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Beyond the Mountains
墨書 Inktalez
I was about to leave the small mountain village where I had lived for over ten years.
In 1988, after a brief period of confusion following my failure in the first mock exam and the unrestrained freedom during my repeated year, I easily passed the mock exam in May. With confidence, I completed the July examination and waited at home, juggling two tasks while anticipating the university admission notice.
Fate played a cruel joke on me, and once again, I tasted the bitter fruit of failure: my college entrance exam scores did not meet the official admission cutoff, leaving me with the option to enroll as a Self-Funded Student.
Upon learning my exam scores, my father ran around seeking help from classmates and friends. He heard that my uncle had a relative who was a professor at Hunan Medical University. My father traveled to Changsha with him, and after much effort, they received a response from the university: I could be admitted as a Self-Funded Student, but I had to pay the tuition fee of 20,000 yuan in one lump sum.
Although studying medicine was my dream and Hunan Medical University was a reputable institution that my parents approved of, we simply could not scrape together that amount of money. We had to give up.
After nearly half a month of running around and contacting several other schools, my father discovered that self-funded programs generally required an additional 8,000 to 10,000 yuan in tuition fees. After discussing it with my mother, they decided that rather than exhausting the family's resources to send me to this self-funded university, it would be better for me to repeat another year and aim for a better university next year based on my own abilities. This time, I no longer felt the confusion and vanity that followed my previous mock exam failure; I almost instinctively agreed with my parents' decision.
After deciding to repeat another year, my parents did not simply let me register at Third Middle School. Although many leaders and teachers there welcomed me back, they learned from various sources that during my repeated year at Third Middle School, due to the familiar environment and a group of friends who often distracted me, I still approached my studies with a lack of diligence. Therefore, they wanted me to change schools for this repetition.
At that time, the best option was First Middle School. The fifth brother among the six siblings, Peng Zequan, had been admitted to Shanghai Maritime University after repeating a year there. This news further solidified my parents' determination to send me to First Middle School.
First Middle School had always been the highest institution in Dongkou County and represented the aspirations of many students. However, it seemed that I was always fated to miss out on it; every time I aimed for First Middle School, I ended up disappointed. After graduating from elementary school, I took their entrance exam but failed; after middle school graduation, I thought I had met their admission criteria only to end up at Third Middle School.
Thinking about the large classroom in First Middle School's Remedial Class filled with over a hundred students made me hesitate as I proposed to my parents about attending First Middle School's main campus. My father recalled how he had asked Fourth Uncle for help finding someone in charge at First Middle School last year but had not succeeded. He felt it would be difficult for me to enter the main campus but reluctantly agreed to accompany me to the county town to seek connections.
On a morning just before school started, my father and I walked over ten miles to Huayuan and boarded a bus heading to the county town. On the bus, he said to me, "This time we won't look for your Fourth Uncle; we'll go directly to First Middle School. With your scores from this year's college entrance exam, let's see if they can accept you for repetition. If that doesn't work out, you can join their Remedial Class; you should have a good chance there."
Thinking about how much my parents had worried and worked hard for my education and reflecting on how I had wasted so much time and opportunities over the years without appreciating what I had been given made me lower my head. I mumbled something under my breath and silently accepted my father's arrangement.
As we entered First Middle School's campus, both of us were at a loss trying to find signs pointing to the principal's office but found nothing. We could only follow behind a group of students deeper into the school.
Suddenly, a slightly overweight middle-aged man holding a textbook approached my father with surprise in his voice: "Long Shiyang! What brings you here today?"
"Liu Zupin! When did you transfer back to Dongkou?" My father recognized him with delight.
It turned out this teacher had previously worked in Suining County when my father was principal at a middle school while he taught history at high school. They had met during educational meetings and were both from Dongkou County but hadn't seen each other since returning until today.
After some pleasantries between them, they quickly got onto our purpose for visiting First Middle School. teacher Liu casually asked about my college entrance exam scores and said cheerfully: "This is simple! I'm currently the homeroom teacher for this year's graduating class. Although I teach humanities classes, it's no problem introducing someone into a science class; just follow me."
Following teacher Liu, my father and I walked briskly through the campus until we reached a three-story building housing faculty offices. teacher Liu introduced me to a tall and handsome man in his thirties: "Teacher Changlin, this is my old colleague's son who scored enough for self-funding but didn't enroll; let him join your class."
The man smiled broadly and said loudly: "If it's someone introduced by Zupin Laoshi, that's no problem! Just so happens that one of my acquaintance's children graduated from Second Middle School this year without getting into university; he studied humanities and was just thinking of coming to find you."
After exchanging a few more words between them before teacher Liu left for class, Teacher Changlin looked at me and gestured for another boy with fair skin and shiny hair inside the office to come over: "You two will soon be part of our Class 45! Study hard and aim for a good university next year!" After saying this, he instructed us both to find our seats in class before heading to the administrative office for necessary paperwork.
As we slowly walked toward the teaching building by the river, we introduced ourselves along the way. I met my first classmate at First Middle School: She Songsong from Shijiang. With both our names containing “Song,” we caught the last train heading toward Dongkou County's highest institution on that day.
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