Liu Fang’s parting words were deliberately loud, meant for Xia Xiaolan and her mother to hear.
Xia Xiaolan dismissed them as nonsense, but Liu Fen was furious. Even if she no longer considered Liu Fang a sister, if a mad dog jumped out barking and cursing that Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t get into university, Liu Fen would throw stones to drive it away! It hadn’t been easy for Xiaolan to take this exam – from leaving the Xia family carrying 20 jin of sweet potatoes to reaching this point in just a year, every step forward had been earned through her efforts. Good things never came easy, and she’d even broken her hand before the exam, taking it with a cast while on painkillers… Liu Fen was proud of her daughter and wouldn’t allow anyone to speak ill of her.
Liu Fen stared at the table for a long while until Xia Xiaolan quickly grabbed her mother’s arm:
“That type just can’t keep their mouth shut. Why get angry with her? Even throwing any dish from this table at her would be a waste – is she worth the cost of the food? She barely went to school herself, and now she’s saying I won’t get into university. She’s just trying to save face!”
For Xia Xiaolan, the answer to disrespect was action, facing challenges head-on without backing down.
Whoever looked down on her, she would fight back through her efforts and let achievements do the talking. What was the point of trading verbal insults? People who knew they couldn’t match others would try to gain advantage through words – such people were both pitiful and laughable. Xia Xiaolan saw it as just a joke. By the time Liu Fen had been calmed by her daughter, Liu Fang, and Liang Huan had already run far away.
Xia Xiaolan’s words made Liu Fen laugh, dissipating her anger. The dishes weren’t expensive delicacies, just two or three yuan each – Xiaolan was right, wasting any of them wouldn’t be worth it. Liu Fang wasn’t worth wasting food over!
Liu Fang and Liang Huan had been dejected for a long time, and their rare shopping trip ended empty-handed.
How could they be in the mood to shop after learning that Xia Xiaolan was taking this year’s college entrance exam? Both mother and daughter were troubled.
They had felt superior, but after Liang Bing’an’s dismissal, all their glory had been shattered. Their only advantages over Xia Xiaolan were their urban household registration and Liang Huan’s supposedly bright future after university… Why should Xia Xiaolan be allowed to take the college entrance exam?
“Mom, she won’t pass, right?”
Liang Huan had been silent the whole way, suddenly speaking up at their doorstep.
Liu Fang nodded firmly, “She’s not cut out for studying. Dropping out after middle school, what damn university could she get into!”
Though mother and daughter verbally dismissed Xia Xiaolan, they were both disturbed. By the time they discovered she was taking the three-day exam, two days had already passed. Liu Fang might have tried to prevent Xia Xiaolan from entering the exam site otherwise, though this thought troubled her – she’d forgotten that now that Liang Bing’an wasn’t Deputy Director, she was just a department store clerk. What right did she have to stop Xia Xiaolan?
Liu Fang and Liang Bing’an were different from Xia Changzheng and his wife.
The former tried to maintain appearances while doing wrong – you could say they weren’t completely evil, or that their privileged background made them more cautious. As Deputy Director, Liang Bing’an hadn’t been as bold as Xia Changzheng. When they’d talked about preventing Xia Xiaolan from marrying Fan Zhenchuan, even the plan to disfigure her had been hesitant. Of course, it was thanks to Liu Fang and Liang Bing’an’s “cowardice” that Liang Bing’an had gotten away with just dismissal and unemployment!
Back home, mother and daughter kept quiet about Xia Xiaolan taking the exam.
Liu Fang was scolded again for not returning home on time to cook dinner. Liang Huan was the most heartless – despite all her mother’s love, she retreated to her room pretending to study, ignoring everything… In this household, her mother no longer had authority; her grandparents ruled.
July 8th – only two subjects remained in the college entrance exam.
The difficult math exam had caused many to abandon the test, and this year’s physics was also challenging. While many students questioned their life choices in a daze, Xia Xiaolan maintained good spirits. After finishing physics, she knew she had performed well in this exam.
English hadn’t been taken yet, but Xia Xiaolan wasn’t worried about it at all.
She had the advantage of her previous life’s knowledge, and the English tests of the early 1980s were truly simple – memorizing two thousand English words and mastering a few tenses made it hard not to score well.
Today was even hotter than the previous two days. Though Xia Xiaolan didn’t usually sweat much, she was drenched after the physics exam.
Others felt the heat even more intensely. The heat seemed to make them forget everything they’d learned, and with the difficult physics paper, many felt their minds turning to mush. Few had Xia Xiaolan’s confidence; most felt they hadn’t performed well.
Seeing the No. 1 High School students so discouraged, Teacher Wang felt anxious.
“Students, the long march is down to its final step. After English, this year’s college entrance exam will be over. There are two whole months until university starts – no summer homework, no one making you do practice papers. Think about what kind of life that will be! Once you finish English, that life will be yours!”
Ah, the way Teacher Wang put it, it sounded like everyone would get into university.
Though Teacher Wang’s vision might have been optimistic, it did lift the spirits of the No. 1 High School students.
Xia Xiaolan added, “If nothing else, after the exam we can go crazy for a few days and sleep in properly!”
This resonated with the examinees.
For this college entrance exam, everyone had been working from dawn to dusk. There had been some slack time before the New Year, but after returning for the new semester, they’d practically been hanging by their eyelids to stay awake studying. Those who hadn’t taken it seriously had been filtered out by the mock exams. Everyone who made it to this point had some hope.
If not undergraduate studies, then perhaps a specialized college, or at least a technical school – they could dream, couldn’t they?
“Teacher Wang, it’s just too hot.”
“Yeah, the fan in our exam room broke down. My brain felt like mush from the heat!”
It truly was too hot – July and August were the hottest months of the year. Later, for this reason, the college entrance exam would be moved to June. The ’84 class hadn’t been so lucky. Teacher Wang sympathized with them, coaxing them like children: “No matter how hot it is, bear with it. Don’t sneak off to eat popsicles – what if you get a stomach ache during the exam… never mind, forget I said that! Just hang in there for the last subject, and you’ll have completed the final step of the long march. This afternoon, I’ll treat you all to ice cream.”
There were over twenty No. 1 High School students taking the exam in Hedong.
Teacher Wang’s salary wasn’t high, but he could afford an ice cream for each student.
Ice cream was more expensive than popsicles – popsicles only cost three or five fen, while ice cream was at least one jiao.
Xia Xiaolan joined in: “Teacher Wang, we want the big cream ice cream.”
The big ice cream was the most expensive at one jiao and two fen. Teacher Wang pretended to be pained: “Big ice cream, all of you want big ice cream. Your ancestors, now will you take the exam properly?”
Everyone was satisfied now, their heat-induced irritation mostly dispelled.
Though they were all around 20 years old and not ignorant, why did Teacher Wang need to coax them? Wasn’t it just hoping they would do well? Their future was their own; they weren’t attending university for Teacher Wang’s sake. Their performance wouldn’t affect his continued teaching at the county’s No. 1 High School.
After the English exam, some local students rushed back to their dormitories, throwing books and papers from the upper floors, crying and laughing.
The campus echoed with screams of joy and sighs of dejection, and many young faces showed uncertainty… For many, their most vivid youth memories would revolve around the “college entrance exam” – it had made them cry, made them laugh, and kept them hunched over small desks completing countless practice papers.
Was it true, as Teacher Wang said, that completing the exam meant finishing the final step of the long march?
No, the most crucial moment of this battle was just beginning.