Lan Qingyue moved closer to Lu Yan's mother, gently patted her shoulder, and said, "Ayan, you've worked very hard..."
But I'm also very lonely!
She saw that Lu Yan's room was filled with nothing but school supplies; there were no toys at all. Everything was arranged and stored so neatly it was almost exaggerated. At first glance, one would think that this was an extremely obsessive-compulsive person.
During the few days she was there, she also noticed a problem: Lu Yan's activities were limited to her home and room. She rarely smiled, and even when she did, it was just a slight smile at the corner of her mouth. Her seemingly aloof face was nothing more than a mask to hide her loneliness.
Lu Yan's mother turned her gaze to the small table next to the desk. To be precise, it was a tabletop propped up on a chair, with a small desktop sewing machine, several bags of fabric, an iron, paintbrushes, kraft paper, and a finished apricot-colored vest on it. These things in the house were enough to show Lu Yan's love for fashion design.
"Yes, she worked so hard, but luck wasn't on her side. Her college entrance exam score was several tens of points above the undergraduate admission line, but she didn't get one of the sixty undergraduate spots."
"What happened?" Lan Qingyue asked curiously.
She knew that attending a vocational school allowed her to take the college entrance examination, which offered the opportunity to apply for a junior college or a bachelor's degree program. However, the number of places was very limited, and very few people were admitted. She had learned that sometimes, even when places were allocated, they couldn't fill all the available spots.
Lu Yan's mother sat up straight, looked at Lan Qingyue, whose face was pretty with light makeup, and sighed deeply, "Miss Lan, if you'd like, I'd like to talk to you about something."
Lan Qingyue nodded and obediently sat down.
Lu Yan's mother sighed again, "Ayan went to a vocational high school..."
Lan Qingyue clearly sensed the regret in Lu Yan's mother's tone. He fell silent, listening quietly to what she had to say next.
"When Ayan was in junior high school, she had a heavy workload, but she worked very hard and even made it into the top 30 in her grade. She got a spot in the school's weekend tutoring program. There were only 50 spots in that program, which was for the top 50 students in the grade to stay at school on weekends for tutoring and instruction."
Ayan started staying at school for tutoring in her second year of junior high and continued until her third year. Suddenly, she said she was too tired and didn't want to stay anymore; she wanted to quit the tutoring program. The spots in that tutoring program weren't fixed; each semester, new students were selected, only the top fifty in the grade remained. If a student fell out of the top fifty, they had to leave the program, making way for another excellent student.
These tutoring classes operate on a "survival of the fittest" principle. The decision of whether a student stays or leaves is not made by the homeroom teacher or school leaders, but by their grades. To stay in the tutoring class, one's ranking cannot drop, and one cannot slack off. If one slacks off, nine out of ten students outside the tutoring class will strive to catch up and squeeze into that class, while those who drop in ranking will have to give up their place.
When Lan Qingyue was in junior high school, she also entered the same tutoring class. Students with good grades could enter from the first year of junior high school. Some who entered in the first year were squeezed out in the second year. Lan Qingyue entered in the second year of junior high school. Fortunately, she persevered and held on until the high school entrance exam in the third year of junior high school. Her two years of hard work allowed her to achieve her goal. Looking back on that time, it was truly unforgettable.
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