Chapter Five: A Parent’s Heart
For now, regardless of whether the Chinese-style education system that values grades above all else is criticized at home or abroad, grades remain the lifeblood for these students. The standard by which their learning is judged continues to be high scores, and the golden line for admission to good universities is still selective enrollment.
After retaking her math course, Wu Tong found her mind filled with knowledge and her focus so deep when solving problems that she was genuinely delighted. This immersion in the joy of learning made her almost oblivious to the passage of time.
The Enlightenment Stone Stele granted Wu Tong an absolute state of focused, deep learning, and her morning exercises provided abundant energy and vitality. With both factors working together, Wu Tong relied on her own understanding, memories of her teachers’ explanations and analyses, guidance from renowned instructors in supplementary books, and finally, practice with various real exam papers and mock tests to validate and consolidate her grasp of key concepts. She maintained a steady pace of reviewing one subject every three days.
Wu Tong was a day student. During summer vacation, she brought all her textbooks home, which made her plan for retaking courses much easier. Besides her main textbooks, she had a wealth of various study aids. Wu Jingzhong and Jin Yu, her parents, valued Wu Tong’s education above all else and always supported her when she wanted to buy books.
Previously, Wu Tong had bought plenty of materials—guidance from star teachers, reference books, mock exams, real test papers—but apart from the assignments required by her teachers, she had only lazily touched a few pages; most of these were left untouched, blank through the long summer, as if sleeping.
Wu Tong couldn’t bother to criticize or regret her past reckless behavior. From now on, she resolved to change. Instead of wasting time on complaints, she would rather do one more practice problem and make full use of all her study materials.
As the month drew to a close and the countdown to the new semester began, Wu Tong had achieved her initial goals, completing all her retake tasks for every subject in an orderly fashion.
With the help of the Enlightenment Stone Stele, Wu Tong truly experienced the joy of learning. The growing pile of retake textbooks, the increasing stacks of draft paper, and the densely written summer worksheets and study guides bore witness to her hard work.
Wu Tong, who had previously been prone to procrastination, now abandoned her old habit of working inconsistently. This time, she truly embodied perseverance and self-discipline.
The unbearable sorrow she remembered from the future was her warning bell.
She had reviewed all the knowledge points in her textbooks, finished all her summer homework, and redone all the exercises in her study guides. Twenty days had flown by. Looking at her desk, stacked full and neatly arranged by subject—textbooks, completed study guides and mock papers, thick piles of draft paper—Wu Tong felt a deep sense of accomplishment.
···········
At six in the evening, Wu Jingzhong strolled home from work. They lived in the staff housing complex, and the distance from their door to his workplace was less than two kilometers. For twenty years, unless he was traveling or visiting rural areas, he had always walked to and from work.
Teacher Jin’s elementary school was not far either—just across a street. Wu Tong had spent five years of elementary school under her mother’s watchful eye, being the last cohort before the system changed from five to six years.
They lived on the fourth floor. Wu Jingzhong tiptoed up the stairs, carefully cradling the door and opening it almost soundlessly, more cautious than a thief, afraid of disturbing his daughter’s studies. In the old staff housing, after so many years, the soundproofing was not great.
Jin Yu peeked out of the kitchen, amused by her husband’s actions. Though she herself had been coming and going quietly these days, and despite knowing—and having witnessed—Wu Tong’s intense focus, they couldn’t help but lighten every step for fear of affecting their child’s studies.
“Has Tongtong not come out for a break yet?”
“No, you know how obsessed your daughter has been these days,” Jin Yu replied, not sure whether to feel gratified or concerned. When her daughter was careless about her studies, she had been anxious and frustrated; now that Wu Tong was so diligent, for the first time, they worried she might be pushing herself too hard.
“All this studying day after day, exhausting her mind—could it harm her?” Wu Jingzhong voiced his concern. They wanted their child to work hard and be attentive, but not to the point of obsession.
“How about tomorrow we take Tongtong out for a walk? She’s still growing, and with school starting soon, we should buy her some new clothes and then visit the grandparents.”
“Sounds good. Besides, this girl has gotten picky. Anything I buy, she doesn’t like—let her choose for herself!” Ever since their child entered adolescence and developed her own opinions, she’d started being difficult in all sorts of ways.
Having settled on their plan, the couple brought it up at the dinner table.
“Tongtong, there’s no rush to study. Why don’t you take a break? With school starting soon, let’s go buy what you need for the semester and visit your grandma, grandpa, and your other grandparents,” Wu Jingzhong suggested, calculating the time—it would take at least three or four days, just enough to fill the rest of the month before school began.
Wu Tong was still immersed in a physics problem she’d tackled before dinner—a rather interesting one, full of pitfalls, involving friction, force... the surface data was a maze, ready to trip anyone up. Previously, she would definitely have fallen into the trap, but this time, faced with an even tougher challenge, Wu Tong was clear-eyed, calm, quick-thinking, and solved it in one go—a world apart from before.
“Alright!” Wu Tong replied a beat late. She had finished her initial review goals and could reward herself with a well-earned break.