(Important note: The name of high schools from previous chapters have been found confusing by our translators. They have opted for City High instead of Provincial Capital High to distinguish it from Provincial High and Capital’s Experimental High.)
City High school is the best high school of Anyang city. It is divided into junior high and senior high.
For Anyang citizens, getting into City High school was equivalent to having one foot in the gates of prominent universities. In addition, they had six students this year who managed to enroll in the most prominent universities: HuaQiao university and GuangXi university; that feat itself caused the school’s fame to soar.
Precisely because of that, City High’s new student recruitment this year was extremely strict and harsh.
Holding ‘quality over quantity’ as their principle, their recruiting this year caused many students who were already studying in the junior high division to fail the enrolment test to continue their senior years here. Those that managed to pass the enrolment were required to take the test again, as that was how their classes were to be decided.
Ye Jian was in Tibet; she was in the dark the whole time and did not know that something big had happened in City High quite recently.
The parents who had children studying in the junior high school division of City High but failed to pass the enrolment test for their senior year blocked the school’s main gate on the first day of school, raising red banners to protest the “unfairness” of this time’s student recruitment.
“This is unprincipled, this is illegal! All of our kids are studying in Provincial High’s junior division, and now you are stopping them from continuing their senior years here!”
“Protest, protest! Protest against the school’s inhumane recruiting methods!”
“Deciding classes based on their results – you are oppressing the students! All of us parents should protest again that!”
Not only were the parents creating a disturbance at City High’s main gate, but there were also people that were keen on causing trouble by joining them. Someone amongst the crowd threw an egg towards City High’s school nameplate. Immediately, the area around the main gate became much more chaotic.
If someone was holding something in their hands until that moment, all of them threw the things in their possession toward the school as a way to protest against the “unfair” treatment their children had received.
Before Ye Jian and her fellow villagers had entered the school, the bus which should have proceeded to City High’s bus stop was cut off by the police. A policeman wearing a light navy green type 95 police uniform walked up to them, his gaze sweeping across them, and he immediately walked towards Ye Jian, “Student, your parents did not send you to school?”
The village boy following Ye Jian had never interacted with policemen up till this point, but he grew up in a village that had military personnel stationed there, so he did have some courage.
Hearing that, he immediately shielded Ye Jian behind him. He kept calm although he was slightly afraid and replied with his slightly nervous voice, “No, we both came here alone. Our parents did not accompany us.”
“We’re students from a nearby town, and no adults are sending us off.” Ye Jian noticed this and gently patted the boy’s nervous shoulders and smiled, “Is something big going on in the school? I think…”
She pointed towards the surroundings of the bus, “These students aren’t going into the school, and all of them are standing outside. It must be because something is happening in the school, right?”
What could really happen to a school? As of the major events happening in 1996, besides the assimilation of Hong Kong, there didn’t seem to be anything especially important that had happened. However, the internet wasn’t that developed during 1996. If something big had really happened, it was normal for her to not know of it.
Normally, it was the parents who asked whether something happened to the school. This time, he was met with a student who had proactively asked him that. The policeman who had stopped the bus laughed, “You’re a clever one, aren’t you? No wonder you’re able to get into City High, you…”
While speaking, the policeman also started scanning Ye Jian with his gaze … Why did she look so familiar? It seemed like he had seen her somewhere? A criminal? Definitely not!
But she looked really familiar. It was as if he had seen her before.
“Student, come, you should come down with the boy. Remember to bring your luggage.” Towards the citizen that looked really familiar but was unable to recognize, the responsible policeman did not intend for Ye Jian to get off the bus alone. Instead, he motioned for her and the boy from the same village as her to follow him off the bus.
