Chapter 59

Not one member of the family had remembered that results came out today. Which took the pleasure out of standing about with a group of grown men, so Li Quan said, "I'd better get back and see," and turned for home.

On the third floor he found the three who'd stayed in: one playing the guitar, one cooking lunch, one typing. The clatter of Lanlan's typing was almost more than he could bear. He and Chen Ying were busy with the shop every day, fair enough — but how had the girl herself forgotten?

"Lanlan, stop typing. Results are out today. Go and look at your marks." He crossed to her quickly, urgent and helpless at once. If he could use a computer he'd have looked himself.

Li Lan, in the middle of her paper, stopped and glanced at the corner of the screen. The date said, plainly: 2010/06/25.

"Oh. I forgot it was today." Home on holiday, she lost track of dates entirely, except when term was about to start.

"Honestly, child. You don't take an interest in your own affairs. Go on, look." Chen Ying had appeared behind her at some point and joined in.

"All right." She opened the provincial education department's site, entered her exam number and her ID number on the candidate login, pressed return — and under four expectant stares, a circle began turning on the page.

"What's that?" Li Quan was baffled by the little spinning ring.

"Slow connection. You have to wait," said Li Jingyu, glancing over.

"Everybody's checking at once, so it's congested. Probably a few minutes." Online results were fairly new, and today of all days it was busy. At midnight, she suspected, the page wouldn't have opened at all.

"This rubbish connection. I'm changing providers." Watching the blank page, Li Quan understood at last what people on television meant by a day feeling like a year. For him, a second felt like a year.

"There, there, it's coming." Li Jingyu made a noise as the page began loading in stages. Li Quan hushed him at once, and the four of them, eight eyes, fixed on the page creeping into existence.

"Shall we refresh?" Li Jingyu couldn't help suggesting, watching it come at the pace of a snail. The heading had only just appeared. When were the marks going to show?

"Refresh nothing, just wait, it'll come." Chen Ying looked at her son handing out advice. The heading had appeared at last; if he started clicking about and nothing showed at all, what then? Her remark came a fraction late, however, because Li Lan had pressed refresh the moment he finished speaking.

Chen Ying was alarmed, having no idea when the girl had got that fast. "You—" And her voice cut out, because unlike the crawl before it, this time the page came up instantly with the candidate's details.

Skipping over the number and the rest, all four looked straight at the marks. Nobody in the family had bad eyesight, and one glance took them in:

[Chinese: 142 Maths: 150 Foreign language: 148 Combined sciences: 300 Total: 740]

Looking at the total, Chen Ying couldn't quite believe it, and after a moment asked, "Lanlan, what's full marks in the entrance exam?"

"Seven hundred and fifty." A few marks above her own estimate, in fact.

Chen Ying and Li Quan looked at each other and drew a breath. They'd known Lanlan wouldn't do badly; neither had expected this. They knew she was good at school — she wouldn't have gone off to international competitions otherwise — but the maths and biology competitions she'd entered were so lofty and unfamiliar that they'd never heard of them before, and knew only that they were something impressive. It hadn't felt like anything.

Seeing her entrance exam marks, the two of them got their first concrete sense of how good she was. The entrance exam they understood. Ten hard years at a desk lead to this one examination; a great many people go pale at the mention of it. And Lanlan had come ten marks off full.

The two of them were nothing but delighted. It made no practical difference — she was a university student already — but it hardly stopped them being pleased.

"Wonderful. Come on, Lanlan, we're going to the old courtyard to tell your grandparents."

On the way back from the old courtyard, Li Lan listened with a sinking head to her parents discussing how to celebrate her taking top of the province. That part had come from Jiao Wenfu, who had rung a few minutes earlier, and the two of them, already excited, were now beside themselves.

They were currently debating whether to do something big — an event at the supermarket, say — and it was Li Tieshi who settled it: none of that nonsense, do it the traditional way and stand everybody dinner.

They'd managed to restrain themselves when Lanlan won the world championship and when she went to Peking. This one was not being let pass. Top of the province, and once in a lifetime.

Li Quan got out his phone. "Let's not hire a cook and do it ourselves. It's too hot for that — what about a restaurant in the county town?"

Careful with money as she was, Chen Ying agreed at once. "That's what I thought. We hold one of these once in our lives — book the best hotel in the county town."

"Right. I'll ring now." He started dialling for a table while Chen Ying picked up the other phone and began inviting people.

---

The two of them moved fast, and the date was fixed: the first of July. Hearing it was a celebration dinner for the province's top scorer, the manager offered twenty per cent off and threw in a service.

Li Lan saw the service before she was out of the car: a red cloth banner hung across the entrance. Warm congratulations to Li Lan on being top scorer in the 2010 entrance exam.

Chen Ying was very satisfied with it. "Don't forget a family photograph in a minute. A pity Chengcheng isn't on holiday yet."

Li Quan was equally satisfied, though less openly than his wife. "What's the good of photographs? When the high schools break up in a fortnight we'll do the dinner for her teachers, and then take a proper family holiday somewhere."

"Chengcheng breaks up late and goes back early. I'd say leave the trip until we take Lanlan to Peking — neither of them has been to Beijing." Chen Ying had thought it through.

Her reasoning was that Li Cheng, a high schooler, went into her final year next term and had barely any summer. They would certainly all be taking Li Lan to the university — not just the two of them, but Li Tieshi and Song Qiulan as well. Coming back from a holiday, going straight to Beijing and straight into term would wear the girl out.

Li Quan thought there was something in it. "You're right. We'll go to Beijing, then."

He could have gone when she was sitting in on lectures, but that wasn't proper enrolment; he and Chen Ying had gone for two days and come home without seeing much of anything. This time she was going with an offer letter, to enrol properly. That deserved a proper look round.