If you'd like to support my work and help me create more chapters, I've opened Ko-fi memberships!

Your support helps fund future chapters and commissions, and lets me spend more time creating new content.

No pressure—reading and enjoying the story is already a huge support. Read for free, support if you can, and thank you for being here.

Cheating?

How could she have cheated?

Teacher Sun’s round face flushed red with anxiety.

“I didn’t leave her side for a second! I even followed her to the restroom. She ate lunch in the office. There’s no way she cheated!”

Teacher Qi quickly calmed her down.

“I know you’re responsible. It’s just… her results are surprising.”

Once convinced nothing improper had happened, Teacher Qi submitted Xia Xiaolan’s exam papers to the senior-year group.

Old Wang frowned.

“No answer leaks? Then this student qualifies for transfer.”

“Leak what answers? The senior year mock exam was this Friday. I used that exact paper. All questions were written by the subject teachers. Who could’ve gotten the answers in advance?”

Teacher Qi had even taken the paper home, but it had nothing to do with her husband, who taught English.

And Xia Xiaolan just happened to score highest in English.

Still, there was no connection.

Teacher Qi had a clear conscience.

Old Wang’s expression shifted.

“She graduated middle school and self-studied at home?”

Xia Xiaolan lost points mainly in Chinese and politics, subjects requiring memorization.

Biology wasn’t great either, but it carried less weight.

Those could all be improved quickly with focused study.

Add back the points she shouldn’t have lost, and her total could easily rise another forty.

Forty points!

Old Wang broke into a grin.

A talent like this... even self-taught.

Its worth taking.

Once she got into college, no one would care how she prepared. What mattered was that she’d be counted under County No. 1 High School’s admission rate.

He carefully gathered her papers.

“Hurry. Notify her!”

“Chen Qing from Class 3 introduced her…”

“Then have Chen Qing lead the way!”

Teachers in those years were deeply committed. Ever since the gaokao resumed, even if their teaching standards weren’t top-tier, their sense of responsibility was undeniable.

A college admission could change a life. Many students retook the exam year after year, refusing to give up.

Now that they had discovered someone with real potential, they wouldn’t let her slip away.

Chen Qing was called out. Old Wang and Teacher Qi didn’t even wait for the weekend. They were heading to Qijing Village immediately.

On the way, Old Wang kept asking about Xia Xiaolan.

Why had she stopped schooling?

How had she studied at home?

Chen Qing knew very little. He hadn’t known her back in Dahe Village. Maybe she really had worked hard on her own.

Judging by the teachers’ reactions, though, she had definitely passed.

Still, Old Wang kept the score to himself.

“You’ll find out when we get there.”

The three of them pedaled hard and arrived at Qijing Village drenched in sweat. Chen Qing knocked for ages, but no one answered.

It turned out Liu Yong was preparing for a trip and wanted to help Xia Xiaolan as much as possible beforehand.

With the autumn harvest over, all three adults had gone out to collect eels, leaving the house empty.

They were stocking up, hundreds of jin already stored in water vats.

Xia Xiaolan was short on cash now.

She didn’t dare spend freely on meat anymore. The family mostly ate loaches, cheap and easy to gather alongside eels.

The two teachers waited until their throats went dry.

Chen Qing took them back to his house for water.

A teacher home visit!

His family nearly treated them like honored guests.

Chen Wangda immediately ordered preparations. Killing a chicken, buying meat, but Old Wang stopped them.

“We’re not here to eat. We need to find Xia Xiaolan as soon as possible. Every day wasted could cost her points in the gaokao... we can’t allow that.”

He meant it.

No amount of hospitality could change his mind.

Chen Wangda nodded. He was raising Xia Xiaolan for being sensible and hardworking despite her poor background, then sent someone to fetch Liu Yong.

Liu Yong was so excited he knocked over a basket of eels.

“She passed? She can really take the gaokao next year?!”

Eels scattered everywhere, but he didn’t care.

Money mattered, but in the long run, it was nothing. If Xia Xiaolan got into college, her whole life would change.

Old Wang smiled reassuringly.

“With a few months of focused study, a bachelor’s degree (benke) is well within reach.”

Strictly speaking, informing the family was enough. But last year, County No. 1 High School had only eight benke admissions.

Old Wang wasn’t exaggerating, he truly valued this student.

He wanted to meet her.

And he didn’t want to wait.

Liu Yong slapped his thigh.

“She went to Shangdu City to deliver goods…”

“Then we go to Shangdu.”

Teacher Qi was just as curious.

How could someone excel in English but do so poorly in Chinese?

She wanted to see Xia Xiaolan for herself and have a proper talk.

...

Xia Xiaolan stayed longer than usual in Shangdu that day.

With hundreds of jin of eels at home, she couldn’t relax. They could be kept for a few days... but too long. Because they’d lose weight, meaning losses.

And tying up that much stock meant tying up capital.

She had to sell more.

Carrying an extra hundred jin, she hit both southern and northern markets early, then went from restaurant to noodle shop asking if they bought eels. By noon, she had turned her extra stock into cash.

It delayed her schedule.

By the time she headed to deliver goods, she was late.

At the Yellow River Hotel, Zhu Fang had been waiting. Xia Xiaolan never broke her delivery rhythm, every other day without fail. Even when she couldn’t come, she sent her uncle.

Her reliability had earned trust.

But Zhu Fang’s mother was getting impatient.

A woman with some authority, she had dressed carefully that day.

Clothes, shoes, hair, posture—all deliberate. She wanted to meet the little vixen who had her son completely captivated.

Zhu Fang, the dutiful mama’s boy, thought his mother was just taking Xia Xiaolan seriously.

In reality, she intended to put Xia Xiaolan in her place.

But as the wait dragged on, her composure began to slip. Before Xia Xiaolan even arrived, it felt like she had already lost face.

Then Xia Xiaolan finally appeared, riding her bicycle into view.

Zhu Fang’s mother’s eyelids twitched violently.

No, no…

Even more striking than she imagined.

Someone like this—

The Zhu family couldn’t handle her.

If you like my translations, please support me on ko-fi!