Chapter 28: The Walkman

“I’m not going.”

Bei Xiaolin had assumed they were heading to the Bamboo Forest to practice martial arts. But Cheng Yuan, clutching her books, finally revealed under repeated questioning that Yu Qing was waiting there to tutor her.

“Xiaolin, isn’t it a little awkward for just the two of you to be alone? Besides, the mock exam is tomorrow. Are you sure you don’t want to study? You want to get into the Drama Performance Academy, right? If your academic scores aren’t high enough, you won’t get in.” Cheng Yuan’s words struck home.

Bei Xiaolin wanted to say she didn’t care about college, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it under Cheng Yuan’s gaze.

“Yuanyuan, I saw Orange Channel is searching for the most beautiful voice. Do you think I should audition?” Bei Xiaolin handed her the poster, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

Cheng Yuan cut to the chase: “The college entrance exam is right around the corner. Do you even have time for that?”

Bei Xiaolin shrank back, thinking that if she actually became famous, whether she passed the exam wouldn’t matter.

“Xiaolin, going to college is completely different from not going. You’ll have so many more opportunities, and you can study what you’re passionate about. Is that little prize money really worth throwing away your future?” Cheng Yuan countered.

“No, it’s not about the money,” Bei Xiaolin said. Although her father had remarried, he still provided generously for her.

“Then that settles it. Stop looking at that poster. Our focus now is studying. We can think about everything else after the college entrance exam,” Cheng Yuan said, tossing the poster into the trash. If Bei Xiaolin didn’t get into university and ended up joining that event, what if things turned out like in her past life?

Cheng Yuan’s intervention was swift and decisive. She dragged Bei Xiaolin straight to the Bamboo Forest.

Yu Qing paused when he saw Bei Xiaolin, but without further comment, he immediately asked, “Let’s start with math today. Feel free to ask me about any types of problems you don’t understand.”

Cheng Yuan pulled out a test paper and pointed to several questions.

Yu Qing glanced at them, sat down on the grass, and began explaining the problems without wasting time.

Bei Xiaolin kept yawning. After Cheng Yuan pinched her a few times, she finally focused on listening. She wasn’t unintelligent; she had simply never applied herself before. Yu Qing’s detailed explanations made the concepts click instantly.

From that day on, the Bamboo Forest became their little world. Yu Qing would explain any questions Cheng Yuan and Bei Xiaolin struggled with every day.

When the midterm results came out, Cheng Yuan had achieved a perfect score in English. In her other subjects, she had also made significant progress, jumping from near the bottom of the class to within the top three hundred—a leap of over six hundred places.

Even the teachers praised Cheng Yuan for her remarkable improvement.

“Teacher Lu, are you sure the grading isn’t wrong? How could Cheng Yuan possibly get a perfect score in English?” Lin Juan was completely stunned when she heard the news and immediately voiced her disbelief.

“Her exam paper is posted at the stairwell. You can all go and see for yourselves—it’s indeed a perfect score,” Teacher Lu said proudly, glancing at Cheng Yuan. As her English teacher, she was overjoyed to have a student achieve such a feat. Initially, even she had found it hard to believe.

Teachers from other classes also struggled to accept the result.

But the evidence was undeniable. After reviewing the exam paper, the teachers could only seethe with envy, their minds churning with sour thoughts.

After all, a high score could be dismissed as cheating, but a perfect score? Where could anyone copy a perfect score from?

“Impossible,” Lin Juan insisted, refusing to believe Cheng Yuan had scored a perfect 150. She glared at Cheng Yuan. “She only got a 30 on the last monthly exam. How could she suddenly get a perfect score in just one month?”

“Yeah, Cheng Yuan’s grades haven’t been great before.”

“But even if you wanted to cheat, you couldn’t get a perfect score.”

“Unless she knew the answers beforehand.”

The classroom buzzed with whispers.

Bei Xiaolin stood up abruptly, pointing at Lin Juan. “Lin Juan, I know you’re jealous that my Yuanyuan is prettier than you. Now that she’s gotten a perfect score in English, you’re even more jealous. But the truth is right here. You can jump off a building out of envy, but you can’t change the facts.”

Bei Xiaolin looked at Lin Juan with smug pride. Anyone unfamiliar with the situation might have thought she was the one who had aced the exam.

In reality, Bei Xiaolin’s own grades had improved significantly over the past month. She had scored a 90 in English, a far cry from her previous reliance on luck, where guessing correctly on 50 or 60 multiple-choice questions was considered a good day.

“She must have cheated. Or stolen the answers.”

Lin Juan simply refused to believe it.

The classroom buzzed with excitement. Teacher Lu quickly said, “Getting a perfect score by cheating is impossible. Remember, apart from Cheng Yuan, the highest English score in this class is only 120.”

“We’ll see if it was cheating during the next monthly exam,” Cheng Yuan replied calmly, turning to Teacher Lu. “Teacher Lu, let’s get back to class. We’re wasting time.”

“Cheng Yuan has been working very hard lately. Everyone should learn from her,” Teacher Lu said, acknowledging her achievement.

After class, Bei Xiaolin excitedly grabbed Cheng Yuan’s hand. “Yuanyuan, how did you get a perfect score? How are you so good at English?”

“It’s simple—just listen more and memorize more,” Cheng Yuan replied. During junior college, English had been her favorite subject. She had worked tirelessly to pass the College English Test Band 4 and 6, but ultimately, she never got to use it.

Now, English was the least of her worries.

Memorizing Chinese literature wouldn’t be a problem either. As for the other subjects, she would need to work harder on practice problems, formulas, and concepts.

Fortunately, the key points Yu Qing had given her were incredibly helpful.

“Simple? It’s anything but!” Bei Xiaolin said, speechless. She had barely managed to score 90 on this exam, thanks to a combination of luck, educated guesses, and some actual studying. She felt like she should light incense to thank the heavens.

“Next month, we’ll buy a Walkman, and then we can listen to tapes every day,” Cheng Yuan had already planned. But when she returned home, she saw a brand-new Walkman on the table.

Cheng Yuan opened the box. The silver Walkman was exceptionally beautiful, with a stack of English tapes beside it.

“Dad, why did you buy this?” Cheng Yuan felt both guilty about the expense and delighted by her father’s gift.

“I heard everyone uses these to study English. Give it a try, okay?” Cheng Huaien had gone to the city that day and spent a long time choosing this model. Though a bit pricey, the salesperson assured him it was high-quality with excellent sound.

“Dad, you work so hard to earn money. You shouldn’t have spent so much,” Cheng Yuan protested. She didn’t really need the Walkman for her own English studies; she had wanted Bei Xiaolin to use it more.

“Don’t worry about the money. Your dad might have struck it rich,” Cheng Huaien said. He had invested two thousand yuan in stocks that day, confident it would soon multiply tenfold. After all, the 1996 bull market was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“Thank you, Dad.”

Cheng Yuan inserted a tape into the Walkman, handling it with a familiarity that belied her first-time use. By the time she realized she should have consulted the manual, she noticed her father staring at her with a goofy grin. He hadn’t noticed her quiet sigh of relief. “My classmate has one,” she explained.