How should you react when someone you despise, your enemy, achieves such dazzling results that you couldn’t match even if you tried your hardest?
This pain was something Xia Ziyu was now experiencing firsthand.
She couldn’t even deceive herself – Xia Xiaolan’s photos were displayed on television and in newspapers. As the most beautiful college entrance exam champion in Yunan’s history, newspapers featuring Xia Xiaolan’s photos were selling out. Even serious newspapers were starting to look like entertainment sections because of her photos – people unfamiliar with the situation might think it was promoting a new movie!
But it wasn’t a new movie – it was photos of the college entrance exam champion.
True, she didn’t look like previous exam champions, but was being beautiful a crime for a top scorer?
All feedback was positive and enthusiastic.
There was no helping it – the halo of “college entrance exam champion” was too brilliant. With her proven intelligence, no one would dare call Xia Xiaolan’s looks fox-like anymore. When someone achieves undeniable success, their previously criticized features become virtues. If Einstein could be disheveled and unkempt, why couldn’t a top scorer be beautiful? Under the glow of “college entrance exam champion,” even her strikingly alluring appearance was praised by provincial TV station leaders as “youthful and vibrant, positive and sunny.”
This was the main theme – Xia Xiaolan had proven herself with her results, and no amount of mudslinging could touch her now.
This was a tactic Xia Ziyu had used before.
Because of her achievements, Xia Ziyu had gained all the favoritism from the Xia family, controlled public opinion, and arbitrarily manipulated Xia Xiaolan’s life and destiny.
But when a fake academic star met a real one, Xia Ziyu’s tricks no longer worked!
She had passed notes to reporters, thinking they would be interested in digging deep into the “champion’s” past, but neither TV news nor newspaper reports mentioned a single word about it. There were no criticisms of Xia Xiaolan, only praise.
616 points, surpassing the province’s second place by 45 points.
Universities across the nation were lining up for Xia Xiaolan to choose from – she could attend the most prestigious institutions!
Xia Ziyu immediately coughed up blood from rage.
After returning to Shangdu, she felt even worse, like her heart was being clawed at!
She too had invested four years of hard work without any slack, but only managed to get into Beijing Normal College.
Xia Xiaolan had only joined the third-year class last year, with just one year of preparation, yet casually achieved the provincial championship. Xia Ziyu felt heaven was too unfair. Seeing her parents’ panicked expressions only made her mood worse.
“Ziyu, what should we do now…”
Zhang Cui’s fear had reached its peak. Xia Changzheng had lost a hand, and Xia Xiaolan had become a provincial champion. Zhang Cui understood better than most what privileges good students received – Xia Ziyu had enjoyed such treatment during high school and after the college entrance exam.
Good students’ words were never doubted.
Even when good students did wrong, it could be turned right.
Considering how they had treated Xia Xiaolan before, now that the situation was about to be reversed, Zhang Cui was nearly frightened to death!
Xia Ziyu was impatient – how should she know what to do?
It was all her parents’ fault for being incompetent. If they had kept Xia Xiaolan firmly under control earlier, preventing her from leaving the Xia family, how could today have happened?
“She said she’s applying to universities in Beijing – she won’t rest until we’re finished! I had planned to bring you and Dad to Beijing, but now in this situation, it’s your choice whether to come or not.”
The street food business was certainly hard work. It was manageable with two people, but with Xia Changzheng missing a hand, Xia Ziyu had no choice but to support her parents financially. Thinking about her growing tutoring business, she felt supporting two more people wouldn’t be a problem. Despite their incompetence, they were still her parents, and she wanted to take care of them.
When his daughter offered to take them to Beijing for a better life, Xia Changzheng almost agreed immediately, but Zhang Cui was terrified of Xia Xiaolan.
It was great that Xia Xiaolan was going to Beijing – she didn’t want to stay in the same place as this harbinger of doom.
“If we go, what about your brother?”
Zhang Cui’s words infuriated Xia Ziyu. What about him? Of course, he would stay at his grandmother’s house. She might be capable, but she was still just a student in Beijing – how could she arrange schooling for Xia Junbao?
Xia Ziyu felt utterly discouraged.
This was the difference between her fate and Xia Xiaolan’s. Xia Xiaolan was ruthless enough to abandon her birth father when he rejected her, while she had to be burdened by this whole family! Was it really about not wanting to leave Xia Junbao, or was it about not wanting to face Xia Xiaolan’s revenge? Xia Ziyu gritted her teeth:
“I’m returning to Beijing tomorrow. Pack up if you want to come, stay if you don’t!”
Zhang Cui noticed her daughter’s anger and quickly added: “Don’t we need reference letters to go to Beijing? Your father and I would need to return to Dahe Village for those.”
Zhang Cui didn’t want to go back. With Xia Changzheng’s hand in such a condition and their business not making much money, what was the point of returning just to be mocked by that old woman?
Like a panicked young deer, Xia Ziyu’s family was trying to flee from Xia Xiaolan’s radiant halo.
But what about Liu Fang and Liang Huan?
With Xia Ziyu in college in Beijing, Liu Fang working as a sales clerk at the department store, and Liang Huan still in school, they had no choice but to stay put in Hedong County.
The news of Xia Xiaolan becoming the college entrance exam champion felt like thousands of needles piercing Liu Fang’s heart simultaneously. Even with all her confidence in Liang Huan, she had only hoped for her to get into college – she never dared dream of her becoming provincial champion… yet Xia Xiaolan had done exactly that! Liu Fang, competitive and looking down on her natal family and anyone beneath her, had always compared her strengths to others’ weaknesses. She had treated Xia Xiaolan carelessly, insisting that Xia Xiaolan wasn’t born lucky like Liang Huan!
Except for her looks, she had no education, no household registration, and no job!
But now, as the college entrance exam champion, Xia Xiaolan would have all these things.
The champion could choose the best university – that was education.
After graduation, good employers would compete for her – that was a respectable job!
And with the job would come household registration.
With one exam, Xia Xiaolan leaped over the farming class barrier and shattered Liu Fang’s last trace of pride.
Liang Huan, who had been thinking about Zhou Cheng and secretly plotting to steal him away, now had to give up. She couldn’t think of any reason why Zhou Cheng would choose her over Xia Xiaolan. Even her only advantage – family background – had vanished with her father’s dismissal.
On their way home from Anqing County, mother and daughter didn’t exchange a single word.
Despite the blazing sun overhead, the gloom in their hearts was something even the fierce sunlight couldn’t dispel.
Worse still, news of Xia Xiaolan was everywhere. That evening during family dinner, after the national news, the provincial station began broadcasting the interview with the college entrance exam champion.
Liang Bing’an looked astounded. Liang’s mother, not noticing, just mentioned that this year’s provincial champion was from Anqing and somewhat resembled Liu Fang:
“…Isn’t your niece also surnamed Xia?”
Liang Huan abruptly stood up, overturning the dining table: “It’s just one exam, what’s there to talk about, what’s so great about it? So what if she’s a provincial champion… waa waa waa… so what if she’s a provincial champion…”
She had flipped the table and started crying before anyone could scold her.
Because deep down, Liang Huan knew – being the college entrance exam champion was indeed extraordinary!