I hung up my phone and took a look at the two figures in front of me.
"Uncle Zhang, Grandpa Zhang, is it possible to close the pet shop for today? I want you to come with me somewhere" I say, feeling a bit uneasy, thinking that they may reject me.
"What is it Xiao Wei, why do you want us to come with you?"
"Khmmm, It's like this... I and another person are students who got the highest score in our province and my teacher just called and asked me to bring my family together for an interview. As you know, my situation with my family is not the best, and I treat you like my own kin, so I thought it would be nice if you went with me... "
"Of course, if you don't want to, I totally understand!" I quickly add to avoid any awkward feelings if they reject me.
"What do you mean, Xiao Wei, of course we would be delighted to come with you! You are like my grandson that I never had because this brat never fell in love! So remember that I will always treat you as an important family member. Let's go, let's bring Coco and visit these reporters haha!"
Uncle Zhang nods very seriously and looks me in the eyes, showing concern and worry "My dad is right, you don't have to worry Xiao Wei, you are a very important person to us so it's only reasonable for us to go to the interview together."
My eyes sour a bit and I feel like I may start crying very hard in a moment so I simply say a quiet 'thank you' and walk towards the exit without turning around to look at Grandpa and Uncle because If I don't calm down, I will break into tears...
We walked for 10 minutes until we reached the middle school and went into Teacher Rong's office.
"Hello, Xue Wei, how was your summer vacation?" Teacher Rong stands up as soon as I open the door and smiles at me happily.
"It was very eventful, thank you, for all your care these 3 years because without you, achieving this score would be harder and probably impossible with just me alone" I smile and bow in gratitude.
"It's nothing haha, it's my job as a teacher to help students. And this is...?" Teacher Zhou laughs and then looks at my grandpa and uncle coming in together with Coco, asking curiously.
"Teacher, you must know about my family situation. I don't want to bring them to the interview. I took Grandpa Zhang and Uncle Zhang together with me instead. They own a pet shop near this middle school where I worked part time during summer holidays. Also, they are more like family to me than my aunt."
"Haha, hello Teacher Rong, I thank you for taking care of our Xiao Wei all this time. We are truly thankful" Says Grandpa Zhang
"Nice to meet you Teacher Rong, we are very happy that a teacher like you helped our family's Xiao Wei, he talked about you before and told us about how great you are, so we truly appreciate your help and devotion to education" Said Uncle Zhou in his monotonne voice and then glanced at me and smiled slightly.
"Xiao Wei is a great child so I hope that the interview will be very professional, which means that there is no need to talk too much about his family"
"Of course, of course, this is how the interview will go, we will go into the hall to take some photos with a certificate and then they will ask you some questions. You don't have to answer what you don't want to answer so don't worry. Also, after you give your interview, there will be a segment where you will meet with a person who took the same place as you, and you will play some educational rivalry games, since this is a one hour show. We will also interview family members but it will be quick and brief.
We all nod and head out to the office where a stage is already set up and standing on it is the Dean of the school, the mayor, the reporters as well as the fimilming crew.
After filming a handshake with the Dean and the mayor and taking a photo with a certificate, it's time for the interview.
I sit on a chair and a middle aged woman in a professional suit walks towards me while smiling, together with a cameraman walking behind her, who has already started filming. I stand up and show the best pose in this angle of a camera and greet her with a charming smile.
"Oh my! Hello, you must be Han Xue Wei, I'm sorry to say this so abruptly but you are very handsome! Both provincial top scorers have such good looks this year tsk, tsk. To be honest this is my first time seeing such an occurrence where both top scorers have the same scores and are both equally handsome ha!"
"Haha, thank you, I inherited these looks from my late mother and father and they were both strikingly good looking people!"
"Oh I'm sorry for your loss..."She looks at me somewhat at loss of what to say next.
"Haha, don't worry, don't worry, it's been 6 years already so it's okay. I'm a strong man haha"
"You indeed have a glib tongue, that's probably why you passed your Chinese exam with such a high score, and also why some professors who read your essays were so surprised." She smiles kindly at me.
I look somewhat surprised that a professor would read my exam paper but quickly try to play it cool since I'm in front of a camera "Thank you for the compliment"
"Shall we start the interview then?"
"Yes, please ask away"
"From the information we have gathered, you attend No. 30 middle school which is not the best school when it comes to exams, and your previous results were always very bad, so many people question how you managed to be a top scorer in Beijing with this evidence" She asks curiously and looks at me like I'm some freshly cooked chicken, obviously she is very ready to hear some gossip.
'Unfortunately for her, there is no gossip here, I'm just this amazing kekeke'
Although these are my thoughts, I obviously cannot say this on camera so instead I answer differently in a clam voice like this is nothing but a small achievement.
"Well, I always had very good memory, and it doesn't take me much time to remember things, but I still need to put a considerable effort to it if I want to remember a lot of information. I have been a good student before but I kind of tried to rebel against the people I live with, thinking that they will accept me if I show them that I stopped caring about my grades. Unfortunately, they didn't care either"
"3 months before the exams I realised that this is not the life I want, and I wanted to change myself, so I went to my class teacher, teacher Rong to ask for advice. We came up with a 3 month plan to let me revise easier and from then on, with extra homework every weekend, extra tests on school days and cramming in the library until 11PM every night, I somehow managed to get myself up. It's all thanks to teacher Rong and his efforts to make me determined enough to not give up halfway as it was very hard to get to where I am now so I have to thank him for this." I explained very quickly and then smiled lightly towards the camera, imagining how those girls, watching Kate night television will start screaming when they see my handsome smile.
The reporter looks very surprised and then turned serious, "You said that your family didn't care about your grades?"
"It's different. I live with my aunt ever since my parents passed away, but we are not very close and I could never fit in with them, no matter how I behaved. Even though its like this, I have a support of my Grandpa and Uncle and my cute dog Coco, whom I love and respect very much even though they are not my biological family." I explain like its nothing, and my words are not wrong but it still hints to not being loved and cared by my aunt so hehe, I hope you get criticised for some time you witch.
"If they are not your biological family why do you respect them more than your blood kin?"
"Grandpa and Uncle Zhang own a pet shop in which i work part-time and they are also the people who care about me the most. I respect them very much not only for their love for me but also for the knowledge about animals that they have taught me. I still have a lot to learn though"
I rub the back of my head and smile sheepishly, feeling a bit embarrassed when I said that I love them since this is my first time addmiting my feelings and calling them a family so openly. I can see Grandpa Zhang tearing up behind the reporter and Uncle Zhang showing the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face, a smile filled with pride.
"Oh my...this is a very touching story, Xue Wei. Well, I thank you for this chance to interview you today. We will meet later when you start interacting with the other provincial top scorer. I have faith in you and I hope your life will be as good as your exam score!"
"Thank you very much miss, I appreciate your kindness. I am also very happy to give you this interview today" I smile brightly and show my tiger teeth towards the camera. I could see the blush creeping onto the reporter's face. Wait? The cameraman is also blushing.
'This is not unexpected since I'm very handsome and by now both, the female audience and the male audience must be feeling dizzy from my awesome looks kekeke'
The reporter and the cameraman then walk towards Grandpa and Uncle Zhang to ask them some questions while I secretly listen.
"Hello, You must be Grandpa Zhang and Uncle Zhang that Han Xue Wei mentioned to us."
"Haha hello, yes we are very proud to be called family by our Xiao Wei. Alas, Xiao Wei is a very good child, but he went through so much that it breaks my old heart. This is why I'm happy to see him smiling everyday." says Grandpa Zhang somewhat lost in thought.
"Yes, even though Xiao Wei is always polite and friendly to others but there is always this barrier between him and other people, mostly because of his childhood experiences. We love him very much and we only broke this barrier of his because of Coco. She is Xiao Wei's puppy and she made him happier than ever, so she deserves some attention from media too" On mentions of the puppy,
They talk like this for another 20 minutes until they hear Grandpa Zhang say, "Also, Xiao Wei works at a pet shop on XXX Street called Zhang's Pet Shop and we have many animals on sale haha! Please visit us!" The reporter immediately packed up her stuff and ran away when she heard Grandpa Zhang's shameless advertisements.
While I was laughing in my mind at how silly Grandpa can sometimes be. He can even thinks about advertising when being on national television.
The director came over to inform me that I will now meet with the other top scorer in this province.
When I came through the door and saw a familiar yet distant in my memories face, I was surprised and shocked, thinking that it is indeed fate that brought us together to meet again...