Chapter 9: The Underprivileged Student Who Met the Standard

And so I waited and waited, until they finally stopped chatting, but I still couldn’t fall asleep—because someone else had started snoring, and the noise was deafening. It was hard to believe this was a girls’ dormitory.

I closed my eyes and tried counting sheep, but it was useless. As dawn approached, my head ached terribly, my body felt foreign to me, and it was as if my soul floated above it all.

Just as I was about to finally drift off, a group of early risers, up to study, woke me with their commotion.

I was on the verge of collapse.

With dark circles under my eyes, I suffered through the week, and when the weekend came and I returned home, I told my mother I never wanted to stay in the dormitory again.

But the boarding fee had already been paid for the month, and if I withdrew, there would be no refund.

So, for the rest of that month, I would only go to the dormitory for a short nap during lunch break, but at night, I always went home to sleep.

It was truly a painful boarding experience…

I wandered aimlessly around the campus and, before I knew it, found myself at the track field. Seeing the white lanes looping around, I suddenly remembered the big challenge waiting for me this weekend.

Here’s how it happened: I don’t know which department came up with it, but there was to be a physical fitness exam for all senior high school students in the city. If you failed, you would not be allowed to advance to the next level.

Boys had to run 1000 meters, girls 800.

This was a bolt from the blue for me.

I had never once managed to pass the 800-meter run; my best effort was simply struggling through to the end in just over five minutes.

Yes, I was a particularly hopeless case when it came to physical fitness standards. Thankfully, there were no such requirements in elementary school, which allowed me a happy childhood.

Ever since entering middle school, though, the fitness test had become my nightmare.

Both in middle and high school, there were five events: standing long jump, 50-meter dash, 800-meter run, sit-ups, and shot put.

Let’s start with the standing long jump. No matter how hard I practiced, the soles of my feet would ache terribly, and my best distance was only 1.3 meters. Ke Xin, on the other hand, could easily jump over two meters.

As for the 50-meter dash, I never made the cut. Even when I gave it everything I had, running as fast as I possibly could, I knew full well that I looked as if I were moving in slow motion.

Shot put—there probably weren’t many people like me, who managed to throw both the shot and themselves.

I remember at the time, the world seemed to spin; I had no idea where the shot put landed, but I was already sprawled on the ground, the skin on my wrist scraped. Wasn’t that embarrassing?

The 800 meters was sheer torture; every time, my legs turned to lead, and toward the end, I could barely stumble along.

Now for my one strength: sit-ups. At first, I couldn’t get up even once.

But after trying to improve in the other four events and finding no hope, I poured all my effort into sit-ups.

Diligence pays off: after enduring the pain in my abdomen, I gradually mastered the technique until, in one minute, I could do over forty—earning a full score of one hundred.

It was a qualitative leap. I never imagined I’d ever get a perfect score in any fitness test.

So, despite being hopeless in the other four events, at least with sit-ups, my total score still met the standard.

But this time, the citywide fitness test was focused solely on the 800 meters, and the requirement had been raised significantly: finishing within three minutes and fifty seconds.

It used to be four minutes and twenty seconds, and I couldn’t manage even that. Now, three-fifty seemed utterly unattainable.

Maybe I should go practice on the track right now?

At noon, the field was empty except for a few boys playing basketball in the distance.

If I ran the track alone, would I look foolish?

Sigh, perhaps I should just conserve my energy—if I twisted my ankle, I wouldn’t even be able to attempt the run this weekend.

I made this excuse for myself and decided not to run.

Where should I go at noon? Once again, I found myself lost in contemplation…