Who would have thought that attending university would be tuition-free, and who would have thought that Shen Chi would have such a stepmother.
At that time, information wasn't as freely available as it would be later, so although people had mentioned that universities were now free, most took the news with a grain of salt. Deeply entrenched concepts aren't so easily overturned without solid facts.
But the truth was, ever since the re-establishment of the college entrance exam, there had been people from here who had been admitted to universities, but none were locals. They were only a few 'educated youth' who, upon acceptance, hastily packed up and returned to the city, with no time to confirm for the simple villagers whether universities charged tuition or not.
