The final results of the college entrance exam came out, and her scores were surprisingly enough to get into Zhongshan Medical University. Regrettably, it was too late. It was only afterwards that she learned her aunt by marriage truly did not want her to attend Zhongshan Medical University like her cousin did.
Attending Zhongshan Medical University meant she could work in the provincial capital city, which would have immediately elevated her social status by more than just a notch. Zhou Ruomei was not willing to see her cousin's daughter soar up the branches like that.
Luckily, fate was kind, allowing her to choose her own path in life at this critical moment.
Today was the day when all senior high school students in the city were filling out their college application forms, and the large ceiling fans in the classroom hummed on.
On the platform, the class teacher Liu Hui called the class president to distribute the college application forms. They were first given a mock form to fill out, which they would then copy onto the official form to prevent mistakes.
Liu Hui addressed the students from the podium, "Make sure you do not mix up the institution codes and the major codes, a mistake could have serious consequences. What is the early admission round, and what are the first and second rounds of admissions—the college entrance examination recruitment catalog has it all written down. Remember to check the box for major adjustment within the same school, this gives you an extra opportunity."
The classroom filled with the swishing sound of pens writing, and Liu Hui knew her students were all smart and well-prepared, so she wasn't worried.
Once they finished the mock form in a bit, she planned to collect them and check them in the office.
As soon as the class teacher left, the classroom immediately turned into a marketplace, voices clamoring louder than others.
"Yingying, what did you fill in?"
Xie Wanying was nudged on the shoulder by her deskmate Zhang Wei, who asked, "I filled in for the medical school."
"Do you plan to be a doctor? But my mom doesn't think you can do it," Zhang Wei shook her head.
"Isn't your mom a bank executive?"
"Right, she's seen a lot of people working at the bank and she thinks she's spotted some patterns," Zhang Wei trusted her mother's judgment, so she looked at her deskmate and felt that Xie Wanying's only future option was to get married, "My mom says, Yingying, you're beautiful and gentle, you'd be best as a teacher, or learning art would also be good."
Bent over her book, Xie Wanying didn't lift her head. Since her past life had revealed her aunt's true nature, she could no longer hold onto a naive and beautiful impression of all her elders.
"What about you? Where are you planning to go? I heard your mom wants you to study abroad in the United Kingdom?" male student Hu Hao poked his head between the two girls from the back row and asked Zhang Wei.
"Yes, my mom has it all planned out, after a year in finance here, then off to the UK," Zhang Wei said with an air of ease when talking about studying abroad.
The surrounding students listened enviously.
In the late nineties, not many families could afford to send their children to study abroad, which showed that Zhang Wei's family was truly an elite one.
"Zhang Wei, you have to leave me a phone number," Hu Hao was the first to take out his yearbook, insisting that Zhang Wei leave him a message.
Who said students were innocent? The more elite the school, the less innocent its students, each one smart as a whip, it's impossible not to find someone with opportunist eyes. Later, when Xie Wanying reflected on all this, she could only say that if classmates did not share in hardships together, the camaraderie was often superficial.
Zhang Wei wrote in the class record eagerly passed by Hu Hao, glanced at her deskmate, and asked Hu Hao, "I'm done writing, do you want to write to Yingying too?"
"Yingying, do you want to write?"