Chapter 7

Chapter 8: Graduation

Sunlight hanging low in the western sky spilled slantwise and warm over the campus, tinting even the edges of the green grass pale yellow. The final day of school revision for the graduating ninth graders in Third Middle School's junior division was drawing to a close.

Only the final class period remained. Teachers of every subject came by, both to give their final summaries and to go over the procedures for the high school entrance examination two days later. Every student had an admission number. Back then, admission slips were not yet made entirely as cards as they would be a few years later; they were still strips of white paper, with names and admission numbers printed in heavy black type. The final digits determined the school, classroom, and seat.

On the day of the entrance examination, students throughout the city would have the day off, and the schools would be cleared and arranged as examination venues. Each student's examination location was also shuffled. As Su Can remembered it, he had been assigned to First Middle School. That had been his first visit to the best school in the city, and its facilities and surroundings really were far better than those of his own Third Middle School.

"The exam venues are all shuffled around. I wonder where I'll end up. If I take it at City First Middle School, does that mean I'll have much better luck too?" His deskmate murmured this unconscious prayer as she listened to the admission slips and examination venues being assigned.

Back then, City First Middle School was practically an object of reverence. Su Can remembered people discussing the prettiest girl in some class, only for someone in the crowd to suddenly remark, "Forget it. She has a boyfriend, and he goes to First Middle School!" Nine times out of ten, those eager suitors would fall silent.

Amused by his deskmate's murmured prayer, Su Can could not help smiling slightly. "Don't worry. If I'm not mistaken, you should be taking it at First Middle School."

His female deskmate looked so much like an owl that Su Can had secretly given her that nickname back then. It was also why he still remembered her many years later. If the events of eleven years ago, the time he had traveled back to and been reborn in, had not changed, then her admission slip would assign her to First Middle School, just as it had originally. But that did not seem to have brought her the good luck she had prayed for. She had still failed to get in, and when they went on to Third Middle School's senior division, they had remained classmates.

"It really is First Middle School! How did you know?" His deskmate returned after going up to collect her admission slip and stared at Su Can in astonishment. Sure enough, the admission number on it placed her at First Middle School.

"I guessed." Su Can smiled. The homeroom teacher then called his name. After collecting his admission slip, he found that events from eleven years ago were indeed following their original course. He was still assigned to First Middle School.

Su Can knew what this meant. Admission numbers were assigned through a random draw in the first place. If even that randomness matched the past, it suggested that the events of the next eleven years would probably also unfold faithfully, one by one-for instance, the numbers in every lottery drawing, the rises and falls of stocks...

All right, Su Can admitted this was a tired cliché. More importantly, he had never followed the lottery and had no idea what the exact numbers were for any particular drawing. His first attempts to recall the stock market were a tangled mess too. After all, who could have known he would suddenly return to eleven years ago?

"Su Can, I've noticed you're different from before," his deskmate suddenly said. From watching him clash with deputy class monitor Dong Qingyun earlier to hearing the confidence with which he had just named her examination venue, his owl-like deskmate, who had thought little of him because her grades were usually better than his, could not help seeing him in a new light.

"Oh? How am I different from before?"

His deskmate stared blankly at Su Can for a few moments, then shook her head. "I don't know. You just seem like a different person."

Su Can sighed inwardly. It was not that he had become someone else, but that he had inexplicably lived through everything in the future, gaining more than a decade of experience in a future information society exploding with knowledge. Looking at many things now, he considered more than he used to. Of course, his greatest change was that he was now full of hope for the future.

Led by their homeroom teacher, they sang their class song one final time. On the third floor of the slightly aging classroom building, the setting sunlight pierced the windows, forming shafts of light in the classroom and falling on the young, faintly childish faces that, to Su Can, belonged to more than a decade ago. Dust and white fluff drifted through the room, and the ceiling fans and incandescent lights overhead were gilded gold. Everything looked so dated and old-fashioned to Su Can, yet so clear and real.

"Without weathering wind and rain, how can we see the rainbow? No one can succeed without effort. Cherish every moment that moves you in life, and warmly embrace the friends you love." "True Heroes" was one of the most popular songs of that era, and it was also the class song of Su Can's junior high class. Their singing drifted outside. Many people shed tears, including even the thoroughly annoying Dong Qingyun, who now gazed earnestly at the teachers who had taught them for three years, tears welling in his eyes and emotion written all over his face.

Several of the female teachers had reddened eyes. This seemed to be the first junior high class they had taught straight out of university, and the one they felt most deeply attached to. With later students, their passion would gradually fade.

In his memory, everything about graduation was filled with an indescribable beauty. The uncertainty and anticipation of the future, the regret of leaving love unconfessed, all blended into a fine wine to be savored over the rest of his life.

This was also the best moment. By the time they returned to school to collect their admission notices, some would be happy and some miserable, and they could no longer return to this day, to this beauty in which time lingered.

There was plenty of commotion in the other classes too, with faint sounds of crying drifting over. It seemed their wonderful junior high days were drawing to a close just like that.

All the seventh and eighth graders watched with a touch of envy as these students began their break several periods earlier and finished their junior high lives. They, too, began to anticipate and yearn for graduation.

What they did not know was how enviously the ninth graders, accustomed to extra lessons, had once watched them leave school punctually for home at the end of every school day.

Only when their homeroom teacher, young Mr. Zhou, wished the entire class success in the entrance examination that would shape their future and dismissed them did Su Can notice that his desk was piled high with books.

Su Can's poor junior high grades had partly been due to his fondness for playing and fooling around. He usually left large piles of books on his desk, taking home only those needed for that day's homework. Now that he was graduating, he found that he could barely fit all the books into his schoolbag even after cramming it full. By the time he shouldered the heavy bag and had a chance to look around, only a few people who were still packing like him remained in the classroom. Tang Wu was already gone.

Su Can's heart sank. If Tang Wu had forgotten their agreement that morning and he could not get those internal practice exercises for each subject, reviewing the difficult points from three years of junior high by reading the textbooks himself would be far less effective. He would no longer have any confidence that he could secure a place at First Middle School.