20 Capital City, Here I Come… (1/2)
The entire scene was deathly silent. The numerous villagers looked toward Ye Lingchen and his mother. Their expression was a combination of awkwardness and envy. No one spoke out at this very instant surprisingly.
By now, a fool would know that the people from the education bureau were here solely because of the provincial top scorer Ye Lingchen!
It was funny that Chu Ran still had the courage to make that self-conceited conjecture. His result could not compare to Ye Lingchen at all.
”Mom, let's go,” said Ye Lingchen once again.
”Hmm, I want to let your father knows about this news as soon as possible.”
Xu Zhen nodded hastily. Her voice sounded incomparably excited. She turned her head to the side and wiped away the tears in the corners of her eyes secretly.
Both of them left slowly. Ye Lingchen paused for a moment when he walked to Chu Hao's side.
He said calmly, ”your uncle's garage can't afford to employ me genuinely!”
Chu Hao's expression displayed his unstable emotions. His cheeks were burning hot from embarrassment.
What virtues or abilities had his uncle's garage to employ a provincial top scorer?
Xu Zhen fished out her phone to make a call eagerly as soon as they left the place.
”Hello?” Ye Jin's voice was heard echoing from the phone.
”We got Lingchen's results already.” Xu Zhen's voice was trembling even.
The voice on the other end of the call was quiet for a long time. Ye Jin said with forced calmness, ”I thought we will only know tomorrow?”
”A student sought help from someone to find out during dinner.”
Ye Jin could hear from Xu Zhen's voice that she was choking back the tears. He felt like his heart had sunk into the bottom of the valley despite the fact that he did not have high hopes originally. He spoke in a hoarse voice, ”poor academic performance is within our expectation originally.”
Upon saying that, he paused for a moment. He was incapable of suppressing his curiosity anymore so he continued to ask with the last hope, ”So… what is his score?”
His tone of speech sounded solemn as if he was awaiting some form of verdict.
”Lingchen scored… 725 points.”
”725 points. Lingchen is the provincial top scorer!” Tears streamed down Xu Zhen's face as she lost all control to suppress it.
She cried tears of joy and held high hopes for her child.
”Has the score been checked and confirmed?” Ye Jin could not help asking.
”The people from the education bureau paid us a visit already and they said that they are awarding Lingchen with a 50000RMB scholarship.” Xu Zhen explained about the events that took place today to her husband.
”Good, good, good…” Ye Jin was already speechless from excitement. He muttered irrelevantly for a while before he said, ”I'm coming home now.”
In the house, Ye Jin and Ye Lingchen sat on opposite sides gazing into each other's eyes. None of them had spoken to one another.
It was Ye Lingchen's first time looking at his father so close up over the years.
His father's eye sockets were slightly sunken. There were already three to five crow's feet around the corners of his eyes. His incomparably bright eyes in Ye Lingchen's memories were already covered with the traces of passing time and life.
”Son…” Ye Jing was looking at Ye Lingchen just the same. He had thousands and thousands of words to say but in the end he said, ”You're all grown up.”
'You're all grown up, while I, am old.'
Ye Lingchen's vision was growing blurry from the tears welling up in his eyes. He hastily rubbed his eyes with his hands. ”Dad, you and mom needn't worry about me anymore from now on.”
Ye Jin's eyes were moistened by tears too. ”Hah-hah-hah. Very well! Then we shall drink to the night as father and son today!”
As a doctor, Ye Jin was not a drinking man on usual days. However, he made an exception today and had Xu Zhen procured two bottles of liquor in his collection.
”Lingchen is still a child. How can a father encourage his son to drink?” Xu Zhen complained.
The father and son gazed into the eyes of one another and broke out laughing. The best was left unsaid.
That night, the father Ye Jin and son Ye Lingchen chatted about many things and drank plenty of liquor. Ye Jin spoke of one sentence the most, which was, ”Lingchen, good job. You're certainly my son, hah-hah-hah…”
The feast had only ended when Ye Jin fell asleep from being drunk. On the other hand, Ye Lingchen's alcohol tolerance proficiency had soared to 70% instantaneously.
Ye Lingchen thought to himself about how it would be very difficult for him to get intoxicated in the future.
Ye Lingchen remained to be just as sober as before. He helped Ye Jin into the room before he returned to his room to sleep.
The next day, Ye Jin had only opened his eyes drowsily when it was late in the morning.
At the very moment he woke up, he had completely sobered up. He sat upright in front of the telephone machine and picked up a pen and paper as he waited in combat readiness.
Even though he found out about Ye Lingchen's score from Xu Zhen, but he was still feeling concerned as the result had yet to be officially announced.
He had memorized the telephone number for checking score and Ye Lingchen's candidate number clearly in his mind. He pressed the buttons according to the instructions given with shaky hands.
”Hello, your score is…”
With every subject that was announced, Ye Jin took note of the score in an incomparably cautious and meticulous manner.
When the result for the last subject was announced, the tears that Ye Jin tried so hard to swallow yesterday streamed down his face.
Then, he picked up his phone eagerly.
”Hello? This is the second uncle right, it's me, Ye Jin. My son's result is out. He scored 725 points, not so bad, just lucky enough to be the provincial top scorer…”
”Hello? This is the sister-in-law right, it's me, Ye Jin. The result for the college entrance examination has been announced. My son scored 725 points. Hah-hah-hah, his result is genuinely not bad…”
…
For the rest of the day, Ye Jin was absorbed in the task of calling every single number of the relative members he could think of.