Chapter 55 - Top Scorer
The sticky octopus spirit emperor continued to accompany Song Xiao until he finished his third year. While Song Xiao was in cla.s.s, Yu Tang read a thick English book on the side, and even took out company doc.u.ments to deal with.
Yu Tang’s father thought that his son was very promising, so he handed Dayu Amus.e.m.e.nt Park over for him to manage.
A commercial company was relatively easier to handle. Every week, Yu Tang could accompany Song Xiao in cla.s.s for two days, and went to the company to handle some matters on the other three days.
Time flowed by quickly, and soon it was time for the entrance exam. On that day, Song Zicheng pushed away all his work and lingered outside the entrance to the exam room with the other parents.
“Ai, how worrying. If we had money, we would send our child abroad to study. What need would there be for this torment?” said a father carrying an ice bucket in one hand and sitting on a folding stool.
“That’s right, countless people all over the country are crowding together on this single wooden bridge – how painful it is for our children ah!”
The parents all crowded together to pour out their grievances, while Song Zicheng stood on the side and scratched his head, unable to chime in. He suddenly realized he had neglected his duty, and hadn’t experienced the stress of the third year at all this year. Song Xiao still returned home on the weekends, and even went out to play often; when he ran off, there would be no sign of him for the rest of the day.
“My family’s child wants to study aeronautics, but the entry score for aeronautics at university is too high,” a mother said with a miserable expression. Turning her head and seeing an impeccably dressed Song Zicheng, she asked him, “What about your child?”
Song Zicheng was startled for a moment. He had never once asked what university Song Xiao wanted to study at, and he didn’t even know what his grades were like. He stuttered, “It’s fine no matter how he does in the exam – he can just go to any university and learn business management, then come back and inherit my company.”
The other parents raised their eyebrows. So, it turned out to be a rich person. Was it so amazing to be rich?
“That isn’t right. There are so many second generations now; if they don’t study in a good university and make something of themselves, there won’t be enough of your family property to lose, no matter how much you have.” An auntie waiting for her grandson snorted coldly.
One after another, the other parents agreed. If their children studied well, they could stick their chests out, as if they had finally found a way to overthrow the rich. In the entrance exam, a golden phoenix flying out of the chicken coop definitely wasn’t inferior to the rich. On the contrary, those second generations who couldn’t make anything of themselves definitely wouldn’t be as powerful as their children.
Song Zicheng was a little unhappy. He didn’t continue speaking to those parents, but returned to his car.
When the final exam was over, all of the students flew out, like birds released from their cages. Song Zicheng got out of his car, but all the parents went forward in a swarm, and he couldn’t find Song Xiao at all.
Carrying his exam stationery, Song Xiao stepped outside. As he looked around blankly, someone suddenly pulled at him and he fell into a sweaty embrace. Lifting his head, he saw Yu Tang’s handsome face.
“How are you here?” Song Xiao was pleasantly surprised.
“I’ve always been here.” Yu Tang smiled. For the past two days, he had always been keeping watch outside. Seeing that Song Zicheng wasn’t here yet, he stole a kiss. “I’m going to the US tomorrow. Be good, I’ll be back in a few days.”
The US was the general headquarters of the Yu family. The situation was complicated, so Yu Tang wanted to go over in advance and check out the situation for himself. The head of the Yu family was his paternal grandfather, and after several discussions, Yu Tang was allowed to go over. He had just been waiting for Song Xiao to complete the entrance exam before he left.
Song Xiao nodded and watched Yu Tang leave. Only then did he squeeze out of the crowd to look for his family’s car.
Because Song Zicheng had a car, the parents who had been chatting idly together earlier went over to enjoy the air conditioning. At this time, they also called their children over.
“How was the exam?” Song Zicheng asked his son nervously, and the other parents also p.r.i.c.ked up their ears to listen in.
“It was okay.” Song Xiao thought about the exam. “It shouldn’t be a problem to get into Imperial university.”
“Ho!” The parents looked at Song Xiao in astonishment. This child looked very refined; his skin was fair and clear, and he was very polite. He wasn’t like the hedonistic son they had imagined.
“Hey, the answers aren’t out yet, how can you be so sure?” The man on the folding stool curled his lip. Just then, his own daughter came out, and he hurriedly waved her over.
“Song Xiao!” When the girl who was walking over saw Song Xiao, she quickly greeted him, then introduced him to her father. “Dad, this is the study G.o.d who always gets first place in our grade.”
First place in their grade? Song Zicheng blinked. Wasn’t his family’s son pretty awful at his studies?
The other parents’ faces changed completely. Just now, they had even thought that he was a hedonistic son, but after mocking him for a long time, he turned out to be even better than the children of these common families!
Detecting the other parents’ sour gazes, Song Zicheng felt very proud. He patted his son’s shoulder and got in the car with his head held high.
There was still half a month before the results came out. Without Yu Tang by his side, Song Xiao spent every day at home, and didn’t leave at all. After studying the application for the entrance exam, Song Xiao wrinkled his brow.
Imperial University’s advanced admittance program was jointly run with Halun University. For the first two years, students would study in the US, but in their final year, they had to return and study domestically. Finally, after obtaining course credits from both schools, two graduation certificates would be issued. The school fees were heavily discounted, and students only needed to pay domestic-level school fees. The fee difference between Halun University and Imperial University would be made up by Imperial University.
Because these conditions were too good, and advanced acceptance didn’t affect actual acceptance, there were many applicants for this program. However, the acceptance rate was very low. Only two students would be accepted from each province, and it would be one from humanities and one from science. In other words, only the top scorer would be accepted.
“You want to study in the US?” Song Zicheng felt that he wasn’t paying his child enough attention. Seeing Song Xiao’s application, he went over solicitously.
“En, but only the top scorer can study in this program.” Song Xiao was a little depressed. In the imperial exam before, the only distinction was between first rankand second rank; it was nothing like now, where a single point was the difference between heaven and earth.
“Ai, what is there to be scared of? Is it hard to go study in the US?” Song Zicheng smiled. “If you don’t pa.s.s, we can just spend some more money”
The US was a country where money reigned supreme. The better the school, the more expensive it was, and ordinary people couldn’t get in at all. Even if your results weren’t good enough, you could get in as long as you were rich and had some sort of strong point.
Song Xiao looked at his father. Only now did he completely understand that his family was still relatively rich.
The day the results came out, Song Zicheng was still doing the social rounds outside, and Song Xiao had forgotten about it. Because Yu Tang hadn’t called him the whole of yesterday, he was a little worried. It was rumored that the US was chaotic, and the Yu clan was complicated… Song Xiao couldn’t help giving Yu Tang a call.
It was rather noisy over the phone, but Yu Tang’s voice was still steady and calm. “I’ll call you back in a bit.”
“Yo, Tom, which lover of yours is calling?” An English sentence came through, and it was a woman’s voice.
Song Xiao frowned. This guy… could it be that he went for a drink with girls?
After half an hour, Yu Tang finally called back; his surroundings were now much quieter. “Some of my cousinsdragged me out to play; it was really noisy, so I couldn’t talk to you.”
“Oh,” Song Xiao replied, and didn’t continue speaking.
“Missing zhen?” Yu Tang asked with a light laugh. Perhaps because he had been talking to the people here in the US in the last two days, his phrasing had become franker as a result, and he blurted it out before thinking. He immediately regretted it when it left his mouth. His family’s empress was so reserved, he definitely wouldn’t respond, and might even be annoyed.
“…Mn.” Song Xiao hummed ambiguously.
The two of them sunk into silence. After a long while, Yu Tang said, “I’ll come back right away,” and hung up.
When Song Xiao went downstairs for breakfast, he saw Song Zicheng sitting in the living room, holding a newspaper and staring blankly at the front page. Hearing Song Xiao come downstairs, he slowly turned his head to look at him, his expression still a little sluggish.
“Father?” Song Xiao walked over and tilted his head to look at him. “Is something wrong?”
Song Zicheng swallowed, and said roughly, “Son, have you checked your results?”
Song Xiao shook his head, then lowered it to look at the newspaper. In large, black letters, the headline on the front page read, “Results For Entrance Examination Announced. Top Scorer In Science: Chen Xu (No. 1 High). Top Scorer In Humanities: Song Xiao (Shengmeng High)”.
Top scorer…
Top scorer!
Song Zicheng leaped up from the sofa and slapped his son’s shoulder with all his strength. “You’ve made this father too proud, hahaha!”
In the entertainment circle, the children of those celebrities he knew all weren’t good students. Every single one of them just wanted to drift along and survive by relying on their parents’ reputations. His business friends all had children who weren’t hardworking too. As for his, Song Zicheng’s, child, not only was he hardworking, he even got the position of top scorer. This was simply incomparably better than all those people.
Soon, Song Zicheng’s phone began to ring nonstop.
“Congratulations, Old Song, your son actually became the top scorer.”
“G.o.d, Song ge, I never thought that Song Xiao was such a good student!”
“Zicheng ah, your son simply doesn’t seem like he’s from the entertainment circle.”
Lips already pulled back to his ears, Song Zicheng still pretended to appear unperturbed as he replied, “No, no, this youngster has outdone himself.”
Too excited to even eat breakfast, Song Zicheng had Si Dashu book a hotel and select a date to hold a celebration feast for his son. Then, he solemnly called his father and father-in-law to announce the good news.
The celebration feast was extremely lively. Song Zicheng had booked the ballroom of a five-star hotel. All the celebrities in the circle had come. Not only were there bosses and media people who were friends with Song Zicheng, there were also some film empresses and emperors who could only be seen on TV.
“In a blink of an eye, our family’s Xiaoxiao became the top scorer.” Dressed in a wine-red evening dress, Musha smiled as she stood on stage. As the film empress of Xinghai Entertainment, she was the host of this banquet.
“Musha, that’s not right. Why is he your Xiaoxiao? He’s obviously our family’s!” The record company’s boss, Li Meiyi, interrupted her. Li Meiyi was wearing a black evening dress and looked dignified and imposing. As she teased with a serious face, everyone couldn’t help laughing loudly.
Li Meiyi was Li Weiwei’s mother. The relationship between their families was very good, and naturally, no one dared say anything when she spoke like this.
“That’s right, he’s from our family.” Li Weiwei, standing beside his mother, echoed along, and there was another round of hearty laughter.
Li Weiwei had initially said that he wanted to study with Song Xiao, but he suddenly became popular after acting as a sixth male lead. He couldn’t attend a normal high school, so he went to a secondary school affiliated with a film university.
Since he already had accomplishments since young, he was directly accepted into the film university, and didn’t take the entrance exam.
Extremely proud, Song Zicheng brought Song Xiao around to get to know his business partners. This could be regarded as him introducing contacts in the circle to Song Xiao, with the att.i.tude of cultivating his successor.
During this harmonious atmosphere, the large doors to the ballroom were suddenly pushed open, and Qiu Mingyan walked in uninvited, dressed in a blue evening dress and Song Zheng with her.
“Xiaoxiao, congratulations on becoming the top scorer.” Pushing her daughter forward, Qiu Mingyan went up to give Song Xiao a gift.
Everyone felt a little awkward. They all knew about the illegitimate daughter, and that Qiu Mingyan had come just so that her daughter could also obtain some contacts in the circle, thus reminding everyone that Song Zheng was also from the Song family.
Song Zicheng’s face was a little ugly, but he didn’t say anything. He had Song Xiao accept the gift, then pulled him over to the other side. Song Zheng hurried after them, drawing many sidelong glances.
The banquet ended in an unsatisfactory manner because of Qiu Mingyan’s arrival. It was midnight by the time Song Xiao and Song Zicheng sent the guests off. Standing at the entrance of the hotel as they waited for Si Dashu to bring the car over, a black Bentley suddenly stopped in front of them.
When the door opened, Yu Tang, wearing a suit, stepped out and looked at the stunned Song Xiao. “It seems that I was too late.”
“Xiao Tang ah, you came too late, and missed the party.” Song Zicheng, who had drunk a few beers, blinked. Seeing who it was, he immediately smiled.
“What a pity…” Yu Tang said regretfully. “Then, I shouldn’t come here for nothing. Uncle, can Song Xiao stay with me for a couple of days? My parents won’t be home for the next two days.”
“All right, you go play ba.” Song Zicheng had become used to Song Xiao’s occasional visits to Yu Tang’s house.
“Thank you, uncle. You can rest a.s.sured and hand Song Xiao over to me,” Yu Tang said. Pulling on the still stunned Song Xiao, they directly got into the car and left.
Watching the Bentley vanish in the dust, Song Zicheng frowned. He felt that something wasn’t quite right with that sentence; it gave him the false impression that his family’s son had been kidnapped by a bad fellow.
Little Theater
Fish Tang: You can rest a.s.sured and marry him off to me
Song Dad: Ok ok ok
Xiaoxiao: Dad, did you forget something?
Song Dad: …That’s right, the child I raised is a son ah
Fish Tang: (picks Xiaoxiao up and runs off) What has been given away can’t be returned
Song Dad: QAQ