CH 24.2

Chapter 24.2 – Admission

This novel is only hosted on Foxaholic, copies found elsewhere are either stolen or plagiarized.

Is he worth it? Wang Lin isn’t sure herself.

She was very happy when she first learned the police were going to send her daughter home, at least her daughter came back with her limbs intact. But her husband told her to talk over with Su Qin asking her to go out to work instead of staying home.

She is a short-sighted housewife who dares not go against her husband’s wishes. She also thought her daughter wouldn’t necessarily be able to get into university with her high school results. Moreover, she had that kind of encounter and perhaps wouldn’t be able to marry any good man in the future, hence she went to talk with Su Qin.

But she didn’t expect her daughter to leave with saying goodbye the next day.

Now the words her daughter said in front of her were so precious that she choked and was unable to speak out.

After feeding her mother the poisonous chicken soup*, Su Qin then gave the proper honeyed date, “Mom, with the way Dad treats you, it’s time for you to plan for yourself. You can consider divorcing Dad.”

[T/N: As those inspiring words are called “chicken soup”( which is like hot chicken soup to make you feel better when you’re down), ultimately the negative effects would be “poisonous”. Hence 毒鸡汤 (Dú jītāng), literally means “poisonous chicken soup”]

Wang Lin immediately shuddered and stood up like an electric shock when she heard the word ‘divorcing’, “Su-su, are you crazy? What should I do if I divorced your Dad? Go collect junk and beg for food?”

Feeling headache, Su Qin took a deep breath and spoke patiently, “Mom, even an underage girl like me can find a job and earn a living, how you who are only in your early thirties can’t find a job to support yourself? Don’t you know how advanced the world is now? Women looking for jobs are sought after. The clothing shops offer a basic salary of 800 yuan and even the server or dishwasher can get more than a thousand a month. My Dad can support you with 1500 a month, so why can’t you support yourself?”

“Think about it yourself, if you have money and can support yourself, are you still afraid he can beat and scold you to vent out on you? Earning your own money to spend it on yourself and live comfortably without the need to be a suffering babysitter, won’t you want to live independently? Why insist on living such an unjust miserable life?

Wang Lin has no thoughts of her own and her daughter’s words perturbed her state of mind.

“But … who will support you?”

Su Qin felt absurd, “You will provide for me? Dad will support me? Are you still daydreaming? Mom, how about I make a bet with you? Once you are sick, not only will he not take care of you, he will abandon and divorce you without regard to the previous affections.”

“Su-su, what are you talking about? Is your Dad that kind of person?”

“Dad will certainly not agree to my admission to Yunzhong, so what are your plans now? Listen to Dad, or give your own daughter a chance?”

Wang Lin was silent for a moment and spoke in a low voice, “Su-su, your Dad is not that kind of person … your Dad didn’t let you continue your high school studies because firstly the family has no extra money and your former school is not good so it is hardly possible to get into a good university. Secondly, with that kind of encounter, if you fail to get into a good university, it’s difficult to find a good in-laws’ family. But it’s different now, you’ve passed Yunzhong’s admission exam and the school’s entrance rate to higher studies is 99% ah. Your Dad will be willing to sacrifice everything to let you go to school.”

“You’re too naïve.” Su Qin’s voice was somewhat lower, “I have worked and saved enough tuition fees, so I don’t need Dad’s support. How about this, you give me the household register booklet first and don’t tell Dad about this beforehand. After I have enrolled, I will come back to explain this to Dad personally and you can see how he reacts, how’s that?”

Although Wang Lin kept instilling the idea that ‘her husband is very good’ to her daughter, she was abated by Su Qin’s words deep in her heart.

She handed the household register booklet to Su Qin and stuffed 20 yuan into her hand, “Mom can’t afford to pay for your tuition fees. This is the pocket money that Mom saved. You take it, don’t starve yourself.”

Su Qin in the previous lifetime probably inherited Wang Lin’s soft sappy character too and always thought of others first.

She sighed and shoved the 20 yuan back into Wang Lin’s hand, “No need, I have money. If you still treat me as your daughter, don’t tell Dad about my return today. Otherwise, I won’t acknowledge you as my mother in the future.”

Wang Lin nodded her head.

A few days later, Su Qin and Yun Fei arranged to go to Yunzhong together.

The timing for the senior high school admission exam has not begun yet and those who have obtained this special exam are all the top students from various schools in the province. The students who passed the Yunzhong exams have been scheduled to submit the documents and tuition fees in advance, so as to prevent this group of outstanding students from being poached by competing schools.

Su Qin and Yun Fei went to the student affairs office to pay the fees. When they were leaving, the teacher in-charge called out to her, “Are you Su Qin? If you have time now, go to the language office and look for Teacher Tang.”

“Teacher Tang?” Su Qin was puzzled.

The teacher in-charge smiled and nodded at her, “Yes, Teacher Tang specially notified us. Go ahead, she is your senior high year one class teacher.”

Su Qin froze for a moment. Aren’t the classes still not sorted yet?

Yun Fei felt uneasy with Su Qin going alone and afraid that she would probably lose her way in the school grounds or even wander off, thus he followed along too.

Today is Monday and the students are attending classes.

Walking into the classroom building, the two people heard the teachers’ lectures and the students’ recitings in the corridor. Su Qin hasn’t experienced this kind of atmosphere for a long time so she felt nostalgic and moved for some reason.

When she attended high school in her previous lifetime, she was twenty years old. At that time, no one in school was willing to hang out with her. Though she attended high school, she didn’t enjoy the youth that a young girl should have.

The language office’s door was tightly shut and she knocked on the door.

A woman’s voice came from inside, “Come in.” Pushing open the door, she looked inside and saw five desks and only one female teacher.

She asked timidly, “Hello, I’m Su Qin. Are you Teacher Tang?”

Teacher Tang put down the pen in her hand, got up and waved at her with a smile, “Su Qin, right? Come, come here.”

This beckoning even brought in the little tail behind Su Qin.

Teacher Tang didn’t mind that much. She moved the stools for Su Qin and the little tail behind her, letting them sit in front of her.

She asked Su Qin, “Do you know the marks you got in the exams this time?”

Su Qin shook her head, indicating that she didn’t know.

Teacher Tang said, “I’ve seen your particulars. You used to attend Chengnan First Middle School and it’s indeed not bad to get this mark. Also, I corrected your essay this time. It’s very good and this essay of yours is also very meaningful.”

“En?” Su Qin was puzzled.

Teacher Tang is in her early forties. Wearing a pair of black-framed glasses and short bob hair, she looks like a very competent woman.

Pushing up the frame of her glasses, she said, “Teacher wants to use your essay as a model essay and send with other full-scored essays to publish the [2006 Full-scored High School Admission Essays]. Teacher also wants to place this essay in the school magazine and online blogs so that more adults and students can read this model essay. I wonder if you will agree? Without doubt, Teacher will make sure it’s anonymous and strive for a higher contribution fee.”

Su Qin nodded without hesitation, “Okay ah. Thank you, Teacher Tang.”

Teacher Tang probably didn’t expect the young girl to agree so readily that she was slightly shocked and asked, “If it’s circulated as a model essay in school, your identity will likely be probed out by your classmates, aren’t you afraid?”

Su Qin smiled and said, “Teacher, choosing this essay, didn’t you precisely like the meaning of it? Didn’t you simply want to use my essay to tell everyone that it’s not ‘Our’ faults, but rather those demons? And to use this essay to tell everyone that people with ‘Our’ encounters shouldn’t be pointed with blame nor be criticized behind ‘Our’ backs? Teacher, I’m okay with it.”

Teacher Tang looked relieved, “Su Qin, I hope you will not let the teachers down in the days to come. Everything in the past is not important and what is important is you are able to strive in the future. Your essay is well written with positivity. I believe it can encourage many children who have had similar experiences with you.”

“You will be our class 1 student hereafter. I hope you will work hard and make extra effort to go to the top class. As long as you get into the top class, you’ll have no problem attending NJU or NTHU.” Teacher Tang patted her shoulder, “The school’s military training will be around mid-August and I will call to inform you of the specific date. Teacher knows about your circumstance too and once school starts, Teacher will help you apply for the poverty allowance.”

[T/N: NJU – Nanjing University, NTHU – National Tsing Hua University]

With palms pressed together, Su Qin thanked Teacher Tang, “Thank you, Teacher Tang.”

**********

Su Qin was in a good mood when she came out of Teacher Tang’s office.

Pulling the hem of her clothes, Yun Fei followed blindly behind her. When they reached the school gate, Yun Fei’s family driver had driven the car somewhere.

They called the driver but the line was busy. Waiting under the shade for a while, no car came over.

It has been a few months since Yun Fei came to the city but there’s obviously still remnants of Dashan’s way of thinking that he is a bit out of his element with the current society.

Su Qin asked him, “Feifei, you’ve been back for so long, have you ever gone roaming around the school?”

He shook his head.

Su Qin dragged him to the back street of the school. The classes were not over yet, thus the back street was quite deserted. Passing by the small shops, Su Qin went in and bought a ‘Wangwang Popsicle’ which she broke in half and shared it with Feifei.

Yun Fei quite liked the feeling of ‘half for you and half for me’ that he felt pleasantly sweet as he bit into the popsicle. In this city, Su Qin is his only good companion besides his parents.

Together with Su Qin, he will feel very happy and reluctant to be parted with her and he wants to stick to her all the time.

There are many milk tea, bookstores and stationery shops on both sides of the back streets.

It was as if regaining her missing youth, Su Qin bit into the popsicle and walked side by side on the back street with the young boy.

The 16-year-old days ought to be like this; walking while biting into a popsicle and eating spicy snack sticks, instead of being trapped in the mountains and being urged to give birth every day.

Passing by a photo sticker booth shop, Su Qin pulled Yun Fei in. Photo sticker booths are very popular in this era and one can take 20 photos for 5 yuan.

The boss thought they were little sweethearts and recommended the ‘cute couple’ background package for them. Su Qin however felt that the pink heart series was too unfitting for Yun Fei and herself, so she chose the ‘unorthodox’ background series that kids nowadays like.

The background of the twenty photos was all black in color, with novel crosses, exotic vampires and also bizarre bloody images.

After the background was chosen, Su Qin pulled Feifei into the booth where their big heads appeared together on the booth screen. Yun Fei’s eyes widened in surprise: How cool!

In order for their big heads to fit in the screen, the two heads met and two unorthodox were frozen in frame as such.

The first background was the cross with Su Qin making a ‘six’ gesture  on Feifei’s head. Feifei’s gaze was dull and appeared quite aloof.

Around the two big heads was the outlandish background and a row of radical distressed text written below.

“The world is so filthy, who has the right to act aggrieved.”

Yun Fei, who got the photo stickers, stared at the text on the photo and suddenly fell into silence like a depressed prince.