Chapter 32

Coming out of the office in good spirits, Li Lan pushed the door of Class 3 open and found a good many heads coming up from their work to look at her. Assuming she'd made too much noise and disturbed them, she produced an apologetic smile and turned to close the door quietly.

Under her classmates' attention she sat down, and only at the break did she learn from Wang Jing that word of her four provincial firsts had gone round during the study period. Which explained it — thinking back, a good many of those eyes had been aimed rather low. They'd been looking at the certificates in her hand.

She got through to the end of lessons, and while everyone else was resting at midday she took her phone to the garden beside the teaching block and rang home.

Two rings, and her mother's carrying voice arrived. "Hello? Lanlan? What is it?"

Because she rang often and had told both her mother and Li Cheng that she borrowed a classmate's phone, Chen Ying had gone so far as to save the number.

Afraid of costing somebody else money past the first minute, she didn't wait for Li Lan to speak. "Oh — I forgot, that's your classmate's phone. Hang on, I'll ring you back." And hung up.

When she rang back she got to the point. "Lanlan, what are you ringing me at midday for? Has something happened?"

A fair question: calls from either daughter normally came after evening study, and never in the daytime.

Li Lan sat down on the steps by the garden. "Nothing. I wanted to tell you some good news."

Chen Ying, out inspecting progress on the house, stopped walking. Her eye caught the small group talking to Li Quan, and she moved a couple of steps sideways — landing conveniently beside the neighbour who was talking to him — and raised her volume slightly. "What good news? Go on, cheer me up."

Li Lan could picture the expression at the other end perfectly. "That competition — the one last month. I came first. Are you pleased?"

Knowing her mother liked good news and school news above all, Li Lan had rung her after every exam since starting high school. Which, admittedly, had something to do with always coming first. Wang Jing certainly thought so: if Li Lan's marks went up and down like hers, she'd hardly be so keen to report each new exam and what she'd scored.

Sure enough, delighted laughter came down the line. "First again? You were first in both the monthly exams too. And this competition — is that the provincial one, the one where only a few dozen from each school can sit it?"

Li Lan hadn't expected her to remember. She'd forgotten it immediately last time, and Li Lan had been braced to explain it all again. "You remember it?"

"Of course I do. You and Chengcheng both said it was very hard, and if you did well you could get into university without the entrance exam." A minor exam she might have forgotten; an exam that could replace the entrance exam she remembered.

Hearing "first", and catching the covert glances from the people nearby, Chen Ying's excitement produced a change of address. "So, my lovely — coming first in this exam, does that mean you can go straight to university without the entrance exam?"

A provincial first only added marks; it wasn't a recommendation. Li Lan wasn't surprised her mother didn't know — remembering what a competition was at all was the outer limit, and asking her to retain the details was unfair. So she explained the finals briefly, and when Chen Ying heard that the camp was in Guangdong and that the top sixty went straight to Tsinghua or Peking University, she was struck dumb.

She'd thought getting into university without the exam was impressive enough. Now Tsinghua and Peking could be had without an exam? Tsinghua and Peking.

And her daughter had only just started her first year. How did sitting one exam suddenly get you into Tsinghua or Peking? Nobody exaggerates on that scale. What exactly was this exam — she hadn't been taken in by something, had she?

All sorts of thoughts arrived at once, including a suspicion that Li Lan had been swindled, or was telling her something nice to please her. Then again the school appeared to endorse it, so she wasn't sure. But Tsinghua and Peking. Was it possible?

She checked, carefully. "My lovely — you're saying you go to Guangdong for some final, and the top sixty get into Tsinghua or Peking?"

Li Lan wasn't worried about alarming her, and confirmed it. "That's right. The finals are run at national level."

Chen Ying drew in a breath. Wasn't it a provincial exam a moment ago, and now national? The more she heard the more it sounded like nonsense — but she didn't understand any of it, so she'd believe it for now. "Lovely, your mother doesn't know what exam you're sitting, but do you think you could try for that top sixty?"

Tsinghua and Peking. She had no idea what level of exam this was, but if Li Lan was right, then look at the whole of Beiguan, the whole of Minhe, the whole of Shang city — who else had a daughter with a chance of getting that close to Tsinghua or Peking? Hers alone.

Li Lan didn't mention who else attended the finals. Prodigies from across the country, and there is always a higher mountain, and yes, that was some pressure — but so what. She had two golden fingers. She came back to the call and promised, "Don't worry, Mum. I'll bring you a Tsinghua or Peking offer when I get back."

Knowing it was probably said to please her, Chen Ying was pleased anyway. Calmer now, she'd worked something out: she didn't know what exam this was, but if Li Lan was right, everyone sitting it would be formidable — quite possibly from wealthy or well-connected families, groomed since infancy.

Theirs was a country family who had given Li Lan no support to speak of, and afraid of loading her, she changed tack quickly. "Do your best, that's all. Don't set your heart on Tsinghua or Peking. There's always the entrance exam."

While saying it she was privately resolving to ring Chen Shanxing the moment this call ended and find out what this competition actually was, because Lanlan had explained a great deal that she hadn't followed, and all she'd retained was university without the entrance exam.

She'd assumed some ordinary university and paid little attention. Tsinghua and Peking entering the conversation changed that. She'd better get it straight, or she wouldn't be able to boast about it properly, which would be a tragedy.

Preoccupied with that, she barely registered the four thousand in prize money from the school, and airily told Li Lan to do as she liked with it. Li Lan wasn't short of money, and with the business and the building both eating cash at home, four thousand was not a small sum — she'd transfer it to her mother at the weekend.

Hanging up, Li Lan felt considerably lighter. Between Jiao Wenfu's speech and her classmates' attention, alongside the anticipation there had certainly been pressure; it was her first national competition.

Where she'd felt confident about the league, she was now going to compete with the most talented students in the country, and her pulse went up a little at the thought. With a more developed internet, every single person at that competition would be spoken of as a titan.

While Li Lan hung up in good spirits, Chen Ying had lost all interest in boasting and rang her brother instead. "Hello? Brother. Do you know anything about this Olympiad competition?"

Disappointingly, he'd heard of it but had never paid attention, it having nothing to do with him. He was a small-town middle school teacher, and the Olympiads are largely a high school affair, so his knowledge was limited.

But he took education seriously, and took this seriously at once, telling her he'd ask a classmate of his who taught at a high school and ring back.

She didn't wait long. Watching her phone, she answered on the first ring. "Brother—"

And was cut off by his excitement. "Yingzi, this is really something for Lanlan."

From his explanation she finally learned what this so-called Olympiad was, and what scale of competition her daughter had entered.

Which prompted some private criticism of both her daughters. If they'd explained properly at the outset she wouldn't have thought it a small provincial contest, or assumed that a university you could enter without the exam meant some third-rate place or a vocational college.

When he mentioned the possibility of eventually representing the country abroad she lost interest; competing overseas would be very nice, but it was far off, and to her mind less important than Tsinghua or Peking.

Glory for the nation was remote. Splendid if it happened, but there was no need to look that far ahead — Lanlan should get herself a university first. Chen Ying did the arithmetic: a month until the exam, which meant finding a day in there to go and burn incense.

---

During the afternoon study period Jiao Wenfu gave Li Lan the timetable the coaches had agreed. One student or not, the school had set aside a little-used classroom for one-to-one teaching.

From tomorrow her day came in three parts: one period in the morning, one in the afternoon, the three subjects rotating, and the evenings for practice. Normal lessons had to be missed, time being short — which is what every student going to a final does, and the teachers were long past finding it remarkable. With a schedule that tight, never mind the novel: Li Lan applied to her editor for an extended leave of absence and, ignoring the attempts to talk her out of it, entered a long hiatus.

After evening study her phone buzzed, and she was mildly surprised by the number. "Hello? Dad?"

"Hello, daughter."

She knew from the first words that something was off, and stepped to the side of the path, frowning. "Dad, have you been drinking?"

"Mm. I was happy today, so I had a bit." He admitted it thickly.

Thinking of his health, she disapproved. "Dad, drink less."

Drunk, Li Quan was not quite himself, and took it hard. "I don't drink much usually. It's just your mother told me about this exam, that if you do well you can go to Tsinghua or Peking, and I was so pleased I couldn't help it."

She knew he turned maudlin when drunk, and hurried to reassure him. "I know, I know. A bit doesn't matter, just don't make a habit of it. And it isn't settled yet — you'll have been pleased for nothing if I don't get in."

Which made it worse. "Don't say that. Of course you'll get in, my daughter's clever enough. And why do you only ring your mother when something happens and never me?"

Li Lan's head began to ache. He blacked out when he'd had too much and would remember none of it tomorrow, but he still had to be managed now. "There wasn't time at midday, that's all — I told Mum and then had to go. I was about to ring you, I've only just come out of evening study."

That helped, and he began telling her, at the other end, how happy he'd been to hear she had a chance at Tsinghua or Peking.

Listening to it come out muddled and out of order, Li Lan wasn't impatient — she found it getting harder to listen to. Age makes you softer, she thought, and afraid she might actually cry, she talked a while longer and then hung up in a deliberately cheerful voice.

Li Quan sat holding the phone, still smiling, and said quietly to his wife, who was making up the bed, "Yingzi, sending Chengcheng and Lanlan to school in the county town and then in Yu city is the best thing the two of us have ever done. Hearing you say it this afternoon — I was so pleased."

She caught the thickness underneath it and very nearly went herself. Forcing down the ache behind her eyes, she said, with affected indifference, "Pleased, of course I'm pleased. Our girl's got a chance at Tsinghua or Peking, who wouldn't be. Now go to sleep, you've had enough tonight."

He lay down obediently, and after the light went out her voice came out of the dark. "Li Quan. Let's find a day soon and go and burn some incense."

Fuzzy as he was, he took her meaning and agreed at once. "We will. And not just anywhere — we'll find a good place and do it properly."

The room went quiet. He muttered on a while and then stopped, and shortly afterwards began to snore, and Chen Ying lay listening to it and considering which temple was the most reliable, so as to secure her daughter a good result.