Chapter 52 - Tokyo Drift (End)

With Ameko’s departure, Zhang Heng’s life as an exchange student also came to an end. He moved out of the dormitory of the International Exchange Hall and rented a small apartment outside the university.

Takeda Tetsuya also taught him nearly everything he knew. Now, to improve his skills and technique, there was only continuous practice and relying on his talent. Improving his driving skills from level 2 to level 3 in a short period was quite impossible, so Zhang Heng did not invest too much effort into it.

He participated in a couple of underground drifting competitions with his L300, earning him quite a bit of money. He even won an 80%-new Mazda. Unfortunately, no game points were credited for that.

The money he made was enough to sustain him for the rest of his time in Tokyo, and since he would not be able to take it away with him, it was kind of pointless making more, so Zhang Heng did not continue racing. That mysterious mustard color van that appeared and vanished so suddenly eventually became a legend in the Tokyo underground racing world…

But that was a story for another day.

Now that he no longer had to work or attend classes, Zhang Heng found himself with plenty of time. One day, while he was out traveling, he came across a gym, and he suddenly remembered that karate originated from Japan, derived from the combination of Japan’s indigenous martial arts and Tang Shou Dao.

Last time, when he fought the men who worked for Kobayashi Yu, he was able to confirm the effectiveness of his training in the gym. But the person he had fought was only a commoner. While Zhang Heng had the advantage of speed and strength, he was simply throwing punches without any proper technique. It dawned on him that he could use this opportunity to learn a little bit of karate.

So, Zhang Heng spent the final two months achieving Level 0 in Karate skills.

On the 420th day, he stood on the Sky Tower overlooking Tokyo, enjoying the night view for one last time. Then that familiar voice rung:

[Return deadline arrived. Mission completed.]

[Tokyo Drift edition cleared! The second round has ended. Returning to reality…]

…

When Zhang Heng opened his eyes, he found himself back in the lounge booth. This time, the Tokyo Drift mission did not send him into some challenging situation isolated and far away from civilization. Still, after spending 14 months as an exchange student in another country, Zhang Heng found himself feeling an indescribable comfort and warmth hearing the language he was accustomed to.

“A glass of lemon water—no—give me something more flavorful,” Zhang Heng walked up to the bar and had a brief flashback of the Tokyo girl with the snaggletooth smile.

“Congratulations on making it through the second round!” The bartender lady masterfully mixed a glass of cocktail and pushed it in front of Zhang Heng. “It looks like you’ve just completed a very unusual journey!”

“Mm. Hey, I’d like you to help me identify something.” Zhang Heng took out the woodcarving. After his first experience with the rabbit’s foot, he made sure to come prepared with a pair of gloves to handle the woodcarving, be it inside or outside the game.

The bartender’s eyebrows rose at the sight of the game item. “Another one? Aren’t you a little too lucky?”

She picked up the woodcarving carefully and placed it inside a tulewood box, not forgetting to take 5 points from Zhang Heng.

Zhang Heng sat at the bar as he finished his drink. When he was about to leave, the bartender called out to him, “Do you still remember the year-end auction I told you about?”

“Mmhmm?”

“As usual, it will be held on the last day of the year. If you plan to participate in the auction, you better prepare in advance. Remember not to set the third game on that day,” she reminded him.

Zhang Heng thanked her and then left the lounge.

…

The next day, Zhang Heng skipped English class in the morning. The second game had ended a little too late that by the time he left Sex and The City, already 4.30 am by then. He needed to make up for all the sleep he had lost.

Then in the afternoon, as he was having lunch, Ma Wei and Chen Huadong gave him the same sympathetic look.

“You’re screwed. Today, Old Zhang gave a random test in class. When he found out that 5 papers were missing from the stack, he threw a fit! The College English Test (CET) 1is only two weeks away—he said that those who don’t know what hard work is cannot be saved. The people who didn’t take the test won’t get any marks for their continuous assessment.”

In most universities, exams were usually separated into two parts: continuous assessment and a final exam. The latter made up 70% of the final score, while the former made up the other 30%. These two combined, made up the final grade.

This 30% shouldn’t be underestimated. It regularly determined if someone passed or failed a subject, either saving the person from failing or dooming a supposed pass to failure. Of course, the latter scenario was relatively rare. After all, there were no ongoing grudges between lecturers and students, so crackdowns on the students during the continuous assessments were uncommon.

But if a person did not have any continuous assessment marks at all, it would be a severe problem. A student would have to score 86 out of 100 to get a credit, and English was a slightly more special subject, whereby the final results were graded based on the CET-4 and CET-6.

“710 is the full marks—which means that to get a credit, you will need to score 609 points in the final exam.” Ma Wei frowned. The passing mark for the CET-6 is 425 marks. For a non-English major, 600 points and above was usually considered a high score. Even a nerd like him did not have the full confidence to be able to achieve that, especially not English, which was a subject that Ma Wei was slightly struggling with.

Zhang Heng was speechless. If he had known about it, he would have fought his sleepiness and gone to class. But it was too late for him now. He simply had to find a way to get a score of 609 and above. In fact, if he was previously presented with this problem, he would have thought that it was impossible. But having learned English from Bell back on the island, Zhang Heng felt that the situation was salvageable.

It was about 20 days away from the College English Test. To him, that amounted to 40 days. When it came to his listening skills, there was nothing to worry about. The essay and grammar portions, though, still required some reinforcement.

Zhang Heng did not expect to have to tackle English right after having to grapple with Japanese in Tokyo. Perhaps, taking up a job as a simultaneous translator after graduation was a good idea.

…

Later that afternoon, Zhang Heng ran to the library to borrow some books to get cracking on English when he suddenly ran into Shen Xixi.

Without Cheng Cheng harassing her all the time, peace had been restored to her life. Although they had exchanged numbers after the camping incident, neither of them made the first move to contact each other.

They would often meet on campus, and Shen Xixi would greet him liberally, but they were only friends. On the contrary, Chen Huadong and Xu Jing quickly became close friends after that day. Even though there was still no confirmation that they romantically involved, but they had been hanging out together a lot lately, and it looked like success was on the horizon.

Nowadays, Chen Huadong had forgone his games and no longer attended his anime club. Instead, he would spend his days shopping and walking around the streets with Xu Jing, betraying his club, Tiger Shark—some loyal members even thought of burning him at stake…

Since they were both there by chance, Zhang Heng figured that he might as well go up to her and say hi.

Footnotes:

Ch 52 Footnote 1

A standardized exam administered by the Ministry of Education in China, which is divided into two levels: CET-4 and CET-6.