Chapter 3: 3

 

Thanks to the high selling price, Shen Shao still ended up with around three hundred thousand yuan after the trading company took its commission. When the employees gave him the money, they were worried about the child’s safety, so they got someone to take him to the bank and had an acquaintance arrange a passbook for him. Shen Shao ended up spending one more night in Furong City. He bought a ticket to return to Peng County early the next morning.

When the bus arrived in Peng County, it was around 4 p.m. He was carrying hundreds in cash, his household registry book, and two bank passbooks. He didn’t dare stroll around the street, so he went directly home.

Shortly after he got there, his uncle and aunt hurried over. They were relieved to see him home and well. His uncle smoked a low-quality cigarette—a pack sold for fifty fen—and said in a heavy tone, “Xiao Shao, your father isn’t a good person. If you run into trouble in the future, just come talk to Uncle about it. Uncle doesn’t have much ability, but I won’t let you go hungry or suffer in the cold. You’re still young right now. How will you have a good life when you grow up if you don’t study hard?”

At first Shen Shao was startled, and it took him a moment to realize what was going on. He’d left home for two or three days without a word. His uncle’s family didn’t know where he’d gone, so they thought he went looking for his dad. When Shen Shao figured it out, he felt a little guilty. He couldn’t tell them about selling the antiques, so all he could do was bow his head and say, “Sorry, uncle. If I go out again in the future I’ll tell you first.”

When Shen Shao said this, Liu ShuLian pulled her husband’s sleeve to shush him. Then she told Shen Shao, “Did you have lunch? Why don’t you come over to your uncle’s house to eat? Eldest Aunt will make you a bowl of noodles.”

Shen Shao had traveled home in a hurry. He ate breakfast, but nothing since getting on the bus. He really did feel a little hungry, and nodded in embarrassment.

“Then come back to our house,” Liu ShuLian said with a sigh of relief. She looked at Shen Shao’s face and decided that he probably hadn’t gone in search of his irresponsible father. “The results of the admission exam will be announced soon, right? School’s about to start.”

“The results will be out tomorrow. If my score’s high enough, I can enroll.” Shen Shao followed his aunt out of the house. After locking the door, he followed a step behind her. She asked a few questions about studying, and he answered honestly. When he looked back he saw his uncle silently following. Shen Shao remembered that his uncle was the same in his previous life. He never talked much, but he took good care of Shen Shao during his years in junior high.

Uncle’s house wasn’t far from his own. It took less than three minutes to walk. When Shen Shao went inside, his two young cousins, Shen Yuan and Shen Hong, were there. They looked over as he entered, then ignored him and continued watching 《Journey to the West》 on TV.

Shen Shao glanced at the TV. It was black-and-white, neither old nor new. There were a few dots of snowflake-like static on the screen. The image wasn’t very clear, but the sisters stared at it with great interest.

“You can’t watch our TV,” Shen Hong said suddenly. She was a few months younger than Shen Shao. When she saw he was also looking at the TV, she added, “It belongs to my family.” Some people had told her Shen Shao’s parents didn’t care about him and he’d someday eat, drink, and spend her family’s money.

Shen Shao wasn’t going to argue with a child who hadn’t even turned eleven. When she started making trouble, he looked away. His eldest aunt served the noodles, and he silently lowered his head and ate.

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“Mom, why did you give him an egg?!” When Shen Hong saw there was actually a fried egg in Shen Shao’s bowl, she immediately shouted, “Are you going to make him your son? Is that why you gave him an egg instead of me?”

When her daughter started yelling, Eldest Aunt felt extremely embarrassed. She said with a troubled face, “Why are you making such a fuss?”

“You just want a son! Everyone says you and Dad aren’t happy with me and my sister because we’re girls and you’re going to adopt Shen Shao as your son. You think boys are better than girls!” As Shen Hong continued to yell at her mother, her voice got even louder. “You’re biased!”

Liu ShuLian wasn’t going to slap her own daughter, but she thought the girl’s words were ugly. These days, because Shen Shao had no father or mother, she and her husband felt sorry for him and tried to look after him where they could. Why would outsiders say those things to her daughter, fueling such jealousy? She didn’t know what people were thinking these days. How would the younger generation get along with each other in the future?

“Eldest Aunt, I’m done eating,” Shen Shao put down his chopsticks and stood up. “There are some things I need to do at home. I’ll head back.”

Liu ShuLian noticed that Shen Shao didn’t even have time to properly finish his soup. He’d gulped down such a big bowl of noodles in a hurry. She felt sorry and helpless and walked him to the door. “Your sister isn’t sensible. I’ll talk to her. Please don’t take it to heart, and don’t worry about it in the future.”

Shen Shao nodded with a smile. “I know. Thanks, Eldest Aunt.” Then he smiled at the sisters in the room and left his aunt’s house.

Shen JianJun heard Shen Hong’s words clearly from the next room. After Shen Shao left, he came out of the room, looked at the noodle bowl that still contained some soup, and gazed calmly at his two daughters. He lit a cigarette, put it to his lips, and didn’t speak.

Liu ShuLian looked back and saw this scene. She opened her mouth but couldn’t bring herself to say anything. After a long silence, she put away the noodle bowl and went back to the kitchen.

They all loved Xiao Shao, but they couldn’t help feeling biased. They valued their own children more.

Shen Shao walked back to his house. He’d eaten too fast just now and his stomach was a little upset. He sat and waited for more than half an hour before he felt better.

When he thought about his plan to check the exam results tomorrow, he remembered the problems with the dormitory at the experimental junior high. The experimental junior high school didn’t have many residential students from rural areas, and the dormitory had actually been converted out of several former teachers’ offices. Boys lived on the fourth floor and girls on the fifth floor. The two floors were separated by an iron grate, and there were only three rooms per floor. More than a dozen people were crowded into each room, and there wasn’t much space.

Because the dormitory was so cramped, the children who lived on campus would inevitably get into arguments or stay up late chatting. Students who originally had good grades might gradually lose interest in studying, which caused a rapid decline in their grades.

In Shen Shao’s previous life, he lived on campus. He didn’t want to squeeze into that crude dormitory again.

In his last life, after he became a cook, he did self-study when he had free time, and even enrolled in an online degree program. It hadn’t been easy to earn a university diploma as an adult. Now that he had the option of studying in better conditions, why not make the most of it?

Shen Shao decided to rent an apartment, then washed and went to bed. There were a lot of things to do tomorrow. He’d better get some rest.

Early the next morning, August 27, a crowd of parents gathered around the bulletin board of the experimental junior high. They were all waiting for the admission results. After all, there were only eighty places. Who didn’t want their child to get into a good class?

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When the results were posted, some were happy, others were disappointed. Then someone began to complain that the math test was too hard. The last two problems even required junior high school-level knowledge.

“The questions were so difficult this time, but there was one student who actually got a perfect score. Whose kid is so capable?”

“Who’s Shen Shao? Math 100, Chinese 96. He took first place.”

The parents asked each other, but no one came forward to claim the child as their own. After lamenting a bit, they left the bulletin board with feelings of envy and jealousy. Parents with connections went to see if they could still get their child into the experimental class, while rich parents prepared to donate school construction funds to purchase a spot.

As for Shen Shao, the student all these parents were wondering about, he didn’t go to school in the morning. He knew there’d be a crowd of people checking the results. Instead of squeezing in with them, he went to find a place to live. Eventually, he found an apartment near the school with two bedrooms and one bathroom. It was owned by a kindly retired couple who were planning to move in with their son in the city. They were eager to leave Peng County, and the rent was reasonable.

Shen Shao looked over the apartment. The doors and windows were in good shape. Anti-theft bars were installed, there was water and electricity, and it came complete with tables and chairs. He quickly signed a three-year rental contract with the owners, and both sides went away happy.

After paying a year’s rent in advance and getting the keys from the landlord, Shen Shao went out to the street to buy some daily necessities and several sets of new clothes appropriate for the season.

He usually didn’t pay much attention to his clothes, but a lot of children this age judged people by their appearance. If his clothes were shabby, the other children might look down on him and reject him. He didn’t want to get into trouble because of something so trivial, so he made sure to dress better.

Most children in their teens are still naïve, but it was exactly this naïveté that meant they didn’t truly understand when they were doing harm, and it was easy to inflict wounds. Maybe they thought they were just joking around, but the young people on the receiving end might end up with a lifelong shadow. Rural children who went to the city to study sometimes found themselves mixing with troublemakers in town, hanging out with these “big brothers” when the other children looked down on them. When they did this, the other students would be afraid of them and give them some respect, but eventually the borrowed courage would destroy their youth, changing the whole trajectory of their lives.

In his previous life, Shen Shao was another one of these country bumpkins, ridiculed by his peers. However, when they made fun of him, he got more serious about studying. His grades were always in the top ten of his class, and he even ranked in the top twenty in the county on the high school entrance exam. But at the time, he was poor, so poor that he couldn’t afford to go to high school even when the tuition was waived. Although he didn’t have to pay tuition, he couldn’t afford room and board or living expenses. In the end, with great reluctance, he had to drop out of school.

Even now, when he thought back on that time, Shen Shao remembered vividly those feelings of regret. It was why he treasured the chance to come back and redo his life.

At noon, after eating a good meal in the rental apartment, Shen Shao took a nap. Then he went to the experimental junior high. The sun was still ablaze at 3 p.m. On the way there he saw other students who were coming to enroll, walking slowly and carrying umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. The parents who followed were also carrying a variety of things, like books, drinks and so on.

When he found the bulletin board, Shen Shao saw he’d won first place in the exam and was assigned to the first experimental class. He turned around and found the room where freshmen were supposed to register.

By this time in the afternoon, there weren’t many parents and students still trying to sign up. Shen Shao found the registration desk for the first experimental class. Mr. Li, the teacher who’d proctored the exam on the 22nd, was responsible for registering Class 1. 

“Hello teacher, I’m here to sign up.”

Li Lu recognized Shen Shao. Seeing that he was a student assigned to his own class, Li Lu asked in a friendly tone, “What’s your name? Did you bring a photo and your household registration book?”

“I brought them.” Shen Shao handed the registration book and photo to Li Lu. “My name is Shen Shao.”

First place on the admission test? Li Lu immediately had a better impression of Shen Shao. After opening the household register, he saw the red word “deceased” on the head of household page. Stunned, he turned to the next page. When he saw that only Shen Shao’s name was listed there, he asked, “Who in your family helped you sign up?” His tone became more gentle. Such a young child without a mother, and who knew how his father treated him. Li Lu thought the household registry book in his hand suddenly felt heavy. 

Shen Shao said in a flat voice, “My father ran away with another aunt. Long before he left, he said he wouldn’t care about me in the future, so I signed up by myself.”

 

TL Notes:

Journey to the West – 西游记 – A 16th-century Chinese classic and the subject of many TV dramas and movies. The novel is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the monk Tang Sanzang, who travelled to the “Western Regions” (Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent) to obtain Buddhist sacred texts (sūtras) and returned after many trials (Wikipedia)

fen – 分 – A unit of currency in China. 1 yuan is divided into 10 jiao or 100 fen. The actual term used here was “钱” (qián) which basically means “cents” or “coins”.

apartment – 房子 – house / building (single- or two-story) / apartment / room. I translated this word as “apartment” because in Chapter 4 it’s mentioned that Shen Shao went to a breakfast café located downstairs

 

Transliterated names, places, and titles—new in this chapter:

Shen Yuan – 沈媛

Shen Hong – 沈红

sister – 妹妹 – mèimei – A common way to address a younger woman of the same generation as you. It’s very common for cousins to address each other as ‘brother’ or ‘sister’

Shen JianJun – 沈建军

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