Chapter 1 (1/2)
Chapter 1: Examination Results
It was a hot summer when the college entrance examination results were released.
The examination results of 2014 didn’t have many differences from those of previous years. Chang Liu checked his grade online the moment it was released—519 points. A grade like that would just get him into an average college. In a small town in northern China, such a standing was neither good nor bad. It wasn’t worthy to show off, but wouldn’t be made fun of either. It was ordinary, just like he was.
Seeing the result, Chang was not pleased or saddened. He quietly clicked the cross on the upper right corner of the web browser, then subsequently threw himself onto his bed.
Ring ring ring …
The phone rang. Chang didn’t even set any fancy ringtones like his peers would usually do; he was just a person as boring as his ringtone.
He saw that the call was from his mother as he answered.
“Hey son, I heard that you can check the results today. I just saw w.a.n.g’s son from the convenience store. He got a score of…….”
“519 points.” Chang didn’t wait for his mother to finish the sentence, Chang emotionlessly reported his score, interrupting his mother’s lecturing. Then, he casually said a few words, then hung up. Without a second thought, he turned off his phone.
July and August were just the hottest months of a year, and even though the room was cooled down by air conditioning, the heat seemed impossible to drive away. Tossing and turning on his bed, Chang couldn’t fall asleep, so he got up and turned on his computer and watched a movie….
It seems like nothing could excite him; even the movie that he used to enjoy was now tedious for him to watch. “My life is monotonous and pa.s.sionless,” he thought. He muted the computer and started to stare at the stained ceiling. For a moment, he couldn’t tell whether he was tired or just bored, and he eventually slowly fell asleep.
The sky was slightly dark when Chang was awakened by someone’s footstep. In summer, there were more hours of daylight, so the slight darkness in the sky meant it was past 7 o’clock.
His parent came home from work. This meant that a family meeting was about to begin.
On the table.
“It won’t be a problem for you to go to an average college with this grade, but what you can do in the future after graduating from there?” Apparently, Hua Wu, Chang’s mother was very attentive toward her son’s education and knew the cutoff line for renowned universities before anyone else in the family.
“Your dad and I…we respect your decision. Tell us what you are thinking. Do you want to just go to an average college and be an ordinary person for the rest of your life, or do you want to repeat a year in high school to improve your grade so you can go to a prestigious university?”
“Any college is fine.” Chang had just taken a bite of broccoli, then he put down the chopsticks.
“Think about it carefully.” Hui Liu, Chang’s father, waved his hand, and with that the meeting ended in silence.
Three days later.
“You know, our family has always been democratic. We never thought of interfering with your decisions and we respect your choice. But knowing the pressure in employment compet.i.tion, being a graduate from an average college, you can imagine the difficulty in getting a job. Your dad and I aren’t resourceful either….”
Hua kept mumbling, “Tell me, which one you would like to go for, repeat a year or go to any college that accepts you?”
“I told you, any college is…”
His mother interrupted, “Think about it again.”
……
Two days later.
“The fact is, you have nothing to be afraid of when you’re young; few people are successful in their first attempt. You know that kid from our neighborhood? He’s 5 years older than you and didn’t get a good grade on his first try, so he repeated a year and ended up in a famous university. Now that he has graduated, jobs are hunting for him. What I mean is that the reality of this society is cruel, and having a diploma from a famous college will gain you access to everything. Think about it again, whether you want to repeat a year or go to a random college to…”
“I’ll go to any college.”
“Think about it again,” his mother sighed.
……