Chapter 43

Back at the hotel, Li Lan took a packet of calendula seeds out of her bag — a souvenir from the morning's visit. She meant to plant them as soon as she got home. It was winter in Henan, but calendula likes cold and dislikes heat: seedlings survive to minus nine, and mature plants to zero, so once they'd germinated indoors they could go outside quite safely.

At the biology camp's closing ceremony the next morning she went up for her third national first certificate. Which brought nearly three months of competition to a close. There was still the national training squad, but that wouldn't begin until May at the earliest — plenty of time yet.

Even Li Lan let out a breath at that. Since term began in her first year she had barely stopped: studying, or on her way to study. Looking back over the three months she felt a certain wistfulness. Days when she could put everything she had into learning like that would be hard to come by again.

Coming down from the platform she found the supervising teacher marvelling at her. Since the perfect maths paper and then the chemistry training squad the week before, her name had gone round every teacher in the province. "I genuinely wonder what your IQ is. Three training squads in a row. Before the exam the teachers were speculating about your biology result, and it's another perfect score. Yu No. 1 can hold its head up in this province now."

In fact it wasn't only Henan. While she was sitting through the closing ceremony, an argument about her was breaking out in Beijing.

At the association that oversees the competitions, a small meeting room held several people with serious expressions — and any staff member coming in would have found them to be senior figures from the mathematics society, the chemistry society, and the botanical and zoological societies that run the biology competition.

The subject of the meeting: to whom did Li Lan belong.

As for how it arose, that went back to the perfect maths paper. A rare perfect score, from a weak competition province, had attracted a certain amount of notice in Beijing when the results came out — though at that stage it was simply admiration for a maths result.

Then, not long after, somebody who remembered the name saw it again on the chemistry training squad list. At first they assumed a coincidence of names; the school settled it. Even then there was no particular problem — two training squads is uncommon but not unheard of, and Li Lan's marks were merely exceptional.

And then yesterday, with the biology scoring finished, the familiar name appeared on that squad list too. Approaching it in a spirit of surely not, and reaching the school, the staff member compiling it was struck speechless. Who exactly was this? Three subjects, three training squads — and placed in the top three in all of them?

At which point they thought of a problem: this year's international schedule. Because of the dates and the locations, students in both chemistry and biology this year faced a choice of one.

Ordinarily the procedure is to notify the student and let them decide, with a recommendation attached. This time, looking at three sets of results, the staff member had no idea what to recommend. Chemistry or biology? Simply let Li Lan choose?

Looking at two subjects that were impossible to separate, they took the case to the office next door, where the manager was equally stuck. "If the marks were poor, or far apart, it would be easy. As it is—

"Never mind. I'll put it to the two of them and see what they decide." And he rang the chemistry society and the botanical and zoological societies, passing the problem along — and then, thinking of the maths result, rang the mathematics society as well.

Having received the news, the two societies met privately, each hoping to talk the other into giving her up. Neither would, and the discussion produced no concessions and a good deal of irritation, after which both reported to their superiors. Hence the meeting.

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"Let me be clear from the start. Li Lan must be on the chemistry team. She took full marks on the theory paper." The chemistry side broke the silence first.

The biology side couldn't let that pass. "As though she didn't take full marks on the biology theory. You haven't read her written answers — you can see a student who genuinely loves the subject. Li Lan must be on the biology team." The botanical society's man got quite worked up by the end.

The mathematics representative, brought in to adjudicate, watched chemistry take on the other two, all three of them flushed and thoroughly undignified over the question of who had her.

There was no help for it. The international schedules for those two didn't overlap, but they ran back to back, and had the venues been close there'd have been no difficulty — finish one, go to the other. But these are international competitions, and this year chemistry was in Australia and biology in the United States. Short of teleportation or being in two places at once, it was one or the other.

Which had the mathematics man privately grateful that maths came first, with a clear gap on either side. Barring accidents Li Lan's maths squad place was secure — otherwise his society would have been in the argument too.

"And what does full marks on chemistry theory amount to? Look at her practical. There's a distinct difference from the theory. Biology is another matter — her practical work was as near perfect as makes no odds." The botanical society tried patient persuasion, hoping chemistry would let her go.

"Give it up. Her practical may not have matched her theory, but she was still in the top three — and achieving that score with the facilities available in Henan tells you what her potential is. With national team training, full marks won't be a problem." Chemistry's man was entirely clear-headed and declined to step into the trap.

Neither side would yield an inch.

Had her results been slightly worse, none of them would have got this heated. It was precisely that her results were too good to give up, and neither would retreat.

Seeing it deadlock, the mathematics man stepped in to smooth things. "Here's a suggestion. Since neither of you will withdraw, let Li Lan decide. We can argue all day and it still comes down to her choice."

Disappointed at having failed to persuade each other, both accepted that this was the only route. "It'll have to be that. Neither of us will give her up, so let her choose."

Which made the meeting entirely pointless, and left three society representatives thoroughly glum. The plan had been to talk the other side into withdrawing so that Li Lan would have only one competition to attend — and neither side had proved gullible.

At which they both looked at the mathematics man, sitting comfortably in the middle. "Your luck's in. A student like her doesn't come along often in maths either, I imagine."

He picked up his tea and drank, and found it excellent. "She does not. This year's crop is very promising. If they hold this form through the training, the overall championship should be ours."

Looking at all that comfort, the chemistry man passed on something he'd heard, regretfully. "I gather Li Lan was also a provincial first in physics and was selected for the physics final — she only took maths because the dates clashed. If she'd chosen physics, that would have been worth watching."

He was entirely unruffled. "Even given a choice between physics and maths, Li Lan chose maths then and she'll choose maths again. Mathematics is irresistible."

---

Unaware of the argument she'd caused, Li Lan came off the plane, said goodbye to the teachers and students she'd travelled with, and found her parents waiting at the exit. Hearing that the airport was awkward to reach, and with a five o'clock arrival, they'd driven out to collect her.

She was barely in the car before her mother turned round, unable to wait. "Lanlan, let me see the certificate." Li Lan had rung that morning to say she'd taken another national first, and her mother had been waiting ever since.

She produced a certificate no different from the previous two, and her mother opened it carefully. She'd looked at the other two more times than anyone could count, and a new one was still a pleasure.

Having read it thoroughly she handed it back, and watching Li Lan stuff it away, couldn't help a caution. "Put that somewhere safe. Don't damage it."

Li Quan watched his daughter in the mirror, amused. "Lanlan, three national firsts in one go — this exam can't be that hard, can it? You don't suppose the recommendation might fall through?" One exam and you get into Tsinghua or Peking; to him it seemed too much like a game. Perhaps Lanlan had it wrong, he thought, unable to stop worrying at it.

His wife smacked him, at full strength. "What sort of talk is that? Our daughter is exactly the sort who gets recommended."

Chen Ying was not a woman who had avoided hard work, and it landed with force. He winced. "I've simply never seen it before."

"Of course you haven't, that's normal. Didn't my brother say there are only a handful in the whole province—" And she went on at him at length.

Timid as he was, he couldn't quite leave it. "It's because there's no precedent that I'm expressing a doubt—"

Li Lan watched them bicker, smiling, and was about to intervene when her phone buzzed in her pocket.

Jiao Wenfu.

"Hello, sir."

His voice came back with a smile in it. "Congratulations, Li Lan. Biology training squad as well."

She thought herself rather impressive too, but modesty had to be observed. "Thank you, sir. Luck, that's all."

He knew his student's temperament, and could imagine how pleased she was privately. He hoped what followed would keep her that way. "Well, I won't keep you. I rang to tell you something."

His tone turned serious, and assuming an announcement of importance, she sat up. "Go ahead, sir."

What came next caught her entirely off guard.

"You remember the interview we mentioned? The date's fixed. Day after tomorrow." He dropped it with affected lightness.

She doubted her ears. "The day after tomorrow? I thought it was after Spring Festival?" She hadn't given the interview a thought, but her memory being what it was, she knew what she'd been told.

"That was the plan. But you've gone and taken three national firsts, and the province's competition people are beside themselves — they want it done quickly, to broadcast over Spring Festival while viewing figures are high, so more people see it. Time being short, they've asked me to check whether you have any objection."

Spring Festival was under five days off. Unconfirmed, it had felt like nothing; now she was to be interviewed, resistance rose in her. She sighed. She had a great many objections. "Sir. Can I not do it?"

His voice came back with amusement in it. "Calling me sir won't help — I'm a mere form teacher, I only pass messages along. If you genuinely don't want to, you may refuse. Talk to your parents and have them decline; we can hardly force you." Knowing her character, he stopped joking and gave her the advice straight.

"All right." She would tell her parents, she decided, and have them find an excuse — as her mother used to when Li Lan didn't want her at parents' evenings, which she'd always done rather well.

And while she was working out how to persuade them, he dropped a second one that nearly took her soul out. "Oh — I forgot. The format's changed. Originally it was at the television studio, but the competition people felt a straight interview lacked atmosphere, so they'll be coming to your house.

"Ahem. So if you really don't want to do it, talk to your family quickly — they asked me for your parents' number just now, so I expect they'll be ringing shortly." He said it perfectly levelly, and Li Lan detected a distinct note of pity.

"Right, I'll talk to my—"

"Television? Coming to interview her? Wonderful!"

Before she could finish parents about it, her mother's delighted voice arrived from the passenger seat.

Li Lan said nothing. Neither did Jiao Wenfu.

"Ahem." This was awkward. He had cleared his throat more today than in the rest of the month combined.

"Well then. In that case you'd better accept. There's really nothing to be frightened of in an interview — it's all agreed in advance, you read off the script." On the strength of the very little he knew about interviews, he offered that.

Li Lan gave up. "Yes. Thank you, sir."

"Er. Good luck, then. Ah — your teacher's wife is calling me to dinner, so I'll leave it there." And he hung up briskly.

Sir, thought Li Lan, don't imagine I couldn't hear the traffic behind you.