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Beyond the Mountains
墨書 Inktalez
I was about to leave the small mountain village where I had grown up for over ten years.
In 1988, after a brief period of confusion following my first failed pre-exam and the unrestrained long-term self-study during my repeated year, I easily passed the pre-exam in May. With confidence, I completed the July examination and waited at home, engaging in some casual activities while anticipating my university admission notice.
Fate played a cruel joke on me as I once again tasted the bitter fruit of failure: my college entrance examination scores did not meet the official admission threshold, and I could only barely qualify for the newly unblocked "self-funded student" program.
Upon learning my exam scores, my father ran around seeking help from classmates and friends. He heard that my uncle's father-in-law was a professor at Hunan Medical University, so he made a special trip to Changsha with him. After much effort, they received a response from the school: I could be admitted as a self-funded student, but I had to pay the tuition fee of 20,000 yuan all at once.
Although studying medicine was my dream and Hunan Medical University was a good school that both my parents approved of, we simply could not gather that amount of money. We had no choice but to give up.
After nearly half a month of searching for other schools, my father discovered that studying as a self-funded student would require an additional payment of 8,000 to 10,000 yuan in tuition fees. After discussing it with my mother, they concluded 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 did not have the hesitation and vanity I experienced after failing the pre-exam last year; I almost instinctively agreed to my parents' decision.
After deciding to repeat a year, my parents did not simply let me enroll at San Zhong. Although many leaders and teachers at San Zhong welcomed my return, they learned from various sources that during my repeated year there, due to the familiar environment and a group of friends who often distracted me, I still approached studies with the same "casual attitude" as before, which negatively impacted my learning. Therefore, they wanted me to change schools for my repetition.
At that time, the best choice for transferring was Yi Zhong. The fifth brother among the six siblings, Peng Zequan, had been admitted to Shanghai Maritime University after repeating a year at Yi Zhong. This news further solidified my parents' determination to send me there.
Yi Zhong had always been the highest institution in Dongkou County, representing the aspirations of many students. However, it seemed that fate had always kept me away from Yi Zhong; every time I aimed for it, I could never achieve it. After graduating from elementary school, I participated in a special entrance exam organized by Yi Zhong but failed; after middle school graduation, I thought I had met their admission criteria but ended up at San Zhong instead.
Thinking about the large classroom filled with over a hundred students in Yi Zhong's repeated class made me hesitate before suggesting to my parents that I wanted to go to Yi Zhong's main campus. My father remembered how he had asked Fourth Uncle for help in finding someone in Yi Zhong last year but was unsuccessful. He felt that getting into Yi Zhong's main campus would be quite difficult but couldn't resist my desire and agreed to take me to the county town to try our luck.
On a morning just before school started, my father and I walked over ten miles to Huayuan and boarded a bus 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 Yi Zhong. With your exam scores this year, let's see if they can accept you for repetition. If not, you can enroll in their repeated class; you should have a hundred percent chance there."
Thinking about how much effort and worry my parents had put into my education and reflecting on how I had wasted so much time and opportunities over the years without appreciating them, I lowered my head and mumbled something quietly as I silently accepted my father's arrangement.
As we entered Yi Zhong's campus, both of us were somewhat lost and tried 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 the man in front of him and exclaimed with joy.
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 education bureau meetings and were both from Dongkou County; thus they were somewhat familiar with each other. However, they hadn't seen each other since returning to Dongkou until today.
After exchanging pleasantries about our visit to Yi Zhong's purpose, Teacher Liu casually asked about my exam scores and readily said: "This is simple! I'm currently the homeroom teacher for this year's graduating class. Although I'm teaching a liberal arts class, it's no problem introducing someone into a science class; just follow me."
Following Teacher Liu's lead, my father and I walked briskly across campus until we reached a three-story staff building. We entered a room on the first floor where Teacher Liu spoke to a tall and handsome man in his thirties: "Teacher Changlin, this is the son of an old colleague of mine who scored above the self-funded line this year but didn't enroll; let him join your class."
The man smiled broadly and said loudly: "If it's someone introduced by Zupin Teacher, no problem! Just so happens I have a child of an acquaintance who graduated from Second Middle School this year but didn't get into university; he studied liberal arts and is looking for you."
The two teachers chatted briefly before Teacher Liu excused himself because he had classes to attend. The handsome male teacher looked at me and gestured for another boy with fair skin and shiny hair inside the room to come over: "You two will soon be part of our Class 45! Study hard and strive for admission into a good university next year!" After saying this, he instructed us both to find seats in class before heading to the school's administrative office for related procedures.
As we slowly walked toward the teaching building by the river, we introduced ourselves along the way. I met my first classmate at Yi Zhong—She Songsong from Shijiang. With both our names containing "Song," we caught the last train bound for Dongkou County's highest institution on this day.
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