Chapter Twenty-Four: The Results of the Middle School Entrance Exam

  In the following days, Mother went to communicate with Eldest Aunt more frequently. Eldest Aunt was not a person who was used to giving orders, and she also thought about Su Can, wondering if Zeng Quanming had offended this strong-willed son of Zeng Ke again. When talking to Mother, apart from necessary complaints, she also asked Zeng Ke to pay attention to Su Can's recent studies and life.

  Aunt Yin Shuying probably felt that the pressure to get into the third high school given by her family after the college entrance exam was quite great, so Su Can was a bit abnormal. Young people at this stage are generally like this, and there is no excessive pursuit of it. The things between him and his mother Zeng Ke were more about how to facilitate the rental issue on this side.

  The municipal government manages the rental of storefronts at the entrance, which is handled by Secretary Wang of the Secretariat. Secretary Wang generally shows great respect to veteran cadres like Zeng Quanming, and his aunt's words carry weight. As a result, the two storefronts at the entrance were allocated to his aunt. The procedure was proper, so it all depends on who gets the upper hand between Zeng Ke, the mother of Zeng Quanming, and Mei Lan, the wife of Jia Zheng.

  Although Aunt didn't dislike Su Can because of this, recently Eldest Uncle's behavior had really scared Mother. It was said that after they left, Eldest Uncle got up at 5 o'clock the next morning to water flowers and take a walk, then sat on the sofa in the living room, staring blankly into space. Lately, he has also been somewhat absent-minded at work and hasn't spoken much with Aunt.

  The mother was extremely guilty, naturally thinking that Su Can had smashed his beloved ashtray, which made the eldest uncle heartbroken and unable to eat or drink. Wanting to make it up to the eldest uncle, but then discovering that with their family's financial situation, they couldn't afford such an ashtray either, it was impossible to buy a new one to give to the eldest uncle. Besides, it was all within the same family, if they really bought one and gave it to the eldest uncle, Zeng Ke understood his brother very well, he probably wouldn't accept it anyway.

  Xia Zengke suddenly felt guilty towards his older brother, and with recent events piling up, the middle school entrance exam results were about to come out, and his previous worries resurfaced, and he also blamed Su Can more.

  Su Can felt a sense of relief when he heard about his eldest uncle's recent behavior, thinking that his previous suggestion was indeed a bit rash. However, if it wasn't for this bold move, how could Su Can have possibly impressed an uncle who had been working in the municipal planning department for many years? His own suggestions would never have been listened to by his uncle, unless he was a top student with perfect grades, or already an adult with his own career.

  Now I can only bear my elder uncle's teachings, and have no right to participate in or give him any advice. Should I honestly tell my elder uncle that a flood is about to break out, and I am from the future, the stock market in 1998 was very turbulent!

  Su Chan had also made up his mind, if he couldn't move Big Uncle this time, he would wait until the next family gathering to think of another way to persuade him indirectly. After all, it's not something that can be done overnight, wanting to change Big Uncle's mindset and make him listen to what he has to say requires some careful thought.

  The news that the two of them were going to open a store also reached Meilan and Jia Zheng's side. On one hand, Jia Zheng smiled and said that now that they were all in business together, they should set up a family enterprise. On the other hand, it made Meilan launch a surprise attack, wanting to get her elder sister-in-law to reveal what kind of business their mother wanted to do.

  Meilan's soft and hard bubbles on this side have indeed alerted her eldest aunt, who is not a fool either. She always feels that Meilan has been too frequent in her recent efforts to please her, and it's not just about figuring out what her younger cousin Zhenke wants to do.

  Yoon Soo-young just pushed it off, saying it was probably a tobacco and liquor business. Mei Lan didn't suspect anything, doing tobacco and liquor business under the guise of the city government, which should be fine. However, there were quite a few tobacco and liquor stalls around this government building, so inserting herself into this would inevitably make her profits thinner.

  Neither of them said it outright, and from now on, it's just a matter of who uses the big store and who uses the small one.

  Mother Zeng Ke originally thought that it would be better to use the small shop next door, which would also have enough funds for the initial investment and a smaller input. When she discussed this with Su's father, both of them were somewhat moved, but were strongly interrupted by Su Can.

  Su Can knew that now was the time for the biggest sawing battle, if he let Mei Lan Jia occupy the big store, history would repeat itself. With the growth of the two, their true faces would also be revealed. So, he persuaded his parents with all his might, suggesting that they should do it on a large scale, even if the initial investment was too much and there were not many goods inside, but the future development potential was huge.

  Su Can knew that later, the municipal government's second floor office had moved to a new location, leaving the entire second floor empty. Later, Jia Zheng and Mei Lan took advantage of this opportunity and rented out the entire second floor, turning it into a large cultural goods supermarket with enormous future potential.

  Under Su Can's sentence "If you don't do your best, it's better not to open a shop", Mu Zhenke and Su Licheng deeply agree with each other, and they also don't yield to each other in front of the gate.

  However, just as Mei Lan and Jia Zheng were staring at the gate, the second aunt was in a dilemma. Suddenly, it was heard that Mei Lan and Jia Zheng's temporary funds were insufficient, and the amount of money needed to rent the gate face was quite large. The two had no choice but to let go of the large shop they had been holding onto and retreat to a smaller one. On the surface, however, they put on a good show, saying that since their aunt wanted the larger gate face, they would take the smaller one.

  Su Cangxin thought that heaven was helping him, and then his mother began to contact the suppliers, while his father started to renovate the interior. At this time, his father's company had already shown a declining trend in profits, so he had more free time to deal with the door face problem. Moreover, the municipal government and their home were on the same street, so opening a store here was like guarding their own doorstep and doing things for themselves. As a result, the whole family entered a relatively satisfactory state of life.

  The only two concerns are that I don't know if the store can make money after it opens, and the second is Su Can's grades. If he doesn't get into high school, we'll have to pay a lot of money for tutoring, which would be adding insult to injury right now.

  In the past few days, Su Can hasn't been in contact with Liu Rui and Xue Yi Yang, his two best friends. The two of them have gone to visit their relatives and play, occasionally going to that disc game room. They have gained a certain status, but it seems that Wang Wei Wei, Lin Luo Ran and others heard that after they won last time, they also went several times. As a result, those few days coincided with the day of Su Can's middle school entrance exam, and only some students who were on vacation and not facing the middle school entrance exam were shocked by Lin Luo Ran and his group.

  Later, Wang Wei waited for several days in a row and still didn't see them appear, so he left disappointed and never showed up again. This became a heart knot for Liu Rui and Xue Yiyang, with Lin Luoran's bright and charming eyes almost filling their beautiful dreams for most of their youth.

  July 1st.

  Today is the day when the middle school entrance examination results are released and can be inquired by phone.

  After dinner, the TV volume was turned down, and the whole family was on high alert. Mother held Su Can's admission ticket in her hand, while Father sat on the sofa with a remote control, but his mind was clearly elsewhere.

  The TV is reporting news about Xia Hai City, and below it also shows that today's middle school entrance examination inquiry hotline will be opened after 7 o'clock.

  I believe that now tens of thousands of parents in Xiashi City, like mine at home, are waiting in front of the TV for time to tick away.

  Su Can felt the heavy atmosphere and the scene that seemed to be a great enemy, which silently expanded his chest and lungs. Memories flooded in like a tide, surging into his mind. It was the same scene as before, with his mother curled up on the edge of the sofa, hearing about his poor grades and her disappointed expression, scolding him nonstop. Tears flowed out, she had just decided to stay at her original company, where she earned less money each month, and their family's savings progress slowed down. Suddenly, they had to take out so much money again, and she had to ask others for loans. The disappointment with life was a kind of bitterness that only ordinary families like theirs could understand.

  Su Can sat in front of the bench, facing the wall clock. The ticking of the clock seemed to be pronouncing judgment on him, reading out the verdict of his fate after reincarnation.

  Su Can no longer wanted to recall the past nightmares, often every exam his feeling good times, but the results can make him greatly disappointed. Mingming thought that this time he could get more than 80 points on the exam paper, but unexpectedly, for the 120-point question, he only got 50 or 60 points.

  He's afraid he has the same feeling now, not that he lacks confidence in himself, but the nightmares of the past won't go away.

  Ding! Ding! Ding! ... The wall clock strikes on time at the set time.

  It's seven o'clock!

  Mother picked up the phone and dialed the score hotline, and everyone's nerves were tense at once.

  After a while, Mother hung up the phone in disappointment, "Busy!"

  Just a few minutes later, her mother picked up the phone again with some excitement, and the other end of the inquiry system was probably hot-lined and couldn't get through for a while.

  It was like a tug-of-war that was pulling on the nerves of the whole family, and at around 7:30, Zeng Ke's phone finally connected.

  When it was her turn to enter the admission ticket number, Lao Ma Zeng Ke's hand holding the paper strip was trembling with nervousness.

  She took a deep breath and read out her admission ticket number. Her mother picked up the pen with caution and put it on speakerphone.

  "Admission Certificate Number: 21358960. Candidate Name: Su Can. Mathematics Score: 145 points. Language and Literature Score: 135 points. English Score: 140 points. Science Comprehensive Score: 105 points. Liberal Arts Comprehensive Score: 85 points. Physical Education Standard Score: 35 points."

  Total score: 645 points.