Chapter 126: Tick Marks and the Red Seal

The fog had not yet fully lifted. The bluestone road had drunk its fill of night dew, and it was slightly slick underfoot. Lin Chen shifted his balance, pressing his weight onto his right foot. His left foot hovered half an inch above the ground, and when it came down, only the outer edge of the ball of his foot touched first. The pain was blocked by the gauze and the hard rubber sole, reduced to a heavy, muffled thud. Every step consumed strength. He checked his watch. 5:20. Two hours and forty minutes before the academic affairs office opened. Four hours and forty minutes before the ten o’clock deadline.

The iron gate of County No. 1 High School was shut tight. The guardroom light was on. Old Chen came out draped in a military coat, an enamel mug in hand. Lin Chen handed over his student ID and explained why he had come. Old Chen looked him over once and did not ask much more. He pulled open the side gate. “Get it done early. It’s Friday. The academic affairs office won’t have anyone in until eight.” Lin Chen nodded. He crossed the athletic field. The white lines of the track were blurred in the morning mist. He went to the teachers’ office building. Third floor. The door to his homeroom teacher’s office stood ajar. The light was on.

He knocked. Old Zhou, his homeroom teacher, looked up, his glasses slipping down his nose. Spread across the desk were lesson plans for morning study and an analysis sheet of first mock-exam scores. Lin Chen went in and handed over the screenshot of the Provincial Institute of Technology text message along with his handwritten application. Old Zhou read them and fell silent. His fingers tapped lightly on the desktop. “You missed the first mock exam and were filed as a zero. The deferred exam wasn’t approved. And now you’re going to the provincial capital for an interview?” Lin Chen nodded. “The materials are missing the official seal. They have to be delivered before ten.” Old Zhou sighed. “The academic affairs office won’t start work until eight-thirty. For the seal, the director has to sign first. You can’t afford to wait.” Lin Chen said, “The original is with you. The seal is in the academic affairs office. I can wait in the hallway. The moment the director arrives, I’ll hand it over.” Old Zhou looked at his pale lips and the mud-stained hems of his trousers and did not try to persuade him further. He opened a drawer and took out a brown paper file envelope. “Original transcript. Your student registration number is on the back. Don’t fold it.” Lin Chen took it. The envelope was very light. He thanked him, turned, and went out into the hallway.

The hallway was long. The windows were open, and cold wind poured in. He leaned against the wall, holding the file envelope against his chest. Then he opened his ledger. Under Transportation, he crossed out the prepaid -4 and wrote: -3.5 (inter-county minibus). Balance: -1.2. The shortfall was clear. He needed to solve the problem of one yuan and two jiao in bus fare. Old Zhou’s office door was still open. He went back. “Mr. Zhou. I’m short 1.2 for the fare. The earliest minibus to the provincial capital leaves at 7:40. I’ll borrow it first. I’ll pay you back next week after my part-time work.” Old Zhou pulled two one-yuan bills from his wallet and held them out. “No need to repay it. Buy a bottle of water on the way.” Lin Chen took them. In the ledger he wrote: +2 (loan). Balance: +0.8. He folded the money and put it into the pocket closest to his body. Do not owe favors, only record debts. That was his rule.

At 7:10, footsteps sounded from the far end of the hallway. Director Zhao from the academic affairs office came over with a briefcase tucked under his arm. Lin Chen stepped forward and handed him the transcript and the application. Director Zhao frowned. “Provincial Tech? Getting the seal now?” Lin Chen nodded. Director Zhao looked at his watch, then at him. “By procedure, this should have been reported three days in advance. I’ll make an exception this once.” He took out a key and opened the office door. Lin Chen followed him in. On the desk sat the ink pad and the official seal. Director Zhao checked the student registration number and signed. Then he picked up the seal, pressed it into the red ink, and brought it down firmly. Click. The paper dented slightly. The bright red stamp of “Academic Affairs Office, County No. 1 High School” appeared. Lin Chen stared at that patch of red. Like a pass-token. He received it with both hands, thanked him, and withdrew.

At 7:20, he left the school and walked to the county bus station. Two kilometers. His left foot had begun to go numb. The seepage had probably soaked through the gauze. He had no time to care. The 7:40 minibus was already running. He climbed aboard, dropped in his fare, and took a window seat in the back row. The engine roared. The bus drove out of the county seat. Outside the window, buildings gave way to fields, then to rolling hills. He closed his eyes and ran through English speaking templates in his head. Self-introduction. Academic foundation. Project experience. He mouthed every word silently. The pain worsened with the jolting of the ride. He clenched his back teeth. His breathing stayed even. He could not let himself get chaotic. Once chaos entered, the rhythm would break.

At 9:20, the provincial capital bus station. He got off and walked to the Provincial Institute of Technology. Three kilometers away. He quickened his pace. The soles of his shoes scraped against the asphalt. At 9:45, he reached the administrative building. Third floor. Room 301. Seven or eight candidates were already seated in the hallway. Suits. Leather shoes. Hair neatly styled. Lin Chen stood in the corner and straightened the collar of his shirt. A patch of black polish had already rubbed off the surface of one shoe. He did not care. He placed the file envelope and his admission ticket on his knees. At 9:55, the door opened. A staff member held a list. “Lin Chen.” He stood and went in. The room was large. A long table. Three examiners. The chief examiner in the center. An English professor on the left. A specialist adviser on the right. The chief examiner looked up at him. “Sit. Materials.” Lin Chen handed them over. The chief examiner flipped through them and nodded. “The transcript was supplemented in time. Interview order has been temporarily adjusted. Spoken English first. Please prepare.” Lin Chen sat down. His palms were faintly damp, but his breathing remained steady. The English professor on the left pushed up his glasses and began in English. The pace was fast. The question was not one of the prepared templates. It was drawn on the spot. Lin Chen caught the key words. He paused for two seconds, then began to answer. His voice was not loud, but it was clear. The examiners wrote notes. Sunlight broke through the clouds outside and fell across the tabletop. He knew this was only the beginning. The real screening lay in the technical questioning. And for the first technical question, the chief examiner had already opened another file. It was a practical schematic he had never seen before.

The chief examiner pushed the drawing toward him. “Three minutes. Draw the equivalent circuit and explain the basis for your parameter choices.” Lin Chen stared at the sheet. Dense lines. Unfamiliar labels. He opened his scratch notebook. The tip of his pencil touched the paper. The first stroke fell. No hesitation. He knew this question was not in the textbook. It was in the old radios in the repair shop. In the ledgers of the boiler room. In the calculations he had worked through over countless late nights. He looked up at the chief examiner. “May I begin?”