Chapter Forty-Eight: The Graduate Entrance Exam

After Lan Qing finished speaking, she glanced at Sang Yijia beside her and asked naturally, "Jiajia, what about you?"

"Hmm?" Sang Yijia looked up at the sound, "What is it?"

"Jiajia, if you had to choose between pursuing a graduate degree and finding a job, which would you pick?" Jian Hong had once said that Sang Yijia barely scraped by in her classes, and grad school was out of the question. Lan Qing's question was meant to embarrass Sang Yijia and to show Shen Jin that Sang Yijia was nothing but a good-for-nothing, with no real use.

"Graduate school," Sang Yijia replied without a moment's hesitation.

Her answer caught Lan Qing off guard; she hadn't expected Sang Yijia to choose that.

"If I could be recommended for direct admission, I wouldn't work," Sang Yijia said, the corners of her lips lifting as she looked up at the camera. "Of course, that's just my personal choice."

"But I think, if you have the opportunity and the ability, it's best to continue your studies if you can secure a graduate spot." In this day and age, the difference between having a degree and not having one is immense.

Most of the viewers in the livestream agreed with Sang Yijia.

[Exactly! I want to get in too, but it's so hard.]
[Qingqing is amazing. I studied for so long, but I still couldn't make it.]
[Can't deny that Sang Yijia has a point.]
[I'm only in college, I don't want to think about grad school yet.]
[To the person above, if you want to go to grad school, you should start preparing now!]

Shen Jin frowned at Sang Yijia's words, feeling as if she were targeting Lan Qing. Unhappy, he spoke up, "So what about you, Sang Yijia?"

"Did you get into grad school, or were you recommended?" There was a sharp edge to Shen Jin's words.

A smile tugged uncontrollably at Lan Qing's lips.

Lu Wenchuan noticed, glancing over. Reflected in his pupils was Shen Jin's smug face, and Lu Wenchuan's gaze tightened slightly as a thought formed in his mind.

"Unfortunately, I have neither," Sang Yijia replied. The original owner of this body had gotten into A University through the arts, and her grades had never been good; she barely passed every subject.

Some grades had even been bought.

Take the physical education test, for example.

"If you don't have either, then what's the point of what you said?" Shen Jin sneered. "Qingqing actually has a choice, and she made her decision based on her circumstances. What's wrong with that?"

[Haha, I can't stop laughing.]
[I thought Sang Yijia was something special just now.]
[Is that all?]
[She has nothing to her name, yet she dares to diss our Qingqing. How does it feel to get slapped in the face now?]

Lan Qing's fans in the livestream were feeling triumphant.

Onlookers, however, fell silent.

Sang Yijia tilted her head, her gaze pure. "That's why I said if."

"What's wrong with that kind of answer?"

Shen Jin was at a loss for words.

"Of course, there's nothing wrong with it," Lu Wenchuan spoke up. "But I'm curious, Teacher Shen, since you're so concerned about grad school and direct admissions, what would your choice be?"

The question was thrown back at him. Shen Jin instinctively looked at Lan Qing, who also looked at him, their gazes meeting.

Shen Jin coughed lightly. "Naturally, I chose to work."

Everyone present was well aware of the industry environment: new faces appeared every day, and if you disappeared for a year or two, you were quickly forgotten.

That round of questions came to an end, and Lan Qing let out a slight sigh of relief. But it wasn't over yet; she was still concerned about Yan Ningsi and Bian He, who had yet to appear.

"Director, where are Sisi and Bian He?" she asked.

The chief director hesitated. "They're both being punished at the moment. We don't yet know how they're doing."

"Alright then." Lan Qing sounded a bit disappointed. "This cultural journey was really interesting. I was hoping to watch it with Sisi."

[Qingqing is so nice.]
[Someone else is different. Sisi was saying nice things in the livestream earlier, but now someone hasn't even asked about her.]
[I just checked in on Sisi's livestream—it's hilarious!]
[Hurry and check it out if you want to see!]
[Wasn't it supposed to be a secret?]

In an instant, tens of thousands of viewers left the stream to join the fun elsewhere.

It was time to depart, and the two couples would go separately. This time, they didn't need to figure out their own way to the destination; the production crew would drive them.

Lan Qing and Shen Jin walked ahead, while Sang Yijia and Lu Wenchuan lagged behind.

"If it were you, would you choose to pursue further studies or start working?" Sang Yijia asked. Up ahead, Shen Jin and Lan Qing were laughing and joking, the picture of a couple.

But she and Lu Wenchuan were almost unnaturally quiet.

Sang Yijia, ever the diligent worker, noticed the assistant director looking like he wanted to say something several times, so she decided to ask.

"I'd go to graduate school if I had the chance," Lu Wenchuan replied. "But I don't."

"???" Sang Yijia was puzzled. "Why not?"

"I went abroad," Lu Wenchuan answered.

Sang Yijia gave a soft "mm," blinking. If she remembered correctly, Lu Wenchuan was only twenty-four.

But thinking it over, graduating college at twenty, then going abroad for four years, he'd be back just about now.

She had no more questions.

After a pause, Lu Wenchuan glanced sideways at Sang Yijia. At 175 centimeters, her head barely reached his shoulder. He looked at the crown of her head and asked, "Do you want to go to grad school?"

From her earlier answer, Lu Wenchuan could sense her regret.

"Yes," Sang Yijia replied candidly. "I'm planning to take the entrance exam."

"I've already bought the books." Since she was about to leave the industry for another line of work, she needed an academic qualification to back her up. The original owner’s major was of no use to her now.

"Good luck." Lu Wenchuan wasn't surprised by her decision.

But the viewers in the livestream didn't see it that way.

[Sang Yijia is all talk.]
[She already graduated and still wants to take the grad school exam.]
[Whether she makes it or not, I'm going to remember this.]
[Screenshot this, everyone—let's see what Sang Yijia is capable of.]
[I was a classmate of Sang Yijia; her grades were always barely passing.]
[An insider! Tell us more!]

Meanwhile, Sang Zheng and Mrs. Sang, watching the livestream together, turned to look at each other in unison.

"Jiajia wants to go to grad school?" Sang Zheng's eyes widened. Sang Yijia had always struggled academically, and the fact that she’d gotten into a second-tier university was already a stroke of luck.

But the year of the college entrance exam, it was as if Sang Yijia had used up all her luck in one go. She scored higher than ever before and made it into the prestigious, double-first class A University.

Even though it was as an arts student, her academic score alone was more than 530.

She couldn't have made it to the top universities in the big cities, but in less competitive regions, she could’ve gone to a pretty good one.

Sang Zheng scratched his nose. "That doesn’t seem likely, does it?"

"I've heard grad school is no easy feat."

"If our daughter wants to try, let her try," Mrs. Sang shot him a look, then picked up her phone to call her younger son. "Xiaobo."

"Jiajia wants to prepare for grad school. Help her out with her studies, would you?" Mrs. Sang wasn’t sure if Sang Qibo could help, but she figured she’d ask anyway.

Sang Qibo: "???"

"Mom, did you forget?"

"I'm studying medicine."

The only connection to art is drawing diagrams of human organs.