Chapter 264: Chapter 261 [A New Beginning]
Chapter 261: A New Beginning
Jinling International Airport.
When the flight from Hong Kong arrived, Old Jiang and his wife walked ahead, with Xiao Yezi bouncing along between them, each holding one of their hands.
Zhu Dazhi, the naive youth and junior apprentice, followed behind. His sturdy frame was laden with their luggage; he pulled the largest-sized suitcase with each hand and had an enormous travel backpack slung over his shoulders.
At the arrival exit, Xiao Yezi looked around. When she spotted Brother Lei’s signature bald head, she let out a cheer, let go of Old Jiang and his wife’s hands, and scampered over on her short little legs.
Brother Lei quickly crouched down, and when Chen Xiaoye reached him, he scooped her up in his arms.
"Brother Lei, where’s my brother?" Xiao Yezi’s gaze searched behind Brother Lei, but she only saw the usually quiet Zhang Linsheng.
Brother Haonan smiled warmly at Xiao Yezi, then walked over to greet Old Jiang and his wife politely, taking some of the luggage from Zhu Dazhi.
Old Jiang, seeing only Zhang Linsheng and Brother Lei, frowned. "Where’s Chen Nuo? His sister is home; why isn’t he here to pick her up?"
It wasn’t that Old Jiang was trying to find fault; he asked purely out of concern for Xiao Yezi.
"Old Jiang," Brother Lei chuckled, "Chen Nuo is sick and resting at home."
"Sick?" Old Jiang paused, his frown deepening. "Is it serious?"
"Not serious! Not serious at all!" Brother Lei hastily assured him with a big laugh. "Just... a little cold."
"A cold?" Old Jiang mused. "Then Xiao Yezi..."
"It’s fine. I’ll take Xiao Yezi to Chen Nuo’s place."
"Maybe... Xiao Yezi should stay with us tonight," Song Qiaoyun interjected. "Doesn’t Chen Nuo have a cold? We shouldn’t risk her catching it."
"It’s no trouble. He’s almost better," Brother Lei quickly replied.
"I want to go home and see my brother!" Xiao Yezi insisted. She had been away having fun for so many days in Hong Kong with Old Jiang and his wife, but naturally, she missed her brother dearly. She hurried over to pull on Song Qiaoyun’s hand, wheedling, "Godmother, can I go home, please?"
Seeing Xiao Yezi acting so cute, Old Jiang and his wife no longer objected.
After all, the child had been with them for so many days. Even if they were reluctant to part, they couldn’t keep her from going home.
Brother Lei drove, picked up the group, and first dropped Old Jiang and his wife off at No. 8 Middle School.
Zhang Linsheng and Zhu Dazhi got out of the car and helped the elderly couple carry their luggage upstairs, right to their doorstep, before leaving.
Old Jiang didn’t forget to remind his two apprentices, "Tomorrow morning, don’t forget to come for practice!"
"Ah, Master? We just got back, after all the traveling. Aren’t we resting for a day?" Zhu Dazhi asked.
"With this kind of practice, if you miss one day, it takes many more to catch up," Old Jiang said, shaking his head. He then looked at Zhang Linsheng. "Lin Sheng, you too. Don’t be late tomorrow morning."
"Yes!"
Then they took Xiao Yezi home.
Zhu Dazhi, ever thoughtless, was still chattering about their experiences in Hong Kong on the way.
"Brother-in-law! You have no idea, holy crap! The Song Family is so influential in Hong Kong! Their martial arts school has so many students! Oh, right, I saw a lot of celebrities too! There was so-and-so, and what’s-his-name, and that other one... Damn, it turns out many stuntmen in martial arts films come from those schools..."
Zhu Dazhi, being simple-minded and unobservant, didn’t notice that after Old Jiang and his wife left, Brother Lei and Zhang Linsheng had fallen silent in the car.
Brother Lei knew his brother-in-law’s character well and chose not to say much, letting him ramble on.
When they reached the entrance of Chen Nuo’s residential complex, Brother Lei parked the car. He told Zhu Dazhi to stay in the car while he and Zhang Linsheng took Xiao Yezi home.
"Huh? Why do I have to stay? Chen Nuo is my senior brother now, too; I want to go up and see him."
"Just stay if I tell you to! You talk too much nonsense!" Brother Lei glared at him.
Zhu Dazhi fell silent—he liked to talk back to Brother Lei, but only verbally. When it came to actions, he listened to Brother Lei.
Xiao Yezi was a clever child and gradually sensed that something was strange about Brother Lei and Zhang Linsheng. She remained quiet, holding Brother Lei’s hand as they walked to her apartment building and then hurried upstairs.
At their front door, she knocked and called out cheerfully, "Brother! Open the door! I’m back!"
"Xiao Yezi, step aside. I’ll open it." Brother Lei came up from behind, took out a set of keys, and opened the door.
Xiao Yezi’s eyes flickered. She was the first to run inside, but then she suddenly froze!!
In the living room, when Xiao Yezi saw Chen Nuo, the child stood stunned. After a moment, her lip trembled, and tears streamed down her face. "Brother, brother... what happened to you?"
Chen Nuo smiled at his little sister, sighed softly, and opened his arms. "Xiao Yezi is back? Come, let brother give you a hug," he said with a smile.
Her brother was still her brother; home was still home. It seemed as if nothing had changed. Only one thing was new: the object Chen Nuo was currently sitting in.
A wheelchair.
Actually, there was one other item Xiao Yezi hadn’t seen much before, now also hanging on the wall in the Chen family’s living room: a framed memorial portrait of a kind-faced old woman.
「September brought the back-to-school season.」
The school quickly shifted from the lull of the summer holidays to its usual bustling state.
Just after eight in the morning, the bell for morning exercises rang. To the tune of the ’Athletes’ March,’ students from every grade and class lined up and headed to the playground.
A sea of blue-and-white school uniforms. But there was one area that stood out starkly.
This was the ’International Class,’ newly recruited by the restructured No. 8 Middle School’s new international department, the Ba International Division.
In essence, it was the prototype of the kind of ’private school’ that would become popular a decade and a half later.
Unlike the traditional blue-and-white uniforms of No. 8 Middle School, the uniforms of this Ba International Division were much more stylish.
The boys all wore smart little blazers, and the girls wore blazer and skirt sets—the style completely copied from British aristocratic schools.
Moreover, each student in the Ba International Division had two sets of these uniforms custom-made: one summer set and one winter set.
The price was not cheap either, 600 yuan a set, which was equivalent to a month’s salary for the average working-class family at that time.
The tuition for the Ba International Division was also steep, over 10,000 yuan per semester, plus various miscellaneous fees. A single semester cost at least 20,000 yuan.
Two semesters a year added up to just under 50,000 yuan.
While not as expensive as the ’elite schools’ that would emerge over a decade later, in 2001, this was already quite costly for the average family.
In those days, the combined annual income of a white-collar couple might not even reach 50,000 yuan.
In its inaugural year, the Ba International Division at No. 8 Middle School only enrolled two classes.
One was the Ba International Division’s first-year high school class, which enrolled fifty students. It aimed to be modeled after ’private elite schools,’ with significant investment in teaching resources, bringing together No. 8 Middle School’s best teachers, as well as externally hired foreign instructors.
The tuition from these fifty students was, of course, not enough to recoup the education group’s investment in No. 8 Middle School—at least not in the first year. The strategy was to proceed cautiously, first build a reputation, and establish the brand.
Besides, for the education group, making money wasn’t about recouping costs through high student tuition fees; that was an outdated model.
Create a model, build a concept, establish a brand... then expand. Once the scale reached a certain point, it would be time for capital market operations.
The ultimate goal was to go public!
Who would rely on business revenue in the future economy? It was all about making money from the stock market.
Moreover, besides the regular ’International First-Year High School Class,’ the Ba International Division also started a special class:
The College Preparatory International Class.
This class was rather unique.
It exclusively enrolled students who met two conditions: first, they were high school graduates who had failed the college entrance examination two months earlier; second, their families were quite wealthy.
This preparatory class wasn’t a typical cram school for retaking the college entrance exam. Instead, it was a university preparatory program run by the Ba International Division, lasting one year.
Its main purpose was to organize students for intensive English study, with the future path being arrangements for students to study at universities abroad.
It was said that the preparatory class even incorporated teaching methods from foreign universities, allowing students to experience and familiarize themselves with the educational atmosphere of overseas universities within that year. It was essentially a taster and a warm-up.
Of course, the ultimate aim was still to learn English.
And the core of the education group’s marketing was that they had reached partnership agreements with over a dozen universities across Europe and America, which would give priority to their students for studying abroad.
Actually... those dozen or so foreign universities were, of course, not diploma mills like ’Crayden University’—the education group was running a legitimate business and hoped to go public eventually.
Most of them... alright, actually all of them were third-rate or even unranked foreign universities.
But at least they were real schools. Whether third-rate or not, good or bad, they were still actual foreign universities.
These obscure foreign universities had very low admission standards. While it wasn’t quite ’pay to get in’... it wasn’t far off.
The target customers were wealthy families whose children were poor students, offering these children a pathway to study abroad for a bit of polish.
In this business, the education group was essentially acting as an intermediary.
But in 2001, with less developed information channels, this preparatory class turned out to be unexpectedly popular!
The ’International First-Year High School Class’ only enrolled fifty students! But this ’Preparatory Class’ enrolled a hundred! Tuition was 50,000 yuan a year!
Let’s reconsider that ’International First-Year High School Class’; it was also quite a deep game.
How was the brand to be built? By gathering the best teachers from No. 8 Middle School, hiring foreign teachers, and then, after three years of hard study, having these students take the national college entrance exam? To try for Tsinghua, Peking University, Fudan, and Jiao Tong University? And use that to build the brand? Impossible!!
Firstly, the student intake was poor. The students they recruited were those who had done terribly in the high school entrance exams—mostly academic underachievers. Why would real top students attend the Ba International Division at No. 8 Middle School? They would naturally go to traditional, prestigious high schools.
Secondly, the teaching quality at No. 8 Middle School itself was just average. Could you expect these students to build No. 8 Middle School’s reputation after three years?
So, how was this brand to be built? Simple: the words ’International Division’!
The International First-Year High School Class of the Ba International Division was actually pursuing a very interesting strategy.
The school claimed to offer international-style education, bilingual teaching, holistic education... and so on and so forth.
But another core business was: immigration services!
Their operating model was quite interesting: Is your family rich? Yes, right? Is your child an underachiever? Yes, right?
Do you want your child to have a promising future? Not the kind where they go abroad to some bogus university and waste three years, right? These families had slightly higher expectations for their children, a cut above those whose kids were in the preparatory class.
You still want them to follow a legitimate path, to get into a reputable domestic university. You might not dream of Tsinghua, Peking University, Fudan, or Jiao Tong, but what about some other ordinary 985 or 211 university? Could that be an option?
But... your kid only scored around three hundred on the high school entrance exam—a bona fide underachiever! With that score, even getting into a regular high school is a struggle. Even if they did, could your child get into a 985 or 211 university after three years at a regular high school? Not likely, right?
No problem, come to our Ba International Division at No. 8 Middle School! We’ll create a whole new path for you!
Your child studies here at the Ba International Division high school, tuition is 50,000 a year. We’ll handle their education, with all sorts of impressive-sounding courses: excellent teachers from our own school, highly-paid foreign instructors, all kinds of supposedly high-end programs. It all sounds very aristocratic, doesn’t it?
So, you can relax and entrust your child to us for their studies. Of course, that’s not the main point. The real kicker comes next!
We at the Ba International Division must be responsible for your child! Because you parents know, and we know, what your child is like... and what our Ba International Division’s teaching is like... Even if we try our best to educate your child, to expect them to pass the college entrance exam after three years here... Can they compete with those domestic students who slave over Huanggang practice papers and follow the Hengshui model? Can our kids beat them in the national college entrance exam? No way! Absolutely no way!
But don’t worry! We don’t have to compete with them! Come on, our Ba International Division offers you a golden opportunity!
First, we give you a list of choices: several, maybe even a dozen, small European countries offering immigration. You pick one that seems affordable and has low immigration hurdles.
The kind where you invest, buy a property, and get permanent residency—and without needing to fulfill strict residency obligations—in some small European country. Like Portugal, or Estonia...
You choose based on price. Made your choice? Excellent. We at the Ba International Division will provide in-depth guidance on all the paperwork! We’ll handle all the investment immigration procedures for you!
You just pay the money; you don’t need to worry about anything else. We guarantee it’ll be handled smoothly! We just earn a small service fee, you know!
So, one way or another, before your child even graduates high school, they’ll have permanent residency in some small European country, maybe even citizenship... What’s that? Huaxia doesn’t recognize dual citizenship? No problem! That small European country does. Here in Huaxia, we just keep quiet about it. It’s a case of ’no report, no investigation,’ right?
Okay, so now your child, in their final year of high school, has ’foreign’ status. What next? The college entrance exam? Of course not! They wouldn’t pass against those domestic academic stars anyway!
You need to understand something. In 2001, apart from Tsinghua and Peking University, other well-known domestic universities were just that—’domestically well-known.’ They had no international reputation! It wasn’t like hordes of foreign students were desperate to come to Huaxia to enroll in these ’domestically well-known’ universities!
However, in our education system, these ’domestically well-known’ universities have an internationalization metric as part of their performance assessment—namely, how many foreign students they enroll. This figure is a performance indicator for the university. Well, let’s not get too deep into that topic.
So, how does it work? Simple. Your child now has foreign citizenship, right? We will arrange for your child to apply to these ’domestically well-known’ universities as an international student. Get it?
Of course, there are exams. We’ll arrange for your child to take the national standardized test of the small country where they got their immigration status... and that’s incredibly easy! You can’t imagine how easy the national exams are in those third-rate small European countries! Believe it or not, a single Huanggang exam paper would make them cough up blood!
Your child has studied in our Ba International Division for three years. They can’t compare to domestic academic prodigies, but passing that country’s exam? Absolutely no problem!
And then... your child can’t beat foreign academic stars, but surely they can beat the underachievers in those third-rate small European countries?! You probably have no idea how rotten basic education in Europe and America has become, do you? You probably don’t know that if you go to a supermarket in London and need change, you’ll find ordinary people can’t even do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division!
Okay, so now your child has cleared that hurdle. Then... they submit an application to a ’domestically well-known’ university in Huaxia. An application to study abroad!
Your child, let’s call him John Doe, English name Philip, an international student from some third-rate small European country, has passed his home country’s national exam with ’excellent’ results and is applying to study at a ’domestically well-known’ university in Huaxia. What do you think the acceptance rate is? Heh heh heh!
Then, just wait. Come September, your child will pack their bags and go register at the university. As an ’international student’!
International students don’t count towards the national college entrance exam quotas! Generally, it falls under each university’s discretionary enrollment! A ’domestically well-known’ university, just like that!
A child from an ordinary family, even a top student, couldn’t get into a university requiring 550 points on the college entrance exam, but your child can get in without even taking it! That’s how professional we are!
And they can even stay in the international student dormitories! The diplomas upon graduation are all the same!
Of course, if you find it troublesome, once your child graduates and gets their diploma, you can just renounce the citizenship of that small, third-rate European country. Then they can go back to being a Huaxia citizen. See? They attended a good university, got the diploma. It just cost a bit more money. But your family is rich, right?
Of course, this scheme, a playground for the rich for many years, gradually became unviable decades later due to a strong government crackdown.
「During morning exercises.」
The students from the Ba International Division formed their own block, distinctly separated from the students of the main No. 8 Middle School campus.
The uniforms of both sides were different, making a clear distinction between them.
The students from the main campus, having been educated in traditional Chinese public schools, still maintained a degree of discipline. In contrast, the students from the Ba International Division, dressed in their expensive, custom-made uniforms, were mostly giggling and fooling around. Some were even letting their eyes wander.
Sun Keke stood in the formation for Class Six of Senior Year Three. Tall and attractively built, she was one of those rare individuals who seemed to have a natural resistance buff, capable of overcoming even the de-beautifying effect of the blue-and-white school uniform. With her fresh and pretty face, she immediately drew many gazes.
"Hey, look, look! At that one!"
"Whoa! Damn, that girl’s gorgeous!"
"From the main campus?"
"Let’s find out her class later."
"Haha! My dad forced me to come to this crappy school. I wasn’t happy about it, but haha, now it seems this place isn’t half bad."
"Shut up, I saw her first..."
Sun Keke didn’t hear these lewd comments. She was somewhat dazedly following the music for the radio calisthenics. When it came to the jumping part of the routine, School Belle Sun’s bouncing figure immediately drew even more attention.
From the adjacent block of Ba International Division students, whistling could already be heard.
Sun Keke’s face turned red. She glanced towards the source of the sounds, then quickly looked away. The way those people in the distance were pointing and gesturing at her made her unhappy.
"Ignore them, they’re just a bunch of little punks." After the exercises, Luo Qing stood beside Sun Keke and patted her shoulder. "Just pretend you didn’t see them."
Sun Keke pursed her lips and didn’t speak.
Luo Qing asked, "Why hasn’t Chen Nuo come to school yet? School has started for several days, and I haven’t seen him at all. What’s he been busy with recently?"
"...I don’t know," Sun Keke said with a straight face. Then, the girl took a deep breath. "From now on, his matters have nothing to do with me."
Luo Qing was taken aback. Oh? Did they... have a fight?