Chapter Eleven: The English Competition (1)

Monday morning.

Feeling pleased after completing a small plan, Yu Qian arrived at school in high spirits, only to be greeted by a dictation test in the first period of English class. In her good mood, she didn't deliberately make one or two mistakes as she had before. Similarly, she didn't notice that most of the words being dictated that day hadn't yet been taught; Teacher Zeng was doing it on purpose to see if the students had previewed the lesson at home.

But let's not dwell on Yu Qian during class—over at the teacher's desk, as Zeng corrected the papers, she was surprised to see that Yu Qian had gotten every single word right, even the intentionally tricky ones that elementary students would never have learned. Zeng flipped back through Yu Qian’s previous dictations and, upon closer inspection, discovered that Yu Qian's accuracy was always high—every time, she made exactly two mistakes, never more.

Once or twice could be a coincidence, but after more than a dozen dictations in the month since school started, and every time exactly two mistakes—who could believe that was by chance? If not for this accidental discovery, she would never have realized just how strong Yu Qian’s English was, the girl hiding her abilities as if afraid of being found out.

Teacher Zeng thought of the upcoming English competition next month and considered recommending Yu Qian, though she wasn't sure how Yu Qian's spoken English was; the contest required a speech. Well, there was another English class that afternoon—she’d find out then.

After class, He Xiaoqing noticed Yu Qian's particularly good mood, a smile plastered on her face. “Qian Qian, did you find some money? You’re so happy!”

“No, my parents just bought me something I really wanted.” She teased, refusing to tell He Xiaoqing what it was.

Of course, He Xiaoqing grew curious. “What did they get you? You’re grinning from ear to ear!” She gestured with her hands to her own ears as she spoke.

Yu Qian’s smile only widened. “Hehe, I saw a guqin—so beautiful! I loved it! I pestered my mom and dad for ages before they bought it for me.”

“A guqin?” He Xiaoqing was baffled. “Are you going to learn guqin? Why not piano or violin? Isn’t everyone learning those these days?”

Yu Qian replied with a smile, “I just like the guqin. I don’t care for the others.”

Not understanding her reasoning, He Xiaoqing didn’t press further and instead dragged her off to recite their texts.

After the lunch break, the first class was still English. As soon as class began, Teacher Zeng announced that she’d be calling on students for dialogue practice. The classroom instantly filled with groans.

It was 2004; English education in China was still mostly “mute English”—students could read and listen but not speak, even in university. For elementary schoolers, most of whom barely knew any vocabulary, English dialogues were pure torture: the same sentences again and again, and no one really knew what to say.

Ignoring the complaints, Teacher Zeng began picking students. The first few stumbled over every sentence, not one managing to get through even a simple phrase smoothly. Her face grew darker with each attempt.

“Yu Qian.” At last, it was her turn.

“What is your dream? What do you want to do in the future?”

A difficult question right from the start. Not only others—even Yu Qian was caught off guard. Everyone else got “How are you? I’m fine!”—why did her question change?

If she had a few more question marks above her head, her expression could easily have matched the famous meme that would become popular years later.

She hesitated. If she answered poorly, Miss Zeng would only get angrier; if she answered too well, her vocabulary would be exposed as far beyond elementary school level.

After some thought, she decided to answer properly. Why should she hold herself back in this new life and pretend to be a poor student?

“My dream is to be a screenwriter. Writers who write good TV dramas and animated films are my idols. I study hard so that I can have the chance to realize this dream.”

When Yu Qian finished, Miss Zeng’s face bloomed with delight, while the elementary students were stunned. They only understood words like “I,” “my,” “is”—what on earth had Yu Qian just said?

With her excellent spoken English and rich vocabulary confirmed, Teacher Zeng was satisfied. “Yu Qian, come to the office after class. Dialogue practice is over; let’s continue with the new lesson.”

For the rest of the period, the students remained in a daze: Oh no, we have a traitor among us!

Yu Qian was equally perplexed—she had no idea why Teacher Zeng wanted her in the office. She looked at the teacher in confusion.

“Yu Qian, you know a lot of words, don’t you?” Teacher Zeng asked with a smile.

“My sister tutors me during the holidays. She’s in college now,” Yu Qian replied, dragging her sister out to take the blame.

“Very impressive—a family tradition, and you work so hard too,” Teacher Zeng continued to praise her.

Yu Qian grew even more nervous, but kept smiling. “My sister is amazing; she found lots of books to teach me.”

“That’s wonderful, truly wonderful.” The teacher praised her again, then got to the point. “Here’s the thing: next month the county is holding an elementary school English competition. All the schools will participate. I’d like to recommend you for the upper-grade category. Are you interested?”

Yu Qian’s eyes lit up. An English competition! With all the elementary schools in the county participating, there would surely be certificates and prizes.

“Yes!”

“Good, good. Here’s the registration form—fill it out,” said Teacher Zeng, delighted, pulling the form from her drawer.

...

Yu Qian felt as if she had won the lottery. She couldn’t remember if there had been such a competition in her previous life or if she’d ever participated. But now that she had the opportunity, she wouldn’t let it slip by. Even if it was only at the county level, it could count for extra credit when she took the middle school entrance exam in a couple of years. She couldn’t afford to miss it.

Time passed like water. For the next month, Yu Qian was constantly busy. Monday through Friday, she not only had classes but also practiced her spoken English with Teacher Zeng, who, seeing her potential, became even stricter. Saturday and Sunday mornings, she had guzheng lessons to learn finger techniques; in the afternoons, she practiced flexibility and posture with her jazz teacher; at night, she studied guzheng, classical dance, and calligraphy along with the virtuosos in her online group.

She was so busy learning everything that she barely had time to eat, let alone pay attention to her parents’ work. Fortunately, her grandfather and uncle, following her parents’ instructions, kept her well supplied with nourishing food, and her teachers, now as caring as mothers, made sure she had plenty of spiritual beast meat, fruits, and herbs so she wouldn’t waste away.

Although she didn’t become scrawny, compared to her chubby self a month ago, Yu Qian had lost a fair bit of weight.

The day before the competition, Wen Yu returned home to find her daughter practically a stick, and her heart nearly broke with worry.

Yu Qian snuggled up to her mother for a long time, reassuring her that she was healthy, that the weight loss was just her body getting rid of impurities, and insisted on sleeping beside her that night.

The next morning, though still distressed, Wen Yu saw how energetic her daughter looked and finally believed she was truly in good health, easing her worries a little.

Today was the English competition. The contestants didn’t need to attend class; they simply had to gather on the playground and wait for the head teacher to take them to County Primary School No. 1. Any parents who wished to watch could ride the school bus with them.

Wen Yu had come home specifically to see her daughter compete. After dropping her off at school, she decided to ride along with the school's bus as well.