Chapter 2: 211

Weixiu Garden is across from the West Gate of Peking University, separated by the Summer Palace Road, which was once the Imperial Road.

The apartment buildings here were all newly built in the 70s, five stories high, with over a dozen of them. It is said that Peking University plans to buy the adjacent Changchun Garden to build more buildings.

The river in the garden is lush with water plants, and occasionally two or three wild ducks can be seen swimming out of the concrete culverts to forage. There are also several small pavilions with classical designs scattered along the riverbank.

Wei Jiefang sighed as he walked: "Impressive, right? This used to be an imperial garden, a place where the emperor lived. Now your uncle lives here!"

Old Wei always liked to spur Wei Ming and his sister on by bragging about his cousin, hoping to make them strive for progress.

However, cousin Wei Pingan was indeed worth bragging about.

To be precise, Wei Jiefang and Wei Pingan's fathers were cousins, making their relationship a layer further apart.

But Wei Pingan was a posthumous child, and Wei Ming's grandparents took good care of the widow and orphan. Later, Wei Ming's grandfather also passed away, and the two widows took their two children and often helped each other, which could be said to be as close as one family.

Wei Jiefang and Wei Pingan, who were of similar age, grew up playing together. Plus, both branches of the family had thin connections, so they were already each other's closest clansmen.

It's just that the brothers had different personalities since childhood: Wei Jiefang was playful, while Wei Pingan was steady.

Wei Jiefang poked a beehive, and Wei Pingan got stung in the face.

Wei Jiefang stole a watermelon, and Wei Pingan got caught.

Wei Jiefang went into the river to catch fish, and Wei Pingan almost kicked the bucket.

In short, during their childhood, the two brothers were very close.

By the early 60s, Wei Pingan was admitted to Peking University, becoming the first person from Pingan County since the founding of the People's Republic, stepping out of the countryside and leaping into a dragon.

The saying "Pingan County produced a Wei Pingan" circulated locally for many years.

And by then, Wei Jiefang already had a son, whose name was also chosen by Wei Pingan.

"Let's call him Wei Ming. Peking University has a Weiming Lake. In the future, let little Ming enter Peking University with me!"

Wei Jiefang always remembered this sentence. He held an envelope in his hand and found the third floor of Building 13 in Weixiu Garden according to the address on the letter.

"Knock, knock~"

"Who is it... Brother Jiefang?"

After the door of 301 opened, Wei Pingan took a moment to recognize his cousin from his hometown.

Since the passing of his aunt (Wei Jiefang's mother), they hadn't seen each other for two years, only occasionally exchanging letters.

Two years later, Wei Jiefang, who was not yet 40, looked much older.

"Little Ming is here too. He's grown so tall. Come in quickly." Wei Pingan let them in and tidied up the coffee table.

This was Wei Jiefang's first time visiting Wei Pingan's new home. It was much better than the old dormitory building, but not as luxurious as he had imagined.

The living room wasn't big, but it was very new and full of value.

There was a sewing machine, a tape recorder, a washing machine, and even a telephone!

Their Dog Village didn't even have electricity yet.

Wait, was that square thing a television?

He had only seen it twice in the commune, and it wasn't this big!

"Is your wife not home?" After scanning the room, Wei Jiefang asked while opening the snakeskin bag and turning out the local specialties from his hometown.

"Yeah, she's at work." Wei Pingan rubbed his face; he had pulled an all-nighter and had just woken up.

"That's perfect. We brothers can talk more easily. Hehe, our Hengzhou Lao Bai Gan, and the salted duck eggs from the side of Heng Lake. Let's have a couple of drinks."

Wei Jiefang opened the bottle cap and let Wei Pingan smell it.

Wei Pingan didn't like to drink when he was young, but after entering the workplace and starting his career, he realized he had a natural tolerance for alcohol, so he became an expert.

He was still a bit groggy, but smelling the familiar scent of Lao Bai Gan, he thought it was the perfect time for a couple of drinks to wake up.

"Then let's have a couple of light drinks~"

There were some leftovers at home. When Wei Pingan brought out the braised dried tofu, sausages, peanuts, and salted duck eggs, Wei Jiefang had already filled the glasses. He was about to take off his shoes and sit cross-legged on the sofa, but was stopped in time by Wei Ming.

Wei Pingan looked at the handsome Wei Ming: "Little Ming must be seventeen or eighteen this year."

"Yes, Uncle, eighteen this year."

"Then you should be taking the college entrance exam, right? How did you do?" Wei Ming shook his head regretfully.

Wei Jiefang, who was handing the glass to Wei Pingan, downed his own drink in one gulp and sighed:

"Don't mention it. This kid actually has talent. His teachers often praise his essays. It's just that his luck was a bit bad this year."

"How bad was his luck? What was his score?" Wei Pingan asked.

Wei Ming couldn't remember, so he looked at Wei Jiefang.

"211 points," he said, gritting his teeth.

Wei Ming: Whoa, that's a lucky number, just a bit worse than a 985.

And when Wei Pingan heard this number, the liquor in his mouth suddenly lost its flavor.

If he wasn't mistaken, this score wouldn't even get him into a junior college!

This was the third year after the resumption of the college entrance exam, with a total of six subjects.

Chinese, Mathematics, and Politics were compulsory subjects, 100 points each.

For science, Physics and Chemistry were tested; for liberal arts, History and Geography were tested, 100 points each.

!

In addition, English became a college entrance exam subject for the first time, 100 points, but calculated at 10%, which was 10 points (except for foreign language majors).

So the total score was 510 points, and Wei Ming had scored less than half.

In this day and age, there was one national exam paper. As long as you scored around 300 points, you could get into a school, but even 300 points was as difficult as a chasm.

This year, there were 4.68 million candidates nationwide, and only 280,000 were admitted, an admission rate of only 5.98%, just slightly higher than in '77.

Wei Pingan comforted him: "It doesn't matter. Little Ming is still young. Take the exam again next year."

Wei Jiefang held up three fingers: "Three times! This was already his third college entrance exam! The first time he didn't know anything, so it was fine if he didn't pass. The second time he realized he wasn't cut out for science, so fine, he switched to liberal arts and tried again. As a result, during the third exam, the village had a hailstorm. The hailstones were this big, and it hailed for an hour. Then he missed the Chinese exam, which he was most confident about. Sigh!"

Hearing that he missed one subject, Wei Pingan breathed a sigh of relief; it wasn't hopeless.

"Brother Jiefang, I'll get some Yanjing college entrance exam textbooks for you to take back. I think Little Ming still has hope. You can't just give up like this."

Wei Jiefang was a bit tipsy. He waved his hand: "No more exams, no more exams. Doing well on exams isn't as good as having connections. I received your letter last month and knew you had been promoted. I thought, why take exams? Isn't his uncle here? You are now a big leader at Peking University. You arrange it."

Wei Pingan's hand holding the glass suddenly stopped; he didn't dare move.

"Brother Jiefang, how can I arrange this!"

"Why can't you arrange it? You're such a big leader. Even our county director is a head shorter than you when he sees you." Wei Jiefang flattered him.

"That's because he's not tall!" Wei Pingan laughed in anger. "And I'm just a division chief, neither the president nor the party secretary."

Wei Pingan regretted writing to him about those things; it was vanity at work.

Serves you right! Let you show off!

"Stop talking nonsense with me. I know we are brothers. I treat you as a real brother. Have you forgotten who saved you when you fell into the river and almost drowned when you were little!"

"If it wasn't for helping you catch fish, would I have fallen into the river!"

Wei Jiefang was anxious: "Hey, did you eat the fish or not? Didn't you eat most of it!"

"It was all burnt, and there was no salt. You didn't want to eat it, right?" Wei Pingan retorted.

Wei Jiefang stopped drinking and stood up, his body swaying:

"Just tell me if you can get your nephew into Peking University. He grew up listening to your stories and yearns to enter Peking University. My mother and your aunt are both watching from heaven!" Wei Jiefang used a "family kidnapping" tactic.

"This really can't be done. Peking University isn't run by my family!" Wei Pingan used an "impartial and selfless" tactic.

His voice also rose a few decibels, clearly a bit angry. How could you open your mouth with such a request?

It would have been easy a few years ago in the era of worker-peasant-soldier college students, but now it had been three years since the resumption of the college entrance exam!

Wei Jiefang was even angrier, his eyes red. He slapped his thigh:

"Why can't it be done! Before I came, I boasted to the villagers that you would definitely be able to handle it. With my kid's height and looks, guarding a gate, cutting vegetables in the canteen, or even cleaning the latrines would be fine. If you can't even arrange a job, what kind of leader are you!"

Wei Pingan was stunned: Ah, looking for a job? Not arranging for him to enter Peking University as a student?

Wei Ming was also stunned: Ah? Cleaning latrines? I really can't do that!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3 =====