Chapter 5: The Tragic High School World (Part 1)

  Days are repeating with the same difficulties, and although Grandpa Qi's condition is stable, he still doesn't see any improvement.

  In August 1996, Grandfather's condition took a turn for the worse. Liu, an old Chinese doctor, came to the mountain with Long Bo despite the long distance and difficult road. After carefully examining Grandfather's body, he drew a grim conclusion. Grandfather had become paralyzed from the chest down, his nerves below the chest were completely non-functional, and he showed no reaction to external stimuli. He had previously still had some appetite, but now he refused to eat. The fluctuations in his emotions caused chaos in his organ functions.

  The old Chinese doctor prescribed a new prescription, instructing Longbiao that from now on, Grandpa can only eat porridge or meat paste and other liquid foods, and must regularly supplement nutrition such as milk, honey, fish soup, eggs, and must also regularly receive intravenous antibiotics to reduce inflammation.

  The son of the old Chinese doctor, who was also Longbiao's guidance teacher, told Longbiao that his middle school entrance examination results ranked second in the entire county, and he was honorably admitted to the key class of County City No. 1 Middle School. Among the entire Tianlei Middle School, there were seventeen people who got into No. 1 Middle School, and Longbiao's score was thirty-one points higher than that of the second place in Tianlei Middle School.

  The school and education office were overjoyed, as Tianlei Middle School had its best performance in history, with five students admitted to the top high school, and the top scorer ranking over 100 in the county, a glorious record-breaking achievement!

  The entire education system is shocked by the news that a 11-year-old boy, who has only been in school for three years, scored 721 points and became the second highest scorer in the county! This is like a myth! It's worth noting that the quality of education in rural primary schools cannot be compared to those in urban areas. The teachers at Tiantai Middle School all say that Long Bao's exceptional talent and experience have had a huge, intangible impact on the students, directly inspiring them to work harder. It can be said that Long Bao is the greatest contributor to Tiantai Middle School's achievement this time.

  In late August, the principal of Tianlei Middle School and the leaders of the Education Bureau made a special appearance at the county education commission's commendation meeting. They even gave a special report on how to improve the quality of education in poor rural schools! The Education Bureau, school, and township government decided to reward Long Bao's guidance teacher and subject teacher, and also decided to specially reward Long Bao 500 yuan.

  Long Bao and Teacher Liu arrived at the Education Office together, where they found the leaders of the Education Office and the principal, who were discussing how to write a summary report for the Education Commission. Seeing Long Bao arrive, they were naturally very happy.

  Long Wan finally spoke out his long-considered plan when he was being bombarded with praise: Please ask the leader to talk to the principal of Yizhong and request that the school give special treatment to his special difficulties, allowing him to study on his own, go to school once a month to find materials and take regular exams. His reason is that his grandfather is paralyzed and cannot take care of himself, and he must take care of his grandfather, who will die if he leaves him. If Yizhong doesn't work out, then he can only attend high school at the neighboring Twelfth Middle School.

  After finishing speaking, he bowed deeply to the leader and bid farewell, leaving the leaders staring at each other in shock.

  For these leaders, it is an ardent hope to cultivate a Tsinghua or Peking University student from Tianlei Middle School. Tianlei Middle School has never produced such talent before, although every year students from Tianlei Middle School can be admitted to more than ten universities, but most of them are just ordinary undergraduate and junior college students. They have always been eagerly hoping that someone would come to fulfill their dream of cultivating a Tsinghua or Peking University genius.

  Now for them, Longbiao is the greatest hope to fulfill their dreams. Every year in Shancheng, only one or two students can be admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University, and these one or two students are all key students from the key classes who have been intensively guided and trained by teachers, all of whom have been studying hard day and night to get into Tsinghua University and Peking University. They have never heard of anyone getting into college without attending school, so they think Longbiao's approach is simply ruining their dreams.

  Moreover, once Long Bao enters the school, he will definitely receive the school's key cultivation. If Long Bao can successfully get into Tsinghua or Peking University in three years, he will be only 14 years old at that time. Wouldn't this create a myth of the college entrance examination? In this way, Tianlei Middle School will become famous throughout the county and city, and as the discoverer and cultivator of the child prodigy, won't they gain both fame and wealth?

  Unreasonable, Long Bao's unreasonable words shocked them!

  By late August, Long Bo saw the admission notice brought by Teacher Liu at Dr. Liu's house, and he learned from Teacher Liu that those leaders had not gone to talk to the leaders of No. 1 Middle School about this matter.

  In fact, this was within his expectation. He knew that in everyone's eyes, it was a rather excessive and ignorant request. Teacher Liu didn't know how to advise him. When Teacher Liu expressed her idea of mobilizing the teachers to donate money to support his education and hire someone to take care of Grandpa Qi, she immediately met with Longbiao's resolute refusal.

  This boy, barely eleven years old, has grown up to be frighteningly mature. He refuses to seek help from others, even when the Liu family offered to cover all his living and tuition expenses for three years. He stubbornly believes that he is an unlucky person, cursed by heaven, a disaster waiting to happen to those around him. Besides, others can only help temporarily, not forever; people have to rely on themselves, especially the Long family.

  Grandma Liu thought of Longbiao's affairs and burst into tears again: "How can your parents be so heartless, abandoning you and not caring about you at all!"

  "This is the fate that has been cursed upon us! Grandma, as long as a man from the Long family dies, the women of the Long family will not live for more than a year! It's inevitable." Long Bao gritted his teeth and said to Liu's old grandma, "Now my only goal is to hurry up and study, grow up, earn more money, cure Grandpa's illness, and then I'll be content!"

  The next day, at dawn, Longbiao stuffed the admission notice of No. 1 Middle School into his pocket, brought a few corn sticks for breakfast and lunch, and rushed to the town's bus station. This was Longbiao's second time taking the bus to the county seat; during the middle school entrance examination, Teacher Liu had told him where No. 1 Middle School was located, so he knew its general location.

  After getting off the bus, he walked west for about three or four miles, turned a corner and saw the golden school sign of Shan Cheng No. 1 Middle School. The magnificent gate seemed to be proudly displaying its grandeur towards him. As Long Bao approached the entrance, he suddenly heard a loud shout: "Get out! Get out! Where did this wild kid come from? Go away! You're not allowed in here!" A twenty-year-old man wearing a security uniform shouted at Long Bao.

  "Sorry, I'm a high school student who was admitted this year. I have something to report to the school leaders." Long Bao hastily took out his admission notice from his backpack and handed it over to the security guard.

  "Are you a student admitted this year? How old are you? Are you deceiving me?" The security guard hesitantly took over the admission notice and looked at it carefully. After looking left and right, he couldn't find any suspicious points, and then stared at Long's shabby clothes, thinking that he didn't look like a thief. He asked again, "What do you want to see the leader for? If it's not important, you can wait until school starts and come back then. The leader is busy with the start of school now and has no time to see you."

  "Uncle, I really have something very important to find the leader, and it will be too late when school starts. Just let me go find him!"

  Long Bao was only eleven years old, but he looked very handsome. Although his clothes were tattered and worn out, he didn't have the slightest feeling of inferiority or shame about it. His words and actions always gave people a sense of being neither arrogant nor servile.

  The security guard hesitated for a moment, looked at Long Bao, and finally opened his mouth: "Then come and register," he said, taking out the visitor registration book. After Long Bao finished registering, the security guard informed him of the location of the office and instructed him: "Don't wander around randomly, just finish your business and leave."

  The school had only one Vice President Huang at home, the principal went to the Education Commission for business. Under the leadership of an aunt in the office, Vice President Huang met him. The arrogant expression of this Vice President Huang made Long Bao feel extremely depressed, but he still calmly stated his family situation and his examination situation to this vice president, and put forward his excessive request.

  Vice President Huang apparently didn't quite believe the story, and patiently listened until Long Bao finished speaking. As soon as he stopped, he immediately said: "This student, what you're saying may be true, but your request has no precedent in our century-old school. How many scientists and high-ranking officials have graduated from our school? I'm afraid they were even more struggling than you back then, but they didn't retreat because of that. They all persevered through the difficulties, completed their studies, and thus achieved their own careers, writing a brilliant chapter in their lives! Besides, can't you ask someone else to take care of your grandfather?"

  He picked up the teacup in front of him and took a sip, then said: "If every student makes such and such demands on the school, won't the school's management become chaotic? A country has its laws, a school has its rules. Since you are a student, you should behave like one and be subject to discipline and the school's regulations. Your situation is difficult, but if we make an exception for you, in the future students will compare themselves with each other, what can the school use to justify itself to the students? What can it use to manage several thousand students?"

  Before Long Bao could respond, he immediately added: "As for your difficulties, the school has always had a rule that exempts the top three students in the middle school entrance examination and the year-end unified examination from paying tuition fees for the academic year. The school also provides some living allowances for students with special difficulties. You did well this time, so you don't have to pay tuition fees, and we will consider giving you a suitable allowance for your difficulties."

  After saying all this, he looked as if what he said was absolutely unalterable and would brook no contradiction.

  It's laughable that he thought Long Bao came to the school to ask for help with difficulties, but after what happened with Wu Xi Zhong using his power to oppress people, Long Bao had sworn in his heart that this lifetime he absolutely wouldn't want any assistance with difficulties. Long Bao quietly listened to his long speech, pondered for a moment and said: "Leader, if my grandfather didn't have me taking care of him, he would die. His body is very weak, others can't take care of him." After saying these words, Long Bao lowered his head.

  "Cut the jokes! What's the difference between others taking care of you and you taking care of yourself? Are adults not as capable as a kid like you? Alright, don't say anything more. Your economic difficulties will be considered by the school. As for your request to only come once a month, that's absolutely out of the question! Not only won't it pass here, but also with all the school leaders! You go back and remember to report on time for class. That's it!" He finished speaking, waved his hand to indicate not to say anything more, then stood up and walked away.

  Long Bao nodded silently and said to him: "Well, leader, thank you, I'll leave first, goodbye!"

  Long Wan hadn't even reached the bottom of the stairs when he heard Vice Principal Huang's voice: "Xiao Zhang! How could you bring someone like this and something like this to me? I'm already busy with a thousand things, are you trying to add to my troubles? Are you?!..."

  Long Bao let out a wry smile, his footsteps becoming heavy as he took a deep breath of the air in his imagination that was exceptionally beautiful on this campus, and then exhaled heavily, clenched his fists, puffed out his chest, walked to the school gate and said to the security guard at the entrance: "Uncle, I'm leaving." The security guard nodded slightly, indicating he could go.

  As he walked out of the school gate, Long Hui turned his head back to look at the majestic and imposing main entrance behind him, the spotless teaching building, the lush campus, and the glittering golden nameplate "Shancheng No. 1 Middle School". He silently told himself in his heart: "Farewell, my beloved school."

  How many great men have walked out of this hundred-year-old school, but just missed the high school career with Long Bao, which became the greatest regret of this famous school. Later, in the revision of the hundred-year school history of Yizhong, a special explanation was made on this matter, implicitly criticizing the shortsightedness, stubbornness and ignorance of Vice President Huang.

  Sitting on the bus back home, Long Bao knew he had only one choice, which was to go to Shan Cheng No. 12 Middle School - a third-rate high school that was the worst in the county in terms of teaching quality and school spirit, with only eight students admitted to ordinary undergraduate programs and thirty-eight students admitted to vocational programs since its establishment.

  At a place ten miles away from Tianlei Township, which is also where the Jiangping Town Government is located, Long Bao got off the car.

  The scenery here at No. 12 Middle School is not bad, with mountains and water nearby, right on the banks of the Zi River, where the colors of the mountains and water reflect each other beautifully, making it seem like a good environment for studying. The school is surrounded by walls all around, with large characters written in lime on the walls saying "No swimming in the river" and so on. There are no guards at the entrance, just an iron gate with rust spots all over it.

  Long Bao walked in, looked around and finally saw a man walking on the second floor of a building made of green stone bricks and wood structure. As he went upstairs, he happened to meet this man face to face, and asked: "Excuse me, teacher, where is the principal? I have something to find him."

  The man, who appeared to be in his forties, glanced at Long Bing and said, "I'm the one. What do you want from me, kid?"

  "Oh, you're... great." Long Bao handed over the admission notice of Shan Cheng No. 1 Middle School and said, "Principal, I'm Long Bao from Tian Lei Middle School. I want to come here to study. I didn't fill out a report for your school, do you think it's okay?"

  "Long Bao? Long Bao from Tianlei Middle School?" The principal looked at the admission notice in his hand, staring at Long Bao in surprise and said, "You're that eleven-year-old Long Bao from Tianlei Middle School who scored second in the entire county? Hmm, didn't you get into First Middle School? You want to come to our school instead? No way, did I hear that wrong?" Long Bao nodded firmly.

  The principal saw Long Bao's dusty appearance and hurriedly took him to his own room, pouring him a glass of water. After drinking the water, under the principal's eager gaze, Long Bao carefully recounted the events again.

  "So you plan to come to our school to study?"

  "Right!" Long Bo said affirmatively, "Only by studying here can I take care of Grandpa."

  The middle-aged principal looked deeply into the eyes of this 11-year-old boy, wondering how many stories and hardships were hidden within them. He couldn't help but sigh: "Dragon classmate, do you know about our school's current situation? The teaching staff is weak, the learning conditions are poor, the study atmosphere is not good, and most students just want to get a high school diploma. Many students don't even read books, and teachers can't manage them. This isn't an environment for studying! You should think carefully before making a decision! Getting into No. 1 Middle School means one foot is already in the university's doorway, but getting into our school makes it extremely difficult to get into university!"

  "Teacher, learning is up to oneself, and a calm mind naturally cools down." Long Bao replied lightly, "I can't just focus on studying for university and abandon my grandfather!"

  "But you gave up on the difficult-to-get-into Zhong Yi, don't you think it's a waste?" The principal thought Long Bao's words made sense, but his innate sense of responsibility compelled him to try to persuade Long Bao, "Long, are you sure? If you take a wrong step in life, you might end up taking many more!"

  He looked at Long Bao with inquiring eyes. Long Bao shook his head firmly and said, "No need, teacher, I've thought it through very clearly."

  "Why don't you go back and ask your grandfather for his opinion, or listen to the opinions of your teachers from your old school?" The principal was still trying to persuade Longbiao, he really didn't want to see a talented child like him being ruined in this broken school.

  "No need, really no need. Learning is up to oneself, I've thought it through very clearly," Long Bao raised his head and looked at the principal, his eyes shining brightly, he said in an even firmer tone, "I will never regret my decision today."

  The principal would never have thought that in the near future, the "twelfth middle school" he called a "broken school" would undergo an earth-shaking change.

  After the start of school, Wang Zhizhong, the principal of Yizhong, wanted to call a few top students together for a special motivational speech class, only to discover that his 11-year-old protégé Long Bao hadn't shown up to report for duty. After investigating how Vice Principal Huang had handled the situation, he flew into a rage and scolded Vice Principal Huang's carelessness, but it was too late to get Long Bao back from Erzhong, even though Erzhong agreed to let him go. Long Bao had already lost interest in Yizhong and refused to return. Overjoyed Erzhong naturally waived all of Long Bao's expenses and even offered to provide him with a 20-yuan monthly subsidy from their meager office funds, but Long Bao declined the subsidy.

  From the village to No. 12 Middle School, it's over 20 miles, with more than 10 miles of small roads and 10 miles of gravel highways. Normally, adults would take two and a half hours walking at a normal pace. Longbiao couldn't afford to take a car to school, but if he spent five or six hours on the road every day, it would be a complete waste of time for him. To save precious time, Longbiao ran to school every day. At first, he was almost exhausted every day, but as his physical endurance improved through exercise, his body became more robust and he grew taller quickly. He went from taking two hours per trip to finally just over an hour, and by the time he graduated from high school, he could run to school in about an hour.

  Everyone who knew Long Bao couldn't help but feel sorry for him, especially the teachers at Tianlei Middle School, who were even more heartbroken over this rare child prodigy. At the same time, everyone was also in awe of the enormous energy within this boy's body and admired his deeply moving filial piety.

  Watching Long Bao get up every day before dawn to feed pigs, care for his paralyzed grandfather, cook meals, carry a bamboo basket with a hatchet down the mountain, store things at Liu Laoren's medical clinic, then run wildly ten miles to attend classes at No. 12 Middle School, and after class rush back home to cut pig grass, chop firewood, care for his grandfather's meals, wipe him clean, do laundry, water vegetables, and other household chores was simply unbelievable!

  Several times, Long Bao's grandfather, teachers, and some adults told him not to feed the pigs anymore, but he insisted on doing so. His reason was simple: to save as much money as possible for his grandfather's medical treatment and buy nutritional supplements for him.

  Some elderly women even felt sorry for Long Bao while scolding Qi Laoren, saying that since he was paralyzed anyway, why didn't he just die early, instead of burdening this child with the hard work of caring for him.

  They have no idea! The numerous heart-wrenching and tear-jerking events that occurred in between!

  One night, a few days after Long Pao started high school, he got thirsty and got out of bed to get a drink. After drinking water, he habitually went to his grandfather's bedside in the next room to take a look at him. To his surprise, he found that his grandfather was nowhere to be seen! This scared him so much that he ran outside the door crying loudly. Hearing Long Pao's cries, his grandfather, who was lying about ten meters away, also burst into tears. Long Pao rushed over and cried on his grandfather's body: "Grandpa, you scared me to death! How did you end up outside?"

  "Child, my child! Grandpa is sorry to you! Grandpa... would be better off dead!" Old Qi's suppressed sobs echoed through the autumn night sky with utmost sorrow.

  "Grandpa... Grandpa! If you die, what will I do?! Waaahhh... Dad and Mom are already dead, can you bear to leave me all alone?!" Long Bao cried out desperately.

  Longbiao's wailing moved Grandfather's long-held resentment, and he looked up at the sky and wept: "Heaven! Heaven! Why must you torment the Long family so?! Heaven, why won't you open your eyes and take a look?!"

  Several fellow villagers were awakened by the mournful cries that pierced the night sky and asked loudly what had happened.

  Long Bao wiped away his tears, stopped crying and hugged Grandpa Ying's weak arm, saying in a choked voice: "Grandpa, let's go back, don't let others laugh at us, okay?"

  Grandpa Qi nodded with difficulty. He used all his strength to move Grandpa Qi into the house and onto the bed. Long Bao comforted Grandpa again in a soft voice, and Grandpa said: "Child, you walk such a long way every day, it's unbearable for adults, and yet you're only eleven years old? Why don't you just board at school, I'll be fine."

  Originally, it was Grandfather who saw how hardworking he was every day, running around. Grandfather thought that if it weren't for his burden, Xiaolongbao wouldn't have to suffer so much and could have easily gone to university after graduating from middle school! Grandfather hated himself and wanted to die. When he climbed out of the house, he really couldn't bear to part with this poor child, couldn't bear him being alone forever, and so he cried by himself outside the door.

  Long Bao found out that Grandpa's reason for wanting to end his life was so simple. He showed off his arm, flexing his muscles and putting them in front of Grandpa's eyes, turning sorrow into joy: "Grandpa, I can exercise my body by running a bit every day! Look, my muscles are more solid than before!"

  After calming down his grandfather's excited mood, Longbiao became more careful and attentive to his grandfather's actions and expressions every day. However, the lonely old man's sad and resentful mood could not be dispelled, and it was even worse when he was alone at home.