Chapter 110: Filling out College Applications

Chapter 110: Filling out College Applications

The weather was fantastic the day I returned to school.

The sun was shining brightly, the sky was a clear blue, and there wasn't a cloud in sight.

The graduates who just achieved outstanding results for No. 1 High School, setting new historical records for both the first-tier university admission rate and the undergraduate admission rate, have returned.

The scores are finalized, and everyone has adjusted their emotions, so they are relatively relaxed and just waiting to make their next choices. The school will send them some college application materials and arrange for teachers to provide guidance—the location will be at a random place on campus.

There was no other way; the previous teaching building seemed to be needed. After distributing the materials and saying a few words, we needed to clear everyone out, so everyone had to find their own place. This resulted in groups of graduates being scattered in various places such as the school cafeteria, square, and both sides of the main road.

Some students from Class 9 dragged the two teachers directly to the cafeteria opposite the former boys' dormitory and surrounded them to ask questions.

Of course, some people have already decided what major to choose, so after picking up the materials today, they can treat it as a class reunion.

Fang Yuenian and a group of boys, including Li Peixiang, were eating ice cream together while waiting for Cheng Bing.

Cheng Bing achieved his best results in his entire high school career. Although his name was not unfamiliar, his sudden rise to fourth place in the grade surprised many people, and of course, the school as well. After all, which schools the top five applied to directly affected whether the school's admission results would be even more impressive this year, and also, by the way, Meng Xiaoyang.

Meng Xiaoyang was chatting with his homeroom teacher in the crowd, so engrossed in the conversation that his ice cream was almost completely melted.

Li Peixiang also did well on the exam this time, actually making it into the top 150, which is equivalent to the pinnacle of his life. He treated his buddies to ice cream and they found a table near the fan on the wall of the cafeteria to sit and chat.

"Hey Nian-ge," he said impatiently, stirring things up, "Why does the old teacher always talk to Meng Xiaoyang but never you? You see, the second-place candidate isn't as valued as the first, is that right?"

Chen Yu, who was standing next to the wall fan enjoying the breeze, turned around and chimed in, "Exactly! Brother Nian, did you feel offended? Are you angry?"

Fang Yuenian: "Thank you, I am not angry."

"So, how do you feel about Bing-ge doing so well on the exam this time?" Chen Yu grinned mischievously. "You know what, with these scores, he might not be good enough for Tsinghua or Peking University, but he's definitely in the top 3. Anyway, the first and second place are in his class, which is enough to make their homeroom teacher ecstatic."

Wang Wei had just finished his consultations when he came over and heard about Tsinghua and Peking Universities. He asked, "Who's applying to Tsinghua and Peking Universities? Bing Ge? Is that even possible? Holy crap, I actually have a high school roommate who's going to Tsinghua and Peking Universities!"

Chen Yu: "You reminded me! I'll definitely take a selfie with Brother Bing before I leave!"

Fang Yuenian: "Alright, alright, if this keeps going, it'll get outrageous."

Chen Yu added, "Zhang Qing also did very well this time, ranking in the top ten. Aren't her parents going to express their gratitude to our Brother Bing?"

Li Peixiang said lazily, "Brother Yu, didn't you want to take a selfie with that girl from the Boya Class who got into the Shanghai Theatre Academy? Did you take it?"

Chen Yu took out his phone and started swiping. "She's not coming today. Don't worry, I don't believe I won't run into her when I pick up my acceptance letter. I'll take a picture no matter what. If she becomes a big star in the future, at least I went to English tutoring classes with her."

Fang Yuenian chatted with them, while sending a text message to Cheng Bing on her phone, but she didn't receive a reply for a long time.

After a while, Meng Xiaoyang finally said goodbye to his homeroom teacher and returned to his friends.

Being surrounded by so many people must have made him sweat a lot; his T-shirt was even a little damp. Li Peixiang quickly handed him a bottle of ice water, rummaged through the ice cream on the table, and frowned, saying, "It's all melted. Let's buy another one later."

"It's okay," Meng Xiaoyang smiled, sat down, and circled the half-melted ice cream in front of him. "I'll just eat it like this, it's so hot."

Fang Yuenian looked at the two of them with a meaningful gaze, sensing a hint of ambiguity in the atmosphere between them.

"Did your teacher recommend you apply to W University?" Li Peixiang asked.

Meng Xiaoyang, biting into an ice cream stick, said, "Yeah, I highly recommend it."

Fang Yuenian found it strange: "Didn't you say you wanted to apply to Z University?"

"So he spent a long time analyzing Z University's shortcomings with me."

Li Peixiang was displeased. "What? How can you do this? They're all top ten schools, why are you praising one and putting down the other?"

Meng Xiaoyang probably couldn't understand why his homeroom teacher had some obsession with W University. But he had always dreamed of going to Z University because his biological parents were both students there. If they hadn't passed away, they would definitely have supported their son in applying to their alma mater.

The group then chatted about their schools and majors.

This time, they needed to fill out applications for four schools, each with six majors. Although the first-choice school and major were definitely the most important, the others were just backup options to prevent being rejected. They had to put some thought into choosing them, as it wasn't something that could be decided in a short time. So, they kept talking about it, and eventually, they stopped talking about it and started talking about their carefree days after the exam.

In just over twenty days, everyone's appearance has changed quite a bit. Wang Wei has gained a lot of weight, and Chen Yu got a very punk-style perm.

Li Peixiang asked, "Brother Nian, what have you and Cheng Bing been doing lately? Just hiking and swimming in your beautiful little village?"

"I'm so busy with the yard renovations," Fang Yuenian said listlessly because she hadn't received a reply from Cheng Bing yet. "What about you? By the way, Xiao Yang, have you been staying at your grandma's house the whole time?"

“He came back last week,” Li Peixiang said hastily, then deliberately stopped.

Meng Xiaoyang generously replied, "I came back last week. I'm a badminton coach at the Children's Palace, teaching a few elementary school boys. I just started this week."

Fang Yuenian was very surprised: "Really?"

He began to reflect that he had never thought about doing any part-time work.

"That's right, our Yang-ge is really good at being a coach. He makes those kids obedient and he's made a fortune," Li Peixiang boasted without thinking. "Are you guys free today? How about we go watch Coach Meng's class this afternoon?"

Although everyone expressed curiosity, the class was in the afternoon, and they couldn't stay that late; the rural buses had set schedules.

Li Peixiang wanted to arrange for everyone not to go back tonight, but accommodation was inconvenient, and everyone had the task of filling out college applications, so they agreed to have fun on the day they received their acceptance letters.

Cheng Bing rushed to the cafeteria after almost everyone from Class 9 had left. The bottle of water Fang Yuenian had left had cooled down considerably, but he still took it and drank half of it, clearly very thirsty.

Since it wouldn't be easy to gather again, after a brief chat, the group squeezed into this somewhat cramped space and took a bunch of random photos before finally deciding to leave, satisfied.

After saying goodbye to their teacher, the group walked towards the school gate. On the way, while Wang Wei was talking to Meng Xiaoyang and Chen Yu kept asking to take selfies with Cheng Bing, Fang Yuenian seized the opportunity to pull Li Peixiang aside and tentatively asked, "What's going on between you and Xiaoyang?"

Li Peixiang, looking smug, said, "I'll let you in on a little secret: I've already booked a graduation trip. We'll go to Xiamen as soon as we get our acceptance letters, just the two of us, okay? Aren't you envious?"

Fang Yuenian was both surprised and delighted, "He agreed?"

"The trip is agreed upon, but as for the rest," Li Peixiang said, watching Meng Xiaoyang's retreating figure, "what's the rush? There's plenty of time." He then gave a strange smile, "And you, did you take those films back and watch them with Cheng Bing? Did anything happen, hmm?"

Fang Yuenian coughed, "Stop talking nonsense, we didn't."

Li Peixiang glanced at Cheng Bing, "Really...? Cheng Bing is just going to put up with this..."

"Shut up," Fang Yuenian couldn't stand it anymore. Thinking about what had happened before, her ears burned. "Let me tell you, if you and Meng Xiaoyang get together, remember to tell me first."

"What, are you going to give a wedding gift?"

"Keep your voice down!" Fang Yuenian couldn't stand this gay guy anymore. Just then, Cheng Bing came over, and he quickly ended the conversation.

Li Peixiang smiled smugly and turned to look for Meng Xiaoyang.

Cheng Bing asked, "What are you talking about?"

Fang Yuenian lowered her voice: "Ask him about Xiaoyang—shall we go straight home?"

Is there anything else you want to do?

"That's all, let's go back, it's so hot."

"Um."

Regarding schools and majors, the biggest prerequisite for Cheng Bing and Fang Yuenian is that they are in the same city. As for which city, it depends on their scores, but mainly on Cheng Bing's grades.

When considering this, Fang Yuenian even thought of a Tsinghua-Peking University plan for Cheng Bing.

Thinking that if I perform exceptionally well and have a chance of being admitted to Tsinghua or Peking University, then my teachers and family will definitely be more inclined to accept Tsinghua or Peking University, which means that their city is Beijing. Oh my god, the more I think about it, the more excited I get.

Cheng Bing remained calm and told him not to overthink it.

Even if you perform exceptionally well, your score will at most be near the minimum admission score for Tsinghua or Peking University. If you choose Tsinghua or Peking University, you must accept the transfer to another major to be on the safe side, and the range of majors you can choose will be relatively narrow. In comparison, it is better to choose another top-tier university. In this case, you can choose based on the national ranking of your first choice major, which is actually more secure.

So the estimate was mainly based on his usual level, and that's exactly what happened.

They selected two or three cities—cities with both top universities and other first-class universities, which are not uncommon in China.

The most important thing is to choose a city where there is no need to worry about who has to compromise. Whether it's Beijing or another city, as long as there are enough suitable universities, that's enough for both students.

For the next long week, the two of them did their homework in the computer room upstairs in Cheng's house.

Choosing the right university and major is easy, but other aspects shouldn't be overlooked. Even if you can change your major or minor if special circumstances arise, it will still cause many problems.

In the end, that major application guide was practically worn out from being read so many times.

Fang Yuenian was already horrified by Cheng Bing's meticulousness before they finally selected a total of 20 majors from four universities.

I went to school again on the day I filled out college applications, and the teachers practically wore themselves out saying "read carefully"—probably because every year someone makes a mistake due to carelessness. (Author's note:)

The transition is like a diary entry; once the kids fill out their college applications, they can go out and play! (This book...)