E | Chapter 4

Everything began during Yu Zhinian’s summer at fourteen, in the hot season between second and third year of middle school, towards the end of July.

When the homeroom teacher called to inform him that he’d won the Yang Zhongyun Scholarship, Yu Zhinian was sitting at the dining table, helping his sixth-grade cousin with her math homework.

The phone rang suddenly, and his aunt dropped her half-finished knitting to rush to answer it. After speaking briefly, she came out of the bedroom and told him, “You won some scholarship. They said if you keep up the grades, you can get twenty thousand yuan for living expenses every semester, and in a few days, you’ll also get to take a trip to Ning City.”

The next day, Yu Zhinian went to the principal’s office to pick up the envelope containing the special scholarship he’d never heard of, then handed it to his aunt at home.

His aunt and his mother weren’t very close. She worked as an accountant at a small factory with a modest salary, had divorced her husband long ago, and relied on each other with her daughter to get by.

Half a year ago, after both of Yu Zhinian’s parents passed away, she couldn’t bear to see him go to a rough welfare home, so she took him in.

Earlier, his parents had sold their home and spent their savings on his grandfather’s medical bills. But soon after, his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and his father died in a car accident not long after. They left him with almost nothing. Yu Zhinian understood that living with his aunt was a burden on her, so he took on most of the household chores, helped his cousin with her studies, and constantly looked for ways to lighten her financial load.

His aunt hesitated as she looked at the envelope in his hand, but when he nudged it toward her and explained that he didn’t need spending money and that she could use it for groceries, she finally accepted it.

A week later, he and a teacher assigned as his group leader took a five-hour high-speed train ride to Ning City. They arrived at the top floor of Ning University’s library, where the orientation for the scholarship camp was being held.

The camp had over eighty students from all over the country, all funded by Yang Zhongyun. Most were high school students, with few as young as Yu Zhinian.

Curious, he asked the high school student next to him, who explained that they had to apply at their schools and go through multiple rounds of evaluation before being selected.

“This camp only accepts those who’ve already won the scholarship. It’s easy to get the scholarship, but tough to get into the camp,” the student said, looking puzzled after hearing Yu Zhinian’s story. “In our city, out of forty scholarship winners, only one got selected. Isn’t it different for you middle schoolers?”

Without any answers, Yu Zhinian felt a growing uncertainty.

His grades were indeed good, placing him at the top of the county-wide middle school exams last semester. But even his homeroom teacher seemed puzzled when he got the scholarship, mentioning that the requirements were typically quite high. And while his grades were good, they weren’t outstanding by provincial standards, and his family situation wasn’t the most impoverished.

For some unknown reason, the scholarship committee had favored him.

At 1 PM, the orientation began. The host introduced the schedule, then invited the sponsor, Chairman Yang Zhongyun of Zhong Qin Group, to speak.

Yang Zhongyun was tall, dressed in a suit, with a calm, refined demeanor.

Before coming, Yu Zhinian had looked him up online. According to Baidu, Yang Zhongyun was already seventy-eight, but in person, he looked much younger, maybe just a bit over sixty.

Yang Zhongyun shared how he had been born into poverty, faced countless hardships, and only managed to complete his doctorate thanks to the kindness of those who had helped him along the way.

Now that he had the means, he wanted to give back to society, to support students who needed help, just as he had once been supported.

Chairman Yang’s speech wasn’t long, wrapping up in ten minutes.

Next, the Vice Principal of Ning University took the stage. But not long after he started, the teacher leading Yu Zhinian came over, bent down, and whispered, “Zhinian, could you step outside with me?”

Confused, Yu Zhinian followed the teacher out of the hall.

“It’s like this,” the teacher explained once they were in the hallway, “There was an issue with the camp’s hotel booking, and your name was accidentally left off. The hotel is fully booked now. Originally, we considered adding a bed to a bigger room, but when Chairman Yang heard about it, he offered to have you stay at his home instead.”

As he spoke, he led Yu Zhinian to the end of a long corridor and knocked on a door to a lounge.

The lounge was spacious, with bright lights, a gray carpet, paintings on the walls, and a set of light-colored sofas.

Chairman Yang, who had just spoken, was sitting on one of the sofas, surrounded by men in suits.

When he saw Yu Zhinian enter, Chairman Yang greeted him with a warm smile. “So you’re Zhinian, right? Nice to meet you.”

Though mature for his age, Yu Zhinian was still only fourteen. Meeting such a prominent figure, his heart pounded as he awkwardly sat down next to him with a little nudge from the teacher, stammering through a few words of conversation.

In reality, Chairman Yang came across more as a kind elder than a powerful businessman, without the imposing air he had in the news. His tone was gentle, and he spoke slowly.

He asked about Yu Zhinian’s life, mentioning that he had a grandson around his age. But unlike Zhinian, his grandson had been spoiled by nannies and tutors and wasn’t as well-behaved or diligent. Chairman Yang invited him to stay at his home for a few days, thinking he might set a good example for his grandson, Yang Ke, by showing him how other kids lived.

Although still young, Yu Zhinian was perceptive and sensitive to people’s intentions. On the surface, Chairman Yang’s words seemed reasonable, yet something about them unsettled him.

But Yang Zhongyun was a famous businessman, while he was just an ordinary student. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t see what Yang Zhongyun could possibly want from him.

After a while, the teacher returned, informing them that his luggage had already been placed in Chairman Yang’s car.

Chairman Yang glanced at his watch and said, “Then let’s go, Zhinian.”

They took the elevator down from the lounge to the underground parking lot.

Nervously, Yu Zhinian climbed into the long black car with Chairman Yang. The car moved forward, exiting the garage into a sky that had turned overcast, with gray clouds and the heavy atmosphere that comes before rain.

Soft instrumental music played in the car. Chairman Yang didn’t mind making a few work calls while Zhinian gazed out the window.

Several times, Yu Zhinian felt like Chairman Yang’s eyes were on him, but when he looked back, he only found him deep in thought.

Chairman Yang’s villa was in southern Ning City, occupying a large plot.

Tall stone walls surrounded the property, and the iron gates opened slowly. The car drove further in, across the vast lawn, stopping in front of a low building at the entrance of a long corridor.

“My grandson loves swimming,” Chairman Yang explained, “so I had a swimming pool built for him at home.”

The driver opened the door for Yu Zhinian. As he stepped out, he noticed the low pressure outside and distant thunder rumbling in the air.

Inside, the swimming hall was cool, with the air conditioning keeping the humidity down.

Following Chairman Yang in, he heard the splashes echoing in the empty hall. A man who looked like a coach stood by the pool with a stopwatch, apparently timing someone.

The first time he saw Yang Ke, he was in the pool, looking up at his grandfather as he greeted him casually with, “Hey, Grandpa.”

Yang Ke was barely a year older than Yu Zhinian, but he was noticeably bigger, with water dripping from his black hair onto his broad shoulders.

He looked relaxed and at ease, accustomed to wealth, like the kind of person Yu Zhinian would see on his cousin’s favorite TV shows—the type who lived in big houses, drove flashy convertibles, and partied without a care.

Yu Zhinian suddenly felt like touching the 2,000 yuan his aunt had slipped into the inner pocket of his backpack.

Since he could remember, he had never lived in luxury and was always careful with money. He had never felt self-conscious about his modest life, nor had he envied others. But seeing Yang Ke that afternoon, a new, faint, and unfamiliar desire stirred within him.

He didn’t know where it came from, and it almost scared him.

Looking back on this day as an adult, he would finally understand the origin of that desire.

That fourteen-year-old Yu Zhinian, in the quiet of the swimming hall, gained a fresh experience, one that opened the door to a new, hard-to-define path in life. He met Yang Ke, who would be by his side for the next decade, but at the same time, he also lost a part of who he once was.