Chapter 45: We couldn't be that classless
The principal's office at No. 27 Middle School had an antique elegance. Its slightly somber door stood half open, so the sunlight entering first stretched into a shaft, then cast a bright patch on the marble floor, polished enough to reflect images.
Su Can sat on the black visitor's sofa at the edge of that shaft and patch of light. Dust floated in the hazy glow. From this angle, the softened outline of Principal Cai Guotao's stern, frowning face gave him something of the appearance of a figure in a Greek oil painting.
Su Can had been sitting there for nearly five minutes. Ever since he had knocked and entered, Cai Guotao had said nothing beyond "Come in." He had then continued reading the documents on his desk, seemingly unaware of Su Can's presence.
What Cai Guotao was leafing through was a report on No. 27 Middle School's university recommendation places for this year. He had already received reliable internal information that the recommendation system would be reformed next year. Instead of granting places equivalent to three percent of the total graduating class at provincial key secondary schools, universities would offer admission without entrance examinations to first-prize winners in national subject competitions.
Even without a reform of the university recommendation system, No. 27 Middle School still had the most recommended students in the province. This year, the number had reached an impressive twenty-five. Tsinghua and Peking University had allocated eighteen recommendation places to the entire province. Rongcheng had twelve of those, and Rongcheng's No. 27 Middle School had six, three each for Peking University and Tsinghua. Other universities designated for priority national development had allocated nineteen recommendation places to No. 27 Middle School.
From 1996 to the present, sixty-four students from No. 27