Scoring ten points above the first-tier line is a catastrophe in a major gaokao province, but for candidates in Beijing it is pure bliss.
Candidates from across the country all rush to squeeze into Beijing’s universities, which has artificially pushed up the admission scores for second-tier schools here. This is the ultimate involution when everyone fills in their preferences!
Of course, local Beijing candidates feel the same way: unless absolutely necessary, they refuse to leave the capital. They already live in the capital, so why go elsewhere when there are perfectly good universities right on their doorstep?
Some less famous universities from other provinces can never get high scores in Beijing, no matter what. Even 211 universities vary hugely. 211s in remote areas are the least favoured by Beijing candidates, while those in Shanghai are at least worth considering.
Among Shanghai’s 211s, the absolute hottest is Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Nationwide, it is pretty much the hardest 211 to get into.
Second place goes to Shanghai International Studies University.
The 211 with the lowest admission score in Beijing is the very one Wang Shuang currently attends. Last year its Beijing cut-off was only one point above the first-tier line.
This year Peng Guoqing scored 539 and feels he has totally nailed it!
You don’t need sky-high marks, just enough!
If the target is the same school as Wang Shuang, 539 or 639 makes no difference… except of course it does. If Peng Guoqing had actually scored 639, he would never lower himself to be Wang Shuang’s schoolmate. With 639 he could be classmates with Xie Qian and Wen Ying, so why downgrade himself?
Still, Peng Guoqing knows his own level perfectly well. He never dreamt of breaking 600; his foundation simply isn’t there. Anything above 600 would require cheating, nothing else.
539? He has zero complaints!
This score delighted the entire Peng family. Even President Peng, who normally picks faults with his son, was in a mood that defied description.
Ring ring ring…
The phone rang. Peng Guoqing grinned the moment he saw the caller ID. “It’s Teacher Liang! I need to take this. Oh man, I was so excited earlier that I checked my score and forgot to tell him. Teacher Liang must be worried sick!”
Teacher Liang really was worried sick.
Too impatient to wait for Peng Guoqing’s news, he had checked the score himself.
This kind of VIP treatment was unique to Peng Guoqing. Teacher Liang had never been this invested even in his top students.
“You got 539, you know that, right?”
Deep in the night, Teacher Liang’s voice was still full of energy.
Not only was Xie Qian researching the admission lines of the Shanghai 211 Wang Shuang attends, Teacher Liang was doing the same. Don’t ask why a key provincial school teacher from Rongcheng is studying Beijing cut-offs; the answer is responsibility.
Accepting the job of tutoring Peng Guoqing meant taking on responsibility.
That responsibility had nearly ruined Teacher Liang’s reputation as a teacher.
Peng Guoqing scoring 539 made Teacher Liang as happy as if he had produced a provincial top scorer. Thank the heavens, this academic disaster hadn’t crashed and burned in his hands!
Peng Guoqing had no idea of Teacher Liang’s complicated emotions; he only cared about the result. “I already checked. Teacher Liang, I can’t thank you enough. I had zero confidence at the start, but you firmly believed I could get into a 211. I’m so touched…”
As he spoke, Peng Guoqing started choking up.
On the other end, Teacher Liang sighed inwardly: silly boy, I was only being polite back then!
Still, although Peng Guoqing is naive, after transferring to the provincial key school he really worked hard. Calling it “hair tied to a beam, awl stabbing the thigh” wouldn’t be an exaggeration at all.
“This is what you deserve. Being born into the right family is luck, but studying depends on yourself. You still have a long road ahead, keep working hard!”
Teacher Liang gave his advice, and Peng Guoqing naturally promised everything.
After hanging up, Grandpa Peng was full of praise for Teacher Liang: “This is what a real teacher looks like.”
Teacher Liang had been paid for the tutoring, and Mrs Peng often sent gifts to the teachers.
So what?
Teachers get salaries for classroom teaching.
Isn’t it allowed to earn a bit of overtime money helping struggling students after hours?
Of course, Teacher Liang’s kindness towards Qingqing wasn’t just because the boy had changed his attitude and touched the teacher; it was also thanks to the efforts of his daughter-in-law Zhu Xiao.
Grandpa Peng looked at his daughter-in-law with affection. “You’re wonderful too. All these years you’ve handled everything inside and outside the home. You’ve worked so hard!”
Mrs Peng waved her hands repeatedly. “I’m not as good as you say. Housework is done by the nanny, earning money outside is Ningkang’s hard work, and even as Qingqing’s mum I barely score 60 out of 100…”
“Nonsense, nobody could ever replace what you do!”
Grandma Peng wouldn’t let her daughter-in-law put herself down.
The nanny can do chores, but can the nanny manage family relationships top to bottom?
This isn’t the old society. The family has good conditions; Grandma Peng isn’t the kind of evil mother-in-law who makes her daughter-in-law do all the housework herself.
The thing Grandma Peng loves most about Zhu Xiao is her big heart.
Without that heart, she couldn’t tolerate her husband being busy with work 365 days a year.
Without that heart, she wouldn’t treat her in-laws like her own parents.
Every relative and friend in the Peng family speaks highly of Zhu Xiao, precisely because she never holds grudges over small things and has high emotional intelligence.
In Grandma Peng’s eyes, her daughter-in-law Zhu Xiao is genuinely kind.
When powerful and influential relatives visit, Zhu Xiao welcomes them warmly. When poor, down-on-their-luck relatives visit, she welcomes them just as warmly, even quietly helping them out without hurting their pride.
That’s why, when Peng Guoqing used to slack off and got terrible grades, the old couple never blamed their daughter-in-law for failing to teach him properly.
Boys will be boys and love to play; the most important thing is that their character doesn’t go bad.
Their daughter-in-law led by example and raised their grandson into a fundamentally kind and cheerful child. That already deserves a perfect 100 as a mother!
If anyone scores failing marks, it certainly isn’t Zhu Xiao, but their son Peng Ningkang.
Grandma Peng glared at her son. “Qingqing scored 539, and many people deserve credit on that medal, but you are the only one whose name isn’t there. As a son you barely pass, as a father you’re still far from the mark!”
As the live-in son-in-law of the Peng family, President Peng was long used to his lowly status at home.
Yet being told to his face by his own mother that he hadn’t even reached the “passing line as a dad” still left a slightly bitter taste.
So what exactly makes a qualified father?
Does he have to give his son 20 million pocket money the moment the boy asks?
If that were the requirement, President Peng felt their current assets were still far from the level where a wastrel son could squander freely. He had to roll up his sleeves and keep earning!
The wastrel Peng Guoqing had no clue about his live-in dad’s sense of crisis. His own gaokao score was confirmed, but he still didn’t know his friends’ results.
“No need to ask about Xie Qian, but how did Wen Ying and Li Mengjiao do?”
Speak of the devil: Wen Ying called right away.
“What? You got 671?”
Peng Guoqing shouted “Amazing!”, then asked about Li Mengjiao.
“Mengjiao performed averagely, 582.”
Peng Guoqing could only think: …and that’s average?!
Rumour has it this year’s Sichuan Province science first-tier line will be around 530, similar to Beijing.
Taking 530 as the baseline, Li Mengjiao was 52 points above the line, completely crushing Peng Guoqing.
With that score, even without the arts exam bonus, Li Mengjiao could comfortably apply to normal 985 universities!
The scariest was still Wen Ying: estimated 660, actual 671.
Apparently when Wen Ying first entered the provincial key school she was also a slacker, only slightly better than Wang Shuang. Xie Qian tutored her for three years, and the slacker made a complete comeback into a genuine top student.
Peng Guoqing was envious but not jealous.
In terms of studying, he really wasn’t as gifted as Wen Ying, and he started working hard much later. 539 was already pretty good.
Besides, Wen Ying is Xie Qian’s girlfriend. When Xie Qian gave her private tutoring he was obviously the most attentive; that intimate bond was something Peng Guoqing could never compete with, so no jealousy possible!
“So do you know Xie Qian’s score?”
Peng Guoqing’s question played right into Wen Ying’s hands. On the other end, Wen Ying raised her voice. “No idea! I called Mengjiao first, then you, and now I’m about to call Xie Qian!”
…
Hehe, Peng Green-Hat really knows how to set up an assist!
Wen Ying dialled Xie Qian without missing a beat, face not red, heart not racing.
Beep beep beep…
Even the waiting tone sounded beautiful.
When the call connected, Xie Qian’s voice was as pleasant as ever.
Hearing Wen Ying ask about his score, Xie Qian went silent. Wen Ying instantly grew nervous. “What, did you do badly?”
How could Xie Qian possibly do badly?
Unless someone had sabotaged him and swapped his papers midway!
As expected of a novelist, after a few days of training at the literature college her imagination had levelled up, leaving Xie Qian utterly speechless.
“Didn’t you check your inbox? The moment scores came out I already texted you.”
Er…
Wen Ying really hadn’t looked. Ever since she got through to Li Mengjiao, her phone had never stopped ringing.
Li Mengjiao scored 582 and wanted to say 582 sentences to Wen Ying!
“So how many exactly?”
This time Xie Qian didn’t keep her guessing. “745, pretty much what I estimated. The Chinese paper was too hard to get full marks.”
Every knowledge point that required memorisation, Xie Qian aced.
Even reading comprehension, he extracted the scoring points perfectly.
Classical Chinese translation was child’s play.
The only thing beyond control was the essay.
Xie Qian had read plenty of perfect-scoring essays and knew all the techniques for exam compositions.
Best-selling author Wen Ying dared not guarantee a high essay score, yet Xie Qian was confident. Pure logical thinking without excess emotion, he knew exactly how to write a gaokao essay.
But that only guaranteed a high score.
Even a top student like Xie Qian couldn’t read every marker’s mind and guarantee full marks on the essay.
Chinese was the one subject where Xie Qian allowed himself to lose points.
In reality, he estimated correctly: he lost 4 points on Chinese.
His real estimation error was English, where he actually lost 1 point!
Compared to the Chinese essay, getting full marks on the English essay is harder. English isn’t the native language of Chinese candidates, so markers don’t deduct as harshly.
The subject Xie Qian was confident he’d perfect actually cost him a point. That already counted as a major mistake!
Wen Ying: …I suspect Xie God is being Versailles but I have no proof, what do I do?
