Chapter 12

The afternoon before the exam was for finding your exam room, and the three of them waited until four, when it was less hot, before setting out.

Zhao Xinxin aside, neither of the sisters had been assigned to their own school — but even Zhao Xinxin wanted to check where she was sitting, to avoid a flustered start in the morning.

They decided to confirm Zhao Xinxin's room across the road first, then go on to Li Lan's and Li Cheng's in turn. The sisters hadn't got their own school, but their luck held: one was at Minhe No. 1 High School and the other at Minhe County Primary, both next door to Minhe No. 1 Middle and barely a ten-minute walk.

They strolled round and confirmed all three, and by the time they got back, dinner was on the table.

"Mum, why have you made all this?" Zhao Xinxin took in the loaded table the moment the door opened.

Zheng Huifang, who had come two days earlier to see her daughter through the exam, came out of the kitchen drying her hands and smiled at them. "It's not much. Exams tomorrow, you need building up. Have you all found your rooms? All right, are they?"

"They're fine. Not far. Lucky we weren't sent to some other school," said Li Cheng, with some relief.

"Not as lucky as Xinxin, though. She's sitting it in her own school." Li Lan's memory wasn't precise, but her impression was that the room assignments hadn't changed from last time round.

"It's all fine. Rooms found, nothing else to worry about — sit down and eat. Early dinner, early bed, and a proper rest tonight." Zheng Huifang got them to the table.

Afterwards Zhao Xinxin and her mother went to her room to talk, and the sisters, not wanting to intrude, borrowed Zheng Huifang's phone to ring their mother and then went to their own room to talk.

Li Lan had expected to be too keyed up to sleep, and instead went out not long after lying down and slept through.

At six the next morning she woke to small rustling sounds outside, and reached over to find Li Cheng's side of the bed empty.

Getting up, she found all three of them already about their business: Zheng Huifang making breakfast, and Zhao Xinxin and Li Cheng washed and dressed, sitting on the sofa going through the notes Li Lan had made them — though from the look of them, not much was going in.

Li Lan yawned. "When did you all get up? I didn't hear a thing."

Li Cheng looked at her sister, freshly awake, and was faintly baffled. "Never mind when we got up. Neither of us slept properly. You slept fine, though. Aren't you nervous?"

"Nervous about what? We've sat this thing about nine times." Li Lan headed for the bathroom to wash.

"Those were mocks. It's not the same as the real one, of course we're nervous." Zhao Xinxin put the notes down. She couldn't take them in, and the more she looked the blanker her head went.

"Stop reading them. It only makes it worse," Li Lan said round her toothbrush.

Li Cheng put hers down too. She'd meant to reassure herself, but it had achieved nothing except more nerves.

"Let's check the kit again, in case we've forgotten something." Zhao Xinxin turned to the pencil case she had already been through twenty times the day before.

Li Lan came out to find the two of them fussing, and had nothing to say to it — mercifully Zheng Huifang announced breakfast at that point and diverted them.

Zheng Huifang, Li Lan thought, was somewhat nervous herself, given how early she'd cooked. They finished at half past six, and the first paper was at half eight.

"You two go back to bed for a bit. Rest even if you don't sleep, or you'll be tired this afternoon." Li Lan had slept the night through and was fine; the others hadn't.

Zheng Huifang nodded. "The three of you have another hour. I won't sleep — I'll wake you when it's time."

Li Cheng and Zhao Xinxin exchanged a look. Neither had slept much and neither would sleep now, but both were afraid of being under-rested for the exam, so in the end they took Li Lan's advice and lay down with their eyes shut.

Li Lan wasn't tired. She went down for a couple of turns round the block, and by the time she came up the other two were asleep.

By half seven the crowd at the gates of Minhe No. 1 was growing, and Zheng Huifang kept glancing at it, wanting to wake them and afraid they hadn't rested enough.

At twenty to eight she did. Candidates had to be there fifteen minutes early, and allowing for the walk, twenty to eight was about right for Li Lan and Li Cheng.

Zhao Xinxin didn't need to leave that early, but her mother couldn't bear the wait, so she was woken too and all four went out together to stand at the gates of Minhe No. 1 with everyone else.

Outside the high school next door it was the same: the gates not open yet, and a good crowd of candidates and accompanying parents.

Morning or not, looking at the press of people with no shade anywhere, Li Lan sighed, found a patch under a tree and sat down on the spot. Too early, as she'd thought. Her own preference was to arrive with a minute to spare — coming early got you nowhere, since you couldn't go in, and standing about in this heat was suffering for nothing.

At quarter past eight she checked the watch she'd bought specially and did the arithmetic. Sure enough, a short while later the gates opened slowly, and watching the crowd surge in, Li Lan resolved that tomorrow, whatever time the other two left, she was staying put until eight.

Following her memory to her room, she found nearly everyone already there. She found her place, sat down, and waited — and thinking about her plans for afterwards, even Li Lan's steady pulse picked up a little.

The twenty-fifth of June, half past eight in the morning. The 2008 middle school entrance exam began.

---

By the rules there were two papers on the first morning: Chinese at half eight, then history at ten past eleven, finishing at twelve.

Both being on the easier side, most candidates came out looking reasonably bright, and even Li Cheng and Zhao Xinxin, nervous all morning, came back at midday quite relaxed.

The afternoon started at three. Looking at the enthusiasm of the sun outside, Li Lan simply set off in her slippers. Having stalled until the last possible minute, she reached the high school to find the gates already open, and was thoroughly satisfied: in weather like this, waiting outside would have cooked you at least halfway through.

Two papers again in the afternoon, three until half five: physics, then chemistry.

They weren't the major subjects, but unlike the morning's Chinese and history you couldn't write your way through not knowing, and this year's questions had some bite to them. A number of faces were becoming distinctly uneasy.

Li Lan reckoned the difficulty wouldn't hurt Li Cheng or Zhao Xinxin much as they now were — and sure enough, over dinner neither looked worried; they discussed the day's papers with some excitement.

It really is the unknown that frightens people. With the first day behind them, and both feeling they'd done all right, the two of them were visibly less anxious than they had been that morning.

They were up as early the next day but far more relaxed about it, and apart from Li Lan, all three — Li Cheng, Zhao Xinxin and Zheng Huifang — left at the same early hour as before. Under her sister's eye-rolling and Zhao Xinxin's coaxing, Li Lan held to her decision, went at the last minute, and refused absolutely to leave a moment sooner.

The second morning followed the first: two papers, same times, maths and then politics.

In any exam, at any level, maths is most students' nightmare, and it had been Li Lan's last time round. This year's was noticeably harder, and by the break a number of the less resilient had red eyes.

Politics finished at twelve, and for some reason the gates weren't opened until half past. Li Lan spent nearly half an hour in the sun at the gate, and was thoroughly hot and out of temper by the time they opened; she went straight out at speed.

The gateway was ringed with parents and their three-wheelers as it had been the day before. Li Lan dodged the ones closing in, got onto the pavement, and a few minutes later thought she heard someone call her name. She assumed she'd misheard and paid no attention — two people can share a name, after all.

The more she heard it, though, the more familiar it sounded. She looked up and found Li Cheng a little way ahead, waving and shouting her name, with two familiar figures beside her.

Li Lan's eyesight was excellent and she knew them at once, and a smile she wasn't aware of arrived on her face as she went quickly towards them.

"Dad. Mum. What are you doing here? When did you get in?"

Standing with Li Cheng were Li Quan and Chen Ying, arrived that day.

"Not long ago. It's your last day, isn't it — your father and I shut up shop and came. Here, wipe your face, look how hot you are." Chen Ying, seeing her daughter sweating from the walk, handed her a tissue while she answered.

Li Lan took it. "How did you know I was sitting here? Oh — Zhao Xinxin's mum told you."

Li Quan nodded. "That's right. I was waiting for you and your mother went for Chengcheng. Why were you so late, though? Chengcheng was out ten minutes before you."

Li Lan was aggrieved about that too. "I don't know. I handed my paper in and came out and the gates just wouldn't open. I've been standing in the sun for thirty minutes."

"You'll have cooked. No wonder your face is that colour. Come on, quickly, there's air conditioning at the flat." Chen Ying was full of sympathy, having entirely forgotten that she'd just spent an hour in the sun at the gate herself.

With their parents there, the walk back went in excited talk from both girls, and only at the flat did Li Lan discover that Zhao Xinxin's father, Zhao Shu, had come as well.

The flat hadn't been large to begin with, and several adults made it a great deal smaller, but Chen Ying and Zheng Huifang got lunch on quickly so the three candidates could eat and rest — the adults would eat once the girls had gone.

For the last paper of the afternoon, English, Li Lan got to experience being seen through an exam by her parents, and it was, she had to admit, rather nice.

Being walked to the gate was quite enough, though. She wasn't having Chen Ying and Li Quan stand outside for the duration, and only went in after extracting a promise, twice confirmed, that they'd go back once it started.

Exam time always goes quickly and waiting always drags, and Li Lan was on her third check through the paper when the bell finally went.

"Right, time. Pens down, please, no more writing — anyone still writing will be treated as cheating. Pens down." Li Lan put hers down promptly, and once the papers had been collected she gathered her things and left.

Outside, she stretched enormously. The exam was over.