It was a hot summer when the college entrance examination results were released.
The examination results of 2014 weren't very different from previous years. Chang Liu checked his grade online the moment it was released—519. A grade like that would only get him into an average college. In a small town in northern China, such a standing was neither good nor bad. It wasn't worthy to show off, but it wouldn't be made fun of either. It was ordinary, just like he was.
Seeing the result, Chang wasn't pleased nor saddened. He quietly clicked the cross on the upper right corner of the web browser, and then subsequently threw himself onto his bed.
Ring ring ring ...
The phone rang. Chang didn't set any fancy ringtones like his peers would usually do; he was just a person as boring as his ringtone.
He saw that the call was from his mother as he answered.
"Hey son, I heard that the results come out today. I just saw Wang's son from the convenience store. He got a score of...."
"519." Chang didn't wait for his mother to finish the sentence. He emotionlessly reported his score, interrupting his mother's lecturing. Then, he casually said a few words, and then hung up. Without a second thought, he turned off his phone.
July and August were the hottest months of the year, and even though the room cooled down by the air conditioning, the heat seemed impossible to drive away. Tossing and turning on his bed, Chang couldn't fall asleep, so he got up and turned on his computer to watch a movie….
It seemed like nothing could excite him; even the movie that he used to enjoy was now a tedious task for him to watch. "My life is monotonous and passionless," he thought. He muted the computer and stared at the stained ceiling. For a moment, he couldn't tell whether he was tired or just bored, and slowly, he fell asleep.
The sky was slightly dark when Chang was awakened by someone's footstep. During the summer, there were more hours of daylight, so the slight darkness in the sky meant it was just past 7 o'clock.
His parent came home from work. This meant that a family meeting was about to begin.
On the table.
"It won't be a problem for you to go to an average college with this grade, but what you can do in the future after graduating from there?" Apparently, Hua Wu–Chang's mother–was very attentive toward her son's education and knew the cutoff line for the renowned universities before anyone else in the family.
"Your dad and I…we respect your decision. Tell us what you are thinking. Do you want to just go to an average college and be an ordinary person for the rest of your life, or do you want to repeat a year in high school to improve your grade so that you can go to a prestigious university?"
"Any college is fine." Chang took a bite of broccoli, and then put down his chopsticks.
"Think about it carefully." Hui Liu, Chang's father, waved his hand, and with that the meeting ended in silence.
Three days later.
"You know, our family has always been democratic. We never thought of interfering with your decisions and we respect your choice. But knowing the pressure and competition in finding employment, if you're a graduate from an average college, I know you can imagine the difficulty of finding a job. Your dad and I aren't resourceful either…."
Hua kept mumbling, "Tell me, which one you would rather do, repeat a year or go to any college that accepts you?"
"I told you, any college is…"
His mother interrupted him, "Think about it again."
...
Two days later.
"The fact is, you have nothing to be afraid of when you're young; few people are successful in their first attempt. You know that kid from our neighborhood? He's 5 years older than you and didn't get a good grade on his first try, so he repeated a year and ended up in a famous university. Now that he has graduated, jobs are hunting for him. What I mean is that the reality of this society is cruel, and having a diploma from a famous college will gain you access to everything. Think about it again, whether you want to repeat a year or go to a random college to…"
"I'll go to any college."
"Think about it again," his mother sighed.
...