Ninety-One: Scores and Preferences

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While the father and son of the Yang family were still arguing over the exam results, He Jiani, far away in Houston, received the manuscript Yang Tang had emailed her.

“Hehe, I wonder what kind of novel Tang Tang wrote. Let this young lady have the first look!”

Ding-dong!

She opened the ebook attachment.

The opening line read: “This is a story that appears real, yet is in fact fictional.”

After turning the page, it became two lines:

“Just close your eyes, and all unbearable pain will pass.”

“When sorrow grows too great for one person to endure, I will divide the torment once borne by a single heart and accept it in pieces.”

With only these two brief passages, written almost like inner monologue, it somehow created an irresistible allure.

He Jiani found herself spellbound, reading on and on. She had originally planned to go eat lunch after a little while, but by three in the afternoon she was still unable to move away from the computer. Then she missed dinner, then even a late-night snack, and she still did not feel the swelling pressure in her bladder until a knock finally came at the door.

Knock, knock, knock!

In the stillness of night, the sound was especially crisp, yet in He Jiani’s ears it was like a death warrant. She shuddered all over and asked nervously, “Who is it?”

“It’s Mom.”

At once relieved, He Jiani also felt a flood of discomfort wash over her: dizziness, a stiff neck, a stomachache, pain in the rear, and most of all, the feeling that her bladder was about to burst.

So she had no choice but to stand up carefully, answering her mother as she shuffled in tiny steps toward the bathroom. “Wait a moment, Mom, I’ll open the door right away!”

He’s mother waited two more minutes outside, still with no sign of He Jiani coming to open up. Increasingly uneasy, she hammered on the door again.

“I’m coming, Mom!”

Only after taking care of her bodily emergency did He Jiani finally open the door.

“Your room’s motion light has been on since nightfall. What have you been doing in here?” He’s mother entered the room and sniffed around like a drug-sniffing dog. “You didn’t bring a boy home, did you? If you did, you’d better call him out right now. I’ve temporarily changed the security code for the estate. Even with your card, he won’t get through. I don’t want him getting zapped into a dead dog later.”

He Jiani rolled her eyes. “Mom, I’m not some frivolous girl. I was only reading a novel!”

It would have been fine if she had not mentioned it. As soon as she did, the dull ache in her stomach suddenly turned into a stabbing pain.

“Ow!”

“What’s wrong?” His mother blanched, lifting a hand at once toward the alarm device in her back pocket, ready to call security over.

But He Jiani pressed her mother’s hand down. “Mom, could you make me a bowl of instant noodles? I’m starving!”

Under Yang Jixue’s urging, Yang Tang logged into the website and entered his exam number.

Unfortunately, after clicking submit, the page did not load right away. Instead, the network stalled. Clearly, he was not the only parent desperately waiting to learn his child’s college entrance exam results.

After several dozen seconds, Yang Tang was growing a little impatient. He even wondered whether he ought to hijack the website for ten minutes, check his score first, and then deal with the rest. Since the site was stuck anyway, nobody would notice. But the thought remained a thought; in the end he did not do it. After all, the results were already out there. If he could not see them now, he would certainly be able to see them in a few hours. Why bother committing a violation of the law?

Sure enough, after a series of glacially slow changes, the outline of the page finally appeared, followed by various lines of text. Yang Tang turned his head to glance at his father and found him staring at the screen without blinking, looking even more eager about the exam results than Yang Tang himself.

At last, the entire page fully displayed.

Language Arts: 147

Math: 142

English: 149

French: 139

History: 148

Total: 725

Looking at the total, Yang Tang felt a little dazed. Though he had always acted rather indifferent toward the exam, when a score above seven hundred appeared before his eyes, he still felt as if he were dreaming. He even checked several times to make sure he had not entered the exam number wrong. Only then did he settle down and break into a wide grin.

“Heh heh, Dad, you saw my score, right?”

Hearing Yang Tang’s rather self-satisfied question, Yang Jixue, his face full of disbelief, came to himself at last. He burst out of the room in a flurry and shouted down the hallway, “Xiaorong, kid’s mother, Xiaohong got more than seven hundred on the college entrance exam—seven twenty-five, hahaha!”

Haaah.

Yang Tang also let out a long breath. After such a long period of hard study, he had finally not disappointed his parents. That was the most important thing.

As for the thrill of such a high score, Yang Tang did feel some of it, more or less, but not nearly as much as one might imagine.

Having lived two lives, Yang Tang understood very clearly that the college entrance exam, for a brief human life, was indeed important, but not so important as to outweigh everything else.

In ancient times, the only way for a scholar to rise above the ordinary was to pass the imperial examination. One could cite the tale of Fan Jin as proof. But in modern society, there are many paths to success. Study is no longer the only road forward, so the college entrance exam does not seem quite so all-important.

Before long, Yang Jixue, who had dashed out, darted back into Yang Tang’s room, this time accompanied by his mother, who was beaming with joy.

“Xiaohong, where’s your score? Let me see, let me see!”

Yang Tang had no choice but to give up the laptop.

Yang’s mother read the webpage from top to bottom five times, exclaiming again and again, “Xiaohong, could your score be the top liberal arts score in our city?”

“I’m not sure,” Yang Tang said with a shake of his head.

Yang’s mother did not blame him. She turned to Yang Jixue and said, “Why are you still standing there? Hurry up and make a call to ask exactly what rank Xiaohong’s score got!”

Yang Jixue, however, was no longer in a hurry. “Why ask? Once the site isn’t lagging anymore, the ranking will naturally appear. No matter what rank Xiaohong gets, isn’t this score enough to get him into Jinghua University?”

“Of course it is!” Yang’s mother agreed.

Half an hour later, the website indeed displayed the top thirty rankings for the liberal arts and sciences in the city. Yang Tang was abruptly placed first in the liberal arts category, opening a gap of more than fifty points over second place.

“Xiaohong, you’re the top scorer!” Yang’s mother shouted in excitement.

“Top liberal arts scorer!” Yang’s father was equally thrilled.

Yang Tang said with slight helplessness, “Mom, Dad, there’s no need to be this excited, is there? The rarity of a top college entrance exam scorer probably can’t compare with that of an imperial top scorer in ancient times.”

“That’s true.” Yang Jixue nodded. “After all, in ancient times they tested once every three years. We do it once a year now, and there are far more candidates, too!”

“Well, there you have it.” Yang Tang spread his hands. “Among ancient top scorers, aside from Wen Tianxiang, who was prime minister at the end of the Song dynasty, none ever rose to the rank of prime minister.”

“Huh?”

Father and mother both cried out at once.

On the morning of the twenty-sixth, Yang Jixue accompanied Yang Tang back to school on time. Before they had even entered the classroom, the smiling panda-faced Li had already stopped them.

“Yang Tang, this must be your father, yes?”

Yang Tang gave an ambiguous nod.

Yang Jixue took the initiative and extended his hand, smiling thinly. “Teacher Cen, you truly have a terrible memory. I met you a few months ago. Surely you haven’t forgotten?”

Panda-faced Li froze, unable to recall at all how the two of them had met.

Yang Jixue reminded her in a阴 chilling tone, “Back then, Yang Tang broke a classmate’s hand. What was that classmate’s name again?”

“Gu Yongli! I remember now!” Panda-faced Li did not show the slightest embarrassment. “That student was indeed a bit over the line, actually switching Yang Tang’s exam paper. It was only right that Yang Tang make a fuss. Otherwise our school would never have produced such a top liberal arts scorer. Don’t you think so, Yang Tang’s father?”

“That’s true enough. But what business do you have stopping my son and me here, Teacher Cen?” Yang Jixue asked.

Panda-faced Li kept smiling. “It’s like this: the leaders from the city education bureau have already arrived, and they have entrusted me to receive our school’s top scorer here. Yang Tang’s father, you see…”

Yang Jixue glanced at his son and said, “Yang Tang was raised by our school, so naturally he should bring honor to the school in front of the leaders.”

Panda-faced Li had not expected Yang Jixue to agree so readily on Yang Tang’s behalf, and was overjoyed. “That’s excellent then!”

So the three of them went directly to the principal’s office.

Once inside, Yang Tang looked up and, sure enough, saw that the visitor was Song Chushi. He immediately rolled his eyes.

But Song Chushi acted as though he did not know Yang Tang, offering a whole round of cordial concern before handing him a bonus in front of the school leadership. At last he asked, “Student Yang Tang, as the top liberal arts scorer in our city, which university do you plan to apply to?”

The moment those words were spoken, Yang Jixue and the school leaders felt their hearts leap into their throats, terrified that Yang Tang might blurt out the name of some worthless no-name university and frighten Song Chushi.

“Jingda.”

“You mean Yujing University?”

“Yes. I plan to list only that one choice. If I’m not admitted, I’ll repeat the year!” Yang Tang said half-jokingly, half-seriously.

Song Chushi was slightly startled and waved a hand. “That won’t be necessary, not at all. If Jingda won’t admit a top scorer like you, then what exactly are they hoping to admit?”

“Director Song is right!” Yang Jixue chimed in. “If even my son’s score isn’t enough to get him admitted, that can only mean Yujing University isn’t recruiting liberal arts students in our city this year.”

“That won’t happen, that won’t happen. As far as I know, Jingda has more than ten general admission slots for liberal arts students in Chongqing this year. Since Xiao Yang is both the top liberal arts scorer and willing to attend Jingda, how could they possibly refuse him?”

Yang Tang pressed his advantage. “Then Uncle Song will have to keep an eye on it for me. I’ve heard that in previous years some schools secretly changed applicants’ preferences.”

At this, Panda-faced Li and the school leadership all looked somewhat embarrassed.

As the education bureau chief, Song Chushi had naturally heard similar rumors before. He immediately declared, “Rest assured, Xiao Yang. If any such thing as secretly altering a candidate’s preferences is discovered this year, it will be punished with the utmost severity!”