Chapter 012

After dinner, his eldest uncle had to hurry back to the old house. His grandfather lived there alone, a stubborn, old-fashioned man attached to the courtyard compound that had once branded the entire family as landlords. He had always refused to move...

His grandfather was getting on in years, after all, and could pass away at any time. His eldest uncle was a dutiful son who obeyed almost his every word. These days, he went over every evening to stay with the old man, only returning to his own home at daybreak...

His eldest aunt therefore had quite a few complaints about his grandfather, but there was nothing she could do. Every day, she had to cook and take his grandfather his meal before her own family could eat...

His eldest aunt cleared the table. His older female cousin did not particularly get along with Qin An, so she went off to watch television on her own...

His cousin's wife began feeding Qin Yuan and Qin Qin. Both children were rather spoiled and had to be coaxed like little emperors before they would eat...

"Qin An, I'll take you into the city next Saturday and Sunday... We'll bring your sister-in-law, Qin Yuan, and Qin Qin too, and visit your second aunt..." His older male cousin smoked Yuxi cigarettes, which cost over twenty yuan a pack-a very respectable brand in those days...

Qin An was slightly taken aback. The mining disaster he remembered had happened the following Saturday. If his cousin went into the city, wouldn't that mean the disaster could be avoided altogether?

"I bought a car... I'm picking it up on Saturday..." His cousin could not help looking a little smug. "A Santana. We'll hire a driver to bring us back in it and show off a little..."

Qin An finally felt relieved. It seemed that even if the mining disaster really did happen, nothing would happen to this cousin of his. Although the workers down in those shafts would still lose their lives, Qin An did not believe that getting another chance at life meant he could prevent every tragedy in the world. He might have a high IQ, and he might know things in advance, but he was not a god...

Since his cousin could avoid it, perhaps those miners might have the same good fortune. Qin An smiled. "Unfortunately, we have extra classes. There's an art enrichment class I want to attend..."

"Skip it and come have some fun with me. An art enrichment class... You'll need some supplies, won't you? If you're learning to paint, buy an easel, brushes, things like that. If you're learning music, buy a guitar or something... A piano's beyond what I can give you right now. Money's tight after buying the car. If you major in music at university, I'll get you one..." his cousin said casually...

The two cousins were very close. As an only child, Qin An naturally regarded his cousin as his own older brother. His cousin had always protected him when he was little. Although he also took Qin An along whenever he got up to mischief, and they had caused plenty of trouble, he always took the blame alone when something happened, leaving Qin An to play the innocent party who had been dragged into it...

"No... I promised Dad I wouldn't skip classes anymore..." Qin An could not help being amused. Of all his relatives, only his cousin took studying so lightly. Perhaps because he had little schooling but made plenty of money, he had gradually come to feel that he could hold his head high after his earlier sense of inferiority, and believed education was not particularly useful... In those days, quite a few people had suddenly become rich. People with little schooling, or even none at all, had amassed wealth far beyond that of ordinary people...

"Forget it, then. Now that I've bought a car, getting back and forth will be easy. There'll be plenty of chances... If I took you along, your dad would be sure to give me an earful..." His cousin involuntarily rubbed his head. He had been Qin Huai's student too, and that uncle had been particularly strict with him. But even the rod had failed to produce a student who excelled in both conduct and studies. His cousin had left to make his own way before finishing his third year of junior high, saying he could not stand Qin Huai knocking him on the head with a teaching pointer all day...

After spending a little time at his eldest uncle's house, Qin An ran home. The moment he came in, he found Qin Huai waiting beside the desk in his room...

"You were assigned an essay in English class today. Write it now, and I'll correct it for you. Tomorrow, you can read it out in class..." Qin Huai said, stubbing out his cigarette...

"Dad, my English marks are actually pretty good. I usually get seventy or eighty on tests... If I take them seriously, I guarantee I'll score over ninety every time..."

In his first and second years of junior high, Qin An's English marks had indeed been good compared with his other subjects, in which he barely managed to pass. After all, Qin Huai had been teaching him English since primary school, so he had a solid foundation. Even if he had fallen behind a little in junior high, he was nowhere near needing special tutoring...

"If I tell you to write, then write. You still remember the topic, don't you? A story that left a deep impression on me. You can choose a simple fable..." Qin Huai said in a tone that brooked no argument...

"All right..." Qin An glanced at his father again. "If it's too good, don't suspect me of copying it..."

Qin Huai took out his cigarette pack, drew out a cigarette, and put it in his mouth without lighting it, just to satisfy the craving. The boy was getting more glib by the day, and had even begun acting especially cheeky around his father...

Qin An opened his exercise book, casually picked up his fountain pen, and began writing...

The moment Qin An wrote his first line, the cigarette fell from Qin Huai's mouth to the floor...

"One story has always left a deep impression on me. Perhaps I imagined it, or perhaps I read it somewhere. In any case, it is a very unusual and unforgettable story... It was a Tuesday with signs of the extraordinary everywhere. Mr. Dursley, who lived at 4 Privet Drive, saw a tabby cat sitting on a map, apparently studying the bus routes. The television next door was broadcasting a news report: owls, which normally rested by day and emerged at night, had been flying everywhere since early that morning. Even the experts could not explain this unusual behavior...

"That very night, a one-year-old boy named Harry Potter, who had lost his parents, mysteriously appeared outside the door of 4 Privet Drive, beginning a life of bullying in his aunt and uncle's home... His aunt and uncle were like a pair of fiends, often shouting at him and keeping him shut in the cupboard under the stairs... They also had a son named Dudley, a little terror who frequently punched and kicked the frail Harry...

"Ten years passed, and Harry, living with his aunt and uncle, had never celebrated a birthday... But on his eleventh birthday, everything changed... An owl delivered a letter inviting Harry to attend a wondrous place he had never heard of-Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry... This was where the story began, but it was also where my recollection ended..."

It vaguely occurred to Qin An that the famous Harry Potter had not yet been published. The young and beautiful Rowling was still in a café, writing her story on little scraps of paper. The miracle wrought by the Harry Potter series, translated into seventy languages and selling over three hundred million copies, had also drawn Qin An into cinemas time and again to watch those expensive Harry Potter films, which completely lacked the flavor of the novels...

Qin Huai pulled the exercise book out from under Qin An's hand and held it up beneath the light, examining it closely, unable to conceal his surprise and delight. "Son, even I couldn't write sentences this fluent, or handwriting this beautiful... Did you really write this on the spot?"

"All right... Then I'll write a story about our family..."

Qin An smiled and began another story. "On an autumn night, a father named Qin Huai discovered his son's talent with disbelief and was immersed in joy. He probably never imagined that this joy was merely a small prelude to the happy days ahead. In the future, his son would no longer disappoint him. His son had grown up. Not only did he understand that he had to strive for his studies and his future, he understood even better how to cherish those who loved him and those he loved..."