Chapter 4: Zeng Dingbaosu

An excited Zhou Huichang talked with Li Sishi for a long time until late at night before finally falling asleep. Although Li Sishi felt physically and mentally exhausted, the feeling of being reborn and living in the world was so wonderful that she couldn't bear to fall asleep.

I fear this is just a final, beautiful dream.

After lying in bed for a while, Li Sishi carefully got out of bed, intending to go to the bathroom again before going to sleep.

When she came out into the living room, she could already hear faint snoring coming from the sofa. Li Sishi smiled and glanced at her cousin, who was sleeping soundly on the sofa, before tiptoeing toward the bathroom.

Unexpectedly, they heard extremely soft voices coming from the master bedroom.

Li Sishi listened intently and immediately recognized her uncle's voice: "There's still more than a month until summer vacation. Do you think we should let Sishi go back to school next semester, or arrange for her to join a class first?"

"If we can arrange for them to transfer to another class, we definitely will. Young people should have more time to study, and it's best if they can get as much education as possible," Aunt Liang Shao'e replied immediately.

Li Sishi knew a little about the reasons behind her aunt's idea of ​​getting as much education as possible: when her aunt was young, her family was poor and looked down on girls. They only allowed her to attend primary school and then stopped her from continuing, even though her aunt's grades were much better than her brother's.

Therefore, in my aunt's mind, if she could afford to send her child to school, she would definitely support her to the very end.

Of course, this also led to the aunt's mentality that "all other pursuits are inferior, only studying is superior," and she also showed more favoritism towards Zhou Huichang, who had better grades, at home.

In contrast, Zhou Huiguang, who had poor grades, disliked studying, and often hung out with his bad friends, was the "youngest" in his family, and often even breathing was considered wrong...

Back then, I was so ungrateful that I thought my aunt's good intentions were a form of oppression, and I openly and secretly rebelled with Zhou Huiguang. Now that I think about it, for people like them with their backgrounds and families, studying was indeed the best way to change their lives.

However, at the tail end of Hong Kong entertainment's golden age, there were still some other opportunities—as long as one's appearance met the requirements and one was hardworking and able to endure hardship.

Although Li Sishi had already decided to return to the entertainment industry, she had also made preparations beforehand: after all, a beautiful girl with good grades and good manners is obviously more in line with the image of a "pure and innocent girl" in the minds of the people of Hong Kong than a beautiful girl with only a pretty face.

As you can see, the "most beautiful Miss Hong Kong" attended a prestigious traditional secondary school like Maryknoll Convent School and also achieved four A's in her Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE).

Yin Jiali, wasn't she also ridiculed by a certain famous talented woman for being beautiful but soulless for many years?

So she not only had to study hard, but also had to cultivate the image of a beautiful, well-behaved, academically gifted girl.

At this moment, the uncle and aunt were whispering about which middle school they planned to find for her.

“How about we go to Zeng Ding Bao Su, where Chang Chang and Guang Zai are studying now? It’s close to home and easy to get in. Si Shi is just returning to Hong Kong, so she won’t feel too much pressure,” Zhou Jiayun suggested.

“Of course there’s no pressure. Zeng Ding Bao Su is the lowest-level Band 3 secondary school, and it’s famously known as the ‘Zeng Ding Bu Shu’ (meaning ‘addition of students’), so almost anyone who applies gets in.” Liang Shao’e’s tone immediately changed.

The Education Bureau does not have a formal grade division for secondary schools in Hong Kong, but because students are ranked according to their academic performance and assigned to three groups, they are often referred to as band 1, band 2, and band 3.

However, although the "groups" of schools are fluid, relatively speaking, those that can be rated as band 1 are undoubtedly mostly those long-established traditional prestigious schools, while band 2 are relatively worse but still have basic guarantees for ordinary secondary schools.

Only the Band 3 secondary schools are the most mixed. Not only are most of the teachers and students just going through the motions, but some are simply giving up. They are the breeding ground for gangsters and delinquents. There is constant internal and external fighting, and the fighting has spread to the school, which is jokingly called a "martial arts school".

While there are some Band 3 secondary schools with good school spirit and strict discipline, they are definitely different from the first two. Just like standing out from the crowd or being a mediocre student, we cannot only look at the group as a whole, but also need to pay attention to the unusual individual circumstances.

The "Zeng Ding Baosu Memorial Middle School" that Zhou Huichang and Zhou Huiguang attended was originally founded by the wealthy Zeng Nanya to commemorate his mother, Ding Baosu. In the early days, wealthy families had a custom of adding the husband's surname to the bride's name when they married, especially in the political and business circles. After a young lady married a young man, she would add the husband's surname to the beginning to indicate her married status.

This practice of using two surnames reflects both the fusion of traditional customs and the changing times. It also stems from the prevailing political view that those with stable families are more mature than unmarried individuals. Consequently, these new-era women who have the opportunity to enter politics follow this bias in order to gain more recognition and approval than their unmarried competitors.

Times are changing so fast. Dual surnames, once common only in high society, are now becoming increasingly rare in the 1990s.

Fewer and fewer people are coming.

Only those people living through the changing times and these memorial schools founded with the support of the wealthy remain as a trace of the past in the port city.

Such memorial schools bearing the names of certain families are quite common in the port city. As time goes by, they either strive to become high-achieving schools for the newly rich or fade into obscurity and become ordinary schools whose names are forgotten. The worst outcome is that with the bankruptcy of the wealthy family, the school degenerates into a "martial arts school" or simply closes down.

Zeng Dingbaosu was one of those students who blended into the crowd at Band 3 secondary school, failing to win any knowledge competitions except for some participation in sports events; however, fortunately, the school's atmosphere and management were decent, so it also attracted many students from ordinary families in the surrounding area who were just coasting along.

Because of the homophony of its name and the nature of the school, Zeng Ding Bao Su Memorial Middle School is commonly known in the area as "Zeng Ding Bu Shu" (meaning "adding more students to make up for the shortfall"), implying that the school's funding from wealthy individuals is insufficient and it has to rely on recruiting students to balance its expenses. Since it has to rely on recruiting students to make up for the shortfall, the requirements for students are naturally not high.

And students with such a foundation are unlikely to achieve good results.

In her previous life, Li Sishi's grades were so-so, and she ended up getting into Zengding Baosu Secondary School, which was easy to get into and had affordable tuition. After graduating from Form 5, she stumbled into the entertainment industry through a beauty pageant.

The ignorant girl of that time

Those who only fantasize about becoming famous overnight have completely overlooked how deep the waters of the entertainment industry really are, and how terrifying the capital circle, which is closely connected to the entertainment industry, really is.

Now, having been reborn from the ashes and with so many loved ones as her source of strength and courage, Li Sishi naturally began to plan her next steps after careful consideration.

She planned to study at Zeng Dingbaosu.

The location is close and convenient, and the teaching staff is not bad. You can quickly integrate into the community as a "local from Liaojie" without the trouble of going to other prestigious schools or being bothered by small groups that like to bully newcomers.

I understand my own personality, so I'd rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.

In a school of Zeng Dingbaosu's caliber, she could receive the maximum amount of resources allocated to her by all subject teachers.

Moreover, this school also had a deep connection with her; after experiencing life and death, she had come to believe in the bonds of fate to some extent.

She spent those twenty years of wandering and uncertainty after her car accident in Zeng Dingbaosu.

In the future, Zeng Dingbaosu will have her land reclaimed by a wealthy man and rebuilt into a commercial building because of her students' poor academic performance... She thought she should do something for this school and the students in it.

Twenty years of "learning" and the harsh realities of society that have given him more self-discipline than his peers are almost enough to earn him a top scorer with all ten A's.

With such a record of producing a top-scoring student in ten subjects, this school is expected to become a popular choice among ordinary middle schools for a long time. After all, very few people dare to take ten subjects in the high school entrance exam, and even fewer are super-achieving students with all ten A's. Even established prestigious middle schools may not produce one such student for several years.

As Li Sishi pondered this, she walked towards her room: With her aunt's impatient nature, always wanting to do what she thinks of immediately, she would definitely want to take her to see Zeng Dingbaosu soon. There would be entrance exams and such, so she needed to get some rest first.

Sure enough, at breakfast the next day, Zhou Jiayun and Liang Shao'e suggested that they find her a school.

Li Sishi and Zhou Jiaxian had no objections to this, but considering that it was Saturday and school would not start until Monday, they discussed it in advance and asked for each other's opinions.

This weekend, Li Sishi and her daughter had two main tasks: resting and recovering their energy, and getting familiar with their surroundings.

However, on Sunday afternoon, the police called to say that the list of victims and most of the details of the shipwreck had been preliminarily compiled, and asked if Li Sishi and her daughter wanted to go over to see them.

Zhou Jiaxian, who was already preoccupied with something, readily agreed upon hearing the news.

It wasn't until she saw the name of that hypocrite on the list of victims, and that the cause of death was "drowning," that Zhou Jiaxian finally felt relieved.

As for the ex-husband who abandoned them and their daughter and ran away—since they still have the divorce papers in their hands, they have nothing to fear.

The day after Zhou Jiayun went to the police station was Monday. After breakfast, Zhou Jiayun went downstairs to the tea restaurant to start work, while Liang Shao'e took Li Sishi and her daughter, as well as the Zhou siblings, to the nearby Zengding Baosu Secondary School.

After waving goodbye to Li Sishi and the others, the Zhou siblings, who were about to attend class, went to their respective classrooms.

Meanwhile, in the office, the female teacher in charge of student affairs gently told Liang Shao'e that although Zeng Dingbaosu was easier to get into, she still needed to take an entrance exam to assess Li Sishi's current academic level.

Don't worry too much, it's just ordinary.

"Just take the test without hesitation. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask me." Knowing that Li Sishi had just returned from Annam and might not be fluent in Chinese, the female teacher added.

Li Sishi nodded, then picked up her pen and sat down at the empty desk to write furiously.

Taking the opportunity, Liang Shao'e inquired about her children's studies with the teacher. After learning that Zhou Huichang had a good chance of advancing to the preparatory course and that Zhou Huiguang could also graduate smoothly with a little more effort, she showed a satisfied smile on her face.

"Miss Huang, come over here and take a look." Another male teacher, who was watching Li Sishi do her homework, waved to her.

The female teacher, known as Miss Huang, came over upon hearing the noise and her expression immediately changed.

After obtaining Li Sishi's consent, they gave her several different sets of test papers to do, and the more they looked at them, the more complicated their expressions became.

"What's wrong?" Liang Shao'e and Zhou Jiaxian asked curiously.

The two teachers exchanged glances, then the male teacher left, while Miss Huang explained, "To be honest, Li Sishi's grades are quite good. We've given her several different sets of practice questions, and aside from the slight difference in textbooks between the two regions causing her some difficulty adapting, she can answer most of them..."

Unlike Zhou Jiaxian's slightly doubtful expression, Liang Shao'e's smile grew increasingly wider: "Really?"

“Yes, but that’s the problem…” Miss Huang paused, then added that Li Sishi’s current grades should be good enough for her to get into many prestigious middle schools.

At the same time, she also mentioned that she had asked a colleague to invite the principal over to discuss the matter, and said that if they were willing to let their child study at Zeng Ding Bao Su School, the school would likely offer them considerable preferential treatment...

Upon hearing this, Liang Shao'e's smile faded, and she indicated that she needed to discuss it with her child. Then she called Zhou Jiaxian and Li Sishi to the outside corridor.

"Ah Xian, didn't you tell me before that Si Shi's grades were only 'okay'? If I had known Si Shi's grades were so good, I wouldn't have brought her here!" Liang Shao'e's words carried a rare hint of resentment.