Xu Tingsheng thought that he had evaded the crowds, but it turned out in the end that this place that he was at was the one with the most commotion. Before he had even moved his pen, Old Zhou had already surged into the room along with a whole bunch of teachers and some of the school leadership, surrounding him as they all stared at him fixatedly, eyes bulging wide.

  Till Xu Tingsheng properly wrote down Qingbei University as his first aspiration.

  Actually, them doing this did not comply to the rules, did not even comply to reason. To put it more harshly, it was virtually taking Xu Tingsheng’s future for a joke, because if Xu Tingsheng filled in Jianhai University or any of the other famous universities, his chances of getting in would be very high.

  Him having filled in Qingbei as his first aspiration, it meant that if he did not get into Qingbei, he wouldn’t be getting into these other famous universities as well.

  This was the very reason the principals and the teachers had killed their way over to Xu Tingsheng’s home out of the blue the previous night, why they had turned the wine table into a battlefield on their own accord. They required such an atmosphere, required to be somewhat drunk, because only then would they be able to shamelessly voice out that deepest request of their hearts, “Fill in a Qingbei.”


  Halfway through yesterday’s war, Xu Tingsheng had already figured this out.

  Xu Tingsheng’s calmness and mildness reduced the guilt felt by the teachers. It was really that they truly thirsted for a Qingbei just too much.

  “Next, it’s impossible to cover his bases with Jianhai University. Their intake will already be over with those who filled it as their first aspiration.”


  “What should he fill in next then?”


  The educators discussed heatedly.

  Xu Tingsheng said, “Everyone, I think that for the next few aspirations……return me my freedom, please.”


  Harbouring guilt, the teachers and the school leadership left. After Xu Tingsheng had filled in his aspiration form, he did not hand it in immediately. He intended to delay it to the final moment before handing it in, because……he couldn’t show his aspirations to anyone else.

  Wu Yuewei appeared at the door.

  “I’m not. I just, I just want to know-should my goal be Qingbei or Jianhai University?” Wu Yuewei asked.

  Was her goal to be Qingbei or Jianhai University? ……To be decided by where Xu Tingsheng would be heading.

  Xu Tingsheng thought for a bit before smiling as he replied, “Qingbei.”


  Wu Yuewei nodded determinedly, “Right. I’ll be going for lessons now.”


  Wu Yuewei left. The misunderstanding therein was that Xu Tingsheng wished to set a higher goal for Wu Yuewei. She had gone to Jianhai University in her previous life, but if it was so possible, Xu Tingsheng wished things to be better for her. How good would it be, going to Qingbei?

  Wu Yuewei’s parents aside, Xu Tingsheng was perhaps the one wished the best for her more than anyone else. This was due to that feeling of guilt within his heart. The better Wu Yuewei lived, the less guilt Xu Tingsheng would carry.

  Due to this, in the quarantine wards back then, separated by a wall and connected by a single telephone line, Xu TIngsheng had even forced Wu Yuewei to write some half topical essay questions, having helped to look over and correct them.

  One of those questions had virtually been no different from the essay question that would be appearing in the 2004 university entrance examinations.

  However, Wu Yuewei’s understanding of things was that Xu Tingsheng was saying: I’ll be waiting for you in Qingbei.

  Fu Cheng, Song Ni and another group of their classmates returned from the seminar, beginning to discuss the universities that they wanted to attend. Fu Cheng had drawn up an initial list. Xu Tingsheng took a look at it, discovering that his first aspiration was the Jiannan Educational Vocational College.

  Xu Tingsheng dragged him over to the doorway, asking him, “You want to study to be a teacher? Also, if it’s Jiannan Educational Vocational College, that’s a wastage of too many points.”


  Fu Cheng laughed foolishly, not answering him.

  “You want to be a little closer to Libei?” Guessing the reason, Xu Tingsheng said, “There’s no meaning in that, understand? There’s no meaning in being closer or further away, and there’s even less meaning in studying to be a teacher.”


  “Why?”


  “If, and I’m saying if, if there is a day that Ms Fang truly accepts you, do you think that it would end with you returning to Libei to teach and the two of you passing your days happily together? ……That’s wrong, if there really is such a day, Ms Fang will definitely leave Libei Senior High, going to another city, another school. I can also say for sure that she wouldn’t want you to end up as her colleague. Think about it……do you understand now?”


  This was some very straightforward logic, and Fu Cheng understood it very quickly. That’s why it was said that one was usually the most foolish when immersed in matters of the heart.

  “Where should I apply for then, and what should I study?” Fu Cheng asked.

  “Apply for the best place your results can get you to; study the profession you most wish to study. You must understand that if that day that you look forward to truly comes, you have to be sufficiently strong. Your age makes it such that that you have to grow up and mature as soon as possible, next becoming sufficiently strong. Only then would you be able to give Ms Fang a sense of security.”


  Fu Cheng thought about it, “I understand. I want to study finance.”


  Knowing that Fu Cheng had been employed in a finance-related job in his previous life, Xu Tingsheng then said, “Go choose your university then.”


  With Fu Cheng’s results, he had two choices. The first was going directly to a normal university, while the second was going to the second or third-tier specialist colleges of a first-tier key university. If it was the former, he virtually had his choice of all the normal universities in Jianhai Province. If it was the latter, however, for some more popular professions like finance and accounting……a certain level of risk still existed therein, with many of the minimum marks required to be accepted within being higher than even the first-tier cut-off line for key universities.

  Fu Cheng selected a few more schools. Seeing one of them, Xu Tingsheng was momentarily dazed before he burst out laughing.

  “What is it? Isn’t it fine?” Fu Cheng asked him.

  “Nah, it’s pretty good. You should discuss it with your parents or maybe Ms Fang,” Xu Tingsheng said.

  “Scram! What about yours? Show me yours for a bit.”


  “I won’t show mine to anybody. Also, you really can show yours to Ms Fang. It’s just a student asking his teacher’s opinion; what’re you afraid of……”


  “Fine, I’ll go. This old man dared even to confess, much less this?”


  Fu Cheng left, though Xu Tingsheng didn’t know whether he truly dared to enter the office. In the meantime, he went to look for Song Ni, whose current thoughts were very straightforward: Attending an economics-based vocational college, graduating in accounting, not going to Xihu City.

  Her results could be considered rather high for vocational colleges, but other than those in Xihu City, there were already not many economics-based vocational colleges that she could choose from.

  Xu Tingsheng told her a city name, laughing as he said, “Go there then. Fu Cheng also chose a university there. If you’re not beside one of the three of us, we won’t be able to rest at ease.”


  If you’re not beside of of the three of us, we won’t be able to rest at ease. At this sentence, Song Ni cried.

  “Anyway, you’ve said that you’ll make me a manager,” Song Ni said.

  “Right, you can come over for an internship after operation begins,” Xu Tingsheng said smilingly as he rubbed her little head.

  “Will there be wages?”


  “.……no, but we’ll give you stocks when we get listed.”


  Song Ni chuckled over her tears. For now, at least, it indeed seemed like Xu Tingsheng had merely been joking.

  Fu Cheng really entered the Humanities office, looking for……Old Zhou to chat with. Having returned, he boasted to Xu Tingsheng about how he had discussed things with Fang Yunyao for half an hour, finally getting settled on his decision.

  Fang Yunyao just happened to appear at the doorway of the classroom at this time as she asked, “Really? But how is it that I don’t know about it?”


  Then, Fu Cheng really went off to chat with her.

  When Fu Cheng returned in a state of great satisfaction, Huang Yaming had still yet to appear. Xu Tingsheng, Fu Cheng and Song Ni waited together for half an hour more before he stormed into the classroom in a fit of rage, slamming his aspiration form onto the table.

  “His mother! Completely insistent on repeating the year; just can’t be moved no matter what.”


  Xu Tingsheng, Fu Cheng and Song Ni knew that he was talking about Tan Qingling.

  “Fine, this old man will repeat the year together with you.”


  As Huang Yaming made as if to rip his aspiration form apart, Xu Tingsheng took him down with a stomp of his foot.

  He only needed one reason to convince him, “With Tan Qingling’s personality, for you to remain together for the long term, the precondition is that you are higher than her, stronger than her, best stronger than her by a large extent, rather than remaining normal and ordinary alongside her.”


  Huang Yaming naturally understood Tan Qingling much more than many others did. The true developments in the two’s relationship had all occurred following Huang Yaming’s ‘rise to glory’ alongside Xu Tingsheng. Tan Qingling possessed a reliant personality. Only when branches were sufficiently thick and strong would the parasitic creeper vines be more enticed to wind their way around them.

  After having calmed down, Huang Yaming began choosing his school. He was actually in a rather awkward position with his results. He had very limited choices for key universities, and if were to fill in a school that was slightly better, he would only be accepted into the worst courses there. However, he would feel unresigned if he were to choose the most inferior key universities.

  After looking at Fu Cheng’s aspiration form, he said, “If I really applied for this key university, I might even be sent over to nursing.”


  Xu Tingsheng said, “Isn’t that all right? Male nurses are considered rare talents. They’re able to find jobs easily and also earn a lot, and while studying, they’ll always be surrounded by a whole bunch of girls.”


  After laughing, Xu Tingsheng said, “You can change your course; no need to worry so much about all these.”


  Huang Yaming still had to think further on his aspirations, Fu Cheng’s and Song Ni’s had basically been decided upon while Xu Tingsheng allowed no one to see his……

  A batch of newcomers were to replace the departing graduates. As the twelfth graders were frenetically filling in their aspiration forms, with the release of senior high entrance examination results, the school committee was already beginning to research on wooing in its prospective new students.

  The search for new students was something that gave Libei Senior High a major headache every year. Every year, those top scorers of Libei County would be wooed over by famous schools in the city or some other places. Libei’s kids were actually very smart, also possessing great potential. However, Libei Senior High was always unable to preserve its best seedlings, thus always showing worrying results.

  With this year’s results having given the school committee great confidence as well as backing, Principal Xu decided to go all out this time.

  The vice principal who oversaw teaching requested for the teachers and school committee to move out in groups, taking the initiative to pay some home visits. It was of the utmost importance to net as many of Libei’s top 20 scorers as they could this time.

  The namelist of these students and detailed information on them was disseminated.

  Looking at the namelist, Vice Principal Lou then came over beside Principal Xu, pointing out one of the names to him, “This rank 20th-her name sounds rather familiar.”


  Principal Xu looked at the namelist, “It indeed sounds rather familiar. Who here had heard of this name, Xu Quiyi?”


  The vice principal who oversaw teaching directly yelled out, “The top scholar’s sister, that little miss yesterday who was so awesome at drinking!”


  Principal Xu was momentarily taken aback, “What was Xu Tingsheng’s rank when he entered the school?”


  Old Zhou said, “One of the bottom few, I think, the kind that almost didn’t make it into the school.”


  Exchanging glances, Principal Xu and Vice Principal Lou hereby rejoiced. This family’s potential did not even have to be said. Her brother had started out at the final few ranks, and with her starting point now already being so much higher, what of the future?

  Fang Yunyao substantiated, “I slept in the same room as her yesterday. She said that she slept for three periods every day in junior high.”


  Many teachers looked rather surprisedly at Fang Yunyao. The kind Ms Fang had no need to speak so badly of a student who had still yet to enter the school, right, and one with whom they were all acquainted at that.

  However, those who knew the industry didn’t think this way. What they heard was potential, super mega massive potential.

  Principal Xu slammed the table, “This Rank 20, Xiu Qiuyi, is to be set as a high priority target and taken down at all costs……Vice Principal Lou, can you go over with Old Zhou and Ms Fang?”


  Old Zhou muttered, “There might be some difficulty in that. Their family doesn’t lack money now. Principal, you may not know this, but the departmental store over at the first floor of the Golden City Tower is run by their family. With their economic situation, there should be no problem if they want to send their child over to a famous school in another land.”


  Principal Xu frowned, “Other that those aforementioned three, I will personally go along as well, along with a few other good drinkers……we’ll be making another trip to the top scholar’s house today. Even if we drink ourselves to death, we must also obtain that top scholar’s sister…… understood?”


  Vice Principal Lou began appointing their generals, their famed wine immortals all amongst them.

  Upon arriving home that day, Xu Tingsheng saw this bunch of people sitting there waiting for dinner to be served. Those shameless looks of yours……even if you want free food, you guys shouldn’t be doing this everyday!

  After dinner, Xu Tingsheng made an excuse about helping his father to take a look at the mall’s renovation before scooting out of the place. Meanwhile, Mr Xu brought along a group of the village’s wine immortals in battling the ‘invaders’.

  In truth, there was no way for him to stay there any longer. Today’s topic was his sister Xu Qiuyi. Therefore, if Xu Tingsheng stayed here, he would be continuously ‘scolded’: your sister this, your sister that……

  Of course, Xu Qiuyi had intended to remain in Libei all along. As for the promises the school committee took the initiative to make, including school fees exemption, giving her a scholarship and helping to advertise for the mall, she might just as well accept them, right?