Chen Chuan went straight home after he made the call. When he arrived at the courtyard, he heard Nian Mo and Nian Lu laughing and shouting loudly inside. After he walked into the living room, he saw a ball bouncing over to him. He hooked the ball with his foot, kicked it twice, and stretched out his foot for the ball to land solidly on his foot. He did not sway at all.
“Wow!” Nian Lu exclaimed and clapped her hands.
Nian Mo punched the air with both his hands. “Amazing! Do it again!”
Chen Chuan pushed his leg forward gently, and the ball rolled over to his cousins.
Yu Wan was knitting a sweater in a chair. She knew that Chen Chuan would be going to Martial Valor University the next morning, so she had been waiting for him for a long time. She smiled at him. “Welcome back, Chan’er.”
“I’m back, Aunty. Since I have to go to the enrollment tomorrow, I came back earlier today.” Chen Chuan nodded.
Yu Wan stood up. When she saw the dust on his jacket, she nagged at him. “What did you do? Roll around in the dust? Give me the jacket. I’m going to shake the dust out. It’s a good jacket, so don’t go ruining it.”
She took the jacket from him and nagged him a little more before going outside to pat it off.
Just then, Chen Chuan felt the wind blow from behind him. As if he had eyes on the back of his head, he tilted his head to the side, and the ball flew past him.
“Wow! You’re amazing, Chen Chuan!”
Chen Chuan threw the ball back and played with his cousins for a bit before Yu Wan came back and gave him the dusted jacket. “Take it.”
Chen Chuan went back to his room, and Yu Wan followed him. Obviously, she had something to say to him. When they reached his bedroom door, Yu Wan asked in concern, “Do you still have enough money, Chan’er?”
“You gave me a lot last time, Aunty. I still have plenty,” Chen Chuan answered.
“If you don’t have enough, just tell me. You can’t be stingy when it comes to money,” Yu Wan said.
“Fuli asked you to move out in two months, and now, you have somewhere to go. But don’t be in a hurry to move your things yet. We can think about it after you settle down in your dorm. If you don’t want to stay there after the semester starts, come back. It’s not as if we won’t feed you,” Yu Wan continued.
“Is that what Uncle Fuli said?” Chen Chuan asked.
“What’s this now? Can’t I make decisions here? I want you to learn some real, useful skills in the university. That’s more important than anything else,” Yu Wan retorted.
Chen Chuan did not make a fuss about it. He could move out whenever he wanted to, so he said, “Okay, let’s go with that for now.”
Yu Wan was thrilled. Ever since her sister and brother-in-law passed, she had seen Chen Chuan as her own son, so she was reluctant to see him move out.
After Yu Wan left, Chen Chuan entered his room and left the door slightly ajar. He hung his jacket on the hook behind the door before going to his desk and opening the drawer to check his savings.
Yu Wan had given him a total of six hundred devs. He used up a hundred to register for the entrance exam and paid for the food, training, and damaged equipment in the Domain of Fists, as well as some other expenses. In total, Chen Chuan had spent a little over three hundred devs over the past two months. On average, he used 105 devs per month.
He would still need Yu Gang’s guidance in the last month before the follow-up exam. Even without rounding it up, he would need about the same amount of money he spent during the last two months.
Once the new semester officially began at Martial Valor University, food and lodgings would be free for all students. If he managed to pass the follow-up exam, he could even get most of his tuition fees waived. Obviously, that did not mean that he would not need to spend any money. He might even need to spend more, so Chen Chuan had to do his best to get the scholarship.
At that time, in Martial Valor University, Bian Feng, the lecturer who accepted Chen Chuan into the university, was walking together down a corridor with Yue Hong, a lecturer in charge of the entrance examination.
Yue Hong tapped the list in his hand and said, “It’s been ten years since we’ve been expanding enrollment, and more and more people are coming to register for the exams. This year is no different. We got two thousand people from Yangzhi City and the six surrounding counties. Looks like the higher-ups have stepped up their efforts to get more students.” ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel⸺fire.net
“Is that really a lot? We have more than six million people in Yangzhi City, and if we count the surrounding counties, we have more than ten million people, even if we don’t include those from the mountains. Yet we only have two thousand coming for the exams and this is after we’ve expanded enrollment for ten years,” Bian Feng challenged.
Yue Hong smiled. “Be content. Back in our day, we were taught hands-on since we were children. Plenty of students nowadays have a chance to get into the university just by training for two years or even half a year in a martial arts school or a training center. Their chances of getting in are much higher than ours.”
Bian Feng shook his head. “All they can do is pass the entrance exam. We’d be lucky if even one-tenth of them passed the follow-up exam.”
Yue Hong nodded at that. Even though all of them were students of Martial Valor University, those who passed and those who failed were completely different entities. The former were the ones on whom the university would actually spend time and energy. The latter just filled in the numbers.
Even after ten years of expanded enrollment, not much had really changed within Martial Valor University. Every year, the total number of elite students did not change. The reason for it was simple—there were only so many resources, so they could be used, to a certain extent, only on those who were worthy.
There was also the problem that most of the resources were taken by the privileged students, while the ordinary students received only the scraps that remained. The higher-ups had noticed this over the years and did their best to adjust the distribution, but the results were minimal.
“How could anyone be willing to give up on something good after having experienced it?” Yue Hong lamented.
As they spoke, they arrived in front of the admission supervisor’s office. Just as they got closer, they heard a loud, boisterous voice from within. “Is there really a need for the university to keep its scholarship system? Every year, the money goes to people already supported by the privileged students. After graduation, those supported students go to work for their sponsors. I wanted to give the ordinary students a chance, but the rich seized all the scholarships. What’s the point of the expanded enrollment, then?
“Despite all our efforts, the strong only get stronger, and the weak get weaker. Things are even worse than they were ten years ago. We might as well just cancel all the scholarships! Even if we don’t, we should still reduce their number!”
There might have been a wall between them, but Bian Feng and Yue Hong had sensitive hearing and were standing in a quiet corridor, so they could hear every word coming from the phone receiver.
“We should not cut off all hope. It’s true that the ordinary students can’t win against the privileged students, but high achievers always show up. Even if it’s just one or two, that’s still good. It means that our efforts have paid off. But if we remove the scholarship system, we’ll take away all hope from the ordinary students.”
“You’re a member of the university board. You’re the one who makes the calls. But if this batch of students is the same, get someone else to do this job.”
Gao Ping, the admission supervisor, slammed the phone receiver down with a click. “Why are you two still waiting outside? To watch me make a fool of myself? Come in.”
Bian Feng and Yue Hong quickly opened the door and went in. Despite being in his fifties, the man sitting in the office still had a head full of hair, thick, bushy eyebrows, large eyes, a stalwart body, and a stern countenance. He wore a black western suit and had buttoned up his shirt to the collar. He looked like the type to take things far too seriously.
Just by sitting, he occupied almost half of the room. His legs were planted on the floor like thick pillars behind the office table, and the two lecturers were almost unable to see his chair. Bian Feng and Yue Hong bowed slightly. “Mr. Gao.”
“Have you prepared the list of students in charge of the follow-up exam?” Gao Ping asked.
“We have. I brought it over. Please take a look,” Yue Hong said and handed the name list to him.
Gao Ping dismissed it. “Don’t show it to me. Hand it straight to the university board. They’re going to get rid of half of the names there and put the names of the students they like in their place.”
Bian Feng looked up. “But at least half of them will remain.”
Gao Ping shook his head. “As if that’s of any use. We’ve had a lot of examinees this year because the higher-ups put pressure on the university board, but the more pressure they put on them, the more they’re going to fight back. I already have enough problems to deal with, and they’re doing this now? What’s the point of all this trouble?”
Suddenly, he seemed to change his mind. He took the name list from Yue Hong and said, “Forget it. I’ll take a look and do what I can, even if it’s not of much use.”