Capable

"Son, you're back."

His mother, who had been chatting by the door, immediately walked over happily when she saw Du Ke return.

The women chatting with her were several rural women from nearby. With nothing to do in the mornings, they gossiped; in the afternoons, they sat down to play mahjong. Rural life was like that—either busy to death or bored to death.

After greeting them with a smile, Du Ke took a large bag from the trunk. It was full of things he had bought for his parents, grandparents, and maternal grandparents—milk, calcium tablets, and so on.

"Oh my, you buy so much every time you come back. Does this family lack food or drink? You just love wasting money." Though his mother complained, she could not hide the smile on her face. The compliments from her mahjong friends made her grin from ear to ear. "I don't expect him to make some huge career outside. As long as he can take good care of himself, that's enough. My little Ke has been good—he's never made us worry much since he was young."

His mother carried the things into the house, then brought out some biscuits and other snacks to hand out to her friends.

The women happily began praising Du Ke even more, calling him young and promising, capable and successful, far better than their own sons. After all, everyone liked to flatter each other. Even if they felt jealous or annoyed inside, they would not say it to his face.

At that moment, Du Ke came down carrying two bundles of books.

"Little Du, what are you carrying?" one auntie asked curiously.

"My papers."

"Papers? I know about those. You have to write one to graduate from university. Why have you written so many?"

His mother was puzzled too. "You graduated more than a year ago. Why are you still writing papers? Didn't you say you had already finished your graduation thesis?"

"They're new papers, published in the Journal of Chemical Physics. I brought some back to give away." Du Ke did not immediately mention that he had been admitted to Xiake University by recommendation. Some things sounded less impressive when said by himself; it was better to let others discover them on their own.

"Oh my, that's wonderful—published papers!" The auntie did not really know what papers were, but she was curious. "Can you give me one to look at?"

"Oh, sure. This is the Journal of Chemical Physics, and this is a separate printing of my paper."

"What's a separate printing?"

"A separate printing means my paper was printed separately as a small booklet for academic exchange." Du Ke gave a simple explanation. In the age of physical books, separate printings were quite formal and were often given away by paper authors, making them seem especially prestigious. But in the electronic age, they had fallen out of favor. Anyone who wanted one could simply download the paper and print it themselves.

The auntie did not understand, but that did not stop her from praising him. "Oh my, that's really something. Your papers are so profound. You can tell they're written by someone capable."

"Exactly, Little Du is capable. He bought a car and a house, and now he's publishing papers too... Huh, why are all the words in this paper foreign? Isn't it in Chinese?" another auntie suddenly exclaimed.

"The Journal of Chemical Physics is an English-language journal."

"British? That's impressive!"

"Not British. It's an English-language journal run domestically. Using English just makes it more suitable for an international audience."

"You can even write papers in English. That's not something just anyone can do. Sis, you're so lucky to have such a capable son." A younger woman addressed Du Ke's mother as Sis.

After flattering him for a while, the women took their biscuits and other snacks and said their goodbyes.

Only then did his mother ask, "Son, what's this paper business about? Didn't you already graduate and start working?"

"Work is work. It doesn't stop me from continuing scientific research. Mom, I have some good news for you: I've been admitted to Xiake University by recommendation. I'll be going there for graduate school in the second half of the year."

"What? You got into graduate school? Xiake University!" his mother cried out.

In the minds of people from Anhui Province, the best university was not Tsinghua or Peking University, much less the so-called East China Five. There was one and only one best university—Huaxia University of Science and Technology. Du Ke remembered coming to Luzhou with his parents when he was little. As they passed Xiake University in Nanqi, his parents had pointed at it and said, "When you grow up, study hard and get into the University of Science and Technology," and, "If you get into the University of Science and Technology, your father and I could die without regrets."

So, in Du Ke's mind, Xiake University was also the best university in Huaxia.

That was why he had quickly accepted when Professor Tao Xun extended an olive branch. In truth, whether he had a master's degree would not affect him much, but he could not resist the allure of Xiake University. Of course, Xiake University's undergraduates were its true inner circle, while graduate students were somewhat uneven in quality. But there was no need to dwell on that. Simply having the Xiake University name attached to him would be enough to make his parents happy for the rest of their lives.

"Take it easy, Mom. It's only graduate school at Xiake University. Since my papers were good, Associate Professor Tao Xun at Xiake University invited me to become his Graduate Student."

"Son, you already know an Associate Professor now? You can become an Associate Professor's Graduate Student?"

Du Ke replied with a smile, "Didn't I tell you I'd been taking freelance jobs from research institutes? My technical skills are decent, so I'm preparing to start a New Energy business with some partners. Professor Tao happened to notice some of my research and thought I had potential, so he recommended me for graduate school. It's a good chance for me to recharge as well, so I can devote myself to the New Energy industry."

"What New Energy?"

"The company hasn't been established yet. We're still making preliminary preparations. Mom, you don't need to worry about me fooling around outside. Could I write papers like these if I were fooling around? The Journal of Chemical Physics, an English-language SCI journal. Not only did I publish papers in it, I published three in a row. Even the cover used an image from one of my papers. Doesn't that prove it? You should know that even ordinary university lecturers might not be able to publish in the Journal of Chemical Physics."

The papers had been published in an SCI journal. Although his mother did not understand what SCI was, she now believed that Du Ke was engaged in high-end scientific research.

"Good. My son is capable. Work hard. I'm going to the market to buy some groceries. Your father is learning to drive at the driving school, so I'll call him home while I'm at it."

"No need, no need. I'll drive you to the market, then stop by the driving school to see how Dad's learning is going."

"How well could he possibly be learning? He can't even ride a motorcycle properly, and now he wants to learn to drive. He only passed Subject One after taking it twice, and then he failed Subject Two again. And you—you just had to spoil your father, telling him to buy a car. Now he's obsessed with cars all day. You don't know this, but one day he got drunk and went straight to a 4S dealership to look at cars. He insisted on taking a test drive. They nearly called the police on him."

"What? No way." Du Ke frowned. "I need to talk to Dad about that. Don't drink and drive, and don't drive after drinking. If he wants to buy a car, he has to quit drinking. Otherwise, I won't let him buy one."

The BYD Han drove straight into the driving school.

Du Ke knew the instructors at the school, and the people learning to drive were all locals from nearby. After handing out some cigarettes, he watched his father's driving skills. They were truly terrible; his hill starts were especially painful to watch.

"Manual transmissions are awful to learn. Everything's automatic now anyway. Who still drives manual cars?" After failing his hill start for the third time, his father could not help complaining. "It's completely behind the times."