CH 10

Chapter 10 - Number one in the county

What should come will always come; everything is ordained by heaven. Just a little while after Shen Shao returned to Shenjia Village, several men and women came to his house and crowded around the door. Their skin was tanned dark and their palms were rough and cracked. At a glance, it was clear they were used to hard manual labor.

“Auntie is begging you, child. Please tell your father to return our money. We really don’t have a choice. Our family needs the money. A life is at stake!” The middle-aged woman wiped the tears from her face. In the past, they all worked in Linhai City. Three years ago, Shen JianBing told them his wife back home was seriously ill and dying. He wept and begged them to lend him the funds to save her life.

None of them had much money, but Shen JianBing had worked with them for three or four years. They believed he was a down-to-earth and honest man. When they saw this handsome man weeping pitifully in front of them, they couldn’t just stand by and watch death tear his family apart. They pooled their money together and loaned him eight thousand yuan. When Shen JianBing got the money, he gave them an IOU and swore to return it within six months.

Then he left and they never saw him again. At first they thought he wasn’t able to return because of family matters. But as things dragged on, more than half a year went by and Shen JianBing never came back. It became obvious something was wrong. They asked around about Shen JianBing’s hometown and finally managed to locate it. However, when they heard what Shen JianBing had done, leaving a half-grown child alone at home, they left things at that.

But now one of their children was sick and had been in the hospital for several months. They really needed the money. They had no choice but be ruthless and seek out the child who was abandoned by his father.

It wasn’t that they had no compassion, but the situation left them without any options. They were forced to act.

When the people of Shenjia Village heard the commotion, they ran over too. At first they thought it was immoral for these people to force a half-grown child to repay his father’s loan, but when they saw the woman crying so hard and thought of her child in the hospital, they couldn’t say anything. All they could do was scold Shen JianBing as an animal. What a pity that something like this happened to such a good child.

When Shen Shao saw the middle-aged woman about to kneel down to him, he hurriedly stopped her with one hand. He bit the corner of his lip and said, “Uncle, aunt, take out the IOU and I’ll return the money.”

“Xiao Shao, where did you get so much money?” Liu ShuLian felt anxious and helpless. “That’s eight thousand yuan!” She knew her brother and sister-in-law had secretly saved some money over the years and left it to Shen Shao, but he couldn’t have more than ten thousand yuan. Over the past three years, Shen Shao spent some of the money on school. If he paid back the eight thousand yuan, how would he pay his high school tuition?

Shen Shao shook his head and didn’t say anything. At this point in his last life, he was blocked at the door by these creditors. Back then he was afraid and apprehensive, but he had no choice but to repay the debt. After all, in his previous life, eight thousand yuan was money for school, it sustained his dream. But for them, it was money to save a life.

He knew which of the two was more important. So although he was reluctant to give up his chance to continue studying, in the end he paid them the money. In this life, he deliberately returned to the village and waited for these people to come to his door. If he’d known their address, he would have returned the money voluntarily.

“It’s OK. Money can be earned again, but these people need the money to save a life, and it should be returned to them. It’s the Shen family that wronged them. They don’t owe me anything. It’s only right to pay back the debt.” Shen Shao went into the house and returned with a metal box. Inside was no less than eight thousand yuan.

The middle-aged woman took the box with trembling hands. She opened the lid and found the money inside in neat stacks of hundred, fifty, ten, and five yuan bills. The money in her hand wasn’t heavy, but it felt like it weighed more than a thousand catties of gold.

She knew in her heart this teenager shouldn’t have to do this, but she didn’t have a choice. It was for her child. 

The other people felt upset as well. This was obviously the money they’d loaned to someone, but they felt like bullies, disturbing a child’s peaceful life and forcing him to give them the money.

“Forget it, just return the money to her. You can pay me back when you start working,” said a thin middle-aged man, smoking a fifty-cent pack of cigarettes. He looked at the metal box several times and reluctantly turned his head away. “Keep it for school….”

Before he could finish speaking, his wife twisted his arm. He took a few more puffs of his cigarette and fell silent.

“Thank you, uncle, but this money should have been paid back a long time ago. You were kind to wait this long to ask for it back.” Shen Shao smiled. “I’m sorry for what my dad did.”

“It has nothing to do with you,” the smoking man said in a muffled voice. “We’re the ones who are sorry.” With these words, he handed the IOU to Shen Shao and stopped talking.

When the people of Shenjia Village saw this situation unfold, they inwardly berated Shen JianBing. After the debtors returned the IOUs and took the money away, they felt even more sympathetic to Shen Shao.

Liu ShuLian frowned. “W-what should we do about this?” She looked at her fellow villagers and Shen Shao, her face pinched with worry.

Just then, they heard a voice full of happiness coming from not far away.

“Good news, good news! Shen Shao of our village won first place in the county! First place!” The person who delivered the news was Shen GuangHui from their village. When he saw so many people standing in front of Shen Shao’s house, he smiled and said, “Why’s everyone here? You know, when I passed the gate of the experimental junior high this morning, I saw a banner hanging over the door. It said, ‘Warm congratulations to Shen Shao of our school, who won first place in the county on the high school entrance exam’. If that’s not our Shen Shao, who else could it be?”

“Really?” Shen Shao’s face was happy. “Are the exam results out?” In his last life he had good grades, but he was far from first place. Maybe it was a good thing at the time, because leaving school would have been even harder to bear.

The other people from the village were excited to hear the news too. Their Shenjia Village had the top scorer. Liu ShuLian thought to herself in a daze that the government would certainly reward the top scorer in the county,. The high school wouldn’t make Shen Shao pay for tuition.

“Ha, Uncle wouldn’t lie to you.” Shen GuangHui was proud of the good news he brought. “If you don’t believe me, go and see for yourself. The banner is hanging at the school gate. It’s very impressive!”

“Right, go and take a look.” Some of the villagers urged Shen Shao to confirm it, to make sure he wasn’t celebrating in vain.

“I’ll go check,” Shen Shao went inside the house, picked up the bag that was already packed, and said goodbye to the villagers. He left without delay. It wasn’t that he was really so anxious, but now that he’d finished his business here he needed to travel to No. 3 High School in Furong City to take the exam.

Furong No. 3 Senior High School was the most famous key high school in the province. It was common knowledge that getting into Furong No. 3 High School was like getting half of your foot into the door of a university. If any of the students from that school’s experimental class didn’t score high enough to get into college, they’d be too embarrassed to face anyone. The teaching quality and admission requirements of the school were incredibly high.

As soon as Shen Shao arrived at the experimental junior high, the teachers noticed him and took him directly to the principal’s office. The third year students had already graduated, but the students of year one and year two weren’t on summer break yet. Thanks to Shen Shao’s popularity, most of the students knew him, and their group attracted a crowd of young onlookers along the way.

On almost everyone’s faces were written the following words: damn, that guy’s first place in the county!

During the past two years, Shen Shao had gotten used to being surrounded by others, so he handled the stares calmly. At the principal’s office, the teachers told him the school was going to give him a bonus of eight hundred yuan, and the Bureau of Education would give him twelve hundred yuan. That was when his indifference turned into delight.

Who wouldn’t like getting money so easily?

“Our County No. 1 High School and the City No. 1 High School both sent you notices. As long as you enroll in either school, you won’t have to pay tuition or miscellaneous fees. The City No. 1 High School will also give you a monthly living allowance of fifty yuan, while the County No. 1 High School promised to give you a living allowance of eight hundred yuan per semester.” The principal outlined the preferential policies offered by the two high schools and said, “You can decide which school to enroll in when you get home.”

In terms of financial conditions, the offer from County No. 1 High School was more attractive, but the other school was the best key high school in the city. In the long run, enrolling in the City No. 1 High School was a better choice.

The principal and teachers knew this, but they also knew Shen Shao’s family situation, and they couldn’t voice the suggestion. The two thousand yuan awarded by the Bureau of Education and their school might sound like a lot, but high school was expensive. Even if you didn’t have to pay tuition and school fees, reference books and living expenses weren’t cheap. In particular, year three of senior high school was extremely expensive. Senior three students studied extremely hard, and if they didn’t take nutritional supplements, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with their classes. All these things cost money. Average families had to tighten their belts to raise a child in high school, not to mention someone in Shen Shao’s situation.

After repeatedly thanking the teachers and the principal, Shen Shao made a detour to buy some fruit, then went to the house of his class teacher, Li Lu. Li Lu made Shen Shao stay for lunch before returning to his rental apartment.

In the afternoon, Shen Shao bought a ticket to Furong City for the next day. Although three years had passed, the road from Peng County to Furong City still wasn’t very good. If he didn’t leave early enough he wouldn’t have time to find a place to stay near Furong No. 3 High School.

The next morning, Shen Shao boarded a bus to Furong City. After arriving at the station in Furong City, he got on another bus. It took a long time to reach No. 3 High School.

During Shen Shao’s monthly holiday last month, he traveled to the No. 3 High School to sign up for the enrollment test. Today he had to pick up his admission ticket to take the test. There were only three days until the exam.

After he got the admission ticket, Shen Shao found the teaching building his exam room was located in. Then he turned around, walked out of the school gate, and booked a room in a nearby hotel.

The hotel charged a lot more than a student hostel, but the environment was quieter and the sound insulation was better. He had to take the exam in three days. He needed to rest well and review all kinds of physics and math questions.

In the hotel, Shen Shao got a little bored. He bought a few newspapers and magazines outside. When he flipped through the international newspaper, he saw a huge spread devoted to the news that a domestic thirteen-year-old had participated in the International Youth Mathematics League and made it through several difficult rounds to win first place. The paper made a point of emphasizing that the student, surnamed Gu, was the youngest of the contestants.

Shen Shao looked at the color photos in the newspaper with some admiration. The student was good-looking, with red lips and white teeth and a somewhat ruthless expression. He truly had the demeanor of a genius.

After reading the article, Shen Shao felt that even if he’d become more intelligent in this life, he wasn’t anything special. Compared to an actual prodigy, he was a run-of-the-mill talent blessed by heaven. The reason he was able to remember so much and get the top score in the county wasn’t because he studied hard, it was because his brain worked so much better now.

He folded the newspaper and put it away. When he checked the time, it was already 10 p.m. He went over to the big window and looked outside. The streets were already brightly lit. The view of the city at night was like nothing you could see in Peng County. But in his previous life, in the last moments before he died, what he’d remembered were the days when he was young and ignorant, wading for prawns in the water, chasing cicadas in the mountains.

Maybe it’s only when your life reaches its last seconds that you understand how precious those innocent years are. It’s a pity that time flows so quickly. When you want to look back, you find that the things are still there, but the people have changed and the emotions are gone.

He was a mediocre person. In his teens, he left home to make a living, went through hard times, and learned how to curry favor with others. He lost his innocence long ago. Later he was promoted to chef, met even more people, and learned how to adapt and how to charm. The diligent studying he did on his own was half hobby, half for the sake of becoming more cultured, so that when holding a banquet for an upper class family, if he happened to meet a distinguished guest in the kitchen, he could have an intelligent conversation with them.

Although… He never actually met a Gao FuShuai or a Bai FuMei who was willing to talk to him. Well, life was merciless.

TL Notes:

a thousand catties of gold – 千金 – thousand jin/catties of gold, money and riches, a lot of money. For “catties” see the note in Ch 6

top scorer – 状元 – zhuàngyuán – Can also mean top scorer in the palace examination (highest rank of the Imperial examination system) / top scorer in college entrance examination 高考 / (fig.) the most brilliantly talented person in the field / leading light

nutritional supplements – from 还有在用脑过度的情况下，高三生需要补充大脑营养，不然会跟不上学习进度 – The raw specifically says that if senior students overuse their brains, they need to replenish their brain nutrition or they won’t be able to keep up with their studies. I’m not sure how common it is in other countries, but in China there seems to be a lot of marketing of these nutritional supplements to anxious parents

made it through several difficult rounds – 过五关斩六将 – force five passes and slay six captains — win glory in battle; overcome all the difficulties in the way; surmount numerous difficulties; to experience many hardships

red lips and white teeth – 唇红齿白 – rosy lips and pretty white teeth – Standard way to describe a handsome person

the things are still there, but the people have changed – 物是人非 – things have remained the same, but people have changed. Often used to express the passing of time

run-of-the-mill talent – 庸才 – mediocrity

mediocre person – 平庸的人 – mediocre / indifferent / commonplace | person

survived hard times – 摸爬滚打 – to go through challenging experiences / to become seasoned (in one’s profession etc)

how to adapt and how to charm – 见人说人话，见鬼说鬼话 – talk to people, talk to ghosts – (fig.) adaptable / able to deal with various kinds of people and situations / (derog.) insincere / two-faced

for the sake of becoming more cultured – from 一为了肚子里多些墨水 – for the sake of having more ink in his stomach – An idiom which means a person is cultured and literate

Bai FuMei – 白富美 – “fair-skinned, rich, and beautiful” – Ms. Perfect, the female counterpart of Gao FuShuai, “tall, rich, and handsome” (note in Ch 9)

Transliterated names, places, and titles—new in this chapter:

Linhai City – 临海城 – “linhai” means on the waterfront, to overlook the sea

student surnamed Gu – 顾姓同学 – Gù xìng tóngxué