Chapter 11: The Fateful Exam

The June sun hung overhead, scorching the county town with relentless heat. The air was stagnant, without a breath of wind; the asphalt shimmered with distorted heat waves, and the entire town felt sealed within a stifling steam chamber.

A few languid clouds drifted across the sky, powerless to block even a trace of the sweltering warmth. Yet, amid such suffocating weather, Li Yifei’s heart was unexpectedly calm.

He knew that the day so many called the watershed of fate—the 2007 college entrance examination—had finally arrived.

For a boy from an ordinary family like Li Yifei, the weight of this exam was immense.

It represented tangible hope, the only stepping stone in his parents’ eyes for him to leap out of their current life.

The day before the exam, his mother rubbed her hands anxiously and asked carefully, “Xiaofei, how about your parents take you to the exam site tomorrow? We can wait outside and it might put your mind at ease.”

Li Yifei glanced at his father’s temple streaked with new gray hairs and the fine lines at his mother’s eyes, warmth swelling in his chest. He smiled broadly: “No need, Mom. The county is so small; I know it well. If you come, you’d just be standing outside in the heat and suffering. Stay home and rest. I’ll come back to eat the meal you cook after the exam.” His voice carried the clarity and vigor unique to youth.

The couple exchanged a glance but did not insist further. Since entering high school, their son’s resolve had grown stronger, and his grades improved steadily. They understood that not adding trouble was the greatest support they could offer.

On June 7th, just as dawn’s pale light crept in, Li Yifei woke. He quietly rose and stretched his limbs in the courtyard of the residential complex. The slight warm-up soon coated his forehead with a fine layer of sweat.

After returning home for a cold shower, he was completely refreshed. After eating the steaming egg noodles his mother made, he grabbed his worn canvas bag and stepped out. Luck was on his side—within two minutes, he hailed a taxi bearing a “Loving Heart Exam Transport” sticker.

The exam site was set on the third floor of the Knowledge Building at County No. 1 High School, in classroom 3 of the second-year grade. His home was not far; the taxi arrived in ten minutes.

At the school gate, many students and parents had already gathered. The air was thick with a mix of tension, excitement, and sweat. Li Yifei took a deep breath, squeezed the bag holding his admission ticket, ID card, several sharpened 2B pencils, eraser, and black pen, and followed the crowd into the school.

He found seat number 13 and sat down as the classroom gradually filled. The invigilator’s monotone voice announced the rules and directed everyone to pile their bags and water bottles on the teacher’s desk. The signal jammer emitted a low hum; the cameras in the corners blinked red like silent eyes.

With three minutes left before the official start, the exam papers were publicly unsealed and the test papers and answer sheets distributed. The classroom was filled only with the rustling of turning pages.

Li Yifei habitually flipped through the exam paper to check for defects. Satisfied, he carefully wrote his name and candidate number. Scanning the questions, his tense shoulders gradually relaxed. Two years of intense revision had etched those words and formulas deep into his bones.

The sharp ring of the bell shattered the silence. Suddenly, the only sound was the scratching of pens on paper, swelling into a low, steady tide. Li Yifei wrote quickly. Fill-in-the-blanks, poetry recitation, reading comprehension... answers flowed almost instinctively from his pen.

Within forty minutes, only the essay section remained blank before him. Thanks to long practice in penmanship, his handwriting on the answer sheet was clear and neat, almost printed.

The essay topic was “Yearning for the Sky.” He stared at the prompt for half a minute, his eyes momentarily vacant before he lifted his pen. The outline, theme, and ideas took clear shape in his mind, and the pen glided smoothly across the paper.

Less than half an hour later, a well-structured and substantial essay was completed. Though the score was uncertain, he felt from experience that he had done quite well in Chinese.

The bell signaling submission rang again, ending the first exam. Li Yifei flowed out with the crowd, the blazing sun pouring down on him.

He squinted, his steps light and brisk as he walked home. Lunch was a light meal prepared specially by his mother. After eating, he forced himself to take a brief nap to recharge for the afternoon’s math exam.

The three days passed swiftly amid the rustling of pens and the flipping of pages. When the final exam bell finally rang, the entire exam hall exhaled in a chorus of breaths, some slumping in their seats, others whispering excitedly, but most wearing expressions of fatigue and bewilderment as the weight lifted. Regardless of the outcome, this long ordeal was over, and many classmates were already planning where to unwind over the holiday.

But Li Yifei’s heart was not fully at ease as he left the exam site. For him, the college entrance exam's end was merely another beginning. Back home, he locked himself in his room and began to recall and estimate his scores.

Chinese, math, science, English... question by question replayed in his mind, scores slowly accumulating. In the end, he arrived at a conservative estimate: his total score should be above 740.

That score would safely secure him admission to the country's top two universities—Huaqing or Yanda. Now, he needed to carefully consider which university’s specialization better suited his future plans.

There was also a more immediate and pressing goal weighing on his mind—buying a home in the capital city.

Memories of housing prices from his previous life were deeply etched like a brand. He knew that in the coming years, especially in the capital, real estate prices would skyrocket like a rocket; a delay could cost multiples or even tens of times more.

Currently, housing prices in the capital’s core area hovered just above 10,000 yuan per square meter. A modestly located, reasonably sized ordinary residence would cost around one million yuan in total. He needed a down payment of roughly three to four hundred thousand yuan.

He had that money. But it was not in the savings account known to his parents. Instead, a modest stock account quietly held over three million yuan.

This was what he had painstakingly accumulated over the past year through vague recollections of scattered stock market information and some bold moves. His initial principal was only a few thousand yuan from New Year’s money and occasional saved living expenses.

He remembered clearly that at the beginning of last year, he targeted a stock called “Chihong Zinc and Germanium,” which later surged wildly due to news of mineral resource restructuring.

He had almost staked all the few tens of thousands in his account at the time, bought in at a low point, and decisively sold near the peak, earning his first “big money.”

Subsequently, he made several small trades, capturing a few minor waves, which steadily pushed his holdings to over three million. Each trade made his palms sweat, fearful of memory lapses or sudden market shifts. He dared not tell his parents, worried they would worry and that he could not explain it clearly.

However, the current stock market felt somewhat sluggish. The world economy seemed shrouded in a cloud of unease. He vaguely recalled that next year, there would be a global financial storm.

The stock market’s volatility was too great, the risks too high. He needed to grow this money faster and more steadily to cover the tuition, living expenses for the next few years, and most importantly—the down payment for that apartment.

His gaze shifted to a more thrilling arena—futures. The price chart of soybean futures appeared in his mind.

He recalled clearly that, especially at the Dalian Commodity Exchange, soybean futures prices had been surging fiercely during this period. From the year’s low point, they had climbed steadily. If he could seize this wave...

He immediately fired up his computer, the hum filling the room. The screen lit up as he deftly logged into the market software.

The candlestick charts danced before his eyes. The main contract for soybean futures hovered around 3,800 yuan. He pulled up historical charts to compare with his memory.

Indeed, there was still considerable room before the previous high point he remembered. Market sentiment also leaned bullish.

The opportunity was right before him.

He quickly calculated: with three million yuan principal, he couldn’t risk it all. The futures market was extremely risky; a sudden reversal could wipe out most of his margin.

He decided to allocate one million yuan as initial capital for futures trading, keeping the remaining two million-plus in the stock account as a final safeguard and tuition reserve.

With his plan set, he took a deep breath and began typing, transferring one million yuan from his stock account into the futures account.

He had already quietly completed the account opening procedures, using the ID he had obtained after turning eighteen. Logging into the futures trading software, watching the numbers flicker, he felt a mixture of excitement and nervous trembling. This was no longer a theoretical game.

Carefully studying the real-time order book and pending orders for soybean futures, he sought a relatively safe entry point. Around 3,800 yuan, bulls and bears seemed locked in a stalemate. He chose a strategy of building positions in batches; his fingers grew cold, but when clicking “Buy to Open,” they were remarkably steady. The first order—ten lots. The confirmation beep echoed sharply in the quiet room.

Funds turned into positions. The numbers ceased to be static deposits, instead rising and falling with every market tick. He stared fixedly at the screen, watching the profit and loss figures shift subtly between green and red. Sweat slid down his temple, unnoticed.

In this sweltering June, as the smoke of the college entrance exam’s battles just cleared, Li Yifei had stepped onto another, far more rugged path—one demanding courage and judgment. His life’s course quietly shifted beneath his calm yet slightly trembling fingertips.

Outside, the cicadas’ cries grew louder and louder, blending with the computer fan’s hum to become the unique soundtrack of this summer.