Chapter 168 Sixty Points

The teacher who called introduced himself and said congratulations three times.

"You are the mother of Su Xia, a student from Jiangcheng No. 1 Middle School, right?"

Su Xiaojuan had just arrived at the company. When she heard the voice, she was so nervous that she stood up from her swivel chair and whispered with bated breath, "I am, tell me."

She usually has the final say in front of her subordinates, but when it comes to her daughter's future, she is just an ordinary mother.

In recent years, art troupes have focused on developing folk music, and the number of places reserved for string instrument students has shrunk year by year.

After the exams in the first month of the lunar year, Su Xiaojuan was pulled into a large group of several hundred parents of art troupe candidates. She was forbidden to talk in the group, and all the parents' notes were uniform, all of which were the type of instrument and the name.

Several mothers of fellow cello candidates have added her privately. Most of their children are serious cello students who have studied at the affiliated primary and secondary schools of the Central Conservatory of Music and have received famous teachers.

Faced with the crossroads that determine their fate, some people fail in the art exams, while others are ambitious and do not aim to become professional musicians. Instead, they want to use their solid basic skills in musical instruments to pry open the doors to top universities.

Among the remaining children, there are many top students whose mock exam scores are among the top 100 in the city. Purely gifted students like Su Xia who have nothing to do with either are a minority.

After knowing that the bonus points this year were particularly harsh, parents kept in touch with each other every few days to find out whether each other's children had received any notification from Tsinghua University.

Jiangcheng is 18,000 miles away from Beijing.

Su Xiaojuan is not like some mothers in the group who have internal acquaintances and intelligence networks.

At first, I would occasionally pop up in the group and ask a few questions attentively. Later, I became more and more nervous and gradually became a pure lurk, only checking the messages occasionally.

Everyone knows that the art troupe only needs one cellist this year, and the possibility of two children in the group being admitted to Tsinghua University at the same time is extremely small.

No matter how much gossip you hear, it's ultimately useless.

Seeing the temperature rising day by day, Su Xiaojuan didn't dare to say a word to Su Xia and was anxious for more than a month.

I thought the lack of a letter meant a polite refusal, but unexpectedly I received the news.

"I wanted to let you know that Su Xia performed exceptionally well in the specialty student exam, ranking highly in academic subjects. Her professional interview also left a deep impression on our art troupe's teachers, and her overall score ultimately ranked first among all string instrument students this year."

The teacher said, "The bonus score has been reduced significantly this year, but we at Tsinghua University are still sincere and are prepared to offer Su Xia a 20-point reduction in admission."

As soon as the word "first" came out, Su Xiaojuan was stunned.

She leaned against the table and took several deep breaths before she managed to slow her heart rate down a bit. Then she thought of a very realistic question:

This is Tsinghua University. The admission score for science majors in the province has always been close to 700.

Even if it were to drop by 20 points, it would still be the raw score level for admission to any top 985 major, which her daughter simply cannot reach now.

As if understanding her thoughts, the teacher on the other end of the phone smiled and said, "Originally it could only be 20 points, but Su Xia's situation is a bit special."

Su Xiaojuan was stunned.

After all, they were still high school students, and the teacher respected the girl's mother's feelings. He carefully considered his words before saying tactfully, "The group rankings were released yesterday, and the Institute of Interdisciplinary Information Sciences called."

"At the beginning of the year, the Yao Class signed a national gold medalist in mathematics competition. He must be a friend of Su Xia. At that time, the first condition for him to agree to sign us at Tsinghua University in advance was to let her come along."

"After careful consideration, we were able to secure Su Xia an exceptional admission score reduction of 60 points. Besides the gold medal in the competition, this is definitely the largest bonus this year, matching the highest bonus for the Strong Foundation Program. So please keep this a secret and don't disclose it to anyone else."

The shocks came one after another.

Su Xiaojuan was dumbfounded.

Her mood climbed from the bottom to the top again. Due to the intense emotional fluctuations, she couldn't remember the name of the brat who had made her angry for several months.

She asked in surprise, "Who is it?"

The teacher opposite also paused, "Let me see, it says it's the same high school as your daughter."

"...You've heard of Xu Jiqing, the top scorer in the national math competition this year, right?"

-

At ten o'clock, the last evening self-study get out of class ends.

As soon as the car door opened, Su Xia was hugged by Su Xiaojuan.

Since the beginning of the school year, she has been holding her breath, which made Su Xiaojuan nervous with her.

Today, Su Xiaojuan's hair looked freshly done, her nails were sparkling, the color of her lipstick was much younger than a few days ago, and her voice was cheerful.

"Are you hungry? Do you want to go into town for a midnight snack?"

Su Xia shook her head. "I haven't digested the cake yet. I feel so full."

My eighteenth birthday happened to be in the middle of the week, so I couldn’t leave school.

In addition to the birthday cake, Su Xiaojuan ordered twenty servings of milk tea, pizza, and fried chicken, which were delivered to school at noon. Every girl in the class had a portion, and it was a small birthday party in the cafeteria.

Two years was enough time for the girls to go from being alienated to accepting Su Xia, and from admiring her to becoming like little animals huddled together, rubbing against each other, all furry and chirping.

It was just a short period of time at noon when everyone took a break from their busy schedule.

From time to time, some stood up to take a walk, some glanced at the dean and the teachers, some took the Polaroid cameras that they had smuggled into the school to secretly take pictures of Su Xia, some surrounded her, lit candles, handed small plates to her and cut the cake. It was so lively and happy that it seemed like a festival, and half the floor was paying attention.

But after the afternoon and evening, the energy that had just been injected was drained away again.

He was visibly exhausted and was about to fall asleep as he leaned back in the back seat.

Su Xiaojuan rubbed her little face, observed her expression, and directly told her the good news that she had been holding back for a day, "Your test results at the beginning of the year are out."

"I received a call this morning from National Tsing Hua University saying you were the first place winner in string music this year."

Su Xiaojuan made a six-sign gesture and waved it in front of Su Xia. "Because they really want you to go, they're going to lower your admission score by 60 points! Tell me, are you that capable?"

The fruits of the interim victory, which had been awaited for almost two months, were even more fruitful than Su Xia had imagined.

The sleepiness disappeared in an instant, and she was so surprised that she was speechless.

My heart was pounding, but I regretted that there was no way to share this with Xu Jiqing who was already at Tsinghua University.

"Mom, did they say anything else on the phone?"

Su Xia blinked her bright eyes, with a hint of hope.

The gaze was so intense that Su Xiaojuan felt a little uncomfortable for a moment. She shifted her gaze to the neon lights on the roadside. "What else can I say? I just advise you to keep your grades steady for the next few months. See you at Tsinghua University in September."

Su Xia said "oh".

He didn't ask any more questions, just looked out the window like her, pursed his lips and picked at his hands.

Seeing her like this, Su Xiaojuan became more determined to keep it a secret until the college entrance examination.

Even if they are not young people in love, people should be grateful. What's wrong with helping her daughter get into Tsinghua University? Isn't this what he should do?