Chapter 24

Chapter 25: Su Can, Come Home Early-Your Eldest Uncle Is Treating Us to Dinner

Su Can immediately had a clear idea of where he stood. Chinese, math, and foreign language were each worth 150 points. He had scored 145 in math, losing five points. The entrance exam math had not been difficult, so that was a lapse he should not have made. His 135 in Chinese was a surprise. He had more or less known he would have trouble with some of the memorization questions, and there would be deductions for the essay too, yet he had only lost fifteen points. That meant his essay must have scored very highly. Had that essay resonated with people, then?

Junior high English was very simple. With a score of 140, most of his lost points had probably come from trick questions and the writing section. The combined science and humanities papers were each worth 120 points. His 105 in science was the result Su Can was most satisfied with, while he had already anticipated his humanities result. Eighty-five was quite good for him. The physical fitness assessment, though, had probably been organized schoolwide a few weeks earlier. If his memory served, it was worth fifty points.

The entrance exams were worth 720 points overall, and he had reached 645. That was something to be satisfied with. Thinking back to his original entrance exams, he had only scored four hundred and some-odd points, falling more than ten points short of even No. 3 High School's cutoff at the time. He had paid nearly six thousand yuan in extra fees.

His earlier worries notwithstanding, the results he now had were not too far from what Su Can had subconsciously expected, and that steadied him somewhat.

Only then did Su Can notice that the atmosphere at home was eerily still, with nothing but the wall clock going, "Tick! Tick! Tick!"

His mother sat cross-legged on the sofa, staring blankly at the slip of paper she had written out, while his father's expression changed rapidly.

Many things went through Su Licheng's mind. Back in elementary school, the other children around Su Can had all scored over ninety in both subjects, while he had hovered in the seventies and eighties. Every visit to the school had left Su Licheng feeling inferior to the other parents. Then, in junior high, Su Can had scored around four hundred every semester, placing him below the middle of his class, nearly two hundred points behind its top students.

On the occasional easier exam, he had reached five hundred, and his parents had grinned as though they had caught sight of hope. When had they ever seen a terrifying score like six hundred?!

It was now July 1, at 7:40 in the evening. The sky outside had darkened, and the weather was a little chilly that day. The television played a news report at a barely audible volume, its soft rustling sounds accompanying the flickering light and shadow it cast across the living room.

Zeng Ke held his white exam admission slip, its reverse side facing up, with the scores she had just recorded written on it. Her hands trembled a little.

Su Licheng stared at Su Can with his mouth open. The ingratiating smile he usually wore before his superiors was gone from his handsome face. Instead, the corners of his eyes lifted, as though an enormous, pent-up joy inside him was trying to show itself, yet his face could not immediately find an expression to match that inner upheaval, because he had never experienced it before. It was like someone who had never won five million: you could not know what expression you would wear after winning such a huge prize-whether you would laugh wildly or be unable to laugh at all, your face contorted.

Tears suddenly welled out of Zeng Ke's eyes.

The back of Su Licheng's head struck the sofa backrest. Paying no attention to whether it hurt, he tilted his head toward the ceiling and took great gulps of air to calm the excitement in his heart.

Su Can flustered. In his memory, his mother had cried after the schools released their admission cutoffs, from the bitterness of knowing he could not get into high school and that the family could not afford the fees. His father, meanwhile, had been so upset that he suffered a mild heart episode, leaning his head against the backrest, knocking the back of his head against the wall, and taking deep breaths to relieve the pent-up distress in his chest.

It was all happening again, but this time they were tears of joy and the excitement of sheer delight.

His mother suddenly ran over and hugged him, unable to speak. Beside her, his father nodded repeatedly and finally caught his breath. "Son, good, good, good..." He said "good" three times in a row, yet could find nothing else to say. At last, he managed, "You really have grown up..."

Su Can held the moisture in his eyes, refusing to let it fall easily. Fate had finally given him a pass. At this moment, his life had changed at last.

Su Can had never seen his parents stay awake all night yet look so much younger. Their faces, which had aged several years over the company's layoffs, had been transformed in that single brief night, glowing with vitality.

For once, his mother used the cosmetics she had treasured for so long and usually could not bear to use. That morning, his father bathed with water heated by the previous day's strong sunshine, then changed into a T-shirt and casual leather shoes, looking indescribably handsome. He had kept the physique he had possessed as a soldier, but the usual pressures of work and worrying over Su Can's studies had hidden his former vigor. Now, even Su Can could barely recognize his father.

"Mom, Dad, aren't you overdoing it a little? You stayed up all night, and now you've spread out these old photos first thing in the morning..." Su Can did not know whether to laugh or cry. Today was the final school-leaving day after the results had come out. His parents had talked all night, and this morning they had dug out the albums of his childhood photographs one by one, commenting on them together, their faces beaming.

"Our son's up already! Hehe, Mom heated some milk and steamed the buns we bought yesterday for you in the kitchen. You still have to go to school today. Junior high is a wonderful stage of life, and today is the day you say goodbye to your classmates. Son, you must treasure it!" His mother was animated as she counseled Su Can with the most sincere words of her generation.

Su Can nodded. From the way his mother spoke, she too knew that his score was more than enough to get him into City First Middle School. His days at No. 3 High School were already numbered.

"Our son looks handsome today. When we went hiking back then, didn't that fortune-telling Taoist say he would become a high-ranking official someday? Look at my son's potential. He really is my boy. Just like me back in the army. I couldn't throw a grenade farther than sixty-four meters in our company at first. Then our company commander mocked me, so I made a bet with him. For that whole month, I trained every day with rubber bands strapped on, and afterward I threw seventy-two meters, breaking our commander's record outright. I got to eat meat for a whole week. What a glorious time that was!" His father was excited, as though he too had returned to those hot-blooded days.

Su Can felt reassured. His parents eleven years ago really were a talented man and a beautiful woman. Before, life's crushing burdens had left them unable to catch their breath, hiding their fine qualities. Now that he had relieved the greatest pressure in their lives, their youth had returned. With their burdens lifted, both their faces shone with boundless energy.

Su Can had his milk and steamed buns and took a pen and a small bag with him. Before he left for school, his mother made a point of reminding him, "Your eldest uncle is treating us to dinner this afternoon. Not at Bamboo Pavilion this time, but at the Kailai Hotel. Haha, come home early!"

Su Can froze first. The Kailai Hotel was, in real terms, the best hotel in Xiahai City, a city landmark at the time. It was rated four stars, and at night it even shone searchlights into the sky, giving Xiahai something of a Las Vegas feel.

Back then, Su Can had had little concept of a place like Las Vegas. In his impression, Xiahai City with the Kailai Hotel's spotlights probably looked much like that dazzlingly decadent gambling city in the movies.

Thus, the Kailai Hotel had been the symbol of Xiahai City's most luxurious accommodation. Having a meal there was a tremendous honor, something only municipal Party committee leaders and certain wealthy businessmen were likely to do. For Su Can, it had been nothing short of a fantasy.

"Eldest Uncle... the Kailai Hotel?" Su Can murmured, turning over the connection between the two, and felt that this was a rather good sign.