While Teacher Kang was talking to Wen Ying about Yue Shanni, in an old residential compound in Rongcheng, Yue Shanni herself was lost in a daze.
Peng Guoqing had been too scared to estimate his score; he didn’t want to raise his family’s hopes too high.
Yue Shanni was afraid both to estimate and to check.
Peng Guoqing had a family safety net. The Pengs didn’t want to pressure him too much; getting into that Shanghai 211 would be ideal, but if he didn’t, well, that was life.
Yue Shanni had no one to catch her if she fell.
She even felt that nobody cared about her gaokao result at all.
After her dad divorced her mum, he became “the boss” outside: nice car, big house, surrounded by drinking buddies, living the high life.
In front of Yue Shanni, however, he only ever moaned about being broke.
Business was tough, his new wife didn’t work, supporting her and their little son was exhausting!
When they divorced, the court awarded custody to her mum and ordered him to pay 500 yuan a month in child support.
A man who drove a luxury car and lived in a villa used every trick in the book to avoid paying that monthly 500.
Her own father cried poverty to her face, while the stepmother rang her mum to scream that the ex-wife was putting Yue Shanni up to demanding money and trying to wreck his new family. The stepmother, the very woman who had been the third party, was now paranoid about anyone else doing the same to her. The ex-wife had already lost once; what if she was secretly plotting a comeback?
The stepmother guarded her husband like a fortress, determined to erase every trace of Yue Shanni and her mum.
So the 500 yuan went from once every two months to once every three.
Every time Yue Shanni took the money from her father’s hand, she felt humiliated.
Eventually she swore she would rather die than go begging again.
Naturally, this earned her a torrent of abuse from her own mother.
Her mum hurled every ugly insult imaginable, convinced Yue Shanni was still soft on her rich dad and trying to save him money.
Yue Shanni never answered back, which only infuriated her mother more.
Living in a family like that, Yue Shanni knew she had only one shot at the gaokao.
If she failed this time, her mum would never let her repeat a year.
The family simply couldn’t afford it.
Her dad already dragged his feet over 500 yuan a month; there was no way he would pay university fees.
Though her mum constantly said Yue Shanni wasn’t cut out for studying and kept pointing to neighbours’ daughters who “made big money down south”, telling her to drop out and work, after Yue Shanni was expelled from her Rongcheng high school, her mum still scraped together the money for a new school.
In the county town Yue Shanni boarded; she came home once a month for living expenses. Her mum handed over the cash with bad grace, but never once refused.
If she didn’t get in this time… there would be no next time.
In the end it was Teacher Kang who checked the score for her and called to tell her.
When she heard the number, Yue Shanni went completely blank.
She locked herself in her room for two full hours.
Two hours later she found her mum in the neighbourhood mahjong parlour.
The room was thick with cigarette smoke, tiles clacking noisily. Yue Shanni walked straight to her mother’s side.
“Mum, my results are out.”
Her mum had been losing all day, offending the god of mahjong; she was already in a foul mood and snapped, “Out already? How many did you get?”
“493.”
Yue Shanni said it loud.
Her mum froze.
A fellow player complained, “Shanni, keep it down! You didn’t even break 500 and you’re shouting like that? Nearly scared away my big win!”
Yue Shanni glared at her.
Her mum’s voice stayed flat. “Your Auntie Li is right. Less than 500 and you’re yelling for what? What are the cut-offs this year?”
“First-tier 532, second-tier 475, third-tier 450.”
Teacher Kang had told her the lines too; they were tied to her entire future, so she remembered them perfectly. She added, “I passed the second-tier line. Public second-tier universities aren’t expensive.”
Auntie Li clicked her tongue. “Not expensive? Even the cheapest university costs several thousand a year, plus living expenses a few hundred a month. Four years and tens of thousands are gone! If the score was good enough for first-tier or a key university it might be worth it, but what’s the point of a second-tier degree? You might not even find a job after!”
Only Yue Shanni knew how much she had suffered to reach 493.
Hearing it dismissed like that, her fists clenched.
Auntie Li was a notorious gossip and kept prattling that girls didn’t need much education. Yue Shanni was tall and pretty; she should enter society early, earn money, ease the family burden. She even cited a neighbour as an example.
“That girl wears gold and jewels now and gives her parents a good life. Shanni, think of your mum. A divorced woman with no steady income, raising you alone isn’t easy!”
Yue Shanni exploded with rage.
The “example” Auntie Li gave, everyone in the compound knew the truth behind the closed doors: that girl was working in a southern bathhouse as an escort.
She was literally telling Yue Shanni to go sell herself!
Yue Shanni had never been known for a sweet temper. She was about to flip the entire mahjong table when, unexpectedly, her mother beat her to it.
BANG!
Her mum flipped the table, lunged forward, grabbed Auntie Li by her freshly permed curls, and slapped her hard across the face twice. She hit and cursed at the same time. “493 may not be high, but it crossed the second-tier line! She can go to a proper public university! You stupid bitch, who are you to preach at me? Think I don’t know your son only scored a bit over 200 last year and went to some no-name technical college? Yet you two threw a big celebration banquet like you were proud of it!”
Auntie Li’s head rang from the blows.
Every table in the parlour fell silent.
Some players tried to break it up, but Yue’s mum shoved them away. “Don’t any of you dare stop me! I’ll hit whoever tries!”
She wasn’t just angry that Auntie Li had publicly belittled Yue Shanni’s score and told her to give up university.
What infuriated her most was Auntie Li telling her daughter to become a prostitute!
Of course Auntie Li wasn’t taking it lying down. She shouted that her son could go to technical college because they had money!
And connections!
When he graduated, a job would be arranged anyway.
Just because they played mahjong together didn’t make them equals. Auntie Li’s husband earned good money; she wasn’t some unwanted divorcee like Yue’s mum.
“What have you got, huh? Can you even afford the fees?”
Auntie Li went all out with her mockery.
Yue’s mum slapped her twice more. “Pah! Whether I have money is none of your damn business! I’m not borrowing from you! I’m sending Shanni to university! A second-tier public uni is still miles better than your son’s rubbish college! So what if you can pull strings now? The wheel turns. In a few years your son might end up working under Shanni!”
Yue Shanni stood there stunned.
Her mum let go of Auntie Li, grabbed Yue Shanni by the arm, and dragged her home while Auntie Li’s curses echoed behind them.
On the way back her mum strode ahead, cursing the whole time that Yue Shanni was a money-losing burden, that she didn’t owe her daughter anything, and that if she was so capable she should go ask her dad for money.
He had dodged child support for years; surely he could cough up something for university fees?
Yue Shanni felt awful. “Forget it then. I won’t go…”
Her mum said nothing, just walked home in silence and rang her own family.
First she announced the good news that Yue Shanni had crossed the second-tier line, then, dropping her usual brashness and coarseness, she begged in a low voice, “These next two months I’ll scrape together what I can. If it still isn’t enough, only you can help me out. Don’t worry, I’ll write an IOU.”
