-case scenario, thinking that going to the county's key school wouldn't be bad either. Distance creates a sense of beauty. However, Yu Xiang didn't know that the beauty and longing created by distance were temporary, stemming from the discomfort of being apart, which would fade once he got used to it. At that point, distance would play its true role - creating estrangement. The beauty born from distance was like the first hit song on a popular music cassette tape; after listening to that one song, the rest would be dull in comparison.

  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. In these few days, Yu Xiang has been calculating his scores back and forth, not willing to let go of a single point, and he 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 would 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... Ah, right, have you heard? A girl from Class 4 didn't do well on the exam and committed suicide, didn't you know? It's like you're in a remote mountain 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 - it seems 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, something the whole world will be proud of!

  But then I thought this idea was biased, Shanghai's education system doesn't represent all of China. Thinking again, if even the vanguard of national openness is like this, what about other places? Saying that all crows under the sky are black is an exaggeration, but Chinese crows are indeed generally black.

  Thinking once more, I realized that wasn't right either - nowadays, the crappy quality education has been hyped up to seem successful. So China's crows aren't just generally black, they're also generally white.

  Yu Xiang hesitated in his room, wondering whether to go ask about the scores. 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 guarantee that only children of influential people got in. Judging by his 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, and Yu Xiang still held onto a thread of hope. After thinking about it three times, Yu Xiang felt that since the scores were already set in stone, looking at them tomorrow wouldn't add much, 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 came from deep within my heart. Thinking about how I had been studying hard for several months, yet still couldn't achieve my goal, it's really regrettable.

  The school's guidance room was brightly lit, but only a few people knew the news, and they just needed to line up in a small queue. In front of him, 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 the way out, the father's ominous voice kept echoing: "You're not making an effort, you, you... Ah!" These few words were like the horror music in a horror movie, deepening Yuexiang's anxiety. Yuexiang's face was icy cold, but his fingers were already sweating profusely, and his palms felt like 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 in searching for half a day, pushed up her glasses, and let out an "oh" that made Yu Xiang's heart jump with fright, almost fainting. After the "oh", the teacher pushed her glasses again, leaned forward to take another look. Yu Xiang didn't dare ask anything. The female teacher diagnosed it and widened her eyes, making a surprised gesture, as if she had seen Tang Seng eating meat, saying: "How did you score? Chinese is only 94 points, but the others are fine, 467 points, enough for county key self-payment, let your parents pay some money, it's okay, 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 calmed down and stepped through the front door.

  "Lin's father and Lin's mother asked in unison: "How many points?" Both of them pretended to be calm, but their voices were shaking and trembled a few times."