Upon arriving at her elder sister's home, the youngest child was already fast asleep, while the oldest and second-oldest were still watching cartoons—this time, Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf.
Fu Yu was busy tidying up the toys the kids had scattered all over the floor.
Fu Ying squatted down to help. She wasn't entirely sure where everything went, but she knew the toys definitely went in one pile and the books in another.
After cleaning up, her sister sat back down on the bed. Fu Ying pulled over a small wooden stool, sat down, and began to ask her sister.
"Sis, are you planning to have Wang Ruixuan and the others go to school here, or take them back home to study?"
Fu Yu had three children: the eldest, a boy named Wang Ruizhong; the second, a girl named Wang Ruiya; and the youngest, a boy named Wang Ruixuan. The eldest was born in 2008 and was getting ready for kindergarten.
"Probably take them back home to study. Wang Ruizhong can go to the nearby kindergarten for two years first starting in September, and then we'll head back when it's time for him to start primary school," Fu Yu replied.
This was also the reality for many couples working in Guangdong Province. When the children were young, they tried to keep them close. Once they reached school age, or were relatively able to take care of themselves, they would send them back home to study—leaving them in the care of the grandparents if there were any, or asking relatives to look after them if there weren't.
Fu Ying thought for a moment, then couldn't help asking, "Where are you going to live when you go back?"
"We'll live at Wang Ruizhong's grandparents' house. Your brother-in-law's family hasn't split the household yet."
"Then why not go back to live in Gumang? Isn't our family's house empty and unoccupied? If you guys go back to live there, it'd be much more convenient for Wang Ruizhong and the others to go to school."
Fu Yu didn't directly answer her younger sister's question. Her hands kept busy sewing cloth—she was making diapers for her youngest son, which were terribly hard to dry during the humid return-south season. In her heart, she knew very well that once a woman married out, only those living with their parents-in-law did so; how many would constantly return to live at their natal home? Leaving aside whether her brothers at her natal home might have objections or if relatives would gossip, Wang Ruizhong's father certainly wouldn't be happy either. With his petty and face-saving nature, if they went to live at her natal home, he would throw a fit and turn things upside down.
"It's still too early now. We'll see how things go in a couple of years."
Fu Ying still didn't want to give up, and continued trying to persuade her sister.
"You can take them and go back to live there ahead of time. I'll go back and live there too. I'm planning to tell Mom and Dad to let me go back to my hometown to repeat the third year of junior high. I have a few classmates who transferred back home to study, and they said you can't take the high school entrance exams here, you can only go back to your hometown to take them."
Fifteen-year-old Fu Ying certainly had no idea—she had never considered such matters before. Dad Fu and Mom Fu didn't understand these policies either, and her school teachers had never mentioned it. But this didn't stop Fu Ying, possessing the soul of a 28-year-old, from pretending she had heard it from classmates just to use it as a reminder for Dad Fu and Mom Fu to look into things and prepare for returning to their hometown.
Fu Yu was stunned. She knew that studying here meant they couldn't enter local primary and junior high schools, which was why her younger siblings could only attend more distant private schools, but she had no idea that studying junior high here meant you couldn't even take the high school entrance exams!
"Have you asked your teachers? Did the teachers say you can't take the exams here? Did your classmates' families just want them to go back home to test, is that why they said that? Why didn't you say anything a few days ago?!"
Where on earth had Fu Ying asked any teachers? Hadn't she just "come back" yesterday, without even going to school yet! So yesterday was Saturday? Or some kind of holiday? But Mom and Dad hadn't mentioned any holiday.
"I haven't asked the teachers yet. I just heard about it these past two days—they have to go back before June 15th, it seems because of the graduation exams."
Fu Ying took the opportunity to ask her sister what the date was today.
Fu Yu pulled out what future generations would call a "granny phone." The tiny screen displayed: Xinyou (Rabbit) year, June 1, 2011, Wednesday.
So yesterday was May 31, 2011, and she had returned to "today" thirteen years ago.
May 31st—was there anything special about it?
Fu Yu's question interrupted Fu Ying's deep thoughts.
"If it's certain we can't take the exams here, do we also have to go back to our hometown before the 15th?"
Fu Ying shook her head. "I don't know. They're from Hunan Province. In our school, only I, Fu Zhe, and Fu Peng are from Yunnan Province, and right now I'm the only one about to enter high school."
Fu Peng was from the same village as Fu Ying and Fu Zhe, but not from the same clan. Fu Ying's grandfather had moved to Gumang from another town, married the twice-wed Grandma Fu, and settled down locally. Fu Peng was originally in the same class as Fu Ying, but after his parents had him transfer schools a few times and he fell behind in his studies, he was held back a grade to join Fu Zhe's cohort.
Therefore, the entire Fu family knew nothing about matters related to the high school entrance examination and had to rely entirely on Fu Ying to figure it out step by step.