Seeing is believing.
Anqing County No. 1 High School didn’t have a library, but it did have a small reading room that was rarely used.
Principal Sun had cleverly arranged Xia Xiaolan’s interview location in the reading room.
When reporters entered, they instinctively lowered their voices. The reading room had been temporarily requisitioned, with no spectators allowed – only Xia Xiaolan and several senior-year subject teachers were present. Upon first seeing Xia Xiaolan, the reporters were startled.
This girl was quite beautiful.
But where was Xia Xiaolan? They were here to meet the provincial top scorer!
Among the few people in the reading room, none really looked like students. The reporters’ gazes wandered until they settled on the somewhat inexperienced-looking Sun Tian. Having just started work a year ago after graduating from teachers’ college, Sun Tian was only in her early twenties, fitting Principal Sun’s description of someone who had dropped out and returned to school.
“Student Xia Xiaolan?”
“Student Xia Xiaolan, we’re from the provincial TV station and would like to interview you.”
“Summer…”
Sun Tian stepped back, waving her hands repeatedly: “You’ve got it wrong, I’m not Xiaolan, I’m a teacher here. Xiaolan is right there!”
Several people pointed at Xia Xiaolan.
The reporters exchanged bewildered looks, realizing they’d made a huge mistake. Video tapes were precious then, fortunately, they hadn’t started recording yet. They hadn’t expected that the most beautiful girl would be this year’s Yunan Province science stream top scorer, Xia Xiaolan.
She sat by the window, sunlight streaming through the glass onto her. White short-sleeved shirt, red pleated skirt, hair tied in a ponytail – every complimentary term used to describe female beauty would be fitting for her.
Even the provincial TV station couldn’t find someone this attractive.
If told she was a movie star, they’d believe it 100%, but as this year’s college entrance exam champion… the reporters were skeptical.
The public held certain prejudices: girls performed well in primary and middle school but fell behind in high school and university; girls were better suited for arts subjects because they were easier, lacking rigorous rational thinking; academic performance and appearance were inversely related – the more attractive a girl, the more likely she’d be distracted from studies.
These ingrained biases made it difficult for reporters to believe such a girl could be this year’s provincial top scorer.
Upon entering, they’d seen Xia Xiaolan was the focus of conversation, but stunned by her beauty, they’d mentally dismissed the possibility she was Xia Xiaolan, approaching the modest-looking Sun Tian instead. A top scorer should be buried in books, plain and modest – she could be a transfer student, someone who’d dropped out after middle school and returned years later, all that was fine! It wouldn’t damage the image of a top scorer but rather add interest to the story.
But she shouldn’t look like this.
Completely contradicting the image of a modest good student, her appearance was too striking – no plain clothes, no tanned face, none of their imagined poor student’s traits… well, she was simply too beautiful, more than qualified to be a movie star.
If Xia Xiaolan had looked like Summer Ziyu, matching the era’s mainstream aesthetics, the reporters wouldn’t have found it strange.
She was too delicate – pointed face, fair skin, white shirt tucked into her skirt, extremely slim waist, graceful figure. The CCTV version of “Investiture of the Gods” hadn’t aired yet, otherwise “Su Daji” would have been their first association with Xia Xiaolan.
After the brief embarrassment of mistaken identity, a sharp-eyed reporter spotted something noteworthy:
“Student Xia Xiaolan, you’re wearing a cast – were you injured before or after the exam?”
“Student Xia Xiaolan, congratulations on achieving this year’s Yunan Province science stream top score. May we ask your current thoughts?”
“The provincial station would like to do an exclusive interview.”
“Student Xia Xiaolan, according to our interview with Principal Sun, you’re a transfer student, right? In one year, your total score improved from 446 in the entrance exam to 565 in mock exams, and finally 616 in the college entrance exam. How did you manage to study?”
After the brief mix-up, everyone wanted to interview Xia Xiaolan first, with reporters showing no courtesy to each other.
Some things Principal Sun had already mentioned, but reporters still wanted to hear them directly from Xia Xiaolan.
One reporter couldn’t resist raising his camera and taking her photo.
Startled by the flash, Xia Xiaolan finally spoke her first words, “Written interviews are fine, but I’d rather not have my photos appear in newspapers… I’ll answer your questions one by one.”
Xia Xiaolan didn’t want her photos published but gave up after two sentences, seeing someone had already started operating a video camera. She might control print media, but how could she control provincial TV news? Neither Xia Xiaolan nor Principal Sun had that kind of influence.
So she spoke.
“My hand was injured before the exam, yes, someone on a bicycle hit me. Any impact? I took the exam with the cast – couldn’t skip it just for a minor injury.”
“My feelings about being the science stream top scorer? First, I’m happy. Along with that happiness, I’m grateful for the school’s nurturing, the leadership’s care, the teachers’ guidance, and my classmates’ help. This achievement didn’t fall from the sky – without everyone, I wouldn’t be here today…”
“As for study methods…”
Xia Xiaolan just told the truth – she disliked playing for sympathy. Principal Sun had probably embellished things for reporters, portraying her as an inspiring figure of hardship.
Xia Xiaolan didn’t feel pitiful at all. After the college entrance exam, she was ready to spread her wings and didn’t want the reports to trigger a wave of sympathy.
Sympathy was useless, and Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to be portrayed as a “poor top scorer” – that would lead to people monitoring her spending! Why couldn’t she spend freely what she earned? She wouldn’t pretend to be poor in university either; within her income limits, she wanted to live comfortably.
This interview relied on the reporters’ imagination to complete.
The “image” the reporters forced on Xia Xiaolan wasn’t what she wanted.
Gradually, the reporters noticed this – this year’s provincial top scorer wasn’t just physically striking, her personality was also quite distinctive.
Not entirely conforming to mainstream consciousness?
Like the Reform and Opening Up, Xia Xiaolan’s impression was modern. A non-pitiful, stylish, and optimistic provincial top scorer? That was quite refreshing!
Xia Xiaolan forcefully refreshed their preconceptions, and the reporters didn’t take long to shift from discord to acceptance. No one asked messy questions – during the chaos at the school gate, the city TV station reporter had received a note with some “exposés” that didn’t align with the main theme. Whoever wanted to discredit the fresh provincial top scorer, the city station reporter wouldn’t foolishly cooperate.
There was only one provincial top scorer each year, who had to be the focus of cultural propaganda in July. Why would he oppose the mainstream provincial media now? He wasn’t crazy!
Whoever was stirring up trouble wasn’t just trying to get the provincial top scorer criticized – they were trying to discredit him too!